Russia-Ukraine war: senior pro-Russian officials reported killed; Ukraine says mass grave found at Izium – live | Ukraine

• Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted strikes in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against top local officials who have been collaborating with Moscow. At least five Himars missiles crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke pouring out of the complex and debris. On the other side of the country, in the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor died together with his deputy when their office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind Friday’s mysterious explosion in Luhansk.

• Further south, the Russian-backed separatist authority in Berdiansk was also blaming Kyiv for the “double murder” of the deputy head of the military civil administration, and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum.

• Also in the the southern Zaporizhzhia oblast, there were reports on Friday of a “powerful explosion” in the Russian-occupied Melitopol, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol. “I hope the Russian fascists have suffered losses, among their personnel and equipment. Awaiting good news from the armed forces of Ukraine,” he said.

• Up north, investigators continue the daunting task of exhuming the mass grave site discovered at the recently liberated city of Izium in the Kharkiv region. Zelenskiy has responded emotionally today, condemning Russia as “murderers” and “torturers”. Meanwhile, the exact circumstances surrounding the deaths of those buried at the grave site are still unclear. While Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor, said that about 99% of the bodies exhumed showed signs of a violent deaths, authorities said that violence could have also been from shelling or airstrikes – not the torture and beatings that many feared after what authorities discovered in Bucha and other previously liberated territories. However, Synegubov said exhumers have also already uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person “with a rope around his neck.” Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, described finding an entire family, killed in an airstrike, buried together – young parents in their 30s, a 6-year-old daughter, and grandparents.

• Russian president Vladimir Putin made his first public comment since his troops were forced to withdraw from the territories they held in the north-east, a move that has prompted unusually strong public criticism from Russian military commentators. He claimed that he invaded Ukraine because the West wanted to break up Russia. He grinned when he was asked about Ukraine’s recent military success. “Let’s see how it develops, how it ends up,” he said. Putin said nothing has changed with the ultimate goal of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, which was to capture the Donbas.

• The US department of defence announced today that it was providing an additional $600m security assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”. In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8n in security assistance to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russian invasion on 24 February. Since 2014, the US has committed about $17.9bn in security assistance to Ukraine.

• Switzerland on Friday aligned itself with the European Union in suspending a 2009 agreement easing rules for Russian citizens to enter the Alpine country. “The suspension of the agreement does not mean a general visa freeze for Russians but rather they will need to use the ordinary visa procedure to enter Switzerland,” the country’s federal council said in a statement. The EU took a similar step earlier, suspending a visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopping short of a wider via ban in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday brushed off Ukraine’s recent military success in recapturing the Kharkiv region, saying Russia was gradually taking control of new areas of the country, Reuters is reporting.

Speaking after a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, he said that the plan of the “special military operation” that is the Russian invasion of Ukraine “is not subject to adjustment”.

“The General Staff considers one thing important, another thing secondary – but the main task remains unchanged, and it is being implemented,” Putin said. “The main goal is the liberation of the entire territory of Donbas.”

The Donbas is an area comprised of two largely Russian-speaking provinces of eastern Ukraine – Luhansk, which is now fully under the control of Russian and Russian-backed separatist forces, and Donetsk, which they partially control.

Right now, Russia currently occupies about a fifth of Ukraine in all, including much of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces in the south, in addition to Crimea, which it seized in 2014 and considers part of Russia.

On Friday, the Russian-backed separatist governments in cities in these regions blamed Kyiv for at least three attacks that resulted in the deaths of at least five individuals working for the Russian-backed entities. At the same time, however, Moscow has struck back at Ukraine’s recent military success in liberating occupied territory by shelling civilian infrastructure, including several hydraulic structures in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which led to flooding and evacuations.

“Recently, the Russian armed forces have inflicted a couple of sensitive blows. Let’s assume they’re a warning,” Putin said.

When questioned about Ukraine’s dramatic counter-offensive, Putin responded with a grin. “The Kyiv authorities announced that they have launched and are conducting an active counter-offensive operation. Well, let’s see how it develops, how it ends up,” Putin said.

This was Putin’s first public comment since his troops were forced to withdraw from the territories they held in the north-east, a move that has prompted unusually strong public criticism from Russian military commentators. Putin added, “If the situation continues to develop like this, then the response will be more serious.”

At the mass grave site in Izium, about 99% of the bodies exhumed today showed signs of a violent death, said Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor, on Telegram.

“This is bloody, brutal terror,” he said. Synegubov described how many of the graves weren’t even marked with names – just with numbers.

