Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy urges UK to help it strike Russia

A Russian missile hit a residential area in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, killing a child and two adults, and injuring others, the city's mayor said.

"It is already known that three people were killed, including a child," Oleksandr Sienkevych said on Telegram.

Vitaliy Kim, the regional governor, added another rocket landed elsewhere in the region.

The port city of Mykolaiv and the surrounding region have been a regular target of Russian missile and drone attacks.

The US has imposed sanctions on two leaders of the Russian hacktivist group Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (CARR), citing their role in targeting US critical infrastructure, the Treasury Department said.

Their group, known as CARR, has carried out a series of cyberattacks in Ukraine and countries and companies that support it. Last year, CARR started to claim attacks on multiple critical infrastructure projects in the United States and Europe, it said

"CARR and its members’ efforts to target our critical infrastructure represent an unacceptable threat to our citizens and our communities, with potentially dangerous consequences,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

Yuliya Vladimirovna Pankratova and Denis Olegovich Degtyarenko were the two sanctioned Friday, the Treasury Department said in a statement. 

The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on other Russia-based cyber criminals as well, including sanctioning members of the LockBit ransomware group in May.

A German citizen has been sentenced to death in Belarus, according to Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. 

Viasna announced that the 30-year-old had already been found guilty of six crimes in a secret trial on June 24. The charges included "terrorism" and "mercenary activities."

According to Viasna, Rico has been in custody since November 6, 2023. Belarusian authorities have not reported anything about his arrest or the results of the trial. 

The conviction is reportedly linked to his alleged ties to Kastus-Kalinouski regiment, a military unit made up of Belarusian citizens fighting alongside Ukraine against Russia.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Poland had made a decision that would speed up the delivery of much-needed F-16 jets to Ukraine, but did not say what that decision entailed.

"Today, we have a positive decision from the Polish government on a specific issue, which will allow Ukraine to receive F-16 jets sooner," Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, without elaborating.

Poland, which borders Ukraine, is not among countries that have pledged to supply the jets to Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from the office of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Zelenskyy's remark.

Ukraine is eagerly awaiting the delivery of its first F-16s, which it hopes will bolster its air defense capabilities and help repel regular long-range Russian airstrikes on its territory.

Germany has pledged an additional €4 million ($4.4 million) in emergency aid for a children's hospital that was damaged in a recent Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. 

"We are giving four million very quickly as immediate emergency aid, and then we will provide 10 million for the reconstruction of the hospital," German Ambassador Martin Jäger told journalists during a visit to the damaged Okhmatdyt Children's hospital. 

Germany's Development Minister, Svenja Schulze, had already announced €10 million for the reconstruction of the hospital earlier in the week.

Jäger said the emergency aid would be used for medicines and other urgently needed items, including for hospitals that have taken in patients from the children's hospital. 

On July 8, two adults, including a doctor, were killed and more than 30 were injured when a rocket hit a building on the grounds of the Okhmatdyt Children's hospital. It was of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the war began in February 2022.

The Russian army said it had captured another village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where its troops have been advancing in recent months.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its troops had taken the village of Yurivka, a tiny settlement about 30 kilometers north of the regional capital, also called Donetsk.

Russia has made a series of battlefield advances since the start of the year, beginning with its capturing ofof the industrial center of Avdiivka in February.

Russian attacks killed two people on the right bank of Ukraine's southern Kherson region.

In the town of Bilozerka, "massive attacks by Russian rocket artillery" killed two people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region.

At least five others were injured, including a paramedic who was hit by a drone while helping the wounded, he added.

Russian forces seized parts of the Kherson region when they invaded in February 2022, but Ukrainian troops forced Moscow to withdraw its troops from the right bank later that year.

In an address to a British cabinet meeting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Britain's new government to allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russia to stop deadly missile attacks on his country.

"I ask you to show your leadership" in lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons to strike inside Russia, Zelenskyy told Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The key to Ukraine's defense, Zelenskyy said, is "long-range capability" to destroy sites where Russian weapons are concentrated.

Zelenskyy received a standing ovation from senior ministers as he became the first foreign leader to address the British cabinet in person since 1997.

Russia has recently launched massive missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, killing dozens and hitting targets including a children's hospital in Kyiv. 

But some of Kyiv's allies are reluctant to let Ukraine use their weapons to strike Russian territory because of concerns that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia.

The UK government has avoided explicitly backing such a move, saying that it was for Kyiv to decide how it chooses to deploy its resources as long as international law is upheld. 

Meanwhile, Starmer said Britain would "double down" on support for Ukraine, including a deal to help both countries ramp up military production. The UK is also set to give Ukraine access to 3.5 billion pounds (€4.15 or $4.5 billion) of export financing to buy new weapons.

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