Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s troops disguised as Ukrainians in assault on key city

Ukraine’s SBU security service has detained a special operations forces unit commander accused of disclosing plans of operations behind enemy lines to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

“The aggressor was most interested in intelligence on sabotage and reconnaissance raids by Ukrainian special forces behind the front line in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimean directions,” the SBU said in a statement.

The alleged “mole”, whose rank corresponded to lieutenant colonel, had access to information on planned routes, weapons and targets, according to the statement. Russian forces planned to use the intelligence to eliminate special forces soldiers on the front line and in the Russian-occupied south.

The SBU said Russia’s military intelligence “activated” the unit commander in the spring of this year but that he was recruited prior to Moscow’s invasion in February 2022 through his acquaintances in Russia.

Ukraine’s top military leadership aided with the case and the suspect could face life in prison on treason charges, according to the SBU.

Ukraine is fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the last decade, and any claim that Kyiv is shifting its focus in the war to prioritise security over land is false, the country’s defence minister has said.

“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” Rustem Umerov told a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.

When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Mr Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.

“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said, adding that people living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated.

Wartime Ukraine could reopen its first airport in the western Lviv region next year, as it tries to restore air links suspended nationwide since Russia’s invasion, a senior partner at an insurance broker has said.

While Ukraine’s national flag carrier and several other companies have gone bankrupt due to the suspension of air travel, Kyiv has taken part in discussions with European aviation authorities and airlines on restoring some air travel for almost a year, Crispin Ellison of the firm Marsh McLennan said.

Marsh McLennan has been supporting the Ukrainian government to put together an insurance facility to cover commercial aviation, Mr Ellison said. The broker already runs an insurance programme for ships carrying all cargos via Ukraine’s Black Sea corridor. The aviation sector is involved in the talks, he said.

“National carriers, low-cost and Ukrainian airlines [are] all expressing an interest and looking at whether they do this,” he told Reuters.

“If regulators agree it is safe to open it and a political decision is made, the insurance industry is ready to support the recovery efforts,” said Mr Ellison, referring to 2025.

The State Aviation Service said in written comments it was considering the possibility of a phased and limited opening of airspace for civil aviation “provided the risks are assessed and reduced to an acceptable level, and additional security measures are implemented”. It did not provide any timeframe.

The Ukrainian government is also keen to reopen the country’s main airport just outside Kyiv but Mr Ellison believes the aviation market is waiting “until confidence has been gained that this can happen in a much lower-risk scenario”.

Russian forces hit the territory of the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine in a strike on Thursday evening, killing one person and injuring 10, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Last night, Odesa suffered a combined massive attack involving missiles and drones,” Mr Zelensky said on Friday. “Residential buildings, a heating main, an educational institution, and a church were damaged. The port area was also hit.

“Tragically, one person died because of terror, and ten others were injured, including two children. Assistance is being provided to everyone in need. I am grateful to everyone involved in rescuing our people.”

Embattled German chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Tuesday while in Brazil for the G20 leaders’ meeting, Berlin has said.

The focus of the bilateral meeting will be Ukraine and economic themes, reporters were told.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has claimed that the European Union needs to reconsider sanctions against Russia which are keeping energy prices elevated, hindering the bloc’s economic competitiveness.

European Union leaders signed a declaration on competitiveness at their informal summit last week.

But Mr Orban – the EU leader most closely aligned with Vladimir Putin, and a vocal critic of military aid to Kyiv – said US companies pay a quarter of the amount their European counterparts spend on gas and electricity, a disadvantage that he said could not be overcome by other means.

While countries in western Europe have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian energy, landlocked Hungary gets 80 to 85 per cent of its gas from Russia, with 80 per cent of its crude oil supplies also coming from its former communist ally.

“Energy prices need to be lowered by all means,” Mr Orban told Hungarian broadcasters. “This means that sanctions need to be reconsidered because under the current sanctions policy, energy prices will not go lower.”

Donald Trump has said his administration would focus on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“We’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s gotta stop. Russia and Ukraine’s gotta stop,” he said during an event in Florida.

The US president-elect expressed regret over the deaths caused by the war, “whether they’re soldiers or they’re people sitting in towns”. “We’re going to work it.”

During his campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly said he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine but did not offer details of how he would accomplish that.

Ukraine says it has full control of a key city in the northeast of the country, after Russian troops – some disguised as Ukrainian soldiers – were said to have briefly breach its outskirts.

The Ukrainian military’s general staff wrote on the Telegram messenger app that the “alleged presence of Russian troops in the city of Kupiansk is not true”.

The comments came after it was reported that Russian troops had, in fact, entered the city in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday for the first time since they fled in September 2022. The city is an important railway hub with a pre-war population of 26,000.