Russian helicopter pilot flies more 60 miles into Ukrainian territory before landing and defecting, amid claim two colleagues were ‘eliminated’ and fighter jet parts seized

• The unnamed pilot landed his Mi-8 AMTSh helicopter at a Ukrainian airbase
• He defected after Ukrainian operatives got his family out of Russia, sources said

By David Averre

Updated: 13:59 EDT, 23 August 2023

Russia in flight chaos as Ukrainian drone attack forces ALL Moscow airports to close – with Putin’s top propagandist’s home close to one strike

• The suspected Ukrainian attack forces Moscow’s airports to temporarily close
• Kyiv does not typically comment on attacks that have occurred inside Russia

By Will Stewart and Christian Oliver

Published: 04:39 EDT, 21 August 2023 | Updated: 13:09 EDT, 21 August 2023

The moment a Ukrainian experimental kamikaze drone hit Vladimir Putin‘s £3 billion bridge linking Russia to Crimea and triggered a huge explosion has been revealed for the first time.

Ukrainian secret service agency SBU today shared a video of the audacious attack by the ‘Sea Baby’ drone which saw huge explosions rip through the 12-mile crossing last month. 

The footage, seen by CNN, shows the naval kamikaze drone armed with up to 850kg of explosives sailing towards the bridge under the cover of darkness before it smashed into the crossing, sending debris flying through the air.

Separate footage footage released by the SBU and Ukrainian sources showed the scale of the explosion from other angles as the strike hit the crossing which has separate road and rail links.

It marks the first time the SBU has openly claimed responsibility for the attack that was conducted by the Ukrainian navy. 

The new footage appears to show that Russian defences failed to detect two drones, reported Agenstvo.

One is seen approaching the road crossing, and a second apparently exploded on the rail section as a train was crossing. There is known to be less damage to the rail part of the bridge.

The new ‘Sea Baby’ drone has been in development for months and SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk warned Moscow of more attacks to come. Ukraine today released footage of the naval drone for the first time.

The deadly unmanned boat was loaded with up to 850kg of explosives when it detonated.

The Ukrainian-designed marine drone – reportedly constructed without Western help – was also used to strike two Russian vessels – the assault ship Olengorskiy Gornyak and tanker SIG, putting both out of commission.

‘We are working on a number of new interesting operations, including in the Black Sea waters. I promise you, it’ll be exciting, especially for our enemies,’ Maliuk told CNN.

‘Sea surface drones are a unique invention of the Security Service of Ukraine.’

He explained: ‘Using these drones we have recently conducted a successful hit of the Crimean bridge, the big assault ship Olengorskiy Gornyak and SIG tanker.’

Both of these vessels were struck in a drone attack this month, causing major gashes in their sides and are now out of commission.

A couple were killed and their 14-year-old daughter was seriously injured following the blasts on the Crimean bridge, which is a major supply line for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and a prestige project that was personally opened by Putin. 

A section of the crossing was destroyed in the double strike, with pictures showing twisted metal barriers, debris and a damaged car in a major blow to Moscow’s war effort.

Drivers were seen in dash cam footage braking sharply after the explosions destroyed parts of the crossing and sent debris flying towards them.  

Speaking of the attack on the bridge, Maliuk said: ‘At the final stage of the preparation we could not even think about sleep or food… We were fully concentrated on the operation.

‘The final last days were quite nervous. When the explosion happened, we were so happy and started congratulating one another.

‘This was a very emotional moment for all of us and our victory, which will definitely come soon.’

Maliuk insisted that Ukraine’s Western partners are not involved in Kyiv’s attacks on the Russian-built bridge opened by Putin in 2018, or warships. 

It comes after the Kremlin blamed Britain and the US for orchestrating the drone strike on the bridge – without providing any evidence to support their outlandish claims.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack with the involvement of Britain and the US. 

Maliuk said the bridge linking Russia to Crimea was a ‘legitimate’ target for Ukraine. 

The SBU chief also claimed responsibility for an earlier strike on the bridge on 8 October last year involving a truck, but declined to give details.

The strike on the Crimean bridge left Russian politicians furious, with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev saying Putin should ‘blow up’ the homes of Ukrainians in response to the drone strike.

A ranting Medvedev said at the time: ‘The world and our own experience shows that it is impossible to fight terrorists with international sanctions, intimidation or exhortations.

‘They only understand the language of power. Only personal and completely inhumane methods.

