Russia appoints notorious general to lead Ukraine offensive

Sergei Surovikin appointed on same day as explosion on Kerch bridge that has dealt blow to Vladimir Putin

Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray.

The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait and caused a major fire on the railway.

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Key bridge linking Crimea to Russia hit by huge explosion

Section of Kerch bridge collapses after blast, seen as major blow to Russian military prestige

A huge explosion has destroyed part of the Kerch bridge from Russia to Crimea, a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, one of Vladimir Putin’s prestige projects and a vital logistical link for the Russian military.

A section of the Ukraine-bound road bridge collapsed into the Kerch strait after the blast, and a fierce fire engulfed a train on the parallel railway connection, creating a vast column of black smoke. The parallel road towards Russia still appeared passable in images from the blast site.

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Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ warning wasn’t based on new intelligence, US says

US president made most outspoken remark on threat of wartime nuclear weapons when speaking at a fundraiser on Thursday

The White House has said that Joe Biden’s warning of “Armageddon” if Russia uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine was not based on any new intelligence suggesting such nuclear use is imminent.

The US president issued his warning at a private fundraising event in New York on Thursday evening, in his most outspoken remarks yet on the threat of wartime nuclear weapons being used for the first time since 1945.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin must lose or he will invade other European countries, Zelenskiy says

Ukraine’s president makes comments during address to other European leaders

Two people have been killed after an alleged Russian missile attack hit Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said one woman was confirmed to have died in the attack while another person died in an ambulance.

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Putin appears to admit severe Russian losses in Ukraine

Ukrainian army making ‘fast and powerful progress’ in south, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to concede the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals in Ukraine, insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions it illegally claimed as its own territory last week.

Russia has suffered significant losses in two of the four regions since Friday, when Putin signed treaties to incorporate them into Russia by force, with Russian officials saying their forces were “regrouping”.

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Putin and the prince: fears in west as Russia and Saudi Arabia deepen ties

Prince Mohammed’s decision to strengthen relations has alarmed allies, but he has long admired Russian leader

They both started wars in neighbouring countries, hold significant sway over energy markets, are known to brook no dissent and to covet spots in history. Russia’s embattled president, Vladimir Putin, and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, seem to have a lot in common.

Nearly eight months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relations between Riyadh and Moscow are at a high point. As much of Europe, the US and the UK double down on attempts to combat an ever more menacing Russian leader, Prince Mohammed has instead chosen to deepen ties.

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Russia no longer has full control of any of four ‘annexed’ Ukrainian provinces

Kyiv’s troops advanced in southern Kherson province and made additional gains in east

Russia no longer has full control of any of the four provinces of Ukraine it says it annexed last week after Ukrainian troops advanced dozens of kilometres in Kherson province in the south of the country and made additional gains in the east.

On Monday, the Russian military acknowledged that Kyiv’s forces had broken through in the Kherson region. It said the Ukrainian army and its “superior tank units” had managed to “penetrate the depths of our defence” around the villages of Zoltaya Balka and Alexsandrovka.

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Petraeus: US would destroy Russia’s troops if Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Former CIA director and retired army general says Moscow’s leader is ‘desperate’ and ‘battlefield reality he faces is irreversible’

The US and its allies would destroy Russia’s troops and equipment in Ukraine – as well as sink its Black sea fleet – if Russian president Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons in the country, former CIA director and retired four-star army general David Petraeus warned on Sunday.

Petreaus said that he had not spoken to national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the likely US response to nuclear escalation from Russia, which administration officials have said has been repeatedly communicated to Moscow.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine declares full control of Lyman – as it happened

Key city in east of country ‘fully cleared’ of Russian forces, says Zelenskiy; European leaders call annexation ‘blatant’ violation of international law

The Ukrainian armed forces have updated their estimate of Russian casualties in the war so far.

As of this morning they claim that around 60,110 Russian soldiers have been killed and 2,377 tanks destroyed.

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Humiliation for Vladimir Putin as Ukrainians liberate key city of Lyman

Military defeat in Donetsk comes hours after Moscow declared that the region was Russian territory ‘for ever’

Russia suffered a humiliating military defeat on Saturday when Ukrainian troops liberated the key eastern city of Lyman, with videos showing them raising a blue and yellow national flag and performing a victory dance.

In a severe embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ministry of defence admitted its soldiers had retreated. They had been “withdrawn to more advantageous lines”, the ministry said, following their encirclement by Ukrainian forces.

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Kremlin attempts to calm Russian fury over chaotic mobilisation

Amid angry protests over the conscription of new recruits, a propaganda drive is seeking to deflect blame from Vladimir Putin

It took Alina three goes at the local conscription centre to get her husband out of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

She knew the local officials managing the mobilisation in her town south of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, she said. So when her husband, who has health problems because of his weight and served in the army more than 15 years ago, was called up, she began hassling them to review his case.

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Ukrainian forces perform victory dance after liberating eastern city of Lyman

Troops raise Ukrainian flag in city hours after Putin said area was Russia’s ‘for ever’, with Moscow admitting its forces have retreated

Russia suffered a humiliating military defeat on Saturday when Ukrainian troops liberated the key eastern city of Lyman, with videos showing them raising a blue and yellow national flag and performing a victory dance.

In a severe embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ministry of defence admitted its soldiers had retreated. They had been “withdrawn to more advantageous lines”, the ministry said, after their encirclement by Ukrainian forces.

