A Ukraine serviceman fires a Caesar self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops, outside the town of Pokrovsk, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukraine on Monday (August 19, 2024) ordered the evacuation of families with children from Pokrovsk, as Russian forces have been inching towards the eastern city for months.

“We are starting the forced evacuation of families with children from the Pokrovsk community,” Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said, ordering the “compulsory” evacuation of children and their parents from Pokrovsk and about a dozen surrounding villages.

He said more than 53,000 people live in the area, including almost 4,000 children.

Filashkin called the decision to evacuate “necessary and inevitable.”

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for the Russian army.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday (August 18, 2024) its forces had captured Svyrydonivka, another frontline settlement some 15 kilometres (nine miles) away from Pokrovsk.

The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Sergiy Dobryak, warned last week that Russia was a little more than 10 kilometres from the outskirts of the city and urged remaining residents to evacuate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday the daring military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.

It was the first time Zelensky clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on August 6. Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.

Zelensky said “it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory -– our operation in the Kursk region,” he said in his nightly address.

This weekend, Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in the region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed a stunning cross-border incursion that began Aug. 6, officials said.

Pro-Kremlin military bloggers acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge on the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of an airstrike that cut the bridge in two.

Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and Russian regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov.

As of Sunday morning, there were no officials giving the exact location of the second bridge attack. But Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck.

According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left only one intact bridge in the area. The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims. If confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.

Glushkovo is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, and approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the main battle zone in Kursk. Zvannoe is located another 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the northwest.

Kyiv previously has said little about the scope and goals of its push into Russia with tanks and other armored vehicles, the largest attack on the country since World War II, which took the Kremlin by surprise and saw scores of villages and hundreds of prisoners fall into Ukrainian hands.

The Ukrainians drove deep into the Kursk region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic as tens of thousands of civilians fled the area. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the region, although it was not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces “achieved good and much-needed results.”

Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains inside Russia, it would be risky, given Kyiv’s limited resources, because its own supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable.

The incursion has proven Ukraine’s ability to seize the initiative and has boosted its morale, which was sapped by a failed counteroffensive last summer and months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region.

The move into Kursk resembled Ukraine’s lightning operation from September 2022, led by Syrskyi, in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications.

On Saturday, Zelensky urged Kyiv’s allies to lift the remaining restrictions on using Western weapons to attack targets deeper in Russia, including in Kursk, saying his troops could deprive Moscow “of any ability to advance and cause destruction” if granted sufficient long-range capabilities.

“It is crucial that our partners remove barriers that hinder us from weakening Russian positions in the way this war demands. … The bravery of our soldiers and the resilience of our combat brigades compensate for the lack of essential decisions from our partners,” Zelensky said in a post on the social platform X.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry and pro-Kremlin bloggers have alleged that U.S.-made HIMARS launchers have been used to destroy bridges on the Seim. These claims could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s leaders have repeatedly sought authorization for long-range strikes on Russian air bases and other infrastructure used to pummel Ukraine’s energy facilities and other civilian targets, including with retrofitted Soviet-era “glide bombs” that have laid waste to Ukraine’s industrial east in recent months.

Moscow also appears to have increased attacks on Kyiv, targeting it Sunday with ballistic missiles for a third time this month, according to the head of the municipal military administration. Serhii Popko said in a Telegram post that the “almost identical” August strikes on the capital “most likely used” KN-23 missiles supplied by North Korea.

Another attempt to target Kyiv followed at about 7 a.m. Popko said, this time with Iskander cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenses struck down all the missiles fired in both attacks on the city, he said.

In a separate development, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday that the safety situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is deteriorating following reports of a nearby drone strike.

Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged “maximum restraint from all sides” after an IAEA team stationed in the plant reported that an explosive carried by a drone detonated just outside its protected area.

