‘Another proof of Russia’s war crimes’ — Russian air strike on Ukrainian prison kills 16 inmates
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Zelensky signs law allowing citizens over 60 to join military during wartime
The new law allows people over the age of 25 to sign a contract with the government. The law does not set a limit on the number of years a person can serve in the military. The new law was passed in response to a request from the European Commission. The European Commission said the law was needed to address a shortage of military personnel in the EU.
The measure enables older volunteers to serve in non-combat and specialized roles, expanding Ukraine’s recruitment pool amid continued manpower shortages.
Under the new law, people over 60 may sign a one-year contract for military service if they pass a medical commission and are approved by a unit commander. Officer candidates must also be cleared by the General Staff or relevant military authorities.
Each new recruit will undergo a two-month probationary period. If deemed unfit during that time, the contract may be terminated early. The law does not establish a maximum age limit for service, but all contracts will be voided automatically once martial law ends.
Ukraine faced serious manpower shortages in late 2024 amid a heavy Russian offensive in Donetsk Oblast. The Ukrainian leadership has sought to alleviate the crisis by broadening the mobilization pool and offering new incentives for volunteers.
In April 2024, Kyiv lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. In February 2025, the country introduced one-year contracts for 18-24-year-old volunteers with added financial incentives.
The new law is expected to help address staffing gaps in technical, logistical, and support units, where experienced professionals are in high demand.
Massacre in Zaporizhzhia: 16 Killed as Russian Bombs Obliterate Prison
Russian forces launched a series of deadly air and missile strikes across southern Ukraine overnight on July 28–29. A prison facility in the Zaporizhzhia district was hit in a wave of eight Russian airstrikes, reportedly carried out with FAB glide bombs. Two of the injured women are in critical condition – one of them is pregnant – while the others are reported to be in moderate condition. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian missiles struck the city of Kamianske during the same night, resulting in the death of two people. Russian forces also intensified attacks on the Synelnykove district using guided bombs and FPV drones. Fires broke out in several locations as a result of the bombings.
In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, a prison facility in the Zaporizhzhia district was hit in a wave of eight Russian airstrikes, reportedly carried out with FAB glide bombs. According to the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, one of the bombs struck the prison, killing 16 people and injuring 35 others. The extent of the damage to the prison compound was described as severe, with buildings destroyed and nearby residential properties also damaged. Medical teams are providing assistance to the injured, though it remains unclear how many of the victims were inmates or prison personnel.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets condemned the attack as a violation of international humanitarian law, calling it further proof of Russia’s continued war crimes. “People held in detention do not lose their right to life and protection,” Lubinets stated.
The Zaporizhzhia region, partially occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the full-scale invasion in 2022, continues to endure regular aerial and artillery attacks on areas outside of Russian control.
Elsewhere, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian missiles struck the city of Kamianske during the same night. The head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, confirmed that two people were killed in the strike and five more were wounded. Two of the injured women are in critical condition – one of them is pregnant – while the others are reported to be in moderate condition.
The missile hit a three-storey building that was not in use and caused damage to a maternity hospital and a city hospital department. In addition, Russian artillery and drones targeted the Nikopol district, with Marhanets, Pokrovske, and the city of Nikopol all coming under attack. The strikes damaged several homes, vehicles, and outbuildings.
Russian forces also intensified attacks on the Synelnykove district using guided bombs and FPV drones. Strikes were reported in the Mezhova, Dubovyky, and Slovianka hromadas, resulting in the death of one person and injuries to two others. The attacks caused damage to homes, an office building, commercial premises, a gas station, and multiple vehicles. Fires broke out in several locations as a result of the bombings.
A particularly harrowing incident occurred when Russian drones deliberately targeted firefighters who were responding to a blaze caused by an earlier strike in Synelnykove. While the rescue vehicles sustained damage, there were no casualties among the emergency personnel.
Later updates confirmed that in a separate airstrike on the Velykomykhailivka hromada that evening, a 75-year-old woman was killed and a 68-year-old man injured after Russian forces dropped glide bombs on the settlement.
