Russia-Ukraine war: Putin’s troops ‘knocked from positions’

Pro-Russian disinformation targeting Bulgaria has started to “seriously affect the army’s ability to fight,” the Bulgarian defense minister said.

Todor Tagarev said pro-Russian opposition parties were responsible for spreading disinformation that alleged Bulgaria’s support for Ukraine would lead to direct military conflict with Russia.

Many Bulgarians also support a position of neutrality regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine. A poll conducted in October 2022 found that 67.5% of respondents preferred their government take no side in the war.

Thousands of Ukrainians living near the frontline in Kherson have been left without power following Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian government said.

Recent shelling in the southern city of Kherson had left more than 28,000 people without power, the country’s energy ministry said. It added that 3,000 people had been without electricity in the last day alone.

It said damage to an overhead line in the eastern Donetsk region had completely cut off the city of Kostyantynivka, and that 122 settlements were still without power.

The Dutch government has earmarked an additional €2bn in military aid for Ukraine in 2024, in what the country’s defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said was a sign of unwavering support for Kyiv’s war against Russia.

It is part of a wider package the Netherlands will provide to Ukraine next year that includes an initial €102m for reconstruction and humanitarian aid that will be increased during the year if needed. The latest package takes the total amount of Dutch support for Ukraine during the conflict to around €7.5bn, Ollongren said.

“This will safeguard our support for Ukraine and ensure continuity, which is critical for Ukraine,” Ollongren said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has praised his troops for their “strength” in advancing on the strategic Dnipro river.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “The Kherson region’s left bank. Our warriors. I thank them for their strength and for moving forward. Glory to everyone who restores freedom and justice to Ukraine!”

It comes as the Ukrainian military claimed troops had conducted a “series of successful operations” against Putin’s troops following a breakthrough on the eastern bank of the River Dnipro.

Up to 20,000 Ukrainian men have illegally crossed Ukraine’s border to neighbouring EU countries, according to reports.

Authorities in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Moldova, said that 19,740 men had illegally crossed their borders between February 2022 and Aug. 31, 2023, according to the BBC.

Ukrainian men aged 18-60 have been forbidden to leave the country due to the martial law that has been imposed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.

Russia is deploying a new type of aircraft for the first time to identify targets over Ukraine for its long-range missiles, the UK ministry of defence said.

“For the first time, Russia has likely started using A-50 MAINSTAY D, its Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft, to identify targets over Ukraine for its SA-21 long-range ground-based air defence missile system,” the MoD said.

It added Russia was using the technology due to fears Ukraine could deploy Western-provided combat aircraft.

Two people have been killed and three have been wounded in the east Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the acting head of its military administration has said.

In a post on Telegram, Ihor Moroz said two people had been killed in the city of Selydove, while two of the injuries had occurred in the town of Antonivka and another had occurred in Toretsk.

It comes as Ukraine has downed nine out of 10 Russian Iranian-made Shahed drones over Mykolayiv and Odessa, according to the country’s air force.

Officials in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region have begun building heavily fortified underground schools that will allow children to safely return to in-person studies as Moscow’s invasion grinds on.

Schools in the region of around 2.5 million people, which borders Russia, were forced into online learning after the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion.

Kharkiv is frequently targeted by Russian missiles, drones and artillery, with the governor reporting on Thursday that settlements in three different districts had been struck over the previous 24 hours.

“These structures will be equipped with everything necessary for the learning process,” chief regional architect Anton Korotovskykh said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the delivery of artillery shells to Ukraine has decreased since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

The Ukrainian president said supplies of in-demand 155mm artillery shells have “really slowed down”, according to The Kyiv Independent.

The US refrained from formally saying that they would stop or decrease the flow of artillery shells to the country, but reportedly said to Mr Zelenskyy that “everyone is fighting for (stockpiles)”.

Russian casualties since the start of the war in Ukraine now stand at 316,760, according to the Ukrainian military.

In its latest set of daily figures, Ukraine’s general staff also said the total numbers of tanks and armoured combat vehicles destroyed had reached 5,415 and 10,132 respectively.