Ukraine is battling a colossal PTSD crisis and wants to try anything to help - including cannabis.

Ukrainian troops “enjoyed success” in villages near Bakhmut, a key town seized by Russian forces in May after some of the heaviest fighting in the 19-month-old war. Ilia Yevlash, spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told national television that Russia trained fire on Ukrainian soldiers 580 times on this front and used aircraft four times. “On the southern flank, we continue the offensive operation. In particular, we have had successes near Zaitseve, Klishchiivka, Odradivka and Ivanivske. There, our defenders continue to knock out the enemy. Under heavy fire, they are holding the defence and consolidating positions,” he said during the 24/7 national forecast. The Ukrainian army killed 141 Russian troops and destroyed several pieces of Russian artillery equipment, the spokesperson said. On the southern front, Russian forces were bringing in reserves as Ukrainian troops dug in and were poised to move on the village of Verbove as part of their advance to the Sea of Azov, said Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for the troops in the south. "I believe we will soon have good news," the spokesperson said. The battlefield’s “loud” successes were cheered on by president Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly address who confirmed damage to Russian logistics and headquarters. “The first is the actual situation at the front, our offensive and defensive operations. Important reports on the east and south. On the destruction of logistics and headquarters of the occupiers. There are good details. Loud details. I thank all the Ukrainian warriors who distinguished themselves!” he said on Tuesday evening. While Russian forces aimed their strikes on Ukraine’s grain exporting district, Kyiv’s forces also struck back on Monday and Tuesday with a growing number of attacks inside Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea. The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said power had been cut off to about seven settlements in the latest reported attack. Russia’s defence ministry said a drone had been destroyed over the Kursk region at around 5.30 am local time. Ukraine fired its counteroffensive operations in early June and is gradually progressing with gains in eastern and southern Ukraine where Russian forces have managed to breach the territory. But Ukrainian troops have targeted these regions in its bid to push back Russian soldiers off its territory. After a grinding slow start in June, Ukraine has reported a chain of success in recapturing its settlements and villages in Bakhmut, Zaporizhzhia and southern regions as it continues to move through heavily mined and destroyed towns and cities. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin planning new ‘assault units’ despite Moscow’s ‘mobilisation issues’ Destruction in Ukraine’s eastern village of Klishchiivka captured in aerial footage Explosions from Russian drone attack on Odesa region seen from ferry on Danube Russia tries to rejoin UN Human Rights Council

They claim governments' slow action on climate change violates their human rights.

