A top Russian paratroop commander has been killed in Ukraine, state TV in Moscow confirmed, in a further setback for President Vladimir Putin’s war.
Col Sergei Sukharev was “liquidated” by Ukrainian forces, the country’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security said. He is the fourth confirmed Russian general to be taken out since the invasion began, while Ukraine claims it has killed a fifth.
The death of the commander, of the 331st Guards Parachute Assault Regiment from Kostroma, will serve another blow to Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which analysts say is not going as well as he had hoped. Multiple members of the regiment, considered to be among Russia’s most elite fighting forces, were slain in the same operation.
“Commander of the Kostroma Airborne Regiment, Colonel Sergei Sukharev … got lost in the ‘[military] exercises’, but returned home the right way,” said the Ukrainian statement.
His deputy, Major Sergei Krylov, was killed alongside him, the Ukrainian report said.
Russia admitted that three others, including a senior sergeant and a corporal, were among the dead.
Sukharev was last seen on Russian TV in January, when thousands of troops were massing on Ukraine’s borders amid Kremlin denials of any invasion plans.
The colonel appeared on screens as he led troops back from Kazakhstan where they had been deployed as “peacekeepers” after protests.
On Friday, day 23 of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, invading forces expanded their missile strikes to the western city of Lviv.
Andriy Sadovyi, the city’s mayor, said several missiles hit a facility for repairing military planes near the city’s international airport and also damaged a bus repair site.
No casualties were immediately reported in the strikes on Lviv, which has had its population swelled by about 200,000 people seeking refuge from attacks across Ukraine.
Shelling around the capital of Kyiv also continued as the number of refugees estimated to have fled the country exceeded 3.4 million.
Early morning barrages hit a residential building in the Podil neighbourhood of the capital, killing at least one person, according to emergency services, which said 98 people were evacuated from the building. Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko — the former world heavyweight boxing champion turned politician — said 19 were wounded in the shelling
Two others were killed when strikes hit residential and administrative buildings in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, according to the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
The death toll for Kyiv since the war began stands at 222, authorities say, including 60 civilians and four children.
Speaking at the scene of the latest attack on the capital on Friday, Mr Klitschko ruled out the possibility that Russian forces could have mistaken the apartment blocks for a military base.
“It’s not a military base,” he said. “It’s just an apartment for civilians.”
Mr Klitschko said he expected Mr Putin’s forces to further pummel the capital as they have done in other cities in Ukraine.
“If you look in Mariupol, if you look in Kharkiv, if you look in other cities, Chernihiv right now, where the civilians will be destroyed, the city will be destroyed, I expect the Russians do it exactly the same in Kyiv.”
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A woman cries near a building damaged by shelling in Kyiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. EPA -
A satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the damage from a Russian strike on Lviv's international airport. AP -
Destroyed cars hit by shelling in Kyiv. EPA -
A woman stands in her home after her building was damaged by shelling in Kyiv. EPA -
A pedestrian looks at a cloud of smoke rising after an explosion in Lviv. AP -
General view of a street behind a barricade in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. EPA -
The UN Security Council meets on threats to international peace and security in New York. AFP -
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with US troops at an army training range in Bulgaria. AP -
Empty strollers are seen outside the Lviv city council building during an action to highlight the number of children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Children play on the stage of the theatre of the Ukrainian House where a shelter for refugees has been installed in Przemysl, south-eastern Poland. AFP -
Smoke is seen above buildings close to the airport in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv's mayor said the airport was not hit, but an area nearby. Getty Images -
Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv. AP Photo -
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presents flowers to Kateryna Vlasenko, 16 - who was injured as she fled with her family from the town of Vorzel - at a hospital in Kyiv. Reuters -
Igor, a 40 year-old Ukranian soldier, embraces his wife in front of his military basement in the centre of Odesa. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre near Palanca Village, about 3 kilometres from the Moldova-Ukraine border. EPA -
Broken windows after parts of a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defences, hit an apartment block in Kyiv. AP -
People clear debris outside a medical centre damaged by the same Russian missile after it was intercepted. AP -
A police officer looks through the window of a damaged flat in Kyiv. One person was killed and three injured when debris from a downed rocket hit an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. AFP -
Firemen working in the rubble after extensive damage in Kyiv. AFP -
Family members and comrades of Ivan Skrypny, who was killed in a rocket attack on a military base in Yavoriv, pay their last respects at his memorial service in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters -
A man feels the despair as his home was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. Russian troops trying to encircle the capital have launched early morning strikes on the city for several successive days. AFP -
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed shakes hands with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference following their talks in Moscow. Reuters -
The Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which was destroyed by an air strike during Russia's military onslaught in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
A satellite image of the theatre before the bombing, with the word 'children' written in Russian in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building. Reuters -
A Ukrainian woman and her family in a taxi displaying the colours of the Ukrainian flag upon arriving in Madrid with a group of Spanish taxi drivers who drove to Poland to support the mass evacuation of refugees. Reuters -
A sanitised train arrives in Kielce, Poland, carrying children with oncological diseases who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
A man outside a damaged housing block after it was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. AFP -
A residential building damaged by a blast wave at the scene where debris from a downed rocket hit a nearby apartment block in Kyiv. AFP -
Evacuees from Mariupol are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people. AFP -
Legislators applaud Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, after an address via video link at the Bundestag in Berlin. Bloomberg
