The Guardian ·
Ukraine war briefing: Drone kills Russian commander just decorated after fake victory claim
Maj Gen Anton Grunis was praised by Vladimir Putin for purported capture of Kostiantynivka; UK names intel officer who died in Ukraine road crash. What we know on day 1,667
Ukrainian drone forces have killed a Russian general who had just been made a Hero of Russia after false claims that Moscow’s forces had captured the Donetsk city of Kostiantynivka. Maj Gen Anton Grunis died in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. “General Grunis was eliminated on September 12,” said Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi, adding that the general was the seventh Russian military commander killed by his drone forces. Another Russian commander, Apti Alaudinov, posted confirmation that Grunis had died.
The battle for Kostiantynivka is gruelling for Ukraine but war analysts say it remains contested. Grunis reported personally to Vladimir Putin earlier this year that his troops helped capture Kostiantynivka and was praised by the Russian president for “doing the work”. The territorial claim remains heavily disputed – the US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces had infiltrated but not fully seized the city, and Russia’s claim was part of a wider information campaign to “portray the Ukrainian frontlines as collapsing”. Grunis received the Gold Star Hero of Russia award at a ceremony in late August.
Russian airstrikes damaged buildings in Kyiv and injured three in the Black Sea port city of Odesa in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. In Kyiv, debris fell on warehouses and near a petrol station, among other locations, said the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Three people, including a child, were injured as Russia hit a 19-storey apartment building in Odesa, authorities said.
Russian drones struck a passenger bus, killing five people, as well as attacking a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. “There is no military logic to this, just another act of brutality,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The bus was hit near the frontline city of Nikopol. Seven more people were wounded, said the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor. Russian drones attacked a passenger train three times in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, the acting regional governor said. Passengers and crew were evacuated and no one was hurt. Zelenskyy said that in addition, a locomotive was struck in Kovel near the border with Poland.
Russian shelling on Wednesday killed one person in the southern Kherson region, and in the port of Odesa one death was reported. Russian attacks injured more than a dozen people in Sumy in the north and Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine. The Russia-installed head of areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region held by Moscow said a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person. Officials in Russia’s border Belgorod region said six people were injured in Ukrainian attacks.
The Russian Gerbera-2 drone found in the Baltic Sea off Poland was armed with explosives, officials said on Wednesday. Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Monday that the military had located the drone near the village of Rusinowo in north-western Poland and recovered it from the sea. The drone was thought to have been lost by Russia during test manoeuvres over the Baltic. Polish military prosecutors are investigating whether legal proceedings can be launched, presumably against Russia, for “causing an incident that endangers the life or health of many people and property of great value”.
The Russian government has extended a ban on diesel exports until the end of October. The ban had been due to end this month. Russia introduced restrictions on exports of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel because of domestic fuel shortages driven by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. Reuters reported that fuel market data indicates three of Russia’s six largest diesel-producing refineries were forced to significantly cut output or halt production altogether in September because of damage caused by drone attacks. Russia’s Rosneft-owned oil refineries in the Volga river cities of Syzran and Saratov have stopped processing after Ukrainian drone attacks this month, Reuters reported on Wednesday citing three industry sources.
Britain’s defence ministry has named a 40-year-old intelligence officer who died in a road crash away from the frontlines in Ukraine on Saturday. Maj Paul Wilks was commissioned from Sandhurst in 2012 and joined the Intelligence Corps, where he remained throughout his career. His commanding officer described Wilks as a “man of great intellect”, who often spoke of his love for his wife and two sons.
The chief of defence intelligence described Wilks as “one of the most talented intelligence officers of his generation”. The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said Wilks “served this country with pride and dedication”. A small number of British personnel serve in Ukraine providing security to diplomats and support the country’s armed forces. Britain’s MoD previously announced paratrooper George Hooley, 28, was killed in Ukraine in December as he watched Ukrainian forces testing a new defensive capability.
A Russian strike destroyed a warehouse in Kyiv that stored props for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former TV studio, the company said on Wednesday, adding that its staff were unharmed. Zelenskyy co-founded the Kvartal 95 production company in 2003 while working as a comedian. “We lost a large number of sets, costumes, and items that for 20 years had been part of our concerts, TV shows, movies, and series,” Kvartal 95 said. Zelenskyy spent much of his early career working in television, including in Russia. In 2013, he co-presented Russian state TV’s New Year’s Eve show. Kvartal 95 ceased work in Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
