Ukraine war latest: Putin says he will take Trump 'seriously' on ending war

We'll be back soon with more updates on the war in Ukraine.

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded 26 in Ukrainian regions stretching from the south to the east and northeast today, local authorities have said.

A missile strike in southern Odesa region killed a woman, injured seven people and damaged port infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, in the northeastern Kharkiv region, a second woman was killed and a man wounded in a strike by a Russian guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Nine others, including four children, were wounded in a drone attack and shelling in the town of Novohrodivka, in the frontline Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Elsewhere, Dnipro regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported seven wounded in the southern town of Nikopol. 

All the affected regions have been subjected to repeated attacks since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure, but thousands of people have been killed and wounded.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that he wants Turkey-China ties to continue improving.

He has also said steps taken to improve such ties would benefit both countries.

Both the Turkish and Chinese leaders met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the Kazakh capital Astana today and discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and the fighting in Gaza.

During the meeting, Mr Erdogan called for "effective measures" by the international community to prevent either conflict from spreading.

One civilian has been killed after a ballistic missile struck the southern port city of Odesa.

Governor Oleh Kiper said at least seven others had been injured after the attack on the region and houses and port facilities had been damaged.

"The civilian port infrastructure is under attack," Mr Kiper said on Telegram.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian forces in the war, with many attacks aimed at the city's port facilities. 

Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

The Hungarian prime minister will meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow tomorrow, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 

Viktor Orban will be accompanied by Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, the outlet reports, citing an unnamed Hungarian government source.

The reported visit comes days after Mr Orban urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider a ceasefire to accelerate an end to the war with Russia.

Mr Orban, who is an outspoken critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Mr Putin, held talks with Mr Zelenskyy during his first trip to Kyiv in more than a decade yesterday.

Mr Orban said he asked the Ukrainian leader to think about a ceasefire before the follow-up international summit Kyiv hopes to hold later this year.

Apple has removed 25 VPN mobile apps from its AppStore in Russia, following a request by Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, Interfax reports.

Demand for VPN services soared in Russia after Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 and the authorities restricted access to some Western social media.

Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has already blocked access to some large VPNs, but others remained available.

Images are emerging of the damage inflicted on Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after months of Russian assault.

The Ukrainian army said today they had retreated from an area on the outskirts of the strategically important city in the Donetsk region after a 10-month battle there.

Months of relentless Russian artillery strikes have devastated Chasiv Yar, leaving homes charred.

Ukrainian commanders in the area say their resources remain stretched, largely due to a months-long gap in military assistance from the US which threw Ukraine's military onto the defensive.

Around 190,000 recruits have signed contracts to join the Russian military so far in 2024, the state-run RIA news agency reports, quoting former president Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said the current average recruitment rate was about 1,000 people a day.

For context: Russia is encouraging people to sign up for the war in Ukraine by paying them above average wages. 

Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no need to enforce a new round of compulsory mobilisation because so many men are signing up on voluntary contracts.

A duo of Russian pranksters who often target and compromise people the Russian state is interested in have been given a top state award in the Kremlin, the RIA state news agency reports.

Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, who use the aliases "Vovan and Lexus", were presented with the award by the Kremlin at a ceremony yesterday.

The award is given to Russian and foreign nationals for strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding between Moscow and other nations, among other criteria.

There was no immediate word from the Russian pranksters, who last month released footage of a video call they had with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron after tricking him into thinking he was speaking to a former Ukrainian president.

During the hoax call, Lord Cameron thought he was speaking with former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.

The duo are well-known inside Russia, having duped a string of politicians over the years, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and, in 2022, Britain's then-defence minister, Ben Wallace.

Vladimir Putin has said his preference for Joe Biden remains unchanged after watching fragments of the debate between the US president and Donald Trump.

Asked by a state television reporter if Mr Biden or Trump was better, if his publicly stated preference for Biden had changed after the debate, and if he had seen it, Mr Putin said: "Nothing has changed."

"Did we not know what could come? We knew," the Russian president added.

Mr Putin has several times said he feels Joe Biden is preferable as the future US president to Trump, even after Mr Biden cast the Kremlin chief as a "crazy SOB".

Mr Putin said he had seen parts of the debate between both Mr Biden and Trump but he had other things to attend to.

"I saw some fragments," Mr Putin said. "But I have enough to do."

Asked about Trump's statements that he could end the Ukraine war swiftly if he won the presidential election, Mr Putin said Russia took him seriously but had no sense of the details of any of Trump's peace proposals.

"The fact that Mr Trump, as a presidential candidate, declares that he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine, we take this completely seriously," he said.

What else did Putin say today?

The Russian leader also reiterated that Moscow would not declare a ceasefire in Ukraine until Kyiv takes steps that are "irreversible" and acceptable to the Kremlin.

He said it was pointless for Russia to attempt to appeal to the Ukrainian parliament when it came to Moscow's ideas to end the conflict between the two countries.

Mr Putin said last month that Russia would end the war in Ukraine only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow, demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.