Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv blows up biggest Wildberries hub in massive drone attack and dont use quote marks

A suspected Russian plot to assassinate a Ukrainian-American in Warsaw was foiled by Polish authorities, according to Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.

The suspect, allegedly recruited by Russia’s secret services, was arrested on 7 August.

Police said that he will be in custody for an initial three months.

Tusk said it was the first known attempt by “someone on the orders of Russia” to target a US citizen on the territory of another Nato country.

The target was reportedly a US citizen of Ukrainian origin who was considered “uncomfortable for Putin’s regime”, Tusk said during a press conference.

The operation involved US and Polish intelligence cooperation, Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services, said.

Civilian casualties from the war in Ukraine rose by nearly a third month-on-month in July, to the highest level since May 2022, as Russia struck ⁠towns and cities far from the battlefield with missiles and drones, the UN said.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report that it had confirmed at least 437 civilians killed and 2,610 injured in July, a 30% rise from June and a 70% jump from the same month last year.

Long-range weapons, such ⁠as missiles and drones, remained the leading cause of civilian ​deaths ⁠last month, accounting for 38% of the total.

“Most casualties from these weapons occurred far from the frontline in urban centres,” the UN report said.

In an indication of strengthening military ties between the UK and Kyiv, Ukrainian army sources told The Times that drones made by two British companies have been used in the past six months to attack targets including oil refineries in Volgograd and near Moscow and logistics hubs.

The intensifying drone attacks, which have also targeted transport infrastructure and sites belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, have been crucial in inflicting heavy damage on Moscow’s economy.

Russia has asked Washington and Ankara to explain reports of possible plans to transfer to Kyiv a “substantial arsenal” of US weapons and ammunition held by Turkey, the spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Such ⁠a transfer would cause “serious harm … to our bilateral relations with Washington and ‌Ankara,” spokeswoman Maria ​Zakharova ‌said in ⁠a statement.

A Russian strike on an apartment block in southeastern Ukraine on Saturday killed a three-month-old baby and wounded 11 people, local officials said.

Drones hit the building in the town of Marhanets, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration.

Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners gathered in Kyiv at a memorial ceremony dedicated to 3-year-old Dmytro Kucher and his grandparents, Halyna and Petro Kucher, who were killed by a Russian drone strike on August 8.

Multiple Russian drones destroyed the family’s home in the Brovary district, northeast of Kyiv. An initial ceremony was held at Kyiv’s Spaskyi Lyceum, where Halyna had served as school principal for more than 20 years, before moving to a churchyard in the suburb of Zazymia, close to the former family home.

The couple’s son, Oleksandr Kucher, said that his parents had been together since the fifth grade. “They died together,” he said. “The Shahed (drone) completely tore my mother apart. We recovered only about two kilograms (about 4.4 pounds) of her remains.”

He described his 3-year-old son, Dmytro, as “our little miracle” and “the soul of our family.”

“He kept my parents, me and our entire family going,” Kucher said. Russia’s Ministry of Defense also said Saturday that it had targeted warehouses and infrastructure at the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Izmail and Yuzhnyi.Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 152 drones over the country Saturday, of which 124 were destroyed.

For a few hours last week, the volcanic island of Iturup became the stage for a confrontation that had been decades in the making.

Vladimir Putin, accompanied by the governor of the Sakhalin region, toured a fish-processing complex, a hospital and a school on the island. For Russia, it was a routine presidential visit to a remote territory. For neighbouring Japan, its symbolism was hard to miss.

Prime minister Sanae Takaichi described Putin’s visit to the island as “absolutely unacceptable” while foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest.

Putin’s visit wasn’t simply a territorial dispute being replayed. It was a statement about the changing security order around Japan.

We’ve just heard from Russia’s Defence Ministry which said on Sunday that its forces have taken the village of Pershomarivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region

The ministry said that Moscow’s forces have also sezied Kudiivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region, state news agency TASS reported.