Ukraine updates: Russia shoots down 20 drones over Crimea

A civilian was killed and six people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, following intense Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, a Russian-installed official in the eastern Ukrainian region said.

"In total, the enemy fired 127 rounds of ammunition at peaceful cities and regions in the republic," Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region, said on his Telegram channel.

He was referring to the Donetsk People's Republic as Moscow calls the region it said last year it was annexing.

Pushilin said cluster munitions were among the artillery used.

It is not possible to independently verify the information out of Donetsk, which had been partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

The Kremlin says Ukrainian forces shell the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region on a daily basis.

Both sides have used cluster munitions in the course of Russia's 17-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv received cluster munitions from the United States last month and vowed to only use them against concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Polish police say they have seized stickers advertising recruitment for the Russian private paramilitary force Wagner.

A local police spokeswoman told the German Press Agency (dpa) that the A5-size stickers were seen in several areas in the southeastern city of Krakow.

The stickers featured the logo of the paramilitary group and the English-language text: "We are here. Join us."

Police said that a QR code on the sticker leads to a recruitment website for Wagner.

"We don't know if the sticker action is a joke or if there is something more serious behind it," the police spokewoman told dpa.

Recruiting for foreign armies and mercenary forces is illegal in Poland, with potential prison sentences of up to five years.

Earlier this month, Poland stepped up security on its border with Belarus due to the presence of Wagner forces there.

A Russian war jet crashed in Kaliningrad on Saturday, leaving two pilots dead, Russian military officials said.

"The Su-30 aircraft crashed in a deserted area. The flight was carried out without ammunition," the authorities said. 

A technical issue is believed to have triggered the crash. The reported accident occurred during a training exercise.  

Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave, lies between Lithuania and Poland.  

Russia said on Friday that its air defense forces had shot down two Ukrainian missiles over the Kerch bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula — illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 — to the Russian mainland.

"Air defense forces shot down two enemy missiles over the Kerch Strait. The Crimean bridge was not damaged," Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the Crimean peninsula, said on social media. 

Ukraine has been receiving missiles from the US and the UK, among weapons from other Western countries such as Leopard tanks from Germany. 

The bridge, which is a key logistical connection for Russia, has come under attack before, suffering serious damage.

The Russian Foreign Ministry deplored the attack, saying it could kill civilians.

"There can be no justification for such barbaric actions and they will not go unanswered," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram post.

For the first time since the start of the Russian invasion, multiple beaches in Ukraine's Black Sea city — and tourist hotspot — Odesa officially reopened for swimming.

Odesa's Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that the decision to reopen the beaches was made jointly by the city's civilian and military administrations. The beaches will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

But bathing will remain banned during air raid alerts, local officials said. 

As Ukraine's largest port, Odesa has been targeted with numerous missile and drone attacks. And the coastal areas is cluttered with hundreds of sea mines.

According to reports from a lifeguard, anti-mine nets were placed in between two piers to prevent swimmers from encountering any shallow-water mines. Mines should be visible from shore under certain weather conditions, he continued to say. 

From a military perspective, the Taurus cruise missiles would give Ukraine the possibility to increase their range and to target Russian territory, making it more difficult for the Russian air defenses to detect the missiles and increasing safety for the Ukrainian troops to deploy them. 

In the Zaporizhzhia region, a police officer was killed in a Russian attack, according to Ukrainian government sources. Twelve people were also injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced on the messaging service Telegram.

He added that four police officers were among the injured. The minister went on to say that Russian troops used a guided aerial bomb. Most of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine borders directly with the front line.

In a separate attack, an elderly woman was killed in a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian sources said. The governor of the Kharkiv region in north-eastern Ukraine, Oleh Synehubov, announced on Telegram that the district of Kupiansk was shelled, saying that "a residential building was damaged. A 73-year-old woman died."

Eastern parts of Kharkiv border directly the frontline. Ukrainian forces have reported an increase in Russian attacks there in recent weeks. The regional authorities already announced the mandatory evacuation from settlements closest to the frontline in the Kupiansk district.

Lithuania has urged the German government to speed up the promised deployment of 4,000 Bundeswehr troops on NATO's eastern border.

"We should now focus on agreeing an ambitious and rapid timetable for the full deployment," Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Jonas Survila told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. Vilnius was ready to make "substantial investments in the infrastructure necessary to host the German troops", he added.

"Today we feel like West Berlin during the Cold War: surrounded by aggressive neighbours both from the West, Kaliningrad, Russia and from the East, Belarus," Survila said.      

"At that time, one of the ways West Berlin's security was ensured was by having a garrison the size of a US army brigade stationed in the city, the Berlin Brigade. Today we are asking the Germans, both symbolically and practically, to contribute to security by permanently stationing a combat-ready German brigade in Lithuania," Survila said.

At the end of June, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced the permanent transfer of 4,000 Bundeswehr soldiers to NATO partner country Lithuania. The prerequisite was having "the appropriate infrastructure" on the ground as well as being in "agreement with NATO plans," the Defence Minister stressed.

los/ab (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)