Ukraine-Russia war latest: Power outages across Ukraine as Putin strikes its energy grid – UK Times

Vladimir Putin will host his Iranian counterpart this week for the signing of a broad partnership pact between Moscow and Tehran, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Ukraine and the West have accused Tehran of providing Moscow with hundreds of exploding drones for use on the battlefield in Ukraine and helping launch their production in Russia.

The agreement on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” between the countries will be signed during Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Moscow on Friday, the Kremlin said.

It added that the leaders will discuss plans for expanding trade and cooperation in transport, logistics and humanitarian spheres along with “acute issues on the regional and international agenda.”

Australia has summoned Russia’s ambassador to the country over reports that a Melbourne man was killed after being captured while fighting for Ukraine.

Reports of Mr Jenkins’s death remain unverified.

Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Warsaw today, the Polish prime minister’s office said, days after confirming a breakthrough in ties between the two nations over a Second World War dispute.

Ukraine and Poland have a historical dispute on wartime exhumations that has stood between the allies but that has not stopped Warsaw from being one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers since the Russian invasion in 2022.

Ties between the neighbours have been strained for generations by the Volhynia killings that took place from 1943 to 1945.

Last week, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk hailed a “breakthrough” in ties, saying that Ukraine had made a decision to allow the first exhumations of victims to take place.

Poland says more than 100,000 Poles were killed in the massacres by Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in reprisal killings.

Poland has long demanded free access for its specialists to sites where the remains of those killed are believed to have been buried, so that they can be exhumed for proper funerals.

Ukraine often refers to the Volhynia events as part of a conflict between Poland and Ukraine that affected both nations.

Ukraine has introduced emergency power cuts in six regions amid a “massive” Russian missile strike, its national grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement this morning.

The emergency power outages have been implemented in Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts due to the large-scale missile attack, it said.

Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said “preventative measures” were in force.

“The enemy continues to terrorise Ukrainians. The transmission system operator is implementing preventive restriction measures due to the large-scale attack,” he said.

There are several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems, a long-range missile system that often carries varying amounts of cluster bomblets.

Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the first time in October 2023, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying the weapons had “proven themselves.”

Ukraine likely has what are known as M39A1 Block IA ATACMS that are guided in part by Global Positioning System and have a range of 40 to 190 miles. They can carry a payload of 300 bomblets. The M39 Block IA were used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army documents, and were added to the US arsenal in 1997.

Russian troops pressing their slow advance through eastern Ukraine took control of two settlements in Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday.

Russia’s troops have been advancing at their fastest rate since the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, announcing the capture of a long list of villages in daily frontline reports.

Moscow’s forces captured Terny, near the town of Siversk, one of the focal points of Russia’s campaign through Donetsk region, and Neskuchne farther south, a ministry report said.

Ukraine‘s General Staff, in a late evening report, said nothing about Terny changing hands, but mentioned the village as one of eight to come under attack in 17 armed clashes in the area. Five clashes were continuing late into the evening.

The report also identified Neskuchne as one of five villages where Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks.

Ukraine’s popular DeepState blog, which uses open-source material to pinpoint the position of Kyiv’s troops, said Russian forces had made gains around Neskuchne.

The two men were reportedly captured during fighting in Russia’s Kursk border region, where the Ukrainian forces launched an incursion last August.

Pictures released on social media by Mr Zelensky show two men resting on cots in a prison cell with bars over the windows. Both wear bandages, one around his jaw and the other around his hands and wrists.