A member of the Ukrainian military cleans out dirt from a trench system at a position on the outskirts of Donetsk
(Picture: Getty Images)Ukrainian forces have struck a hotel where members of Vladimir Putin’s “private army” were based, killing many of them, according to a civic chief.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor-in-exile of the Russian-occupied eastern Luhansk province, said forces launched a strike on Saturday in the town of Kadiivka, which left a “huge number” of mercenaries from the private Wagner military group dead.
If confirmed, the attack would be another setback for the Russian president who was accused by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly of “waging a 19th century war of imperial conquest”.
The conflict in Ukraine, which began when Putin’s forces invaded in February is reported to have killed at least 40,000 civilians, and left about 100,000 Russian soldiers dead or wounded, with a similar casualty level for Ukraine’s army.
In a keynote speech on Britain’s foreign policy, Mr Cleverly said: “What really chills the blood is that he is prepared to destroy the laws that protect every nation and, by extension, every person across the globe.
“Putin’s goal is to turn back the clock to an era when might was right and big countries treat their neighbours as prey.”
He stressed that the UK would increasingly reach out to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to defend the international rules-based system, brought in after the Second World War, which was under threat from dictators such as Putin.
Photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building, believed to be the hotel targeted by Ukrainian forces, largely reduced to rubble.
Mr Gaidai said: “They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located. A huge number of those who were there died.”
The Wagner group is a private military contractor with close ties to the Kremlin. It is fighting in Ukraine having also been deployed in parts of Africa.
The Kadiivka attack was among a series of strikes by Ukrainian forces over the weekend, as Kyiv seeks to reclaim more territory.
Ukrainian officials claimed as many as 200 Russian troops were killed in a missile attack on a makeshift barracks in the southern city of Melitopol, though this could not be confirmed.
Meanwhile Russia continued to target the country’s infrastructure, launching drone strikes on energy facilities which reportedly left 1.5 million people without power.
British defence chiefs said Putin’s troops are “unlikely to make operationally significant advances within the next several months”.