‘Therefore, it is necessary to blow up their own houses and the houses of their relatives.

‘Look for and eliminate their accomplices, abandoning the insipid idea of a trial against them.

‘But the main thing is to destroy the top leadership of terrorist formations, in whatever cracks these insects hide. It’s difficult but possible.’

The Ghosts of Bakhmut: Elite squad of Ukrainian snipers reveal how they have notched up 524 Russian ‘kills’ during night raids

By Mark Nicol Defence Editor For The Daily Mail

Published: 16:23 EDT, 31 July 2023 | Updated: 19:58 EDT, 31 July 2023

A car said to be packed with explosives was pictured on top of a Ukrainian dam shortly before it was blown up earlier this month, causing catastrophic flooding to a region in the south of the country, drone images released by Kyiv show.

The images form part of a report that suggests Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to bring down the dam earlier this month while under Moscow’s control.

Images taken from above the Kakhovka Dam and shared with the Associated Press appear to show an explosive-laden car atop the structure.

Two officials also said Russian troops were stationed in a crucial area inside the dam where the Ukrainians say the explosion that destroyed it was centred. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AP.

The dam’s destruction led to deadly flooding, endangered crops in the world’s breadbasket, threatened drinking water supplies for thousands and unleashed an environmental catastrophe. 

Ukrainian commanders say it also scuppered some of their plans to take Russian positions in a counteroffensive that is now in its early stages.

Each side has accused the other of destroying the dam, but the various Russian allegations – that it was hit by a missile or taken down by explosives – fail to account for a blast so strong that it registered on seismic monitors in the region.

Russia has benefited from the timing of the massive flooding that followed the explosion – though areas it occupies also experienced a deluge and the consequences may have been more extensive than expected.

New satellite images have shown that a car was parked on top of the dam in the days leading up to the huge explosion that was detected by earthquake monitors.

The car’s roof is cut open, and what appears to be a landmine sits inside, along-side large barrels and cables running down the side of the dam.

However, the explosion from the car would not have been enough to damage the dam enough on its open

In the region around the dam, the Dnieper River forms the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces, with Russian ones in control of the dam itself.

Two Ukrainian commanders who had been in the area but at different locations told the AP that the rising waters quickly swamped their positions – as well as Russian ones – and destroyed equipment, forcing them to start all over again with their planning and leaving them facing a much larger distance to cover, all in mud. 

One spoke on condition of anonymity in order to reveal more frankly the extent of the problems caused by the rising waters.

‘It’s a regular practice, to mine (places) before a retreat,’ said the other, Illia Zelinskyi, commander of Bugskiy Gard. ‘In this context, their actions were to disrupt some of our supply chains as well as complicate a crossing of the Dnieper for us.’

In recent weeks, Ukraine’s armed forces have reported limited gains in the beginnings of a counteroffensive to take back territory seized by the Russians since their invasion in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself indirectly acknowledged the advantage to his forces last week, although he maintained Russia’s denials of responsibility: ‘This may sound weird, but nonetheless. 

‘Unfortunately, this disrupted their counteroffensive in that area.’

Speaking before a meeting of military correspondents, he explained his use of the word ‘unfortunately’ with bravado: ‘It would have been better if they had attacked there,’ he said. ‘Better for us, because it would have ended very badly for them, attacking there.’

Kakhovka is one of a series of Soviet-era dams along the Dnieper River that were built to withstand enormous force, amounting to thousands of pounds of explosives.

They were constructed in the wake of the infamous World War II ‘Dambusters’ raids that destroyed German dams. 

Taking out the Möhne dam in 1943, for instance, required five 4.5-ton, specially made ‘bouncing bombs,’ according to the Imperial War Museum archives.

Ukraine is not believed to possess any single missile with that kind of power.

Sidharth Kaushal, a researcher with the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said the Ukrainians are not believed to have any missiles with a payload greater than about 1,100 pounds.

Nor does it seem credible that Ukrainian commandos could have sneaked in thousands of pounds of explosives to blow the dam, which was completely controlled inside and out by Russian soldiers for months.

As recently as the day before the structure’s June 6 collapse, Russians had set up a firing position inside the dam’s crucial machine room, where Ukrhydroenergo, the agency that runs the dam system, said the explosion originated. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said as early as October 2022 that the dam was mined, potentially as a means to block off any Ukrainian advance.

