Day 321 of #Russia's war. There's been outright war in Europe for every month of the past year after the unprovoked aggression started with bombs and the invasion of #Ukraine last February.
Follow all the news around the war, updated here in this thread throughout the day⬇️
I'll start in the now traditional fashion by giving you the link for yesterday's thread in case you missed anything in the #RussiaUkraineWar
Everyone in #Ukraine is awaiting news from #Soledar on the eastern front. It's not looking good with supply lines possibly having been effectively cut - #Russia has fire control over the main route in to the town in #Donetsk oblast.
Russians are sacrificing 1000s but may succeed
Here's a photo of the car in which two people died in #Kramatorsk.
#Russia's rockets hit the car and road last night.
More details are being reported on the mystery of how and where #Ukraine hit a Russian boat yesterday.
Sources say it happened on the River Dnipro in #Kherson region, at Bilohrudove near to #HolaPrystan. The vessel was hit by artillery from the right bank.
Big media finally cover the disappearance in #Ukraine of volunteers Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry.
However, they're reporting that both are British. I wrote yesterday Mr Bagshaw, from Christchurch, is a New Zealander. But he does hold dual citizenship
In #Kherson the Council has released photos of damage from the latest attack by #Russia on a residential area of the city.
Deputy Chairman Yuriy Sobolevskyi says this lake is the crater from the explosion. "There are no military targets nearby. They're terrorists."
This is becoming far too common. #Russia gets to know where humanitarian aid distribution points are and looks to be deliberately shelling them. It cannot be coincidence. It can be called evil and terrorism.
One of the very few overseas politicians to visit east #Ukraine, she visited the badly bombed district of Saltivka and met medics during her tour alongside Kharkiv's Mayor +🇺🇦's FM
In occupied #Donetsk,rockets hit one of the city's mines.
Here is the damage to the Skochinsky mine in the Kirovsky district of the city.
It's reported that #Ukraine has captured a popular Telegram propagandist.
Anatoly Dryomov has amassed almost 50,000 subscribers to his Telegram channel while fighting for #Russia
Here is a screenshot of the man said to be him, being questioned plus earlier pics from his channel
#Russia refuses to admit the true losses and won't publish names of the dead
However Ukraine has just released another intercepted call where a woman says her husband helped transport 22 truck loads of bodies.
Unverified
#Russia's propaganda channels and war bloggers claim #Wagner mercenaries have entered the centre of #Soledar and captured the local Admin/Council building.
Obviously these are as yet unconfirmed reports which #Ukraine denies
Meanwhile here's a recent satellite photo of the town
Two Russians reportedly injured tonight in #Belgorod.
The local Governor says the border village of #Shebekino has been repeatedly shelled.
#Wagner militants released a short video claiming to have taken control of the administration building in the centre of the town.
Here's a screenshot and it was noticeable they shot very tightly, not showing surroundings.
2/3 Gunfire can also be heard in the clip so there is still fighting.
Also, thanks to Google, we can clearly see #Wagner were NOT at the main council building in the centre of #Soledar, which is shown here:
3/3 A few more searches reveals the old school number 14 was turned into #Soledar council buildings 3 years ago. It matches the facade in the video.
This WikiMapia photo was taken before the inscription was added.
Thanks @Chr39548346 for correcting me. School 14 is <200m away
Very sadly, the photos/news on Telegram about missing volunteer Chris Parry was a sick fake
The photos did not show up on image searches, but found the originals now - taken from Chris' instagram account when he had an op in 2016.
Chris and Andrew are still missing near Bakhmut
Russians write that they've given #Ukraine's troops in #Soledar a midnight deadline to surrender.
I doubt this is true and even if it is, there will not be a surrender. There is still a route out albeit now far more dangerous than a few days ago.
Explosions in #Kharkiv confirmed.
No further details yet.
The morning after the night before. A dreadful 24 hours for Ukraine as Terrorism rained down on all four of 🇺🇦's biggest cities.
Russia acts with impunity. Putin & his commanders have got away with war crimes for 4 years, so what will change?
Here's the🧵for Day 1513
As I type, BSky is down, which causes problems as it's much easier to simul-post than go back & repost everything later.
So, like the old days before fascism took over here, I'm on X (itter) only.
But these problems are infinitesimally small compared to 1000s in Ukraine today.
A pretty astonishing 24 hours of round-the-clock day and night attacks from Russia. Trying to exhaust Ukraine's air defence missiles and also exhaust the operators too, no doubt.
Many, many civilian deaths and injuries.
This is how it unfolded..
You've found the start of another daily thread and Friday is Day 1507 of Ukraine's heroic struggle to keep alive its independent statehood.
Since Bohdan Khmelnytskyi's uprising in 1648, Ukraine has never had 35 years of freedom. It's about to accomplish that, but at what cost?
All the important stories, throughout the day, every day. It's all fact-checked; I'm a real, trained journalist with vast experience and knowledge of Ukraine.
What's not to love?😆
Catch up on yesterday's thread here:
This is the beginning of the daily Ukraine thread on Day 1491.
The day started with an attack a major Russian port, which I was still reporting on during yesterday's🧵at 03:15 GMT/05:15 Kyiv
More details on that coming up.
The aerial fightback at the end of the day (start of today) came after Russia broke every record in the book for drone numbers during a cowardly attack on less protected city centres in the west of the country.