Hungry and exhausted Armenian families jammed roads to flee Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, as the United Nations and Washington called on Azerbaijan to protect civilians and let in aid. At least 20,000 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who live there have already crossed into Armenia after Azerbaijan launched a swift and successful military operation to defeat separatists who have governed the breakaway region for about 30 years. Hundreds of cars and buses crammed with refugees and their belongings snaked along mountain roads. Some fled packed into the back of open-topped trucks, others on tractors. Grandmother Narine Shakaryan arrived in her son-in-law's old car with six people packed inside. The 48-mile drive had taken 24 hours, she said. They had no food. “The whole way the children were crying, they were hungry,” Shakaryan told Reuters at the border, carrying her three-year-old granddaughter, who she said had become ill during the journey. “We left so we would stay alive.” Nearly 50 people, mostly children, scrambled from the back of one large truck. “It rained all night, there was no shelter. The nice driver took some of the children into his cabin to give at least some of them shelter,” said Maktar Talakyan, 54, who was travelling with her daughter Anna and her three grandchildren. Anna’s husband, a demobilised soldier who had fought for the now defeated separatist forces, remains in Karabakh, Talakyan said. As Armenians rushed to leave the Karabakh capital – known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan – fuel stations were overwhelmed by panic buying; at least 20 people were killed and 290 injured in a massive blaze when a fuel storage facility blew up. “I think we’re going to see the vast majority of people in Karabakh leaving for Armenia,” said Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank. “They are being told to integrate into Azerbaijan, a country that they’ve never been part of, and most of them don’t even speak the language and are being told to dismantle their local institutions. That’s an offer that most people in Karabakh will not accept.” In the Armenian capital Yerevan, US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power called on Azerbaijan “to maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.” Power, who earlier handed Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan a letter of support from president Joe Biden, said Azerbaijan’s use of force was unacceptable and that Washington was looking at an appropriate response. She called on Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev to live up to his promise to protect ethnic Armenian rights, fully reopen the Lachin corridor that connects the region to Armenia and let in aid deliveries and an international monitoring mission. Aliyev has pledged to guarantee the safety of Karabakh’s Armenians but said his iron fist had consigned the idea of the region’s independence to history. Asked if she believed Azeri forces had committed atrocities against civilians or combatants in Karabakh, she said: “We have heard very troubling reports of violence against civilians. At the same time given the chaos here and the trauma, the gathering of testimonies ... of the people who have come across is something that is just beginning.” United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement late on Tuesday: “I am following with concern the evolving and fragile humanitarian situation. “It is important that the rights of the ethnic Armenian population on the ground are safeguarded and all actions rooted in international law. Protection of all civilians must be an absolute priority. Those affected must have access to humanitarian assistance.” The Azerbaijan victory changes the balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are jostling for influence. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia has relied on a security partnership with Russia, while Azerbaijan grew close to Turkey, with which it shares linguistic and cultural ties. Armenia has lately sought closer ties with the West and blames Russia, which had peacekeepers in Karabakh but is now preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, for failing to protect Karabakh. Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. Felix Light reported for Reuters from the Armenian border village of Kornidzor. Read More What is Nakhchivan? And after Nagorno-Karabakh, is this the next crisis for Azerbaijan and Armenia Thousands of ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seizes control in lightning offensive Exasperated residents flee Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seizes control of breakaway region At least 20 dead and 300 injured in Nagorno-Karabakh fuel depot explosion At least 20 dead in gas station explosion as Nagorno-Karabakh residents flee to Armenia

Russian missiles have struck Odesa two nights in a row, damaging key infrastructure in the region. Early on Monday morning, Russian attacks in the region left a high-rise hotel destroyed and at least two workhouse workers dead. An air strike on Monday night saw further attacks on the key Ukrainian grain exporting port of Izmail, injuring two people and damaging infrastructure, the governor of the Odesa region said on Tuesday. A port building, storage facilities and more than 30 trucks and cars were damaged in Monday night’s attack, which lasted more than two hours, Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app. The Ukrainian military reported shooting down 26 of the 38 Iranian-made attack drones it said were launched by Russia. Moscow has intensified its air attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River, including Izmail and Reni, after it quit a grain deal in July that ensured the safe export of Ukrainian grains. Seperately on Tuesday morning, a Russian missile strike damaged a local enterprise in the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, its mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Read More Putin’s Black Sea fleet commander ‘killed in navy attack’ as Ukraine breakthrough triggers ‘panic’ Tucker Carlson denies rumour he is launching Russian TV show after his image appeared on state channel Canadian parliament accidentally honours Nazi - with Zelensky and Trudeau applauding How Ukraine’s forces have surged back against Russia

Hans Niemann was accused of cheating after he beat Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen last September.

At least 20 people have died and almost 300 suffered injuries in an explosion at a gas station in Nagorno-Karabakh, as ethnic Armenians attempted to flee the contested region. The cause of the blast outside the regional capital of Stepanakert remains unclear, but separatist authorities said 13 bodies have been retrieved from the blast site and seven others succumbed to their injuries. Nearly 290 people have been hospitalised, while scores of them remain in critical condition, the breakaway region's health department said. The blast occurred as residents were lining up to fuel their cars following the Azerbaijan military's attack on separatist forces, which has driven ethnic Armenians out of the region. "A strong explosion occurred in the gasoline warehouse near the Stepanakert-Askera highway,” the authorities said in a statement, according to the New York Times. “At the moment, rescue and medical operative groups are working on the spot." Yerevan on Tuesday said more than 13,500 people from the conflict zone have fled to Armenia this week so far. Read More At least 20 dead in gas station explosion as Nagorno-Karabakh residents flee to Armenia Thousands of ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seizes control What is Nakhchivan? And after Nagorno-Karabakh, is this the next crisis for Azerbaijan and Armenia

