Ukraine-Russia war live: Wagner boss ‘confirmed dead by genetic tests’ as Putin orders mercenaries’ allegiance

Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked Ukrainian troops and medics “who have distinguished themselves the most in protecting lives and Ukraine” over the past week, in his nightly address.

The Ukrainian president singled out numerous individuals for praise, including Yaroslav Bevz, who he said was among the first soldiers to enter the Zaporizhzhia village of Robotyne, and who returned the Ukrainian flag to a school which had been destroyed Russian troops.

He also thanked employees of the State Emergency Service across Ukraine, highlighting those in Odesa “who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure”, and civil defence chiefs who “personally evacuated the wounded from the destroyed bus station in Dnipro”.

And in what appeared to be a possible reference to the drone strike on five Russian fighter jets in Kursk, claimed by an SBU source, Mr Zelensky added, that “today – without names, without details, but there is something to recognise our intelligence officers and special services for … Well done indeed!”

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops in Ukraine’s northeast and have significantly intensified shelling and airstrikes in Kharkiv and Donetsk, Kyiv’s military has warned.

Nearly 50,000 soldiers are positioned near Lyman in Luhansk, with another 45,000 focused towards Kupiansk, a spokesperson said, where residents fear a second Russian takeover just less than a year after the Kharkiv city was liberated – and evidence of torture chambers and mass graves uncovered.

The reports of Russian troops amassing further north also come amid Ukrainian claims, as per the Institute for the Study of War think-tank, that Moscow could be diverting some “relatively elite” soldiers to Zaporizhzhia, where Ukraine appears to have broken through Russia’s front lines – in a move suggesting Moscow may be suffering from a lack of reserve troops there.

Elections could potentially take place in Ukraine during wartime if Kyiv’s allies share the cost, domestic politicians approve and all residents are able to vote, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

In an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster 1+1, the president discussed claims by US senator Lindsey Graham that Ukraine must show it was different to Russia by holding elections in wartime – which is currently forbidden under Ukraine’s martial law.

“I gave Lindsey a very simple answer very quickly,” Mr Zelensky said. “He was very pleased with it. As long as our legislators are willing to do it.”

He said it cost 5 billion hryvnia (£107m) to hold elections in peacetime, adding: “I don’t know how much is needed in wartim. So I told him that if the US and Europe provide financial support … I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections. And this is stipulated by the law.”

Mr Zelensky added that he had told the Republican senator: “You and I should send observers to the frontlines so that we have legitimate elections for us and for the whole world”, adding that Kyiv would also need help setting up voting access for citizens now overseas.

Mr Zelensky also said those fighting Russia’s invasion would have to be included. “They are defending this democracy today, and not to give them this opportunity because of war – that is unfair. I was against the elections only because of this.”

Residents in Kyiv have been pictured walking past an installation showing destroyed Russian tanks, set up on Khreschatyk Street in the Ukrainian capital’s centre.

A protest calling for the release of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia took place at the adjoining Independence Square in Kyiv, 500 days after they were seized in the city of Mariupol.

Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state, amid anger in the mercenary group’s ranks over their leader’s apparent assassination in a plane crash near Moscow.

The decree was published on the Kremlin’s website and signed with immediate effect by Mr Putin, as his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that claims Prigozhin had been killed on the Russian president’s orders were an “absolute lie”.

The wording of the oath includes a line in which those who take it promise to strictly follow the orders of commanders and senior leaders, as questions hang over the fate of the mercenaries – many of whom had already relocated to Belarus following their mutinous march on Moscow in June.

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An “under pressure” Vladimir Putin “remains in a difficult position” in spite of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s apparent death, an expert has suggested.

Describing it as a “surprise” that the Russian president appeared to spare the Wagner mercenary last June after his shortlived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, Dr Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said it now appears that Mr Putin “merely postponed Prigozhin’s death”.

Dr Gould-Davies, a former ambassador to Belarus, suggested that this was “probably to lull him and others into a false sense of security while the security services conducted their investigation into the extent of sympathy for, complicity in and foreknowledge of the Wagner revolt in military and other circles”.

“It is likely that they have now concluded this investigation,” he said. “General Sergei Surovikin, detained after the revolt and not seen since, was fired as head of the Russian Aerospace Forces immediately before Prigozhin’s death. This timing is unlikely to be a coincidence.

Describing Prigozhin’s June revolt as “the biggest threat so far to Putin’s presidency”, he added: “Although Prigozhin is dead, Putin remains in a difficult position and is under pressure from hardline siloviki to escalate the war by mobilising far more of Russia’s human and material resources.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to ask parliament this week to increase penalties for those found guilty of corruption during wartime.

“I have set a task for the legislation and the Ukrainian legislators will be offered my proposals to equate corruption with high treason in wartime,” he said, adding: “I think the parliament will get it in the next week and then the ball is in the parliament’s court.”

Earlier this month, Mr Zelensky dismissed regional military recruitment chiefs at all conscription centres across Ukraine following a nationwide audit, as he seeks to tighten Ukraine’s war effort and reassure Western allies that he is serious about cracking down on corruption.

Ukraine ranks 116th out of 180 countries on campaign group Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index.

In the clip shared to Telegram on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said those found guilty must face justice. “But this is not a firing squad. This is not Stalinism,” he added. “If there is evidence, the person must be behind bars.”

The apparent deaths of Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner bosses means the Wagner mercenary group will struggle to reverse the trajectory of decline which has befallen it in recent months, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War has suggested.

“We’re not going to see Wagner in the same capacity that we have seen before,” Kateryna Stepanenko, one of the think-tank’s Russia analysts told Axios.