Ukraine war live: 11 killed in Donetsk as Russia steps up attacks after Trump defends Putin
Welcome to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Here's a snapshot of the latest to bring you up to speed.
At least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded in Russian strikes on eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region late on Friday, the country's emergency service said on Saturday, raising the earlier death toll of four.
At least nine buildings were damaged in the attack on the centre of Dobropillia, it said on Telegram.
The regional governor said earlier that Russian forces had launched three night-time strikes on the town north of Pokrovsk, a focal point of their advance through eastern Ukraine, and according to initial information high-rise apartment buildings were involved. Emergency crews were at the site, Vadym Filashki said on Telegram.
Meanwhile in Russia, thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into the country's Kursk region last August are almost surrounded by Russian forces there in a major blow to Kyiv, which hoped to use its presence as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks, Reuters has reported, citing open source maps.
The news agency said the maps showed Ukraine's situation in Kursk had deteriorated sharply in the past three days, after Russian forces retook territory as part of a gathering counteroffensive that has nearly cut the Ukrainian force in two and separated the main group from its principal supply lines.
The situation for Ukraine comes after Washington suspended its intelligence sharing with Kyiv and raises the possibility that its forces may be forced into a retreat back into Ukraine or risk being captured or killed. Military personnel carry the caskets of two soldiers killed by a glide bomb in Kursk, Russia, during their joint military funerals in Fastiv, Ukraine, last month. Photograph:In other developments: Russia carried out huge ballistic missile and drone strikes across Ukraine a day after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv which had previously given advance warnings of attacks . The strikes came early on Friday as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia next week for talks about a possible end to the war, report Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh . In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump appeared to criticise Russia's latest bombardment. The US president posted: 'Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.'
Separately, Trump said after the strikes that Vladimir Putin was 'doing what anybody would do'. 'I think he wants to get it [the war] stopped and settled and I think he's hitting them harder than he's been hitting them and I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now,' he told reporters in the White House. Trump also said he found it 'easier' to deal with Russia than with Ukraine in efforts to end the war and that he trusted Putin, the Russian president. 'I believe him,' Trump said. 'I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine and they don't have the cards. It may be easier dealing with Russia.'
Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Russia's strikes by calling for a truce covering air and sea . 'The first steps to establishing real peace should be forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks,' the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France.
US aerospace company Maxar Technologies disabled Ukraine's access to its satellite images after a request from the Trump administration . Maxar said it had contracts with the US government and dozens of allied and partner nations and 'each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data'.
Zelenskyy's approval rating in Ukraine has risen by 10 percentage points since his White House spat with Trump , a survey by a leading Ukrainian pollster showed on Friday. The poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology – conducted from 14 February to 4 March – found 67% of respondents trusted Zelenskyy in March, up from 57% a month earlier.
Iran's foreign ministry denied accusations by Emmanuel Macron that Tehran had supplied equipment to Russia for use in the Ukraine war, calling the French president's remarks 'baseless and false'. Share
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Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
This man survived Hiroshima - and he has a stark warning for us all
Why you can trust Sky News Toshiyuki Mimaki is exhausted when we meet him. The 83-year-old sinks into his chair, closes his eyes, and asks us to keep it brief. But then he starts talking, and his age seems to melt away with the power of his stories. He is a survivor of Hiroshima's atomic bomb, a lifelong advocate for nuclear disarmament and, as of last year, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But now, on the 80th anniversary of the bombing, he comes with more than just memories - he has a message, and it is stark. "Right now is the most dangerous era," he says. "Russia might use it [a nuclear weapon], North Korea might use it, China might use it. "And President Trump - he's just a huge mess. "We've been appealing and appealing, for a world without war or nuclear weapons - but they're not listening." 2:23 'I didn't hear a sound' Mr Mimaki was three years old when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been used in war, and it's remembered as one of the most horrific events in the history of conflict. It's estimated to have killed over 70,000 people on the spot, one in every five residents, unleashing a ground heat of around 4,000C, melting everything in its path and flattening two thirds of the city. Horrifying stories trickled out slowly, of blackened corpses and skin hanging off the victims like rags. "What I remember is that day I was playing outside and there was a flash," Mr Mimaki recalls. "We were 17km away from the hypocentre. I didn't hear a bang, I didn't hear a sound, but I thought it was lightening. "Then it was afternoon and people started coming out in droves. Some with their hair all in mess, clothes ragged, some wearing shoes, some not wearing shoes, and asking for water." 