President Vladimir Putin vowed to “intensify” attacks on Ukraine after days of aerial bombardment by both sides in the long war.
Speaking during a visit to a military hospital in Moscow, Putin said the military would continue to target Ukraine’s “military facilities.
” He called Ukraine’s airstrike on the Russian town of Belgorod “a deliberate attack against civilians.
” Twenty-four people were killed and more than 100 injured in Saturday’s attack. Speaking to Russian troops on Monday, Putin said the war was turning in Moscow’s favor and he wanted it to end quickly, but only on Russia’s terms.
He said Ukraine’s Western backers were the biggest obstacle to ending the conflict, but their rhetoric began to change as they began to realize they could not “destroy” Russia.
On Sunday, Putin sent his traditional New Year’s message in which he praised Russian soldiers as “heroes” without explicitly mentioning the war in Ukraine.
In his own New Year’s message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to sharply increase the number of weapons produced by the country by 2024, pledging to build at least one million drones.
Russia and Ukraine have continuously had deadly attacks in recent days.
Ukraine bombed the Russian-held city of Donetsk on New Year’s Eve, killing at least four people and wounding 13 others, according to Moscow-appointed officials and on Saturday, Ukrainian forces launched a series of attacks on targets in southwestern Russia, including one on Belgorod that Mr. Putin called a “terrorist attack.
” Last week, Russia launched a widespread attack in several cities in Ukraine, killing at least 45 people. This attack was described by Kiev as Russia’s largest missile bombardment of the war so far.
In occupied Berdyansk, two Ukrainian teens who were murdered in a confrontation with Russian soldiers have been praised as heroes.
Tihran Ohannisian, 16, is shown holding a Kalashnikov gun in his lap and is shown in a video clip that surfaced over the weekend covered in blood.
The boy performs patriotic songs for his country with fervour despite his health and claims to have killed two Russian soldiers in the conflict.
‘Two for sure, that’s death, guys. Farewell! Glory to Ukraine!’ Tihran declares proudly as he raises his fist in solidarity before later succumbing to his injuries.
Tihran Ohannisian filmed a video of himself bloodied and clutching a rifle before dying from his injuries
Russian authorities in Berdyansk confirmed the deaths of Ohannisian and his 16-year-old classmate, Mykyta Khanhanov, on Saturday.
They claimed the boys had killed a civilian and labelled them ‘pro-Ukrainian terrorists’.
Human rights activists are now trying to understand the exact circumstances of the boys’ deaths after they became the subject of a European parliament resolution.
In September last year, Tihran was arrested at his home in Berdyansk by Russian forces who tried to accuse him of sabotaging a railway to disrupt military logistics. Mykyta was also blamed but he was able to escape the arrest.
It is said Tihran was beaten and tortured as the Russian forces tried to elicit a confession from him.
Media and human rights campaigners – largely headed up by the Ukrainian body Media Initiative for Human Rights – eventually helped secure his release. Tihran and Mykyta were placed under house arrest and ordered to check in at a local police station daily.
‘My son was tortured with electric shocks,’ Tihran’s mother, Oksana Starovierova, told journalists, The Times reported.
The teens had been repeatedly targeted by Russian occupiers and labelled as terrorists
‘They took him to a field and carried out a mock execution,’ she said. ‘Russians asked him, “Are you going to become a guerilla?” They ordered him to prepare to die.’
Ms Starovierova, her husband, and Tihran’s younger sister had left for Germany following the invasion, but Tihran had chosen to stay and look after his grandmother.
The family returned in January to try and get Tihran out of the country but were prevented from doing so by Russian forces.
The boys were formally charged by Russia’s Investigative Committee in May 2023, and if convicted would have faced 20 years in prison.
Their arrests were condemned by the European parliament and a range of human rights organisations, who introduced a resolution on the case calling on Russia to ‘end grave violations against children affected by armed conflict’ and to transfer the boys to Ukrainian territory.
