Russia-Ukraine war live: shelling hits Pokrovsk city near Donetsk frontline

Hello, we resume the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine with these developments:

Russian shelling hit the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk overnight, with at least three civilians reportedly injured. Photographs from the Getty agency showed firefighters working to extinguish the burning wreckage of a building in Pokrovsk, which is near the frontline in Donetsk.

Reports online this morning citing Russian media said Ukrainian drones or missiles blew up a warehouse for Shahed drones in Bryansk, Russia, on Wednesday night. Social media footage showed an explosion claimed to be in the area.

used Patriot air defence missiles to destroy three Russian Mi-8 helicopters, an Su-34 bomber and an Su-35 bomber, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Col Yuriy Ignat has told a local news outlet . The “brilliant operation” took place in May, Ignat said. It was reported in Russia media at the time.

Ukraine said it had killed five high-ranking Russian officials in a strike on a building in an occupied part of Kherson. The armed forces said the strike targeted a meeting in the village of Yuvileyne following “information provided by the underground and concerned local residents”.

Russia is ramping up its attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said. Russia had “doubled its artillery fire and airstrikes” and had also “intensified ground infantry attacks”.

Russia is also likely to have begun using more 500kg cluster bombs in Donetsk, according to the British intelligence, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. The bombs eject 100-350 smaller bombs over a wide area.

Russian forces claimed to have taken control of the village of Khromove in the same region. The village is on the western edge of Bakhmut, a city that fell to Russia over summer after a months-long battle and which remains the scene of heavy fighting.

Russian casualties since the beginning of the war stand at 327,580, according to the Ukrainian military. In its latest daily update, Ukraine’s general staff said the figure had increased by 1,140.

The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned that the bloc must not underestimate Russia and its ability to continue fighting the war in Ukraine. “Russia’s economy is on a war footing, Putin has a high tolerance for casualties, and Russian aims in Ukraine have not changed,” he said.

The European Union has delivered about 300,000 of the 1m shells it has promised to Ukraine, the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said. Kuleba said the demands of Ukraine’s war effort meant there was a need for greater alignment of Ukrainian and Nato arms production and to create “a Euro-Atlantic common area” of defence industries.

Kuleba said, however, that Ukraine has seen no sign that its Nato allies are tiring of the war or of providing it with support. “I heard a clear ‘No’ to any reference to fatigue, and I heard [a] clear ‘Yes’ to increased support to Ukraine ... They understand that in order for them to feel safe, in order for them not to end up in a situation where Nato’s soldiers will have to fight, Ukraine has to win in this war.”

Russia has failed in its bid to be re-elected to the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. In a vote of the member states, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland were elected to fill three seats from the eastern Europe bloc for the 2024-2026 term.