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Antony Sheriff: “PRINCESS yachts – British restraint and elegant style”

Antony Sheriff joined the British luxury yacht manufacturer Princess Yachts in January 2016, after a decade as Managing Director of the luxury car manufacturer McLaren Automotive.

In 2018, Princess Yachts announced record turnover, up 27 percent on the previous year to £274.4 million. Princess continued the success story with record-breaking results for sales at the 2019 boot Düsseldorf, the world’s biggest indoor boat show.

In May 2019, Princess Yachts again saw record financial results, this time of £340m turnover and £30m in operating profit. These figures are underpinned by record levels of productivity and employment at 3,200, up 50 percent since 2016.

We talked with Antony Sheriff about the history of the brand, uniqueness of Princess Yachts and key trends in the industry today.

Let’s talk a bit about the history of the company. How did it all begin?

The Princess brand was founded in 1965 by David King, who still comes to the office on a weekly basis and contributes to the design of all the boats we are working on.

He still has the same passion as when he founded the company. Princess is one of the oldest motor yacht brands, and we are very proud that we have been operating in exactly same location ever since it was found.

Our company maintains its roots and heritage which are crucial to the brand.  The boats are built in Plymouth (UK), where we have a very strong culture of how we think about boats and how we build boats. We always keep in mind that the company was founded to build serious boats which helps to keep the seakeeping of our yachts at a fantastic standard.

You cannot get out of Plymouth harbour unless you have solid seakeeping ability, as the weather there is quite bad. The idea is making everything by hand, just as our first boat was, and is something that we still do today even though we make 250 boats a year.

We employ 3,000 people in Plymouth to do this and, no matter what type of boat we make, the process of what we do is pretty much the same as it was in 1965.

Tell us about the unique features that characterise Princess Yachts.

When we talk about designing a new yacht, there are a number of things we keep in mind; one is the seakeeping which has to be fantastic. We are very serious about the nautical qualities of our boats: the boat needs to be stable, comfortable and safe in all conditions, especially in the environment in which we live, where the waters are considerably rougher than the Mediterranean sea, so we design our boats for that environment.

The second, which is very important, is that we are designing yachts for boaters. This means that, above all, it has to be a yacht that functions well as a boat, with a lot of storage space, where things are exactly where you expect them to be. We do not want to sacrifice usability for style.

Our boats still maintain very strong degree of rationality and functionality in the way that they work and we do that through a very clever design of the architecture of the boat. So when you get on a Princess yacht, your reaction should be: “ This boat looks larger than it is.”

Everything looks simple, in its place, the walls are vertical and the floors are flat, while a lot of other yachts have many intrusions and protrusions that do not allow extra space.

What I always like to say is: “It is very simple to make things look complicated, but it is very complicated to make things simple.”

So this knowledge of how to keep things simple and how to create a uniform space is really one of our core assurances, based on our 56 years of experience in designing great yachts. Now all of that means we make yachts with great quality of space, seakeeping ability and lots of storage, but that doesn’t mean we only make functional boats.

We also make very beautiful boats. Princess Yachts has always been characterised by a degree of British understatement. It has never been classified as ultramodern, or something that people would say they hadn’t seen before.

You can be modest and elegant without going over the top, so we have been working very hard for the past few years to try to take this image of understated elegance and to build boats which are a bit more modern in their interpretation but, more than modern, to have higher design quality.

I have a background which is originally outside of the boating industry and the level of design quality in the boating industry is not what would be normal in the automotive industry, where there is a lot more time spent on surfacing forms and making sure the reflections work out nicely and that the product is much more sculptured and detailed.

We put a lot of work into that. We have been working with a company calling Pininfarina, in addition to our design team, trying to take this level of beauty to a much higher degree of satisfaction. That is the case with the latest model we are launching, the yacht Y72. It is very much a “ princess”, instantly identifiable as a Princess yacht, with no sacrifice of functionality or seakeeping, but much more beautiful than the boats that came before it.

What are the key trends in yachting in your opinion?

Firstly, I will tell you the things we are focusing on. The first is to try to reduce the carbon footprint of the boats and it doesn’t mean making hybrid boats or electric boats, although we are looking at all of that, but just over the last year we have done the complete review of our  hull designs. If you look at our X-95, the resistance on the water is 18 percent lower than the ancestry boat and it has better seakeeping as well.