It also called on Russian authorities to allow the boys access to lawyers and international organisation representatives, although it was later revealed they were denied access to legal representation.
The exact circumstances of the boys’ death are shrouded in mystery.
The teens are belived to have killed at least two Russian soldiers before succumbing to their injuries
The pair are believed to have fled their homes last week, fearing another interview by Russian officials.
Ohannissian is known to have contacted his mother in Germany, saying that they were alone and needed help.
It is not known exactly what triggered the violence of the boys’ last moments, although Ohannissian’s defiant video suggests he had, indeed, killed two Russians and knew he was about to die himself.
The Russian authorities say the boys killed a civilian: Ukrainian sources say they shot two collaborationist policemen.
Whatever the truth, by 7pm on Saturday the boys were both dead.
The video is frightening and blurry. On what appears to be the southern front, a Ukrainian soldier from the 73rd Naval Special Operations Centre battles his way through a trench while firing frequently at close range Russian soldiers. The turmoil, intense panic, and savagery at the opening of this counteroffensive are all made worse by the dust that is being kicked up.
It would always require the kind of horrifying, face-to-face warfare depicted in the special forces film, and it was never going to be easy. However, the outcome of Ukraine’s assault still depends on its ability to outsmart and surprise Moscow’s forces, not in gruelling direct battle but rather on a more general strategic level. And this is perhaps the reason why this first stage of the project is starting slowly, sometimes incrementally.
For months, we have seen a patient bid by Ukraine to erode the readiness of Russian defenses. The slow drip of explosions at fuel depots, headquarters and on railway lines has been about weakening Russia’s ability to withstand and adapt to the first major assaults.
This painstaking work continues, with a reported blast Sunday in the occupied village of Rykove, in the Kherson region, that leveled an apparent ammunition dump. Open-source analysts have noted the huge blast pattern suggests significant secondary explosions. The attack is also, they noted, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) inside enemy territory, suggesting either an acute lack of awareness among Russian ranks of the new dangers they face from longer-range NATO-supplied missiles, or an inability to adapt and alter their presence accordingly.
Rykove sits close to Crimea, in an area whose railway supply lines are already probably impaired by recent surgical Ukrainian attacks.
No single strike is terminal, but a slow accumulation of damage reduces Russian options and can, eventually, lead to cracks in their forces’ defensive network, or their basic ability to function. As Russia has moved to respond to Ukraine’s advances in recent weeks, it will have given away key signals about its readiness, supply issues and priorities. Western satellites are likely providing clear information about Moscow’s recalibrations to Kyiv.
At present, Ukraine appears to be keeping its options open. The priority is progress along the expansive southern front, which marks the valuable land corridor between occupied Crimea and the Donbas, and the Russia mainland. Most observers agree it is the singular goal of this counteroffensive to break that land bridge.
A Crimean peninsula isolated from the Donbas is much harder to resupply and defend, leaving Russian President Vladimir Putin with a stark choice: expose his military assets in Crimea to a long standoff, or cut his losses and pull them back.
Few analysts contend he can stomach the latter, and so we may face a long siege of the peninsula over the winter months, as Kyiv returns Moscow to the boundaries it stole in 2014-15, or worse. It is arguably a symbolic defeat for Moscow (and a definable victory for Kyiv) to see Russia’s past 16 months of carnage and losses end in no strategic gain.
The question for July is how this is achieved. Ukraine has been making the greatest public noise about its advances around Velyka Novosilka, to the southeast. Here the recent seizure of Blahodatne puts the 68th Brigade perilously close to occupied Volnovakha and its railway tracks leading to the vital occupied city of Mariupol.
Most of the villages Ukraine has publicly liberated lie in this direction. It is part of a costly and torturous push into Russian lines that, according to drone operators whom CNN met in late April, were acutely ready for attack, pulling back parts of their heavy equipment away from the front.
