Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin’s forces pushed back near Bakhmut as Kyiv sends 1,700 drones to help advance

Vladimir Putin’s troops are being pushed back by Kyiv’s forces in eastern and southern Ukraine, where 1,700 drones will be sent to the frontline to help their counteroffensive “All of [the drones] are now going to the front to protect the lives of our soldiers, to make our artillery even more accurate, to destroy the enemy,” Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister, said. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, reported advances towards the southern occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk which is on the Sea of Azov. She said Kyiv’s troops were also successfully attacking in the east on the flanks of occupied Bakhmut – a city that has gained symbolic importance to both Kyiv and Moscow after months of bloody clashes. While “successes” in the southeast, she added, include an area near the village of Staromayorske which is located by a cluster of hamlets recaptured by Ukraine in the Donetsk region this summer. “Battles continue near Staromayorske, our defenders have successes, they were gaining a foothold on the reached frontiers,” Ms Maliar added. Read More Putin ‘looked paralyzed and unable to act’ as Wagner coup unfolded African leaders arrive in Russia for summit with Putin, as Kremlin seeks allies in Ukraine war China and Russia to join North Korea’s Korean War celebrations in a first after pandemic ‘Our own front line’: Ukrainian surgeons see wave of wounded soldiers since counteroffensive began