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Russia-Ukraine war update: what we know on day 140 of the invasion

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Ukrainian rockets hit Russian-held town in Kherson; death toll in Chasiv Yar, eastern Ukraine, rises to at least 45

Rescuers search for victims buried under the rubble in destroyed apartment building in Chasovoy Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on July 12.
Rescuers search for victims buried under the rubble in destroyed apartment building in Chasovoy Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on July 12. Photograph: Anastasia Vlasova/The Guardian

  • The death toll from a weekend Russian missile attack on a residential apartment block in Chasiv Yar, eastern Ukraine, rose to at least 45 on Tuesday. Saturday’s strike destroyed the five-storey building and damaged several others in the Donetsk region city. Nine people had been pulled out alive as the rescue operation continued.

  • At least seven people were reportedly killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on a large ammunition store in the town of Nova Kakhovka, in Russia-occupied Kherson, in a strike attributed to recently acquired US weapons. The explosion hit a warehouse close to a key railway line and a dam on the Dnieper river. Footage on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night, burning ammunition and billowing smoke.

  • Russia has reportedly heavily shelled the eastern town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region overnight in response to the Nova Kakhovka strike. Kyiv Independent reporter Illia Ponomarenko tweeted alongside footage purportedly of the assault: “Meanwhile, Russia responds by sweeping Bakhmut off the earth with artillery in the night.”

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says Russia “doesn’t have the courage” to admit defeat. In a nationally televised address, Zelenskiy also mocked the Russian military’s apparent reliance on ageing weapons and Soviet-era tactics, and insisted the unity of his country’s citizenry, combined with the strength of Ukraine’s armed forces, meant the outcome of the war was “certain”.

  • Grain shipments via the Danube river have increased with the reopening of the Bystre canal. The number of foreign ships reaching Ukraine ports to help with grain exports has doubled to 16 within the last 24 hours, according to Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister Yuriy Vaskov. Ukraine has restored long-decommissioned ports to facilitate the exportation of grain due to Russia’s Black Sea blockade, and expects to increase monthly exports to 500,000 tonnes.

  • The US treasury announced on Tuesday it was sending an additional $1.7bn (£1.4bn) in economic aid to Ukraine to fund “essential services”. European foreign ministers late on Monday approved €1bn (£850m) in aid, the first instalment of a €9bn rescue package agreed in May.

  • The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is set to visit Tehran next week to hold talks with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The meeting comes as the US has accused Iran of preparing to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine.

  • Military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey will meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible deal to resume safe exports of Ukraine grain from the major Black Sea port of Odesa as a global food crisis worsens.

  • The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February, adding that the real toll was probably much higher.

  • The European Union has so far frozen €13.8bn (£11.7bn) worth of assets held by Russian oligarchs, other individuals and entities sanctioned for Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the EU’s top justice official said on Tuesday.

  • Russia has launched a criminal case against one of the last opposition figures remaining in the country, for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Ilya Yashin, 39, a Moscow city councillor, was sentenced to 15 days in jail last month for disobeying police. He had been set to be released in the early hours of Wednesday.

  • The appeals over the death sentences of captured Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saaudun Brahim will be dealt with within a month, an official from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said. The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said she “utterly condemns” the sentencing, stating: “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”

  • Brazil is looking to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia and the deals closed “as recently as yesterday”, the Brazilian foreign minister Carlos Franca said on Tuesday, without giving further details.

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