“Ukraine – Russia”

A week after an apparent Ukrainian attack on a Russian military base in occupied Crimea, an arms store at another military facility has been hit by a series of explosions.

Russian officials said a fire triggered the blasts in the Dzhankoi area, before blaming “sabotage”.

A separate fire broke out at a power sub-station and a railway was damaged.

A string of blasts last week destroyed Russian warplanes at a Black Sea base on the Crimean coast.

#Ukraine: A Russian cargo truck and APC were tracked by the Ukrainian drone right up to the moment when the truck was hit by a German DM22 HEAT off-route mine hidden in the bushes. pic.twitter.com/D9wR1nFlbI

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 16, 2022

Soaring international energy prices have brought power blackouts to Europe as Kosovo said it could no longer afford to import electricity, adding to fears that tensions with Russia will plunge the continent into crisis this winter.

Consumers in the Balkan state have been told they will be allowed six hours of power at a time, punctuated by two-hour breaks, according to a spokesperson for its energy distribution company, KEDS.

In the scrubby bush of a southern Ukraine battlefield, the enemy is hard to see but clearly a looming threat.

Four soldiers fire repeated rounds through a curtain of flimsy trees as their unit beats a halting escape from the Russian troops.

“Move, move, move,” someone urges, his command rising above the clutter of English and Ukrainian voices.

Ukrainian artillery has struck a headquarters of Russia’s shadowy Wagner paramilitary group of mercenaries in eastern Ukraine, reports say.

The attack in Popasna was reported by Serhiy Hayday, Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region, and several pro-Kremlin war reporters.

The number of casualties is not clear and details remain sketchy. Photos said to show the damage were posted on the Telegram messaging service.

Wagner has been linked to war crimes.

#Ukraine: Footage showing that the Russian Air Force Ka-52 attack helicopter was indeed hit by Ukrainian fire, possibly a MANPADS.

It seems that the crew probably survived, but the aircraft is unlikely to fly again any time soon. https://t.co/NcFC1Y5IJs pic.twitter.com/BKOUYOBWSg

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 15, 2022

Thousands of Russians have flocked to Europe on short-term visas since the country invaded Ukraine. Some sought an escape from repression, while summer has brought Russian tourists just looking to escape to the beach. Now some European politicians are calling for an end to the short-term visas that allow Russians to holiday in the EU as the war in Ukraine rages on.

Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russians, in protest at their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine says it has taken out another bridge that is vital for Russian forces occupying the southern Kherson region.

It says the bridge on the dam at Nova Kakhovka – which it has attacked before – is now impassable. The claim has not been independently verified.

It comes just weeks after the key Antonivsky Bridge was put out of action by Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine is waging a counter-offensive towards Kherson city, which Russia captured in the early days of the war.

#Ukraine: Some of the first footage of Ukrainian artillerymen using a recently delivered British L119 105mm howitzer in anger.

They appear to be using M1 projectiles (Max range: 11.5 km), which were supplied by the US in huge quantities. pic.twitter.com/2f6CO4dJqv

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 13, 2022

Ukraine’s president has called on officials to stop talking to reporters about military tactics against Russia, and a top Defense Ministry official said an investigation had been opened into the leaks.

The comments by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made on August 11, came amid continuing speculation as to the cause of a series of explosions at a Russian air base in occupied Crimea earlier this week. The explosions destroyed at least Russian eight warplanes and spooked Russian tourists vacationing on the Black Sea peninsula.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 53rd Mechanized Brigade hit a Russian vehicle (Which they claim was a BTR-82A) in the East. As you can see, it evaporated. pic.twitter.com/QB3QwAjLWn

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 9, 2022

British defense secretary Ben Wallace claimed Thursday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month, had “faltered” and was “starting to fail.” The claim came amid several high-profile setbacks for the invading forces and Western nations’ increasing delivery of high-tech weaponry to the Ukrainian side.

Wallace’s remarks came at a conference in Copenhagen, where 26 countries in North America and the European Union agreed to provide an additional $1.5 billion for Ukraine’s military. Although the secretary observed that the fighting had continued and thousands of additional casualties could be expected on both sides, the Russian attack was “starting to fail in many areas,” referencing the failure of Russia’s initial attack on Kyiv and its subsequent transfer of most of its forces to the eastern Donbass region.

#Ukraine: Around a week ago, a Ukrainian T-72-series tank was destroyed by a Russian 152mm "Krasnopol" guided artillery shell. pic.twitter.com/CLJ5wGzJe4

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 11, 2022

A 21-year-old man says he is in a ‘very depressed state’ having been sent to fight against his wishes as parents file complaints to watchdog

Russian soldiers have complained to the military watchdog about being tricked into joining the frontline in Ukraine, a massive leak on Wednesday revealed.

A trove of complaints from troops and their relatives sent to the Russian Military Prosecutor’s Office and obtained by Bellingcat and The Insider revealed what appears to be a wide-spread practice of forcing and tricking soldiers into going to Ukraine.

One unnamed soldier said he was away on military drills on a warship off the Syrian coast when “we were tricked into going to Ukraine: no one asked me if I wanted to take part in the special military operation,” the man said, using the Kremlin’s term for the invasion.

Russia’s weapons are “ineffective” and “obsolete”, with armoured vehicles and helicopters unable to withstand small arms fire and missiles that have only a 33 per cent chance of hitting their target, according to an internal Ukrainian government report.

The dossier compiled by the country’s Ministry of Defence and seen by The Times claims that Russian weapons recovered from the battlefield are unreliable and do not meet modern requirements.

Ukrainian defence officials also state in the report that Russia is having to suspend multimillion-pound arms contracts with other nations, either because of sanctions or the need to replenish losses of combat equipment in Ukraine.

Video from Ukraine's 53rd Mechanized Brigade of a Russian T-72 tank driving into a pond.https://t.co/7vifcsQI5U pic.twitter.com/SNqxQ2Aw3w

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 10, 2022

One person has been killed after blasts at a military base in Crimea, the head of the Russia-appointed regional administration has said.

Sergei Aksyonov wrote on social media that the blasts had taken place at the Saky military base near Novofedorivka on the peninsula’s western coast.

Footage circulating on social media appeared to show multiple explosions.

Russia’s defence ministry later said ammunition was detonated, but this has not been independently verified.

Investigators attempting to uncover the extent of presumed Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha have reached what may be the closest they will come to a full understanding of the massacre.

Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska, the town’s deputy mayor, said at a Monday press conference that 458 civilians’ bodies had been tallied in the formerly occupied city. Of that total, 419 of them were either fatally shot, tortured, or bludgeoned to death, while 39 deaths were considered from natural causes, though those are still being investigated as possible war crimes, according to the Washington Post. Nine were children who were under the age of 18.