Russia Ukraine war latest: Kyiv ‘gains foothold’ in Zaporizhzhia as Putin snubs Wagner chief funeral

The movie centres around a renowned violinist from Belgium arriving in Kyiv to perform. The date is February 2022, and his trip is upended as Russia starts bombing Ukraine. The musician survives a series of “inhuman crimes and bloody provocations by Ukrainian nationalists,” and he wants to tell the world “what it was really like.”

“The Witness” — a state-sponsored drama that premiered in Russia on Aug. 17 — is the first feature film about the 18-month-old invasion. It depicts Ukrainian troops as violent neo-Nazis who torture and kill their own people. One even wears a T-shirt with Hitler on it; another is shown doing drugs. It also has the main character’s young son wondering: “Isn’t Ukraine Russia?”

Russian shelling killed a 45-year-old civilian man in the town of Kupiansk on Tuesday, local officials said, as Moscow’s forces try to advance in northeastern Ukraine.

Russia seized Kupiansk in the northeastern region of Kharkiv soon after its invasion in February 2022, but Ukrainian forces recaptured the town last September and it is now under daily fire.

Some residents remain in the town, but regional authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of civilians from near the Kupiansk front because of the difficult situation.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the man killed on Tuesday was a guard at a meat processing plant that was hit in the latest shelling. The prosecutor general’s office said a 67-year-old man had also been hurt during the shelling.

Kupiansk was home to about 27,000 people before the war and is a rail hub about 100 km (62 miles) east of the regional capital, Kharkiv. Losing the town a second time would be a considerable blow to Kyiv’s battlefield momentum.

Reuters could not verify the situation in the town, or reports of fighting elsewhere.

Ukrainian troops began a counteroffensive in the east and south in early June but have made slow progress through Russian minefields and trenches blocking their southern push, intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces.

A military spokesperson said Ukrainian forces were pushing on southwards in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia after recapturing Robotyne, the latest of a cluster of settlements and villages it says it has taken back in recent weeks.

President Putin moved his £75million superyacht three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine to avoid having it seized as part of war sanctions, a new investigation has claimed.

Secret documents released by Russian investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh, who heads the anti-corruption foundation set up by Alexei Navalny, show the Russian president had his yacht ‘Graceful’ sail from from Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany to the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad two weeks before the invasion.

The documents show an email was sent by an employee of Russia’s largest shipping company, the SCF Group, to Blohm & Voss saying the owner of Graceful is unhappy with an on-going “refit” and wants the ship to sail out of the Hamburg port on February 1, 2022.

A Moscow court has ruled that a prominent hard-line nationalist who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine should remain in prison on charges of extremism.

Igor Strelkov, a retired security officer who led Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and was convicted of murder in the Netherlands for his role in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that year, has argued that a total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory. He has previously criticised Putin as a “nonentity” and a “cowardly mediocrity.”

Moscow’s District Court ordered the 52-year-old Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin, to remain in custody until 18 September. Strelkov was arrested on 21 July and faces charges of making calls for extremist activities. He could receive five years in prison if convicted.

Here is more on the statement from Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service:

“The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery,” it said in a short post on Telegram, accompanied by a photo of Prigozhin.

A “farewell ceremony” for Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has taken place behind closed doors, his spokespeople have said.

The Kremlin earlier confirmed that Russian president Vladimir Putin was not planning to attend the funeral.

Nigel Gould-Davies, a former UK ambassador to Belarus, now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, had said that Prigozhin’s funeral would be significant.

“If Putin wishes to emphasise that Prigozhin died as a traitor, he will ignore it,” Dr Gould-Davies said last week.

“Prigozhin’s supporters may use the moment to eulogise him and his critique of the Kremlin’s conduct of the war, which could strengthen the hostility of a core group of Wagner loyalists towards the Kremlin.

One of the most significant challenges confounding Kyiv’s efforts to redraw the front line is the millions of mines Russia has laid in their path, to the extent that Ukraine is now being described as the most heavily mined country in the world.

“What we are seeing is an industrial level of mine-laying, particularly anti-tank mines,” said Paul McCann, of the Halo Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian landmine clearance organisation. “Nothing like it [has been] seen in Europe since the Second World War.”

You can read more about the situation here with Independent Premium:

Russian mercenaries have gathered for the burial of Wagner’s logistics chief Valery Chekalov, who was killed in last week’s plane crash apparently also involving Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The family of Chekalov was joined by dozens of people, some of whom Reuters identified as Wagner mercenaries and employees from Prigozhin’s business empire, at the Severnoye cemetery in St Petersburg on Tuesday.

A Russian Orthodox priest said prayers and swung a censer before Chekalov’s coffin as family, friends and former colleagues, some holding bunches of flowers, bade farewell, Reuters video showed.

Some, including women and children in sunglasses, came forward to kiss his coffin. Unidentified mourners at the funeral ordered a Reuters videographer and photographer to stop filming.

Moldova’s president has warned that the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin “just reconfirms the risks which come from Russia, a country which does not have justice”.

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Chisinau, as Moldova marked its 32nd independence day, Maia Sandu said: “This just reconfirms the risks which come from Russian, a country which does not have justice, which solves the problems the way it solves.

“And, unfortunately, this does not limit to Russia’s borders. Unfortunately, this is the way Russia acts with respect to its neighbours.”

Warning that “Ukraine needs to get more support”, Ms Sandu said: “Everybody should understand that if Ukraine is not helped, then Russia will not stop in Ukraine or Moldova.”

“I believe more support will be coming soon, so that Ukraine could recover its territories and we will see an end to this crazy war,” she added.

Russia’s defence ministry claims its forces brought down a second Ukrainian drone over the Black Sea at around 1pm on Tuesday, according to state news outlets.

The ministry claimed earlier that a drone had been shot down by a military jet.