News on the war in Ukraine: Moscow blames the US for the attack on Crimea, while the UN warns of attacks near Zaporizhia

According to the Institute for War Research, Russian forces are “increasing the pace” of their attacks on the front lines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry has blamed the United States for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five US missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 others.

It said four of the US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air defense systems and the munitions of a fifth detonated in the air.

Russian officials claimed that US specialists had determined the missiles’ flight coordinates based on information from American spy satellites, making Washington directly responsible.

“The responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilian population of Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied Ukraine with these weapons, and with the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this attack was carried out,” the ministry said in a statement.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and now views the Black Sea peninsula as a strategically important part of its territory, although most of the world considers it to be sovereign and integral territory of Ukraine.

A senior North Korean military official warned of a “new world war” and criticized the United States for increasing military aid to Ukraine, state media KCNA reported. The top military official in Kim Jong-un’s government underscored North Korea’s support for Vladimir Putin in the war.

Pak Jong Chon, one of North Korea’s top military officials, said in a statement carried by KCNA on Monday that Russia had the “right to choose any kind of retaliatory strike.” He added that if Washington continued to push Ukraine into a “proxy war” against Russia, it could provoke a stronger response from Moscow and a “new world war.”

He was referring to comments made by the Pentagon last week that Ukrainian forces could attack Russian forces using weapons from the United States anywhere beyond the Russian border.

These comments come even though Russia may have received about 1.6 million artillery shells from North Korea between August last year and January. WashingtonPost was reported on Saturday. Data from the US non-profit organization C4ADS shows that 74,000 tons of explosives were shipped from ports in Russia’s Far East to other locations, mainly along the border with Ukraine.

Mr Pak acknowledged the military assistance North Korea gave Russia for its attack on the much smaller Ukraine.

In a joint statement by Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, senior politicians from South Korea, the United States and Japan condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the deepening of military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

A pact signed last week by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the Russian president’s visit to Pyongyang obliges both sides to provide immediate military support to the other in the event of armed aggression against either side.

Putin’s mutual defense agreement with North Korea could lead to tensions with China, which has long been the isolated state’s most important ally, the highest-ranking US military officer said on Sunday.

Analysts say the pact would create a framework for arms trading between the two countries and promote their anti-American and anti-Western coalition.

In addition, North Korea will send construction and engineering troops to reconstruction work in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine as early as next month, South Korean cable television channel TV Chosun reported earlier, citing a South Korean government official.

A Russian bombing raid on Ukraine’s second-largest city on Saturday reduced buildings in Kharkiv to rubble and killed at least three people, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

According to authorities, one of the four aerial bombs hit a five-story residential building.

At least 41 people are being treated in hospital, said regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.

In a speech after the attack, the Ukrainian president called on Ukraine’s allies to strengthen their air defenses.

In his evening video address, Zelensky added that Russian forces had used more than 2,400 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets in June alone, including about 700 on Kharkiv.

The UN nuclear watchdog has called for an end to attacks on Enerhodar, a town near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, after drone strikes this week hit two electrical substations serving the area.

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made no mention of Ukraine and said the incidents had no impact on the operation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

However, he said the attacks must stop.

“Whoever is behind this, it must stop. Drone attacks against the power plant and its surroundings are increasing,” Grossi said in a statement on the IAEA website.

“This is totally unacceptable and contradicts the security principles and concrete principles that were adopted unanimously.”

Russian-appointed officials at the power plant accused Ukraine of carrying out two drone strikes that destroyed one substation, damaged another and temporarily cut off electricity supplies to the population.

Enerhodar, a few kilometers from the plant, was cut off from electricity for 16 hours, he said. But none of the attacks, which took place on Wednesday and Friday, affected the power lines that the nuclear plant needs to operate.

Below we have more footage from the recent Russian glide bombing attack on Kharkiv.