The captain of the Russian warship Moskva has been killed during the attack that sank it, Ukraine has claimed. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, said Anton Kuprin died during an explosion and fire onboard the ship.
Ukraine is now bracing for revenge attacks for its hand in sinking the Moskva. Western intelligence has corroborated Ukraine’s account that two of its missiles sunk the warship, though Russia has provided an alternative explanation. Russian strikes targeted the factory near Kyiv where the Ukrainian missiles used to sink the flagship are made.
More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces, local police said. Almost all of them were shot dead, indicating execution during the Russian occupation, it was claimed. Their number was far greater than previously thought. In Kharkiv, officials also said that 10 people, including a baby, were killed and 35 wounded following Russian air strikes.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, recently made a direct appeal to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for Washington to designate Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism”. The Washington Post first reported the news. It would be a rare and radical sanction. But Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.
In his latest address, Zelenskiy once again pushed for more weapons, and more sanctions – so the war could end sooner. Zelenskiy also spoke about a return to “normal life” in some parts of the country – or efforts to regain normality amid the tragedy. In parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy noted that four-fifths of Ukranian enterprises have returned to work in safe areas.
Sweden and Finland say they are deliberating Nato membership. Tytti Tuppurainen, Finland’s minister for European affairs, said: “The people of Finland seem to have already made up their mind”. She added the decision was “highly likely” but “not made yet” pending discussions in parliament.
Outgunned, outnumbered and surrounded by Russian forces, one of Europe’s biggest metallurgical plants has become Mariupol’s redoubt. The factory is “an enormous space” in which the Russians “simply can’t find” Ukrainian forces, Oleh Zhdanov – a military analyst based in Kyiv – told Reuters.
Russia threatened to intensify its attacks on Kyiv if Ukrainian forces carry out any operations on Russian territory. A spokesperson for Moscow’s defence ministry said: “The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any attacks of a terrorist nature or sabotage on Russian territory.”
Russia has designated journalist and YouTuber Yury Dud and political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann as “foreign agents”, a continuation of Moscow’s crackdown on those critical of the government within the country. Dud and Schulmann have both been publicly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