So we are trying to develop our architecture to have better seakeeping than the yachts that are being replaced, but significantly better resistance through the water. By doing this, if you are less resistant in water, you consume less fuel in the water which has a very positive impact on the carbon footprint of the yacht. You also see this technology on the R35 where we used a unique hull form system with active foils in order to reduce, in that case, the resistance of the water on the cruising speed by 30 percent. So these are the technologies we are not only looking at but investing in and putting into the market. Another type of technology is that which makes the boat less intimidating and more expansive.

I take the analogy of sports supercar market, which I know well from my past experience. The growth in that market came when the supercars became easier to drive. When they had manual transmission and no traction control, no air conditioner, they were very intimidating to drive and now anybody can drive it because it’s easy; the transmission is now automatic, has stability control, and others aspects that helped it to become more accessible.

We need to implement the same to the yachts. Certain technology, such as joystick control, allows much easier control for the captain and also other things like an automatic docking system for example.

What is the most terrifying experience of the boat? It is docking. Imagine you are coming back to the dock and everybody in the tavern is watching how much damage you are going to do to your boat and the other ones near you.

So if we can make these things more accessible, you will not have to worry about it, the technology will do it for you, that’s what I think is going to be a very important trend, when it becomes more accessible to more and more people.

Don’t you think there is a future for electric and hybrid yachts and what is Princess doing in this area?

It’s a very good question. People will often look to the automotive industry and think, if cars can be electric and hybrid, why can’t boats do the same. It doesn’t work that way. The cars which are hybrid have a good carbon footprint because they are often starting and stopping, the engine turns on and off at a traffic light; it is all electric if you are driving below 30 km/h and so when you go to a highway the engine turns on. So in terms of the actual drive cycle of the car, it makes a lot of sense.

The quiet secret of hybrid cars is that, on the highway, they actually consume more than a normal car, because they are also carrying a battery, but the battery is useful when you stop. The problem with boats is that they won’t start and stop, boats go at a constant speed, cruising speed, and then stop, so a hybrid boat wouldn’t actually do much.

There are hybrids which allow you to go in and out of harbours electrically but, in terms of the amount of fuel you save, it is not much, it’s more for show than anything else.

Similarly with electric, if we could design an electric boat that will absolutely be the solution but the problem is that in order to have a fully electric boat with the same range you probably need another boat just to carry the battery. And there are no charging stations in the middle of the sea, so if you ran out of battery power you’ll have a problem. It doesn’t mean let’s forget about it, what needed is a different approach. We have to think what the propulsion system would be like for a yacht and how that might work that will give you completely carbon free performance in certain aspects, very low emission and still get the performance you need, so there are very interesting things we are working on now. If we make a hybrid boat, then it won’t be the same concept as a hybrid car. Maybe it will be different power sources in order to manage the boat in different cases, so you can get lower carbon footprints in everyday use. We do not have any hybrid solutions in our company at the moment but we are working on something similar which will be uniquely ours.

What are the types of yachts produced in your company?

We make yachts from 40 foot up to 95 foot. We have different lines of yachts according to type of usage, from very spacious and functional to very sporty. The sporty boats are our V classes and S classes, the difference is with the flybridge. The S class has a flybridge and the X class doesn’t.  They tend to be quick and beautiful and they still have a good usability, it is very much about the outdoor lifestyle. We then have the traditional flybridge boats which are F class and Y class, the difference is that Y class has bigger boats and they have a higher level of specification than the smaller F class boats. Y class boats are more elegant without losing the value of what the traditional Princess boats have and it is a very good mixture between the indoor and the outdoor space in its traditional form; big flybridges, big saloons, very good accommodation, a nice cockpit, a very beautifully designed boat. Then the most interesting new class is the X class, which is our most functional boat, but not necessarily functional in terms of simplicity but also in terms of its sportiness.

We managed to maximise the space of this yacht to the extent that our new 95 foot boat has the same amount of space as our previous boat of 116 feet, and we have done so by completely rethinking the layout of the boat.