Russia continues to be silent on the reported death in Crimea of one of Vladimir Putin’s top navy commanders. Admiral Viktor Sokolov, one of Russia’s most senior naval officers who commanded the Black Sea Fleet, was reportedly killed along with 33 other officers in a missile attack on the Russian fleet’s headquarters in the port city of Sevastopol on 22 September. In a rare acknowledgment of a strike on Crimea, Ukraine’s special forces declared the operation had killed Sokolov along with dozens of other officers and wounded 105 others in an update on Monday. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, posted the admiral’s name and a photo on social media. It is not immediately clear how Ukraine’s Special Forces counted the dead and wounded in the attack. The Russian defence ministry has not issued any statement to confirm or deny that Sokolov had been killed. In its most recent statement about the attack, the Russian defence ministry said just one serviceman was missing, revising an earlier statement that a man had been killed. The statement claimed Russian air defences had downed five missiles. If confirmed, Sokolov’s killing would be one of Kyiv’s most significant strikes on Crimea, which Russia seized and illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Sokolov would then become the 16th senior commander to have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. Among the 15 previously reported killed are Major General Vladimir Frolov, the deputy commander of Russia’s 8th army, Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, and Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, the first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st army. In its update on the Sevastopol strike, Ukraine’s special forces said the air force fired 12 missiles on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters as it targeted areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated. Two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit, the special forces said. Moscow-installed authorities in Sevastopol are reported to be taking extra defensive measures in the face of Ukraine’s increased attacks on Crimea in recent days. Sevastopol is a critical region providing a platform from which Russia has launched many of its air attacks on Ukraine in the 19-month-long war. Ukraine has steadily ramped up its attacks in the Black Sea and on the Crimean Peninsula and has started using missiles in addition to assault drones. Kyiv has said that destroying the Russian Black Sea fleet would significantly speed up the end of the war. Ukraine resumed its missile strikes on Monday with an attack on a military airfield in Sevastopol. The city remained under an air raid alert for a short while during and after the airstrike. Read More Ukraine launches new missile attack near Putin’s military airfield in Crimea’s Sevastopol Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s Black Sea fleet commander ‘killed in attack on Crimea navy HQ’ Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks As Gen. Milley steps down as chairman, his work on Ukraine is just one part of a complicated legacy Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks

Previously unseen home video footage shows a younger, untidy and awkward-looking Vladimir Putin socialising and playing table tennis during a visit to Finland around three decades ago. The rare clip, obtained by Finnish outlet Yle, shows the future Russian president dressed in a shellsuit playing darts and eating with other guests at a hospitality venue near Helsinki. According to sources spoken to by Yle, the Finnish broadcasting company, the video was shot around a May Day holiday in the early 90s. At the time Putin, then around age 40 and becoming a major player in the St Petersburg political scene, was working as a KGB officer and had become an adviser to Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of the Black Sea city. Mr Sobchak is also seen in the clip along with his bodyguards and the party later goes fishing together. On their return, a man can be heard shouting from the boat: “I cannot hear you - we have so much fish. We have so much fish that I cannot hear you.” Putin is seen facing away from the camera with the hood of his coat up. The other men in the boat are facing in the direction of the filmer. Throughout the video, Putin appears to be aware that he is being filmed but on occasion tries to turn his face away from the camera. After the boat returns to shore, a woman is seen scaling the catch on a jetty next to the lake where the men had been fishing. An eyewitness told Yle the woman was Putin’s then-wife Lyudmila. The outlet said it was unable to corroborate the account but confirmed that the Putin’s and their children - Maria and Katerina - were present. Yle said the video was a far cry from the “macho, dictatorial image that Putin has since hewn for himself”. ”This is pre-rich Putin, Putin in a bad shell suit, with a bad haircut, bad vest, doing everyday dad stuff,” said Luke Harding, Russia expert and former Moscow correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian. ”The most striking thing is he is smiling. He looks human, rather than the ghoul he has become,” says Mr Harding when shown excerpts of the video by Yle. Read More Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks Russia unleashes hypersonic missiles on Odesa port in overnight attack Russian oil supplies continue to spike despite G7 price cap sanctions, data shows Putin wants Ukrainian counteroffensive halted before early October, report says South Korea's Yoon calls for a strong military amid deepening North Korean-Russian ties Ukraine launches new missile attack near Putin’s military airfield in Sevastopol

It was expelled from the United Nations council last year after its forces invaded Ukraine.

