'British tanks will burn,' threatens Kremlin

Thanks for following the latest updates. Today's top stories included:

• £22 million from the transfer fee of Ukrainian football player Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea will be donated to support Ukrainian soldiers
• UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly was sanctioned by Russia
• Russia claimed to have started production of nuclear warheads for its 'indestructible' Poseidon super torpedo, according to state media
• The death toll from the Dnipro apartment block attack rose to 40 as officials said they did not expect to find more survivors
• The UK Ministry of Defence said Ukraine "almost certainly maintained positions in Soledar" as of Sunday, after Russia claimed to have captured the town
• A Wagner mercenary has sought asylum in Norway after dodging rifle fire and tracker dogs to escape from Russia
• Belarus and Russia launched joint air force drills amid concerns that Moscow will use its ally for a new ground offensive against Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin on Monday slammed Kyiv's "destructive" policies and growing Western arms supplies to Ukraine in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said.

"Vladimir Putin drew attention to the destructive line of the Kyiv regime, which has bet on the intensification of hostilities with the support of Western sponsors, who are ramping up the supplies of weapons and military equipment," the Kremlin said after the phone talks.

Ukrainian deminers are being trained by experts in Cambodia who are among the world's best because of experience from clearing the leftovers of nearly three decades of war.

The Ukrainian deminers are being hosted by the Cambodian Mine Action Center, a government agency that oversees the clearing of land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. The weeklong program began today.

Human Rights Watch said last year that Russia is using land mines in Ukraine "that are causing civilian casualties and suffering, as well as disrupting food production."

"Russia is the only party to the conflict known to have used banned antipersonnel mines, while both Russia and Ukraine have used anti-vehicle mines," it said.

Cambodia was littered with land mines and other unexploded ordnance after almost three decades of war ending in the late 1990s. An estimated 4 million to 6 million unexploded devices remain uncleared.

Mykhaylo Mudryk’s £88 million move to Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk has prompted the Ukrainian club to launch a £20m-plus project for soldiers defending the country from Russia’s invasion.

Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov also revealed plans for his side to play a friendly against the Premier League giants at the Donbass Arena, which they were forced to flee when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea nine years ago and has lain empty since.

Read the full story from Ben Rumsby.

More than 95 per cent of Ukrainians say they are confident their country will win the war against Russia, according to a study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology 

Nearly two-thirds of respondents expect victory to come before the end of the year.

The study reflects strong morale among Ukrainians following Russia's military setbacks.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has been sanctioned by Russia, he said on Monday.

In a social media post he wrote:

"I've been sanctioned by the Russian government.

"Good.

"If this is the price for supporting Ukrainian freedom, then I’m happy to be sanctioned."

He added the hashtag #SlavaUkraini, which means Glory to Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for the establishment of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government is understandably concerned that Russia cannot be prosecuted for its aggression before the International Criminal Court, she said, as it can deal only with cases in which the plaintiff and the defendant are members of the court, or a case is referred by the UN Security Council.

Russia is not a member of the ICC and, as a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, would probably block any referral.

"We talked about working with Ukraine and our partners on the idea of setting up a special tribunal for crimes of aggression against Ukraine," said Baerbock, adding that such a body could derive its jurisdiction from Ukrainian criminal law.

It could be supplemented with international elements - "at a location outside Ukraine, with financial support from partners and with international prosecutors and judges, so that impartiality and legitimacy are guaranteed", she said.

Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. However, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has warned of the potential for legal fragmentation.

Russia denies accusations of war crimes.

Russia's weekend strike on a residential block in Dnipro, which killed at least 36 people, constitutes a "war crime", EU presidency holder Sweden said on Monday.

"The Swedish government condemns in the strongest terms Russia's continuing systemic attack against civilians... including Saturday's missile strike on an apartment block in Dnipro", Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters, adding that "intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes".

The death toll from the attack is currently at 40, according to a local official, with dozens more still missing.

The Kremlin on Monday denied tensions between the Russian army and the Wagner mercenary force, following competing claims of battlefield wins in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested that the conflict had been invented by journalists and military bloggers.

"It is mainly the product of information manipulation," Peskov told reporters.

"They are all fighting for their motherland," Peskov said, referring to the army and Wagner, which was founded by Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.

His comments come after competing claims from the Russian Ministry of Defence and Prigozhin that their respective forces had captured Soledar in Eastern Ukraine.

The situation in Soledar is unclear, with Kyiv insisting its troops are still fighting to retain control.

Shelling yesterday "severely damaged" the Red Cross office in Kherson where the humanitarian group normally provides services.

Ukrainian officials blamed the shelling on Russia and said it had also hit the city's rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities.

Denise Brown, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, said: “It is inexcusable that the @RedCrossUkraine premises were hit during shelling on Kherson today. 

"A place where people impacted by the war can find relief should never be a target. My thoughts are with the Red Cross colleagues."

The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea said on Monday that air defences had downed 10 drones over the city in what he called a "failed Ukrainian attack".

Sevastopol, which is on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, has come under repeated air attack since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine.

Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said all the drones were downed over the sea, with no damage to any infrastructure.

He denied reports in Ukrainian media that there were explosions in the city, and said air defences were continuing to monitor the skies.

Ukraine has demonstrated the capacity to hit Russia with surprise attacks in Crimea, far beyond the front lines of fighting in south and eastern Ukraine, though it typically refrains from claiming responsibility.

The attacks prompted Russia to relocate some of its submarines from the port in September, British officials believe.

