Russia shoots down missile over Crimea

Russian air defence systems shot down a cruise missile near the city of Kerch, Moscow-installed Crimea Governor Sergei Aksyonov wrote on the Telegram messaging app yesterday.

The incident inflicted no damage or casualties, he added, without specifying where the missile had been launched from.

Russia annexed Crimea, where it bases its Black Sea Fleet, from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv wants Moscow to hand it back.

In another incident, air defences shot down a Ukrainian missile over Russia's Rostov region, Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram. "There were no casualties. The debris partially damaged the roofs of several buildings," Golubev wrote.

Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Bryansk, wrote on Telegram that the Russian military had shot down two Ukrainian missiles. A sawmill was totally destroyed as result of one of the missiles falling, Bogomaz said.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Poland's President Andrzej Duda emphasised the need for unity with Kyiv as he visited the country ahead of a Nato summit where Kyiv is hoping to get a clear signal that it could one day join the alliance.

"We are stronger together," President Andrzej Duda said on social media, as he visited the western city of Lutsk with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky returned from Turkey on Saturday after a regional tour to drum up support ahead of the summit with Western allies, who have pledged billions in military aid, reports AFP.

Zelensky was accompanied by five top commanders from the Azov regiment who were supposed to have remained in Turkey until the end of the conflict under a prisoner exchange deal with Moscow.

US President Joe Biden headed to Europe yesterday for a swift tour dominated by the war in Ukraine, with membership of the expanding Nato military alliance and the US approval of cluster munitions likely to be key talking points.

Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs -- banned across a large part of the world -- dramatically ups the stakes in the war.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose country still grapples with deadly war remnants, yesterday urged Ukraine not to use cluster bombs.

He cited Cambodia's "painful experience" of US cluster munitions dropped in the early 1970s, a foreign legacy that has left tens of thousands maimed or killed.

Russia, which itself uses cluster munitions in Ukraine, said the decision was an "act of desperation" that would have "no effect" on the conflict.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova yesterday urged Nato leaders instead to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of planning a provocation at the site, raising alarm over the risk of a disaster at Europe's largest nuclear plant.

"The Nato summit should have focused on this topic. After all, the vast majority of Alliance members would be in the direct contamination zone," Zakharova said on social media.