Russia-Ukraine war live: civilians flee Pokrovsk as Russia’s army bears down on key eastern Ukraine city | Ukraine

Russian authorities struggled Tuesday to put out a massive fire in the southern Rostov region for a third consecutive day after an oil depot was hit by Ukrainian drones as Ukrainian forces push further into Russia’s Kursk region.

The fire at the depot in the town of Proletarsk burned across an area of 10,000 square meters, according to Russian state news agencies. There are 500 firefighters involved in the operation, and 41 of them already have been hospitalised with injuries, according to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, citing local officials.

Ukraine’s Army General Staff claimed responsibility Sunday for attacking the oil depot, which was used to supply the needs of Russia’s army, calling it a measure “to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation.”

The Czech Republic will use part of the interest generated from Russian central bank assets frozen in the European Union to buy large-calibre ammunition for Ukraine, the Czech Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Western countries blocked about $300bn worth of sovereign Russian assets after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

EU countries are taking the interest earned on the assets – which include bonds and other securities bought by the Russian central bank – and putting it into an EU fund to aid Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

EU governments agreed in June to use 1.4 billion euros ($1.5bn) in profits generated by the assets to buy arms and pay for other kinds of support to Ukraine.

The Czech Defence Ministry said some of that money would be used for an effort it has been leading to buy artillery ammunition for Ukraine around the world, funded by western partners.

In June, Ukraine received its first consignment under the initiative and deliveries continue every month, Czech officials have said.

“This is a unique opportunity quickly and effectively support Ukraine,” a ministry statement said.

The Kremlin called the plan to use interest earned on frozen Russian assets to fund military aid to Ukraine “theft” and said it would take legal action against anyone involved in the decision.

Russia launched its fifth missile attack on Kyiv this month overnight, Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday.

Air defence systems successfully repelled the strike, it added.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, air defence systems shot down three ballistic missiles and 25 of the 26 drones launched in the attack on nine regions.

The strikes targeted nine regions in the centre, north and south of the country, Ukraine’s air force said.

Kyiv has been under air raid alerts 41 times this month.

People were urged to stay inside their homes in Ukraine’s Ternopil after a large fire broke out overnight during air raid alerts, the military administration of the western Ukrainian region said on Tuesday.

Russian forces hit an industrial facility during the attack, Ukrainska Pravda reported, adding that a tank containing fuel and chemicals was struck around 3am local time.

“Do not leave your home unnecessarily, limit children’s time outdoors as much as possible, close windows indoors,” the administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

It added emergency services were working on the site of the fire that occurred overnight “during air raid alerts.”

It was not immediately known what facility was on fire.

Belarus claimed on Monday to have sent more troops, aircraft and armoury to its border with Ukraine.

The update comes a day after President Alexander Lukashenko said he deployed almost a third of his country’s armed forces to the region – a statement Ukraine said was false.

“The group has been significantly increased, and at the moment they are on duty at the southern borders of our country,” Commander of the air force and Air Defence of Belarus Maj. Gen Andrei Lukyanovich, told the state-owned CTV broadcaster.

Aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, and radio-technical troops were deployed to the border, Lukyanovich said.

“The fact that drones are the plague of the 21st century is obvious,” Lukyanovich added.

“This is a headache, which, I think, we will find the means to counter.”

Ukraine said it had not seen an increase in Belarusian troops on the border and called Lukashenko’s statements “rhetoric” aimed at pleasing Putin, who used Belarus as a launchpad to start his invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.

Hello, welcome to our rolling coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Civilians with small children in their arms and lugging heavy suitcases have fled from Ukraine’s eastern city of Pokrovsk, where the Russian army was bearing down fast despite a lightning Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, Associated Press reports.

Local authorities said Russian forces were advancing so quickly that families were under orders to leave the city and other nearby towns and villages starting Tuesday. Around 53,000 people still live in Pokrovsk, officials said, and some of them decided to get out immediately. We will have more detail on that shortly.

In other developments:

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region shows Kremlin threats of retaliation are a bluff as he urged Kyiv’s allies to loosen curbs on using their weapons against targets on Russian territory. Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had gained control of more than 1,250 sq km (483 sq miles) and 92 settlements in Kursk.

• Speaking to Ukrainian diplomats, the president said the “naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines” had “crumbled apart”. But restrictions imposed by allies remain, and Zelenskiy urged allies to be bolder in helping Ukraine. “The world sees that everything in this war depends only on courage – our courage, the courage of our partners. On brave decisions for Ukraine, on courage in supporting Ukraine.”

• Ukraine has destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in Kursk, Dan Sabbagh writes, as part of an apparent attempt to expand what Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” inside Russia.

• Ukraine’s top general said Kyiv was also “doing everything necessary” to defend the eastern city of Toretsk as Moscow tries to threaten Ukrainian supply lines. Russia said its forces had captured the nearby town of Zalizne.

• Dmytro Lykhovii, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Tavria group of forces, said Russian ground assaults had decreased on the war’s southern Ukrainian front compared with last week. Likhovey did not say whether it was due to Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region, the official Ukrinform news agency said. In the Zaporizhia region around Orekhovo and Gulyai-Polye there had been no clashes for a third day. Only small Russian attacks were mounted on Ukrainian-held positions on the western side of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region, Lykhovii told Ukrainian media, but Russian aircraft continued to carry out strikes with glide bombs.

• The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, “remains absolutely resolute” in supporting Ukraine, his spokesperson said on Monday, after Zelenskiy suggested that UK support “has slowed down recently”.

• Back in Russia, an oil facility in Proletarsk, southern Rostov region, has burned for two days after a Ukrainian drone strike. Russian social media channels reported a massive fire and successive explosions, backed up by pictures and footage online, with 11 storage tanks said to have been destroyed. Forty-one firefighters needed hospital treatment, said the Rostov region governor, Vasily Golubev.

• Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was not ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine for now, given the Kursk attack. Ukraine has demanded a full withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory before it sits down for any talks.