Russia-Ukraine war: All eyes on Donbas battle, 10 injured in Kyiv missile attack, and more

The “Battle of Donbas” remains Russia’s main strategic focus in Ukraine, Britain’s defence minry said on Friday, but it has suffered significant losses for limited territorial gains.

Moscow regards winning the “Battle for Donbas” as crucial if it is to achieve its stated aim of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Britain’s defence minry said. “Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” the minry said on Twitter.
UN head condemns attacks on civilians during Ukraine visit
The head of the United Nations said Ukraine has become “an epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain” — a description underscored a short time later the first Russian strike on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago. The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who toured some of the destruction in and around Kyiv and condemned the attacks on civilians.
10 injured in Kyiv missile attack
Ukrainian emergency services said 10 people were wounded when a Russian missile hit a 25-story apartment building in Kyiv on Thursday evening and set off a fire, which partially destroyed the first and second floors.

Reuters witnesses heard two explosions, but their cause could not be independently verified. There was no Russian comment on the blasts.
Here are the key updates on the war and its impact across the world.
➡️ Ukraine has suffered serious losses in the war with Russia but Moscow’s forces have lost many more soldiers, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video posted online. “The enemy is increasing the pace of the offensive operation. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions,” Ukraine’s military command said.
➡️ Two powerful blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, two witnesses told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
➡️ Western countries are openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russia and the West should take Moscow seriously when it says strikes on Russian territory will lead to a response, Foreign Minry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
➡️ Russia is preventing wounded Ukrainian fighters from being evacuated from a vast steel works in Mariupol because it wants to capture them, the governor said.
➡️ The US mission to the OSCE said the Kremlin might attempt “sham referenda” in southern and eastern areas it had captured since the Feb. 24 invasion, using “a well-worn playbook that steals from hory’s darkest chapters”.
➡️ Nato is ready to maintain support for Ukraine for years in the war against Russia, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
➡️ The United States believes Russian intelligence was behind an April chemical attack on, Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian journal critical of the Kremlin, US news organisations reported.
➡️ The bodies of 1,150 civilians have been recovered in Ukraine’s Kyiv region since Russia’s invasion and 50-70% of them had bullet wounds from small arms, Kyiv police said.
➡️ Ukraine accused Russia of stealing grain in territory it has occupied. The Kremlin said it had no information on the matter.
(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press updates)