Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s forces launch major drone attack as they claim key hill town of Vuhledar
Vuhledar has been a bastion of Ukrainian resistance since Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion in February 2022
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Putin’s forces have launched a major drone attack on 15 Ukrainian regions, causing widespread damage to commercial and residential infrastructure.
The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during the assault, with 23 more likely impacted by active electronic jamming.
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv said the air force had downed around 15 drones over the city and its surroundings during an air alert that lasted more than five hours.
An attack on the southern region of Odesa damaged power lines, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Workers restored power to more than 3,000 consumers, though a further 2,000 people remained without power in one of the districts.
It comes as claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Control of the area, which lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, is significant because it will ease Russia’s advance as it tries to pierce deeper behind the Ukrainian defensive lines.
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Death toll rises to six in Ukrainian supermarket strike
At least six people were killed and three were injured in an alleged Russian artillery strike in a busy market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday.
The attack came on the same morning Ukrainians across the country were observing a minute’s silence for their military and war dead.
The strike happened as shoppers made their way between stalls at the city centre market, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a stall with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery and hit close to a public transport stop.
It initially reported that seven people were killed but later corrected that toll to six, saying a severely wounded person thought to be dead was in intensive care at a local hospital.
Ukraine investigating alleged killing of 16 POWs by Russian army
Ukraine said it had launched an investigation into what it said was an apparent shooting of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers.
The soldiers who were allegedly killed had surrendered on the eastern Ukrainian frontline.
“This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said on X.
“This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
Moscow did not immediately comment on the accusations. The Kremlin denies that Russia commits war crimes in Ukraine.
The Ukraine prosecutor general office said on the Telegram messaging app that it was looking into a video shared on social media showing the alleged killing.
A video with grainy drone footage purported to show a group of more than ten people leaving a trench. They are lined up and then fall down after being fired upon by other, indistinct figures.
Mr Kostin said the incident took place on the Pokrovsk front, an area of intensified Russian assaults.
Russian troops reach centre of Ukraine’s Vuhledar in the east, Ukrainian governor says
Russian troops have reached the centre of Vuhledar, a bastion on strategic high ground in eastern Ukraine that has resisted Russian assaults since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, the regional governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Tuesday.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor, said the situation in Vuhledar was extremely difficult.
“The enemy is already nearly in the centre of the city,” Filashkin told Ukrainian TV.
Russian forces reached the outskirts of the small mining town last week and intensified their offensive push in recent days.
Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine advanced at their fastest rate in two years in August, according to multiple open-source maps. Their relentless advance in the Ukrainian east comes despite Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
New Nato chief not worried by potential second Trump presidency
New Nato chief Mark Rutte has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine as he takes charge at a critical time for the Western alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister replaced Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general on Tuesday, where he pledged continued support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes just before a pivotal US presidential election in November, with Nato-sceptic Donald Trump, who declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, on the Republican ticket.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” Mr Rutte said at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking about the prospect of former US president Donald Trump’s re-election, Mr Rutte added: “I’m not worried.
“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more on defence and he achieved this.
“Because indeed, at the moment, we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office.”
Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says
Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.
The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.
“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out
Ukraine will fight street to street to keep Russia out of key eastern city
The Russians taking Pokrovsk would split Ukraine’s defensive line in the region and harm supplies in the eastern part of Donetsk. Now facing constant bombardment, soldiers and residents in Pokrovsk speak to Askold Krushelnycky about the drawn-out siege they are bracing themselves for
Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town
Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.
The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
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