Ukraine-Russia war latest: Burnham compares Kyiv’s battle with Moscow to Britain’s fight with Nazi Germany

At least 20 people have been wounded in a Russian attack on an apartment building in the centre of Chernihiv earlier today.

Two children aged 12 and 17 are among the wounded, according to the city military administration.

A fire broke out at the site of the strike and firefighters are tackling the raging flames.

Footage from the scene show the plumes of smoke rising from the wreckage.

“A cynical strike by Russian terrorists on a residential building in Chernihiv,” said Viacheslav Chaus, head of Chernihiv Oblast military administration.

“In the middle of the day – on Independence Day.”

Ten Ukrainian soldiers who were considered “missing in action” have been returned to Ukraine through Belarus on Independence Day.

Sharing photos of the men draped in Ukrainian flags, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “They defended the country in the Donetsk sector.

“All of them had been considered missing in action. And it is very important that we managed to bring them back.”

Their return is part of the latest exchange of captured fighters between the warring sides.

Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Ukraine’s leading arms manufacturer, Fire Point, to accelerate production of its Flamingo cruise missile to take the fight to Russia this winter.

While praising the achievements of the defence industry during the war – ⁠including strikes with naval drones – the president said there was more work to do to counter the Kremlin’s ballistic terror.

Fire Point makes 100 long-range missiles and thousands of drones a month – and is crucial to the military’s deep-strike capability.

Zelensky insisted that production should be ramped up and that “Flamingos should not be a rare species but birds arriving en masse.”

“They must ‘winter’ in Russia,” the Ukrainian leader said.

He added: “Our mid-range strikes are cutting their logistics. Our long-range capabilities are cutting their profits.

“Thousands of our deep strikes have already been seen in Moscow, Tuapse, Tula, Ryazan, Olenya, Omsk, and dozens more places where our Ukrainian justice has already reached. Russia must see more of this justice.”

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice has said that Andy Burnham “is doing the right thing on his first foreign trip” to Ukraine.

Reform have previously been accused of being too supportive of Russia, but Tice backed the PM’s decision to give the blueprints for Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles.

He added that Ukraine was doing “an excellent job in pushing back Russia.”

Andy Burnham has compared Ukraine’s ongoing resistance against Russia to Britain’s fight in World War II during a speech in front of St Sophia cathedral in Kyiv.

Vowing to help the country bolster its air defences ahead of the winter, the PM said: “My nation kept the flame of European freedom alive in the 20th century, you hold that flame in the 21st.”

In his first major speech on the international stage, he praised the “sheer strength” of the Ukrainian people as “truly awesome”, and said that “this is the moment to keep up the pressure on Russia, the moment to squeeze their ability to fund this illegal war”.

“Ukraine has been Europe’s protector, not a drain on our security but the front line in keeping Europe safe,” he added.

Reacting to the Kremlin’s “outrageous” threats against the UK, how promised to continue supporting Ukraine in the war.

The Kremlin has accused Britain of “taking part in the war on Ukraine’s side” during Burnham’s visit to Kyiv.

Reacting to the PM’s decision to ⁠hand Ukraine classified information on British-made components used to make SCALP ⁠long-range ​cruise missiles, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Britain is methodically and regularly adding fuel to the fire of the Ukrainian conflict and undermining the peace process.”

He said that the Russian military is gathering data to identify the location of any missile production sites and then destroying them.

Russia continues to try to pressure the UK over its support – and the diplomatic relationship between the two countries has deteriorated to an unprecedentedly low level.

This comes a week after the Russian embassy threatened “consequences” after it emerged that Britain was supplying attack drones to Ukraine.

Three teenagers were ​killed after drone debris hit a private childcare centre in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, local officials ⁠said.

Another eight people, including seven children, were wounded in the attack.

Air raid alarms warning residents of drones rang out just after 7am this morning.

In a post on Telegram, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova later confirmed the fatalities.

There ⁠was no immediate comment ‌from Ukraine

Andy Burnham laid a wreath and flowers at the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at the National Military Cemetery, as part of events marking the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

During the ceremony, the PM spoke to Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who told him that “we are in a war period” and warned of Ukraine’s difficulties repelling Russian ballistic missile attacks.

Later, he is expected to chair his first meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, set up by the UK and France to help Ukraine under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer.