Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the missiles hit an apartment building and a university building.
“Regions of Ukraine are being shelled by the occupiers, who continue to terrorize peaceful cities and people,” Zelenskyy said.
“In recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centers, shelling civilian objects and housing,” the Ukrainian leader said. “But this terror will not frighten us or break us. We are working and saving our people.”
An apartment building burns after it was hit by a Russian missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, July 31, 2023. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
Saudi Arabia will soon host a summit to discuss implementation of Zelenskyy’s peace plan to end the war Russia launched last year.
The head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said the summit would bring together national security advisers for talks that follow an initial round held in Copenhagen in June. Yermak said Ukraine is “working hard to involve as many partners as possible from both the West and the Global South.”
He did not confirm a date for the summit, but The Wall Street Journal reported it would take place August 5-6 and involve 30 countries. The Associated Press cited officials saying the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa would participate.
“The Ukrainian Peace Formula contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world,” Yermak said in a statement. “We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land."
Putin promises Africa grain
African leaders left Russia after a two-day Russia-Africa summit with no resolution on the resumption of the deal that allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea corridor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that higher grain prices, which have risen since Moscow’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, will benefit Russian companies as well as the world’s poorest countries.
In his effort to woo African leaders, Putin said during a news conference Saturday in St. Petersburg that Russia will share its profits from rising grain prices with African nations and poor countries. Russia, like Ukraine, is a major grain exporter.
That commitment, with no details, follows Putin’s promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations, including Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic, in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the U.N. World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal.
Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit compared to 43 who attended the previous gathering in 2019.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.