August 5, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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.

Russia fired its advanced Kinzhal missiles into Ukrainian airspace on Saturday, the Ukrainian Air Force warned on Telegram.

The missiles were launched from Russia's Tambov region and were heading toward the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine, according to the air force.

Explosions could be heard in the area, officials in Khmelnytskyi said, but there were not immediately further details on the attack.

The air force also reported a missile launch from Belarus.

About Kinzhal 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.

Ukrainian intelligence estimated in May that Russia has only a few dozen Kinzhal missiles in its arsenal – a claim which couldn’t be independently verified.

Ukraine has served notice that it intends to continue attacks using maritime drones, following two strikes using such weapons within 24 hours.

The head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Maliuk said Saturday that any explosions that happen to Russian ships or the Crimean bridge are "an absolutely logical and effective step. Moreover, such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal."

Maliuk said that if the Russians wanted such explosions to stop "they have the only option to do so — to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land."

Some context: The Russian-flagged tanker Sig was damaged by a maritime drone overnight near the bridge connecting the annexed Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia. According to the Russian agency for Marine and River Transport, the Sig was hit shortly before midnight Friday local time. It was not carrying a cargo of oil at the time.

The hit on the oil tanker was carried out in a joint operation with the Navy, a Ukraine Security Service (SBU) source told CNN.

The attack came hours after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major Russian naval base in the Black Sea.

Ukrainian officials are ordering mandatory evacuations for children in nine additional frontline settlements "due to the difficult security situation and hostile shelling."

The government ministry that manages Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine said in a statement Saturday that officials have voted unanimously in favor of the new compulsory evacuations.

They affect a series of towns and villages that dot the eastern Donetsk region: Yampil, Zarichne, Torske, Orihuvatka, Nykonorivka, Malynivka, Tykhonivka, Vasiutynske and Rai-Oleksandrivka.

All are close to the front lines in an area that has seen attacks of growing intensity by Russian forces. The order applies to 130 children, the ministry said.

The ministry also reiterated warnings for civilians to evacuate from a “five-kilometer (about 3-mile) danger zone” in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine. Currently, 1,718 people, including 228 children, have been evacuated from the area bordering Russia.

Ukrainian authorities began issuing compulsory evacuation orders in March 2023 and have added settlements as conditions on the front line change. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense says its forces have taken a village in northeastern Ukraine — an area that has seen a growing concentration of Russian forces.

The ministry said Moscow's troops now control the settlement of Novoselivske, which lies on the border of the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, and has been on the front lines since a Ukrainian push recaptured much of Kharkiv last September.

Russia said it had also improved its position along the front line near two villages nearby.

The defense ministry published video of the Russian advance in the area, which has been geolocated by CNN as occurring in Novoselivske.

On Friday, a Russian military blogger said Moscow's forces were on offense in a forested area near the village, and that Russian assault detachments broke through Ukrainian defensive lines north of the settlement on August 3.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the Russian claim, but in recent days have spoken of renewed efforts by Russia to break through Ukrainian lines in the area.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Friday that Russian forces have intensified their attacks in the direction of Kupyansk, Lyman and Svatove — three cities in northeastern Ukraine, where Novoselivske is located.

Russian military bloggers have also claimed that Russian forces are edging closer to the Oskil River. Ukrainian forces have been defending the river's west bank around Kupyansk.

Saudi Arabia’s ancient Red Sea port city Jeddah, stewing in the steamy heat of the world’s hottest summer on record, is not the obvious pick to cool the world’s fiercest conflict, currently raging in Ukraine.

Yet, the desert kingdom’s king-in-waiting, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — MBS for short — thinks he can help. Last fall he had a role in the release of Western mercenaries captured by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine. Now he is hosting a summit to discuss peace in the country.

Ukrainian officials say the venue is a boon for them “that completely destroys the narrative of Russia” that Ukraine is only supported by “countries of the collective West.” They expect as many as 40 nations to be represented, including the US and India.

Saudi Arabia has not overtly taken a side in the war. More significantly, MBS has leverage. Like the roads that led to Rome in its day, Saudi Arabia is increasingly at the confluence of competing global interests.

What MBS wants most is a stable oil market and stronger trade relations throughout the Gulf. Disagreements alone are dangerous for the flow of oil. All-out war — between oil-rich, nuclear-armed Russia and Ukraine — could be catastrophic.

If he can tame that tiger, he can better plan how to deliver his otherworldly and insanely expensive visions of a future Saudi Arabia, diversifying from oil yet employing the country’s huge young population.

His ambition is what drives him every day. In his ideal world, Saudi Arabia would be a dominant geopolitical player.

You can dive deeper on this subject here.