Russia Ukraine war live: Top commander’s aide ‘killed in front of son’

A large group of Russia’s former Wagner mercenaries has started training with special forces from the southern Russian region of Chechnya, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Monday.

Wagner played a prominent role in some of the fiercest fighting of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but its future was thrown into question when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in August, two months after leading a brief mutiny against the Russian defence establishment.

Kadyrov said in a message on Telegram that a big group of ex-Wagner fighters was undergoing intensive training with his own Akhmat special forces.

“I am glad that today the ranks of the famous (Akhmat) unit have been joined by fighters who have excellent combat experience and have proven themselves as brave and efficient warriors,” he said.

“I am confident that in the upcoming battles they will fully live up to their reputation.”

He published a video, accompanied by stirring music, showing soldiers in combat training, including some wearing Wagner insignia on their uniforms and masks over their faces. Kadyrov said the drills included shooting, field medicine and training for snipers, machine gunners, sappers and artillerymen.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says his troops have “eliminated” a Russian warship housed in a shipyard at the Crimean city of Kerch.

“I thank everyone who ensured the successful targeting of the Russian warship at the Kerch shipyard. This is significant – another source of Russian terror against Ukraine has been eliminated,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address.

It follows an admission by Russia’s defence ministry that Ukraine had targeted the shipyard with 15 cruise missiles on Saturday, 13 of which were shot down in an attack which damaged a ship.

US and European officials have been quietly talking to Kyiv about what possible peace negotiations to end the war with Russia might look like, NBC reports, citing one current and one former US official familiar with the discussions.

Some of the talks, which the officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of the the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, which brought together representatives from more than 50 nations, NBC reported.

Satellite imagery shared by an analsyst at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank appears to show the damage from a Ukrainian strike on a Russian warship in the Crimean port city of Kerch.

The European Union executive is expected to recommend on Wednesday that the bloc opens membership negotiations with Kyiv once it meets outstanding conditions, two EU officials have told Reuters.

The Commission will assess Ukraine across seven reform areas in a report that will inform a key decision in December at a summit of the EU’s national leaders on whether to start formal membership negotiations with Kyiv.

Both EU officials said the recommendations meant formal negotiations with Kyiv – and fellow EU candidate Moldova – could start next year.

The Commission’s report, which will also cover progress towards membership by other EU hopefuls, was still to be finalised before official publication, the sources added.

In Kyiv, a senior government official also said Ukraine expected the European Commission to deliver a “positive” appraisal of its membership bid.

A Ukrainian journalist has shared footage showing a view of the streets of Bucha some 18 months on from Russia’s withdrawal from the town of Bucha, in the Kyiv region.

The first clip shows houses destroyed, and debris and wreckage littering the streets.

The more recent clip shows a car driving through unmarked roads and passing by perfectly intact buildings:

Ukraine’s interior minister has urged people not to spread “unofficial information” about the explosion which killed a Ukrainian Major acting as an assistant to the Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny.

The Ukrainska Pravda outlet cited a security source as saying that Major Hennady Chastyakov’s wife said her husband had been killed in a blast caused by a gift bag with a bottle of alcohol and gift glasses in the form of grenades.

But interior minister Ihor Klymenko later said the gifts were “Western grenades” that he was showing to his son. “The son first took the munition in his hand and began to twist the ring,” Mr Klymenko said. “Then, the serviceman took the grenade from the child and pulled the ring, causing a tragic explosion.”

Mr Klymenko said the colleague who presented the gift had been identified and two more grenades of this type were found in his office as an investigation got under way. He said he had issued the explanation so as not to “spread unofficial information.”

Mr Zaluzhny had earlier expressed condolences to Chastyakov’s family, saying “an unknown explosive device went off in one of his presents”.

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief has revealed that his assistant, a major in rank, was killed when a booby-trapped birthday present he had been given exploded.

“My assistant and close friend, Major Hennady Chastyakov, was killed in tragic circumstances on his birthday in a family setting,” General Valery Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “An unknown explosive device went off in one of his presents.”

The Ukrainska Pravda outlet said a security source was told by Chastyakov’s wife that the gift was a bottle of liquor in the form of a grenade that he had brought home. It exploded when he opened it, and Chastyakov’s 13-year-old son suffered serious injuries.

The source told Ukrainska Pravda that Chastyakov, 39, was a graduate of a military academy and fully trained in handling grenades.

Last week, Zaluzhni wrote an essay in the Economist magazine saying the war had entered a new phase of attrition that was to Russia’s advantage and calling for more sophisticated technology for Ukraine’s military. President Volodymyr Zelensky had denied any suggestion that the war has entered a stalemate.

Vladimir Putin is soon going to have to choose between maintaining Russia’s relationships with either Israel or Iran, with the Russian president needing Tehran’s support “in order to sustain his war in Ukraine”, an analyst has suggested.

Kimberly Kagan, president for the US-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank, told PBS: “The Israeli government has always hoped that Russia would provide some check on Iranian behaviour in Syria. We at ISW have assessed that that check has not been effective.

“Be that as it may, it has been Israeli policy to tolerate Russia’s presence inside of Syria. I don’t think that this myth is going to last very long. I think Putin is going to have to make a choice soon between whether he will maintain his relationship with Iran or whether he will maintain his relationship with Israel.

“Putin needs Iran in order to sustain his war in Ukraine, so Putin is going to end up facing a tough choice.

“I think he’s going to try to delay that choice for as long as he can, but since his war in Ukraine is so important to him and the survival of his regime, he is going to have to optimise his alliance relationship to be able to continue to sustain that war.

“I think the Israelis are going to find that Putin is not a helpful or a friendly actor.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed it is irresponsible to engage in talk of holding an election in Ukraine in wartime.

Mr Zelensky said it was critical to concentrate on the military challenges facing Ukraine as it tries to expel Russian forces occupying nearly a fifth of its territory.

“We all understand that now, in wartime, when there are many challenges, it is utterly irresponsible to engage in topics related to an election in such a frivolous manner,” he said in his nightly video address.

“We need to recognise that this is a time for defence, a time for battle, upon which the fate of the state and its people depend … I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time.”

While Ukraine’s martial law enacted after Russia’s invasion prohibits elections, Kyiv has faced calls from some allies to hold a vote – with parliamentary elections having been due for October and a presidential vote in March 2024.

Mr Zelensky was said last week to be mulling the pros and cons of holding elections while war rages, with concerns over how it would be possible to ensure a fair and accurate vote extended safely to all eligible citizens.