Ukrainian progress too is noted far to the west of Zaporizhzhia region, near Orikhiv. It has also been grueling, with Ukrainian losses reported around Mala Tokmachka, and now intense fighting near Pyatykhatky. Some pro-Russian bloggers have suggested the village has already been liberated.
Igor Strelkov, formerly the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic militia and now an occasional critic of the Russian military, said Tuesday heavy fighting had broken out in Zherebyanki, to Pyatykhatky’s west, a move that hints Ukrainian forces might be aiming to cut off the larger occupied town of Kamyanske along the Dnipro River.
This angle of advance – toward the occupied city of Melitopol – appears the more likely and profitable for Ukraine. While this front is braced for attack and heavily defended, it is closer to Zaporizhzhia city and to Ukrainian resupply, providing a helpful approach for Kyiv’s forces on to the Crimean peninsula. But to make significant progress, they will be counting on at least a partial Russian collapse somewhere along this elaborate trench network.
This defense is layered: the first trenches that Ukraine will hit will not be the last. But at some point, Russia’s elaborate systems of WW1-era dugouts and more modern minefields may give way, and then the Sea of Azov is an open drive across flat territory.
To keep Russian forces guessing yet still, Ukrainian gains are regularly trumpeted around Bakhmut, a city of minimal strategic significance whose center was captured by Russia at enormous cost last month. Moscow can hardly afford the loss of face of a reversal of fortune here. Finally, there are repeated reports of clashes to its north, around Kupyansk and Kreminna – yet another possible angle for a better-prepared Ukrainian force to advance. The aim is to force Russia into uncomfortable choices about where to send reinforcements.
Ukraine’s top commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, may not yet know where he will sink the bulk of his newly trained and equipped forces. Some estimates suggest only a quarter of Ukraine’s fresh units, bolstered by NATO training and supplies, are now in the fight. Zalyuzhnyi has said nothing about his plans yet. He may be waiting to see where ammunition and resupply worsens first, or where Russia appears unwilling to sink extra reserves.
The wait is not without political cost. Kyiv needs to cement a change in the frontlines to validate the huge investment in its forces made by NATO. It should be acutely aware that elections in several countries over the next two years will likely alter the West’s appetite to bankroll Ukraine’s defense, regardless of how unwavering the West’s public commitments are. There is a risk that the background rumble of peace talks comes to the fore in winter, and Ukraine finds itself settling into a stalemate of the boundaries established by this November.
Yet there is reason for optimism in Ukraine’s capital. Last summer, silence and gridlock eventually turned into a Russian collapse around Kharkiv. The withdrawal from Kherson showed too that Moscow was still then able to recognize realities and react to them. Putin’s top brass will have learned from last year’s defeats, and he likely will be enormously emotional about the fate of Crimea.
But, as the world has seen in graphic detail, the Russian military’s failings are abundant and losses horrific – and any steep tactical learning curve will not have been matched by a similar improvement in training and equipment. Russia has one option, to endure and hope this winter cements the survival of its current occupation. Ukraine has many choices ahead of it, and a significant surplus of resources to pounce on opportunities, even as the clock is now loudly ticking.
Attempting to access flooded districts in the Kherson region that are under Russian control, Ukrainian rescuers have come under fire from Russian soldiers, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.
In the flood zone of the hydroelectric power plant and dam at the Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, which collapsed on Tuesday and sent torrents of water flowing down the Dnipro River, rescuers are attempting to evacuate thousands of residents.
The remarks were made by Zelensky in an exclusive interview with the German tabloid newspaper Bild, which was published on Wednesday.
“People, animals have died. From the roofs of the flooded houses, people see drowned people floating by. You can see that on the other side. It is very difficult to get people out of the occupied part of Kherson region,” Zelensky said.
“When our forces try to get them [the residents] out, they are shot at by occupiers from a distance,” Zelensky told Bild. “As soon as our helpers try to rescue them, they are shot at. We won’t be able to see all the consequences until a few days from now, when the water has trickled down a bit.”
