Russia Ukraine war live: ‘Panic’ among Putin’s troops as they ‘face threat of encirclement’ in Verbove

Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces broke into Verbove on September 22 and continued attacking the settlement with armored vehicles as of yesterday, September 24.

Geolocated combat footage posted on September 24 shows a Ukrainian BMP operating within Verbove’s westernmost village limits

A Russian VDV-affiliated source reported that Ukrainian forces entered Verbove for the first time on September 22 and continued pushing east. The source later reported that Ukrainian forces occupy half of Verbove as of September 24.

The source also accused the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) of trying to conceal Ukraine’s tactical progress in Verbove, rhetorically stating: “For how long can Shoigu’s MoD hide the breakthrough in Verbove?”

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces captured new unspecified locations near Verbove on September 24.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that it’s air defence systems destroyed four Ukraine-launched drones over the northwestern part of the Black Sea and over the Crimean Peninsula.

Separately, the ministry said that four other drones were destroyed overnight over Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions.

According to reports, Ukraine’s drone attack on the Kursk region damaged several private houses and an administrative building

It was not immediately known whether there was any damage or injuries as a result of the reported attacks.

One woman was injured and buildings and port infrastructure were severely damaged in Russia’s overnight missile and drone attack on the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine, Ukraine‘s military said on Monday.

“The sea port in Odesa suffered significant damage, a fire broke out in the port’s hotel, which has not been functioning for several years,” the south command of Ukraine‘s armed forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

They added that firefighters “promptly eliminated” the fire.

Ukraine‘s Air Force said that its air defence systems destroyed 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones, 11 cruise missiles and two hypersonic missiles that Russia launched on Ukraine overnight, vast majority directed at Odesa. Three other drones were destroyed earlier on Sunday, it said.

Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, said that a woman was taken to a hospital after a shrapnel injury in result of the blast wave. Ukraine‘s south military command posted on its Telegram messaging app several pictures showing a high-rise building with blown up windows and severe damage to its structure.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack.

The institute could not confirm that Ukrainian troops had followed suit at the breakthrough point near Verbove but the news is nevertheless a welcome indication that Kyiv’s counteroffensive is bearing fruit as it seeks to drive the invader from its territory.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is currently in North America seeking to shore up support from his US counterpart Joe Biden and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and has already flown out of Washington with the promise of a new $325m military aid package for his country that will include air defence systems and other weaponry to help it through what promises to be another trying winter of combat.

Russian airstrikes on Sunday killed two people and wounded three others in southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, the region’s governor reported Sunday as the war in Ukraine entered a 20th month.

According to Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin, Russian forces struck the city of Beryslav, destroying an unspecified number of private houses. A woman was killed and three people were wounded, including a police officer, he said.

Another airstrike also killed a 67-year-old man in the village of Lvove, Prokudin said without specifying the type of weapons used in the attack.

Russian textbooks praising Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are an attempt to encourage “self-sacrifice” among schoolchildren, experts have warned.

One chapter claims that Ukrainian membership of Nato could have led to a catastrophic war and “possibly the end of civilisation”, an outcome it says Russia had to prevent.

Alexander Butler reports:

One woman was injured and port infrastructure was damaged in southern Ukraine’s Odesa as Russia launched an overnight missile and drone attack, officials said.

A fire broke out in a non-residential high-rise in the city of Odesa, the administrative centre of the Odesa region, as a result of the attack, but was promptly extinguished, Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel.

The scale of the attack and the full extent of the damage were not immediately clear.

Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putin’s warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has rubbished Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan and warned the conflict will be resolved on the battlefield if the West stuck to it.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Mr Lavrov dismissed the West as an “empire of lies” and said the plan promoted by Kyiv was “completely not feasible”.

In a letter to Mr Lavrov last month, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres outlined four measures the UN could facilitate to improve Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports in a bid to convince Moscow to return to the Black Sea deal, which allowed Ukraine to export grain through the corridor and helped address a global food shortage.

Pope Francis on Saturday labeled the weapons industry as being a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in Russia’s war, saying even the withholding of weapons now is going to continue their misery.

Francis appeared to refer to Poland’s recent announcement that it is no longer sending arms to Ukraine when he was asked about the war during brief remarks to reporters while returning home from Marseille, France.

Francis acknowledged he was frustrated that the Vatican’s diplomatic initiatives hadn’t borne much fruit. But he said behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict was also the weapons industry.