Ukraine War: Dead Russians ‘cremated almost continuously’

Russia is burning fires around the clock to dispose of the bodies piling up amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive, according to Kyiv.

Russia is cremating its dead soldiers “almost continuously” amide Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and east of the country, according to Kyiv.

Ukraine deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Moscow’s army has been trucking in the bodies of dead soldiers from Kherson to Melitopol, about 160km away.

“The command of the Russian occupying forces tries to hide the real losses of personnel and carries out burials in the temporarily occupied territories, without transporting the remains to Russia,” she said on Telegram.

“For example, near Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, the bodies of Russian servicemen are being cremated almost continuously in an open area, which are delivered by the occupiers on trucks.

Women evacuating with belongings in the frontline city of Kupiansk. Picture: AFP

“Local residents have been feeling the characteristic acrid smoke for a long time.”

The most recent estimate of casualties from the United Kingdom defence ministry in February estimated about 40,000 to 60,000 Russians were killed in the first year of the war.

It comes as the Russian army threw its troops against Ukraine defenders in the Kharkiv region, where Maliar added that Kupiansk was “now the main direction of enemy’s offensive.”

Authorities in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Kupiansk called for evacuations amid the uptick in Russian attacks on the settlement.

Moscow its troops bettered their positions around the village as a result of the renewed attacks, with a three-kilometre advance along the front.

“In the course of offensive operations near Kupiansk, assault teams of the Western battle group improved their positions along the forward edge of the front line,” the Russian defence ministry said.

ZELENSKYY ASSASSINATION THWARTED

Ukraine has detained an agent who was sharing intelligence with Russia as part of a plot to assassinate Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The informant, a woman, was helping to plan “an enemy air strike on Mykolaiv region” during a recent visit by Mr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said in a statement released online and reported by NBC News.

The SBU will continue to document the woman’s actions to learn more about her alleged Russian handlers, and learned that she was also instructed to locate Ukraine army’s strategic assets near the town of Ochakiv in Mykolaiv region, which the SBU claimed the Russians were planning to use to launch a massive air strike on the region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the target of a recently averted assassination attempt by a Russian agent on Ukraine soil. Picture: Getty Images

NBC News had not immediately verified the Ukrainian claims which said the woman, who was not identified, was collecting information including the time and locations that the Ukrainian president planned to attend in the southern region of the country.

The woman was identified as a resident of Ochakiv and a former military shop saleswoman. She is facing up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

A spokesperson for the SBU confirmed to NBC News that Ukraine said Mr Zelenskyy was the target of the attack but that “additional security measures were taken during the visit” to foil the plot.

Mr Zelenskyy regularly moves around Ukraine visiting front lines and liberated towns, while under strict security. Throughout the war it is thought that he has been the target of numerous thwarted assassination attempts.

TV PRESENTER BECOMES UKRAINE HERO

Popular TV presenter, comedian and actor Serhiy Prytula is the face linked to Ukraine’s recent drone offensive.

Having focused on fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine ever since the Russian invasion, Prytula’s crowd-funding campaigns have made him a national hero.

Crouching beside Ukrainian-made kamikaze drones on a runway for a recent interview, Prytula taunted Moscow with a Ukraine-made fleet of drones that experts have linked with recent powerful strikes inside Russia.

Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowd-funding campaigns for the Ukrainian military have made him a national hero. Picture: AFP

Offering a rare glimpse at Ukraine’s homegrown explosive drones, Prytula shared images of himself with a fleet in an undisclosed location.

“Muscovites! Shudder from the sirens. Go to the bomb shelters,” he wrote on social media alongside photos of himself with steel grey drones on a runway.

Scrawled on one of the drones in Prytula’s post was a handwritten message: “From Ukrainians without love.”

Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowdfunding for the Ukrainian military have made him a national hero, makes selfie in front of equipment for the army. Picture: AFP

“Of course without love, but also without hate,” Prytula said at his Kyiv office, littered with gifts from soldiers, including the mangled wing of a downed Russian craft.

“We have no idea what could fly to Moscow,” he said with a grin in a separate video.

Polls show that Prytula’s crowd-funding campaigns have rendered him one of the country’s most trusted public figures – second only to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine has not yet claimed direct responsibility for the string of recent drone attacks on Russia, including on the capital Moscow, but Mr Zelenskyy has warned that “war” is coming to Russia.

Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowd-funding campaigns for the Ukrainian military and its attack drones have made him a national hero. Picture: AFP

In an interview with AFP in Kyiv, Prytula declined to identify the type of drones in his posts but said they were capable of a flight range of 1000km and cost about $A164,000 a piece.