We extended the full length of the deck and created a saloon which is almost 25 metres long, and then once we extended the saloon it also allows us to expand the flybridge, and put the sky lounge in the middle. There is a deck in the rear, in the front and you can walk around the whole boat. So on a boat with a length of 30 metres, it feels like a 60 or 70 metre-length yacht. So we do have a broad range of boats, we make 18 different E and X class yachts from 40 feet all way to 95 feet.

Can you tell us about your initiatives for marine conservation?

That’s very important to us. We make products which live on the sea, the people that use our products like to live on the ocean because it’s a beautiful place and we have to make sure it stays a beautiful place so we have a number of different initiatives.

We are the first yachting company ever to support the Marine Conservation Society which is the UK’s leading marine environment non-profit organisation and it works for protecting the seas around the UK by creating marine protection areas.

We raise money for this and to a lot of other such initiatives, including with our partners: Seabobs, which are zero emission water toys, and we have arrangements with Hummingbird which make foldable bikes. Whenever they sell something, some percentage goes to the charity for marine protection. Not only do we do it ourselves, we also engage our partners to do it too. We did a whole project protecting turtles in Turks and Caicos, and we go around the world and look where our contribution can make a difference and where we can help the environment. This is our obligation and this is the environment in which we live in as a yacht manufacture.

Who is the client who chooses Princess Yachts?

I think the people that buy Princess are the people who are buying not to show off, but to have a great boat. They are boaters and they understand that something which is flashy may not be a great boat and I think they are not necessarily the customers that are looking for the least expensive boat or the flashiest boat, but the ones who look for the best boat and have a degree of modesty. All of them are from different backgrounds, different ages, different professions, the people who use our boats are people who like boats, and treat them well. We have customers everywhere, from the United States to South Africa, from Cyprus to Russia. And what ties them together is the boat of their life that they are looking for.

My office is based in Larnaca, although I do have a strong presence in the Middle East and Russia, as I travel there frequently.

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LEGO Disney Princess Moana's Wayfinding Boat Building Toy 43210 Disney Princess Toy Set with Moana and Sina Mini-Dolls, Dolphin Figure, Disney-Inspired Pretend Play Toy for Kids Boys Girls Ages 6+

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• Motunui People's Stories - The eye-catching, buildable Catamaran toy boat showcases a printed sail that tells stories of the traditional Motunui people for Disney fans.
• Removable Shelter Included - This Disney princess buildable toy set comes with a large deck and a removable shelter containing 2 beds and a small fire lamp element.
• Moana and Sina Included - Set features Moana and her mother Sina LEGO mini-doll figures, plus a dolphin figure for movie-inspired playtime.
• Play-Ready Accessories - Set comes with an oar, drums, and coconut LEGO food elements to enhance kids' play experience and imagination.
• Epic Adventure Awaits - This LEGO | Disney Princess Moana buildable toy set offers epic adventures, featuring a sailboat, 2 mini-dolls, and a dolphin figure for kids to enjoy.
• Perfect Gift for Kids - Disney Princess fans will adore this buildable toy playset with an iconic toy boat as a birthday gift or any-time treat for kids ages 6+ years old.

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Adventure awaits fans of Disney’s Moana with this imaginative LEGO | Disney Princess Moana’s Wayfinding Boat (43210) buildable toy playset for kids Ages 6+ years old. Young fans can set sail with Moana and her mother, Sina, onboard the cool Catamaran from the movie. The kit features a double-hulled buildable toy boat for kids, with a removable shelter and a printed sail that shows stories of the Motunui people. The Moana buildable toy also includes storage space, Moana and Sina LEGO mini-doll figures, a LEGO dolphin figure and cool decorative elements. Kids set off with Moana and her mum to see what adventures are out there. They can learn to use an oar with Sina while Moana plays the drums for inspiration, eat a piece of delicious coconut and have a rest in the shelter. Oh, look, a dolphin! Let’s play! Let the LEGO Builder app guide kids on an intuitive building adventure, allowing them to zoom in and rotate models in 3D, save sets and track their progress. This detailed Disney Princess building toy is packed with features and accessories to boost the fun as kids role-play and relive Disney: Moana film scenes or create their own. The buildable toy boat incorporates action and house play while helping to inspire children’s creative skills. It can be played independently or added to other LEGO | Disney sets (sold separately). Surprise a fan of Disney Princess and LEGO building toys with this playset as a special birthday gift for kids Ages 6 plus years old. The buildable toy boat measures over 6 in. (17 cm) high, 7 in. (19 cm) long and 5 in. (14 cm) wide. Contains 321 Pieces.