Sources:
At least 25 killed in overnight Russian strikes, Ukraine says
Overnight Russian strikes kill at least 25 people and wounded dozens more across Ukraine. At least 16 people in a prison in Zaporizhzhia region and a 23-year-old pregnant woman were killed. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine – now in its fourth year – or face tough new sanctions. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the attack was further evidence of Russian “war crimes” Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages – one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Z Vaporizhzia region. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least25 people, including a 23 year old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates.
The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine – now in its fourth year – or face tough new sanctions.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region – that Russia claims as its own – killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others.
“It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.
Read moreAre pro-Kremlin Russian cultural figures returning to the spotlight in Europe?
The Kremlin denied that claim.
“The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.
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Peskov added that Moscow had “taken note” of Trump’s new deadline and told journalists that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests”.
‘War crimes’
Ukraine’s justice ministry said Moscow’s forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded.
Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry.
The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.
Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.
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A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility, where 30 people worked.
The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian “war crimes”.
“People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection,” he wrote on social media.
In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.
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Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Hospital targeted
“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,” Zelensky said.
Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.
In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.
Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.
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The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages – one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The attack on the prison occurred exactly three years after an explosion killed more than 50 people at the Olenivka detention facility in the Russia-occupied Donetsk region, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners were killed.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the prison. The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of details of that attack, including survivors, investigators and families of the dead and missing. All described evidence they believed points directly to Russia as the culprit.
The AP also obtained an internal United Nations analysis that found the same.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
Ukraine calls deadly Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia prison ‘another war crime’
Russian glide bombs and missiles have struck a Ukrainian prison and a medical facility, killing at least 21 people. The Russian bombardment of civilian areas comes despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to soon punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs unless it stops. A Russian air strike on a prison in Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 17 inmates and wounded more than 80 others, officials said. In the Dnipro region, authorities reported at least four people were killed and eight injured. The Kremlin has warned Kyiv’s Western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to NATO countries. The U.S. has repeatedly rebuked Mr Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. The move means Mr Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by August 7 to 9. But a top Putin lieutenant warned Mr Trump against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia”
The Russian bombardment of civilian areas comes despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to soon punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs unless it stops.
A Russian air strike on a prison in Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 17 inmates and wounded more than 80 others, officials said.
In the Dnipro region, authorities reported at least four people were killed and eight injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, condemned the strikes as “another war crime” committed by Russia.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s regime, which also issues threats against the United States through some of its mouthpieces, must face economic and military blows that strip it of the capacity to wage war,” Mr Yermak said on X.
Trump sets Putin new deadline to end war
Mr Trump said on Monday he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago.
The move means Mr Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by August 7 to 9.
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Mr Trump has repeatedly rebuked Mr Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians.
But the Kremlin has not changed its tactics.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Mr Trump said during a visit to Scotland.
” I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer [to] what’s going to happen. ”
The Kremlin pushed back, however, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Mr Trump against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia”.
“Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country’s Security Council, wrote online.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour, the Kremlin has warned Kyiv’s Western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to NATO countries.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight.
They say 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralised by Ukrainian air defences.
Anti-drone nets have been installed on a street in the frontline town of Orikhiv in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. (Reuters)
The Russian attack close to midnight on Monday hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Facility with four guided aerial bombs, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
At least 42 inmates were hospitalised with serious injuries, while another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various injuries.
The strike destroyed the prison’s dining hall, damaged administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence held and no escapes were reported, authorities said.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, saying targeting civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, was a war crime under international conventions.
A Ukrainian service member walks on a street draped with anti-drone nets in the frontline town Orikhiv. (Reuters)
In Dnipro, missiles hit the city of Kamianske, partially destroying a three-story building and damaging nearby medical facilities, including a maternity hospital and a city hospital ward.
Two people were killed and five were wounded, including a pregnant woman who is now in a serious condition, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.
Further Russian attacks hit communities in Synelnykivskyi district with FPV drones and aerial bombs, killing at least one person and injuring two others.
