Almost 500,000 troops killed or injured so far in Ukraine war, US officials say – as it happened

One civilian was injured and private houses, farm buildings and gas pipelines were damaged in the Russian shelling of the Kherson oblast in the early hours of Friday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said.

The villages of Bilozerka and Dniprovske were the main targets of Russian troops.

The National Resistance Centre is reporting that Russia has deported another 450 Ukrainian children.

The centre has been tracking Russian efforts to bring the Ukrainian children of occupied territories to Russia, where they are exposed to propaganda about their home country.

Here’s a look at some of the damage of an expo centre near Moscow after Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian drone.

TASS also reported that the airspace near the international airport of Vnukovo was briefly closed, with departures and arrivals delayed, citing the aviation service.

The expo centre damaged by the drone is on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment of the Moskva River, 100 metres (328 feet) from Moscow-City, an office block in the capital’s main business district that was struck twice within days by debris from downed drone strikes this month.

Until a series of attacks in recent months, the capital had not been targeted during the conflict in Ukraine, which began more than a year ago.

Last week, Russia destroyed a Ukrainian drone over Moscow’s west, with debris landing in a park on the Karamyshevskaya embankment.

In May drones were shot down near the Kremlin, less than five kilometres from the Expo Centre.

On 30 July, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “war” was coming to Russia, with the country’s “symbolic centres and military bases” becoming targets.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces is estimating that Russian troops lost 460 personnel yesterday.

This brings Ukraine’s total estimate of Russian personnel killed since the invasion to 256,510.

Russian forces launched four missile, 53 air strikes and 40 multiple launch rocket system attacks across 136 settlements yesterday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning briefing,

There were 33 combat engagements, the general staff said.

More now on that F-16 news: A coalition of 11 countries is due to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 jets this month in Denmark. Denmark’s acting defence minister, Troels Poulsen, said in July that it hoped to see “results” from the training in early 2024.

The US approval comes a day after Ukraine said that based on current timelines, it would not be able to operate the jets by autumn or winter.

“It’s already obvious we won’t be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter,” Ukraine air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Wednesday.

“We had big hopes for this plane, that it will become part of air defence, able to protect us from Russia’s missiles and drones terrorism.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said: “Ukrainian pilots will return from the training, and the planes will come back with them.”

Blinken wrote that the approval of the requests would allow Ukraine to take “full advantage of its new capabilities as soon as the first set of pilots complete their training”.

The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands as soon as pilot training is completed, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, says in a letter seen by the Reuters news agency.

Washington will expedite the approval of transfer requests for F-16s, the letter – sent to Blinken’s counterparts in Denmark and the Netherlands – was reported to say. The US must approve the transfer of the military jets from its allies to Ukraine.

“I am writing to express the United States’ full support for both the transfer of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine and for the training of Ukrainian pilots by qualified F-16 instructors,” Blinken said in the letter.

“It remains critical that Ukraine is able to defend itself against ongoing Russian aggression and violation of its sovereignty.”

The US president, Joe Biden, endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in May. In addition to Denmark, a training centre was to be set up in Romania. Russia responded to the endorsement by claiming that providing F-16s to Ukraine posed a “colossal risk” to western nations.

Hours before the strike on Moscow, Russia thwarted a Ukrainian marine drone attack on its warships in the Black Sea, the latest in a string of assaults on its fleet, AFP reports.

Russia’s defence ministry said the drone was destroyed late on Thursday night by navy patrol ships, 237 km (147 miles) southwest of Sevastopol – the base of its Black Sea Fleet on the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.

Attacks from both sides have escalated in the Black Sea since Russia pulled out of a deal that had allowed safe export of Ukrainian grain through the shipping hub.

On 4 August, Russia said it had repelled Ukraine’s attempted drone attack on its Novorossiysknaval base in the sea, while a Ukrainian security source said the strike on a warship at the base was successful.

The attack came hours after a civilian cargo ship sailing through the Black Sea from Ukraine reached Istanbul in defiance of a Russian blockade.

Moscow announced last month that it would consider any ships nearing Ukraine in the Black Sea as potential military cargo carriers.

Russian forces have destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and its Black Sea Fleet, AFP reports, citing Russian officials.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air force downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital at about 04:00 (0100 GMT) on Friday.

“The UAV, after being exposed to air defence weapons, changed its flight path and fell on a non-residential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment area of Moscow,” the ministry said on Telegram.

Moscow’s mayor said emergency services were on the scene, but that early reports indicated there were no casualties.

“The wreckage of the UAV fell in the area of the Expo Centre, and did not cause significant damage to the building,” Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

State-run news agency TASS reported that one of the walls of the venue’s pavilion had partially collapsed, citing emergency services.

“The area of the collapse is about 30 square meters (323 square feet),” emergency services told TASS.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Russian forces have destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and its Black Sea Fleet, officials said, the latest in a surge of attacks on the capital and the waterway.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air force downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital at about 04:00am (0100 GMT) on Friday. Hours before, Russia said that it thwarted a Ukrainian marine drone attack on its warships in the Black Sea, the latest in a string of assaults on its fleet.

More shortly. Elsewhere meanwhile:

• The head of Nato has said only Kyiv can decide conditions for peace talks with Russia following a territory row. Jens Stoltenberg’s comments came after his chief of staff suggested Ukraine could give up land as a condition of Nato membership. Stoltenberg said: “It is the Ukrainians, and only the Ukrainians, who can decide when there are conditions in place for negotiations, and who can decide at the negotiating table what is an acceptable solution.”

• The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands as soon as pilot training is completed, a US official has said. Kyiv has actively sought the US-made F-16 fighter jets to help it counter Russian air superiority. Washington gave Denmark and the Netherlands official assurances that the US would expedite approval of transfer requests for F-16s to go to Ukraine when the pilots were trained, the official said on Thursday. Denmark’s acting defence minister, Troels Poulsen, said in July that the country hoped to see “results” from the training in early 2024.

• On Wednesday, Ukraine had said it would not be able to operate F-16 jets this coming autumn and winter. “It’s already obvious,” air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on Ukrainian television.

• The US has imposed sanctions on four Russians it accused of being involved in the 2020 poisoning of now jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The US Treasury Department said the four were linked to Russia’s federal security service (FSB) and included two it said were among the main reported perpetrators of Navalny’s poisoning.

• Russia is making steady progress towards its goal of mass producing Shahed-136 drones that can travel more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) and target Ukrainian cities, the Washington Post has reported, citing documents about the plan. Moscow is working on its own version of the Shahed-136 despite delays and sanctions that impact components needed from other countries, according to the documents.

• Russian president Vladimir Putin is not trying to push Belarus into joining the war in Ukraine, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has said. “If you Ukrainians do not cross our border, we will never participate in this war, in this hot war. But we will always help Russia – they are our allies,” he said in an online interview.

• The US condemned Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure and called on Moscow to immediately return to the collapsed grain deal, the state department has said. Vladimir Putin did not care about global food security, state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said after Ukraine earlier on Wednesday said Russia had attacked its grain storage facilities overnight.