WHO warehouse destroyed in Russian strike; heavy drone attacks reported across Russia and Ukraine

A WHO warehouse full of medical equipment and other humanitarian supplies has been struck and destroyed in a Russian strike on Ukraine.

The WHO's director-general said UN workers tried to evacuate health supplies from the Dnipro facility but some 170 pallets – more than half – were still inside when it was hit.

"I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care MUST STOP," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.

"Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare. Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!"

It comes as Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky claimed North Korea was preparing to deploy as many as 50,000 soldiers to support Russia's war effort.

Zelensky said North Korea would benefit from "experience in modern warfare" as well as receiving licences to produce more advanced Russian technology.

He appealed to South Korea to respond by providing support "in an area where we have a shortage", referring to its air defence systems.

Earlier, UK defence secretary Wes Streeting urged allies to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences ahead of winter, warning that Vladimir Putin will seek to use the colder months as a “weapon” against Kyiv.

Royal Navy warns of 25% surge in Russian ships near UK waters

The Royal Navy has warned of a significant increase in Russian naval activity near UK waters, having spent 21 days in July monitoring Moscow's vessels.

Naval operations to track Russian ships surged by 25 per cent in July compared to last year, with warships repeatedly traversing the Dover Strait and North Sea.

What are Patriot missiles and why do they matter?

Ukraine is urgently seeking more Patriot interceptors to defend against a nightly barrage of Russian ballistic missile strikes.

But the Iran war has drained arsenals in the US and the Gulf, and some European countries are holding onto missiles they may need for their own defence.

So what are the Patriot interceptor missiles?

Patriot, short for Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target, is a mobile surface-to-air missile defence system built by US weapons maker Raytheon Technologies that can be used in all kinds of weather and at long range.

Developed in the 1980s, the Patriot system has been modernised over the past decades, expanding its capabilities and reach. It is slated to remain in service through 2048.

A typical battery includes radar and control systems, a power unit, launchers, and support vehicles. The system can intercept aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, depending on the interceptor used.

The earlier PAC-2 interceptor uses a blast-fragmentation warhead that detonates in the vicinity of a target, while the PAC-3 family of missiles uses more accurate "hit-to-kill" technology to physically collide with the target.

Why do they matter?

Kyiv has repeatedly asked Western allies for more air defences to protect critical infrastructure and civilian areas from frequent Russian missile and drone attacks.

While effective at intercepting missiles and aircraft, Patriots are a costly way to shoot down low-budget drones. Patriot interceptors are estimated at around $4m per missile, CSIS says, while Russia can send hundreds of cheap drones a day.

Although not originally designed to intercept hypersonic weapons, in May 2023 the US confirmed Ukraine had used the Patriot system to shoot down a Russian Kinzhal missile, which Moscow claims is hypersonic.

What are the obstacles?

Russia has long said that giving Ukraine interceptors would amount to a direct escalation. They said it would delay the chance of peace.

But Donald Trump’s main line of argument is that the US needs its weapons and cannot afford to give them away to Ukraine. Indeed, the Patriots have been in short supply since the US went to war with Iran in February.

Trump in July offered Ukraine the right to make its own Patriot interceptors, but later reneged, saying the US has “not agreed” to such an arrangement.

Russia says air defences intercepted 285 Ukrainian drones over 12-hour period

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 285 Ukrainian drones over a 12-hour period.

The ministry said the drones were downed between 8am and 8pm Moscow time (0500-1700 GMT), with most incidents reported over central and western Russian regions. The attacks also included Bashkortostan, a region between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that air defence units had destroyed five drones heading towards the capital, where such attacks have become a regular occurrence during the more than four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

Pictures show street market in Kyiv

Street markets continue to operate in Ukraine despite the destruction and disruption caused by Russia’s war.

The market was damaged in the latest attacks as Russia continues its strikes across Ukraine.

Several killed after Ukrainian drone strike in Russia's Tatarstan, mayor claims

Ukrainian drones have carried out a deadly drone attack on industrial and civilian targets in the city of Nizhnekamsk in Russia's Tatarstan region which killed a number of people, Radmir Belyayev, the city's mayor said in a statement on Telegram.

Nizhnekamsk hosts a major oil refinery.

