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

This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:

• US officials have said the total number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began last February is nearing 500,000, according to a New York Times report. The officials told the Times that Russia’s military casualties were approaching 300,000. The number included as many as 120,000 deaths and between 170,000 and 180,000 injured troops. The officials said figures on the Ukrainian side were close to 70,000 killed and between 100,000 and 120,000 wounded.

• Russian forces have destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and its Black Sea fleet. Russia’s defence ministry said its air force had downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital at about 4am (1am GMT) on Friday. Footage showed damage to an expo centre on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment of the Moskva River, 100 metres (328 ft) from Moscow city. Meanwhile, according to the ministry, Russian navy patrol ships in the Black Sea shot down a drone late on Thursday night about 237km (147 miles) south-west of Sevastopol, the base of its fleet on the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.

• The US said Ukrainian pilot training on F-16s would be followed by a transfer of jets to the country. Speaking at a press conference, Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said: “What we did this week is formalised through a letter from Secretary Blinken to his counterparts in Europe, that upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third-party transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine.”

• A coalition of 11 countries is due to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 jets this month in Denmark. The training was agreed a day after Ukraine said that, based on current timelines, it would not be able to operate the jets by autumn or winter.

• Russia has banned entry to 54 British nationals, including the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, and the defence minister Annabel Goldie, in response to UK sanctions against its citizens and enterprises. A number of correspondents from the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph were also on the travel ban list.

• A large fire was burning on Friday at the Russian Novorossiysk fuel oil terminal in Novorossiysk, one of the largest Black Sea ports which is located about 107 miles (172km) from Crimea. It was unclear whether the fire was caused by a Ukrainian drone strike.

• The thermal power plant in the Donetsk oblast was operating today at a reduced capacity because of shelling that damaged the electricity line, said Ukraine’s energy ministry. More than 14,000 people remained without electricity in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. In the Kherson oblast, where Russians destroyed the Kahovska dam two months ago, about 11,000 people remained without power.

• The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces estimated that Russian troops lost 460 personnel on Thursday, bringing their total estimate of Russian personnel killed since the invasion to 256,510.

• 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.

• Russian Telegram channels reported that a Ukrainian flag was hoisted in front of the Federal Security Service building in Nizhny Nogorod, a city located about 264 miles (425km) east of Moscow. The flag was quickly removed.

• Sweden has approved a €270m (£230m) security assistance package for Ukraine, said Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s minister of defence.

Russia has banned entry to 54 British nationals, including the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, and the defence minister Annabel Goldie, in response to UK sanctions against its citizens and enterprises, Reuters reports, citing the Russian foreign ministry.

The ICC issued arrest warrants in March for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, charges Moscow denies.

A number of correspondents from the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph were also on the travel ban list.

The ministry said it would continue expanding the list in retaliation for sanctions.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said he spoke with the foreign minister from the Republic of Guinea, Morissanda Kouyaté, on Friday about ways to strengthen “cooperation in trade, education, and international organisations” between the two countries.

The total number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began last February is nearing 500,000, the New York Times reports, citing US officials.

The officials told the Times that Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000. The number includes as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injured troops. The officials said figures on the Ukrainian side were at close to 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded.

Estimates put the number of Ukrainian troops at about 500,000, including active-duty, reserve and paramilitary troops. Russia has almost three times that figure, with 1,330,000 active duty, reserve and paramilitary troops.

Canada is imposing sanctions on 15 Russian individuals and three entities in what Ottawa said was a response to rising levels of human rights violations and violence faced by political opponents and critics in Russia, Reuters reports, citing the foreign ministry.

The sanctioned individuals and entities are senior officials of the Russian government, judiciary and investigative committee, as well as federally funded courts, the ministry said in a statement.

A senior Moldovan official has called Russia’s decision to deny entry of officials from the country regrettable, Reuters reports.

“This is not the first time the Russian authorities have resorted to such measures,” said Igor Zakharov, a communications adviser to Moldova’s foreign minister.

“The Republic of Moldova is determined to resist destabilising actions,” he added.

Russia banned entry to several Moldovan officials after Moldova’s “unfriendly” decision to expel 22 Russian diplomats, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

The Washington Post is reporting that Polish authorities believe that Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, was recruiting people in online job ads to disrupt shipments of weapons to Ukraine that were passing through the country.

From the report:

The cryptic job listings began appearing online early this year.

The tasks were menial — posting fliers or hanging signs in public spaces — and the pay meager. But for a handful of refugees from eastern Ukraine, the promise of quick cash was too good to pass up.

Respondents soon realized there was a catch: The jobs involved distributing pro-Russian propaganda on behalf of an anonymous employer. For those willing to complete the assignments anyway, the work then took a more ominous turn.

Within weeks, recruits were tasked with scouting Polish seaports, placing cameras along railways and hiding tracking devices in military cargo, according to Polish investigators. Then, in March, came startling new orders to derail trains carrying weapons to Ukraine.

The Russian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Though the threat was eliminated, an investigator told the Washington Post that a “broader threat remained. Russia’s spy services remained active in Poland, he said, and “will try to eliminate the mistakes they made”.

Here are some of the latest images of Ukraine coming in from the agencies:

View image in fullscreen

View image in fullscreen

View image in fullscreen

View image in fullscreen

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, affirmed at a press conference today the US’s position on continuing to support Ukraine.

“We’re doing everything we can to support Ukraine, and its counteroffensive,” he said. “We’re not going to handicap the outcome. We’re not going to predict what’s going to happen because this war has been inherently unpredictable. That’s all I can say today other than I believe and have confidence in the capacity, and especially the bravery, of Ukrainian fighters to continue to make progress on the battlefield.”

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said on Friday that Ukrainian pilot training on F-16s will be followed by a transfer of jets to the country.

Speaking a press conference, Sullivan said: “What we did this week is formalised through a letter from Secretary Blinken to his counterparts in Europe, that upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third party transfer of F 16 aircraft to Ukraine.”

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said he spoke with his Senegalese counterpart Aïssata Tall Sall on Friday about “enhancing the bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Senegal.”

Reuters has more detail on the news that Russia has banned a number of Moldovan officials from entering the country.

Russia has banned entry to several Moldovan officials after Moldova’s “unfriendly” decision to expel 22 Russian diplomats, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

Moldova’s pro-European president, Maia Sandu, has denounced Russia’s invasion and accused Moscow of trying to destabilise her own country.

Twenty-two Russian diplomats flew out of the Moldovan capital, Chișinău, on 14 August, leaving behind a skeleton staff.

“This unfriendly step leads to the further destruction of Russian-Moldovan relations, which are already in a deep crisis due to the actions of the Moldovan side,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement after summoning Chișinău’s ambassador to Moscow to express its disapproval.

The envoy was informed that “as an asymmetric response, entry into the Russian Federation was closed to a number of officials of the Republic of Moldova”, the ministry said.

It did not identify the Moldovan officials affected by the ban or say how many they were.

Ukraine’s state emergency services has released images from Kherson after they claim an attack on Friday led to a fire in a residential building in the region.