'The city was no longer there' For four days, his father did not return home from work in the city centre. He describes with emotion the journey taken by his mother, with him and his younger bother in tow, to try to find him. There was only so far in they could travel, the destruction was simply too great. "My father came home on the fourth day," he says. "He was in the basement [at his place of work]. He was changing into his work clothes. That's how he survived. "When he came up to ground level, the city of Hiroshima was no longer there." 'People are still suffering' Three days later, the US would drop another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, bringing about an unconditional Japanese surrender and the end of the Second World War. By the end of 1945, the death toll from both cities would have risen to an estimated 210,000 and to this day it is not known exactly how many lost their lives in the following years to cancers and other side effects. "It's still happening, even now. People are still suffering from radiation, they are in the hospital," Mr Mimaki says. "It's very easy to get cancer, I might even get cancer, that's what I'm worried about now." Tragically, many caught up in the bomb lived with the stigma for most of their lives. Misunderstandings about the impact of radiation meant they were often shunned and rejected for jobs or as a partner in marriage. Many therefore tried to hide their status as Hibakusha (a person affected by the atomic bombs) and now, in older age, are finding it hard to claim the financial support they are entitled to. And then there is the enormous psychological scars, the PTSD and the lifelong mental health problems. Many Hibakusha chose to never talk about what they saw that day and live with the guilt that they survived. For Mr Mimaki, it's there when he recounts a story of how he and another young girl about his age became sick with what he now believes was radiation poisoning. "She died, and I survived," he says with a heavy sigh and strain in his eyes. He has subsequently dedicated his life to advocacy, and is co-chair of a group of atomic bomb survivors called Nihon Hidankyo. Its members were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024. 'Why do humans like war so much?' But he doesn't dwell much on any pride he might feel. He knows it's not long until the bomb fades from living memory, and he deeply fears what that might mean in a world that looks more turbulent now than it has in decades. Indeed, despite advocacy like his, there are still around 12,000 nuclear warheads in the world in the hands of nine countries. "In the future, you never know when they might use it. Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, Israel-Iran - there is always a war going on somewhere," he says. "Why do these animals called humans like war so much? "We keep saying it, we keep telling them, but it's not getting through, for 80 years no-one has listened.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
How Trump's 'secondary tariffs' on Russia could hit global economy
Despite being the world's most sanctioned country, Russia has continued to use its vast energy wealth to bankroll its war in President Donald Trump is hoping to change that. He has announced that sweeping new secondary tariffs will impact any country still trading with Russia if a ceasefire with Ukraine is not agreed by Friday 8 August. Secondary tariffs would see goods from any country that trades with Russia face a 100% tax when they are imported into the and gas are Russia's biggest exports, and Moscow's biggest customers include China, India and Turkey. "I used trade for a lot of things, but it's great for settling wars", said Trump last would not be the first time the Trump administration has imposed secondary tariffs, which are also in place to punish buyers of Venezuelan using them against Russia would have far bigger implications for the global remains the world's third biggest oil producer, behind only Saudi Arabia and the US itself. But its shipments have been falling this year, according to a Bloomberg analysis of ship-tracking data. Increased energy prices "The key channel by which secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian energy could impact the global economy would be through the level of energy prices," says Kieran Tompkins from the consultancy Capital the tariffs work, they will cut the flow of Russian oil and gas to global with less supply, prices could go up, just as they did when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That led to a spike in inflation around the world. President Trump says he isn't worried because of record US oil Tompkins points out that, this time, there are also other reasons to suggest the impact on prices would not be as marked. He explains that "the current backdrop is one where OPEC+ [the group of major oil producing countries and its allies] have significant spare capacity to draw upon."Russia has devised a whole system for avoiding existing sanctions, which could be useful for helping its trading partners avoid the secondary tariffs threatened by example, its so-called "shadow fleet" - consisting of hundreds of tankers with obscure ownership - could be used to conceal the origin of exported Russian oil and gas."Sanctions maintenance is as big a task as the imposition of sanctions in the first place," US sanctions expert Richard Nephew of Columbia University says. "That's because the party that is being sanctioned takes steps to evade them." Pricier iPhones from India Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 India has been the second biggest buyer of Russian oil, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. "They're fuelling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy," President Trump told US outlet CNBC on Tuesday. If secondary sanctions take effect, US companies buying goods from India will have to pay a 100% import tax - or tariff - when those products reach US idea is that it makes these goods so expensive that US businesses will choose to buy them cheaper from elsewhere, resulting in lost revenue for India. That, in turn, is