Ukraine war live: Kyiv ‘destroys’ Russian submarine in Black Sea

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner urged the UN and the Red Cross to investigate an image widely shared online that he said likely showed a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war killed and dismembered by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said separately that an urgent investigation had been launched into information being spread on social networks about the murder and dismemberment of a Ukrainian war prisoner.

“A photograph, probably of a Ukrainian prisoner whose head and limbs were cut off by the Russians, has appeared online,” Dmytro Lubinets, the country’s leading human rights official, said on Telegram.

“In view of these horrific images, I have urgently appealed to the Red Cross and the UN to record yet another human rights violation by the terrorist country,” Mr Lubinets wrote.

Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general, said an urgent investigation had been launched. “Russia consistently repeats the crimes of the Nazis, defiantly showing utter contempt for all norms of the civilised world,” he wrote on Telegram.

Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of prisoners of war.

Ukraine launched more long-range drone attacks than Russia in July for the first time since the war began.

According to figures published by the Ukrainian army, Russia launched 426 Shahed-type drones into Ukraine and Kyiv hit back with over 520 drones.

It comes as Russia has faced destructive attacks on its oil refineries and other targets in recent months appearing less effective in shooting down the Ukrainian weapons.

The Ukrainian drone attacks were considerably more than 200 attacks in each of the previous two months.

A Russian drone attack overnight damaged “critical infrastructure” in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, a local official said.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 out of 29 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia in the overnight attack over nine regions.

Russian forces also launched two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles and two Kh-31 missiles, the air force said.

Earlier this week, Ukraine said it repelled one of Russia’s largest long-range drone attacks since February 2022, shooting down all 89 drones which included a ‘significant’ number of decoys trying to deplete Ukraine’s air defences.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Russia has used more than 600 guided aerial bombs to attack his country in the past week.

“Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners – a security solution,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post.

The Ukrainian military said earlier on Saturday that it had attacked Russia’s Morozovsk airfield overnight, hitting an ammunition depot which stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment.

Russian forces are advancing gradually towards the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in the eastern region of Donetsk, as Ukraine struggles with soldier shortages as delays in military aid from the West hold up the equipping of fresh brigades.

Pokrovsk, which serves as a key supply route for other Ukrainian outposts, has become the main focus of fighting in the last few weeks. Military analysts fear that Ukrainian equipment is insufficient to hold off the advance – although they expect the Russian offensive to slow down as it reaches more built-up areas.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed in the last few days it had taken control of Prohres and Yevhenivka – two villages to the east of Pokrovsk – with efforts now focussed on making a breakthrough closer to Pokrovsk.

President Zelensky said recently that the fighting around the vast Donetsk frontline is proving “extremely challenging” but that Ukraine “has the strength to achieve its goals”.