Two more generals killed near front line

FIFTY Russian officers have been killed in an attack on a command post in Kherson, according to the Ukrainian military.

Two generals reportedly died and one was critically wounded in Friday’s bombing near the front line. Kyiv claims Moscow has now lost nine generals since the start of the invasion. Its forces followed up the strike by retaking eight settlements in the southern region around Kherson, which fell to the invading forces early in the war.

The Russians intensified their assault operations over the weekend, attacking Popasna and Severodonetsk in Luhansk, and Kurakhiv in Donetsk. Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said eight people were killed and two others wounded in a Russian barrage. The Russians also shelled the Dnipro district.

Kyiv yesterday said that 21,800 Russian fighters have been killed so far – figures that could not be verified.

Ukraine’s military also claims to have destroyed 873 tanks, 2,238 armoured vehicles, 179 planes, 154 helicopters and 408 artillery systems. Russia has also lost eight naval vessels, including the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, the Moskva. The Kremlin says only one serviceman has died and 27 are missing from the 500-strong crew.

The UK Ministry of Defence says Kyiv has accused Russia ‘of planning to conscript Ukrainian civilians from the Russian occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions’.

‘Any enlistment of Ukrainian civilians into the Russian armed forces, even if presented by Russia as being voluntary or military service in accordance with Russian law, would constitute a violation of Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,’ the MoD added in a Twitter post.