Ukrainian strikes on holiday resort, Crimea kill 11

Ukrainian strikes, one in a Russian Black Sea resort and another in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, have killed a total of 11 people and wounded dozens, officials have said.

Russia said seven people, including three children, had been killed and about 40 injured at the holiday resort of Gelendzhik, in what it said was a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians.

Social media videos, verified by Reuters, showed what appears to be a drone slamming into a busy beach area near the town of Gelendzhik, accompanied by a loud explosion.

Reuters confirmed the location from the buildings, coastline and trees matched satellite and archive imagery.

The Black Sea coast and Crimea are both summer destinations popular among Russian tourists.

Ukraine often fires hundreds of drones into Russia at night, in retaliation for Moscow's own barrages of drones and missiles against Ukrainian towns and cities.

"The number of people killed in the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka has risen to six, three of them children," Venyamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said on social media, after earlier announcing Ukraine had struck the area in a drone attack.

Four people were killed in a separate strike on the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea, while Ukraine said a Russian attack killed three people in its eastern city of Kryvyi Rig.

Russia launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, and has regularly struck its neighbour, including from the Crimean peninsula.

Ukraine has in recent months intensified its counter-strikes on Crimea - seized by Moscow in 2014 - leading to electricity and fuel shortages this summer.

A Russian attack on Ukraine's Kryvyi Rig - President Volodymyr Zelensky's home city - killed three people, a local official said.

"A fire broke out at the scene. A gas station and several cars were badly damaged," said Oleksandr Ganzha, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region.

In a picture he posted, firefighters could be seen dousing the flames, as well as the charred shell of a car at the gas station.

Zelensky sacks his ambassador to the US

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today dismissed his ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, in a move that had been expected following a government reshuffle last month.

The sacking, announced by decree, happened however as Kyiv was lobbying Washington hard to obtain more Patriot air defence missiles to block Russian strikes.

In a Facebook post in which she also posted a letter asking to be relieved of her duties, Ms Stefanishyna said the decision was her own and "dictated by personal circumstances".

She called her posting to Washington "the greatest honour" of her life.

Mr Zelensky, who made a controversial government reshuffle in July, has not yet announced who will replace Ms Stefanishyna as ambassador in Washington.

Kremlin critic Nadezhdin flees Russia for France

Meanwhile, Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin - who was recently detained outside Moscow and blocked from running for parliament - has said he had left the country, in a video posted from Paris.

Mr Nadezhdin was one of the few politicians who openly criticised President Vladimir Putin and Moscow's Ukraine offensive to have stayed in the country.

Almost all of Mr Putin's critics are in jail, in exile or dead.

Mr Nadezhdin had been seeking to stand in tightly controlled parliamentary elections in September.

As his campaign ramped up last month, authorities labelled him a "foreign agent", briefly detained him, then fined him 1,000 rubles (€10) for displaying "extremist symbols" in a dramatic hearing that saw paramedics called as his blood pressure spiked.

Amid the pressure - which would technically have barred him from standing - he announced he was quitting his campaign, saying he had been "silenced" and "pushed out of politics".

Today, he posted a video on his Telegram channel, with the Eiffel Tower seen in the background.

"I have some good news: I'm alive and free. Unfortunately, not in Russia," Mr Nadezhdin said.

"For now, I need to get my bearings and figure out how to move forward. I'll write about my plans later," he said.

Mr Nadezhdin had been campaigning to become an MP in the town of Dolgoprudny outside Moscow.

He said last month that authorities had targeted him because they were "nervous" of his popularity.

The former municipal councillor attempted to run for president in 2024 against Mr Putin, gathering tens of thousands of signatures of support before being barred from the vote.

Denmark begins extended military conscription in response to Russia, Trump

Elsewhere, around 1,600 Danish military recruits began the country's new extended conscription, embarking on an 11-month service period as Denmark accelerates its defence build-up driven by Arctic security pressures and the war in Ukraine.

Denmark said in 2024 it would extend conscription to include women for the first time and increase standard service time to 11 months from four, while the number of conscripts is set to increase to 7,500 annually by 2033 from 5,000.

Latest stories on Ukraine-Russia war

The new intake arrives as Denmark prepares to deploy conscripts to Greenland for the first time later this month, with a company of more than 100 soldiers set to serve for one month taking over operational tasks from professional troops.

The deployment carries added political weight as US President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory, citing national security, a demand firmly rejected by the governments of Greenland and Denmark.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at last month's NATO summit in Ankara said her nation was ready to defend every inch of territory in the military alliance, "including our own".

French court rejects pro-Kremlin commentator's deportation appeal

In Paris, a court has rejected an appeal by a Russian television commentator ordered to leave France after authorities accused her of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.

The ruling follows France's decision last week to expel Xenia Fedorova and freeze her assets, a move she denounced as "censorship".

The 45-year-old, a former journalist for Russia's state-run RT television channel, failed to show that being ordered to leave France would have "serious personal consequences", the Paris administrative court said.

Her lawyer said his client was abroad when the expulsion order was issued, adding she will not return to France unless it is suspended or overturned.

She intends to challenge the ruling, Emmanuel Piwnica added.