Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv targets Russian-occupied Crimea as UK and France conduct joint military exercise

Crimea strikes cause water and power cuts; war game designed to show how Nato countries could be defended amid fears of Russian aggression. What we know on day 1,705A Ukrainian attack led to water and power cuts in occupied Crimea on Saturday, as a barrage of drones in several regions inside Russia left several dead, according to Russian authorities. Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of the Crimean peninsula, wrote on Telegram that due to the drone attack on local power grids “restrictions on the supply of electricity and water have been put in place”. He did not specify how many households had been affected in Crimea, which is home to more than 2.5 million people. The peninsula, which was seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, is a regular target for Ukrainian attacks.A separate Ukrainian strike in part of the north-eastern Kharkiv region held by Russia killed at least three people and gravely wounded another on Saturday, the Moscow-backed authorities said.Drones also rained down inside Russia. The country’s defence ministry said 616 of them had been shot down overnight across more than 20 regions of the country. During the day, drones hit Russia’s south-western Bryansk border region, killing at least three people, regional acting governor Yegor Kovalchuc said on Telegram.In Ukraine, authorities said that at least five people died in several Russian drone and missile strikes in the country’s east. Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha on Saturday evening said three people were killed and at least 12 wounded when a Russian drone strike hit the town of Synelnykove, setting the fourth floor of a high-rise building on fire. Authorities in Sumy meanwhile said a Russian drone hit a farm, killing a 31-year-old woman and injuring four others.Thousands of British and French troops have taken part in a military training exercise that included one of Britain’s largest airborne operations in two decades, the UK government said on Sunday. The war game is designed to show how Nato countries could be defended against a modern-day attack and comes during fears about Russian aggression in Europe amid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.About 2,500 troops were involved in the seven-week exercise, in which 600 British and French paratroopers dropped from four RAF A400M Atlas transport aircraft over Germany. The exercise called Rhino Titan, held at the Sennelager military training centre in Germany, has been testing British troops’ ability against an enemy equipped with drones and electronic warfare. “The threats we face in the 21st century require an updated, modern approach to warfare – and our adaptable armed forces are preparing accordingly,” British defence minister Wes Streeting said in a statement.Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted. But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose compan