According to Lysak, Russian forces also targeted the community of Velykomykhailivska, killing a 75-year-old woman and injuring a 68-year-old man.
AP
Russia carries out deadly air strike on Ukrainian prison
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that overnight Russian strikes across the country hit 73 cities, towns and villages. Four powerful Russian glide bombs hit a prison in Ukraine’s south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia. They killed at least 16 inmates and wounded more than 90 others. In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, authorities said Russian missiles partially destroyed a three-storey building and damaged nearby medical facilities. A 23-year-old pregnant woman, and two other people were killed elsewhere in the region, local authorities said. Mr Trump said on Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war. The move meant Mr Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by August 7-9. The Kremlin pushed back, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Mr Trump against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia” “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” former president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on social media platform X.
In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, authorities said Russian missiles partially destroyed a three-storey building and damaged nearby medical facilities, including a maternity hospital and a city hospital ward.
A prison was hit in the village of Bilenke (Ukraine’s State Criminal Executive Service via AP)
At least three people were killed, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman, and two other people were killed elsewhere in the region, local authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that overnight Russian strikes across the country hit 73 cities, towns and villages.
“These were conscious, deliberate strikes – not accidental,” Mr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Mr Trump said on Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago. The move meant Mr Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by August 7-9.
He has repeatedly rebuked Mr Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. But the Kremlin has not changed its tactics.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Mr Trump said during a visit to Scotland.
Mr Zelensky welcomed Mr Trump’s move on the timeline. “Everyone needs peace — Ukraine, Europe, the United States, and responsible leaders across the globe,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “Everyone except Russia.”
Yesterday, very important words were spoken by President Trump about how the Russian leadership is wasting the world’s time by talking about peace while simultaneously killing people. We all want genuine peace – dignified and lasting: Ukraine, all of Europe, the United States,… pic.twitter.com/w1HjWbXFmw — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 29, 2025
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia is determined to achieve its goals in Ukraine, though he said Moscow has “taken note” of Mr Trump’s announcement and is committed to seeking a peaceful solution.
Mr Zelensky welcomed Mr Trump’s shortening of the deadline.
“Everyone needs peace – Ukraine, Europe, the United States and responsible leaders across the globe,” Mr Zelensky wrote in a post on Telegram. “Everyone except Russia.”
The Kremlin pushed back, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Mr Trump against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia”.
“Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country’s Security Council, wrote on social media platform X.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Mr Medvedev said.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour, the Kremlin has warned Kyiv’s western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to Nato countries.
“Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against Nato,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said on Monday.
A Russian attack damaged a prison in Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine’s State Criminal Executive Service via AP)
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. It said 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralised by Ukrainian air defences.
The Russian attack close to midnight on Monday hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Facility with glide bombs, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
Glide bombs, which are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with retractable fins and guidance systems, have been laying waste to cities in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army is trying to pierce Ukrainian defences. The bombs carry up to 3,000 kilograms of explosives.
At least 42 inmates were admitted to hospital with serious injuries, while another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various injuries.
The strike destroyed the prison’s dining hall, damaged administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence held and no escapes were reported, authorities said.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, saying that targeting civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, is a war crime under international conventions.
Russian forces also struck a grocery store in a village in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, police said, killing five and wounding three civilians.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 27 July 2025. Find out more about Defence Intelligence’s use of language: https://t.co/JaC6y8Ew8H #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/TBwMsUDSVj — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 27, 2025
Authorities in the southern region of Kherson reported one civilian killed and three wounded over the past 24 hours.
Alongside the barrages, Russia has also kept up its grinding war of attrition, which has slowly churned across the eastern side of Ukraine at a heavy cost in troop losses and military hardware.
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Tuesday that Russian troops have captured the villages of Novoukrainka in the Donetsk region and Temyrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukraine has sought to fight back against Russian strikes by developing its own long-range drone technology, hitting oil depots, weapons plants and disrupting commercial flights.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that air defences downed 74 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, including 43 over Bryansk.
Yuri Slyusar, the head of the Rostov region, said a man in the city of Salsk was killed in a drone attack, which started a fire at the Salsk railway station.