The international humanitarian organization CARE cautioned that landmines are likely floating in the floods unleashed by the dam collapse.
“The area where the Kakhovka dam was, is full of landmines, which are now floating in the water and are posing a huge risk,” Fabrice Martin, country director at CARE Ukraine, said in a statement.
At least three people have died in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky after water flooded “about 90%” of it, the town’s exiled Ukrainian mayor Yevhen Ryshchuk told CNN.
“Three people drowned there. We do not know how many more dead people there will be. I think there might be many more,” Ryshchuk said.
Between 3,500 and 4,000 people still lived in Oleshky, including “many pensioners and bedridden people,” the mayor added.
On Wednesday, a volunteer taking part in the rescue efforts in Kherson told CNN volunteers face Russian shelling on nearly every sortie.
“Of course it is extremely dangerous,” said Roman Skabdrakov from the Kaiman Volunteer Group.
The destruction of the dam and subsequent flooding forced more than 1,800 people to flee their homes, inundated thousands of hectares of farmland, threatened vital water supplies and prompted warnings of catastrophic environmental damage from Ukrainian officials and experts.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. The dam was occupied by Russia at the time of its collapse. It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure.
Video published by the Ukrainian military shows drinking water being dropped to residents affected by the flooding in Russian-occupied areas of Kherson.
Military drone footage, reportedly of the city of Oleshky, appears to show a family trapped in their flooded house and pleading for help. The video shows one resident standing in the skylight of a house that’s surrounded by floodwaters and catching a water bottle dropped from the drone.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal claimed occupying Russian forces have offered “no help” to residents in flooded areas. He said residents in occupied areas of Kherson “have been abandoned by the Russians” and “left to perish” as homes “vanish beneath the water.”
In pictures: The collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam
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President Zelensky described the situation in Russian-occupied areas as “absolutely catastrophic.”
“The occupiers simply abandoned people in these terrible conditions. Without rescue, without water, just on the roofs of houses in flooded communities,” he said Wednesday.
Both Zelensky and Shmyhal appealed directly to the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to take charge of evacuating people from the Russian-occupied areas of Kherson.
Zelensky called for a “clear and swift” humanitarian response, saying it’s difficult to know “how many people in the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region may die without rescue, without drinking water, without food, without medical care.”
He said Ukraine’s military and emergency services “are rescuing as many people as possible,” despite Russian shelling.
“But more efforts are needed,” Zelensky said.
UN humanitarian officials visited Kherson on Wednesday to “coordinate the humanitarian response” alongside local organizations and authorities, the body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a news release.
“They said the disaster will likely get worse in the coming hours, with water levels still rising and more villages and towns being flooded,” the UN said. “This will impact people’s access to essential services and raises serious health risks.”
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration who has been overseeing rescue efforts, said they expect water levels to “stay and accumulate for another day and then gradually decrease for another five days.”
At least 1,854 people have been evacuated since Tuesday as rescue efforts to free people from their flooded homes in Ukrainian-controlled Kherson continued throughout Wednesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
The ministry said it was also looking for ways to evacuate citizens from the Russian occupied-eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
“We are trying to do it as quickly as possible. We are hampered by a strong current and shelling by the Russian military,” said Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Conditions for residents in flooded areas are dire, with “hundreds of thousands of people left without normal access to drinking water,” Zelensky said.
The city of Kherson was under Russian occupation for eight months and continues to face shelling from Russian forces on the other side of the river.
Despite the threats from floods and shelling, aid workers told CNN some residents are determined to stay in their flooded homes rather than be evacuated.
Many of them are elderly and some have experienced more than a year of conflict or have recently returned to their homes and are “less willing to leave because of flooding,” said Selena Kozakijevic, Ukraine area manager for international aid group CARE.
