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United Russia party HQ in Ukraine destroyed, says mayor
The United Russia political party’s headquarters in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Polohy was destroyed in an attack on Friday, according to the mayor of Melitopol, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Ivan Fedorov said on the Telegram messaging app that local residents described Russians as “burned out” of the headquarters during the “hellish pseudo-elections” in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast.
No details were given about how the building was destroyed or any casualties. But Fedorov alluded to casualties among the Russian authorities, saying:
Some went to the hospital, and some went straight to the morgue.
Zaporizhzhia is among four Ukrainian regions that Moscow has illegally annexed but does not fully control where it is staging regional elections. Ukraine and the US have denounced the polls as a sham.
United Russia is the conservative political party of President Vladimir Putin.
Key events
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown on the latest.
The United Russia political party’s headquarters in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Polohy was destroyed in an attack on Friday, the mayor of Melitopol was reported as saying.
Ivan Fedorov said local residents described Russians as “burned out” of the headquarters in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast. He did not give details of how the attack occurred but alluded to casualties.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
A Russian airstrike killed three people and injured four others in the village of Odradokamianka in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on Friday, Klymenko said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is responsible for the death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Ukrainian president, who provided no evidence to back up his assertion over Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash with his top lieutenants last month, said at a conference in Kyiv on Friday: “The fact that he [Putin] killed Prigozhin – at least that’s the information we all have, not any other kind – that also speaks to his rationality, and about the fact that he is weak.”
British military and security services will monitor the Black Sea in a bid to deter Russia from striking cargo ships that are transporting grain from Ukraine to developing countries, the UK government has announced.
The first 10 Leopard 1 tanks donated by Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have arrived in Ukraine and more are on their way, Denmark’s armed forces said on Friday.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry condemned “sham elections” being staged by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories on Friday, saying they were “worthless” and would have no legal standing. The Russian regional elections include four Ukrainian regions Moscow does not fully control – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also described the voting in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine as “sham elections” and said they were “illegitimate”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “slower” arms shipments from western countries were threatening his counteroffensive and called for more powerful and long-range weapons. The Ukrainian president also said his country’s allies had eased up on sanctions imposed on Russia and called for a renewed drive to impose further punitive measures on Moscow.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 16 of the 20 drones fired by Russia during Thursday night, Ukrainian officials said. Fourteen 14 drones had been brought down over the Odesa region and two more over the southern region of Mykolaiv, the southern military command said on Friday.
Russia “must stop” its blockade of Ukrainian seaports after pulling out of the UN and Turkey-mediated deal to ensure grain shipments, the European Council president, Charles Michel, said on Friday.
Cuban authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with what they described as a network to recruit Cuban nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine. The head of criminal investigations for Cuba’s interior ministry, César Rodríguez, told state media that at least three of the 17 people arrested were part of recruitment efforts inside the island country.
Ukraine’s former defence minister has said Vladimir Putin remains determined to destroy Ukraine entirely and to “assimilate” its citizens into the Russian Federation. Oleksii Reznikov warned his western counterparts that negotiations with Moscow would not bring peace.