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Toy contains small parts and a small ball. Not for children under 3 years.

From the manufacturer

Set sail for adventure with Disney’s Moana

This LEGO ǀ Disney set taps into kids’ passion for action and encourages endless play, while giving shoppers great value.

Build it and let the adventures begin

Features 2 LEGO mini-doll figures, a boat with shelter and printed sail, plus story starters to inspire role-play adventure.

LEGO ǀ Disney Moana’s Wayfinding Boat

Fulfill a child’s love of unlimited adventures

Fun gift for fans of imaginative escapades, developing creative skills as kids build and play with the set repeatedly.

Enter a new world of building

Builders can zoom in, rotate and track their progress using the fun, intuitive LEGO Builder app.

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• LEGO Building Elements

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Has the loveliest little details!

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Customers like the quality, readability, and design of the toy building block. For example, they mention it's faithful to the movie, easy to put together, and has great design with many good details. That said, some appreciate the colors and details.

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Customers like the design of the toy building block. They mention it has many good details, is adorable, and has unique pieces. Some say the set encourages imagination and has an innovative design with many unique features that they have never seen before.

"... Looks great next to the Lego Moana flowerpot too!! Highly recommend!" Read more

"...This particular set encourages imagination , because you can use it for playing and making up all kinds of stories, in adition to just using it to..." Read more

"...This set has an innovative design and many unique features that I have never seen before. My 6-year-old daughter enjoyed doing this set with my help...." Read more

"My daughter loved it and enjoyed the assembly. Great design with many good details . The instructions were clear and easy to follow...." Read more

Customers find the instructions clear and easy to follow. They also mention that the set is fun and enjoyable to build while watching the movie.

"...it together, which took probably 30-45 minutes, but it was a fun and enjoyable build ! Looks great next to the Lego Moana flowerpot too!!..." Read more

"...She had a lot of fun putting it together . Great product! I recommend." Read more

"Huge Moana fan and this set was perfect to build while watching the movie" Read more

"...Great design with many good details. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. A little bit expensive as many of lego products" Read more

Customers are satisfied with the quality of the toy building blocks. They mention that it's a great STEM toy and faithful to the movie.

"...It is compatable with our Lego brand blocks, and is a good quality ...." Read more

"...She had a lot of fun putting it together. Great product ! I recommend." Read more

" Great Lego quality and really is a cool model of Moana’s boat. My daughter really enjoyed putting it together." Read more

"...And is faithful to the movie . He calls it his “we know the way boat”." Read more

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• X Class Superyachts

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An entirely new concept in yacht design and an evolution in superyachts : the Princess X Class, which replaces the M Class as the flagship superyacht range of Princess Yachts.

The first of the Superfly Yachts, the Princess X95 combines magnificent yacht architecture with impressive sea handling and fuel efficiency, a partnership which stands out within the yachting industry. There is also her sister ship, the Princess X80 superyacht. This class of yacht completely rethinks what we know about yacht architecture, delivering a new benchmark or luxury living space across four deck spaces and with a super flybridge which extends to the full length of the yacht. The new X Class is the perfect craft for those who wish to spend extended time aboard and venture further afield.

Discover more about the Princess X Class range of superyachts here.

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Breaking news, european nations resurrect, expand compulsory military service in face of russian threat.

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Some European countries have resurrected or expanded their compulsory military service after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — a once-unthinkable policy shift fueled by the notion that they’d have to respond quickly if the Russian bear trudges across their borders.

Many nations ended their drafts after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. But as the risk of a widening war rises, alarm bells have sounded in countries near the Russian border, including the smaller Scandinavian and Baltic states most likely to be threatened.

“We are coming to the realization that we may have to adjust the way we mobilize for war and adjust the way we produce military equipment and we recruit and train personnel,” said Robert Hamilton, head of Eurasia research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a former US Army officer, to CNN on Sunday.

