August 2, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine has moved here.

Approximately 10,749 civilians have been killed and 15,599 have been wounded in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, according to Ukraine’s War Crimes Department in the Prosecutor General's Office. 

The death toll includes 499 children, Yuriy Belousov, the head of the War Crimes Department of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, said in an interview with the news agency Interfax-Ukraine.

Once Ukraine’s occupied territories are liberated, the number of those killed is expected to "increase many times,” he said. 

“I think that there will be tens of thousands of dead in Mariupol alone,” Belousov said.

The figures of the Prosecutor General's Office are similar to those of international organizations like the United Nations, he added.  

On July 7, the UN reported that it had confirmed the deaths of “more than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children,” but that the real number is expected to be higher. 

Belousov also said his team had recorded 98,000 war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine since the invasion.

Authorities across Russia have reported a string of attacks on military enlistment offices, blaming them on phone scammers, according to reports from state news agencies RIA and TASS as well as social media images verified by CNN. 

In one incident on August 1, law enforcement officers detained a woman who tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at a military registration and enlistment office in Stavropol. There are no victims or injured, said the governor of the region, Vladimir Vladimirov.

In St. Petersburg, a woman was detained on the night of August 2 after trying to set fire to the door of the military registration and enlistment office in the Admiralteysky district, RIA Novosti reported. 

A photograph posted on social media and geolocated by CNN to a military enlistment office in the Kuzminki district, southeast of Moscow, showed its door on fire on Tuesday, after what appeared to be another such attack. Video of the aftermath, also geolocated by CNN, showed the scene cordoned off by authorities, with the same door, no longer in flames but with severe burn marks.

Some Russian media reported the fire started on Tuesday after a 62-year-old local woman threw a Molotov cocktail at the door of the military enlistment office. 

Similar incidents were reported in other cities across Russia. 

More than 10 military cases of arson at or connected to the military registration and enlistment offices have been reported over the past two days, with state media saying in most cases “the perpetrators have become victims of telephone scammers.”

“They force the victims to make financial transactions, and then, manipulating and promising to return the money, they offer to commit a terrorist attack,” TASS reported, citing the FSB. “Their victims, as a rule, are socially vulnerable categories of citizens or persons who find themselves in a difficult life situation, who are easily suggestible.”

The attacks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law bills extending the age for the military draft, as well as raising fines and tightening rules for those trying to evade the call-up for the military. 

Russian drone strikes in Odesa “deliberately” targeted infrastructure on the Danube River, according to Ukrainian officials.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said 37 Iranian-made Shahed drones were used to attack Ukraine early Wednesday. During his nightly address, he said that some of the drones were shot down, "but only part of them."

There were no casualties, the Ukrainian leader noted. However, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has said the attacks near the Danube were “unacceptable," given their close proximity to Romania.

If you’re just catching up, here’s what else you should know:

• Poland’s pushback: Poland expressed “a very firm protest” against Belarus on Wednesday as Warsaw summoned Minsk’s charge d’affaires after two military helicopters reportedly entered Polish airspace on Tuesday.
• Saudi Arabia summit: The head of the Ukrainian President’s office, Andrii Yermak, says his team is preparing for an upcoming peace summit in Saudi Arabia. Kyiv’s goal was to expand on the first summit held in Copenhagen in June, increasing the number of participants to include countries from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, Yermak said.
• Pope Francis weighs in: Pope Francis posed several questions to the West about its efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine while speaking at an event in Portugal. “We might ask her (Europe): Where are you sailing, if you are not offering the world paths of peace, creative ways for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and to the many other conflicts in the world causing so much bloodshed? Or again, to widen the scope: West, on what course are you sailing?” the pope said during a speech at the Cultural Centre of Belém.
• Suspended flights: Turkmenistan’s flagship airline suspended flights from the country’s capital Ashgabat to Moscow, citing safety concerns. Turkmenistan Airlines' announcement comes after several drone attacks in the Russian capital in recent days. 

Thirty-seven Iranian-made drones attacked Ukraine in the early hours of Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. 

“There were 37 Shaheds in total during this one night," he said. "Some of them were shot down but only part of them,” he said, noting that there were no casualties. 

Attracting defense production to Ukraine — such as equipment, artillery and shell production — is among new tasks for Ukrainian diplomats, Zelensky said.

He added that it is important “to expand training missions for Ukrainian warriors” as well as ensure the supply of F-16 combat aircraft and long-range missiles. 

Turkmenistan’s flagship airline has suspended flights from the country’s capital Ashgabat to Moscow, citing safety concerns, Turkmenistan Airlines said Wednesday. The announcement comes after several drone attacks in the Russian capital in recent days. 

“The decision was made after risk assessment for the safety of flights was carried out,” the airline said in statement. 

Flights will continue to the Russian city of Kazan, it said. 

Some context: Russia said Ukraine attempted another drone strike in Moscow on Tuesday, resulting in another hit on one of the two buildings targeted during an attack on Sunday.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have suggested that these attacks are meant to shatter any remaining sense of calm in the Russian capital. 

"Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war," said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky.

Pope Francis posed several questions to the West about its efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine while speaking at an event in Portugal on Wednesday.