According to monitoring channels, Ukrainian forces launched strikes on a Russian oil refinery in Tatarstan overnight on Monday.

Eyewitnesses posted footage showing drones flying over the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk.

Ukraine accuses Unicef of failing to hold Russia accountable for children's deaths

The Ukrainian foreign minister has criticised Unicef for failing to condemn Russia over the deaths of children in Ukraine.

In the statement last week at the UN, Unicef called for Russia and Ukraine to follow obligations under international humanitarian law, but did not mention that Russia was behind deadly strikes that killed Ukrainian children in recent days.

It also did not recognise Russia's responsibility for starting its war against Ukraine.

"It is deeply deplorable that Unicef missed the essential point in its statement: All these children's deaths are a direct result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. By presenting these casualties without this essential context, Unicef creates a false equivalence between the aggressor and the victim," Andrii Sybiha said in a post to X.

"Moreover, Unicef’s statement lacks basic fact-checking. It failed to mention that the casualties in Russia's Krasnodar were caused by a drone reportedly intercepted by Russian air defence. It also failed to verify the information on casualties in Ukraine: seven, not three, children from one family were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast", Sybiha said.

Six die in Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, Russian authorities say

Six people died in a Ukrainian overnight drone attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, the regional crisis centre said on Sunday.

Alexander Shuvayev, the acting governor of Belgorod region, earlier said three people were killed and 25 others, including two children, were injured.

The death toll later rose to six after officials said emergency crews combed an apartment building which had been set ablaze.

Shuvayev said the attack sparked fires in two apartment buildings and a large number of residential and non-residential buildings were damaged.

Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed more than 150 Ukrainian drones over the European part of the country, as well as over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

In Novorossiysk, a major Russian export port on the Black Sea, drone debris fell on two facilities, local mayor Andrei Kravchenko said, without identifying the sites.

The local crisis centre later said three residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

In Bashkortostan region, a Ukrainian drone struck a building under construction and a crane in the city of Ufa, state-run RIA news agency reported, citing local emergency services.

WHO warehouse destroyed in Dnipro, Tedros says

A WHO humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine, was struck and destroyed last Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. No casualties were reported.

A WHO staff member and drivers had left the site earlier in the day after helping evacuate 130 of around 300 pallets of medical supplies intended for frontline health facilities.

“I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care must stop. Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare,” Mr Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted.

“Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!”

Russia says it captures two villages in eastern Ukraine

Russian forces have taken control of two villages in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Russian defence ministry.

The ministry report on Telegram said Russian forces had seized Vasyutinske, a few kilometres east of the "fortress city" of Kramatorsk, and Toretsk, southwest of the city of Druzhkivka.

Ukrainian forces made no acknowledgement of the two settlements changing hands.

Russia is slowly advancing westward through Donetsk region, though there has been little significant change for months in the positions along the 1,200km (775mile) frontline.

The Ukrainian war blog DeepState, which uses open source reports in documenting the frontline positions of both sides, reported that Russian forces had made advances near Illinivka -- outside the contested city of Kostiantynivka.

It also reported Russian advances near Chasiv Yar, to the west of the city of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in 2023 after long months of heavy fighting.

The Ukrainian military's General Staff, in a late evening report, said Kyiv's forces had repelled 24 attacks around Kostiantynivka, Illinivka and other centres.

Russian commanders said last month their forces had seized Kostiantynivka, but Ukrainian officials have disputed the claim.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly video address on Sunday made no reference to changes in frontline positions, but singled out for praise Ukrainian forces fighting in specific areas, notably Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk.

War entering a ‘new phase’, military analyst says

Military analyst Michael Clarke has said that the war is entering a “new phase”.

While Russia is making “incremental progress” and Ukraine is “hitting back locally”, he described the advances as “snail’s pace stuff”.

Speaking to Sky News, he said that the two countries are “hurting each other now to a degree that is going to push it to some sort of crisis”.

“Russia has a much greater capacity to be hurt because it hasn’t been hurt very much so far as a society.”

He said that Kyiv is “poking the bear in the eye” by escalating attacks and said that it is a “dangerous assumption” to expect Moscow to back down.

Clarke said that Putin’s “next best option” may be to “frighten” Ukraine’s European allies into reducing their support for Kyiv.