Ukraine-Russia war latest: Children among five killed and 67 injured as Putin strikes shopping centre

At least five people were killed and 67 others were injured as Russian drones hit a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in southeastern Ukraine.

Officials said shops and vehicles were hit in the daylight attack which took place "when there were many people on the streets". The injured include three teenage boys aged 13, 14 and 15.

Ukrainian officials said a total of seven people died in major Russian strikes across five districts of Pavlohrad, a rail and logistics hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russian forces had hit two other shopping malls in the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Sumy earlier in the week.

This comes as Nato allies foiled a plot where Russian subs trained to unleash a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables without leaving any fingerprints, it has been revealed.

A joint operation involving Britain, Norway and the United States tracked and confronted the Russian vessels at sea, officials told Reuters after a clandestine Russian operation was carried out by Moscow's GUGI undersea warfare directorate.

Missile debris damaged an industrial facility in the southern part of the Russian city of Volgograd on the Volga River, city officials said on Telegram.

The Volgograd regional ⁠administration, citing governor Andrei ​Bocharov, ⁠said two ‌people were injured in an attack ‌that also damaged a ‌residential building in the city.

The post did not provide details about the industrial facility.

The Volgograd oil refinery run by Lukoil, one of Russia's biggest by processing capacity, is located in the southern part of the city.

At least seven people were killed as Russian forces launched a broad onslaught on the industrial city of Pavlohrad in southeastern Ukraine yesterday.

The strikes also targeted a petrol station in the capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility in ⁠Dnipro as Moscow intensifies attacks on logistics and economic targets.

Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said Russian forces deployed drones, artillery and aerial bombs in hitting five districts of Pavlohrad, a rail and logistics hub serving a coal-mining area with a pre-war population of about 120,000.

A total of 76 people were injured, including several children. Photos posted online showed shattered shops and burned-out vehicles in the city, which has acted as a ⁠critical supply route for the Ukrainian military connecting central Ukraine to eastern front ​lines.

Russian air strikes injured two and caused a fire in a ⁠nine-storey apartment building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the early hours today.

The city officials have asked people in the area to seek shelter amid a drone alert.

A Ukraine drone attack caused a fire at a logistics hub belonging to Russian e-commerce company Ozon in the city of Saratov, the company said this morning.

It added that there were no casualties recorded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese ⁠counterpart Xi Jinping with hold in-depth talks on the ⁠sidelines ​of ⁠an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit ⁠in November, ​Russia's ⁠TASS state ‌news agency cited a Kremlin aide ‌as saying on ‌Thursday.

There is no planned ⁠separate meeting between the two men at the BRICS+ summit this weekend, the aide, ‌Yuri Ushakov, ​was also cited ‌as saying ⁠by Russian ⁠state media.

Russian forces have struck a petrol station ⁠in the capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility in Dnipro as Moscow intensifies attacks on logistics and economic targets.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said attacks on businesses and civilian infrastructure were rapidly growing and urged the government to "react and act in advance".

The strike on the Ukrnafta petrol station appeared to be ‌the first jet-powered drone attack on such a facility in Kyiv. It follows around ‌300 attacks on petrol stations in or near Ukraine's frontline regions in recent months.

Four people were injured, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

"There is no military objective in such strikes. This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population," said Ukrnafta CEO Bohdan Kukura on Facebook.

In Dnipro, two people were killed in the ⁠attack on the Bunge sunflower oil facility, one of Ukraine's five largest food plants with a processing capacity of 1,600 tons of oilseed per day.

It was the second attack on a US-owned business in several weeks, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

"This is no coincidence, but part of Moscow's systematic terror campaign against American businesses and economic interests," he wrote.

Five people were wounded, a local official said.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday ⁠there would be no trilateral meeting on how ⁠to ​end the ⁠war before the ⁠elections in ​Russia.

Zelensky said ⁠Ukrainian ‌and US negotiators were in constant contact ‌and he ‌hoped for progress in ⁠talks on energy and grain at the end of September after his meeting with ‌US President Donald ​Trump.

Russia will ‌hold ⁠parliamentary elections ⁠on 20 September, and Zelensky expects to meet Trump in the second half of this month.

Canada will give Ukraine a “very important package of air defence” as well as support for the energy industry, president Volodymyr ⁠Zelensky said before a meeting with prime minister Mark Carney.

Canada, one of Ukraine's most vocal defenders, has committed more than C$25.5billion (£13.6bn) ⁠in aid since ​Russia ⁠invaded in February 2022.

Kyiv is running critically ⁠low on US-made Patriot interceptors capable of stopping ​Russia's ⁠ballistic missiles at a ‌time when Moscow is stepping up its attacks.

"This is a very important package of ‌air defence. This is crucial," Zelensky ‌said.

Carney promised Canada would offer Kyiv more aid to help it fend off Russian ‌attacks as well as back its efforts to ​join Nato and the European ‌Union.