Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv forces ‘break through Putin’s strongest line of defence’

Ukrainian forces believe they have broken through the most difficult line of Russian defences in the south and will now be able to advance more quickly, a commander fighting in the south has said.

Ukrainian forces said on Wednesday they had raised the national flag in the settlement of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, about 10 km (six miles) south of the frontline town of Orikhiv.

“We don’t stop here,” said a commander who led some of the troops into Robotyne and who uses the callsign “Skala,” eponymous with the battalion which he leads.

“Next we have (the town of) Berdiansk, and then more. I made it clear to my fighters at once: our goal is not Robotyne, our goal is (the Sea of) Azov.”

Robotyne is about 100 km from Berdiansk, a port on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and 85 km from the strategic city of Melitopol. Both are occupied by Russian forces following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February last year.

“We have passed the main roads that were mined. We are coming to those lines where we can go (forward). I’m sure we’ll go faster from here,” Skala said.

He said two houses were still under Russian control in Robotyne: “We’re fighting for them, and then we’ll have full control (of Robotyne).”

The former prime minister has described the downing of the Wagner chief’s plane as “violent liquidation” and claimed that Putin was “being transformed before our eyes into an Asiatic despot”.

“I cannot think of another example of such ostentatious and uninhibited savagery by a world leader – not in our lifetimes,” he said.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has said that he warned the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to “watch out” for threats to his life before the plane crash in which he is believed to have died.

Mr Lukashenko helped broker a deal between Prigozhin and the Kremlin that ended an attempted mutiny by Wagner forces against Moscow in June – an uprising that marked the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s authority in more than two decades in power.

Two months to the day after that revolt was halted, an aircraft believed to be carrying Prigozhin and a number of other members of Wagner’s senior leadership crashed on Wednesday.

Mr Putin had called the Wagner mutiny treason, and had initially vowed to crush it. A number of world leaders have suggested that he would not let the embarrassment of that incident stand.

The Ukrainian military destroyed four cruise missiles over northern and central Ukraine during an overnight Russian air strike, Kyiv’s air force reported early today.

It said Ukrainian forces had detected up to eight airborne targets but that there were no immediate reports of strikes, adding that the rest of the targets were “probably false”.

The air force also said the attack involved five Russian strategic bombers.

A new drone attack on Moscow forced all three major airports serving the Russian capital to temporarily close on Saturday morning, Russian state media reported, in the latest of near-daily drone strikes on the city and surrounding region.

Russia’s defence ministry and Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin claimed a drone was shot down over the Moscow region’s Istra district, some 50 kilometres west of Red Square. Mr Sobyanin said there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

According to Russia’s state Tass agency, the Sheremetevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports all suspended flights for over an hour early on Saturday.

Russian Telegram channels posted videos, some of them apparently from home security cameras, of what they claimed was Russian air defence downing the drone. One video shows a car parked outside what appears to be suburban home, its alarm beginning to blare seconds after two loud blasts sound in the distance.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces shot down two drones overnight in two regions bordering Ukraine.

One drone was shot down over the Bryansk region in Russia’s west and another in the Kursk region, just south of it, the defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging channel.

There was no further information about possible damage or casualties.

The warfare resumed between Ukraine and Russia alongside the dramatic likely death of Russian mercenary group Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier this week.

Ukraine claims that a Russian helicopter pilot defected to Ukraine after reportedly being “lured” during a six-month intelligence operation, my colleague Matt Drake reports.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said an Mi-8 helicopter landed at a Ukrainian airfield with the pilot and his unsuspecting crew members, without specifying when.

It comes after a Russian military blogger claimed in recent weeks that a helicopter crossed the border with three people on board after it had lost its way, but Ukraine now claims this was a deliberate move.

“This was a GUR operation,” spokesperson Andriy Yusov said on Wednesday. “The aircraft moved according to the plan. You will need to wait a bit, work is being conducted, including with the crew. Everything is fine, there will be news.”

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda cited unnamed intelligence sources saying the agency worked for months to convince the pilot to cooperate and fly the aircraft to Ukraine. The report said the helicopter landed in eastern Ukraine with the pilot. Two other crew members who were unaware of the plan were subsequently “liquidated”.

It is not surprising that Russian authorities have declared Yevgeny Prigozhin dead. Given the attempted mutiny he led with the Wagner mercenary group against Moscow, the assumption was that he may not be long for this world. When it comes to the iron-grip President Vladimir Putin has on his nation – if you come for the king, as the adage goes, you best not miss.

But as the speculation swirls about the end of Prigozhin and the embarrassment that Putin could not let stand, it can be easy to brush past the terrible things Progozhin’s mercenaries are believed to have done. Let’s get this straight, Prigozhin deserved the end that all signs point to him having met.

It is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that pushed Prigozhin truly into the public consciousness, with the group having been at the vanguard of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war around the eastern city of Bakhmut.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has condoled the death of three Ukrainian pilots who died on Friday when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv.

The three Ukrainian military pilots included a “mega talent” with callsign “Juice” who yearned to fly F-16s.

“Yesterday, a disaster occurred in the sky over Zhytomyr region. Three pilots died. Among them was Andriy Pilshchykov, call sign Juice. He was a Ukrainian officer, one of those who helped our country a lot. A lot! My condolences to the family and friends, to everyone who knew the guys,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

He added: “The investigation into what happened is ongoing. It’s too early to talk about the details. Of course, all the circumstances will be clarified. Of course, Ukraine will never forget anyone who defended Ukraine’s free sky. May they always be remembered!”