Ukraine claims Russian military was torturing villagers

Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said, in an online statement, that they had found a basement where Russian forces allegedly tortured prisoners in the village of Kozacha Lopan, near the border with Russia.

They released images which showed a Russian military TA-57 telephone with additional wires and alligator clips attached to it. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Soviet- era radio telephones as a power source to electrocute prisoners during interrogation.

Russian shelling hit cities and towns across a wide stretch of Ukraine on Saturday night, officials said yesterday, while Britain’s Ministry of Defence warned that Russia was likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets as it suffered battlefield defeats.

“In the last seven days, Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect,” the ministry said in an online briefing.

“As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.”

Russian fire killed four medics attempting to evacuate a psychiatric hospital in the Kharkiv region on Saturday, governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Two patients were wounded in the attack in the village of Strelecha, he added.

Overnight shelling also hit a hospital in the city of Mykolaiv, a significant Black Sea port, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.

Three people were wounded in night-time shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is across the river from Europe’s largest nuclear power station, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.

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The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was captured by Russian forces in March, but is operated by Ukrainian engineers.

Its last reactor was switched off a week ago after repeated power failures because shelling put crucial safety systems at risk.

Vatican Almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski – whose role includes making charitable contributions in the name of the pope – and his convoy came under fire near the city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, the Vatican news service reported. The group had been forced to seek cover while unloading supplies.

“For the first time in my life, I didn’t know where to run. Because it is not enough to run, you have to know where to go,” the Polish-born cardinal said.

The separatist forces that control much of Donetsk claimed yesterday that Ukrainian shelling of a prisoner-of-war colony in Olenivka had killed one prisoner and injured four.

More than 50 prisoners of war were reportedly killed in a July attack on the Olenivka prison, which both Russian and Ukrainian authorities blame each other for.

A Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said Russian forces in Donetsk continued to conduct “meaningless operations” on villages as opposed to reinforcing the front line.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite that country’s latest counter-offensive.

He also warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.

Speaking to reporters after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he sees no need to revise it.

“We aren’t in a rush,” the Russian leader said, adding that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

Putin also sought to assuage India’s concern about the conflict in Ukraine, telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO summit that Moscow wants to see a quick end to the fighting. He also alleged that Ukrainian officials have refused to negotiate.