Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s forces target hotel ‘housing English-speaking mercenaries’ in drone attack

Putin’s forces have targeted a hotel housing “English-speaking mercenaries” fighting in Ukraine, Russian state media claimed.

Russian troops used an Iranian-made Shahed drone to attack the hotel in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, which was left heavily damaged and set ablaze.

The region’s governor Vitaly Kim said: “The enemy attacked the city with an unmanned aerial vehicle of the ‘Shahed-131/136’ type.

“As a result, a hotel building was heavily damaged, a fire broke out, which was quickly extinguished. There are no casualties.”

A Russian suspect has been held after two Ukrainian citizens were killed in Germany’s Bavaria outside a shopping centre yesterday, police officials said.

The two men, aged 23 and 36, were found critically injured around 5.20pm in the evening and one of them had succumbed to his injuries by the time medical help arrived, reported European Pravda. The second man, who suffered severe injuries, also died in the hospital shortly afterwards.

Police have detained a 57-year-old suspect, a Russian citizen, the report added. The suspect reportedly lived near the scene of the attack.

Ukraine fired at least 17 drones towards Russia in the early hours today, the Russian defence ministry said. It claimed that all the drones were destroyed by its air defence systems.

A regional official said the attack targeted an oil storage facility in the Kaluga region.

Three of the Ukraine-launched drones were downed over the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, the defence ministry claimed on its Telegram channel.

Another nine were destroyed over the Bryansk region, three over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, it added.

Vladislav Shapsha, regional governor of Kaluga, said the drones fell near an oil depot near the town of Lyudinovo.

“There were no casualties or damage,” he said in a statement on Telegram.

Several German parties have kicked off their campaigns this weekend for the European Parliament elections in June – with issues such as the war in Ukraine and support by many European voters for far-right nationalist parties looming large.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats, or SPD, launched their official campaign for the election with a rally in Hamburg.

Responding to many German voters’ fears their country could be drawn into Ukraine’s war with Russia if it’s too proactive in its military support for the eastern European country, Mr Scholz tried to alleviate such concerns.

The chancellor reiterated that Germany would continue to stand by Ukraine’s side under his leadership as the second-largest arms supplier after the US, but would avoid a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia.

“The enemy again massively shelled Ukrainian energy facilities,” said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, adding that four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage overnight.

Ukraine has sought to fight back against the aerial onslaught from Russia in recent months using its long-range drones. Kyiv says it is striking at infrastructure to try and disrupt the Russian economy – hence the oil facilities, with Russia being one of the world’s biggest exporters – and military airfields.

Russian forces will have an opening on the battlefield to make tactical gains in the coming weeks but that will not amount to the collapse of the Ukrainian defence line, a US-based think tank has said.

“Russian forces have opportunities to make significant tactical gains in the Avdiivka area and pursue an operationally significant objective with the seizure of Chasiv Yar; but, neither of these efforts is likely to develop into an operationally significant penetration in the near term, let alone cause the collapse of the Ukrainian defensive line in Donetsk oblast,” The Institute for the Study of War said yesterday.

It cited news reports this week showing that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in December 2023 that Ukrainian forces would be able to “hold out” until March or April 2024 without additional US security assistance.

This is the period through which Ukrainian forces are now passing on the war frontline without the arrival of US military aid.

“The arrival of US aid at the front in the coming weeks will allow the Ukrainian forces to address their current materiel constraints and blunt ongoing Russian offensive operations, and Russian forces appear to be intensifying efforts to destabilise Ukrainian defences and gain ground ahead of the arrival of the American security assistance,” the ISW said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian attack on his country’s energy sector with 34 missiles of various types had targeted gas facilities important for supply to the European Union.

“The main target was the energy sector, various facilities in the industry, both electricity and gas transit facilities,” he said in his nightly video address. “In particular, those gas facilities that are crucial to ensuring safe delivery to the European Union.”

He also said that the trajectories and nature of the attack had been calculated to make preventing it as hard as possible. “Each downed rocket today is a significant result,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader called for more air defence supplies, faster deliveries and decisive actions from Kyiv’s allies.

Russian forces shelled and attacked Ukrainian power plants in central and western parts of the war-hit nation yesterday, officials said.

“The enemy again massively shelled Ukrainian energy facilities,” said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, adding that four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage overnight.

The air strike was carried out using long-range missiles, including cruise missiles fired by Russian strategic bombers based in the Arctic Circle.

This was the fourth large-scale aerial assault targeting the power system since 22 March, with Russia targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the latest strikes.

None of the Ukrainian facilities hit was identified by name, a security measure intended to prevent Russia quickly assessing the impact of its strikes.