Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Russian forces utilized ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in a lethal attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. According to the Metinvest steel company, the strike resulted in the deaths of seven civilian workers at its plant, with an additional 21 people sustaining injuries. Further violence occurred in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian artillery and drone strikes claimed the lives of three more civilians, including a 15-year-old boy. Across the country, Russian forces deployed a combination of drones, glide bombs, and missiles on Tuesday, with one strike hitting the grounds of a children’s hospital, causing two craters but resulting in no casualties.
As the conflict reaches its 1,631st day, the Ukrainian military general staff confirmed that its forces successfully struck an oil refinery in Orsk, located in Russia’s Orenburg region near the Kazakhstan border. The facility, situated approximately 1,500km (930 miles) from Ukraine, processes roughly 44 million barrels of crude oil annually. Additionally, the Russian retailer Wildberries reported that its logistical facilities in the Voronezh region, near the Ukrainian border, were hit and set ablaze. In the Black Sea, the Romanian defence ministry announced that its navy destroyed two suspected Russian Gerbera-type drones drifting about 90 nautical miles from the port of Constanta, noting that Ukrainian officials denied the devices belonged to them.
Zelenskyy warned that Russia is actively exploiting a critical shortage of Patriot air defence interceptors in Ukraine. He stated that Moscow is ramping up production of ballistic missiles and integrating North Korean equipment to prepare for a new frontline push. There are reports that North Korea may be preparing to send as many as 50,000 troops to support Russia. Zelenskyy suggested that Russia intends to use its upcoming parliamentary elections in September as a pretext for a major mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and conscripts by the end of the year, followed by similar numbers in the next. Notably, Russia’s supreme court has banned the Yabloko party, the only registered political party opposing the war, from participating in the vote.
The human cost of the occupation remains severe, with the United Nations estimating that more than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia are still being held, often incommunicado and in violation of international law. Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN assistant secretary general for human rights, stated that widespread torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence against both prisoners of war and civilian detainees continue unabated.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence suggested Russia would use its “pseudo-election” in September as a pretext to declare a new mobilisation. Mobilisation involves the use of reservists and conscripts, which in 2022 led to protests in Russia such as recruiting offices being set on fire. “They are preparing for mobilisation in the autumn, immediately after the imitation of parliamentary elections,” Zelenskyy said as part of a plan to “create the appearance that Russians supposedly support the war”. Russia’s supreme court on Monday barred the Yabloko party, the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow’s war in Ukraine, from competing in the election. Zelenskyy continued: “Then, following the so-called election, he plans an additional rapid mobilisation of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year, plus another similar number next year.”
