Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian oil depots hit after Putin launches ballistic missile attack on Kyiv – UK Times

Russian president Vladimir Putin met with North Korea’s foreign minister and thanked Pyongyang for supporting his war against Ukraine, in the latest high-level diplomacy between the countries, Russian state media reported.

The visit by North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui comes without an obvious occasion, such as a multilateral diplomatic event or state anniversary, and has raised speculation that she may be coordinating a possible visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korean state media said Choe departed for Russia on Saturday at the invitation of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov but has yet to comment on the purpose of her visit.

Yoon Min Ho, spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs related to North Korea, said Monday that Seoul was closely monitoring the meetings but declined to assess whether Moscow and Pyongyang were discussing another summit between their leaders.

Russia’s Tass news agency said Putin during his meeting with Choe at the Kremlin on Sunday praised the countries’ bilateral relations and reiterated his “gratitude to the North Korean leadership and people” for supporting his military operations against Ukraine.

Choe told Putin that Kim remains committed to the “comprehensive development” of relations with Russia, Tass said.

The incoming prime minister Andy Burnham has little foreign policy experience, but has promised to continue the government’s Nato commitment and support for the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

He said Britain will remain a strong booster of Ukraine and a firm United States ally.

Relations with the US could depend on how he interacts with a capricious president Donald Trump, who initially gave Keir Starmer glowing reviews only to sour on him for not supporting his war with Iran.

Burnham has publicly criticised Trump in the past but has said he would deal with him respectfully, as he does with others, but would also be willing to disagree.

“I like to think I’ve got some personality myself and I’ll just, you know, I’ll deal with him very upfront in the same way,” he told Lineker.

“Where you disagree, do it, but do it in a way that is kind of meeting him where he’s at.”

Trump has pushed Nato members to significantly boost military spending, and Burnham will be under pressure to exceed the defense spending goals set out by Sir Keir.

A strike on two oil tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal off Russia’s Black Sea coast halted oil loadings at the site, the CPC said on Sunday.

The attack on the Asia and Nissos tankers in the port of Novorossiysk sparked a fire aboard the ASIA, which was extinguished.

The company did not say who was responsible for the attack.

It added there were no casualties or oil spills, and the tankers — sailing under the flags of Liberia and the Marshall Islands respectively — remained afloat.

Both Russia and Ukraine have sharply ramped up strikes on ships in the Black and Azov seas over the past week.

Ukraine says it targets Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which ships oil in violation of international sanctions over the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbour.

Kyiv has for months been targeting Russia’s oil industry, which it says both directly fuels Moscow’s war effort and funds it through export revenues, triggering acute fuel shortages in a country that is one of the world’s top oil producers.

The CPC is a 940-mile oil pipeline ​connecting Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil ​deposits ⁠with Novorossiysk, where the oil is loaded and shipped by tanker to world markets.

The pipeline accounts for about 80 per cent of oil-rich Kazakhstan’s crude exports, with the Russian government and Russian state oil firms holding a combined 31 per cent stake in the enterprise.

Russian forces have launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine thus far in July than Russia reportedly produces each month, according to a US-based think tank monitoring the war.

“Ukrainian defence source Militarnyi reported on 19 July that Russia used up to two-thirds of its planned annual production of Zirkon missiles in July 2026 alone and that Russia launched more ballistic missiles in July than Russia’s reported total monthly production volume,” the Institute for the Study of War said.

Citing the Ukrainian Air Force reports for July, ISW said the attacks indicate that Russia has launched 107 ballistic missiles and 20 Zirkon missiles against Ukraine in July thus far.

“Militarny cited unspecified Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) reports indicating that Russia produces about 60 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 40 missiles for the S-400 complex monthly. Russia appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles,” it said.

“Russian forces have simultaneously decreased the number of drones they launch in each overnight package, launching 2,955 thus far in July 2026 compared to 5,749 in June 2026,” the ISW said.

Russian forces have captured the settlement of Vilne in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.

Officials in Kyiv have not issued a response to Russia’s claims but analysts monitoring the war have said the statement from defence ministry is false as Russian forces have not made any confirmed advances.

“Russian forces continued limited offensive operations in the Oleksandrivka direction on 18 and 19 July but did not make confirmed advances,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.

“ISW assesses that the Russian MoD’s claim is part of Russia’s ongoing cognitive warfare effort to signal battlefield success contrary to all available evidence,” the think tank said.

Russia battered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday with one of its biggest ballistic missile barrages of the war, killing at least one person and ⁠wounding 16 others, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

A series of powerful explosions thundered across the darkened city in an attack that involved 41 missiles of various types, the air force said, ravaging buildings across several districts and sparking fires.

Residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket and a dormitory were among the structures damaged, said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, adding that three people were in ⁠a serious condition.

Separately on Sunday, four people were killed and 19 wounded in a strike on a postal depot outside the northeastern city of Kharkiv near the Russian border, the regional governor said.

At one location in western Kyiv, emergency workers picked through smouldering debris ⁠and doused bombed-out apartments.

Ukrainian officials said a strike by Russian forces targeted an international cargo vessel in the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, killing at least five crew members.

The Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship had left port loaded with corn and was carrying a crew of 17 sailors from India and Syria, in addition to one Ukrainian, said prime minister Sergii Koretskyi.

Eight crew members were rescued from the vessel — which was still burning late ⁠on Sunday — and five remain missing, he added.

“A civilian ship. An international crew. A route serving global food security. Putin saw another target,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.

“This attack leaves no room for illusions. ‌Putin’s Russia does not care whom it ​kills,” he said.

A Reuters witness in Odesa saw smoke billowing from a large vessel off the coast.

Moscow has not publicly commented on Sunday’s strike.

Russia has stepped up attacks in recent weeks on deepwater ports in southern Ukraine that handle much of the country’s grain and other critical cargo in the fifth year of war.

The West has long assumed pressure would force Russia to moderate or collapse. Both assumptions misunderstand how the Kremlin responds to weakness, says senior policy adviser Dan Sleat.

In a military cemetery in Kyiv, a brother and sister walk between the crosses, carrying a bunch of carnations. Each cross in that section bears the same words: “unknown defender of Ukraine,” with an ID number below and a note that identification is ongoing.

One grave stands out: beneath the inscription, a photo was later attached, showing Ihor Yalynych, a soldier last seen alive in Kharkiv region in 2022. After four years of searching, Stanislav and Oleksandra Yalynych found their father.

Identification of the dead is a reckoning that will stretch on for years, among the longest-lasting wounds of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some graves may remain nameless forever, with the families left to wait.

For most of the war, there was nowhere to bury the unidentified dead. The bodies lay in refrigerated storage while the national military cemetery was still being built. Even before the cemetery was completed in January, the first group of the unknown soldiers were laid to rest in August. More than 300 now lie beneath numbered crosses, with more graves being dug.