Ukraine news – live: Russia ‘has proof’ of UK involvement in Black Sea drone strike

Russia‘s Gazprom on Friday said that it plans to ship 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, in line with recent days.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday cast Russia‘s war in Ukraine as a sacred conflict with Satan, warning that Moscow could send all its enemies to the eternal fires of Gehenna.

Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of thousands and triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war.

Medvedev, who once cast himself as a liberal moderniser as president from 2008 to 2012, said Moscow was fighting “crazy Nazi drug addicts” in Ukraine backed by Westerners who he said had “saliva running down their chins from degeneracy”.

Ukraine and the West have repeatedly dismissed President Vladimir Putin’s assertions that Ukraine is run by fascists who have persecuted Russian speakers. Instead, they cast the war as a brutal land grab by Moscow.

In a message marking Russia‘s Day of National Unity, Medvedev said the task of the fatherland was to “stop the supreme ruler of Hell, whatever name he uses - Satan, Lucifer or Iblis”.

Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia‘s Security Council, said Russia had different weapons, including the ability to “send all our enemies to fiery Gehenna”, using a Hebrew term often translated as Hell.

Since the war began, Medvedev’s rhetoric has become increasingly fierce though his published views sometimes chime with thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.

Satan’s weapons, Medvedev said, were “intricate lies. And our weapon is the truth. That is why our cause is right. That is why victory will be ours! Happy Holidays!”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put the entire Black Sea basin under a “huge threat,” according to a report that said more than 700 dolphins and porpoises have died in the region since the conflict began.

The report, published recently by ACCOBAMS – or the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Contiguous Atlantic Area – warns that military activity in the area affects marine life forms in the region, including cetaceans such as dolphins and porpoises.

It said over 700 deaths, primarily in dolphins and harbour porpoises, have been recorded on the coasts of countries bordering the Black Sea, including Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

Vishwam Sankaran reports:

Russia’s forces are now threatening to gun down their own retreating soldiers to drive forward Moscow’s military objectives, the British defence ministry said today.

“Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying ‘barrier troops’ or ‘blocking units’,” the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

These units are threatening to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces, the ministry added.

“Recently, Russian generals likely wanted their commanders to use weapons against deserters, including possibly authorising shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given. Generals also likely wanted to maintain defensive positions to the death,” according to the British ministry.

It added that the tactic of shooting deserters “likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces.”

Barely 18 miles from Kyiv centre, the town of Bucha saw some of the worst carnage since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within days of the start of the war.

What happened in early March in Bucha was dubbed as “zachistka” by Russian soldiers on intercepted audio calls — cleansing.

An investigation by the Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” found that Russians hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and kill potential “threats”.

Surveillance camera footage recovered from Bucha shows, for the first time, what such a “cleansing” operation in Ukraine looks like.

In the intercepted calls, Russian soldiers have also spoken about the massacre with their families.

One soldier named Maksym told his wife on 21 March: “I think I’m going crazy. I’ve already killed so many civilians.”

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Russia is now left with seven ships in Black Sea as of Thursday, the Ukrainian military claimed today.

The military’s southern command wing said that Ukraine’s troops have caused further damage to Russia after carrying out over 160 operations on Russia’s positions in the besieged country’s south.

The latest attack has killed 32 Russian soldiers and destroyed two Russian ammunition depots and a tank, the Ukrainian military’s operational command in south said.

Ukraine has destroyed more than 270 Russian aircraft over eight months of fighting, according to the country’s commander-in-chief, surpassing the number the Soviet Union lost in its military intervention in Afghanistan.

With the help of military equipment provided by its Western allies, Ukraine is now mounting pressure on Russian occupation forces in the south.

“During the full-scale aggression, (Ukrainian) defenders destroyed (more than) twice as many (Russian) aircraft as the Soviet Union lost during the 10-year war in Afghanistan - 278 (Russian) aircraft in Ukraine against 118 Soviet aircraft in Afghanistan,” General Zaluzhny wrote on Twitter.

Though general Valeriy Zaluzhny’s statement could not be verified independently, his claim matches up with narratives of Ukraine’s soaring record of success on the battlefield, having reclaimed swathes of critical territory back from Russian occupiers of late.

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Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of looming blackouts in several regions of the war-hit country amid increasing Russian attacks on its energy sites.

“In general, there is damage to energy facilities in different areas across the country - this is the volume of electricity generation and transportation for millions of people,” he said in his nightly address.

He added: “Only as of this evening, about 4.5 million consumers have been temporarily disconnected from consumption under emergency and stabilisation schedules.”

“In particular, in Kyiv and ten regions: Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Zhytomyr region, Zaporizhzhia region, Sumy region, Kirovohrad region, Kharkiv region, Chernihiv region, Khmelnytskyi region, Cherkasy region. Blackouts may take place in other regions as well,” Mr Zelensky said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy industry as it is facing heavy losses on the battlefield and it is an attempt to humiliate Ukrainians.

The wartime president said enduring Russian energy terror and its challenges is now Ukraine’s national task.

“The very fact that Russia resorted to terror against the energy industry shows the weakness of the enemy. They cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and that is why they are trying to break our people in this way - to humiliate Ukrainians, to strike at the morale of our people, at the resistance of our people,” he said in his nightly address.

Mr Zelensky said that the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and its energy facilities do not stop for a single day.

“Kryvyi Rih was attacked by Iranian drones this night. Such Russian terror must receive - and surely will eventually receive - a powerful global response. I am grateful to our friends in the United States who are helping with this,” he said.

Russian commanders in Kherson are likely fleeing the war and leaving ill-equipped and “demoralised” troops to face increasing Ukrainian combat, western officials have said.

While more of Vladimir Putin’s troops were arriving in an apparent attempt to shore up their defensive positions in the key city, officials have said many were recently mobilised reservists who were often “woefully equipped and prepared”.

“In Kherson, it is likely that most echelons of command have now withdrawn across the river leaving demoralised and leaderless men to face Ukrainian assaults. At least some reservists are arriving in theatre [of war] without weapons,” one official said.

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