According to Grossi’s statement, the impact was “close to the essential water sprinkle ponds” and about 100 meters (100 yards) from the only power line supplying the plant. The IAEA team at the plant has reported intense military activity in the surrounding area in the past week, it said.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for attacks in the vicinity of the power plant since it was captured by Russian forces early in the 2022 invasion, including a fire at the facility last weekend. Grossi’s statement said the blaze had caused “considerable damage,” but posed no immediate danger to nuclear safety.

Ukraine has repeatedly alleged that Russia plans to stage an attack and blame Ukrainian forces. Last summer, Zelenskyy warned of possible explosives he said Moscow may have planted on the plant’s roof to blackmail Ukraine.

Russian ally Belarus has massed “nearly a third” of its army along its border with Ukraine, according to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko told Russian state TV that Minsk was responding to the deployment of more than 120,000 Ukrainian troops to the 1,084-kilometer (674 mile) frontier. Belarus’ professional army numbers upwards of 60,000.

Ukrainian border force spokesman Andrii Demchenko said Sunday it had not observed any sign of a Belarusian buildup.

Lukashenko, in power for three decades, has relied on Russian support to suppress the biggest protests in Belarus’ post-Soviet history after his 2020 reelection, widely seen as a sham both at home and abroad. He allowed Russian troops to use Belarus’ territory to invade Ukraine and let Moscow deploy some tactical nuclear weapons on its soil.

Berlin:

Germany, the second largest contributor of aid to Ukraine, plans to halve its military aid to Kyiv in 2025, a parliamentary source told AFP Saturday.

Instead, the government of Olaf Scholz will bank on money generated from frozen Russian assets to continue supporting Kyiv, and is not planning “additional aid” to the 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) set aside in next year’s budget.

This year, aid from Berlin amounted to 8 billion euros.

To compensate, Germany is counting on “the creation, within the framework of the G7 and the European Union, of a financial instrument using frozen Russian assets, said a separate source from inside the ministry of finance.

German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said in its weekend edition that the move was part of an agreement between the chancellor, the Social Democratic party (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

Lindner is a member of junior coalition partner the Liberal party.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev said in a posting on X, formerly Twitter, that “the security of Europe depends on Germany’s political will to continue to play a frontline role in supporting Ukraine”.

The 2025 budget has been the subject of fierce discussions between the government coalition of Liberals, the Greens and the Social Democrats.

Lindner has asked other ministries to make savings in order to respect a constitutional rule that aims to prevent the state from taking on too much debt.

However the budget is still subject to discussions before being adopted by the end of the year. The finance ministry said Saturday it was open to considering extra spending for Ukraine on a case-by-case basis.

Ukraine’s allies have been working for several months on a mechanism to allow part of the $300 billion of Russian assets frozen worldwide to be used to support Kyiv in its war with Moscow.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive for more than 11 days.

His comments came a day after Moscow accused Ukraine of destroying a key bridge over a river in the border region, as Kyiv seeks to disrupt supply routes and the movement of Moscow’s troops in the area.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky “reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilised territory”, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

“As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,” Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

“I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are taking Russian soldiers prisoner and thus bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer,” Zelensky said.

Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements in the lightning incursion, which caught the Kremlin off guard almost two and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it had pushed back Ukrainian forces near three settlements in the Kursk region, and was searching for “mobile enemy groups” trying to pierce deeper into the country.

Bridge ‘completely destroyed’

Russian officials on Friday accused Ukraine of striking a strategically important bridge just a couple dozen kilometres away from fighting in the Kursk region.

The region’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Friday evening the bridge was in the Glushkovsky district, some 11 kilometres (seven miles) away from the border.

An aerial video published by Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk appeared to show the bridge being hit by a projectile at high speed before collapsing in a cloud of smoke.

“Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy strongholds, equipment concentrations, as well as on enemy logistics centres and supply routes,” he said on Telegram.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the bridge was “completely destroyed” and that “volunteers providing assistance to the evacuated civilian population were killed”.

“All those responsible for these inhumane acts will be severely punished,” she said.

Russia separately accused Ukraine on Saturday of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

The plant, which was seized by Russia’s forces early in the war, has come under repeated attacks that both sides have accused each other of carrying out.

