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Russian strikes kill 25 in Ukraine, as Trump confirms deadline for talks
At least 25 people have been killed across Ukraine in overnight and early morning Russian air strikes that hit a prison and a hospital, local officials say.
They say the deadliest attack was on the Bilenke penitentiary in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where 16 inmates were killed and more than 50 injured.
A separate Russian strike on people queuing for humanitarian aid killed five in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. Three people were killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, including a pregnant woman. Another casualty was reported elsewhere in the region.
Later on Tuesday, Donald Trump confirmed a deadline of 8 August for Russia to agree a ceasefire, or else face sweeping sanctions.
The US president had issued an ultimatum to Moscow on Monday during a visit to the UK, saying he would reduce the 50-day deadline previously issued to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.
In response to the overnight strikes on Ukraine, Zelensky said Russia “must be forced to stop the killings and make peace” via “tough” sanctions.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s justice ministry said four glide bombs hit the Bilenke penitentiary shortly before midnight, destroying the dining hall, administrative headquarters and quarantine area.
It said that more than 50 people were injured, and 44 of them had to be taken to hospital.
The ministry had earlier reported 17 inmates were killed but later amended the death toll.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner said attacking a prison was a gross violation of humanitarian law as people in detention did not lose their right to life and protection.
Russian forces have frequently targeted the front-line region of Zaporizhzhia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It is one of four south-eastern regions in Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed since 2022, although Moscow does not fully control any of them.
In a separate Russian rocket attack on Tuesday morning, five people were killed in the village of Novoplatonivka, Kharkiv region, the local authorities said.
The villagers had gathered near a local shop to get humanitarian aid, regional police chief Petro Tokar told Ukraine’s Suspilne TV channel.
Ukraine’s officials later released photos showing bodies lying near a destroyed shop.
Another Russian rocket strike hit a hospital in Kamianske, Dnipropetrovsk region, killing three people.
A 23-year-old pregnant woman named Diana was among the casualties there, President Zelensky said.
In a statement, he accused Russia of killing Ukrainians when a ceasefire “could have long been in place”.
Earlier in July, Trump set a 50-day deadline for the Kremlin to reach a truce with Kyiv or risk economic penalties, but the warning has not halted Russia’s barrage of strikes.
The wave of attacks came as Russia said its troops were pushing deeper into Ukrainian territory.
At the weekend, Moscow said its forces had seized the village of Maliivka, weeks after claiming control over their first village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine has rejected Russia’s claims.
Meanwhile, in Russia, officials said Ukraine had launched dozens of drones overnight in the southern Rostov region, killing one person in their car in the town of Salsk and setting fire to a goods train.
Another person was reported killed in their car in the border region of Belgorod and his wife was wounded.
[BBC]
Qualifier Maja Chwalinska is one win away from a fairytale French Open triumph after setting up a final showdown with Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva.
The Polish world number 114, who had only ever won one match at a Grand Slam before this tournament, continued her astonishing run at Roland Garros by beating 25th seed Diana Shnaider 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.
Three weeks and nine matches after her French Open campaign began, Chwalinska dropped to the ground after firing in the 32nd and final winner of another scintillating display.
With that, she became the first qualifier in history to reach the women’s singles final at Roland Garros, and the crowd chanted her name as she spoke in her post-match interview.
On Saturday, she will attempt to become only the second qualifier in the Open era to win a Grand Slam after Britain’s Emma Raducannu at the 2021 US Open.
It would be a fitting conclusion to a French Open filled with spectacular shocks from the outset.
But, on the evidence of her dominant victory over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, the in-form Andreeva will provide the sternest test of her credentials to date.
A beaten semi-finalist in 2024, the 19-year-old was hugely impressive in a 6-1 6-3 victory that made her the third-youngest woman to reach the Roland Garros showpiece this century, after Coco Gauff and Kim Clijsters.
Should she prevail in her first major final, eighth seed Andreeva would become the third-youngest first-time Grand Slam champion this century, after Maria Sharapova and Raducanu.
(BBC)
Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in a renewed bid to end the war.
In an open letter to the Russian president, the Ukrainian leader said it would be “wrong to simply wait” until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US’s attention once more, adding peace could only come “through direct engagement between” Ukraine and Russia.
He also called for a full ceasefire for the duration of proposed negotiations – something Putin ruled out earlier on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he thought “it would be great” if the two leaders met.
The Kremlin confirmed it had received the letter.
The tone of the letter was defiant, even mocking, drawing attention to Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian territory.
Zelensky stated that “after 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll” on Putin.
The letter also provided an invitation.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky wrote.
It’s not a new offer from Ukraine’s leader.
As it has before, the Kremlin responded, saying Zelensky was welcome to meet Putin in Moscow.
What was notable was Kyiv’s public acknowledgement that the US “is fully focused on the issue of Iran”.
“It would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention,” Zelensky wrote.
Speaking to foreign journalists in St Petersburg, without apparently having seen the contents of the letter, Putin said he was “certainly prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine”, but said compromises needed to be made.
Putin suggested that as Trump was busy with Iran, the EU could talk Zelensky into surrendering territory.
Putin’s longstanding position has been that Ukraine should withdraw from four regions largely occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – and give up its efforts to join Nato.
Ukraine has ruled out ceding territory, saying it would embolden Russia to invade again, as it had in 2022 when it launched its full-scale war eight years after illegally annexing Crimea.
Ceasefire negotiations have stalled in recent months, and previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul have failed.
In the letter, which is more than 1,800 words long, Zelensky said: “It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country.
“But I do care about Ukrainians. We are losing our people, and every loss is painful to us.”
Zelensky said Russians had become tired of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, petrol shortages and rising prices, as well as war.
“Do not be afraid to take the path out of this war. That is the main thing that is required of you now,” he implored.
He said Ukraine was proposing to end the war “through direct engagement between us”.
Zelensky said face-to-face negotiations could take place in a country such as Switzerland or Turkey.
The Ukrainian president’s letter came on the same day Putin was in St Petersburg, where a major economic forum is taking place.
The previous day Kyiv had launched a drone attack on the city’s outskirts, a strike mentioned in Zelensky’s message as “paying a visit”.
Separately Russian-backed authorities in occupied Crimea blamed Ukraine for the death of four people in attacks on the regional capital, Simferopol. Ukraine said it had hit a fuel depot.
On Friday, Ukrainian authorities said at least four people had been killed in a Russian strike on the offices of a food company outside Kyiv.
During his press conference on Thursday, Putin appeared to immediately cast doubt on whether a meeting or deal could ever take place.
Whether Mr Zelensky is a legitimate representative of Ukraine, this is a question for the lawyers, for a legal analysis,” he said – a repetition of a Russian line that there has been no presidential election since Zelensky’s term expired in May 2024.
However, elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was declared after Russia’s invasion.
Trump said he thought the US had been instrumental in bringing the two countries closer to peace.
“I think it would be great if they met. They should. Get it done,” he said.
Asked about the compromises the two sides would have to make, he said he would “rather not say”.
“I want them each to make certain compromises, and I think they’re going to do it.”
(BBC)
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