Ukraine

KYIV, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian official said on Monday that the weekend's talks in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine dealt a "huge blow" to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks that were seen as an attempt by Kyiv to build a broader coalition of powers to support its vision of peace.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

GENICHESK, August 6. /TASS/: Ukrainian troops delivered a strike on the Chongar Bridge and the settlement of Chongar in the Kherson Region with Storm Shadow missiles, the region’s acting governor Vladimir Saldo said on Sunday.

"Kiev’s terrorists shelled the Chongar Bridge and the settlement of Chongar with NATO’s Storm Shadows. The bridge was damaged by a missile, but the most vile thing done by the Kiev regime is that a school in the settlement was hit," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

DONETSK, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Flames engulfed a university building's wooden roof in Donetsk following Ukrainian shelling on Saturday, said an emergency official in the Russia-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.

"As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire," Alexei Kulemzin, the Russia-installed mayor, said on Telegram.

KYIV, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine is seeing "significant results" from U.S. and German air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, despite waves of Russian air strikes that included a hit on a blood transfusion centre.

Russia reported that it had shot down a drone heading for Moscow in the third such attack in a week, while officials on both sides said that Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.

Aug 6 (Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday that talks in Saudi Arabia to make headway towards a peaceful settlement of the war with Russia had been productive, but Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage Sunday across parts of Ukraine that killed six people, Kyiv officials said, as Moscow followed through on its promise to retaliate for an attack on a Russian tanker.

Separately, Moscow’s second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early Sunday following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 70 drones and missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea, including Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

06 August 2023; AA: Ukraine early Sunday claimed that 57 Russian missiles and drones were shot down by the air defense systems during overnight attacks on the country’s territory.

“From the evening of August 5 to the morning of August 6, 2023, the Russian invaders launched a massive missile attack on the territory of Ukraine with air and sea-based missiles, as well as Iranian attack drones ‘Shahed-136/131’,” said a statement by the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram.

KIEV, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's conflict-related budget expenditures will reach about 1.8 trillion hryvnia (about 49.2 billion U.S. dollars) this year, the government press service reported Friday, citing Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

"A hundred percent of taxes paid by businesses and citizens go to support the needs of the security and defense forces," Shmyhal said.

Besides, Ukraine has already attracted 28 billion dollars in financial aid from partners this year, he added.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea, according to Russian officials and video circulating on social media.

The late Friday night strike was the second sea attack involving drones in one day, after Ukraine struck a major Russian port earlier Friday.

As Kyiv’s naval capabilities grow, the Black Sea is becoming an increasingly important battleground in the war.