While authorities said some of those buried at the grave site had likely been killed by shelling and airstrikes, investigators have prepared themselves for the worst, after the discoveries of dead civilians bearing signs of torture in Bucha and other previously occupied territories.

Synegubov said that today, exhumers uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person “with a rope around his neck.” “Obviously, these people were tortured and executed,” he said “There are also children among the buried.”

Investigators will conduct forensic examinations on the exhumed bodies. “After the identities of the dead have been identified, all of them will be buried with due respect,” Synegubov said. “Each death will be investigated and will become evidence of Russia’s war crimes in international courts.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday said he sent Russian forces into Ukraine in February in response to the West wanting to break up Russia, Reuters is reporting.

Putin was speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Discussing the war publicly for the first time since Ukraine’s dramatic counter-offensive ousted Russian troops from the Kharkiv region last week, Putin threatened continued strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, and said: “We will see how (Ukraine’s counteroffensive) ends.”

The US department of defence announced today that it was providing an additional $600m security assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”.

According to the defence department, this package will include:

• Additional ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS)

• 36,000 105mm artillery rounds

• 1,000 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds

• Four counter-artillery radars

• Four trucks and eight trailers to transport heavy equipment

• Counter-unmanned aerial Systems

• Mine-clearing equipment

• Claymore anti-personnel munitions

• Demolition munitions and equipment

• Small arms and ammunition

• Night-vision devices, cold weather gear, and other field equipment

In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8n in security assistance to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russian invasion on 24 February. Since 2014, the US has committed about $17.9bn in security assistance to Ukraine.

Warning: graphic images

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted images today of bodies exhumed from the mass grave site discovered at Izium, condemning Russia as “murderers” and “torturers”.

Investigators have prepared themselves for the worst here in Izium, one of the recently liberated territories in the Kharkiv region, after the discoveries of dead civilians bearing signs of torture in Bucha and other previously occupied territories.

Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor, said some of the more than 440 bodies buried in a forest near the north-eastern city also had their hands tied behind their backs, an indicator that some of those buried at this site may not have just died in shelling and airstrikes as previously thought.

“The whole world should see this,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. “A world in which there should be no cruelty and terrorism. But all this is there. And its name is Russia.”

He continued:

More than 400 bodies were found at the mass burial site in Izium. With signs of torture, children, those killed as a result of missile attacks, warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russia leaves only death and suffering. Murderers. Torturers. Deprived of everything human. You won’t run away. You won’t hide. Retribution will be justly dreadful. For every Ukrainian, for every tortured soul.

Switzerland on Friday aligned itself with the European Union in suspending a 2009 agreement easing rules for Russian citizens to enter the Alpine country.

“The suspension of the agreement does not mean a general visa freeze for Russians but rather they will need to use the ordinary visa procedure to enter Switzerland,” the country’s federal council said in a statement.

The EU took a similar step earlier, suspending a visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopping short of a wider via ban in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Switzerland has every interest in contributing to a common and uniform visa policy at the European level,” said the government in a media release. “Otherwise, it would risk being faced with an increase in the number of visa applications submitted to its representations abroad by Russian nationals seeking to circumvent EU decisions.”

Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting pro-Moscow officials

Luke Harding

Luke Harding is in Kharkiv for the Guardian, and this is his latest report:

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted strikes in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against top local officials who have been collaborating with Moscow.

At least five Himars missiles crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke pouring out of the complex and debris.

On the other side of the country, in the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor died together with his deputy when their office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.

The Kremlin news agency Itar-Tass said Sergey Gorenko died at the scene. He was prosecutor general for the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, a puppet regime established by Russia in 2014.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind Friday’s mysterious explosion in Luhansk. It was caused by an internal mafia dispute, or was an attempt to get rid of witnesses, he suggested.

“Elimination of so-called ‘LNR prosecutor general’ and his deputy should be considered as showdowns of local organised criminal groups that could not share looted property before a large-scale escape,” Podolyak posted on Twitter. He added: “Or as Russian Federation’s purge of witnesses to war crimes. Investigation will show …”

The twin attacks are likely to unnerve Russia’s local proxies in Ukraine.

The Kremlin had been planning to stage referendums in Kherson and the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, as well as in Donetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow has effectively part-controlled for eight years.

But these state-building measures, in which occupied areas would be folded into Russia, have been dropped as a result of military defeats. Ukraine’s armed forces have recaptured almost all of the Kharkiv region in a stunning counter-offensive.

Read more of Luke Harding’s report from Kharkiv: Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting pro-Moscow officials