Zelinskyi, who is not related to the Ukrainian president, confirmed that the explosion seemed to come from the area where the machine room is located. 

He and an American official familiar with the intelligence both confirmed that Russian forces had been ensconced there for some time. 

The American spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material.

The Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank that has monitored Russian actions in Ukraine since the war began, has assessed that ‘the balance of evidence, reasoning, and rhetoric suggests that the Russians deliberately damaged the dam.’

In the days leading up to the single explosion, Ukrainian military drone videos showed dozens of Russian soldiers encamped on a bank of the Dnieper, relaxed as they walked back and forth to the dam with no cover – suggesting their confidence in their control of the area and especially the dam, which was strategically crucial.

The photos, taken from Ukrainian drone footage, obtained by the AP and dated May 28, showed a car parked on the dam, its roof neatly cut open to reveal enormous barrels, one with what appears to be a land mine attached to the lid and a cable running toward the Russian-held side of the river. 

It’s not clear how long the car remained.

A Ukrainian special forces communications official, who also noted the car appeared to be rigged, said he believed the purpose of that was twofold: to stop any Ukrainian advance on the dam and to amplify the planned explosion originating in the machine room and destroy the top of the dam. 

The car bomb itself would not have been enough to bring down the dam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve operational secrecy.

The explosion detected at 2.54am local time registered on Norwegian seismic monitors at nearly magnitude 2. By comparison, a catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port that killed scores of people and caused widespread destruction registered at a 3.3 on the seismic scale and involved at least 500 tons of explosives.

‘That means it’s a significant explosion,’ said Anne Strømmen Lycke, CEO of the Norwegian earthquake monitoring agency NORSAR.

Within a few minutes, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began cascading through the shattered dam, submerging the river’s sand bar islands and flooding much of southern Ukraine, including Russian-controlled territory.

Immediately after the dam’s collapse, some experts noted that the structure was in disrepair, which could have led to the breach. 

But the area most obviously in disrepair, a section of roadbed near the edge where Russian forces had detonated explosives to block a Ukrainian offensive last fall, was still intact days after most of the rest of the dam collapsed.

Ukraine’s intelligence service released an intercepted conversation it said was between a Russian soldier and someone else in which the soldier said ‘our sabotage groups were there.

‘They wanted to create a scare with the dam. It didn’t quite go according to plan.’

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Monday that Russia’s decision to decline UN help in areas of Russian-held Ukraine flooded by the dam breach was motivated by security concerns and ‘other nuances’.

The UN said on Sunday that Moscow had declined its offers of help as the death toll rose and filthy water forced the closure of beaches in southern Ukraine.

‘There are a lot of issues there,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, when asked why Moscow had declined U.N. assistance.

‘How to cross where the line of contact is (between Russian and Ukrainian forces) and ensuring security – you know that there is constant shelling there, constant provocations, civilian objects and people are being shelled, people are dying,’ he said.

‘That is why it is very difficult here, it is very difficult to provide security for them. And there are many other nuances,’ he added.

A shocking video has shown Russian barrier troops appearing to shoot their fellow soldiers as they attempt to flee the field of battle, Ukrainian sources have claimed.

Captured by a Ukrainian drone and posted to online messaging platform Telegram, the footage shows three Russian soldiers aiming weapons in the direction of at least seven comrades, and seemingly firing off rounds.

The brutal clip emerged as Ukraine stepped up its counter-offensive, with Kyiv’s forces claiming they have liberated at least four front-line villages – amid reports that Russian troops are being killed fleeing through their own minefields.

There have also been reports of Russian troops retreating as Ukraine breaks through Moscow’s defensive lines, with a number of other videos posted online appearing to show dozens of soldiers running across fields as they abandon their positions.

The latest clip was first posted to a channel called ‘Look for Your Own’, a project created with the backing of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs to share photos of Russian invaders captured or killed in Ukraine, to help their relatives identify them.

The 14-second video shows the three armed Russian soldiers appearing out of a treeline and confronting the retreating troops who are running towards them across an area of open ground, marked by vehicle tracks.

The fleeing soldiers appear exhausted, barely able to stand as it is. Some can be seen dropping their helmets to the ground as they see the trio appear.

It’s possible they were relieved to see fellow Russian troops, but that is not clear.

Quickly, however, the scene changes. The three Russian barrier troops push two of the fleeing soldiers back, and fire their rifles in the air as a warning.

