TOP HEADLINES

• The Ukrainian army said it had regained control of the symbolic Snake Island in the Black Sea, after raising its flag there this week following the withdrawal of Russian forces. "We have effectively reestablished our control over Snake Island," a senior Ukraine military official said. The Russian defense ministry meanwhile said it had carried out "precision" missile strikes on the island early on Thursday, killing Ukrainian soldiers and forcing survivors to flee. READ MORE BELOW

• At least seven civilians have been killed and two others injured in Russian strikes in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram. 

• Evacuations from the flashpoint eastern city of Sloviansk continue as Russian forces carry on with their relentless offensive in the Donbas region. Sloviansk mayor Vadym Lyakh says 23,000 people out of a pre-war population of 110,000 have yet to leave but that people are being bussed out every day.

• A disputed Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying grain Kyiv alleges was stolen from Ukraine has returned to Russian territorial waters, a Turkish source said. The Zhibek Zholy appeared to still be loaded, said the official, contradicting a Russian media report suggesting the ship's crew intended to offload the grain to another vessel before returning.

• Russian lawmakers approved legislation to create a patriotic youth movement in a move reminiscent of Soviet-era youth organizations. President Vladimir Putin will be asked to head the supervisory board of the movement which will seek to streamline and champion government efforts to enhance patriotic and Russian values among children and the youth. READ MORE BELOW

• The Kremlin said it hoped that "more professional people" would come to power in Britain after Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative party leader. "We would like to hope that some day in Great Britain more professional people who can make decisions through dialogue will come to power," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "But at the moment there is little hope for that." 

• Ukraine expects Britain's support to continue despite the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said, thanking Johnson for defending Ukraine's interests after Russia's offensive. "We all heard this news (of Johnson's resignation) with sadness. Not only me, but also the entire Ukrainian society, which is very sympathetic to you," Zelenskyy's office said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by phone. 

• U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges in a Russian court but denied intending to break the law in a case that has further inflamed tensions between Moscow and Washington. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion, detained days before Russia sent troops to Ukraine, faces up to a decade behind bars for bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil into the country.

• Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin visited Borodyanka and Bucha outside Kyiv. "In the 21st century, to see such evil - very, very difficult to comprehend," he said before talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

• The UN Security Council has failed in its response to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, describing Moscow's role as "morally bankrupt." Ardern, who has long argued against the Security Council veto powers held by the five permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S., reiterated her call for reform of the body.

IN DETAIL

Snake Island hit by a Russian warplane

Russia's defense ministry said a Russian warplane struck and killed an unspecified number of Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in the Black Sea on Thursday after they landed there to raise the Ukrainian flag.

"At about 5 a.m., several Ukrainian servicemen landed on the island from a motor boat and took pictures with the flag. An aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces immediately launched a strike with high-precision missiles on Snake Island, as a result of which part of the Ukrainian military personnel was destroyed," Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian President's chief of staff, earlier posted a video on Telegram of three soldiers raising a large Ukrainian flag on the island, from which Russian forces withdrew on June 30 after coming under heavy bombardment from Ukrainian artillery.

The tiny island, captured by Russia from Ukraine at the start of the conflict in February, is strategically important because of its proximity to sea lanes close to Ukraine's port of Odesa.

Russia said it had pulled out from Snake Island last week as a "gesture of goodwill" to show it was not obstructing United Nations attempts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grain to be shipped from Ukraine.

Ukraine said it had driven the Russian forces out after an artillery and missile assault.

Teaching 'patriotism, civil responsibility and respect for adults'

Russian lawmakers approved legislation to create a patriotic youth movement in a move reminiscent of Soviet-era youth organizations.  

President Vladimir Putin will be asked to head the supervisory board of the movement which will seek to streamline and champion government efforts to enhance patriotic and Russian values among children and the youth.

In the USSR, children were taught Soviet values through three main youth organizations - the Little Octobrists, Young Pioneers, and the Komsomol.

Authors of the legislation, which was approved on its third and final reading on Wednesday, appear to have been inspired by the youth organizations of the Soviet era.

"An all-Russian movement of children and adolescents is being created," parliament's lower house, the State Duma, said in a statement, adding that its members will themselves pick a name for it.

The organization will be open to all children from the age of six and  financed by the state. Regional governors are expected to be closely involved in its work. 

Participation in the movement will be on a voluntary basis. 

The government will hand over to the organization youth camps and various education facilities to "facilitate the development of the child," said 28-year-old Aryom Metelev, who chairs the committee on youth policies at the State Duma.

"The state must create conditions that contribute to the comprehensive spiritual, moral, intellectual and physical development of children, to the learning of patriotism, civil responsibility and respect for adults," the authors said.