Russia ‘studying captured ATACMS’

Russian forces have captured and are studying an intact guidance system from a long-range US-made ATACMS missile, according to reports.

RIA-Novosti, a Russian state media outlet, released a video set to dramatic music showing a man in military uniform wearing a balaclava sitting at a table in a warehouse inspecting the device.

Behind him were several shelves of land mines, missiles and other military hardware.

“We can, in principle, analyse the work of the missile systems at all stages of the flight trajectory, that is, the base of correction and how much it can be corrected because it flies along a complex ballistic trajectory,” the unnamed soldier said as he picked up the device to inspect.

A camera zooms in on the alleged tracking device to a label that identifies it as part of a US-made ATACMS with a specific serial number.

Neither the RIA-Novosti report nor the video footage explained how or when the device was captured. Russian experts said they would get to work immediately on working out how to use the captured device’s data to help the Kremlin’s air defence systems.

Viktor Litovkin, a retired Russian colonel, told the online Lenta.ru news portal that scientists would soon identify any weak spots.

“We can reconfigure our surface-to-air missile systems that are supposed to shoot it [the missile] down and we can reconfigure and fine-tune our electronic warfare systems against this missile,” he was quoted as saying.

ATACMS have a range of nearly 200 miles and have been one of Ukraine’s most potent weapons, knocking out command centres, warships and air bases.

The US only started supplying ATACMS to Ukraine in April as it was worried that using one of its most lethal missile systems would escalate the war.

Russian forces had complained about the speed and accuracy of the ATACMS. It is rare for Russian forces to shoot them down.

03:48 PM BST

Today’s live coverage has ended. Here’s a roundup of the day’s events:

• Moscow says it is ‘inspecting US ATACMS missile system’

• Russia repeatedly dropped bombs on its own territory, report finds

• Zelensky accuses Russia of dropping 800 glide bombs in single week

• Ukraine arrested group ‘plotting to seize parliament building’

• Kyiv claims Moscow lost 35,000 troops in June

• Ukraine’s military drives recruitment push for convicts

We’ll be back soon with more updates and analysis from the conflict.

03:29 PM BST

UN body condemns ‘Russian interference with European satellites’

A UN body has condemned Russia for a series of incidents of interfering with satellite systems in European countries and asked it to stop.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) had been reviewing a series of complaints from Ukraine and four European Union countries, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg.

The complaining parties said the incidents led to the jamming GPS signals, endangered air traffic control and interrupted children’s TV channels to show violent images of the Ukraine war.

“The Board expressed its grave concern regarding the use of signals to cause intentional harmful interference,” a statement published on Monday read.

03:01 PM BST

Russia repeatedly bombed itself, intelligence report finds

Russia dropped dozens of its glide bombs on its own territory between April 2023 to April 2024, an intercepted internal document found.

At least 38 of the munitions fell on the Belgorod region close to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post, which cited bomb cleanup and evacuation documents obtained by Ukrainian intelligence.

The majority of bombs, largely undetonated, were found by civilians in areas surrounding the city. Four bombs have hit the city of Belgorod itself.

The first recorded accidental bomb drop fell on a central street in Belgorod in April 2023, creating a 65ft crater, shattering windows and blowing up parked cars. The detonation happened at night and no casualties were reported.

Moscow has been making extensive use of glide bombs in recent months, increasingly relying on them to batter Ukrainian cities and drive territorial advances.

02:26 PM BST

Pictured: Ukraine’s new convict soldiers in training

01:45 PM BST

Sunak: Ukraine support at risk if Labour win

Rishi Sunak has claimed that the UK’s multi-year support to Ukraine would be put at risk under a Labour government.

Told there has been a lot of consensus between the Tories and Labour over Ukraine, Mr Sunak replied in an interview: “You have to back up words with actions, that’s what we are doing, we’re investing more in defence”.

He continued: “If Keir Starmer is in charge those plans are going to be cut. That’s going to send a signal of weakness to our adversaries and to our allies and crucially will mean that we won’t have the funding to continue providing multi-year support to Ukraine.”