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Russia’s consulate in New York vandalized in apparent protest

Building defaced hours before Putin announced annexation of Ukrainian territories and Russian forces killed 30 civilians

The Russian consulate in New York has been vandalized with red spray paint, in an apparent protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officers said they responded to an emergency call just after 1.30am on Friday reporting that paint had been sprayed across the facade of the consulate on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

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Behind the shining pomp of the Red Square rally is a Russia in turmoil

As a Moscow concert marked Putin’s declaration of the annexation of four regions of Ukraine, the backlash to mobilisation reached fever pitch

A tide of Russians flowed toward Red Square as Vladimir Putin declared his annexation of Ukrainian territory that would herald a shining new era of perpetual war with Ukraine and the west. “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia! Together for ever!” read the banner hanging on Manezh Square by the Kremlin.

There were busloads of tough men from a factory near Moscow alighting by the statue of Karl Marx to celebrate, university teachers passing out invitations to a pop concert to their students, workers lugging armfuls of Russian flags to distribute. Some of the tricolours bore the image of Putin.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin annexes Ukrainian regions; Kyiv applies for Nato membership – as it happened

Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes the announcement hours after Russia declares annexation of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. This blog is now closed

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, has said of the attack on the civilian convoy: “The terror continues. The killings continue. Sixteen missiles were launched using S-300 air defence.”

Confirming the number, he said four missiles hit near a car parts market where the convoy had gathered.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: what we know on day 219 of the invasion

At least 25 people killed as Russian missiles hit civilian convoy; Vladimir Putin to formalise annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine

A civilian convoy of cars heading to pick up relatives trying to flee Russian occupied territory in Ukraine has been hit by Russian forces near the city of Zaporizhzhia, with initial reports saying at least 25 people were killed and 50 people injured. Footage posted on social media showed a horrific scene with dead and injured people lying on a road on the south-eastern outskirts of the city.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said in a statement: “The enemy launched an attack on a civilian convoy and the outskirts of the city. People were standing in line to leave for the occupied territory to pick up their relatives and to deliver aid. There are dead and wounded. Emergency services are at the site.

According to locals, 60 cars had gathered on a road in two lines after registering for a convoy that was due to take people back into the Russian-occupied territories in the south, some planning to return to homes in places such as Mariupol, others planning to fetch relatives and bring them to government-occupied territory for fear that Russia will prevent people from leaving. In the hours before the attack, Russia launched strikes on several cities, including the centre of the nearby city of Dnipro.

The attack on the convoy on Friday morning came amid a feared Russian escalation in its war in Ukraine, as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, prepared to publicly sign annexation orders for four regions.

Putin will sign accession documents at the Kremlin before delivering a speech. A pop concert is also planned on Red Square, where a stage and screens have been set up. The territory Russia controls amounts to about 15% of Ukraine’s total area.

The Kremlin said again on Friday that it would consider attacks against any part of the regions of Ukraine that it is about to annex – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as acts of aggression against Russia itself.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would “de jure” incorporate parts of Ukraine which are not under the control of Russian forces. Of the four regions, Luhansk and Kherson are the only territories that Russia is close to having total control over.

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Putin to sign treaty annexing territories in Ukraine, Kremlin says

Russian president expected to make speech to members of State Duma at ceremony on Friday

Vladimir Putin will sign treaties on Friday annexing territories in occupied Ukraine, the Kremlin has said, in a major escalation of Russia’s seven-month-old war.

The Russian president is expected to sign into law the annexations of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russia held fake referendums over the last week in order to claim a mandate for the territorial claims.

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US charges Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska with violating sanctions

Deripaska, 54, accused of several crimes including plotting to bring pregnant girlfriend to US so child would be American citizen

Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs, who previously had deep links to British establishment figures, has been indicted by the US Department of Justice for criminal sanctions violations.

The indictment detailed a number of alleged crimes by the man who was long considered Vladimir Putin’s favourite industrialist, including an elaborate and failed attempt by Deripaska and his associates to shuttle his pregnant girlfriend to the US so that she could give birth there and secure American citizenship for their second child.

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UN chief warns Putin that annexing Ukraine territory is a ‘dangerous escalation’ with ‘no legal value’ – as it happened

António Guterres warns Putin against annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia before expected announcement.

This live blog is now closed

Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, has said that “intentional” explosions caused the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, and that it was an “unprecedented” attack.

He told viewers of Sky News in the UK:

It’s clear we all need to be very aware of our critical infrastructure, when it comes to energy and other infrastructure, so we all take, I think, the right precautionary steps. Because it is unprecedented, as I’ve said, we haven’t seen that type of attack on infrastructure.

It has been clear for us for a long time in Denmark, and also now for the rest of Europe, that we need to get out of any dependence on Russian energy, whether it’s gas, coal or oil, and we’re working very hard to obtain that objective in Europe.

Denmark is doing its part, where we will focus a lot in investing massively in renewable energy, not least the offshore wind and other type of renewables, and also energy efficiency. So that is a course we will not change.”

I think we should be very concerned. Listening to Polish and Danish ministers they do suspect this was an act of Russian terrorism, and that it’s another threat from the Kremlin to Europe’s energy supplies.

But we need to stand bold against Russia supporting Ukraine.

I personally think it’s likely that Nord Stream may never reopen, and therefore the energy policy of Europe, of our country, working with our European colleagues, needs to assume that we need to get off Russian energy as fast as possible.

That will be good for our security.

This post was amended at 2.55pm on 29 September. It initially said that the Liberal Democrats were “the third largest political party in the UK’s parliament”, and then was amended to say that they were “the fourth largest political party in the UK’s parliament”. The Liberal Democrats are the fourth largest party in the House of Commons. They are the third largest political party by representation in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

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