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A military commander dubbed “General Armageddon” for his brutality during Syria’s civil war has been removed as the head of Russia’s air force, having not been seen in public since the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against Moscow at the end of June. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s troops in Ukraine who was previously awarded his nation’s top military honour, has not been publicly sacked – but state media has published sources confirming the move. He was given his moniker in recognition of the brutal tactics he deployed in Syria’s civil war, and was regarded as one of Russia’s most effective commanders. General Surovikin – who is believed to have close ties to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin – was the most senior military figure to lose his position over the attempted uprising, which took place over a 24-hour period from 23 to 24 June. Russian president Vladimir Putin reacted with fury to the mutiny, which saw Mr Prigrozhin’s forces attempt to march on Moscow in protest at the way in which Moscow’s military top brass were handling the invasion of Ukraine. President Putin said that the revolt – the most significant threat to his leadership in years – could have tipped Russia into civil war. The march on Moscow was eventually halted about 125 miles outside the capital after a deal was brokered between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin via Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The terms of the arrangement allowed for the Wagner founder and some of his troops to decamp to Belarus and leave combat operations in Ukraine, where they had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the war so far. Mr Prigozhin has been photographed in St Petersburg and Belarus in recent weeks, and posted a video on Monday that he suggested had been shot in Africa, one of Wagner’s other theatres of combat. The two men Mr Prigozhin had wanted to topple – defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff – remain in their posts. General Surovikin’s last public appearance was on 24 June, when he appeared in what looked like a carefully stage-managed video. Visibly strained and without insignia, he urged Mr Prigozhin to abandon his march on Moscow. Since that day, speculation has been rampant about General Surovikin’s fate. Some Russian news outlets and sources have said that the general, who was often publicly praised by Mr Prigozhin in the run-up to the revolt, was being questioned over possible complicity, and that he was potentially being held under house arrest. General Surovikin’s daughter told the Russian social media channel Baza in late June that her father had not been arrested. US officials have previously told American media that General Surovikin was supportive of Mr Prigozhin, but that Western intelligence did not know with certainty whether he had helped the rebellion in any way. Of the latest move, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source, reported that General Surovikin had been replaced as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces by Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, who heads the main staff of the air force. The agency frequently represents the official position of the Kremlin, through reports citing anonymous officials in Russia’s defence and security establishment. The RBC newspaper reported a defence personnel source saying: “Army General Sergei Surovikin has been relieved of his position in connection with his transfer to a different role ... He is currently on a short holiday.” The television personality Ksenia Sobchak, who is the daughter of a politician with links to Mr Putin, suggested that General Surovikin had not been in touch with his relatives. “They say that he was relieved of his post on 18 August by way of closed decree. The family still has had no contact with him,” she wrote on Telegram. General Surovikin was placed in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine last October, but in January that role was handed to General Gerasimov while General Surovikin was made a deputy. News of the dismissal of General Surovikin came as another drone attack targeted Moscow, believed to be the sixth such assault in a week. The Ukrainian intelligence agency also claimed it had destroyed a key S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system in Russian-occupied Crimea. Such a loss would be another embarrassing blow for the Kremlin, as Ukraine increasingly targets Russia’s assets far behind the front line in southern and eastern Ukraine. Speaking about the drone attack on the Russian capital, Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that one drone had smashed into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex that has been hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby, and emergency services responded to the incident. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have downed all of the drones in Moscow and the surrounding area. Earlier, a three-hour night-time drone attack by Russia in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa overnight on Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper. Elsewhere, a Russian drone attack on the city of Romny in northeastern Ukraine struck a local school, killing the principal, his deputy, a secretary and the school librarian, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Three people were also killed in the Belgorod region of Russia on the Ukrainian border during the repeated shelling of a sanatorium, according to the region’s governor. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dies in plane crash’ Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting

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Ukrainian troops have gained a foothold in the southeastern village of Robotyne on the road to Tokmak, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. The liberation of Robotyne, an important regional rail hub occupied by Russia, would be a milestone in Kyiv’s southward drive to reach the Sea of Azov. The next major settlement is the big regional city of Melitopol. Meanwhile the series of nightly drone attacks on Moscow continued for the sixth consecutive day as Russia said three objects were brought down over its capital in the early hours of Wednesday. Major airports in Moscow again suspended flights, for the second day in a row, after the drones reached the Moscow region. While no casualties were recorded, one of the downed drones smashed into an under-construction building and damaged windows in the central Moscow City Complex. The Russian defence ministry has blamed the attack on Ukraine but Kyiv typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory. It comes after Ukrainian saboteurs, coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services, were said to have carried out drone attacks on airfields deep inside Russia – one of which appears to have destroyed a supersonic Russian bomber. Read More Ukraine steps up attacks on Russia’s planes and airfields – and boasts of gains on the battlefield Drones downed in Moscow and surrounding region with no casualties, Russian officials say Poland's leader says Russia's moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, shifting regional security