Labour has committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, although it has not set a date for when this would happen.

12:52 PM BST

Ukraine ramps up drone production

Ukraine is ramping up its production of drones in the face of continued Russian attacks as the war enters its 29th month.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said it was vital to harness the “power of technology” to save lives on the battlefield.

“Each month, more companies and developers introduce new solutions to effectively counter the enemy,” he added on X.

Overnight, Russia claimed to have thwarted a major Ukrainian drone attack, downing 36 of the UAVs launched at its border regions.

12:35 PM BST

Russia fires ‘800 glide bombs’ at Ukraine in single week

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded the West lift weapons restrictions on targeting Russia after accusing Moscow’s forces of dropping more than 800 glide bombs in a single week.

“Ukraine needs the necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are. This step is essential,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X.

On Sunday, Russia hit Ukraine’s two largest cities with a glide bomb killing one person and injuring an eight-month-old baby in Kharkiv, while missile fragments damaged a Kyiv apartment building.

Mr Zelensky had repeated his appeal for permission to strike further into Russia after seven were killed and at least 38 injured after a Russian missile strike on the southern Ukrainian town of Vilniansk on Saturday evening.

“Long-range strikes and modern air defense are the foundation for stopping the daily Russian terror,” Mr Zelensky added last night.

12:04 PM BST

UK combat medic ‘who saved 200’ killed in Ukraine

A British combat medic said to have saved over 200 wounded soldiers on the frontline has been killed in Ukraine.

Peter Fouché, a former carpenter from Fulham, west London, left home in March 2022 to volunteer as a frontline combat medic and in January of this year officially joined Ukraine’s armed forces.

He co-founded Project Konstantin, a foundation that helps to evacuate injured soldiers from the trenches and provides medical training, vehicles and other equipment to Kyiv’s forces.

The organisation announced his death on Sunday night, writing: “His heroism knew no bounds.

“He was actively involved in saving more than 200 wounded Ukrainian soldiers, evacuating civilians from the most dangerous frontline cities, as well as bringing humanitarian aid to people in those towns and cities.”

11:35 AM BST

Ukraine arrests group plotting ‘to take parliament’

Ukraine’s security service said they have rounded up a group of “provocateurs” accused of plotting to spark riots in Kyiv and seize Ukraine’s parliament building.

The SBU said: “According to the investigation, the group was led by the co-founder of a public organization that has been known for its anti-Ukrainian actions since 2015... The attackers planned to announce the ‘removal from power’ of the current military-political leadership of Ukraine.

“They then hoped to seize the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and block its work.”

The SBU said they planned to spread “disturbances” that would “shake up the social and political situation within our country, which would work in favour of the Russian Federation”.

The detainees face up to 10 years in prison.

11:24 AM BST

Kyiv: Moscow lost 35,000 troops in June

Ukraine’s military claimed on Monday that Russian casualties in Ukraine reached 35,030 in June alone.

According to its estimates, it marks the second highest monthly casualty toll since the war began in February 2022.

Neither Moscow or Kyiv publish their casualty numbers, however analysts have said Russian losses are soaring as it continues with costly offensives in both the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, where the battlefield is characterised by high attrition fighting.

11:05 AM BST

Ukraine denies reports it is reinforcing border with Belarus

Ukraine’s border guard has dismissed reports suggesting it was reinforcing troop deployments along its border with Belarus, calling the rumours a “information operation” by Minsk with Moscow’s support.

Belarus, a close Russian ally that has provided continued support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, claimed last week that Kyiv was bolstering its forces along the countries’ shared border.

The Kremlin said the report was a cause of concern on Monday.

“It is not the first time Belarus offers information about Ukraine presenting a threat and strengthening itself... This is another part of the information operation conducted by Belarus with support by Russia,” border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told Ukrainian national TV.

He added that the border area remains “threatening”, but that Ukraine maintains the necessary number of forces there to prevent any provocations.