“It is tragically true that here we are in 2024 and we are grappling with the questions of how to mobilize millions of people to be thrown into a meatgrinder of a war potentially,” Hamilton said.

“But this is where Russia has put us.”  

The tiny nation of Latvia — with its just under 2 million people wedged between Russia and the Baltic Sea — is the latest to reintroduce conscription, which it abolished in 2006.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, men must register for the draft as soon as they turn 18.

The country’s citizens pushed back at first, according to Arturs Pīlācis, a 20-year-old student. But that faded as the need to defend their homeland became clear, CNN said.

“There wasn’t really an option where we can stand by and think things will go on as they were before because of the unprovoked aggression in Ukraine,” he told the network.

In Norway — which already has mandatory conscription — elected officials presented in April a long-term plan to double the defense budget and draft 20,000 soldiers, employees and reservists to serve in the armed forces.

“We need a defense that is fit for purpose in the emerging security environment,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.

Some of the conscripted seem to agree.

“I am willing to fight for my country if need be because I believe in the values that the Norwegian society is built on, and I believe those values of inclusion and equality and democracy are worth fighting for,” said student Jens Bartnes, a 26-year-old who finished his military training about seven years ago.

Lithuania, another Baltic state with a long-simmering fear of Russian invasion, has seen similar changes since it reintroduced conscription in 2015, CNN said.

Not everyone there is fond of the draft, according to Paulius Vaitiekus, president of Lithuania’s National Students’ Union.

But there has been “a shift in the mindset of the youth towards being more active, although not necessarily through conscripting,” he said, adding that students have been sending supplies to the Ukrainian front to help the embattled nation fight off its Russian aggressor.

Other countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden have small standing armies but also the ability to call up thousands — and sometimes hundreds of thousands — of already-trained volunteers at a moment’s notice.

The Finnish Defense Force, for example, only has about 13,000 active members. But it can activate nearly a million reservists — and 280,000 of those can respond immediately, CNN said.

That makes it a good example of how to mix a small professional army with a mammoth amount of civilian reinforcements, Hamilton said.

That model worked well against the Russians in the past, specifically when the country nearly fought the Soviet Union to a standstill during a series of savage wars that ended with the Moscow Armistice in 1944.

Germany has also sought to reinvigorate its military, which has not been a priority since the country’s defeat in World War II.

This year, the nation updated its plans to respond to a war in Europe. And last month, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius proposed a new voluntary military service so the country would be “ready for war by 2029.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization — a k a NATO — is also trying to up its game in response to the Russian threat.

“Since 2014, NATO has undergone the most significant transformation in our collective defense in a generation,” rep Farah Dakhlallah told CNN.

“We have put in place the most comprehensive defense plans since the Cold War, with currently more than 500,000 troops at high readiness.”

The alliance doesn’t tell its members whether to conscript citizens, Dakhlallah said. But about a third do, and others are now weighing it.

“The important thing is that allies continue to have capable armed forces to protect our territory and our populations,” Dakhlallah said.

Retired US Gen. Wesley Clark said Putin’s campaign of open war against Ukraine — with the goal of recreating the Soviet empire — should be a wake-up call.

“So we’ve now got a war in Europe that we never thought we would see again,” Clark, who also served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told CNN.

“Whether this is a new Cold War or an emerging hot war is unclear,” he continued.

Still, “it’s a very imminent warning to NATO that we’ve got to rebuild our defenses.”

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Ukraine-Russia war - latest updates

Follow our Ukraine war blog for all the latest developments, reaction and analysis. Got a question on the conflict or its wider implications? Submit it below and our experts will answer a selection.

Monday 22 July 2024 13:17, UK

• Everything you need to know as war enters new week
• Your questions answered: Could internal dissent lead to Putin's removal from power? | Has the West been honest about Ukraine's failures?

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It's been another big week in the conflict, with world leaders met for a NATO summit and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to the UK to attend a European Political Community meeting. 

We haven't been able to bring you live coverage today, but here's an overview of where the war stands at the moment to kick off the new week... 

Secret labs across Ukraine building 'robot army' to fight Russia

Ukraine is hoping to assemble swathes of cheap, unmanned drones that it hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.

