Ukraine war latest: 'Mass disruption' to messaging apps in Russia; Moscow comes under huge drone attack (2024)

That's all our live coverage on the war in Ukraine for now.

We'll return with any major developments this evening. If not, we'll be back tomorrow with all the latest updates.

Here is a reminder of today's key events:

• Moscow came under one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones, with Russia saying it destroyed all of them;
• Kyiv's forces have reportedly destroyed or damaged all three bridges over the Seym River in western Russia, a move that could potentially trap Moscow's forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance into Russia and the Ukrainian border;
• Russia's reported use of aerospace forces to defend against Ukraine's invasion "likely demonstrates continuing personnel shortages",the UK's defence ministry said, adding the personnel are "being misused" which "could reduce Russian capacity to re-take territory in Kursk oblast";
• Moscow's troops claimed to have taken control of a Ukrainian village in the push towards the key strategic hub of Pokrovsk city in the eastern Donetsk region;

• Ukraine's parliament voted to ratify the Rome Statute, allowing the country to join the International Criminal Court - a key part of its drive to join the European Union;
• Russians in the border region invaded by Ukraine have been told by Moscow's interior ministry to avoid using dating apps to prevent Kyiv's forces from gathering intelligence;
• Telegram and WhatsApp were disrupted by a malicious attack which also affected other sites such as Wikipedia, Skype and Discord.

Ukrainian forces have made additional advances in their invasion of Russia's Kursk region, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.

The Washington-based think tank said Kyiv's forces were continuing to strike Russian pontoon bridges and pontoon engineering equipment (as we reported in our 2.51pm post).

In its assessment, it said Ukrainian troops do not control all of the territory behind the forward line of forces operating in Russia.

But it said Moscow's military command "continues to complicate and bureaucratise its thus-far ineffective command and control structure" for its response to the attack.

It also noted Russian authorities had reportedly re-deployed units from lower priority sectors of the frontline in Ukraine back to Russia in order to address the ongoing invasion in Kursk.

The ISW said it had previously noted such deployments "could affect the tempo of Russian offensive operations".

Russian Orthodox priests have brought an icon to the site of a massive fuel depot fire in southern Russia sparked by a Ukrainian drone attack in the hope it will help tame the blaze, the local diocese has said.

The icon of the Unburnt Bush is considered by Christians in Russia to be a talisman against fire.

We have been reporting on how the fire has been burning since Sunday despite efforts by firefighters to douse the flames.

Around 20 of 74 storage tanks were on fire, the RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing local administration boss Valery Gornich.

Volunteers who previously helped Ukrainian refugees are now providing shelter and essential items to Russians affected by Kyiv's invasion of western Russia.

We have more details on the mass disruption to the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging apps in Russia we reported earlier (see 12.57pm post).

Moscow's state communications monitoring service said the problems were caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

The service said the attack had been repelled and the messaging networks were working normally again.

Local media said other sites such as Wikipedia, Skype and the social media platform Discord had also been affected.

"The disruption is related to a DDoS attack on Russiantelecom operators," the service said, withoutelaborating on who might have been responsible.

Russia began to block access to Telegram in 2018, a move which had little effect on the availability of the app there.

WhatsApp's parent company Meta was branded an "extremist" organisation by Moscow in 2022 and its other services such as Facebook and Instagram are now banned in Russia - though they can still be accessed via virtual private networks (VPNs).

Russia has closed airports in its northwestern cities of Murmansk and Apatity and restricted the use of airspace over those cities, the TASS news agency has reported.

Such measures are usually taken in Russia because of potential or actual Ukrainian drone attacks.

Ukraine attacked Moscow earlier today in one of the largest attacks yet on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022 (see 09.51am post).

Russian authorities said they had destroyed all of the drones headed towards the capital.

Kyiv has said its forces are using US-made HIMARS rockets to destroy pontoon bridges and engineering equipment in Russia's western Kursk region.

Ukraine has destroyed or damaged at least three bridges over the Seym River since Kyiv launched its attack three weeks ago.

"Where do Russian pontoon bridges 'disappear' in the Kurskregion? Operators... accurately destroy them," Ukraine's special operations forces said on Telegram.

It said HIMARS rocket systems were used - the first official statement from Kyiv that Western weapons had been used as part of the offensive.

We are now seeing "the battle of the pontoon bridges," says ourdefence and security analystProfessor Michael Clarke.

He says Russian vehicles carrying the pontoon equipment "are pretty obvious from the air because they've got bridge pieces on them," and the Ukrainians are using drones to go after the individual vehicles.

"When they see a pontoon bridge beginning to emerge they try and attack it. The Russians have been trying to build lots of these and the Ukrainians have been trying to attack them."

Russians in the border region invaded by Ukraine have been told to avoid using dating apps to prevent Kyiv's forces from gathering intelligence.

Moscow's interior ministry told residents, military and police personnel in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions to avoid "online dating services".

"The enemy actively uses such resources for information gathering," it said on Telegram.

Ukrainian forces are continuing to push into Russia's western Kursk region in an offensive that began two weeks ago.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to ratify the Rome Statute, allowing the country to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) - a key part of its drive to join the European Union.

The move would allow authorities "to more effectively punish" suspected Russian war criminals, according to Ukrainian politicianOleksiy Honcharenko.

The ICC has issued arrest warrants for several Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu for their roles in alleged crimes against Ukrainian civilians - Russia has denied targeting civilians.

"Ukraine has already worked effectively with the ICC toensure comprehensive accountability for all Russian atrocitiescommitted in the course of Russian aggression," Ukrainianforeign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

"This work will now be even more effective."