Despite a disappointing first month of Ukraine’s long-awaited summer campaign to liberate territory from Russian forces, Kyiv says its Western backers are not pressuring the country to achieve quick results. Since the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in June, the fighting has turned out to be tougher than some expected, with advances measured in hundreds of meters. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in his speech on Saturday evening that no city and no village can remain under Russian occupation, because the occupation has brought violence and humiliation to people.

08:27Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of bombing civilians in a village in Zaporozhye after three people were injured in the attacks.

The head of the Administration of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said that the Russian troops shelled the village of Stepnohirske with rocket launchers, hitting the administrative building.

Officials backed by Moscow said that it was Kyiv troops that bombed a school in the village of Stulneve, and Air Defense Forces intercepted a drone over the city of Tokmak. Both sides denied targeting civilians.

TOTALS FOR THE LAST 24 HOURS

• Volodymyr Zelenskyi in his address on Saturday evening: “Where the Russian occupation continues, there is violence and humiliation of people. We cannot leave any city or village under occupation.”
• How does Russian propaganda manipulate narratives about NATO and the Vilnius Summit? Agitprop portrays NATO as an anti-Russian alliance that harbored long-standing plans to attack Russia. Propagandists often portray NATO as an aggressive and aggressive organization that deliberately provokes Russia with regular military exercises in an attempt to incite war.
• “Killing is not easy. The Russians have no chance”: how the Ukrainian counteroffensive at Bakhmut is going – Agence France-Presse report
• The FSB announces the end of attempts on two famous Russian journalists – Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobcyak
• The President of Bulgaria attacks Kyiv again: “Ukraine insists on waging this war.” Ukraine criticized the pro-Russian president of Bulgaria for his statements that Kyiv is to blame for Russia’s current war, and that providing arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict.
• A large convoy of vehicles and fighters from Wagner’s private army was seen entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday morning, a monitoring group said, after the country’s Defense Ministry announced plans for mercenaries and Minsk’s armed forces to hold joint military exercises.
• Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukrainian military intelligence: “We have our own sources. In the offices closest to Putin. So we usually know what’s going on.”