Kozakijevic said some of the local partners CARE has been working with have received calls from people in occupied areas saying they are struggling to find assistance and requesting support.
“Unfortunately, the left bank of the river is not accessible from the right side and this is the primary reason why, from the Ukrainian-controlled areas, the assistance at the moment is not passing to the other side,” she said.
Russian soldiers who were detained in Ukraine were shown a DVD that detailed some of the crimes committed by their side during the invasion.
The shaven-headed prisoners of war can be seen engrossed as the movie plays out in front of them on a little screen in a video that was made public by Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman.
The 29-minute documentary, dubbed “Absolute Evil,” includes scenes that show people murdering bystanders, killing children and adults, and shelling homes.
The film’s captions state the footage was taken by the Russians themselves, and later uploaded to social media.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said: ‘The Russian military were shown the documentary film Absolute Evil about their own war crimes committed in Ukraine.
‘What is in the heads of these persons, it is not known – what is in the eyes, see for yourself.
‘I hope that after watching it, they realise who is the absolute evil in this world.’
Several of the prisoners are shown leaning forward in their seats and watching intently, with grim expressions on their faces.
The Russia prisoners of war have stony faces as they watch the documentary (Picture: Ukraine Ombudsman/East2west News)Oleksandr Matsievskyi was killed after being captured, prompting calls for a war crime investigation (Picture: East2west News)
The documentary opens with the killing of prisoner of war Oleksandr Matsievskyi, who smoked a cigarette and said ‘Slava Ukraini’ – glory to Ukraine – ahead of his execution in December last year.
A video showing his death was spread widely in March, and his defiance led President Volodymyr Zelensky to posthumously award him the country’s highest honour: the Hero of Ukraine.
Other moments in the film highlight the case of Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl who died in a Russian strike last July that also badly wounded her mother Irina.
Directed by Kharkiv-born journalist Andriy Tsaplienko, Absolute Evil takes its name from a comment attributed to a priest at the burial of one victim.
He is quoted as saying: ‘Absolute evil shall be defeated.’
The commentary tells viewers: ‘Mass killings of Ukrainians is Russia’s military strategy.
‘A managed process that involves those who pull the triggers and those who [give] the orders.
‘This film shows just a few of Russia’s war crimes.
‘But even so it helps one comprehend the scale of the absolute evil Ukraine is confronted with.’
After Moscow ordered the evacuation of civilians from Russian-occupied districts near to the facility, the UN’s nuclear inspector expressed worries about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and labeled the situation as “increasingly unpredictable.”
According to Yevgeniy Balitskiy, the acting director of the Zaporizhzhia region administration, who has been nominated by Russia, more than 1,600 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from Russian-occupied towns along the front lines in Zaporizhzhia.
Despite being occupied by Russian soldiers, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is mostly run by a Ukrainian workforce.
The town of Enerhodar was among 18 settlements whose residents were evacuated over the weekend. Most of the plant’s staff live in the town, the International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement.
Grossi said he was deeply concerned about the “increasingly tense, stressful, and challenging conditions” for personnel and their families and about “the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.”
“We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment,” Grossi warned.
The evacuation of the town come amid rumors of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, with the southern region likely to be a major target as Kyiv seeks to push back Moscow’s invasion.
The site director Yuri Chernichuk said operating staff are not being evacuated and “are doing everything necessary to ensure nuclear safety and security at the plant.”
Chernichuk said the plant’s six reactors are all in shutdown mode and its equipment is being maintained, “in accordance with all necessary nuclear safety and security regulations,” according to Grossi.
The plant’s position on the front lines – located on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river – means shelling in the surrounding towns and near the facility is common, according to local reports.
It has frequently been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to intense Russian shelling in the area, repeatedly raising fears across Europe of a nuclear accident.
The plant is also significant because Ukraine relies heavily on nuclear power. Should Russia keep it, Ukraine would lose 20% of its domestic electricity generating capacity. Analysts have said Russia would want to capture the plant undamaged, with hopes of serving its own electricity market.