Analysts told AFP that they appeared to match the drones identified in videos from strikes on Russia’s capital.

“That is the Beaver drone that has been hitting Moscow,” Steve Wright, a Britain-based expert in drone technology, told AFP, referring to Prytula’s images, pointing to several distinguishing features.

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a window into Ukraine’s domestic drone industry, which appears to be rapidly developing in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February last year.

It underscores Ukraine’s resolve to gain deep-strike capabilities in response to the routine bombardment by Russia, which has taken advantage of aerial superiority and Kyiv’s limited air defences.

Last year, Prytula’s eponymous foundation raised 352 million hryvnia ($A14.63 million) through what he called a “revenge” crowd-funding to purchase 142 long and short-range kamikaze drones to target Russia.

Another Ukrainian influencer Igor Lachenkov told his Telegram followers that he was able to raise 20 million hryvnia ($A830,000) for attack drones.

A local resident works outside his damaged house in Kharkiv as Russia claims it is advancing in the region again. Picture: AFP

Meanwhile, Russia said on Monday its troops had advanced three kilometres along the Kupiansk front in northeast Ukraine over the last three days, as it seeks to regain territories it lost earlier in its offensive.

The city of Kupiansk and surrounding areas of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region were liberated by Ukrainian forces last September, but Moscow has since renewed its assault on the region.

“Over the past three days, the advance of Russian troops … amounted to 11 kilometres along the front and more than three kilometres deep into the enemy’s defence,” Moscow’s defence ministry said.

It said that it had “improved” its standing along the front line in the area and that it continued to repel Ukrainian counter-attacks.

RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE AIR BASES

Ukraine suffered several waves of aerial attacks overnight, which Moscow accused of targeting military airfields, a day after a strike on a Russian tanker on the Kerch Strait.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 30 out of the 40 cruise missiles and all Shahed drones launched by Russia.

“In total, the enemy used 70 air attack weapons in several waves” in the night between Saturday and Sunday, it said.

It added that Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not say if they had been destroyed.

The Ukrainian armed force did not specify which sites were hit by the missiles that got through air defences.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting wounded Ukrainian servicemen in a military hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk region, western Ukraine. Picture: Handout / AFP

Meanwhile in the Rivne region that Russia said it hit, “only a few private households were damaged” according to regional head Vitaliy Koval.

On Saturday, Ukraine said Russian forces struck a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine.

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

However, the Russian army said it struck “Ukrainian armed forces air bases around the settlements of Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region and Dubno in the Rivne region.” Home to a major air base, the western Khmelnytskyi region located hundreds of kilometres from the front lines of the fighting has been repeatedly targeted during the war.

“Since yesterday evening, the Khmelnytskyi region has been attacked three times … most missiles were shot down” said local official Sergiy Tyurin.

Several buildings and the bus station were damaged, he said on Telegram. He also posted pictures of a crumbling building engulfed in flames, saying a corn waste warehouse had caught fire.

The reported strike came shortly after Mr Zelenskyy said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscow’s invasion.

On Sunday morning the Russian army said “all targets were hit” in the overnight strikes.

It said that separately Russian air defence forces shot down a drone approaching Moscow.

The Russian capital was almost never targeted since the beginning of the offensive in Ukraine, until a series of attacks in recent months.

The drone was downed without any casualties or damage, and restrictions on flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport were quickly lifted.

A damaged building at a Ukrainian port on the Danube after a night drone attack in Odessa region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

There have been an increased number of drone attacks not only on regions bordering Ukraine, but also on Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone hit a Russian oil tanker south of the Kerch Strait in the night between Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday morning repair work was being carried out on the vessel that was still afloat, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport.

Attacks have multiplied on both sides of the Black Sea since Russia exited a deal protecting grain exports there, brokered by the UN and Turkey.

Russia has hit port infrastructure on the Black Sea and the Danube, while Ukraine has targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

While combat continues, the likelihood of securing peace looks extremely thin. Saudi Arabia nevertheless hosted talks on the Ukraine war Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscles.

Organisers succeeded in bringing together representatives of the four members of the influential BRICK bloc besides Russia: Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

“We had an extremely honest, open conversation,” a statement on the Ukrainian presidency website said Sunday.

It said the consultation was “very productive” despite “different views”.

The Ukrainian delegation headed by Andriy Yermak is due to hold more bilateral meetings on Sunday

Originally published as Ukraine War: Dead Russians ‘cremated almost continuously’