Ukraine news - live: Russia blames ‘sabotage’ for Crimea depot fireball explosions

A Russian ammunition depot in Crimea has been rocked by a series of explosions that caused a huge fireball eruption.

Two people were injured and thousands of people were evacuated from a nearby village as the blaze broke out on Tuesday morning.

The site is located in Mayskoye, a village in the north of Crimea – a peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia-appointed regional head Sergei Aksyonov, who visited the site, said: “One man has a shrapnel wound, and one was crushed by a wall. Their lives are not in danger, fortunately.”

No “serious” casualties have been reported so far, according to the Russian state news agency RIA.

“As a result of the fire, the stored ammunition detonated,” it said, without specifying what caused the blaze.

Moscow also said another fire had started at a transformer substation near the town of Dzhankoi, 14 miles from Mayskoye.

Later, Russian state-owned news agency TASS cited the defence ministry as saying that civilian infrastructure, including the substation, had been damaged as a result of “sabotage”. Ukraine has yet to confirm or deny responsibility.

Huge fireball explosion erupts in Crimea ammunition depot

12:32 , Lamiat Sabin

A Russian ammunition depot in Crimea has been rocked by a series of explosions that caused a huge fireball eruption.

Two people were injured and thousands of people were evacuated from a nearby village as the blaze broke out on Tuesday morning.

The site is located in Mayskoye, a village in the north of Crimea – a peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Moscow said another fire had started at a transformer substation near the town of Dzhankoi, 14 miles from Mayskoye.

Later, Russian state-owned news agency TASS cited the defence ministry as saying that civilian infrastructure, including the substation, had been damaged as a result of “sabotage”. Ukraine has yet to confirm or deny responsibility.

Read the full story here by Rory Sullivan

Huge fireball explosion erupts at ammunition depot in Crimea

Three more Brits accused of being mercenaries on trial in DPR

12:37 , Lamiat Sabin

Three more British men have pleaded not guilty to charges of mercenarism after they were captured by Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy have been accused of “undergoing training to seize power by force,” according to Russian media.

Two other captured men are Matthias Gustafsson from Sweden and Vjekoslav Prebeg from Croatia.

On Monday, all five appeared in court and, if found guilty of being mercenaries, they could face the death penalty under the laws of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

It comes after the DPR’s supreme court sentenced on 9 June two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan national Brahim Saadoun, to death for the same charge of mercenarism. All three have appealed their verdicts.

Read the full story here

Three Britons captured by rebels in Ukraine plead not guilty

Putin accuses US of using Ukraine to ‘create global chaos'

13:00 , Lamiat Sabin

Vladimir Putin accused Washington of attempting to extend the war in Ukraine as part of what he described as efforts for the US to maintain its global power.

Addressing a security conference attended by military officials from Africa, Asia and Latin America, Putin reaffirmed his claim that he sent troops into Ukraine in response to the US turning the country into an “anti-Russia” bulwark.

“They need conflicts to retain their hegemony,” Putin said. “That’s why they have turned the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder.

“The situation in Ukraine shows that the United States is trying to drag the conflict out, and it acts in exactly the same way trying to fuel conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

The Russian president also drew parallels between the US backing Ukraine and US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, claiming that both were part of an alleged attempt to stir-up global instability and “create chaos”.

“The era of the unipolar world order is nearing its end,” he added.

‘Russia’s struggle in Black Sea undermining invasion’ - MoD

13:30 , Lamiat Sabin

Russia’s attempt to capture more Ukrainian territory is being “undermined” by its failure to exert control over the Black Sea, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The Kremlin has suffered numerous naval setbacks in recent months, including the sinking of its flagship, the Moskva, which Ukrainian forces hit with anti-ship missiles on 14 April.

Vladimir Putin’s forces are also struggling because they have lost many of their jets and are no longer in control of the strategically-important Snake Island, according to the MoD.

Read the full report here by Rory Sullivan

Putin’s invasion plan ‘undermined’ by struggle to control Black Sea, MoD says

Finland to cut number of visas for Russians by 90 per cent

14:00 , Lamiat Sabin

Finland announced that it will slash the number of visas issued to Russians to 10 per cent of the current amount from 1 September.

This was declared by Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto.

Mr Haavisto said the decision was made amid an influx of Russian tourists beginning to use Finland and its Helsinki-Vantaa airport as a gateway toward European holiday destinations.

The Russian travel boom comes after Moscow lifted the country’s pandemic-related border restrictions a month ago.

Zelensky and Macron discuss ‘Russia’s nuclear terrorism’

14:45 , Lamiat Sabin

Volodymyr Zelensky said today he had discussed what he described as “Russia’s nuclear terrorism” at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

The Ukrainian president tweeted this announcement but gave no further details of their discussions on the Zaporizhzhia plant.

In March, Russia seized the plant – that has been shelled in recent days – after it had launched its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

‘UK sought permission to fly spy plane over Russia’ - Kremlin

15:30 , Lamiat Sabin

Russia’s defence ministry said that Britain has requested permission for its RC-135 spy plane to fly over Russia – a move it termed “a deliberate provocation”.

The ministry said that Russia’s airforce had been tasked with preventing any violations of Russian airspace.

There was no immediate response from British Ministry of Defence to a request for comment from Reuters.

15:57 , Lamiat Sabin