Ukraine-Russia war latest: General decorated by Putin for false victory claim killed in Ukrainian drone strike

Ukraine says its drone forces have killed a Russian general in eastern Ukraine just weeks after he was decorated as a "war hero" by Vladimir Putin.

Major General Anton Grunis was given the "Hero of Russia" medal after it was claimed he led the capture of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine, despite independent military analysts confirming the city remained contested and that the claim of victory was Russian propaganda.

Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi said Grunis had been killed in a nighttime strike in the Donetsk region.

"General Grunis was eliminated on 12 September," Brovdi wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday.

In Moscow, his death was confirmed by commander Apti Alaudinov, but Russian officials otherwise did not share further details.

Meanwhile, overnight Russian strikes on Kyiv and the port city of Odesa have left at least 18 injured as the Ukrainian military warned of incoming jet-powered Russian drones in several Ukrainian cities.

A child was among the three injured as Russia hit a 19-storey apartment building in Odesa, authorities there said on Telegram.

A 40-year-old intelligence officer has died in a road collision in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Major Paul Wilks was killed in a traffic accident away from the front lines on Saturday 12 September.

Having commissioned from Sandhurst in 2012, he spent his entire military career serving in the Intelligence Corps.

His Commanding Officer described him as a "man of great intellect", who frequently spoke of his deep love for his wife and two sons.

The US House of Representatives passed a sweeping sanctions and tariff bill intended to increase economic pressure on Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The bill was cleared almost one and a half years after the late US Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, introduced it with dozens of other senators.

The Republican-majority ‌House ​voted 262 ‌to ⁠159 in ⁠favour of the bill.

Russian air strikes injured 13 and damaged buildings ⁠in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the Black Sea port city ⁠of ​Odesa in ⁠the early hours today, officials said.

City authorities said 10 people were wounded in Kyiv, with mayor Vitali Klitschko adding that apart from apartment and inhabited buildings, debris also fell on warehouse facilities and near a petrol station, now a frequent target of attacks.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, a Reuters ‌witness said.

A child was among the three injured as Russia hit a 19-storey apartment building in Odesa, authorities there said on Telegram.

Ukrainian drone forces killed a Russian general in eastern Ukraine, a little over two weeks after he received a Hero of Russia award for his wartime service, Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi said.

Major General Anton Grunis had won praise from president Vladimir Putin earlier this year after helping capture Kostiantynivka, territory disputed by Kyiv and independent military analysts.

Brovdi, who commands Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, said Grunis had been killed in a nighttime strike in the Donetsk region.

"General Grunis was eliminated on 12 September," Brovdi wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday.

The Independent could not independently verify Brovdi's assertions.

Russian commander Apti Alaudinov, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said Grunis had died, without giving further details.

Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that Ukraine successfully tested a new domestically developed weapon to intercept Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

Ukrainian forces downed 187 airborne targets overnight, with Ukraine's president reporting a 93 per cent interception rate for Russian drones.

Zelensky stated that the new weapon destroyed a target, but noted that further technical refinements are required before full deployment.

Tensions widened as Denmark accused a Russian warship of firing flares within metres of a Danish military helicopter without prior warning.

Russia rejected the accusations, claiming Danish military helicopters conducted dangerous manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea and issuing a formal note to Copenhagen.

Ukrainian drone forces killed a Russian general in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a little over two weeks after he received a Hero of Russia award for his wartime service, Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi said.

Major General Anton Grunis had won praise from President Vladimir Putin earlier this year after helping capture Kostiantynivka, territory disputed by Kyiv and independent military analysts.

Brovdi, who commands Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, said Grunis had been killed in a nighttime strike in the Donetsk region.

"General Grunis was eliminated on September 12," Brovdi wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday, adding that the general was the seventh Russian The Independent could not independently verify Brovdi's assertions.

Russian commander Apti Alaudinov, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said Grunis had died, without giving further details.

This was my fourth trip to Ukraine as a photojournalist. During my previous visit, I found confidence and hope that the war might soon end. This time, I saw greater exhaustion, resignation and little hope of an immediate end to the fighting.

I spent a month in Kyiv and the surrounding areas as Russian drone and missile attacks on the capital intensified. Air raid alerts sounded day and night, and thousands of residents slept in metro stations when major attacks were expected. Firefighters and emergency workers responded repeatedly to strikes across the city.

Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing five people, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow has been ramping up its strikes on transport links and infrastructure.

A photo posted on Telegram by a regional governor showed a white vehicle with blown-out windows and a line of what appeared to be blood streaming down its side. Reuters has not verified the image.

"There is no military logic to this, just another act of brutality," Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, urging the US and Europe to toughen sanctions against Russia.

Moscow and Ukraine have traded strikes in recent months on logistics and other economic targets, aimed at hampering each other's war effort and damaging morale.

With Ukraine's airspace closed since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, buses and trains have become a vital transport link for Ukrainians and businesses.

The drone attack on the passenger bus near the frontline city of Nikopol killed four men and a woman early on Wednesday, police said.

Seven people were wounded in the attack, said the governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, who posted the photo.