Drone footage has captured heavy fighting in the front line town of Soledar, currently the epicentre of some of the most intense and brutal fighting.

The death toll at an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that was hit during a Russian missile attack rose to 40 on Monday with 30 people still unaccounted for, a local city official said.

More information about some of the victims is beginning to emerge, as rescue efforts continue.

In his public address last night, President Zelensky said: "Dozens of people were rescued from the rubble, including six children. We are fighting for every person! The rescue operation will last as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives.

Currently, the list of the dead includes 30 people, including one child - a girl, she was 15 years old.

There are reports that two children lost their parents. My condolences to all those who lost their loved ones."

Ukraine announced last night that it would be adding nearly 200 more Russians and Kremlin supporters to its sanctions list.

Following the deadly attack in Dnipro over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "I think it is right that today there is a decision to expand our sanctions against Russian citizens and other persons who help terror."

He said the list had been "carefully prepared, and behind each name there is a responsible motivation. Those who justify terror. Those who grease the Russian propaganda machine. Those who tried to sell Ukraine somewhere in Moscow."

It follows Ukraine's first sanctions list issued a week earlier, which mostly targeted Russian stars and cultural figures.

It is understood that those named on the lists will have any assets in Ukraine frozen and be banned from entering the country. However, Mr Zelensky said last night that "We will do everything to make the sanctions work on the largest possible scale - in Europe, in the world."

Pictures are continuing to emerge from the site of a devastating rocket strike in Dnipro that killed at least 35 people over the weekend.

The strike hit a residential apartment block, all but destroying the building.

Local officials say 39 people have been pulled alive from the rubble but hopes are fading of finding any more survivors.

Russia has produced the first nuclear warheads for the Poseidon super torpedoes that it claims are "practically indestructible," according to Russian news agency Tass.

"The first Poseidon ammunition loads have been manufactured, and the Belgorod submarine will receive them in the near future," an unidentified defence source reportedly told the state news agency.

President Vladimir Putin first announced what would become known as Poseidon in 2018, claiming it was a fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon with its own nuclear power source.

Read the full story.

The Kremlin on Monday denied responsibility for a weekend strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that killed at least 35 people.

"The Russian armed forces do not strike residential buildings or social infrastructure, they strike military targets," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, suggesting that the strike could have been caused by air defence.

British officials say Russia has "systematically" targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned following persistent criticism of her handling of military modernisation programs and the country's arms deliveries to Ukraine

Lambrecht said in a statement Monday that she had submitted her resignation request to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying that "months of media focus on my person" had stood in the way of a factual debate about the military and Germany's security policy.

"The valuable work of the soldiers and many people in my department must stand in the foreground," she said.

Hopes of rescuers pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in Dnipro have started to fade, with dozens of people believed to have died.

The regional governor said on Monday that at least 35 people had been killed and 75 injured.

Another 35 people remain missing, with 39 saved, said Valentyn Reznichenko.

The rescue operation is ongoing but Dnipro's Mayor Borys Filatov said "The chances of saving people now are minimal."

The nine-storey apartment block was struck on Saturday.

Intense fighting has resulted in small gains for both sides in recent weeks, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

"Over the last six weeks, both Russia and Ukraine have achieved hard-fought but limited gains in different sectors," it commented in its intelligence update on Monday.

"In these circumstances, a key operational challenge for both sides is to generate formations of uncommitted, capable troops which can exploit the tactical successes to create operational breakthroughs," it added.

Ukraine's armed forces are managing to slowly advance the front line on the edge of the town of Kremina, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

In its morning update on Monday, it said that "intense fighting continued in both the Kremina and Bakhmut sectors of the Donbas front" over the weekend.

"Around Kremina, fighting has been characterised by a complex series of local attacks and counter-attacks in wooded country. However, overall, the UAF [Ukrainian Armed Forces] continue to gradually advance their front line east on the edge of Kremina town."

The situation around Soledar, near Bakhmut, is less clear, but the MoD said Ukraine was almost certainly holding on to positions in the town, despite Russian claims that it had been captured.

Ukrainian forces are fighting to retain control of Soledar in eastern Donetsk, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Sunday - contradicting Russian claims that it had captured the small town.

It comes as the UK Ministry of Defence said that Ukrainian Armed Forces "almost certainly maintained positions in Soledar, north of Bakhmut, in the face of continued Wagner Group assaults" as of Sunday.

Soledar has been the site of bloody fighting in recent weeks. The head of Russia's notorious Wagner mercenary group claimed his forces had captured the town on Saturday.

A Russian mercenary commander fled from Russia into Norway by creeping past watchtowers, dodging rifle fire and scrambling away from tracker dogs.

Andrei Medvedev claimed that at around 2am on Friday he climbed two barbed wire fences guarding the Russia-Norway border in the Arctic, and then ran across the frozen Pasvik River.

"I heard dogs barking behind me, the spotlights came on and shots were fired at me," the former Wagner unit commander said. "I just ran towards the forest."

This frozen wasteland is where Russia and Nato face off and is one of the most heavily guarded areas in the world. Watchtowers equipped with searchlights stud the border, and armed guards with dogs mount regular patrols.

Read the full report by James Kilner.
 

Russia and Belarus began joint air force drills on Monday, sparking fears that Moscow could use its ally to launch a new ground offensive in Ukraine.

Belarus has insisted the drills are defensive but Moscow used its neighbour as a springboard for its invasion of Ukraine last February.

Minsk has conducted multiple military exercises since then and has been bolstering the drills with weaponry and military equipment.