Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Blow for Putin’s forces as Crimea airfield hit

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters that “things look good” for Group of Seven wealthy democracies to agree the terms of a $50bn loan to Ukraine backed by Russian assets by October.

Ms Yellen said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 finance leaders meeting in Brazil that talks to advance the loan were constructive, including over US demands for reassurances that the assets would stay frozen for a longer period of time.

“We’ve had constructive conversations here. And we’re working closely together to try to move this forward,” Ms Yellen said. “I think things look good in terms of getting to a place where we can get this done probably by October.”

The $50bn loan, agreed in principle by G7 leaders in June, would be serviced with proceeds generated by some $300bn of Russian central bank assets frozen in the West after Moscow invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

While there is not unanimous support among the G7 to fully confiscate the $300 bn of capital, the bloc agrees that it is legally possible to siphon off the profits that the assets are generating.

Ukraine said on Friday that its missile forces struck a Russian military airfield in Crimea that has been used for attacks against it.

Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Crimea in recent months and says the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet, headquartered in Sevastopol, has been forced to move its combat vessels to safer harbours elsewhere.

The Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a statement that Russia’s Saky airfield in western Crimea was the latest target to be struck and that it was assessing the aftermath.

“This is one of the operational airfields that Russia uses to control the airspace, in particular the Black Sea, and for launching airstrikes on Ukrainian territory,” it said.

The statement did not say which weapon was used, only that the attack was carried out by Ukraine’s missile forces. There was no immediate comment from Russia’s defence ministry or local officials.

President Volodymyr Zelensky implicitly acknowledged the strike in his nightly video address, commending “our soldiers who are striking Russian bases and logistics on occupied territory”.

“To our guys, our soldiers, I thank you for your accuracy,” he said.

Russian air defences intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones in the space of an hour late on Friday over southern Russia’s border region of Bryansk, the regional governor said.

“Thanks to our valiant defenders, all airborne targets were intercepted and destroyed,” governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

There were no casualties or serious damage reported.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, also on Ukraine’s border further to the southeast, said three drone attacks and a number of shelling incidents had smashed windows and caused some other damage to buildings.

Ukrainian forces have regularly attacked Russian border regions, particularly Belgorod, in a bid to reduce Russian strikes on targets inside Ukraine’s border.

The attacks prompted the Kremlin to launch a cross-border incursion into the Kharkiv region in May, with Russian military officials saying they seized a number of settlements. Ukrainian officials say the situation there has stabilised.

Gladkov and other officials restricted access this week to parts of Belgorod region to guard against Ukrainian attacks.

The Kremlin on Friday welcomed Donald Trump’s comments on Russia being “a war machine” that had defeated Napoleon and Hitler, but said it was not wearing rose-tinted spectacles when it came to the U.S. Republican presidential candidate.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about comments Trump said he had made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call on July 19.

Trump told Fox News later that he had told Zelenskiy that the war needed to be brought to an end.

“This is a war machine you’re facing. That’s what they (the Russians) do they fight wars. They beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. We got to get this war over with,” said Trump.

Commenting on Trump’s remarks, Peskov said: “It will probably be useful for most of the American audience to know that there are many glorious pages in the history of Russia, and indeed, probably few people in the U.S., we mean ordinary Americans, and maybe representatives of the so-called political establishment, know history in such depth.”

Saboteurs have launched a “malicious” arson attack on France’s rail networks just hours before the start of the Paris Olympic Games.

Eurostar customers have been told to cancel their trips where possible after “coordinated” vandalism caused disruption to high speed rail routes into the French capital on Friday.

The rail operator, which runs international services from London St Pancras, said on Friday several trains to Paris had been cancelled and others were diverted or subject to delays because of the ongoing issues over the Channel.