Ukraine-Russia war latest: Children among five killed and 67 injured as Putin strikes shopping centre

Missile debris damaged an industrial facility in the southern part of the Russian city of Volgograd on the Volga River, city officials said on Telegram.

The Volgograd regional ⁠administration, citing governor Andrei ​Bocharov, ⁠said two ‌people were injured in an attack ‌that also damaged a ‌residential building in the city.

The post did not provide details about the industrial facility.

The Volgograd oil refinery run by Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest by processing capacity, is located in the southern part of the city.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday ⁠there would be no trilateral meeting on how ⁠to ​end the ⁠war before the ⁠elections in ​Russia.

Zelensky said ⁠Ukrainian ‌and US negotiators were in constant contact ‌and he ‌hoped for progress in ⁠talks on energy and grain at the end of September after his meeting with ‌US President Donald ​Trump.

Russia will ‌hold ⁠parliamentary elections ⁠on 20 September, and Zelensky expects to meet Trump in the second half of this month.

Russian air strikes injured eight and caused a fire in a ⁠nine-storey apartment building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the early hours today.

The city officials have asked people in the area to seek shelter amid a drone alert.

At least seven people were killed as Russian forces launched a broad onslaught on the industrial city of Pavlohrad in southeastern Ukraine yesterday.

The strikes also targeted a petrol station in the capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility in ⁠Dnipro as Moscow intensifies attacks on logistics and economic targets.

Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said Russian forces deployed drones, artillery and aerial bombs in hitting five districts of Pavlohrad, a rail and logistics hub serving a coal-mining area with a pre-war population of about 120,000.

A total of 76 people were injured, including several children. Photos posted online showed shattered shops and burned-out vehicles in the city, which has acted as a ⁠critical supply route for the Ukrainian military connecting central Ukraine to eastern front ​lines.

The Russian defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had hit three cargo vessels in the Black Sea near the ports of Chornomorsk and Odesa, claiming they were carrying equipment for the Ukrainian military.

Several logistic centres in various regions of Ukraine ‌were also struck, ​the ‌ministry ⁠said.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said he had spoken to US president Donald Trump “a couple of times” recently about the war in Ukraine and issues related to the Iran conflict.

Carney, involved ‌in a deepening ‌trade war with the United States, ⁠told reporters in Calgary that he had talked to Trump “because part of our ‌responsibility is ​to work ‌together”. ⁠He did not give ⁠details.

At least two people were killed and another three were injured in drone attacks on central Russia’s Tula region, the local governor said on Friday.

The Russian ⁠air defence units shot down 26 drones over ‌the region ​overnight, ‌the governor ⁠Dmitry ⁠Milyayev said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said there will be no trilateral meeting on how to end the war before the elections in Russia, due to be held on Sunday 20 September.

Zelensky said ⁠Ukrainian ‌and US negotiators were in constant contact ‌and he ‌hoped for progress in ⁠talks on energy and grain at the end of September after his meeting with ‌US president Donald ​Trump.

Just last week, the US sent its peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv to hold back to back talks with the leaders for finding a settlement on the war. However, no breakthroughs were reported from both sides.

Russia has sent bone fragments from a legendary Russian prince in a bizarre attempt to boost morale for its soldiers fighting in Putin’s war against Ukraine.

Tiny fragments from the sword hand of the medieval Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who won a famous victory over the Mongols, have been sent in the Russian Orthodox Church’s latest show of support for Putin’s war.

The sarcophagus of the Grand Prince, who died in 1389 and is ⁠revered by Russian nationalists for defeating the Mongol Golden Horde at the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo, was uncovered this summer during restoration work at Moscow’s Cathedral of the Archangel inside the Kremlin.

Russian military and church officials presented the discovery as a fortuitous find that could help Russian forces prevail in Ukraine, now in the fifth year of a grinding war.