Russia meanwhile attacked at least four Ukrainian regions on Saturday, according to officials, including the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where prosecutors said shelling killed a 49-year-old woman.

‘Under control’

While the incursion has delivered a major morale boost to Kyiv, it appears to have had little impact on the larger battles raging in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky said on Saturday there had been “dozens of Russian assaults” on Ukrainian positions near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where Moscow has made a string of advances in recent weeks.

“Our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks,” Zelensky said, stressing the situation was “under control”.

Russia said Friday its forces had captured another village near Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held logistics hub that lies on a road supplying troops and towns across the eastern front.

Russian forces have been inching towards the town for months, taking a string of tiny villages over the past weeks.

The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Sergiy Dobryak, warned on Thursday that Russia was a little over 10 kilometres from the outskirts of the city and urged remaining residents to evacuate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Ukraine lobbed missiles and drones at Russia’s southwest region of Kursk overnight, the local governor said Wednesday, a day after pro-Kyiv forces crossed across the border with tanks and armoured vehicles.

“Two Ukrainian missiles were shot down by air defence systems in the Kursk region”, regional governor Alexei Smirnov wrote on Telegram social media channel, adding that three drones were also destroyed.

On Tuesday, Moscow’s defence ministry said it had rushed its troops and aviation units to the border in Kursk after a morning raid by Ukrainian units — the latest such attack in the conflict.

The incursion was carried out by some 300 troops, 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured vehicles, Russian authorities said.

Five people were killed throughout the day and some 28 wounded, Smirnov and local health authorities said.

Kursk sits just across from Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Ukrainian drones also targeted residential buildings in the border regions of Voronezh and Belgorod, with damage but no casualties reported, local officials said on Wednesday.

Combatants from Ukraine have made several brief incursions into Russia since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, including by units of Russians fighting in support of Kyiv — the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian soldiers operate an anti-aircraft gun at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. File photo for representatonal purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP

A 22-year-old Haryana man “sent to the frontline by the Russian Army to fight against Ukrainian forces” has died, his family claimed on Monday, July 29, 2024.

Also read: Kin of Indians stuck in Russia’s warzone take their fight to New Delhi

The Indian embassy in Moscow confirmed the death of Ravi Moun, who hailed from Matour village in Haryana’s Kaithal district, his brother Ajay Moun said.

It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Moscow recently took up the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request, made at a private dinner and ordered to discharge those wishing to return to India.

Ravi Moun went to Russia on January 13 after being “hired” for a transportation job but was inducted into the military, his brother claimed.

Ajay Moun wrote to the embassy on July 21 for information on his brother’s whereabouts.

“The embassy told us that he has died,” he said.

The family said the embassy also asked them to send a DNA test report for identification of the body.

“Ravi went to Russia on January 13. An agent sent him to Russia for a transportation job. However, he was inducted into the Russian Army,” Mr. Ajay Moun said.

The family’s claim comes days after Russia agreed to India’s demand to ensure early release and return of Indian nationals inducted into the country’s military.

“We remained in touch with him till March 12 and he was quite upset,” he said.

According to the Indian embassy’s reply to Ajay Moun’s letter, “The embassy had requested the concerned Russian authorities for confirmation of his death and transportation of his mortal remains requested by you.” “The Russian side has confirmed his death. However, to identify the body, they need a DNA test from his close relatives,” it added.

Mr. Ajay Moun also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring his brother’s mortal remains back to India.

“We do not have enough money to bring back his body,” he told reporters.

The family sold off a one-acre land and spent ₹11.50 lakh to send him to Russia, he said.

Last month, the Ministry of External Affairs said the issue of Indian nationals serving in the Russian Army remained a matter of “utmost concern” and demanded action from Moscow.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict in eastern Europe has been raging since February 2022.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Anton Yushyn spent four years studying Italian at university in Kyiv but the outbreak of war taught him the most valuable lesson of his student life: to prioritise what matters most.

When he enrolled at Kyiv National Linguistic University, Russia had not yet invaded, and his main concerns were socialising and passing exams to placate his parents.

“Maybe it’s not my goals that have changed but my values,” Yushyn, 22, told AFP on graduation day in Kyiv last month.

“It all used to be about parties and having fun. Now you need to spend more time with family and friends because they could be gone at any moment,” he said.

Thousands of Ukrainians graduating from around 300 universities this summer are entering into a society transformed by war — their futures in doubt with no end in sight to the fighting.

As Ukraine mobilises young men to replenish the army’s stretched ranks, male graduates face the prospect of being called up once they turn 25.

Higher education has not been immune from the conflict.

Dozens of teachers and professors have been fighting on the front lines and one-fifth of the sector’s facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombardments.

In December 2022, a missile landed just a few hundred metres from Yushyn’s campus.

To stay, or leave

But on graduation day, the mood at Yushyn’s alma mater was festive. Perfume hung in the hot summer air and staff congratulated joyful students for completing their studies in the face of historic turbulence.

Student life was barely back to normal after the Covid pandemic when Russia invaded in February 2022.

Universities suspended classes and Korean language student Nikoletta Shova was sent by her parents to stay with relatives in Italy.

The 22-year-old compared the “emotional” time abroad to being in a “stupor”, left wondering if she would ever be able to return.

Teaching restarted at most universities just a few weeks later — online or in person — when Russian forces were still on Kyiv’s outskirts.

Shova returned after three months away and was able to finish her degree in person while raising money for the war effort with classmates.

Now, with her diploma in hand, uncertainty had returned.

She was considering studying abroad — possibly marketing in the United States — but she was also open to finding a creative job at home.

Building a future in Ukraine despite the war was possible, she said, borrowing a popular phrase to underscore that it would take perseverance: “he who doesn’t take risks never drinks champagne”.

Jokes, memes

“So I’m being realistic but with a bit of positivity,” she said of her future.

Daryna Dekhtiar, 22, also a graduate of Kyiv National Linguistic University, went numb when Russia invaded.

“I didn’t cry at all. I just went into autopilot,” she said, but her friends had helped lift her spirits too, she added.

“We created our own memes, our jokes, it made it all much easier,” she recalled.

Dana Andriichuk, who already had secured an office job by graduation, was rushing to meet friends after the ceremony.

She didn’t want to dwell on the relative comfort of her student years or spend too much thinking about the prospect of a long war.

“I’m trying to avoid being a pessimist stuck in the past. I want to live now and not in the future, because we don’t know what will happen next,” she said.

“If the government encourages young people to stay and do everything possible to build a better future even in a state of war — and society becomes nationally conscious — then we can consider staying in the country,” she said.

– ‘Don’t run and hide’ –

Like thousands of other male graduates, Yushyn does not have as much freedom to choose. Authorities have barred men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine.

Thousands have left illegally and dozens have died trying.

But Yushyn was resigned to life at home.

“Real men don’t run and hide. If the time comes and I get a summons, I won’t run from it,” he told AFP.

“I can wind myself up, cry, sit here trembling all I want, it won’t change the trajectory of the rocket,” he said.

Whatever the future holds, he said he was unlikely to use Italian, but was resolved to spending his time as best he could.

“I need to use it to the fullest.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Several cities across Ukraine were recording historic scorching temperatures, officials said Wednesday, at a time when major urban hubs are suffering long periods without electricity after Russian attacks on power plants.

In the capital Kyiv, Ukrainians have been seeking respite from oppressive heat by swimming in the Dnipro river that cuts through the city, where some districts have been without power for hours at a time due to electricity rationing.

“This is the hottest summer of my life,” said 22-year-old Dmytro, who complained he had no electricity for about 20 hours a day.

Another resident, 18-year-old Diana, told AFP the temperature in her workplace was unbearable.

“Air conditioners don’t run at work when there is no power. This is how we are living,” she said.

A state meteorological station covering the Kyiv region said Wednesday that air temperatures one day earlier reached 36 degrees Celsius, beating by 0.2C a previous record for the same date set in 1931.