The IAEA said experts at the site continue to hear shelling on a regular basis, including late on Friday.
The evacuations, which began in Zaporizhzhia on Friday, were a “necessary measure” due to “intensified shelling of settlements” close to the front line, said Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed acting governor of the partially occupied region.
Local Telegram channels reported sightings of evacuation buses and authorities telling residents to pack their bags and take their children out of kindergartens.
Evacuated residents were being placed in temporary accommodation and included children of elementary school age, Balitskiy said. He claimed the evacuees “have everything they need: food, a place to sleep, constant contact and consultation with specialists.”
Ukrainian officials have charged that Russian forces have used evacuations as a means to forcibly deport Ukrainians.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, told local media the evacuations were “an imitation of care for the local residents.”
She said this was a standard practice previously used by the Russians.
“They are trying to evacuate the people to the places where they set up their own defense lines and where they are setting their units in order to use local civilians as a cover,” Humeniuk said.
Her comments came as the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, claimed Russian soldiers are trying to leave Zaporizhzhia disguised as civilians.
“There are soldiers who try to escape from the temporarily occupied territories,” Fedorov said in an interview with Ukrainian media Sunday.
“Our residents report some cases of Russian soldiers dressing up in civilian clothes. One of the purposes why they do this is to run from the temporarily occupied territory.”
However, Fedorov also said Russian troops “are moving more and more to the Zaporizhzhia frontline.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials reported Sunday that Russian forces continued to shell the region, but with no casualties in the past 24 hours.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Operation Command South spokeswoman said Russian forces were trying to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense system.
“They are trying to find a way around it. And they are also expanding their tactics because they do not have a stable stock of the means that they can operate with,” Humeniuk said, adding the Russians are also trying “to test and find out where the air defense systems are located.”
Early Monday, five people were wounded in Kyiv following Russian drone attacks on districts of the Ukrainian capital overnight, according to Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv City Military Administration (KCMA).
In the south, Russia launched eight missiles at the port city of Odesa overnight Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Russian missile attacks were also recorded in Kharkiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, according to Ukraine’s military.
And in Ukraine’s east, the head of the Wagner mercenary group claimed its troops have advanced in the embattled city of Bakhmut.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said Sunday his forces have advanced in “different directions so far,” though the Ukrainians still control 2.37 square kilometers.
Prigozhin has now suggested his forces will stay in Bakhmut after Russia’s Ministry of Defense promised to provide them with more ammunition, apparently backtracking on a threat to withdraw.
Bakhmut has been the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated.
But, despite the vast amounts of manpower and resources Russia has poured into capturing Bakhmut, Moscow’s forces have suffered high casualties and been unable to take total control of the city.
Per reports, “excessive drinking” among Russian soldiers in Ukraine is to blame for a “especially high” number of their fatalities, injuries, and crimes.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported that a “substantial percentage” of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers had passed away from “non-combat reasons,” such as drunkenness, in a daily update on Twitter.
The majority of Soviet soldiers were killed or wounded in battle, but other factors, such as “bad weapon handling drills,” “alcohol misuse,” and weather-related injuries like hypothermia, were also to blame.
The MoD said: ‘While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes.
‘On March 27, 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes, and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces.’
It said that Russian commanders ‘likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness’.
The MoD added despite the negative impact alcohol is having on troops, ‘heavy drinking [is] pervasive across much of Russian society’ and ‘it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations’.
The report is another damning indictment on Russian’s struggling forces, after claims troops have been sent to war with little training and poor equipment.
Morale among soldiers has apparently been low for many months, after forces were told at the start of the war it would be an easy win for Russia.
Currently, much of the fiercest fighting is happening around the city of Bakhmut, in Eastern Ukraine.