10:44 AM BST

Zelensky: US not ready to let Ukraine into Nato

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said the White House is not yet prepared to invite Ukraine into Nato.

“Unfortunately, this is the policy of one step forward, two steps back. I don’t think this is the policy of world leaders,” Mr Zelensky said in a new interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

He argued that the US was afraid to “annoy” Vladimir Putin and also noted recent claims made by Donald Trump, who suggested Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Nato had not provoked it.

“If Nato is not ready to protect us, and to take us into the alliance, then we ask Nato to give us everything so we can protect ourselves,” he added.

Mr Zelensky pushed for more Patriot missile defence systems, F-16s and again renewed his appeal to remove restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia.

10:31 AM BST

Pictured: Ukraine fires ‘Vampire’ rocket system

Footage shows members of Ukraine’s 110th Colonel-General Marko Bezruchko Separate Mechanised Brigade firing a ‘Vampire’ rocket system at Russian frontline positions in Donetsk.

The Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment (Vampire) is a new compact portable rocket launching system carried on top of a pickup truck.

09:23 AM BST

Ukraine ‘repels attacks’ close to Russian-claimed villages

The Ukrainian military said on Monday it had repelled Russian attacks near Spirne and Novooleksandrivka in the war-ravaged eastern Donetsk a day after Russian forces claimed control of both villages.

The eastern Pokrovsk front, which includes Novooleksandrivka, remained the site of the fiercest fighting, with 42 assaults repelled out of a total of 142 battles over the past day, the military said.

It is not clear whether Kyiv is denying Russian troops captured the settlements or instead implying that battles are ongoing around the settlements.

The industrial territory of Donetsk has been the focus of Russian firepower over more than two years of conflict and the Kremlin’s forces have claimed slow but steady and costly gains there.

08:57 AM BST

Ukraine recruits convicts for front - including murderers

Ukraine’s convicts have been offered a chance of freedom but first they must fight at the front for Russia.

“You can put an end to this and start a new life,” said an army recruiter over the weekend at a rural penal colony in southeast Ukraine. “The main thing is your will, because you are going to defend the motherland. You won’t succeed at 50%, you have to give 100% of yourself, even 150%.”

More than 3,000 prisoners already have been released on parole and assigned to military units after such recruitment was approved by parliament in a controversial mobilisation bill last month.

About 27,000 inmates could potentially be eligible for the new program, according to Justice Ministry estimates.

Those convicted of rape, sexual assault, murdering two or more people or crimes against Ukraine’s national security aren’t eligible.

Ukrainian officials have said their recruitment programme is nothing like that used in Russia that assigns convicts to serve in the war’s deadliest battles under the notorious Wagner mercenary group. Kyiv said they will aim to integrate their inmates into regular Ukrainian frontline units.

08:21 AM BST

Seven injured in Russian strike on Dnipro

A Russian ballistic missile attack on Ukraine’s southern city of Dnipro injured seven people, including a 15-year-old boy, and damaged scores of residential buildings, regional governor Serhiy Lisak said on Monday.

The drone and artillery attack on the Nikopol district late on Sunday also damaged scores of residential buildings, power and gas lines and other infrastructure.

It comes after another Russian strike on Dnipro on Friday evening destroyed the top four floors of an apartment building, killing at least one and wounding 12, including a seven-month-old girl.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Dnipro attack was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defense systems.

08:05 AM BST

Russia ‘seizes two villages’ in Ukraine’s east

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces captured two key villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

Moscow claimed to have seized Spirne, located close to the border with Ukraine’s Luhansk region and Novooleksandrivka, 80 miles to the west of Spirne, whilst also improving their positions along the frontline around the villages.

Ukraine’s General Staff reported “heavy fighting” was taking place in the area around the villages on Sunday.

Donetsk is one of four regions in Ukraine’s east and south that Russia claimed to have annexed in late 2022 in a move condemned as illegal by most countries at the UN General Assembly.

07:50 AM BST

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