Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s forces target hotel ‘housing English-speaking mercenaries’ in drone attack

Murder rates among Russian soldiers returning home from the frontline have soared over the last few years amid “chronic mental health” issues on the battlefield.

Data from Moscow’s judicial department showed that 113 active servicemen were convicted in 2023 – representing a near 900 per cent increase on just 13 convictions in 2022.

The UK ministry of defence said the high number of homicides was likely due to “war-related chronic mental health issues” and the release of thousands of ex-convicts pardoned for their participation in the war.

“The high numbers of homicides by serving and veteran Russian soldiers are likely in part due to enduring war-related chronic poor mental health issues,” the MoD said.

“These include post-traumatic stress disorder, and battlefield desensitisation to violence. Alcoholism and drug use from low morale and boredom are likely contributing factors.

“Compounding this is the return into the general population of ex-convicts with a pre-existing propensity for criminality and extreme violence.”

Putin’s forces have targeted a hotel housing “English-speaking mercenaries” fighting in Ukraine, Russian state media claimed.

Russian troops used an Iranian-made Shahed drone to attack the hotel in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, which was left heavily damaged and set ablaze.

The region’s governor Vitaly Kim said: “The enemy attacked the city with an unmanned aerial vehicle of the ‘Shahed-131/136’ type.

“As a result, a hotel building was heavily damaged, a fire broke out, which was quickly extinguished. There are no casualties.”

A Russian suspect has been held after two Ukrainian citizens were killed in Germany’s Bavaria outside a shopping centre yesterday, police officials said.

The two men, aged 23 and 36, were found critically injured around 5.20pm in the evening and one of them had succumbed to his injuries by the time medical help arrived, reported European Pravda. The second man, who suffered severe injuries, also died in the hospital shortly afterwards.

Police have detained a 57-year-old suspect, a Russian citizen, the report added. The suspect reportedly lived near the scene of the attack.

Ukraine fired at least 17 drones towards Russia in the early hours today, the Russian defence ministry said. It claimed that all the drones were destroyed by its air defence systems.

A regional official said the attack targeted an oil storage facility in the Kaluga region.

Three of the Ukraine-launched drones were downed over the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, the defence ministry claimed on its Telegram channel.

Another nine were destroyed over the Bryansk region, three over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, it added.

Vladislav Shapsha, regional governor of Kaluga, said the drones fell near an oil depot near the town of Lyudinovo.

“There were no casualties or damage,” he said in a statement on Telegram.

Several German parties have kicked off their campaigns this weekend for the European Parliament elections in June – with issues such as the war in Ukraine and support by many European voters for far-right nationalist parties looming large.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats, or SPD, launched their official campaign for the election with a rally in Hamburg.

Responding to many German voters’ fears their country could be drawn into Ukraine’s war with Russia if it’s too proactive in its military support for the eastern European country, Mr Scholz tried to alleviate such concerns.

The chancellor reiterated that Germany would continue to stand by Ukraine’s side under his leadership as the second-largest arms supplier after the US, but would avoid a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia.

“The enemy again massively shelled Ukrainian energy facilities,” said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, adding that four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage overnight.

Ukraine has sought to fight back against the aerial onslaught from Russia in recent months using its long-range drones. Kyiv says it is striking at infrastructure to try and disrupt the Russian economy – hence the oil facilities, with Russia being one of the world’s biggest exporters – and military airfields.

Russian forces will have an opening on the battlefield to make tactical gains in the coming weeks but that will not amount to the collapse of the Ukrainian defence line, a US-based think tank has said.

“Russian forces have opportunities to make significant tactical gains in the Avdiivka area and pursue an operationally significant objective with the seizure of Chasiv Yar; but, neither of these efforts is likely to develop into an operationally significant penetration in the near term, let alone cause the collapse of the Ukrainian defensive line in Donetsk oblast,” The Institute for the Study of War said yesterday.

It cited news reports this week showing that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in December 2023 that Ukrainian forces would be able to “hold out” until March or April 2024 without additional US security assistance.

This is the period through which Ukrainian forces are now passing on the war frontline without the arrival of US military aid.

“The arrival of US aid at the front in the coming weeks will allow the Ukrainian forces to address their current materiel constraints and blunt ongoing Russian offensive operations, and Russian forces appear to be intensifying efforts to destabilise Ukrainian defences and gain ground ahead of the arrival of the American security assistance,” the ISW said.