Some of the fleeing soldiers drop to the ground and begin to crawl the other way.

But as they do so, the barrier troops appear to open fire. 

The flash of a muzzle is seen about nine seconds into the clip, and two of the soldiers fall to the ground. They are not seen moving again in the footage.

One of the three barrier troops moves over to where the other soldiers were. 

While it is not clear from the footage whether he opens fire, the soldier is seen aiming a rifle in their direction, and more of the fleeing troops stop moving.

As the clip ends, the three Russians are seen moving between the prone bodies on the floor, seemingly checking for any sign of life.

It was not clear from the footage whether the fleeing troops were killed, injured or just told to lie prone on the ground.

MailOnline was not able to verify the authenticity of the footage, with the Telegram channel only saying a ‘barrier unit’ had shot Russian military personnel.

Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN) said on Monday that it had confirmed the authenticity of the video, the Kyiv Post reported.

Barrier troops are units tasked with preventing soldiers running away from the field of battle, using lethal forces if necessary.

According to the Kyiv Post, such troops have been deployed by Russia to Ukraine for months, as Moscow desperately tried to make advances.

In November, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported that Russia had ‘probably started deploying ‘barrier troops’ or ‘blocking units’ in Ukraine.

It said this was ‘due to low morale and reluctance to fight’.

‘These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces,’ the MoD added in its intelligence update at the time.

‘The tactic of shooting deserters likely attests to the low quality, low morale and indiscipline of Russian forces,’ the update added.

Such reports also emerged from the Kremlin’s months-long assault on the eastern city of Bakhmut, which saw the Wagner mercenary group employ ‘human wave’ tactics in an attempt to overwhelm the city’s defences.

This resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, publicly threatened to execute deserters. 

At least two Wagner deserters, who joined the Ukrainian side but were later captured by Moscow’s armies, were executed with a sledgehammer to the head.

It is likely the shocking ‘barrier troop’ practice will become even more commonplace as Kyiv’s counter-offensive continues, and Russia works to defend its positions.

There have been frequent reports about Russian soldiers suffering from poor morale as Ukraine inflicts heavy losses on Vladimir Putin’s armies.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin used ‘barrier troops’ in the Second World War as part of his ‘No One Turn Back’ order. 

While Ukraine’s troops are fighting to protect their homeland, Russians are battling on foreign soil in an invasion that many thought would be over in a matter of days.

According to Ukraine, Russia has suffered more than 200,000 casualties since Putin ordered the invasion on February 24, 2022 – a high attrition rate for what many only recently considered to be the second most powerful military in the world.

Jason Jay Smart, a political adviser on post-Soviet and international politics, told Newsweek that ‘Russians shooting their own troops has a long tradition in Russian military history, and it has been commonplace throughout this war’.

He said the incident captured by the drone footage, which he said shows ‘a total lack of concern or interest in preserving human life’, is the epitome of ‘how the Russian military thinks and behaves’.

Meanwhile, at least ten people have been killed and dozens wounded after missiles hit civilian buildings in an overnight attack in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, a regional governor said on Tuesday.

Serhiy Lysak, of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the strike involving cruise missiles hit a five-storey residential building and the area was engulfed in fire.

Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that one person is still believed to be trapped under the rubble and 28 others were wounded.

The devastation in president Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town is the latest bloodshed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month.

Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s ground troops said the country’s forces were ‘moving forward’ outside the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram that Russian forces are ‘losing positions on the flanks’ while Ukrainian troops were conducting ‘defensive’ operations in the area.

For weeks, Ukrainian officials have been reporting small gains west of Bakhmut, which was largely devastated in the war’s longest and bloodiest battle before Moscow’s forces took control last month.

Over the last day in Ukrainian-held areas of Donetsk, nearly a dozen frontline towns and villages came under increased shelling as Ukrainian troops pushed forward, Mr Zelensky’s office said.

Also on Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry published a video showing what it said was a German-made Leopard 2 tank and US-made Bradley fighting vehicle captured from Ukrainian forces.

According to the ministry, the video was shot by Russian soldiers after fierce fighting in the southern Zaporizhzhia, and a soldier is seen pointing at the immobilised vehicles. It wasn’t immediately possible to verify the video’s authenticity.

Like the Bakhmut area, battle zones in Zaporizhzhia are one of several places along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line where Ukrainian forces have been intensifying their counter-offensive operations.

Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Moscow-appointed administration for parts of Zaporizhzhia that Russia controls, alleged that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had failed, and told state news agency RIA-Novosti that Ukrainian forces ‘continue to suffer colossal losses when they make new attempts to advance’.

He did not elaborate, and his claims could not be immediately verified.

Astonishing before and after pictures show how floods have left entire towns under water just hours after destruction of Ukrainian dam

• Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been told to abandon their homes amid ‘catastrophic’ levels of flooding 

By David Averre

Published: 10:56 EDT, 6 June 2023 | Updated: 11:23 EDT, 6 June 2023

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Fears of a nuclear meltdown are growing in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin evacuates towns near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, amid warnings that his troops have placed explosives and artillery at the site.

Moscow has evacuated 1,680 citizens, including 660 children, from areas around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ahead of Kyiv‘s much-anticipated counteroffensive to drive the Russian president’s troops back.

More than a dozen towns and villages have been evacuated near the front line in southern Ukraine, including the town of Enerhodar, which is home to the plant’s workers and their families. It was seized in the early days of Putin’s invasion.

Experts have warned that by placing weapons at the site, Russia is risking the plant being struck by Ukrainian artillery – and thus risking a nuclear meltdown.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said: ‘We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.

‘This major nuclear facility must be protected,’ he said.

The warning from the UN came as Moscow launched a fresh wave of drone, missile and air strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv and other key cities on Monday.

Moscow appears to be stepping up attacks while preparing for its cherished Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

As many as 16 missile strikes had targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, in addition to 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning update on the fighting.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones Russia had launched, the military said.

Kyiv’s mayor said at least five people were wounded in the capital amid damage to a fuel depot, cars, buildings and infrastructure.

‘Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded civilians, high-rise buildings, private homes and other civilian infrastructure were damaged,’ the military said.

A food warehouse was set ablaze in the Black Sea city of Odesa.

As air-raid sirens sounded across the country on Monday, Dr Patricia Lewis – a nuclear physicist who leads the international security program at Chatham House – also issued a warning about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

She said that there are concerns that Russia could attack Ukrainian positions from around the plant, prompting Kyiv’s forces to fire back.

‘The IAEA – the director general – reported just a few days ago that they’ve been seeing weapons and artillery and explosives being moved into the power plant,’ she said, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

‘This is the real worry that we have – that they will fire from the power plant and then what will the Ukrainians do? Because they do not want to fire at the power plant.’

The IAEA said earlier that such clashes around the plant threaten catastrophe.

Dr Lewis explained that if power to the plant is cut for example if power line to the plant is struck by a shell, this risks a nuclear meltdown.

The plant has back-up power sources, including diesel generators, which have kicked into gear on previous occasions when the site lost power.

However, these can only last so long. In the event that they run out of fuel and the plant is left without any source of power, a disaster could occur.

‘There is a lot of equipment [the mitigate this risk of disaster]. Some of it can be done automatically but of course making decision in the heat of battle is the critical thing,’ Dr Lewis said. 

‘You only have a limited supply of diesel. You’d have to make sure that you were able to bring in more diesel which you might not be able to,’ she told the programme.

‘So the big worry then is that the power supply would fail. And according to [Petro Kotin] who is the head of the Ukrainian atomic energy establishment – he said it would take a few hours to a day for things to get really serious and possibly have some melting in the reactor. Before we have a Fukishima.’

‘This is really irresponsible of Russia to do this,’ she added.

For months, both sides fought tirelessly around Europe’s largest power station, which remained staffed by Ukrainian employees under Russian control until September.

The plant at Zaporizhzhia is one of the ten biggest in the world and was responsible for nearly half the nuclear output of Ukraine’s four reactors. 

Ukrainian forces had little luck trying to recover the plant after the initial invasion, with rockets from both sides coming dangerously close to hitting the station.

Ukraine has warned since that damage to the structure risks a ‘Chernobyl-style’ catastrophe.

In September, the IAEA were able to inspect the integrity of the plant. 

Both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of trying to sabotage the IAEA mission.

Mr Grossi, who has continued to visit the site for Russian-organised inspections, has said the ‘plant and physical integrity of the plant’ had been ‘violated several times’.

In April, it was reported that dissenting plant workers – who refused to keep the plant active for Russian forces – had been the victims of torture during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Zelensky last week called for Putin to be tried in the Hague for ‘criminal acts’. 

