U.S. sanctions 4 of Russia's financial elite; Russian strike on hotel kills 1

The U.S. Treasury announced that it was sanctioning four people it described as members of Russia's financial elite.

The men have all served on the board of the Alfa Group Consortium, a major Russian investment conglomerate.

"Wealthy Russian elites should disabuse themselves of the notion that they can operate business as usual while the Kremlin wages war against the Ukrainian people," Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said in a statement. "Our international coalition will continue to hold accountable those enabling the unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine." 

The individuals sanctioned are:

• Petr Olegovich Aven,
• Mikhail Maratovich Fridman,
• German Borisovich Khan,
• Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev.

Their property and business in the U.S. will be blocked as a result of the sanctions.

— Katrina Bishop

A Russian strike on Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region killed an eight-year-old boy, Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk said on Telegram, according to a Google translation.

"During the rocket attack, the child was in the yard and received numerous shrapnel wounds," Onyshchuk said.

In an update on Aug. 4, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said 499 children had been killed and 1,090 injured since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

— Jenni Reid

Ukraine has fired all its regional chiefs in charge of conscription offices over corruption fears, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Friday.

Zelenskyy said it followed a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to discuss a report which found 112 criminal proceedings against officials in recruitment centers across the country.

"Some took cash, some took cryptocurrency — that's the only difference. The cynicism is the same everywhere," he said, according to a translation of a statement on the presidential website. He listed alleged offenses as: "Illicit enrichment, legalization of illegally obtained funds, illegal benefit, illegal transportation of persons liable for military service across the border."

Of the regional heads, he said: "This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in times of war constitute treason."

"Officials who confused their shoulder marks with profits will definitely stand trial," he added.

New officials will be vetted by the Security Service of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

— Jenni Reid

A rise in drone attacks against Moscow may shift the views of its residents on the war in Ukraine, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence service said Friday.

"The concept of security is increasingly distant from the residents of Moscow," Andriy Yusov told the Kyiv Post.

"Perhaps this trend will lead the residents of Moscow to some correct conclusions – whether or not to believe Russian television and Russian propaganda, and whether or not to continue to support the criminal regime," Yusov told the news organization.

Moscow officials say they have shot down four drones heading towards the Russian capital this week, and a separate one in the west of the city on Friday. No damage or injuries have been reported.

Kyiv has refrained from claiming responsibility for specific drone attacks in recent months that have caused damage to buildings in Moscow, as well as injuries. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that Russia should expect the war to enter its own territory.

— Jenni Reid

Foreign companies that have remained in Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine will be supported by authorities in the country, a top official said in an interview with state news agency RIA published Friday.

Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for economic cooperation, said: "Speculation is intensifying around the supposedly imminent nationalization of their assets, and companies that maintain their presence in Russia for political reasons are subjected to pressure and harsh criticism in these countries."

"I would like to emphasize that companies that are still interested in conscientiously continuing their work in our country and comply with Russian legislation are not in danger. Moreover, they can count on the support of the Russian authorities and the creation of favorable conditions for business development in our market," Birichevsky said. CNBC has used a Google translation of the interview.

Many companies pledged to exit Russia as war broke out in early 2022, but a report published at the start of 2023 found that hundreds of subsidiaries owned by EU and G7 companies remained active in the country.

Last month, consumer goods giant Unilever defended its decision to remain active in Russia as it reported higher turnover in the country and the payment of 3.8 billion rubles ($38.6 million) in taxes to the state in 2022. The company also confirmed it would comply with legislation that could see its employees in Russia conscripted into the war.

Groups including the B4Ukraine Coalition as well as Ukrainian authorities have heavily criticized companies that have chosen to remain in Russia.

— Jenni Reid

Russia downed a drone in Moscow near the Karamyshevskaya embankment of the Moskva River, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Friday, according to a Google translation of a Telegram post.

Sobyanin said there were no reported injuries or damages.

Moscow's Vnukovo and Kaluga airports temporarily closed Friday morning, Russian state news agency RIA reported, though a link with the drone was not officially confirmed.

