Ukraine denies Russian claims that ‘massive missile strike’ killed 600 Ukrainian troops
A Russian claim that its forces carried out a “massive missile strike” killing 600 Ukrainian troops has been dismissed outright by Kyiv.
The Kremlin says an attack in Kramatorsk hit a temporary barracks with “over 700 Ukrainian military personnel in dormitory 28 and over 600 Ukrainian military personnel in dormitory 47”.
Russia says it has killed 600 Ukrainian troops – Ukraine war latest updates
“The Russian information is not true,” said Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukrainian Joint Forces.
“Russian army attacked Kramatorsk with seven missiles at 11.30pm yesterday. But it does not have any impact on the Ukrainian army.”
People look at the site of a missile strike that occurred during the night in Kramatorsk
Read more: Why Russia’s claim that air strike killed 600 is almost certainly a grotesque untruth
A Finnish journalist who visited the site of the alleged strike in Kramatorsk said it is unlikely it was a direct hit.
Antii Kuronen said: “I’m there and it’s a bit strange that the building isn’t even insulated. Locals didn’t see any ambulances here in the morning either.
“I heard the explosions last night when this target was also hit. Large crater (possibly S-300) in front of the school. No direct hit. Military contacts visited the place in the morning and according to them the school was empty.”
Reuters reporters also visited the two dormitories and found neither appeared to have been directly hit by missiles or seriously damaged.
The agency reported that there were no obvious signs that soldiers had been living there and no sign of bodies or traces of blood.
Reuters pictures from the scene in Kramatorsk show a large crater in front of a building that has no windows and shattered shop fronts.
Sky News international correspondent Alex Rossi, in Ukraine, says the view from the Ukrainian military is that this latest claim from the Kremlin is another act of Russian propaganda.
“Now whether it’s true or not, as far as the Russians concerned, doesn’t really matter.
“It’s insidious. It kind of claws into people’s consciousness.
“I think the fact remains, though, that all of the evidence and from what we have managed to glean from the area where it’s said to happen… reports that are coming now through on social media are suggesting that this attack didn’t really happen at all in the way that it has been shaped by the Russian Ministry of Defence.”
A man walks in front of a damaged building in Kramatorsk
The Russian Defence Ministry says the alleged strike was revenge for a deadly Ukrainian attack on a building in Makiivka on New Year’s Eve.
One of the biggest single losses of life for Russia during the war, it was blamed by some on mobile phone use by soldiers stationed in the building.
The death toll for that attack remains contested, with Moscow claiming that dozens died while Ukraine says the number was as high as 400.
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Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, officials said at least two people have been killed in fighting, with one dying in strikes on Bakhmut, with eight others hurt in the wider Donetsk region, and another killed in the Kharkiv region town of Merefa.
And with nighttime temperatures dropping to -17C (1F), Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said there was heavy fighting in the region and Russian forces had deployed their most combat-ready units and heavy equipment to the city of Kreminna that they occupy, which he said meant the Russians were slowly retreating.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
The Ukrainian suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines had served in Ukraine’s Secret Service and in the Ukrainian Army’s special forces, Sky News understand.
Serhii K., 49, was arrested in northern Italy on Thursday following the issuance of a European arrest warrant by German prosecutors.
It is not known whether he was still serving at the time of the pipeline attack in 2022 and Ukraine’s government has always denied any involvement in the explosions.
According to sources close to the case, the suspect has been found in a three-star bungalow hotel named La Pescaccia in San Clemente, in the province of Rimini.
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Man arrested over Nord Stream attacks
When military officers from Italy’s Carabinieri investigative and operational units raided his bedroom, he didn’t try to resist the arrest.
The hotel’s employees have been questioned, but no further evidence or any weapons were found, the sources added.
Serhii arrived on Italy’s Adriatic coast earlier this week, and the purpose of his trip was a holiday. He was found with his two children and his wife.
At least one of the four people within his family had a travel ticket issued in Poland. He crossed the Italian border with his car with a Ukrainian license plate last Tuesday.
He was travelling with his passport, and he used his real identity to check into the hotel, triggering an emergency alert on a police server, we have been told.
A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the Baltic Sea. File pic: Roscosmos via Reuters
After the arrest, he was taken to the Rimini police station before being moved to a prison in Bologna, the regional capital, on Friday.
Deputy Bologna Prosecutor Licia Scagliarini has granted the German judicial authorities’ requests for Serhii’s surrender, but Sky News understands the man told the appeal court that he doesn’t consent to being handed over to Germany.
He also denied the charges and said he was in Ukraine during the Nord Stream sabotage. He added that he is currently in Italy for family reasons.
While leaving the court, he was seen making a typical Ukrainian nationalist ‘trident’ gesture to the reporters.
The next hearing is scheduled for 3 September, when the Bologna appeal court is set to decide whether Serhii will be extradited to Germany or not. He will remain in jail until then.
In Germany, he will face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures.
German prosecutors believe he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Serhii and his accomplices are believed to have set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack.
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The explosions severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe. It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.
According to a US intelligence report leaked in 2023, a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack. Yet, no group has ever claimed responsibility.
Spare pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. File pic: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer
Sky News understands Genoa’s Prosecutor’s Office in northern Italy has requested their colleagues in Bologna to share the information related to Serhii.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating another alleged sabotage linked to the Russian shadow fleet oil tanker Seajewel, which sank off the port of Savona last February.
On Thursday, they asked an investigative police unit to figure out whether there is a link between that episode and the Nord Stream attacks.
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