Live blog: Deadly Ukrainian shelling hits Russian border village — Moscow

September 5, 2023, Tuesday

Ukrainian shelling has killed a civilian in a Russian border village, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region said.

"As a result of repeated shelling of the village of Kozinka in the Grayvoron district, one civilian resident died," Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

He said the victim died on the scene before an ambulance arrived.

Gladkov said a woman was also wounded in the attack, suffering "shrapnel wounds to her thigh" and that she had been hospitalised.

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1503 GMT — UNESCO recommends placing Kiev, Lviv on endangered heritage list

Kiev's Saint Sophia Cathedral and the historical centre of western Ukrainian city Lviv should join UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the Russian invasion, a senior official at the UN body has said.

"These sites are threatened with destruction. There have been attacks on the buffer zones around these sites and we don't know what will happen in the future," the head of the World Heritage programme Lazare Eloundou told AFP in Paris.

The World Heritage Committee, set to meet from September 10-25 in Riyadh, will "likely" make the decision "based on experts ' opinion" that the sites are "demonstrably in danger", Eloundou added.

1457 GMT — Russia says southeast Ukraine is now the main focus of fighting

The Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine has become the most recent hot spot for battles in the 18-month war, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Shoigu told Russian military officers that Ukraine has brought up reserve brigades there that were trained by Kiev’s Western allies. He offered no evidence for his claim, which could not be independently verified.

Fighting in the southeast could be one of the keys to the war. If Russian defences there collapse, Ukrainian forces could push southward toward the coast and potentially split Russian forces into two.

1413 GMT — Russia says Ukraine uses Australian drones to attack its territory

Russia has said Ukraine used Australian drones to attack targets on Russian territory and that Australia was increasingly being drawn into the conflict.

"As it turns out, Australian drones are actually used to strike targets in Russia," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She was responding to a question about a report in the Sydney Morning Herald last week that Ukrainian had used Australian drones to attack an airfield in the Russian city of Kursk.

1312 GMT — Russian forces destroy first British-supplied Challenger 2 tank in Ukraine: official

Russian forces fighting in southern Ukraine have destroyed a British-supplied Challenger 2 tank for the first time, a Russian-backed official said, releasing what he said was a video of its smouldering wreckage.

Ukraine in March thanked Britain for what it said were the "fantastic machines" after London sent Kiev 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which is under Moscow's control, said on Telegram that a Challenger 2 had been set alight in fighting near the southeastern village of Robotyne.

1209 GMT — Russia detains woman over attack on official in east Ukraine

Russia has detained a woman in occupied east Ukraine for allegedly trying to kill an official in an attack that wounded him and his son.

"A suspect was detained for the attempted murder of the former chairman of the customs committee of the Lugansk People's Republic," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Lugansk, which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, is one of four regions Moscow claimed to have annexed last year.

"The man and his son suffered multiple wounds and are currently in a medical facility," the statement said, adding that "there was no threat to their lives."

1118 GMT — Zelenskyy visits front near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops leading a counteroffensive towards the eastern war-battered town of Bakhmut, Kiev said.

"As part of a working trip to Donetsk region, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited combat brigades conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut region," the presidency said.

It added that Zelenskyy had "listened to reports on the operational situation" on the eastern front.

1000 GMT — Kremlin says unable to confirm Putin-Kim summit

The Kremlin has declined to confirm a possible summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which US officials have said they expect.

US officials and media have said they believe Kim will make a rare trip abroad to neighbouring Russia to meet Putin.

"No, we cannot" confirm this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when he was asked if Kim would meet Putin soon. "We have nothing to say on this."

Russia is one of a handful of countries that has friendly relations with the secretive state. As its Ukraine offensive drags on, it has in recent months worked for even closer ties with Pyongyang.

0940 GMT — Cluster bomb use surges amid Ukraine war

The number of people killed or wounded by cluster munitions has increased eightfold last year to more than 1,000, mostly due to their use in the Ukraine war, particularly by Russia, a campaign group said.

Cluster bombs, banned by more than 100 countries, are fired from the ground or by aircraft and explode mid-air, spraying smaller 'bomblets' over a wide area.

Survivors often suffer severe injuries from blasts and burns that can result in life-long medical needs, and campaigners worry in particular about unexploded bomb s that remain on the battlefield long after a conflict ends.

Of the 1,172 victims last year, 353 died, the report by the Cluster Munitions Coalition campaign group showed. That is the highest level since the group began compiling its annual reports 14 years ago.

0922 GMT — Russia says Ukraine's counteroffensive is unsuccessful

Shoigu has described Ukraine's counteroffensive as completely unsuccessful, but said the situation in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which Russia controls was tense.

"Ukraine's armed forces have not achieved their goals on any front," the defence ministry quoted Shoigu as saying.

By taking control of parts of Ukraine, Russia has established a "land bridge" to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which it annexed in 2014.

0433 GMT — Moscow's major airports resume normal operation: watchdog

Moscow's two major airports Vnukovo and Sheremetevo, as well as the Zhukovksy airport resumed normal operations from 0430 GMT after a temporary traffic suspension, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said.

Earlier, Russia's defence ministry said its forces shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones that were targeting the country's capital.

0346 GMT — Russia downs three drones en route to Moscow: mayor

Russia's air defence systems has destroyed three drones which were trying to reach Moscow, the Russian capital's mayor said.

Sergei Sobyanin said there had been "no casualties", according to initial information.

Air defence forces "destroyed drones which were trying to carry out an attack on Moscow", he said on Telegram.

Russia's defence ministry said one was flying over the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, while a second was destroyed northwest of the capital above the Moscow region's Istrinsky district.

A third was also destroyed in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow.

0235 GMT — Cuba uncovers human trafficking for Russia-Ukraine war

Cuba has identified an alleged human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in Russia's war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said.

The government was working to dismantle a "trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces involved in military operations in Ukraine", the ministry said in a statement.

The Cuban government had initiated criminal proceedings against those carrying out the trafficking, it added.

Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the government was "acting with the full force of the law" against trafficking operations.

0022 GMT — Kiev reports recapturing more territory from Russia

Ukraine has said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces while Zelenskyy visited two front-line areas.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Kiev's forces had retaken about 3 square kilometres of land in the past week around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of heavy fighting.

She also reported unspecified "success" in the direction of the villages Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia but gave no details.

Ukraine has now taken back about 47 square kilometres of territory around Bakhmut since starting its counteroffensive in early June, Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

For our live updates from Monday (September 4), click here.