Ukraine war live: Kyiv ‘destroys’ Russian submarine in Black Sea

Russian forces attacked 17 settlements in Kherson, South Ukraine, injuring 15 civilians, including a child, according to regional authorities.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration, said Russian strikes hit a critical infrastructure facility and Ukraine’s air defense forces shot down one Shahed-131/136 drone.

The Russian army has had 1,150 troops killed or wounded in action in the past day in Ukraine, bringing the total to nearly 582,910 since the invasion began.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also said it has destroyed five enemy tanks and 17 armored combat vehicles in the past 24 hours.

Ukraine’s military also said it had sunk a submarine in Russian-controlled Sevastopool last night.

There is one Russian Kalibr cruise missile carrier in the Black Sea with four missiles on board, according to the Ukrainian Navy.

There are no Russian warships in the Sea of Azov, the Navy said in a post on Facebook.

In the Mediterranean, there are two Russian ships, one of which is a Caliber winged missile carrier with a total of up to 16 missiles.

The Ukrainian air force says it shot down five Russian Shahed-131/136 UAVs overnight.

Issuing a statement on Telegram, Ukrainian Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, said: “On the night of August 4, 2024, the enemy attacked the Kharkiv region with two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles, the Poltava region with two Kh-59 guided missiles from the airspace of the Kursk region, and launched five Shahed combat UAVs from Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk.” 

A Ukrainian drone killed a woman in the town of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod region, the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Sunday.

Among the Russians freed in this week’s historic exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West was a Russian-born freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019

Former president Donald Trump has congratulated Russian president Vladimir Putin for the biggest prisoner swap between the Kremlin and the West since the Cold War.

“I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” the Republican presidential candidate said at a campaign rally in Atlanta yesterday. “They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world,” he said.

“Some of the most evil killers they got. And we got our people back, but boy, we made some horrible, horrible deals. And it’s nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent,” he asked.

The US and Russia on Thursday completed their largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, a deal involving 24 people, many months of negotiations and concessions from other European countries.

The 24 people — some prominent, some not — included a collection of journalists and political dissidents, suspected spies, a computer hacker and a fraudster. Even a man convicted of murder.

Russia released 16 people.