supposed to deter India from buying Russian oil. And if Russia is left unable to sell its oil elsewhere because other countries face the same predicament, it will have less cash to finance the war in way in which Americans could experience higher prices as a result of new secondary tariffs is in their purchase of mobile phones from calls Trump's tariff threat over Russian oil 'unjustified'US firm Apple is moving much of its iPhone production to India - in particular the manufacturing of handsets that it wants to sell in the US. If these products are subject to the new tariffs, prices could double for US consumers. That is because tariffs are paid by the companies that import goods - and those companies tend to pass most, if not all, of their cost increases on to their to the US from India are already facing a 25% tariff as part of President Trump's broader trade shake-up, and he told CNBC that number could be raised "very substantially". India's government has accused the US of double standards, pointing to Washington's own continued trade with vast majority of that trade is made up of US imports from India which amounted to just over $3bn (£2.2bn) last year - although that's just 10% of 2021 levels. That trade is dominated by US purchases of raw materials for nuclear energy and fertilizers. Russia is a major global supplier of both. Derailing trade talks with China China is buying the most Russian oil, and a decision by President Trump to impose secondary tariffs on Chinese goods would be much more challenging to because US imports from China are worth five times as much as those from India, and a lot more of those imports are consumer goods such as toys, clothes and tariffs aimed at Beijing would also risk upsetting a much broader renegotiation of trade between the world's two biggest economies that Trump has been pursuing since his first term in office."This type of over-escalation is unlikely to impress the Chinese," says trade expert Professor Simon Evenett of IMD Business explains that it would be "very difficult" to peel the Chinese away from the Russians without a good reason, given how closely Presidents Xi and Putin have worked together in recent top of that, the last time Trump tried using triple-figure tariffs against China, he found it did not work - as it almost cut off all trade between the two move like that could add to inflationary pressures in the US, which Trump has long pledged to could also cost huge amounts of manufacturing jobs in China, at a time when its economy is already struggling on several fronts. Further harm to US-EU commerce Analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research and Clean Air shows that the EU and Turkey are also still amongst the biggest buyers of Russian 2022, the EU was the number-one export destination for Russia, although that has been vastly reduced since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Brussels recently agreed to buy a lot more energy from the US, but some imports from Russia remain. In June, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, acknowledged the problem, saying "Russia has repeatedly attempted to blackmail us by weaponizing its energy supplies" as she laid out plans to end imports by the end of US-EU trade relationship is the biggest in the world, and the pair have just negotiated new trade terms which will see a 15% tariff be applied on most EU exports to the in the EU criticised that deal, saying the tariffs would harm European exporters. Now they also fear that secondary sanctions on the EU could do even more harm. Adding 100% tariffs for buying Russian energy could significantly reduce the amount of goods sold by the EU to the US. However the biggest sellers include pharmaceuticals and machinery, which may be hard to source from elsewhere - meaning Americans have little choice but to pay more. Potential Russian recession Russia's own economy has so far proven remarkably resilient since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, growing 4.3% last Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov recently warned that the country was "on the verge" of recession after a period of "overheating". The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting growth of just 0.9% this the secondary sanctions are successful in reducing demand for exports, they will push Russia closer to exact impact of the war on Russia's economy is hard to know, because Moscow has prevented a large amount of economic data from being published since the full-scale invasion - including on oil and gas a third of Russian government spending is funded by oil and gas money, but exports have been falling. Meanwhile, Putin is directing a bigger share of spending towards defence than at any time since the Cold War. Defence spending is believed to have reached 6.3% of contrast, Ukraine has been spending a huge 26% of the value of its far-smaller economy on the war. The difference explains why its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly asked for external help from his tariffs are intended to help Zelensky by cutting the amount of money flowing into Russia, and he hopes bring an end to the death, suffering and destruction in Ukraine.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Despite Trump's peace calls, Russian attacks on Ukraine double since inauguration