Today it was reported that the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claimed Bakhmut was now Russian ‘in a legal sense’, after raising a Russian flag over its city hall.
But he admitted Ukrainian forces were still concentrated in western districts.
Although Russia is seen as a nation of big drinkers, the Sun reports that its alcohol consumption per capita is only slightly higher than in the UK, with 11.7 litres compared to the UK’s 11.4 litres.\
Russian’s defence ministry says, 60 units of specialised military gear and more than300 Russian troops are assisting Syria in its response to the earthquakes last week.
“Servicemen of the Russian group of forces continue to carry out activities to clear rubble and eliminate the consequences of earthquakes,” the defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, referring to Russian forces stationed in Syria.
“More than 300 servicemen and 60 units of military and special equipment have been involved in the work.”
Food packages and disinfectants as well as other essentials had also been delivered to humanitarian aid points in the northwestern city of Aleppo, the ministry added.
The Ukrainian governmenthas said a scheme it created for Russian soldiers to surrender is getting up to 100 enquiries a day.
The “I Want To Live” project was started in September.
By calling a hotline or entering details through messenger apps, Russian troops can arrange the best way to surrender to Ukrainian forces.
Officials in Kyiv say they’ve had more than 3,500 contacts from invading personnel, as well as their families.
There’s been an apparent increase since Russian President Vladimir Putin mobilised hundreds of thousands of Russian men, and since the city of Kherson was liberated.
The BBC has been given recordings from some of the calls.
As the dark hallways suggest, Ukraine’s headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War isn’t immune to the power blackouts which plague the country.
In a small office we meet Svitlana, not her real name, a Ukrainian call handler who speaks to Russian soldiers daily.
They can either get in touch over the phone or on most messenger apps, such as Telegram and WhatsApp.
She explains the evenings are busiest, when troops have more spare time and can sneak off and make a call.
“First of all, we hear a voice, mainly male,” she explains. “It’s often part-desperate, part-frustrated, because they don’t fully understand how the hotline works, or whether it’s just a set-up.
“There’s also curiosity because many call not to surrender but to find out how they could if needed. It’s different every time.”
Image caption,The BBC was given access to some of the calls made to the hotline
Svitlana isn’t allowed to tell us how many Russians she’s helped, or exactly how it happens. They’re just told to share their location before being given further instructions.
Some Russian soldiers also get in touch to provoke them, she says, although she doesn’t think all of them believe the Kremlin’s baseless claims that Ukraine is run by Nazis.
“We can’t judge an entire country,” she says. “The majority of them are worried about their lives.”
Svitlana also recalls a call from one man who lived in occupied Crimea and had been mobilised to fight against his own family, and country.
It seems Moscow has now blocked the phone numbers from being reached inside Russia. Calls from either a UK or Russian Sim card are greeted with an error message.
Staff at the I Want To Live project said each call is different
“Ask yourself a question – what are you fighting for?” says the dramatic voice-over in Ukraine’s “I Want To Live” propaganda video aimed at Russian soldiers.
Explosions appear in sync with evocative music, and there are images of Russian soldiers apparently surrendering before two phone numbers are shown at the end.
They’re even told to wave a white flag if they’re too close to the front line.
This is, of course, part of the information war. The anatomy of Ukraine’s attempts to weaken Russian morale.
On the walls of Svitlana’s office are pictures of Ukrainian prisoners of war. They’re all thought to still be alive, and this hotline is central to Kyiv’s efforts to bring them home.
Once they surrender, Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) can be used as currency in future exchanges.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin is also carrying out more prisoner of war exchanges as it tries to soothe critics from inside Russia.
There are thought to be thousands of PoWs on both sides, but the exact numbers aren’t clear.
Image caption,Vitalii Matviyenko, who leads the I Want To Live project, says it was created to help save lives of those who surrender
“We especially want to target the partially mobilised who not only can’t fight but are thrown in as cannon fodder,” says Vitalii Matviyenko, who heads up the scheme.
