August 5, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We've wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more about Russia's war in Ukraine here, or scroll through the posts below.

Ukraine seems intent on using a new generation of powerful maritime drones against Russian ships — both merchant and naval — in the Black Sea, opening up a new front in the 18-month war.

In the space of 24 hours, two Russian vessels — a naval landing ship and a fuel tanker — were hit in the eastern Black Sea by the sea drones. Both sustained extensive damage but remained afloat.

A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry vowed the Ukrainian attacks "won’t be left without a response," saying the fuel tanker assault threatened civilian lives and an environmental disaster. There are conflicting reports about the ship's cargo and crew.

Here are some of today's top headlines:

The United Nations condemned Russia for recent attacks on Ukrainian grain storage and port infrastructure in a statement on Saturday. 

According to Brown, “the thousands of tonnes of grains that were damaged would have been enough to feed approximately 66 million people for a day.” 

The humanitarian coordinator said Russia's decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal and its repeated attacks on Ukrainian ports and infrastructure "are causing insurmountable damage to the agricultural sector in Ukraine and may further accentuate hunger for the world’s poorest people."

Key context: In the August 2 attack Brown referred to, overnight drone strikes in Ukraine's southern Odesa region targeted the Danube River port of Izmail, causing damage to some of its structures, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.

Russia terminated the deal that allowed for the safe passage of Ukrainian food exports on July 17. In the time since, Moscow has unleashed a flurry of attacks on grain supplies in key Ukrainian cities, and the Danube River became a key target.

The Danube ports — which lie on Ukraine's border with Romania — are Kyiv's main way to ship millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world.

CNN's Olga Voitovych and Xiaofei Xu contributed reporting to this post.

A Russian guided aerial bomb struck a blood transfusion center in the country's northeastern Kharkiv region Saturday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He said on Telegram that there are dead and wounded victims as a result of the attack, but did not provide any specific numbers.

Zelensky said the blood transfusion center is located in the Kupyansk community, where Russia has recently amassed troops on the eastern front line. A fire broke out at the center following the attack, he added.

CNN cannot independently verify reports about attacks on the front lines in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the western Khmelnytskyi region were attacked by Russian Kinzhal and Kalibr missiles on Saturday.

The country's air defense intercepted at least some of the missiles, the president said in his nightly address. Motor Sich, a Ukrainian company that produces aviation engines and gas turbine units appears to have been the target in Zaporizhzhia, he added.

Zelensky didn’t provide any further information about the attacks.

More on the missiles: Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military have touted the Kinzhal, or Kh-47, as an example of Russia’s modernized missile arsenal, claiming that its hypersonic speed makes it extremely difficult to intercept.

Ukraine has acknowledged that the missiles are tough to defend against, though it has knocked at least one out of the sky using a US Patriot defense battery.

The Ukrainian Air Force warned residents earlier Saturday that Russia had fired Kinzhals into the country's airspace and that the Khmelnytskyi region appeared to be the target. Officials in the region reported explosions, but scant further details were immediately available about the attack.

Taking the fight to Russia: In his nightly speech, Zelensky reiterated a current Ukrainian narrative: Kyiv is working “to bring the war back to where it came from.” 

Ukraine hit one of Russia's largest oil tankers with a sea drone and attacked a naval base in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in the span of 24 hours on Friday. Kyiv has promised more attacks on Russian shipping and a key Crimean bridge.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Saturday that his team is taking an active part in the Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia.

According to Zelensky, 42 countries are represented at the event, and “everyone is united by the priority of international law.” 

Zelensky said his delegation is working on "consolidation of the world" for the sake of restoring a "just peace."

The talks — which include representatives from the US — are aimed at developing shared principles to end the war and discussing the kind of security assistance Kyiv will need to deter Russia from ever attacking Ukraine again, US officials have said.

Russia is not present at the summit, and the talks appear mostly aimed at shaping strategies and winning developing nations over to Ukraine's side, rather than fostering any major breakthroughs between Moscow and Kyiv at this time.

Read more about the talks, and the tempered expectations surrounding them, here.

CNN's Mariya Knight contributed to this report.

The Ukrainian attack on a Russian oil tanker late Friday "won’t be left without a response," according to a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry.

Zakharova said Kyiv carried out the attack "using new terrorist methods," and called for Western countries and international organizations to condemn the assault.

The attack, she said, “threatened not only the death of its crew, but also carried the threat of a large-scale environmental disaster.”

(Russia’s Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport has said no casualties were reported and that the ship was not carrying oil when attacked. Ukrainian officials, however, said some crew members were injured and that the tanker was carrying fuel for the Russian military.)

Key context: Friday's attack targeted one of Russia’s biggest oil tankers with a maritime drone, the latest salvo in an emerging Ukrainian military campaign employing unmanned vehicles to attack far-away Russian targets by air and by sea.

Maritime drones are proving very difficult to defend and can travel hundreds of miles to their target. Ukrainian officials have vowed to carry out more attacks on Black Sea targets.

Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), has said any attacks on Russian ships or the Crimean bridge are "an absolutely logical and effective step" and "completely legal" because they occur in Ukraine's territorial waters.

Zakharova said Saturday that she doubted the attack was “completely legal” and called Maliuk’s statement “inhumane.” She argued the attack was “aimed at killing unarmed civilians.”

CNN has not been able to independently verify the claims from either side about specifics of the attack, including the fate of the crew and whether its cargo was for military purposes.

Ukrainian shelling killed two civilians and wounded nine others in various areas of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine Saturday, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed head of occupied areas in the region.

The shelling killed two women — one in Donetsk city and one to the northeast in the city of Horlivka, Pushilin said on Telegram.

Nine other people were wounded across Horlivka and the smaller towns of Yasynuvata and Novopetrykivka, according to the Russia-backed official. The shelling also damaged 10 residential buildings and an infrastructure facility across the different areas, Pushilin said.

The latest round of shelling was among 48 attacks by Ukraine in the last 24 hours, he added.

Ukraine has not immediately commented on the reported attack, and CNN cannot independently verify reports from the front lines.

Shelling in Ukraine's northern Sumy region killed a man on Saturday afternoon, according to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

The man, who was in his 60s, was killed in his yard in the small village of Novoslobidska, community head Olha Harkavenko told Suspilne.

Sumy, in northeast Ukraine, borders Russia and suffers from daily Russian shelling. In July, the Ukrainian government established a "five-kilometer danger zone" — a border area where civilians are strongly recommended to evacuate.

It has also created a list of mandatory evacuation areas for children in frontline areas, which expanded again Saturday.

Russia has not immediately commented on the reported attack, and CNN cannot independently verify reports from the front lines.