The news comes as Ukraine gears up for a spring counter-offensive, breaking the winter deadlock with a push into occupied regions in the south and east. 

Writing earlier this morning, Mr Fedorov said that ‘Under the guise of a contrived ‘evacuation’, the occupiers are preparing real provocations. 

‘The humanitarian catastrophe caused by the sick fantasy of the Rashists [‘Russian fascists’] is no less real.’

He added later that ‘the occupiers promise the residents of the front-line territories golden mountains – comfortable accommodation at the captured recreation centres of Kyrylivka and Berdyansk.’

MailOnline was unable to verify the evacuation of Ukrainian refugees to the seaside beach-facing settlements – though eyewitnesses have echoed the reports.

LB.ua reported Saturday that locals were hiding their children as Russian occupants tried to evacuate them, in some cases without their parents, to recreation centres in Kyrylivka and Berdyansk.

The independent Ukrainian outlet said law enforcement agencies had confirmed the claims.

Mr Fedorov added: ‘In fact, only [some] of the evacuees are brought to the coast – they are settled among the collaborators and the military. Others are taken to continental Russia.’

He said that Ukrainians evacuated from Kherson last year had found themselves later unable to return to Ukraine.

Russian state media confirmed the evacuation of the 18 occupied regions on Friday.

Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive this spring to break to winter stalemate.

In April, Pentagon leaks revealed American officials doubted the ability of Ukraine to wage an effective assault.

But in recent days, Russian confidence has looked more exposed as Wagner Group threatened to withdraw from the contested city of Bakhmut in the east.

Russia has said it is ready to replace Wagner Group forces with Akhmat special forces from Chechnya in recent days – though experts warn the effectiveness is likely overstated.

The fresh attacks come as Moscow prepares for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, a key event for President Vladimir Putin who has evoked the spirit of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, having accused Ukraine of being in the grip of a new kind of fascism.

Ukraine and its allies say the accusation was a baseless pretext for Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February, 2022, which resulted in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two, killing thousands and forcing millions to flee the country.

‘We must always be prepared for enemy treachery and defence,’ Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia stepped up shelling of Bakhmut, hoping to take it by Tuesday, Ukraine’s top general leading the besieged city’s defence said, after Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from it.

Three people were injured in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two when drone wreckage fell in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s centre, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Kyiv’s military administration said drone wreckage fell on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of the capital’s two passenger airports, drawing emergency services there, although there was no fire.

Drone debris seemed to have hit a two-storey building in the central district of Shevchenkivskyi, causing damage, it added.

Reuters witnesses said they heard numerous explosions in Kyiv, with local officials saying air defence systems were repelling the attacks.

Flames had completely engulfed a large structure identified as a food warehouse in pictures posted on Telegram by Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, after what he said was a Russian attack.

After air raid alerts blared for hours over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, media said explosions sounded in the southern region of Kherson and southeastern Zaporizhzhia.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Zaporizhzhia, said Russian forces hit a warehouse and Ukrainian troops’ position in the small city of Orikhiv. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

Separately, Russian forces shelled eight spots in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, the regional military administration said in a Facebook post.

Strikes have also intensified in the past two weeks on Russian-held targets, especially in Crimea.

Ukraine has not confirmed any role in those attacks but it says destroying enemy infrastructure is preparation for its long-awaited ground assault.

Moment Ukrainian girl, 13, refuses to perform at prestigious UNICEF singing contest after finding out a Russian boy has been allowed to take part

• Sofia Samoliuk has won a number of awards for her singing across Europe
• She chose not to perform at the event in Italy yesterday, instead giving a speech 

By James Reynolds

Published: 09:49 EDT, 4 May 2023 | Updated: 13:33 EDT, 4 May 2023

Ukrainian engineers have designed a DIY rocket that families can build in their own back gardens from everyday materials to rain terror on the Russian invaders.

Dubbed the ‘people’s missile’, the Trembita uses the same technology as the German V1 flying bombs, or Doodlebugs, used in the Second World War.

The anti-Russian Vidsich protest group designed the ‘garage-made’ rocket which, while not as accurate as laser-guided missiles, should be able to travel around 87 miles.

A barrage of 20 of the missiles could ‘overcome enemy air defences and hit targets at a sufficient depth’, the group has claimed. 

