What we're covering
- Ukraine has turned part of frontline Bakhmut into a "killing field" but Russia now controls most of the east of the city, the UK Ministry of Defence says
- Russia is attempting to capture the city, and a land a rare but symbolic victory after a series of setbacks on the battlefield
- Russia has been capturing some of the US and NATO-provided weapons left on the battlefield in Ukraine and sending them to Iran, where the US believes Tehran will try to reverse-engineer the systems, sources tell CNN.
- A third wave of fighters from the Wagner private military company fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut are being replaced by Russia's regular army, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces told CNN on Friday.
Russia fired a rarely-used missile during its aerial assault on Thursday
Russia’s overnight missile attack on Thursday showered Ukraine with an array of missiles, in one of Moscow’s biggest aerial assaults for months.
Russia launched a total of 95 missiles of various types over the past day, 34 of which were intercepted, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a morning update on Friday, as well as a number of Iranian-made Shahed drones.
That array included cruise missiles that were launched from both the sea and the air; six different kinds were used in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Much attention has been focused on the six launches of Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles, which are especially difficult to stop.
The powerful weapon has rarely been seen over the country’s skies. Its first known use in Ukraine was last March and occasionally used since, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).