Ukraine war: Russian military intel officer injured in Moscow car bomb

Below we have some of the latest photos coming out of Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine’s female rowers are getting ready for Paris 2024 as they are pictured taking to the water ahead of the Rowing at Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

A Swiss NGO building in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region has been damaged by a Russian shell.

The office of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), tasked with conducting demining operations across Ukraine, was damaged in the early hours of this morning, according to local officials.

Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov reported that, as a result of shelling, the facade and ceilings on several floors were destroyed, including six cars used by the organisation’s medics.

Photos published by Xinhua News Agency have shown the meeting between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in southern China.

It is the first time a Ukrainian official has visited Russian-allied China since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The pair reportedly held three hours of “deep and concrete” conversations, according to a source in Mr Kuleba’s delegation, that went on beyond the allocated time.

Mr Kuleba says he is seeking “common ground” in talks with his Chinese counterpart on ending his country’s war with Russia.

Mr Kuleba was expected to lobby Chinese officials to attend another peace conference planned for sometime before the US presidential election in early November. His visit reflects a calculation that any peace deal favorable to Ukraine would likely be a non-starter without China on board.

Chinese officials maintained that the two countries have friendly and cooperative relations. Noting the growth in trade between them, Wang said in his opening remarks that ties have continued to develop normally “despite complex and ever-changing international and regional situations”.

European Union member states are set to discuss options for extending the renewal period of sanctions on the Russian central bank’s assets to secure a Group of Seven plan to extend a major loan to Ukraine, a EU draft document has showed.

Leaders of the G7 major democracies and the EU agreed in June to use the interest on frozen Russian assets to back a $50 billion (£39 bn) loan for Ukraine to help it defend itself against Moscow’s invasion.

The bulk of the some $300 billion in assets is held in EU financial institutions, mostly in Belgium. According to EU regulations, the sanctions regime on Russia needs the unanimous approval of EU states to be renewed every six months.

EU ambassadors will on Wednesday discuss two options to ease these concerns. One would be an “open-ended” extension of the sanctions regime that immobilised Russia’s central bank assets.

“This shall be reviewed by the Council at regular intervals (e.g. twelve months), on the basis of clear predefined criteria (i.e. the end of the war of aggression and assurances of non-repetition, the payment of compensation by Russia, etc.),” the document said.

The other option would be to extend the renewal period to up to three years. Unanimity among EU member states would still be required in either case and these extensions would apply only to the Russian central bank assets.

The two options aim to “enhance legal certainty and predictability for G7 partners for the extraordinary revenue streams, which shall be made available to Ukraine to service and repay additional bilateral loans by the EU and G7 partners.”