Ukraine updates: Kyiv says its troops pushing past Robotyne

Ukraine said a second civilian cargo ship had left the southern port of Odesa, despite warnings from Russia that vessels using Ukraine's Black Sea ports could be considered targets.

Kyiv announced the new maritime corridor earlier this month after Russia left the Black Sea grain deal, which aimed to ensure safe navigation for civilian grain shipments from Ukraine ports.

Russia threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets after pulling out of the deal last month. In response, Ukraine announced a "humanitarian corridor" hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.

"The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier PRIMUS of a Singaporean operator has left the port of Odesa," Ukraine's reconstruction ministry said, adding the ship was carrying steel products destined for Africa.

"This is the second vessel to use the temporary corridor for civilian vessels," it said.

A Hong Kong-flagged container ship stuck in Odesa port since the invasion travelled the route earlier this month without being fired upon.

Russia said it scrambled a fighter plane to deter a US air force reconnaissance drone from crossing its borders over the Black Sea.

"As the Russian fighter approached, the foreign reconnaissance UAV made a U-turn away from the state border of the Russian Federation," Russia's Defense Ministry said.

TASS news agency said the drone had not breached Russia's state border.

On Tuesday, Russia said that it dispatched two fighter jets to intercept two drones over the Black Sea, without specifying which countries had deployed them.

The Ukrainian army says it is continuing to advance after breaking through the Russian defense line near Robotyne, a settlement in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Their next objective is the nearby village of Novoprokopivka, said military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun.

The battlefield claims could not be independently verified. But military analysts agree that Robotyne was retaken after weeks of fighting and that Ukrainian forces are slowly pushing farther south.

Recapturing cities like Tokmak, and a farther advance on to Melitipol, would mark major wins in Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine eventually aims to advance to the Sea of Azov and cut off Russia's land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.

Russia's Investigation Committee has confirmed that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was among those who died in a plane crash in Russia earlier this week.

Investigators said that DNA results confirmed the identities of all ten people who died in the crash, which also included Wagner founder Dmitry Utkin.

The Wagner private paramilitary group was instrumental in Russia's capturing of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Prigozhin regularly criticized the Kremlin's management of the war, arguing that his forces had not received sufficient ammunition. In June, he led a rebellion against the Kremlin, but ordered his troops to stand down after several hours.

Russia reported a fresh series of drone attacks over Moscow and other regions on Saturday night.

Flights were again suspended temporarily at Moscow's Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo airports, reported the TASS news agency. Two other airports were also closed in southern regions that share a border with Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said an airborne drone was successfully intercepted by air defense systems over the Istra district in the Moscow region. The Istra district is situated approximately 50 km (31 miles) to the west of the Kremlin.

The governor of Belgorod — a region bordering Ukraine — Vyacheslav Gladkov, said air defenses shot down a drone near the village of Kupino. Another village Urazovo was attacked by shelling he added, injuring four people.

The Ministry of Defence said that around 9:45 p.m. Moscow time (1845 GMT), its air defense systems effectively neutralized an unmanned aerial vehicle over the Bryansk region, which also shares a border with Ukraine.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the region said the drone landed in a field and that no casualties had been reported. He also said that Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian border village of Kirillovka.

Ukraine has not responded to the claims and normally does not publicly acknowledge attacks carried out in Russia.

A 40-second snippet from an old interview featuring Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, has sparked a flurry of online speculation about his potential demise.

In the interview originally published on April 29, Prigozhin expressed his preference for death over deceiving his nation and discussed a plane disintegration mid-flight. He was speaking in an interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov.

"Today we have reached the boiling point. Why am I speaking so honestly? Because I don't have the right, before those people who will live on in this country. They are now being lied to. Better kill me" he said in the clip published on Grey Zone, Wagner's Telegram channel.

He added, "But I will not lie, I must say honestly that Russia is on the brink of disaster. And if these cogs are not adjusted today, then the plane will fall apart in the air."

Russia's aviation authority said Prighozin was killed on a private jet that crashed to the northwest of Moscow last Wednesday.

Many users of Grey Zone speculated that he was still alive. Some posts said the plane accident was the work of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Others blamed France or Ukraine. One post said Ukraine had killed Prigozhin by order of US special services "and the Anglo-Saxons" and added, "it is inconvenient for us to lose such a hero."

Ukraine is making preparations for additional call-ups of military personnel as the Russian invasion drags on.

Olexiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security Council told a national broadcaster on Saturday: "Yes, the military has approached us and there will probably be an additional call-up." 

He stressed that the measure had been in the works since the beginning of the full-scale invasion back in February 2022.

"There is no need to make noise about it, everything is going according to the plan we are currently following," he said. 

Following Moscow's invasion, Ukraine declared martial law, mandating all able-bodied men aged 18 to 60 to be ready for military service if required. However, certain individuals are exempt from service due to health concerns, social circumstances, or if they are single fathers.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar estimated last year that the number of men called for war to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Ukraine's military administration said Russia had launched a series of air strikes on Kyiv and other parts of the country on Sunday morning. Kyiv said its air defense systems were working to repel the attack. 

The Ukrainian military said it shot down four cruise missiles of up to eight total airborne targets detected, and the rest of the targets were "probably false." There were no reports of strikes. 

"Thanks to the professional work of the air defense forces, there were no strikes on critical or residential infrastructure," said the governor of Kyiv, Ruslan Kravchenko. He said two people had been injured and 10 buildings were damaged due to falling missile debris. 

"Enemy targets moving in the direction of Kyiv were destroyed by air defense forces," Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that cruise missiles were used in the attack. 

Ukraine Air Force said air raid sirens had rung out across the entire country for about three hours, until  6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT). 

Blasts were heard around Kyiv, said a Reuters witness, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commemorated the three pilots who were killed in a plane crash on Friday. 

They died after two L-39 trainer aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv, the air force said on Saturday.

"My heart goes out to the pilots' friends and loved ones. The investigation is ongoing, and the truth will be revealed," Zelenskyy said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The victims included well-known fighter pilot Andriy Pilshchykov, who was known for his contribution to the nation's air defense, especially during the early days of the invasion.

Ukraine has been aiming to quickly train up a number of its pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets that have been pledged by Western allies.

tg/ab (dpa, Reuters, AFP, AP)