Latest News on Ukraine-Russia War: Kiev Drones Fly Record Distance of 1,770 Kilometers to Hit Putin’s Bombers

Ukrainian National Olympic Committee President Vadym Guttsait insisted that Russian and Belarusian athletes “do not exist” for Team Ukraine.

Russia and Belarus have been banned from participating in the Olympic Games due to sanctions imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over their involvement in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, in December the IOC confirmed that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games as neutral athletes – Individual Neutral Athletes (INA) – under strict eligibility requirements.

When asked at a press conference how Team Ukraine would prepare for a competition against Russian athletes, Guttsait said: “All athletes in the Olympic Village have had to deal with the consequences of Russia and the war in Ukraine, so they all know what is happening in our country right now.

“All the Ukrainian athletes who are now in the Olympic Village have felt the war themselves. Some of them have lost their families, or part of their families, relatives. Some of them have lost friends and loved ones, so for us the Russian and Belarusian athletes do not exist. We do not greet them, we do not say hello, we do not look at them.”

Rebecca Johnson has the full story:

Ukrainian air defenses shot down four Russian attack drones and one missile during a night raid, the Ukrainian air force said.

“All targets were shot down by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Dnipro, Poltava, Kharkov and Kiev regions,” the military said in a statement.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters that “things are looking good” for the wealthy G7 democracies to agree by October on the terms of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, backed by Russian assets.

Ms Yellen said in an interview at a meeting of G20 finance leaders in Brazil that talks on providing the loan had been constructive, including over US demands for a guarantee that the assets would be frozen for an extended period.

“We’ve had constructive conversations here. And we’re working very closely together to try to move this forward,” Ms. Yellen said. “I think it’s looking good in terms of getting to a point where we can probably wrap this up in October.”

The $50 billion loan, agreed in principle by G7 leaders in June, would be paid for with the proceeds of about $300 billion in Russian central bank assets frozen in the West after Moscow invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

While there is no unanimous support within the G7 for a full confiscation of the $300 billion in capital, the bloc agrees that it is legally possible to siphon off the profits the assets generate.

Ukraine said on Friday that its missile forces attacked a Russian military airfield in Crimea, which has also been used for attacks on the country.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Crimea in recent months and says the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, headquartered in Sevastopol, has been forced to move its warships to safer ports elsewhere.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian army said in a statement that the Russian Saky airfield in western Crimea was the last target hit and that the aftermath was being assessed.

“This is one of the operational airfields that Russia uses to control its airspace, particularly the Black Sea, and to carry out air strikes on Ukrainian territory,” the report said.

The statement did not say what weapon was used, only that the attack was carried out by Ukrainian missile forces. There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defense Ministry or local officials.

President Volodymyr Zelensky implicitly acknowledged the attack in his late-night video address, in which he “praised our soldiers who attack Russian bases and logistics services on occupied territory.”

“To our boys, our soldiers, I thank you for your accuracy,” he said.

Russian air defenses intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk border region in southern Russia in an hour on Friday evening, the region’s governor said.

“Thanks to our brave defenders, all air targets were intercepted and destroyed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

No casualties or serious damage were reported.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, also on the border with Ukraine further to the southeast, said three drone strikes and a number of shellings had broken windows and damaged buildings.

Ukrainian forces have regularly attacked Russian border areas, particularly Belgorod, in an attempt to reduce Russian attacks on targets within Ukraine’s borders.

The attacks prompted the Kremlin to launch a cross-border raid into the Kharkiv region in May, with Russian military officials saying they seized a number of settlements. Ukrainian officials say the situation there has stabilized.

Gladkov and other officials this week restricted access to parts of the Belgorod region to protect against Ukrainian attacks.

The Kremlin on Friday welcomed Donald Trump’s comments about Russia as a “war machine” that had defeated Napoleon and Hitler, but said it was not wearing rose-colored glasses when it came to the US Republican presidential candidate.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about comments Trump made in a July 19 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump later told Fox News that he told Zelensky the war had to end.

“This is a war machine that you’re up against. That’s what they (the Russians) do, they fight wars. They beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. We’ve got to get this war over with,” Trump said.

Responding to Trump’s remarks, Peskov said: “It will probably be useful for most of the American public to know that there are many glorious pages in the history of Russia, and indeed, probably few people in the US, we mean ordinary Americans, and perhaps representatives of the so-called political establishment, know the history so deeply.”

Saboteurs have carried out a “malicious” arson attack on the French railway network, just hours before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Eurostar customers have been asked to cancel their journeys where possible after “coordinated” vandalism caused disruption to high-speed train routes to the French capital on Friday.

The rail operator, which operates international services from London St Pancras, said on Friday that several trains to Paris had been cancelled and others diverted or delayed due to the ongoing problems over the Channel.