Ukraine-Russia war – live: Mourners visit dead Wagner chief Prigozhin’s grave as Moscow threatens further annex
Prigozhin’s mother and son were among mourners at his grave in St Petersberg on Sunday
Zelensky says ‘Russian society has raised a second Hitler’ in attack on Putin
Dozens of mourners hailed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prighozin as a “patriot” who defended Russian interests abroad.
At his grave in St Petersburg, his mother, Violetta, and his son, Pavel, laid flowers. Supporters waved the black flags of Wagner which sport a skull and the motto “Blood, Honour, Motherland, Courage”.
“He can be criticized for certain events, but he was a patriot who defended the motherland’s interests on different continents,” Wagner’s recruitment arm said in a statement on Telegram.
It comes as Russia’s former leader Dmitry Medvedev warned Moscow could annex more of Ukraine a year on from when they first claimed Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
”The special military operation will continue until the complete destruction of the Nazi regime in Kyiv. Victory will be ours. And there will be more new regions within Russia,” Mr Medvedev said.
The four regions remain occupied by Moscow but it does not have complete control of any of the regions as Russian troops face Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Russian casualties near 250 in a day
Close to 250 of Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have been killed or injured in southern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, a Ukrainian military commander said.
Ukraine’s authorities said the casualties occurred on Saturday in Tavria, a village in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, just 23km from the major town of Tokmak, where Ukrainian forces are looking to advance for a strategic territorial advantage.
“Over the last day, the enemy lost 248 people (84 dead, 163 wounded and one captured),” Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who is in-charge of the strategic and operational group of forces in Tavriia, said in his Telegram channel on Sunday.
Arpan Rai reports:
Putin’s casualties near 250 in a day as Russian depots blown up in southern Ukraine
‘Over the last day, the enemy lost 248 people (84 dead, 163 wounded and one captured),’ says Ukrainian general
ICYMI - Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package,
Congressional supporters of Ukraine say they won’t give up after a bill to keep the federal government open excluded Joe Biden’s request to provide more security assistance to the war-torn nation.
Still, many lawmakers acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on. Republican resistance to the aid has been gaining momentum in the halls of Congress.
Voting in the House this past week pointed to the potential trouble ahead. Nearly half of House Republicans voted to strip $300m from a defence spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money later was approved separately, but opponents of Ukraine support celebrated their growing numbers.
Then on Saturday, House speaker Kevin McCarthy omitted additional Ukraine aid from a measure to keep the government running until 17 November. In doing so, he closed the door on a Senate package that would have funnelled $6bn to Ukraine, roughly a third of what has been requested by the White House.
Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the stopgap measure, with members of both parties abandoning the increased aid for Ukraine in favour of avoiding a costly government shutdown.
Read the full story here
Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package that averted shutdown
Congressional supporters of Ukraine say they won’t give up
Poland: Crowds gather to march against pro-Russian party
The protesters, who came from all over the country to participate in the demonstration dubbed ‘March of a Million Hearts’, was led by opposition leader and former prime minister Donald Tusk against Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Thousands of people hold Polish and EU flags
Thousands of people march against Poland’s pro-Russian party
Pictured: Ukraine Defender Day
Relatives of fallen Ukrainian soldiers near the wall of memory in Kyiv
People honor Ukrainian soldiers who have died in the war
Sunak says there are no plans for now to send British troops to Ukraine
There are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, rowing back from comments by his defence minister who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.
To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.
British defence minister Grant Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries.
Hours after that interview was published, Sunak said there were no immediate plans to send British troops to Ukraine.
"What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine," Sunak told reporters at the start of the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester.
"But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict."
Rishi Sunak is at the Tory Party Conference
Pictured: Poland’s protests
Poles demonsrate against pro-Russian Law and Order party
Poland Election Opposition
Poland Election Opposition
Ukrainian drone hits Russian helicopter base, reports suggest
A Ukrainian drone might have struck a helicopter base in Russia’s Sochi, according to reports. This strike came after social video video showed a drone hitting an aircraft factory in Smolensk.
Britain to send RAF Typhoon jets to Poland
Britain will send RAF Typhoon jets to Poland, Defence Minister Grant Shapps said. The typhoo is an “agile multi-role combat aircraft” used for air policing, peace support and high-intensity conflict, according to the RAF.
Typhoon jets from RAF Lossiemouth have returned from deployment to Estonia (Jane Barlow/PA)
EU foreign policy chief promises more support for Ukraine
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Ukraine needed more military aid and he promised ongoing EU support.
“Ukraine needs more capabilities & needs them faster,” he said in a statement posted on X, formerly
Josep Borrell said promised ‘long-term’ security commitments for Ukraine
Twitter. He said he had discussed “continuous EU military assistance” during his first in-person meeting with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
“We are preparing long-term security commitments for Ukraine,” Borrell added.
Russian propagandist calls for ‘nuclear ultimatum'
A Russian propagandist called for a ‘nuclear ultimatum’ after she claimed a Ukrainian drone fell in front of her family home.
“Tonight, an attack drone fell right in front of our family home in Adler, where I and my mother grew up, and where my relatives and their small children still live,” Margarita Simonyan said.
“The goals are ever further away, the stakes are ever higher, the nuclear ultimatum becomes increasingly uncontested.”
Margarita Simonyan
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies