People in a shelter in an underground station in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 27, 2023 (Reuters)

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Thursday’s Coverage: Another Russian Execution of POWs

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited troops on the frontline in Avdiivka, attacked by Russia throughout the 22-month invasion and under intense “human wave” assaults — with the Russians suffering hundreds of casualties each day — since October.

UPDATE 1538 GMT:

Poland’s Defense Minister, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, says it is likely that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace during Moscow’s attacks this morning across Ukraine.

The Polish Defense Ministry said earlier that an unknown object entered from the direction of Ukraine, travelling more than 40 km (25 miles) into Poland’s airspace. It left after three minutes, vanishing off radars. Troops were mobilized to identify and find it.

Kukuła said:

Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies [in NATO].

Kukula said steps are being taken to verify the findings.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened a meeting with Kukula, military commanders and heads of national security agencies, followed by a session of the National Security Bureau.

UPDATE 1306 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s missile attacks this morning has risen to 18 killed and 132 wounded.

The Ukraine air force is now declaring “the most massive aerial attack” during Vladimir Putin’s 22-month invasion.

UPDATE 1108 GMT:

Ksenia Fadeyeva, an ally of imprisoned opposition activist Alexei Navalny, has been sentenced to nine years behind bars on charges of creating an “extremist organization”.

Fadeyeva, 31, Navalny’s regional coordinator in Tomsk in Siberia, was detained in December 2021 after a Moscow court outlawed Navalny’s political network as “extremist”.

Elected to the Tomsk city council in 2020, Fedeyeva was one of the few Navalny allies to remain in Russia despite the risk of criminal prosecution.

Navalny, after surviving assasination attempts, has been condemned to more than 30 years in prison. He was transferred earlier this month to a remote penal colony in the Arctic, trying to limit his communications amid Vladimir Putin’s campaign for the March 14 Presidential election.

UPDATE 1049 GMT:

Violating the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war, Russia has officially deployed a battalion formed of Ukrainian POWs to the frontline.

Russian State outlets RIA Novosti and Rossiya-1 reported on Thursday that soldiers from the “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” battalion, formed of Ukrainian POWs under command of a unit from the Russian proxy “Donetsk People’s Republic”, took part in their first engagement against Ukrainian forces in the western Donetsk region.

Russian State media reported on October 27 that the battalion recruited about 70 Ukrainian POWs from detention in Russia and sent them to training before deployment to Donetsk.

Russian troops have periodically executed POWs and systematically tortured them.

UPDATE 1031 GMT:

The office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General says it has confirmed the killing of 513 children and wounding of 1,161 by Russia’s invasion.

The prosecutors note the actual toll is likely to be far higher, given the difficulties of verifying casualties in Russian-occupied territory and areas near the frontline.

UPDATE 1013 GMT:

The death toll from Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Ukraine this morning has risen to 13.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said earlier that at least 76 people have been injured.

Casualties included at least two killed and 21 injured in Kyiv; one killed and at least 15 injured in Lviv; five killed and at least 20 injured in Dnipro; three killed and 22 injured in Odesa; one killed and 10 injured in Zaporizhzhia; and three killed and at least 11 injured in Kharkiv.

The toll is expected to rise, with rescuers trying to reach people buried under rubble.

Air defenses downed 87 of 117 missiles and 27 of 36 Iran-made Shahed attack drones.

UPDATE 0910 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Russia fired about 110 missiles overnight, as well as Iran-made drones, in its largest aerial assault this year.

Most missiles and drones were shot down but at least seven civilians were killed, scores are injured, and some people are buried under rubble.

The attack surpasses the 96 missiles fired on a day last November when Russia was in the midst of its “energy war” to break Ukrainian infrastructure.

Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak added:

UPDATE 0904 GMT:

In Kyiv, at least 13 people have been injured by Russia’s attacks, and three others are buried in rubble. A metro station, being used as a shelter, was damaged. A warehouse of about 3,000 square metres (32,300 square feet) is burning in the northern Podil district, with “many wounded”.

An uninhabited block of flats was set on fire, and residential buildings damaged.

UPDATE 0848 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Force is describing an all-out Russian assault.

Drones and missiles have struck at least five Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Odesa.

One person has been killed and seven injured amid 22 strikes on Kharkiv. In Lviv, one person was killed and three wounded.

There are also slain and injured in Dnipro, with a maternity hospital “severely damaged”.

In the south, 14 attack drones were intercepted and destroyed. However, in Odesa, a high-rise building was set on fire by debris from a downed drone.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia is carrying out a wave of drone and missile strikes across Ukraine.

The assault began overnight and is continuing on Friday morning, including on the capital Kyiv and the second city Kharkiv.

The attackers ired six S-300 and Kh-22 missiles, from Russia’s Belgorod region, on Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine.

Natalia Popova, an advisor to the head of the Kharkiv regional council, posted that there was no information about the injured: “I hope it will remain the same.”

Both the head of the Kharkiv military administration, Serhiy Melnyk, and Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko urged residents to go to shelters and remain until alarms are cancelled.

Drone attacks are reported in Lviv in western Ukraine, and strategic bomber aircraft capable of firing long-range missiles have been detected near the Sumy region in the north. Residents of Poltava, Myrhorod, and Cherkasy in central Ukraine have been advised to take shelter.

Russia carries out daily attacks with drones and missiles, albeit at a far diminished rate from last winter when Vladimir Putin tried — and failed — to break Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The large majority of the munitions are now being downed because of improved air defenses. However, civilian casualties often occur from falling debris.