The rockets can carry up to 20kg of explosives or a thermobaric charge, and use a painfully loud 100-decibel engine. This, creators say, would strike fear into Russian soldiers in the same way that the distinctive whine of Hitler’s Doodlebugs terrified Londoners during WW2.

The genius of the improvised weapon also lies in its ability to deplete expensive Russian weapons, its developers say.

By releasing a thermal signal picked up by enemy air-defence systems, the Russians would then fire expensive munitions to down the cheaply made rockets.

‘Our simple missile is incomparably cheaper than the shots of enemy anti-aircraft missile systems,’ Vidsich told The Telegraph.

The new weapons have been likened to V1 rockets, used by the Nazis on London towards the end of the Second World War.

Some 5,000 V1s, the world’s first cruise missile, were launched by the Germans to bomb London, causing a massive loss of life.

The Trembita uses the same technology as the V1. It is effectively a motor-powered steel tube which is then attached to glider wings and fired from a catapult. 

Social media videos showing what appear to be prototypes of the new Trembita weapons seem to show its creators firing up a jet engine.

By using gasoline as fuel, the rockets can fly up to 87 miles, giving them almost twice the range of the US-made M31 GMLRS missiles fired by America’s M142 Himars launchers, which have proved one of Kyiv’s most crucial armaments in the war. 

Weighing in at 100kg, these new missiles are expected to be able to reach speeds of 248mph.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former Nato commander, said of the new weaponry, was optimistic about the role of the missiles. 

‘Improvised weapons can be very effective and the Ukrainians are very canny and the Russians pretty inept,’ he said, saying the new rockets can help Ukraine to save on more expensive Western weapons.

Ukrainians are no strangers to developing improvised weapons, from Molotov cocktails made by civilians when Vladimir Putin’s forces first invaded to kamikaze drones. Drone racing groups such as the formidable Angry Birds team have been praised for their clever use of racing drones as weapons, turning the small devices into bombs that could be sent straight into enemy strongholds.

Russia has also used drones in brutal attacks on Ukrainian positions and cities, with Iran reported to have sent 1,700 military drones to Putin’s forces. 

Moscow has launched hundreds of Iranian drones, including the Shahed-136 suicide drones, and others that can conduct both strikes and reconnaissance. 

But in a spectacular attack in the early hours of today, suspected to have been carried out by Ukrainian drone teams, an oil storage depot in Russia exploded in a towering inferno.

The strike – the latest in a series of apparent strikes by Ukraine on Russian territory – was only six miles from the Kerch Bridge built by Putin to link the Krasnodar region in Russia with Crimea, which he annexed in 2014.

As the war drags on, Ukrainians continue to employ ingenious tactics to repel the Russian invaders. 

Saboteurs yesterday derailed a Russian freight train and destroyed power cables with explosive devices in a double blow for Putin.

The train, carrying oil and construction materials, burst into flames following a detonation on the tracks in the Bryansk region, 37 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Video taken shortly after the attack showed several destroyed carriages ablaze and lying on their sides, with dark smoke billowing into the air.

Local governor Alexander Bogomaz said the explosive device went off ‘on the 136th kilometre’ of the railroad between Bryansk and the town of Unecha – a route used for transporting Moscow’s military supplies.

The sabotage attacks came as Kyiv prepares for a widely expected counter-offensive this spring, with Ukraine building up its mechanised brigades with armour supplied by its Western allies. 

Russian Railways, the country’s rail operator, said the attack on the freight train occurred at 10.17am Moscow time (07.17 GMT). 

It said the locomotive and seven freight wagons were derailed and the locomotive caught fire. 

Meanwhile, the White House said on Monday that Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, with more than 20,000 killed in action, during just the past five months amid the grinding conflict in Ukraine.

It reflects how Moscow’s hopes of rapid victory have given way to a brutal war of attrition that carries a huge cost.

Coupled with previous estimates by US officials it could put the total number of Russian casualties at 200,000 since Moscow invaded last year. 

John Kirby, White House security spokesman, said Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the eastern Donbas region, through the city of Bakhmut, had largely failed.

‘For Russia this attempted effort, particularly in Bakhmut, has come at a terribly, terribly high cost,’ he told reporters.

‘Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces and since December alone… we estimate Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 Killed in action, nearly half of whom were Wagner soldiers, the majority of whom were Russian convicts that were thrown into combat… [without] sufficient combat training, combat leadership, or any sense of organisational command and control.’

He said the information was based on newly declassified intelligence, but did not offer further details.