Russia Ukraine war live: Putin planning new ‘assault units’ despite Moscow’s ‘mobilisation issues’

Putin is allegedly trying to create new Russian ‘assault units’ according to US based war monitoring think-tank.

Russian military officials are reportedly ‘already actively recruiting’ in an effort to build out their armed forces and break through layered defences, says the think-tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The ISW notes that Russian outlet Izvestia, citing sources in the Russian military, claimed on September 25 that the new units will be comprised of assault troops intended to break through layered defenses and troops that will conduct reconnaissance, or scouting, at “tactical depth.”

It was reported by the ISW that each brigade will receive tanks, light armored vehicles, artillery, and various drones.

The new brigades are designed to overcome prepared Ukrainian defensive positions, particularly in areas of Donbas – which Kyiv has been equipping for defence since 2014.

Colonel Valery Yuryev, who is chairman of the Russian Union of Paratroopers, told Izvestia that the war had stressed the “need to have specialised units for storming fortified areas” and that “separate assault units and formations are necessary.”

However the ISW say it is ‘unclear’ how Moscow will be able to recruit, train and staff the new recruits, given the “multitude of endemic mobilisation issues the Russian army faces at this time”.

Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and one of Russia’s most senior navy officers, was shown on Tuesday attending a video conference, a day after Ukrainian special forces said they had ‘killed’ him.

In video and photographs released by the Russian defence ministry, Sokolov was shown apparently taking part in a video conference on Tuesday with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top admirals and army chiefs.

The video was shown on Russian state television.

Ukraine’s special forces said on Monday they had ‘killed’ Sokolov, Moscow’s top admiral in Crimea, along with 33 other officers in a missile attack last week on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had declined to comment on the Ukrainian claim, referring reporters to the defence ministry.

Russia say only one serviceman had gone missing in Friday’s attack on Sevastopol.

Admiral Sokolov appears to be seen in the bottom left of the screen.

New pictures have shown destroyed houses in the village of Klishchiivka in eastern Ukraine following it’s recent liberation.

The settlement had been reduced to a ghost town and destroyed in the months of fighting for Bakhmut, which had fallen into Russian hands in May this year.

The battle to recapture the village inflicted “powerful damage” on many Russian-led units, according to Illia Yevlash, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s troops in the east.

The tactical situation in the Russian village of Verbove remains ‘unclear’, according to a US based war monitoring think-tank.

Yesterday it was reported by think-tank The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) that Ukrainian forces broke into Verbove on September 22 and had occupied half of the area by September 24, according to a VDV-affiliated source.

As of September 25, the ISW report that the tactical situation in Verbove remains ‘unclear’ amid continued Ukrainian offensive operations.

The ISW say that Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations and inflicted losses on Russian manpower towards Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine .

They also reported offensive assaults in the direction of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine inflicting losses on Russian manpower and equipment.

Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces reached northern Verbove but that Russian forces pushed them back to their original positions.

Russian sources have yet to directly address a claim from a source reportedly affiliated with the Russian Airborne (VDV) Forces that Ukrainian forces control half of Verbove as of September 24.

A cargo vessel has left a Ukrainian Black Sea port after loading, an industry source told Reuters, without giving any further details.

The vessel was the latest to set off from a Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk on Tuesday since Kyiv established a temporary “humanitarian corridor” hugging the coastline.

Two bulk carriers left the port of Chornomorsk last week via the humanitarian corridor following Russia’s decision to quit a deal that had allowed safe Ukrainian exports.

After it invaded Ukraine last year, Moscow closed off the Black Sea ports from one of the world’s biggest suppliers of grain, in what Kyiv and its Western backers called an attempt to use global food supplies as blackmail. Moscow said the ports could bring in weapons.

From July 2022, the ports were been reopened under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allowed Russia to inspect ships for arms but Moscow quit the deal a year later and reimposed the blockade, saying its demands for better terms for its own food and fertiliser exports were being ignored.

The blockage of deep sea ports has already affected Ukrainian grain exports, which have decreased by 51% so far in September to 1.57 million tons from 3.21 million tons in the corresponding period last year, Reuters reports.

A border crossing point between Ukraine and Romania was damaged during overnight Russian drone attacks.

As the Odesa area was struck by a second night of air strikes, the governor of region said that at least two people are injured more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged in last night’s two-hour onslaught.

The Ukrainian military said operations at an international checkpoint had been suspended and vehicles were temporarily being rerouted.

Ukraine’s border service later identified the crossing point as Orlivka on the border with Romania, Reuters reports.

Ukrainian military spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk told Radio Svoboda that the drones only struck the Ukrainian side of the border.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine wrote on social media: “The operation of the Orlivka ferry checkpoint has been temporarily suspended. Measures are being taken to stabilise its operation after the enemy’s night attack.

“We will report on the resumption of border crossing operations, and in the meantime, we recommend choosing other directions to cross the border, in particular, the Reni vehicle checkpoint.”

More photos of the aftermath of Russian attacks in the Odesa region have been released by Ukrainian authorities.

A port building, storage facilities and more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged in last night’s attack, which lasted more than two hours, Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

It follows previous attacks on the region early on Monday morning, which destroyed a high-rise hotel and killed at least two people.

Russia was kicked out of the UNHRC in April last year during an emergency special session called by the UN months after the invasion began.

There were 93 votes cast in favour of the move, 24 against it and 58 abstentions. Officials said the kicking out of Russia signalled the international community’s “strong censure of Moscow’s aggressive actions towards a neighbouring State”.

The country that has been isolated from the world stage after Vladimir Putin’s invasion is now circulating a position paper to UN members as an effort to court them for their support, reported the BBC.

Polish experts have confirmed that the missile that killed two people at a grain facility in southern Poland in November was fired by Ukraine, Rzeczpospolita daily reported, citing sources.

On November 15 2022, a missile struck the the village of Przewodów near the Polish border with Ukraine, killing two people.

The explosion of the missile in NATO-member Poland fuelled fears that the war in Ukraine could spiral into a wider conflict by triggering the alliance’s mutual defence clause, but at the time Warsaw and NATO said that they believed that it was a Ukrainian stray, easing worries about escalation.

Reuters reported that sources with knowledge of the investigation told Rzeczpospolita that Poland had established that the missile that landed in the village of Przewodow was an S 300 5-W-55 air-defence missile fired from Ukrainian territory.

“This rocket has a range of 75 km to 90 km,” the newspaper cited a source as saying. “At that time, the Russian positions were in a place from which no Russian missile could reach Przewodow.”

Rzeczpospolita reported that the Ukrainian side has not made any material available to Polish investigators.

It quoted Lukasz Lapczynski, spokesman for the Polish prosecutor’s office, as saying the prosecutor had received the experts’ opinion but was not disclosing its content as it was confidential.

Ukraine has denied that one of its missiles had landed in Poland. Lapczynski could not immediately be reached for comment and the prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to an emailed request.

Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik has called for an urgent upgrade in the air defence around Odesa, following repeated Russian attacks.

She posted to social media platform X, previosuly known as Twitter, to say: “Odesa region urgently needs an air defence upgrade as Russia escalates air attacks. We must protect everyone and everything until Russians are weakened and stopped.”