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Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services are said to have carried out drone attacks on airfields deep inside Russia – one of which appears to have destroyed a supersonic Russian bomber. It is one of a number of recent assaults on Russia and its military hardware, as well as drone attacks on Moscow. The latest such attack on the capital came overnight into Tuesday. Responding to the attack on the Russian airfields, British military intelligence said that the weekend attack is highly likely to have destroyed a nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bomber. Kyiv says Russia has used the Tu-22M3 to bomb targets across Ukraine with conventional munitions. Western military experts believe Russia has around 60 of the aircrafts. The destruction of the plane, which can be fitted with conventional or nuclear warheads, underscores the vulnerability to drone attacks of Russia’s fleet of ageing but lethal long-range bombers that are a major part of Moscow’s war effort. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC showed what appeared to be 10 long-range bombers parked on the apron of the Soltsy air base, about 400 miles from the border with Ukraine, on Wednesday 16 August. By Monday, two days after the attack, all those bombers had left the air base. A large black spot was visible on one of the aprons where one of the bombers had been parked. The attack appeared to prompt Russia to relocate other planes of the same type from the airfield to alternative bases further from Ukraine. Russia's Defence Ministry said the attack on Saturday on one of its military airfields in the Novgorod region had been carried out by a Ukrainian drone and that one plane had been damaged. It gave no more details. In a daily update on Ukraine, British military intelligence said “a Tu-22M3 BACKFIRE medium bomber of Russia’s Long Range Aviation (LRA) was highly likely destroyed at Soltsy-2 Airbase in Novgorod Oblast, 650km (403 miles) away from Ukraine’s border”. “This is at least the third successful attack on LRA airfields, again raising questions about Russia’s ability to protect strategic locations deep inside the country,” it said. Ukraine rarely claims such attacks, even if officials are not against pointing them out, but the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper and Ukraine's NV news outlet reported groups of saboteurs were behind the strikes. They attributed two attacks to the saboteurs: the one on Soltsy air base and one on Monday against the Shaikovka air base in the southwestern Kaluga region that is about 180 miles (300km) northeast of the Ukrainian border. Russia's Defense Ministry didn't comment on the reported attack on Shaikovka, but Russian media did. Ukraine has repeatedly sought to take the war into the heart of Russia this year via drone attacks. It has increasingly targeted Moscow’s military assets behind the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told the Ukrainian LIGA.net news outlet on Monday that at least one Russian warplane was damaged in the attack on Shaikovka. He said it was carried out by people who worked in close coordination with Ukrainian military intelligence but gave no further details. As for the drone attacks on Moscow – which have increased in recent weeks – Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed a number were shot out of the sky on Tuesday, but falling wreckage of one drone shattered an apartment building’s windows and damaged vehicles in Moscow’s western suburbs. Flights at several Moscow airports were temporarily suspended Tuesday as a security precaution amid the attacks, authorities said. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said that the country’s forces have made progress in its counteroffensive to retake land occupied by Russia during the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin – and so proving Kyiv can push back a better-armed and numerically superior enemy. Ukrainian troops have faced vast Russian minefields and trenches in the counteroffensive launched in early June, But Ms Maliar brushed aside any suggestion that Kyiv’s progress was too slow. “It's incorrect to measure this advance by metres or kilometres,” Ms Maliar told Reuters. “What’s important is the very fact that despite everything, we’re moving forward even though we have fewer people and fewer weapons.” Ms Maliar highlighted the situation in eastern Ukraine, where she said Russian forces – who also enjoy air superiority – can fire 400,000-500,000 artillery shells each week or around 10 times more than Ukraine. Earlier on Tuesday, she said Ukrainian troops had gained a foothold in the southeastern village of Robotyne on the road to Tokmak, an occupied rail hub whose recapture would be a milestone in Kyiv’s southward drive to reach the Sea of Azov. The next major settlement is the big regional city of Melitopol. Germany’s foreign minister said on Tuesday Ukraine needed more help penetrating Russian minefields and that Berlin was discussing with its partners how to fulfil Kyiv’s requests for more equipment. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Biden to attend next month's G-20 summit in New Delhi, while Harris will head to Jakarta for ASEAN Poland's leader says Russia's moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, shifting regional security Iran unveils armed drone resembling America's MQ-9 Reaper and says it could potentially reach Israel

Ukraine has broken the "stalemate" on the frontline and is making progress in its counteroffensive against Russia, a senior Kyiv official claimed. The embattled nation began its long-awaited counteroffensive in June this year against the Russian invaders. But progress has been slower than anticipated as Ukrainian forces try and take heavily fortified Russian positions, surrounded by landmines. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar brushed aside any suggestion that Kyiv's progress was too slow and said Ukraine had military doctrine by attacking an enemy that has a numerical advantage in manpower and weaponry. Ms Mailar said: "It's incorrect to measure this advance by metres or kilometres. "What's important is the very fact that despite everything, we're moving forward even though we have fewer people and fewer weapons." Her claims were also backed up by the US as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told a briefing on Tuesday: "We have been clear all along that this battlefield is very dynamic."We are seeing it (Ukraine) continue to take territory on a methodical, systematic basis." Read More Putin was meant to be at a summit in South Africa this week. Why was he asked to stay away? Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said to be recruiting Wagner 'strongmen' for Africa On the ground in Ukraine, the desperate fight to protect a key city from 100,000 of ‘Putin’s thugs’

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