Ukraine updates: Russia strikes Pokrovsk homes, Kyiv says

Russia unveiled new history textbooks on Monday that praise the invasion of Ukraine.

The textbooks, designed for grade 11 students, present the invasion as part of Russia's history mission and make baseless claims about "denazificaiton" — a key component of Russian propaganda about the war.

Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said the material was written in less than five months. They are set to be distributed "in all schools" by September 1.

"After the end of the special military operation (in Ukraine), after our victory, we will further supplement this book," Kravtsov added.

The Kremlin has ramped up its control over the historical narrative taught in schools since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, including introducing a subject called "Talks on what is important" that is meant to instill patriotism in children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had hit a residential building in the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

He said that there had been "victims" form the attack.

"Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit," Zelenskyy said.

"Rescuers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues."

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a Telegram post that 5 had been killed and 31 were wounded in the two strikes.

He said that the second strike killed a high-ranking emergency official in the Donetsk region.

"Another four rescuers, eight police offices and three civilians were injured," he said.

Earlier, the head of Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak, had said that two people were killed in the strike.

"As of now, there are two dead: a woman and a man," Yermak, said on Telegram.

"Four wounded were taken by ambulance. Rescuers and medics are working," he said.

Pokrovsk lies around 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of the Russian-occupied regional capital, also named Donetsk, and some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the frontline.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has requested ATACMS long-range missiles from Washington.

The minister said that he made the request during a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"In our call, @SecBlinken and I discussed further steps to broaden global support for the Peace Formula and solutions to expand grain exports," Kuleba said.

"I thanked the U.S. for all the assistance provided and stressed the need to enhance Ukraine's long-range capabilities by providing ATACMS."

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in a phone conversation that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Wang's comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement that said China would be an "objective and rational voice" at any international multilateral forums and "actively promote peace talks".

The statement came after the ministry said earlier that international talks in Saudi Arabia during the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped "to consolidate international consensus."

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine it launched in February 2022. It has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine, while the United States and NATO were skeptical.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, said that talks about the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia during the weekend dealt a "huge blow" to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

Yermak told a briefing in Kyiv that no other peace initiatives were discussed at the meeting in Jeddah apart from Ukraine's, and that all countries present at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

A conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine was a successful meeting because it showed the willingness of the international community to work towards ending the war, a German government spokesperson said.

"Germany will also continue to engage actively including in this process," the spokesperson said at a regular news conference in Berlin.

Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry said that international talks in Saudi Arabia had helped "to consolidate international consensus."

China will continue to strengthen dialogue based on its 12-point peace proposal, and "accumulate mutual trust", it said, without going into specific details.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

Russia, which was not invited, said that a peace settlement was possible if Ukraine "stopped the hostilities and terrorist attacks" and if Western countries stopped arms supplies to Kyiv. It also called on Ukraine to cede its occupied territories to Moscow.

Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges on Monday, with 22 Ukrainian soldiers returning home, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said the released servicemen included two officers, sergeants and privates who fought in different parts of the front. Some of them were wounded.

"Today, we have returned 22 Ukrainian fighters home from captivity," Yermak said, adding the oldest was 54 years old and the youngest 23.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners during the course of the war, now in its 18th month.

Ukraine's grain exports have risen to 2.56 million metric tons so far in the 2023/24 July-June season, compared with the 2 million tons recorded at the same time of the season last year, according to Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry.

However, most of the grain was exported under a deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain via Black Sea ports that Russia quit last month.

Exports will likely be hit by Russia's pullout from the deal, but he ministry data did not give a breakdown of how exports so far have been affected.

Russia claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian drone southwest of Moscow. The incident, which happened in the Kaluga region, less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Moscow, "affected neither people nor infrastructure," regional governor Vladislav Shapsha wrote on Telegram.

He said the drone was shot down by the anti-aircraft defense system in the Ferzikovsky district overnight. 

In recent weeks, Ukrainian drone attacks have increased on Russian territory, often targeting Moscow and the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Sunday that a drone targeting the Russian capital had been shot down by the city's air defenses.

According to the authorities, Moscow has suffered several drone attacks in the past week, including one that damaged an office building in the main business district, which was targeted twice in the space of a few days. 

Two people were killed in Russian shelling of border areas of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, officials said.

According to the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, two civilians were killed and three others wounded during Russian shelling of the village of Kucherivka.

Russia also hit the city of Kharkiv with a missile, but there were no casualties, Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian military has reported increased Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region in recent days. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Russian troops were trying to retake positions lost last autumn.

A woman was killed early on Monday when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional officials said.

"A difficult night for Kherson ... The Russian army continued to shell Kherson residents' homes in the central part of the city," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app. He said the shelling started around midnight and lasted for several hours.

Ukraine recaptured Kherson city and parts of the Kherson region in November after months of Russian occupation, but Russian forces regularly shell the city and surrounding areas from across the Dnipro River.

Ukraine said Monday its forces struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge connecting Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine's Kherson region with Crimea.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine Strategic Communications Directorate confirmed the strike damaged the road surface of the bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under its control. The Chonhar bridge was earlier hit in June.

The directorate added Ukrainian strikes had also damaged the smaller Henichesk bridge connecting the city of Henichesk with the northeastern coast of the Crimean peninsula, but provided no further details.

"The enemy launched a missile strike in the area of the Chonhar bridge in the north of Crimea," Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, wrote on Telegram on Sunday. 

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and which is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

The British Ministry of Defense said Monday that although the Russian Air Force continues to deploy considerable resources in support of land operations in Ukraine, they are having little decisive operational effect.

Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, the ministry said in its regular intelligence update.

However, their sorties are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses, it added.

According ministry assessment, Russia has attempted to overcome this issue by increasingly using basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments, "but they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy."

The update added that at the start of Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive from June 2023, Russian attack helicopters proved effective, but in recent weeks "Russia appears to have been less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south."

dh/wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)