Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s Black Sea fleet commander ‘killed in attack on Crimea navy HQ’

Ukraiane has claimed that the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, was killed in the missile strike on Sevastopol on Friday.

The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said in a social media update on Monday that he was among the 34 killed during the missile strike of the headquarters. They also claimed that 105 other occupiers were injured.

Russia have not yet commented on the claims and have previously reported only one serviceman as missing.

Russia told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday that he had only himself to blame for Azerbaijan’s victory over Nagorno-Karabakh because he had insisted on flirting with the West rather than working with Moscow and Baku for peace.

Pashinyan said in an address to the nation on Sunday that Russia had failed Armenia by not providing more help to avert the crisis over the breakaway region, adding that he would have to transform Armenia’s security alliances.

Russia’s foreign ministry hit back with a strongly worded attack on Pashinyan.

“We are convinced that the Yerevan leadership is making a massive mistake by deliberately trying to destroy Armenia’s multi-faceted and centuries-old ties with Russia while making the country hostage to the geopolitical games of the West,” it said.

Azerbaijan seized Karabakh in a lightning offensive last week, sending thousands of ethnic Armenians fleeing into Armenia. Baku has promised to protect the rights of the roughly 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home but many refuse to accept its assurances.

Karabakh is internationally viewed as Azerbaijani territory.

Russia, which has about 2,000 peacekeepers in the region, said Pashinyan was trying to absolve himself “of responsibility for failures in domestic and foreign policy by shifting the blame to Moscow”.

Vladimir Putin wants the Ukrainian counteroffensive halted by early October and has instructed Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu to improve the situation, according to a Kremlin insider cited by a US-based think-tank monitoring the war.

“Putin reportedly gave Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu a deadline of one month until early October 2023 to improve the situation on the frontlines, stop Ukrainian counteroffensives, and have Russian forces regain the initiative to launch an offensive operation against a larger city,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an intelligence update on Sunday.

It said the Russian military command is likely ordering relentless attacks with the hope of forcing the Ukrainian counteroffensive to culminate, even at a high cost to Russian military capabilities, if the claims are true.

US made Abrams tanks have arrived in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday, Reuters reports.

“Good news from Minister (of Defence Rustem) Umerov. Abrams are already in Ukraine and are being prepared to reinforce our brigades,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.

He did not specify how many of tanks had arrived.

The jet-powered American tanks were a top demand from Ukraine until Washington finally offered more than 30 of them in January. European countries have already sent dozens of German-made Leopards and some British Challengers.

The delivery comes nearly four months into Ukraine’s big offensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory. Kyiv has reported slow, steady progress so far, capturing villages and ground that it says improves its position, but has yet to force a major Russian retreat as it did three times last year. Moscow says the Ukrainian offensive has already failed.

“I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements! We are looking for new contracts and expanding our supply geography,” Zelenskiy added.

U.S. President Joe Biden said last week that the first American Abrams tanks would be delivered to Ukraine this week.

Read more from The Independent:

Infrastructure near the port of Odesa, Ukraine, was damaged as a result of a Russian drone and missile strike over the region last night, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.

Mr Kiper said two people working in a warehouse that was struck had been killed.

A fire ripped through Hotel Odesa, which was not in use at the time, as a result of the strike. Mr Kiper said firefighters extinguished the flames overnight.

Footage shared by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on Monday morning (25 September) shows authorities working on the site.

The death toll in Beryslav has risen to three according to Ukrainian officials, following Russian aerial bomb attacks this morning.

Earlier, the governor of Kherson Oblast, Oleksandr Prokudin, confirmed that a 73-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman died as a result of the attack.

He reported via the Telegram messaging app on Monday afternoon that one more person, a 55-year-old man, has also died. He added that another woman is injured and in hospital.

Earlier, the governer said that Russian forces dropped four aerial bombs on the city in the Kherson Oblast region in southern Ukraine. He said one of them hit the housing and exploitation office building while another destroyed a residential building.

Ukraine have claimed to have killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, in the missile strike on Sevastopol on Friday.

Kyiv launched the missile attack on the fleet based in the port city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea on Friday morning.

Ukrainian officials said the attack, targeting what is believed to be the best of Russia’s navy, was timed to coincide with the naval commanders’ meeting.

On Saturday morning, it followed this up with another missile attack on Sevastopol, according to a local Russian-installed official.

The Ukrainian military said the air force conducted 12 strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated. It said two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.

The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said in a social media update on Monday that Admiral Viktor Sokolov was among the 34 killed during the missile strike of the headquarters. They also claimed that 105 other occupiers were injured.

Russia have not yet commented on the claims and have previously reported only one serviceman as missing.

Canada’s House of Commons gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran who had served in a Nazi SS unit during the Second World War – without realising who he was.

Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was sitting in the gallery when he was described as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero” to applause from prime minister Justin Trudeau and president Volodymyr Zelensky.

House speaker Anthony Rota has since apologised after it emerged that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, a voluntary unit made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command.

Russia’s torture methods in parts of Ukraine it occupied have been so brutal that it tortured some of its victims to death, the head of a United Nations mandated investigative body said on Monday.

The Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Erik Mose, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva his team had “collected further evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian armed forces in areas under their control has been widespread and systematic”.

He added: “In some cases, torture was inflicted with such brutality that it caused the death of the victim.”

Mose’s commission visited parts of Ukraine formerly held by Russian forces such as in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. It found that torture was committed mainly in detention centres operated by the Russian authorities, Reuters reports.

The commission has previously said that violations committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including the use of torture, may constitute crimes against humanity.

Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine. Russia was given an opportunity to respond to the allegations at the council hearing but no Russian representative attended.

The dossier will document examples of hunger being used as a “weapon” over the course of the 18 month war, with the evidence aiming to encourage the ICC to launch a prosecution that could see Vladimir Putin indicted.