Ukraine-Russia war live: Captured soldier executed with sword by Putin’s troops, Kyiv official alleges
The soldier was allegedly executed in Donetsk, which has seen fierce fighting for the town of Pokrovsk
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Vladimir Putin’s troops have executed a Ukrainian soldier with a sword amid fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine, Kyiv has claimed.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, alleged that images had appeared on social media showing an executed Ukrainian prisoner of war with his hands tied in Donetsk.
It comes as Russian troops launched around 40 attacks on Pokrovsk overnight, a key city in eastern Ukraine key to Mr Putin’s objective of seizing the entire Donbas region, comprising of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“Photos appeared on social media of how the Russians probably executed a unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with a sword,” Mr Lubients said.
“This action is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. How much longer will the world watch as Russia openly demonstrates disregard for any norms and laws?”
Meanwhile, Estonian president Alar Karis has urged Nato allies to pay less attention to Mr Putin’s “red lines” and to focus on defeating his military in Ukraine.
“We probably realise now that we have to cross all of these red lines and then start forcing Russia out of Ukraine,” he told the Kyiv Independent.
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Kyiv claims Putin’s troops execute PoW with sword
Vladimir Putin’s troops have executed a Ukrainian soldier with a sword amid fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine, Kyivhas claimed.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, alleged that images had appeared on social media showing an executed Ukrainian prisoner of war with his hands tied in Donetsk.
It comes as Russian troops launched around 40 attacks on Pokrovsk overnight, a key city in eastern Ukraine key to Mr Putin’s objective of seizing the entire Donbas region, comprising of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“Photos appeared on social media of how the Russians probably executed a unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with a sword,” Mr Lubients said.
“This action is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. How much longer will the world watch as Russia openly demonstrates disregard for any norms and laws?”
Russian journalist jailed for anti-war statements starts hunger strike
Maria Ponomarenko, a journalist from Siberia serving a six-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, has declared a hunger strike, according to her publication and a supporter.
The 46-year-old was detained less than two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 for accusing the Russian air force of bombing a theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
She was found guilty last February of spreading false information about the Russian military by a court in her hometown of Barnaul in western Siberia.
More than 20,000 people have been arrested across Russia for speaking out against the war, according to rights monitor OVD-Info.
Kremlin says Russian army expansion needed to address growing threats on western flank
The Kremlin said that an order by President Vladimir Putin to transform Russia’s army into the second largest in the world was needed to address growing threats on Russia’s western borders and instability to the east.
Mr Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.
“This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken.”
In sharing nuclear secrets with Iran, Putin may have crossed his own ‘red line
In sharing nuclear secrets with Iran, Putin may have crossed his own ‘red line’
While his predecessors in the Soviet Union worried that sharing their bomb with rogue regimes could set them loose to cause havoc, the Russian president has indicated that he shares no such concerns, writes Mark Almond
Germany pledges additional €100m in winter aid for Ukraine
Germany will provide an additional €100m (£84.2m) in aid for Ukraine this winter, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock announced during a visit to Moldova today.
Berlin has already given approximately €5bn in 2023 and approximately €1.6bn in 2022 in military assistance since the start of the Ukraine war. Another €2.9bn have been committed so far for future deliveries which will reach Ukraine in the years 2025 to 2028, officials had announced last month.
The aid from Germany includes armoured vehicles, air defence systems including Patriot missiles, and artillery.
Russia attacks energy infrastructure in Sumy
Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, cutting power in some districts, local authorities said this morning.
The attack caused damage in the Konotop, Okhtyrka and Sumy districts and critical infrastructure facilities were forced to switch to back up power systems, regional officials said. Sumy’s water supply facilities were also affected.
The regional authorities said air defences shot down 16 drones over the region.
Sumy’s acting mayor Artem Kobzar said there were no casualties in the city and that energy workers were dealing with the attack’s aftermath.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 51 drones across five regions overnight and that air defences shot down 34 of them.
Putin’s red lines on Ukraine ‘must be crossed’ says European leader
Vladimir Putin must be defeated and Nato allies must do more to cross the Russian president’s red lines, Estonian president Alar Karis has said.
“We probably realise now that we have to cross all of these red lines and then start forcing Russia out of Ukraine,” he told the Kyiv Independent, as he backed Volodymyr Zelensky’s calls to strike Russia with West’s long-range missiles.
In May this year, he had accused Russia of forcing “an unjust war upon Ukraine” and Russia was the one escalating the conflict each day.
“We are in a very simple position, we should lift the restrictions on the use of weapons that Ukraine gets from the Western world so we can target these drones where they start (on Russian territory). When this happens, the drones never reach Ukraine, Latvia, or any other country,” he told the Ukrainian news website.
Putin ‘expands military to 2.4m people’
Vladimir Putin has expanded his military by tens of thousands after dozens were injured when a Russian glide bomb hit a high-rise building in northeastern Ukraine.
Mr Putin signed a decree increasing the overall size of the Russian armed forces by 180,000, bringing the total capacity to 2.39million people, Russia state news agency RIA reported.
The last time the staffing level of the Armed Forces was increased was in December 2023. It was raised to 2,209,130 people, including 1,320,000 military personnel.
Mapped: The Russian targets Ukraine could hit with long-range missiles
If Washington was to give Kyiv the go-ahead to use the weapons, despite Vladimir Putin’s warning of war, what Russian targets could Ukraine hit? The Independent takes a look below.
Mapped: The Russian targets Ukraine could hit with long-range missiles
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