Ukraine war latest: Russia blames US for Crimea attack

Russian forces are “intensifying” the tempo of their attacks on the frontline in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, The Institute for the Study of War has said.

The Russian defence ministry has blamed the United States for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five US-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more.

It claimed that four of the US-delivered Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air defence systems and the ammunition of a fifth had detonated in mid-air.

Russian officials have claimed US specialists had set the missiles’ flight coordinates on the basis of information from US spy satellites, meaning Washington was directly responsible.

“Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out,” the ministry said.

Russia had illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and now views the Black Sea peninsula it as a strategically important part of its territory, though most of the world considers it a sovereign and integral territory of Ukraine.

A top North Korean military official warned of a “new world war” and criticised the United States over its expanding military assistance to Ukraine, reported state media KCNA. The Kim Jong-un administration’s top military official underlined North Korea’s support for Vladimir Putin in the war.

Pak Jong Chon, one of North Korea’s top military officials, said Russia has the “right to opt for any kind of retaliatory strike” in a statement carried by KCNA on Monday, adding if Washington kept pushing Ukraine to a “proxy war” against Russia, it could provoke a stronger response from Moscow, and a “new world war”.

He referred to comments by the Pentagon last week that Ukrainian forces can use US-supplied weapons to strike Russian forces anywhere across the border into Russia.

The remarks come even as Russia may have received about 1.6 million artillery shells from North Korea between August last year to January, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The data from a US security nonprofit C4ADS that shows 74,000 metric tons of explosives moved from Russia’s far east ports to other sites mainly along the borders near Ukraine.

Mr Pak did not acknowledge the military aid given to Russia by North Korea to hit a much smaller Ukraine.

Senior officials of South Korea, the US and Japan condemned “in the strongest possible terms” deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia in a joint statement released by Seoul’s foreign ministry on Monday.

A pact signed between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the Russian leader’s visit to Pyongyang last week commits each side to provide immediate military assistance to the other in the event of armed aggression against either one of them.

Putin’s mutual defence agreement with North Korea has the potential to create friction with China, which has long been the isolated state’s main ally, the top US military officer said on Sunday.

Analysts say that pact would lay the framework for arms trade between the two countries and facilitate their anti-U.S. and anti-West coalition.

Additionally, North Korea will also send construction and engineering forces to Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine as early as next month for rebuilding work, a South Korean cable TV network TV Chosun reported earlier, citing a South Korean government official.

Kharkiv buildings were reduced to rubble and at least three people were killed in a Russian bombing attack on Ukraine’s second city on Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

One of four aerial bombs hit a five-story residential building, according to officials.

At least 41 people were being treated in hospital, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

The Ukrainian president urged Ukraine’s allies to bolster its air defences in an address after the attack.

In his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky added that Russian forces had used more than 2,400 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets in June alone, with about 700 aimed at Kharkiv.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has sought a halt to attacks on Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station after drone strikes this week hit two electricity substations serving the area.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made no reference to Ukraine and said the incidents had no affect on the Zaporizhzhia plant’s operations.

But he said the attacks had to stop.

“Whoever is behind this, it must stop. Drone usage against the plant and its vicinity is becoming increasingly more frequent,” Mr Grossi said in a statement on the IAEA website.

“This is completely unacceptable and it runs counter to the safety pillars and concrete principles which have been accepted unanimously.”

The plant’s Russian-installed officials accused Ukraine of staging two drone strikes that destroyed one substation, damaged another and cut power to residents for a time.

Power had been cut to Enerhodar, a few kilometres from the plant, for 16 hours, he said. But neither of the attacks, which occurred on Wednesday and Friday, had any impact on the power lines that the nuclear plant uses to keep operating.

Below we have some more footage from the latest Russian glide bomb attack on Kharkiv.