Russia-Ukraine war: Putin’s troops hit by more than a dozen strikes by Kyiv

Below are some of the latest photos from Ukraine.

Five people were killed on Thursday in a missile strike by Ukraine‘s armed forces on the town of Skadovsk in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine‘s Kherson region, the TASS news agency reported, citing preliminary information.

The agency was quoting the Russian-installed Emergencies Ministry of the Kherson region, which Russia claims to have annexed along with three others since the start of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces are “stoutly holding their defences” around the eastern city of Avdiivka as Russia attempts to encircle them, Kyiv’s southern commander has said.

Avdiivka has become the flashpoint of the frontline in the past month, though Russian forces have advanced only hundreds of metres at the expense of significant mechanical losses, including tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, head of Ukraine’s southern group of forces, said troops around Avdiivka were “stoutly holding their defences”.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Anton Kotsukon said Russia has begun relying heavily on reconnaissance drones to target Ukrainian counterbattery elements that have been so effective in the past few weeks in destroying offensive equipment.

Russia forces pushed again on 8 November from the north and south west but appear to have made no material gains.

Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, the Ukrainian secretary of the national security and defence council, said they continued to make “huge gains” in Crimea.

While the ground offensive has remained largely static, attacks on the peninsula of late have opened up a second front.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian long-range strikes on a Russian military drydock in Kerch, on the eastern coastline of Crimea, rendered a warship “inoperable for the foreseeable future”, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

A Russian building in occupied southern Ukraine has been destroyed this morning as rumours swirl that it hit while Kremlin-affiliated officials were inside.

A building in Skadovsk, on the Dzharylhats’ka Gulf south of Kherson, was destroyed around 7.15am GMT, according to local reports. Follow-up reports are now suggesting Russian officials were in the building.

A local Ukrainian outlet from nearby Mariupol wrote: “I hear there are interesting obituaries waiting for us.”

The Russian-appointed head of the region Vladimir Saldo confirmed eleven people had been hospitalised.

The move has attracted concern from experts, who have argued it could amount to a war crime.

Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti aired a video purporting to show captured Ukrainian soldiers being voluntarily inducted into the Russian army. They were seen swearing allegiance to Russia, holding rifles and dressed in military fatigues. The authenticity of the report or videos aired by RIA Novosti could not be immediately confirmed.

A Russian missile damaged a Liberia-flagged civilian vessel entering a Black Sea port in Odesa region, killing one and injuring four people, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

After pulling out of the U.N.-brokered deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, Russia has been repeatedly attacking Ukrainian port infrastructure.

“The missile hit the superstructure of a civilian vessel under the flag of Liberia, at the moment of its entry into the port,” Ukraine’s southern military command said on Telegram messenger.

It added that one person was killed, three crew members, citizens of the Philippines, and one port employee were injured.

The vessel was supposed to transport iron ore to China, Ukraine Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Kubrakov added that Russia carried out 21 targeted attacks on port infrastructure after withdrawing from the deal.

“During this time, the terrorist country damaged more than 160 infrastructure facilities and 122 vehicles,” he said on Facebook.

Yoruk Isik, head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, identified the vessel as Kmax Ruler, 92,000 dwt.

A Ukrainian pilot on board was killed in the attack on the vessel in Odesa’s Pivdennyi port, said Yoruk Isik, head of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy. “A few” other crew members were either dead or injured, Mr Isik told Reuters.

Of those injured, three were crew members from the Philippines. The other injured individual was identified as a port employee.

The ship was loading iron ore in the port when it was hit, said Mr Isik. He identified the vessel as a Kmax Ruler 92,000 dwt – a Liberia-flagged bulk carrier.

Ukrainian infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the vessel was supposed to transport iron ore to China.

Russian attacks in four regions of Ukraine have damaged dozens of residential buildings and killed at least one civilian in the last 24 hours, local governors have said.

Oleg Sinegubov, governor of Kharkiv Oblast, northeast Ukraine, said one 48-year-old civilian had been killed in Izyum after more than three hours of Russian shelling in the area.

Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, said Russia “carried out 85 attacks, firing 529 shells from mortars, artillery, ‘Grads’, tanks, UAVs and aviation”.

He said: “The Russian military targeted the residential quarters of the populated areas of the region; a cell tower and an unbreakable point in the Berislav district. Due to Russian aggression, 2 people were injured.”

Yuriy Malashko, governor of neighbouring Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said:  “14 reports were received about the destruction of residential buildings and infrastructure facilities. Civilians were not injured.”

He also issued an air raid warning this morning, though that has since finished.

The European Commission has recommended that the process of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union should begin, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has reported.

Mariia Mezentseva, a subcommittee head on the board for integration of Ukraine into the EU, said the commission had said the process should start despite Russia’s full-scale aggression.

“In mid-December, we have a meeting of the EU Council, which will bring together the leaders of 27 countries, who must confirm this intention with their unity,” the Verkhovna Rada wrote in a statement.