Ukraine ‘shoots down three Russian bombers’ as Putin’s war supplies ‘slowing’

Three Russian bomber aircraft have been shot down over southern Ukraine, Kyiv’s air force claims.

“Today, in the Southern direction – minus three Russian Su-34 fighter bombers!,” said Ukraine’s Air Force.

Su-34 aircraft, which are armed with guided bombs and Kh-59 missiles, can carry out long-distance attacks.

Mykola Oleschuk, chief of Ukraine’s air force, said it had downed the three SU-34s “in a southern direction”, which he did not specify.

There were reports of a Russian military helicopter being scrambled to try to rescue the pilot of at least one of the planes.

Russian Telegram accounts suggested the aircraft were shot down near Ukraine’s Kherson bridgehead over the river Dnipro.

Vladimir Putin’s close ally Nikolai Patrushev has been named by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as the person “responsible” for the assassination of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to a US war think wank.

Quoting Western intelligence officials and former Russian intelligence sources, the newspaper named the Secretary of the Russian Security Council as the person who, with the Russian President’s permission, gave the order to ”dispose” of Prigozhin in early August 2023 by planting an explosive on the wing of Prigozhin’s jet, reported the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

ISW said it “had originally assessed on 23 August that Russian forces might have shot down Prigozhin’s jet on Putin’s orders, but evidence for that assessment was circumstantial, and ISW has no reason to doubt that the sources of the WSJ report are more reliable”.

It added that Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused the WSJ of putting forward a ”pulp fiction” conspiracy theory about Prigozhin’s death.

Ukraine’s security service and the defence ministry have said they have uncovered a scheme for fraudulent purchase of artillery shells that involved embezzlement of the equivalent of nearly $40 million.

Corruption in Ukraine has become an even more crucial issue as Kyiv proceeds with its application to join the European Union.

A statement issued by the SBU security service said the corrupt scheme focused on contracts to procure artillery shells.

A contract to secure the shells at higher than market prices had been abandoned by the defence ministry’s recently created procurement agency and a new deal struck eliminating intermediaries and significantly reducing the price.

But a senior ministry official, it said, had extended the previous contract and funds totalling nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias were deposited in accounts belonging to the intermediary firms.

The official, the main suspect in the case, was removed from his duties, legal proceedings have been launched against him and attempts are under way to recover the money.

The Ukrainian defence ministry has posted footage of what it says is a Russian anti-tank-mines stockpile being blown up.

Ukraine and Poland have said they are ready to try to resolve “problematic” issues in their relations, which have been damaged by a Polish truckers’ blockade of border crossings.

The pledge emerged from a meeting in Kyiv between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, who was on his first official trip abroad.

Ukraine has counted Poland as one of its closest European Union allies. Poland, now led by a centrist, pro-EU cabinet under Donald Tusk, has given Ukraine humanitarian and military assistance and taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees.

But relations have been overshadowed by a protest blockade of several border crossings by Polish truck drivers, and what Kyiv has seen as a lack of initiative by the previous Polish nationalist government to resolve the problem.

Hauliers are angry over a loss of business to competition from Ukrainian truckers who have benefited from permit-free access to EU territory since the war began.

They want permits for Ukrainian truckers reinstated, something Kyiv and the European Commission say is not negotiable. The protests have resulted in economic losses for Ukraine and also affected vital volunteer military aid supplies.

Poland’s deputy infrastructure minister said after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart that he hoped the protests could be solved before the end of the year.

A Russian deputy foreign minister said that talks with the United States on a potential prisoner exchange that would free Americans held in Russia are hampered by publicity and an alleged disparity in the U.S. negotiating stance.

The U.S. State Department said last week that Russia rejected several proposals for freeing Paul Whelan, an American convicted of espionage, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in March and is facing espionage charges.

“Here, as in many other areas, we observe the American traditional desire to get more for ourselves and give the minimum, as they say,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency that was published Friday.