Live Blog | New Russian air raids on Kiev and other cities Related articles

Russia has carried out air strikes on cities in Ukraine on the night of Monday to Tuesday. In the city of Kryvy Rih, in the southeast of the country, a five-story apartment building was hit. According to Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul, there have been serious injuries and there are probably people under the rubble.

In Kharkov, not far from the Russian border, a government building and a warehouse were hit by cruise missiles, Mayor Ihor Terechov writes on Telegram. There are still no reports of casualties from this city. Kiev has also been attacked with cruise missiles, military authorities in the Ukrainian capital said. The air defense would have managed to shoot them all from the air.

In Amsterdam, defense ministers from ten Northern European countries will meet to discuss the protection of vital infrastructure at sea and at sea. The countries work together in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

Critical infrastructure involves things like wind farms, pipelines and internet cables. According to the Dutch cabinet, the Russians pose a threat to submarine and abovesea infrastructure.

The MIVD military intelligence service warned of this in its annual report in April. Russia covertly maps Dutch maritime infrastructure and engages in activities that indicate espionage and preparatory acts for disruption and sabotage, the MIVD reported at the time.

Flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has also led to drifting landmines. Ukraine’s border guard warned on Monday that a “large amount” of mines were floating towards the Black Sea. At least six mines have surfaced in Odessa in recent days, 200 kilometers from the destroyed dam in the Dnipro River.

Explosions are also regularly seen in the water, probably caused by drifting mines colliding with something. The border guard warns that land mines are less visible than sea ones, which regularly wash up on the beaches of the Black Sea. Citizens should therefore be careful and not clean up the waste they wash up with flood water themselves, according to the border guard.

Ukraine claims to have recaptured 90 square kilometers of territory from invading Russian forces in one week. According to the Defense, seven seats have been freed up, three more than reported so far. Ukrainian forces are said to have advanced 6.5 kilometers in the two areas where they launched a counteroffensive.

Ukraine had already recorded a hit on Monday, a day after small gains in Donetsk. French President Emmanuel Macron said the Ukrainian counter-offensive began a few days ago and will continue for “several weeks or even months”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said progress was being made shortly after. “The fight is tough, but we are moving forward. This is very important,” the leader said in his daily evening speech. “I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that comes back now” in the villages that have been recaptured.

This live blog is based on reports from our correspondents and editors BNR, The Guardian, ANP, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, CNBC, Sky News and Agence France-Presse. BNR also uses online reports from news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti (Russia) and Belta (Belarus). Since the reporting of these agencies is not verifiable and cannot be qualified as independent, in these cases the source of the report is explicitly stated.