The Pope is in Lisbon as part of a five-day visit during which he will join celebrations to mark World Youth Day, a global gathering of young Catholics.

“We might ask her (Europe): Where are you sailing, if you are not offering the world paths of peace, creative ways for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and to the many other conflicts in the world causing so much bloodshed? Or again, to widen the scope: West, on what course are you sailing?” the Pope said during a speech at the Cultural Centre of Belém.

Earlier in the year, the Pope announced that the Vatican was part of a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine. While on a trip to Rome to meet with Italian leaders in May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Francis, where the two spoke about the humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine caused by the ongoing war, the Vatican said.

During the meeting, the Pope assured “his constant prayer” for peace and stressed the need for “human gestures” toward victims of the war. 

CNN’s Delia Gallagher and Barbie Latza Nadeau contributed reporting to this post.

He looked up at the sky and thought the drone might be there to finish him off. But instead, it saved him.

Serhiy had been separated from his Ukrainian unit and lay with a wound in his left leg and a hole in his chest, one of many casualties sustained by Ukraine in its tough assault in the south against Russian fortifications. Drone footage shows him prostrate in the dirt, rolling in pain, and looking up as he heard the tiny machine’s buzz.

“I was ready to fight for my life and I did - even lying there under the blazing sun,” he told CNN. “I realized I was too close to the Russians, and you even start to look at your gun in a different way,” he said, suggesting he feared capture. CNN spoke to Serhiy from his hospital bed, and is not using his surname for his safety.

But the drone, originally tasked with frontline surveillance, had spotted him — just a speck of white in the green fields and blackened craters. Its operators moved quickly to save him, bringing the drone back and attaching water, medicine and even a note on how to use it. Images obtained by CNN show its takeoff and arrival above Serhiy.

Drones — Russian ones — have been a constant threat on the frontlines, and so the Ukrainian UAV’s arrival was at first a cause for panic. “All the time I was crawling a drone was always hovering above,” said Serhiy. “We didn’t realize if it was friend or foe, it was a lottery.”

Yet after the bag of medicine and bottle fell, the drone footage shows Serhiy’s relieved reaction. He gestures a thumbs-up to the operators. The medicine gave him enough of a boost to enable him to crawl backward to safety. Even from high above, the footage shows the pain on his face that he had to overcome to make it.

“The combat medics who gave me first aid when they found me, were very surprised I survived for two days with a pierced lung,” he said. Serhiy said the experience had led him to reevaluate his life and priorities, and that he would return to the military if needed.

Eugene, the drone operator from the 15th National Guard, told CNN they did not want to leave anyone behind on the front lines. “Every life is important to us,” he said. “I could not live with myself if we just left someone in the field.”

Ukrainian troops discover Russian commander: Perhaps only several miles away, during the same southern counteroffensive, a different fate unfolded for a Russian commander and his unit. Footage supplied by the Ukrainian 15th National Guard shows the ferocious assault their forces unleashed on a position somewhere to the south of Orikhiv. The attack forced the Russian unit of about a dozen men to withdraw but without their commander, who was injured by an artillery strike. 

Hours later, Ukrainian troops entered the trench the Russians had abandoned and found the commander, alive but wounded in the body and face. CNN is not naming the Russian unit or the commander for their safety.

Technik, from the 15th National Guard, formed part of the assault, and described finding the commander. “We said don’t try anything or you will die. And he asked us to shoot him. And we offered him a chance to do it himself. He said he could not do it.”

Technik said the units are ordered to save Russian prisoners so they can be exchanged for captured Ukrainians. “He’s an enemy, and I had no particular desire to save him. But orders are orders. And they have our guys and we can swap prisoners.”

Russia's account of commander's fate: Yet accounts of the commander’s fate told a different story back in Russia. There, according to media reports CNN has seen, he was declared dead and awarded a posthumous medal. It is unclear if the Russian military is aware the commander survived or whether Ukraine has informed it he is a prisoner.

Kros, the commander of the 15th National Guard unit that made the assault, said: “As a human, I was shocked that they left him behind. But as a soldier I know my enemy and I know it is not an uncommon practice for them.”

The head of the Ukrainian President’s office, Andrii Yermak, says his team is preparing for an upcoming peace summit in Saudi Arabia.

“We continue to prepare the second meeting at the level of national security advisers and political advisers to the leaders of states in Saudi Arabia,” he wrote on Telegram. “It will be devoted to the key principles of peace based on President Volodymyr Zelensky's Peace Formula.”

“We are in constant communication with our partners,” he added. 

Kyiv’s goal was to expand on the first summit held in Copenhagen in June, increasing the number of participants to include countries from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, Yermak said.

“Our goal in Saudi Arabia is to develop a unified vision of the Formula and to work out the possibilities of holding the future Global Peace Summit,” he said. “We need to restore world order, international law and establish a just peace based on the UN Charter and on Ukraine's terms.”

Peace plan: Zelensky presented Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, last year.

The steps include a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow. He also urged G20 leaders to use all their power to “make Russia abandon nuclear threats” and implement a price cap on energy imported from Moscow.

CNN’s Irene Nasser and Josh Pennington contributed reporting to this post.