TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine said its forces recaptured 37 square kilometers from Russian forces last week. "Over the past week ... the area liberated (in the east) was increased by nine square kilometers," Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said, adding that Ukrainian forces had wrested another 28 square kilometers in the south.

• Ukraine said Russian troops were advancing in four areas in the east of the country amid "fierce fighting." Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said that Russian troops were advancing near Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman and Svatove. "Fierce fighting is going on everywhere," Maliar wrote on social media, adding: "The situation is quite complicated."

• Russia's FSB security service has thwarted an attack on the Moscow-installed head of the Crimean peninsula, and arrested a suspect, Russian news agencies reported. "An assassination attempt organized by Ukraine's special services targeting the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, was foiled," Russian state-run agency TASS reported, citing an FSB statement. 

• Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, Head of the International Committee in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, said. 

• Ukraine said the opening of a new international prosecution office in The Hague will hold Moscow's leadership accountable for the war crime of aggression. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin said the opening of the center was a "clear signal that the world is united and unwavering on the path to holding the Russian regime accountable for all its crimes."

• There is no need for further mobilization in Russia to replace Wagner troops who have left the battlefield in Ukraine after a short-lived mutiny, state media said, quoting a defense official.

• A Ukrainian writer and war crimes investigator wounded in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant last week has died, the freedom of expression group PEN said. Victoria Amelina, 37, was wounded when a Russian missile destroyed the Ria Pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on June 27, killing 12 people, including children, and wounding dozens.

• Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president, has warned that Moscow's confrontation with the West will last decades and that its conflict with Ukraine could become permanent.

IN DETAIL

Moscow says 700,000 children from Ukraine now in Russia

Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, said Grigory Karasin, Head of the International Committee in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.

"In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine," Karasin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

Moscow says its program of bringing children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported and the United States says thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes.

Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the conflict and before Ukraine started its major counter offensive to regain occupied territories in the east and south in late August.

In July 2022, the U.S. estimated that Russia "forcibly deported" 260,000 children, while Ukraine's Ministry of Integration of Occupied Territories, says 19,492 Ukrainian children are currently considered illegally deported.

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