Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missile strikes hit multiple Ukrainian cities
Dozens of injuries were reported in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Russia has continued a nearly 19-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Recently, though, the Ukrainians have gone on a counteroffensive, fighting to reclaim occupied territory.
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Putin has 'already lost' the war in Ukraine, Biden says
Coming off a "very productive summit" with NATO allies, President Joe Biden offered a forceful dismissal of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to capture Ukraine during a joint press conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
"There is no possibility of him winning the war in Ukraine. He's already lost that war," Biden said.
Biden has made similar statements before about Putin’s chances of success, though it’s particularly notable coming off of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top military officials Wednesday.
Biden wouldn’t give a timeline for how long he thinks the war can continue, but he ruled out a yearslong offense.
"I don't think the war could go on for years for two reasons. No. 1, I do not think that Russia could maintain the war forever -- No. 1 in terms of their resources and capacity. No. 2, I think that there is going to be a circumstance where eventually, President Putin is going to decide it’s not in the interest of Russia economically, politically or otherwise to continue this war," Biden said.
"But I can't predict exactly how that happens," he continued. "My hope is and my expectation is you’ll see that Ukraine makes significant progress on their offensive and that it generates a negotiated settlement somewhere along the line."
-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Cheyenne Haslett
US official talks Russian mutiny and potential impact on Ukraine war
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that "it remains to be seen" whether Russia has recovered from last month's brief but chaotic mutiny and if it will have any notable effect on the fighting in Ukraine.
"We don't exactly know what transpired every minute of that event and we don't really know what kind of impact it's going to have on the war in Ukraine," Kirby told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos during an interview on "Good Morning America."
"As we speak, there hasn't really been that much of an effect on the fighting in Ukraine," he added. "The Russians are dug in. The Ukrainians are trying to claw back territory. We're still trying to help them win."
Ukrainian forces are in the midst of a counteroffensive, "all the way from the Donbas area down toward Zaporizhia to the south," according to Kirby.
"They're making halting progress, not as fast [or] as far as they'd like to go, but we're going to do everything we can to give them the tools and capabilities to succeed," he said. "It could be weeks, it could be months of hard fighting here as they try to claim back the rest of their country."
Russian intel director claims he had call with CIA director
Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Sergey Naryshkin claims he had a phone conversation with CIA Director William Burns in late June, according to the Russian state media outlet TASS.
"The bulk of the conversation was focused on discussing Ukraine and events around it. We gave some thought to and deliberated on what should be done about Ukraine," Naryshkin claimed to the outlet.
The CIA declined to comment about the alleged call.
The alleged conversation lasted "about an hour," according to Naryshkin.
The Russian intel chief noted that arranging an in-person meeting between him and the CIA leader remained a possibility.
-ABC News' Anastasia Bagaeva
Russian FM says NATO has 'returned to the schemes of the Cold War'
The NATO summit in Vilnius showed that the NATO "alliance has finally returned to the schemes of the Cold War," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
"NATO consistently lowers the threshold for the use of force and strengthens the nuclear component in military planning," the statement added.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also noted NATO countries "promised to continue supplying more and more long-range weapons to Kyiv," saying they are doing so in order to "prolong the conflict."
-ABC News' Tanya Stukalova
Wagner Group claims control over Rostov military facilities, airport
Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, said on Saturday that the headquarters of the Southern Military District and all military facilities in Rostov-on-Don were under his control.
Prigozhin in a video demanded that Kremlin bring him Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu.
He also threatened in the video that he would go to Moscow.
"We will destroy anyone who stands in our way," he said in one of a series of video and audio recordings posted on social media.
He added, "We are moving forward and will go until the end."