Ukraine updates: African leaders to push Putin for peace

African leaders were due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in the northwestern Russian city of Saint Petersburg, a day after talks with their Ukrainian counterpart.

The African diplomatic team traveled to Kyiv on Friday to call for peace after their continent was hit hard by rising grain prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The leaders include South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who also currently heads the African Union.

"There should be peace through negotiations," Ramaphosa told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and quoted Nelson Mandela several times during a news conference that followed the talks.

The calls were rebuffed by Zelenskyy, however, who said that "to allow any negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our land is to freeze the war, to freeze pain and suffering."

The African leaders were forced to shelter when air raid sirens sounded across Kyiv due to the detection of incoming Russian missiles.

The Ukrainian Air Force later said it shot down 12 missiles, including six hypersonic ones.

While there was no reported damage inside the city, seven people, including two children were wounded, the regional police said. 

Kyiv: Ukrainian forces advancing in the south

Ukrainian troops are making good progress in southern sectors in their counteroffensive against Russian occupation troops, Ukrainian military officials said.

Deputy Ukrainian Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app that troops were "engaged in active moves to advance in several directions at once."

Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian troops in the southern Tavriia sector, said there had been 36 combat engagements and 578 attacks in the past 24 hours.

"The enemy's losses in killed and wounded amounted to more than four companies," he wrote on Telegram. A company typically consists of 100–250 soldiers.

Maliar also said Russian forces were trying to dislodge Ukrainian forces from established positions in the east of the country.

Ukrainian forces around the devastated city of Bakhmut, captured by Russia last month, were trying to push Russian forces out from the outskirts of the town.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of Ukrainian ground forces, earlier described the situation in the east as tense, with Russia bringing its best divisions into the Bakhmut sector with backup from artillery and aircraft.

"Every soldier, every new step we take, every meter of Ukrainian land freed from the enemy is of utmost importance," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky said in his nightly video message.

Russia has not officially acknowledged Ukrainian advances in the early stages of a counteroffensive and said it had inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv's forces in the previous 24 hours.

Kyiv said on Thursday it had regained control of about 100 square kilometers (38 square miles) of territory in just over a week of its counteroffensive.

UK: Moscow reinforces attack helicopter force

Russia has boosted its attack helicopter force since the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive, Britain's Defense Ministry said Saturday.

In its latest intelligence briefing, the ministry said Moscow had deployed an extra 20 military helicopters to the Berdyansk airport, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the frontline.

Britain said it was likely that Russia has gained a temporary advantage in southern Ukraine as its attack helicopters could launch longer-range missiles against Ukrainian ground targets.

Russia's Defense Ministry published several videos and pictures over recent days showing numerous strikes on Ukrainian-manned armored vehicles and tanks from Ka-52 attack helicopters and drones.

Moscow said its forces had destroyed several German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles while repelling a Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Russia repels attack on Druzhba oil pipeline facility — governor

Russian air defense units repelled a Ukrainian attack overnight on a pumping station on the Druzhba
oil pipeline in the Bryansk region adjoining Ukraine, the region's governor said on Saturday.

Three Ukrainian military drones were destroyed in the attack in the Novozybkov district, Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.

Shoigu: Russia needs more tanks in Ukraine

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has called for more tanks to be manufactured "to meet the needs of Russian forces" in Ukraine after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive with Western arms.

Shoigu, who visited a military factory in western Siberia, stressed the need "to maintain the increased production of tanks" and better security features in armored vehicles, the Defense Ministry said.

The minister said this was necessary "to satisfy the needs of Russian forces carrying out the special military operation" launched by Moscow in Ukraine in February last year, it added.

Russia claims the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed but Kyiv says it has retaken several localities and about 100 square kilometers (39 square miles) of territory, mainly on the southern front.

Putin: Zelenskyy a 'disgrace' to Jewish people

Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, a "disgrace" to people of his faith.

"I have a lot of Jewish friends," Putin told an annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg. "They say that Zelenskyy is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people ... I'm not joking."

Moscow claims Ukraine's treatment of Russian speakers in the Western-backed country is comparable to the actions of Nazi Germany.

These allegations have been contested by the Ukrainian government and the country's Jewish community.

Putin's insult caused uproar in Ukraine, with the country's chief rabbi saying he was proud of Zelenskyy. 

"And not only me. I think the whole world is proud of him," rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman told Ukrainian news agency UNIAN. "He did not flee and is doing everything to help the Ukrainian people."

The American Jewish Committee tweeted: "Putin's attempt to smear President Zelenskyy's Jewish heritage is a desperate and disgraceful move."

US: Stoltenberg could be asked to stay on as NATO chief

Jens Stoltenberg is expected to be asked to remain as NATO secretary general for another year, Reuters news agency reported Friday, citing two sources.

The Norwegian has spent nine years in the post and is due to step down at the end of September.

The alliance has struggled to decide on a replacement ahead of a mid-July summit in Lithuania.

Stoltenberg has broad support among the alliance members and continues to be an effective leader, the unnamed source told Reuters.

"The (Biden) administration is coming around the idea of Stoltenberg staying on for another year," said a second course, a US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It doesn't look like there is consensus at the moment within the alliance on his replacement."

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace declared last week that he would like the job.

But, as some governments push for the first female NATO secretary-general, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is also emerging as a serious contender.

NATO to step up checks of undersea data cables, pipelines 

NATO defense ministers have approved plans for a new maritime center for the security of critical underwater infrastructure.

At a meeting in Brussels, the ministers agreed to set up the facility at NATO's naval headquarters in Northwood, near London, which will contain a new surveillance system of undersea data cables and pipelines.

It will be responsible for parts of the Atlantic as well as for areas in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

Recent reports suggest that Russian ships have mapped critical infrastructure in the alliance area, with a view to carrying out attacks on submarine cables to paralyze internet and other communications.

The new facility will also help to prevent attacks on energy infrastructure, following the alleged acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.