“This project was created so their lives will be guaranteed if they surrender voluntarily.”
For outnumbered Ukraine, it’s also hoped it will soften the belly of their larger invader.
Additional reporting by Daria Sipigina, Hanna Chornous and Moose Campbell.
A video has emerged from the front line in eastern Ukraine showing the surrender of a group of soldiers in an incident that appears to end in their deaths.
Russia has reacted to the footage, accusing Ukraine of executing Russian prisoners of war, which would be a war crime. Ukraine has not yet responded to the allegations.
The BBC has not been able to establish Russia’s assertions from the video alone, but we’ve been studying the footage, trying to piece together what might have happened.
Warning: This piece contains graphic images which some may find upsetting.
The incident happened on or before Saturday 12 November in Makiyivka, a village on the front line in Luhansk region.
Drone footage appeared later that day and on Sunday on pro-Ukrainian sites showing the bodies of a number of uniformed soldiers lying on the ground in a farmyard.
Part of the footage from this scene also appears in a video posted online by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence about military operations in the Makiyivka area.
Some social media posts suggest a mortar strike was responsible.
But that version of events has been challenged by pro-Russian outlets who claim the soldiers were shot by personnel from Ukraine’s 80th airborne assault brigade.
Then on 17 November more video footage emerged, this time filmed from ground level by someone present at scene, and shouting can be heard in Ukrainian for anyone hiding inside a shed to come out.
They emerge one by one and lie down on the ground.
Image source, TwitterImage caption, The captured soldiers were ordered to lie face down on the ground
Voices can be heard asking if everyone is out.
The captors speak Ukrainian in the video, while the uniforms of the captives look Russian not Ukrainian. The Russian defence ministry and media has also said the prisoners are Russian.
This video then shows a man dressed in dark clothing emerging. He appears to be armed and to open fire as he steps forward.
We are unable to tell from the video whether the man is Russian or Ukrainian and exactly what he’s firing at.
Image caption, This is the moment a man dressed in a darker uniform bursts out of the building and opens fire
The camera then falls away as gunfire rings out. The video ends in blurred confusion.
The aerial footage (from the drone) and the video filmed on the ground appear to match the same scene.
An entrance doorway – with what looks like a pole lying on it – is visible in both (highlighted in purple) as well as what looks like a red toy car in the farmyard (highlighted in orange).
Image caption, Two videos have emerged showing the scene from the ground and the air
Russia’s defence ministry has denounced what happened as a “deliberate and methodical murder” by shots to the head of more than 10 immobilised Russian servicemen. It goes on to say that it is “not the first and not the only war crime” by Ukrainian forces.
Killing or wounding a combatant who has laid down their arms and surrendered is a war crime.
Russia has been accused of multiple war crimes, including the killing of civilians in Bucha – which we have also investigated.
Surrender and exchanges of prisoners of war have become a significant factor in this war that has lasted almost nine months.
In a report this week, a UN mission in Ukraine reported abuses of prisoners by both sides. The vast majority of released Ukrainian prisoners they spoke to said they were tortured and ill-treated and nine people died.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine allowed access to detained prisoners. Some told the mission of summary executions and several cases of torture and ill-treatment.
Last weekend a gruesome video emerged that appeared to show the death of a mercenary at the hands of his own Russian Wagner group.
Unverified footage showed Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, being hit on the head with a sledgehammer. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin later accused him of betraying Russia and his comrades.
Image source, Yuri Butusov/YouTube
Nuzhin, a convicted killer, had appeared in a Ukrainian video after he was captured, announcing he had changed sides. Just how he ended up in Russian hands is not clear but Ukrainian officials said he had not surrendered voluntarily so was not considered somebody who could be exchanged.
An exchange of prisoners of war took place on 11 November but Nuzhin was not one of them. He appears to have been attacked in Kyiv before being captured by the men who killed him.