An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops across Ukraine are building this robot army at a fraction of the cost it takes to import similar models.

Estimates believe around 250 defence startups across the country are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.

Costing around $35,000 (£27,000) to build, employees at startups like those run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days from a shed.

The 800kg Odyssey prototype can travel up to 18.5 miles (30km) on one charge of a battery the size of a small beer cooler.

It acts as a rescue and supply drone but can be modified to carry a remotely operated heavy machine gun or sling mine-clearing charges.

Russia and China conclude naval drills

Russian and Chinese ships used joint naval exercises in the South China Sea last week to successfully rehearse several combat drills, Russian state media reports. 

Russia's Pacific Fleet was cited as saying that the two navies had carried out about 30 combat exercises, including joint artillery firing at sea, coastal and air targets, and joint search and rescue operations at sea.

The drills, dubbed "Maritime Cooperation 2024", have now concluded. 

China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in 2022 when President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Russia's Kharkiv advance halted, Zelenskyy says

While speaking at the European Political Community summit, Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had halted Moscow's forces completely in Kharkiv. 

The Ukrainian president made the comment while trying to convince leaders to help with Kyiv's air defence capability.

"We have stopped the Russian advance on Kharkiv - period," he said.

"Putin has sacrificed tens of thousands of his citizens but has achieved nothing significant," he added.

Russia launched a surprise attack on Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region in May, opening up another front for Ukraine to defend.

Trump and Zelenskyy have 'very good phone call'

On Friday, Donald Trump and Mr Zelenskyy had a "very good phone call", according to the former US president, after he promised to end Russia's war with Ukraine if he was re-elected.

Mr Zelenskyy "congratulated me on a very successful Republican National Convention and becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States", he said in a post on the social media app Truth Social.

The pair agreed to "discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting", according to Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X.

That's all for our live updates on the war in Ukraine for today. 

We'll be back tomorrow with all the latest. 

In the meantime, here's a reminder of today's key events: 

• Ukraine said Russia was "testing new tactics" after it launched its fifth drone attack on Kyiv in two weeks;
• Russian fighter jets stopped two US strategic bombers from violating the country's airspace, Moscow's defence ministry said;
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated calls for countries to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons after Russia's overnight drone and missile attack;
• Russian state media reported Moscow's troops had captured two settlements in Ukraine - Rozivka, in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, and Pishchane Nizhne in the northeastern Kharkiv region;
• Russian forces launched a "double tap" attack on first responders in Sumy, the Ukrainian state emergency service said;
• Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko warned the Ukrainian president faces "a very difficult" time in the coming months. 

Ukraine is developing AI systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones. 

A number of startups in the country are working to roll out AI-enabled drones across the front line in the hope of overcoming Russia's unmanned aerial vehicle power. 

Swarmer is developing software that links drones in a network, allowing decisions to be implemented instantly across the group. 

"For a swarm of 10 or 20 drones or robots, it's virtually impossible for humans to manage them," Swarmer chief executive Serhiy Kupriienko told Reuters. 

The company is one of more than 200 tech firms that have sprung up since the war started. 

Mr Kupriienko said that while human pilots struggle to run operations involving more than five drones, AI will be able to process hundreds.

The system, called Styx, directs a web of reconnaissance and strike drones, both large and small, in the air and on the ground. 

Every drone would be able to plan its own moves and predict the behaviour of the others in the swarm, he explained. 

Swarmer's technology is still under development and has only been trialled on the battlefield experimentally, he added. 

Two Ukrainian photojournalists have been injured after coming under Russian fire. 

Olga Kovalyova and Vladyslav Krasnoshchok had been documenting the situation in Donetsk from a trench near the front line when they came under attack. 

Ms Kovalyova, who works for the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP), was evacuated and hospitalised after being hit by shrapnel, the organisation said. 

"I was saved by a bulletproof vest and a helmet. The shrapnel got to a place where there was no protection," Ms Kovalyova said, according to UAPP's statement. 

"It's a pity that it happened on the first day of the business trip."

Mr Krasnoshchok suffered a concussion but did not require hospital treatment, it added. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will face a "very difficult" time over the coming months, the mayor of Kyiv has warned. 

