Russia beefing up defence lines on annexed peninsula of Crimea

Russian authorities have started building defence lines on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, according to the peninsula's Moscow-appointed head of administration, Sergei Aksyonov.

The fortification work should guarantee the "security of Crimean residents," he said at a meeting of the Crimean administration.

First and foremost, however, security should be guaranteed in the part of the neighbouring Kherson region that continues to be occupied by Russia, Aksyonov added, as a narrow strait connects the two areas.

Ukraine's counteroffensive in Kherson is putting the Russian occupying forces under pressure. Moscow launched a barrage of missiles on Ukraine's civilian infrastrucure in response.

Those missile attacks have apparently damaged Ukraine's power grid to an unprecedented extent.

"Almost half of our energy system has failed," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a joint press conference on Friday with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in Kiev, according to the UNIAN news agency.

Ukraine therefore needs additional support from the European Union in the energy sector and also financially, Shymal said.

Around 30% of Ukraine's territory is mined as a result of the Russian war, corresponding to about twice the size of Austria, the State Emergency Service in Kiev announced on its website on Friday.

The area and the number of mines on Ukrainian territory had increased tenfold compared to the time before the war that began on February 24, it stated.

Landmines have been used since the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatists broke out in 2014.

In the regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, the clearance of explosive devices is continuing, the statement added. An area of more than 8,000 square kilometres is to be demined.

The chairman of the emergency service, Serhiy Kryk, said he hoped that power supply would be restored in the recaptured areas in the next few days. It would take several months to restore infrastructure in the Kherson area, he added.

Fierce fighting was also under way in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, the Ukrainian general staff said on Friday.

The general staff reported artillery and tank fire on villages such as Vodyane, Krasnohorivka and Maryinka near the town of Avdiivka on Friday.

Kiev's claims were not independently verifiable, but coincided with reports by Russian military bloggers.

The front line position remained unchanged, however.

There was also heavy shelling around the town of Bakhmut, as well as the Kupyansk area of the front line, an important railway junction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for new sanctions from the West in light of Russia's massively increased missile attacks on Ukraine.

"A new European sanctions package is needed," Zelensky said in a video message addressed to Irish students on Friday. "Russian aggression does not stop for a single day. Just as Russian lies to the world never stop. Therefore, for all this, the international pressure on Russia should not stop for a single day," Zelensky said.

Zelensky accused Moscow of violating the final declaration of the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, which was also supported by Russia, in numerous points.

The declaration emphasized the importance of international law and a multilateral system as a guarantor of peace and stability. Russia, however, continues to destroy international relations while pretending to fight together with all others against this destabilization, he said.

Moscow is mobilizing all its resources "to become the largest terrorist state in history," Zelensky said.

Despite major differences of opinion, the G20 group of leading industrialized and emerging countries had adopted a final declaration at the summit in which the vast majority of members strongly condemned the Russian war against Ukraine. Russia's dissenting position on this was also put on record.

Meanwhile, Poland is to conduct state funerals for the two people killed when a missile hit their village near the country's border with Ukraine this week, the local parish priest told the PAP news agency on Friday.

The two separate funerals are to take place on Saturday and Sunday, the priest said.

A missile hit a farm in Przewodów, some 6 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, on Friday.

The resulting explosion, in a grain store, killed a 60-year-old tractor driver and a 62-year-old warehouse worker.

The men are the first civilians in Poland, a NATO country, to die as a result of Russia's war on Ukraine.