— Jenni Reid

Britain's Defense Ministry said there's a "realistic possibility" Belarusian soldiers conducting military exercises near the Polish and Lithuanian borders would be trained by a small number of advisors from Russia's mercenary Wagner group.

The exercise involves Belarus' 6th Separate Guards Mechanized brigade in the Grodno area of northwestern Belarus and was announced on Monday.

In its daily intelligence update, the defense ministry said: "These specific exercises are highly likely part of the Belarussian military's routing training cycle. 6 SGMB's home garrison is in Grondo, and it is unlikely that the formation is currently deployed with the enablers it would need to make it combat-ready."

"However, Russia is almost certainly keen to promote Belarussian forces as posturing against NATO."

On Thursday, Poland announced it would send up to 10,000 additional troops to the Belarus border.

Tensions are simmering over geopolitical relations; the presence of Wagner figures in Belarus since the group's failed Russian rebellion in June; and a growing number of attempted migrant crossings.

— Jenni Reid

Russian shelling on Thursday hit a hotel in the region of Zaporizhzhia.

In an initial a Google-translated post on Telegram, Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, said that the attack left one dead and nine injured.

In a later Google-translated update on Telegram, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration said one woman was killed and 19 people were injured in the Zaporizhzhia center attack, including four children.

CNBC could not independently verify the developments.

The hotel was a main base for U.N. and other humanitarian staff locally. U.N. humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown described the attack as "utterly inadmissible" in a statement.

"I have stayed in this hotel every single time I visited Zaporizhzhia. My team uses it as their base for their frequent travels to the city. It was the UN base for the operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, in May last year," she said.

"The number of indiscriminate attacks hitting civilian infrastructure, killing and injuring civilians, have reached unimaginable levels – these attacks violate international humanitarian law."

Zaporizhzhia and three other Ukrainian regions — Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk — were illegally annexed by Russia late last year. Zaporizhzhia, the site of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been under frequent attack.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russia shot down two Ukrainian military drones approaching the Russian city of Kursk, regional governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram on Friday, according to a Google translation. CNBC has not verified the information on the ground.

The city is around 112 km from the Russia-Ukraine northeastern border.

That follows Russian reports of four drones being shot down while heading toward Moscow earlier in the week. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the drones, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said Russia should expect the war to enter its own territory.

— Jenni Reid

A children's hospital in Kyiv was struck by debris following an airstrike, local mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Friday on Telegram, according to a Google translation.

No injuries or damage were immediately reported, and emergency service forces are attending the scene. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kivy military administration, said the hospital is in the Obolon district, according to a Google-translated post on Telegram. He said the status of victims and local damage was still being clarified.

Earlier, the Kyiv city military administration declared an air alert, with Klitschko warning of explosions in the city.

CNBC could not independently verify the events on ground.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russian shelling struck a high-rise building in the Kherson region, injuring a man and a woman, Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the presidency of Ukraine, said Friday.

In Google-translated comments on Telegram, Yermak also noted that another man was harmed in a separate episode of drone shelling that took place in the city of Beryslav in Kherson.

Kherson — along with Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — was illegally annexed by Russia in September last year.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Ukrainian navy on Thursday announced corridors for commercial vessels traversing to and from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, but warned of ongoing Russian military risks.

"According to the order of the navigation order of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine No. 6 of 08.08.2023, new temporary traffic routes of civilian vessels to/from the Black Sea seaports of Ukraine were announced," the Ukrainian navy said on Facebook, according to a Google translation. "At the same time, it is reported that there is a military threat and mine danger from the Russian Federation along all routes."

Previously, the U.N.-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative negotiated between Moscow, Kyiv and Ankara had created a humanitarian corridor allowing the export of Ukrainian agricultural goods from the assailed country's Black Sea ports to avoid a global crisis. Russia allowed the deal to lapse in July, citing Western restrictions on its own exports.

The two sides have since escalated their rhetoric, saying they could consider vessels bound for each other's ports as potential carriers of military cargo.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukraine announces temporary Black Sea corridor for civilian ships, warns of Russia threat