The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center said historic records were set in Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi and Mykolaiv — cities in the centre and south of Ukraine.

The records come as the energy ministry has stepped up imports of electricity from European countries and imposed strict rationing due to Russian attacks that have halved Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity, compared to one year ago.

The ministry said Wednesday that with temperatures at their “maximum”, there would be rolling power outages across the country.

Electricity consumption is “also expected to reach a record level which significantly exceeds the capacity of Ukrainian power plants”, the ministry explained in a statement.

Last month, Kyiv urged officials to turn off air conditioners in government buildings and called on regional authorities to limit street lighting to ease pressure on the grid.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia should be represented at a second summit aiming to secure lasting peace with the Kremlin, after more than two years of war.

Dozens of world leaders voiced support for a just peace in Ukraine after a high-level summit convened by Zelensky last month in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited.

“I believe that Russian representatives should be at the second summit,” Zelensky told a press conference in Kyiv, where he laid out preparatory work for a follow-up summit.

Zelensky announced separate meetings on key issues, including energy security, to be held in Qatar and on food security in Turkey ahead of a second summit.

Leaders and top officials from more than 90 states gathered at a Swiss mountainside resort on June 15 for the two-day summit dedicated to resolving the largest European conflict since World War II.

The Kremlin said that any discussions around ending the conflict that did not include Russia were “absurd.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visit the Atom pavilion at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNKh) in Moscow, Russia on July 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The White House on July 9 said that India’s ties with Russia give it the ability to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in Ukraine. The statement came after PM Modi emphasised to President Putin that the solution to the Ukraine conflict lay in dialogue and not on the battlefield.

While addressing a press briefing, Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, called India the U.S.’ “strategic partner” with whom they hold “full and frank dialogue”, including their ties with Russia. She called it critical that all nations, including India support efforts to realise an enduring peace when it comes to Ukraine.

Asked about PM Modi’s meeting with Mr. Putin, Jean-Pierre said, “India is a strategic partner with whom we engage in full and frank dialogue, including their relationship with Russia and we’ve talked about this before. So we think it’s critical that all countries, including India, support efforts to realize an enduring and just peace when it comes to Ukraine. It is important for all our allies to realise this.”

“We also believe India’s long-standing relationship with Russia gives it the ability to urge President Putin, to end his brutal war, an unprovoked war in Ukraine. It is for President Putin to end. President Putin started the war, and he can end the war.”

Jean-Pierre made the statement after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his bilateral talks with Russian President Putin raised the issue of killings of children during conflicts and said it is “heart-wrenching” when innocent children die. The Prime Minister said that everyone who believes in humanity is hurt when there is a loss of lives.

This comes in the wake of the recent missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, which killed 37 children.

“Be it war, conflicts, terror attacks – everyone who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives. But when innocent children are murdered, when we see innocent children dying, it is heart-wrenching. That pain is immense. I also held a detailed discussion with you over this,” PM Modi said during the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is no solution on the battlefield and added that peace talks do not succeed amid bombs, guns and bullets.

PM Modi said, “As a friend, I have always said that for the bright future of our coming generations, peace is of utmost importance. But I also know that solutions are not possible on battlegrounds. Amid bombs, guns and bullets, solutions and peace talks do not succeed. We will have to follow the path to peace only through talks.”

It was PM Modi’s first visit to Russia since the war started between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022. India has always advocated “peace and diplomacy” for resolving the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed disappointment over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia, which he termed a “devastating blow to peace efforts.”

Mr. Zelenskyy took to social media platform X to post that on the same day 37 people, including three children, were killed and 170 others were injured due to Russia’s missile strike at the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv.

“In Ukraine today, 37 people were killed, three of whom were children, and 170 were injured, including 13 children, as a result of Russia’s brutal missile strike. A Russian missile struck the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were buried under the rubble. It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day” the Ukrainian leader said.

PM Modi was on a two-day official visit to Russia from July 8-9. During his visit, he held a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. PM Modi also addressed the Indian community in Moscow.