Speaking to Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera, Vitaliy Klitschko said the Ukrainian president will have to make hard decisions that could lead to "political suicide". 

He warned that Mr Zelenskyy may have to launch a referendum in Ukraine if a territorial compromise with Russia is put on the table. 

"The coming months will be very difficult for Volodymyr Zelenskyy," he said. 

"Will he have to continue the war with new deaths and destruction, or consider the possibility of a territorial compromise with Putin?" 

"Whatever move he makes, our president risks political suicide. Let's be honest, we have to win the war, but the situation is getting more and more difficult. It depends on the help that comes from the allies. It would be a nightmare if we had to fight for two more years." 

More than 270 Ukrainian Telegram channels have been hacked today, news outlets in the country have reported. 

Hackers sent a message to Ukrainians telling them to "lay down their arms", according to Suspilne. 

Messages also appeared accusing Volodymyr Zelenskyy of starting the war, it said. 

In a Facebook post, Ukraine's state security service said the cyberattack was carried out by the Russian FleepBot service. 

"On July 21, mass publication of messages of a provocative nature was recorded in a number of well-known Ukrainian Telegram channels that used the FleepBot software to post news," it wrote. 

"We would like to once again emphasize the danger of using any software of the aggressor country."

FleepBot is a Telegram tool that allows users to schedule posts to go out automatically. 

Russian forces have launched a "double tap" attack on first responders in Sumy, the Ukrainian state emergency service has said.

Emergency workers had been dealing with the aftermath of an overnight missile attack on the northeastern city when they came under fire. 

They were extinguishing one of five fires at a residential building at the time, the service said. 

No casualties have been reported. 

The "double tap" tactic, which has been used by Russia throughout the war, sees an area come under a second attack shortly after an initial strike. 

In several cases, the second attack has come while rescuers are trying to help those who have been injured. 

In March, more than 20 people were killed in the southern city of Odesa in a "double tap" attack. 

At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as a "despicable act of cowardice". 

By Lara Keay , news reporter

The establishment of the "axis powers" in the 1930s paved the way for the Second World War.

Agreements signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan in 1936 united them in their expansionist interests and hatred of Western allies.

Amid Russia's war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and China's repeated threats of invading Taiwan, some security and military analysts say we are on a similar path again and that Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are the "new axis powers".

The last time a similar term was used was in 2002 by former US President George W Bush, describing Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, as an "axis of evil" in the wake of 9/11.

Ahead of a new UK defence review, former defence secretary and NATO leader Lord Robertson described Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea as a "deadly quartet".

There have also been warnings more than one of them risks triggering a third world war within the next five years.

Here Sky News looks at the risk they pose and how it could affect life in the UK...

People living in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region have been left without water, a Ukrainian organisation has said. 

The region was illegally annexed by Russia in 2022, but is not fully controlled by Moscow. 

When Russian troops occupied the area, they attempted to build a pipeline to pump water from the River Don to the region. 

But the Ukrainian Centre of National Resistance has said the pipeline has stopped working due to a power outage. 

It claimed there had been ongoing issues with the system due to fighting in the region, but repairs have taken months and the situation has "worsened". 

"Due to the power outage in Russia, the pumping stations of the newly built canal have failed, and the water supply has stopped completely," it said. 

Russian troops have captured two settlements in Ukraine, state media has reported. 

The village of Rozivka, in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, and Pishchane Nizhne in the northeastern Kharkiv region have both been taken, according to the reports. 

TASS news agency said both villages were captured in one day. 

It quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying: "As a result of successful actions, units of the West group of troops liberated the settlements of Rozivka in the Luhansk People's Republic and Pishchane Nizhne in the Kharkiv region, and also occupied more advantageous lines and positions." 

Russia illegally annexed Luhansk and three other regions (Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia) in 2022. 

The international community still recognises the areas as part of Ukraine. 

Kharkiv has been one of Russia's targets since the early days of the war, but the region became more of a focal point in May when Moscow's forces launched a cross-border incursion. 

Ukrainian officials have previously said the incursion had been contained, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the Kharkiv advance had been "halted" in an address to world leaders earlier this week. 

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