Russia has more than doubled the number of drones and missiles fired towards Ukraine since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, a BBC Verify analysis has found, despite his calls for a had already been rising under former President Joe Biden in 2024 but climbed sharply after Trump's election victory in November. Since he returned to office in January, recorded aerial attacks from Moscow have reached their highest levels of the his campaign Trump vowed to bring an end to fighting in just one day if returned to office. He claimed during his 2024 campaign that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine could have been averted had a president who the Kremlin "respected" held in his efforts to achieve a ceasefire he has been accused at times of favouring Russia by critics, and his administration has paused deliveries of air defence munitions and other military supplies to Ukraine on two separate occasions. The pauses - announced in March and July and since reversed by the president - came as Russia steadily increased missile and drone production. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, ballistic missile construction in Russia grew by 66% over the past data reviewed by BBC Verify - based on daily incident reports issued by the Ukrainian Air Force - showed that Russia launched 27,158 munitions between 20 January - when Trump's presidency began - and 19 July, compared to 11,614 over the final six months of Biden's term."This brutal war was brought on by Joe Biden's incompetence, and it has gone on for far too long," White House deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to BBC Verify. "President Trump wants to stop the killing, which is why he is selling American-made weapons to NATO members and threatening Putin with biting tariffs and sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire." In the opening weeks of the new administration, the White House issued a series of warm statements seemingly intended to entice President Vladimir Putin towards a settlement. During this period, Russian attacks on Ukraine briefly fell when compared to the final weeks of the Biden by February, when US diplomats led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's delegation for a summit in Riyadh, attacks had started to climb talks, which Rubio said were a starting point to bring an end to the war, have been followed by mediated discussions between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey. Attacks peaked early last month, when Moscow launched 748 drones and missiles towards Ukraine on 9 July, according to the Ukrainian Air Force data. More than a dozen people were reportedly injured by the barrage and two were killed. While Trump has expressed anger at the escalating Russian attacks on several occasions, his mounting frustration does not appear to have had an impact on Moscow's 25 May, Russia launched its then-largest recorded barrage, prompting Trump to angrily ask: "What the hell happened to him [Putin]?"Since then, Russia has exceeded that number of reported launches on 14 occasions. Trump has responded by demanding that the Kremlin reach a peace deal with Ukraine by 8 number of Russian munitions penetrating Ukrainian air defences appears to be increasing, with explosions around the capital Kyiv becoming a daily part of life for residents of the city."Every time you go to sleep, you don't know if you're going to wake up the next morning, and that's just not a normal way to live," Dasha Volk, a journalist living in the city, told the BBC's Ukrainecast programme in June."Every time you hear an explosion or a missile flying over your head, lots of thoughts are going through my mind - I'm going to die now, things like that." Ukraine 'vulnerable' to aerial attacks Senator Chris Coons, a senior Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told BBC Verify that Trump's decision to suspend weapons supplies on two occasions and his broader approach to Russian relations may have convinced the Kremlin that it had the freedom to increase attacks."It's clear Putin feels emboldened by Trump's weakness and has increased his vicious assault on the Ukrainian people, repeatedly attacking hospitals and maternity wards, the Ukrainian power grid, and other civilian sites," he growing attacks have renewed calls for the US to send fresh supplies of Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine. The Patriots are the most capable and expensive air defence systems that Ukraine has. Each Patriot battery costs around $1bn (£800m), and each missile costs nearly $ has overturned the previous supply pauses and agreed to sell weapons to Nato members, who will in turn supply them to Kyiv. Trump appeared to imply that the deal would include fresh supplies of Patriot Bronk, an analyst focussing on the Russian military at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said restrictions on the supply of military equipment imposed by the White House had made Ukraine "vulnerable" to missile and drone he also noted that Russia has ramped up the production of missiles and so-called 'kamikaze' drones such as the Geran-2 - a domestically produced version of the Iranian Shahed drone. Mr Bronk said that Russia's increased stockpiles, coupled with "significant reductions" in supply of US interceptor missiles had encouraged Moscow to escalate its air campaign. Ukraine's Military Intelligence agency (HUR) recently told domestic media that Russia was now producing up to 85 ballistic missiles per month, up from 44 in April is reportedly producing 170 Geran drones per day, having established a massive manufacturing facility at Alabuga in the south of the a recent interview with Russian military TV, the facility's director Timur Shagivaleyev boasted that Alabuga had become "the largest combat drone production plant in the world", adding that his workers were producing nine times more units than initially images show the facility has expanded significantly since mid-2024, with a number of new warehouses built on the structures, including what appear to be expansions to worker dormitories, remain under construction. Senator Coons warned that the increase in production meant that Washington must make clear that it is not preparing to walk away from the conflict as some administration officials have threatened he could do, emphasising that peace can only be achieved through "surging security assistance".He added that President Trump must make it clear to Russia that it "cannot simply try to outlast the West"."In order to do that, he needs to maintain a consistent and sustained position on the war."Meanwhile, Ms Volk said that every day the Russian campaign drags on and Ukrainian interceptions fall public morale is hammered."People are getting tired because of these attacks, they really affect our lives," she said."We know what we are fighting for, but it becomes more difficult every year because everyone is getting exhausted. That's the reality." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
