Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s forces in glide bomb attack as Zelensky wants Trump-proof support for Kyiv

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting the US to present his “victory plan” to US president Joe Biden, aiming to secure further military support and diplomatic efforts against Russia.

Mr Zelensky will also address Congress and meet with vice president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

“This fall will determine the future of this war,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X.

Following his Washington meetings, he will attend the UN General Assembly in New York as well aimed at rallying support for Kyiv.

Gamers and cyber experts will be fast-tracked into the country’s online defence forces to help thwart the threat posed by Vladimir Putin, Defence Secretary John Healey said.

The new “cyber track” will have different selection and basic training requirements to other branches of the armed services.

The Sun on Sunday revealed that suspected Russian actors have been caught trying to hack into Britain’s core defence structure 90,000 times over the past two years.

“We will remove unnecessary barriers and fast-track bright candidates into cyber defence to help face down Putin’s online aggression,” Mr Healey said.

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At least 16 civilians, including a 15-year-old boy, were injured in Russian airstrikes on Zaporizhzhia late Sunday, according to the Ukrainian interior ministry.

The strikes reportedly involved KAB guided aerial bombs, causing damage to several apartment buildings, Reuters reported.

Zaporizhzhia governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that Russia conducted a total of 363 air and ground strikes across 12 settlements in the region within a day.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians, though the war has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, predominantly among Ukrainians.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition leader, who was reunited with his family in London following his release from a Siberian prison as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the West, said that Putin’s regime will collapse without warning.

Mr Kara-Murza, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, had been jailed on political charges and was allegedly poisoned twice. He told The Guardian: “That’s how things happen in Russia. Both the Romanov empire in the early 20th century, and the Soviet regime at the end of the 20th century collapsed in three days. That’s not a metaphor, it was literally three days in both cases.”

He believes that Western leaders, besides the Russians, need to take collective responsibility who “for all these years were buying gas from Putin, inviting him to international summits, rolling out red carpets”.

“These guys keep meticulous records. When the end comes – and it will – the archives will open, we will find out about Trump and Marine Le Pen and your British guys too.”

Earlier, he told The Independent: “Even if Vladimir Putin kills all of us, the current leaders of the opposition, others will come in our place.”

He said: “Others from the younger generation. The people who turned out in the tens of thousands for the funeral procession of Alexei Navalny in Moscow earlier this year. People who have been leaving these flowers at makeshift memorials all over the country. They will come and take our place to find a democratic Russia, even when none of us are there.”

A new poll has revealed that half of Russians now want their soldiers to return home from Ukraine.

Despite the Kremlin’s pro-war propaganda, recent setbacks, including Ukraine’s counter-offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, have shaken public morale, the survey revealed.

The poll, conducted by independent Russian pollster Chronicles, shows a 9 per cent increase since January in those supporting peace talks, with 49 per cent now favouring withdrawal, according to Newsweek.

Aleksei Miniailo, a Russian opposition politician and co-founder of Chronicles told the outlet: “The longer the war drags on, the less people have faith that it will end in a beneficial way for them and for Russia.

“The Ukrainian invasion into the Kursk region was a shocking thing for many and decreased the number of those who want to fight till the goals (of the war) are reached.”

This comes amid reports of significant Russian casualties, with around 70,000 soldiers killed and 600,000 wounded in the war.

Russia intensified its aerial assault on Ukraine, dropping over 900 glide bombs, 400 Shahed drones, and nearly 30 missiles this week, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

A barrage on Friday left at least 15 people injured in Kharkiv, including children, while bombs struck apartment buildings on Saturday, wounding 21 people, among them an eight-year-old child.

According to The Telegraph, the bombs, particularly KAB-type aerial glide bombs, were used in both instances.

Ukraine has struggled to counter these bombs and continues to request long-range missiles from Western allies to strike Russian territory, though restrictions are still in place.

“There are no words to describe the aftermath of a glide bomb attack,” Vovchansk police chief Oleksii Kharkivsky said in May. “You arrive to see people who are lying there, torn apart.”

At a high-profile UN summit in New York, Russia was isolated after attempting to derail a proposed “Pact for the Future” to revive the UN and address multilateralism.

Russia called for the deferral of the pact, arguing it favoured Western interests and interfered with national sovereignty.

However, the motion was rejected by a large majority — 143 votes to 7 — with only limited support from allies like Belarus, Venezuela, and Syria.

Russia’s objections targeted issues like sexual and reproductive health rights and gender empowerment.

Despite Russia’s opposition, the pact, seen as crucial by the global south and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, seeks to reform multilateral cooperation, including the UN Security Council, financial institutions, and handling of modern crises like AI and climate change.

Mr Guterres told the summit that the pact’s aim was “to bring multilateralism back from the brink at a time when the world [is] heading off the rails”.

In a surprise speech on the main stage, Ukrainian ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi thanked the government for their support.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary for their commitment to the Ukrainian people,” he said.

“The Labour Party has a long history of opposing fascism and terrorism.”

“It was [Labour wartime minister Ernest] Bevin who understood the importance of strength... Bevin’s legacy includes the founding of NATO, the cornerstone of European security.

“He would have understood the urgent need for Ukraine’s fast-track membership of Nato as a necessity that should be recognised.”

Two female mine workers were found dead after a Russian strike in the Donetsk region caused a fire.

One more person was taken to hospital following the strike, which forced 371 workers to evacuate.

The fire was above the mine and did not enter go underground, the ministry noted according to Ukrainian Pravda.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry did not specify the location of the attack but the Governor of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, said early on Sunday that two people had been killed and one injured in Udachne, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The village of Udachne, 12 kilometres west of Pokrovsk - one of the main battlegrounds in recent weeks - is home to one of the largest coal mines in Ukraine.