Canada’s House of Commons gave a rousing standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran who fought in the Second World War – unaware he had served in a Nazi SS unit. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was sitting in the gallery when he was described as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero” to applause from prime minister Justin Trudeau and president Volodymyr Zelensky. However, leaders were left red-faced when House speaker Anthony Rota subsequently apologised after it emerged that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, a voluntary unit made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command. In a statement, Mr Rota said that on 22 September “in my remarks following the address of the president of Ukraine, I recognised an individual in the gallery. “I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so.” Mr Rota said that “no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them. This initiative was entirely my own, the individual in question being from my riding [district] and having been brought to my attention.” “I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my actions,” the speaker added. The Canadian Jewish group CIJA said it was “deeply troubled” that a Nazi veteran had been celebrated, and said “proper vetting is imperative to ensure such an unacceptable incident does not occur again”. The remarks came shortly after Mr Zelensky delivered a passionate speech to the Canadian parliament to bolster support from his Western allies. Mr Rota then hailed Hunka as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” and “a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero”. Following the address, Mr Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost family members during the Holocaust, raised his fist in acknowledgement as the veteran saluted. Hunka’s Nazi unit are accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, and were visited by SS leader Heinrich Himmler in 1944 who said his men would be “eager” to “liquidate the Poles”. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre said Mr Rota's remarks ignore “the horrific fact that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a Nazi military unit whose crimes against humanity during the Holocaust are well-documented”. Since his invasion in February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine “harbours neo-Nazis”. Read More Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks Russian airstrikes kill 2 and wound 3 in southern Ukraine as war enters 20th month Russian foreign minister lambastes the West but barely mentions Ukraine in UN speech Canadian parliament accidentally honours Nazi - with Zelensky and Trudeau applauding Opposition lawmakers call on Canada's House speaker to resign for honoring man who fought for Nazis Trudeau and Zelensky give Ukrainian Nazi war veteran standing ovation in parliament

Ukraine has launched a fresh missile attack on a military airfield in Crimea’s Sevastopol, officials said. Sevastopol, an vulnerable Russian target in Crimea where Moscow parks its Black Sea Fleet, has come under repeated targeting in recent months as Ukraine looks to destroy Vladimir Putin’s logistics and infrastructure on the peninsula that Russia had illegally annexed in 2014. Russian air defence units downed a missile near the Belbek military airfield in the late hours on Monday, Russian-backed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on his official Telegram channel early Tuesday. Sevastopol remained under an air raid alert starting around 11.30pm on Monday, as per Mr Razvozhayev’s Telegram message. It continued for an hour, covering midnight, as Russian air defence systems were activated. Traffic on the main bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula was also impacted during the attack, but was restored shortly after. The raid alert was subsequently lifted around 12.30am, said the Russian-installed governor. This comes just three days after one Ukrainian missile struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea navy in Sevastopol on 22 September. While Ukraine never directly takes responsibility for attacks on Crimea and other Russian targets, it has expressed satisfaction at the strikes. On Friday, it also indirectly showed the massive attack on Black Sea navy headquarters in its video of Ukrainian attacks on Russian positions. Mr Putin’s commander of his Black Sea Fleet has been killed in a missile strike in annexed Crimea, according to Ukraine. Admiral Viktor Sokolov was among 34 officers who died when British-made Storm Shadow missiles hit the Russian Navy headquarters in Sevastopol during the devastating attack. The death of Sokolov – said to have been handpicked by Mr Putin for the job last year – was announced by the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces in a social media update on Monday. Moscow has not yet responded to the claim. The Russian defence ministry initially said the strike had killed one service member, but later issued a statement that he was missing. On Monday, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said Sokolov was among the 34 killed during the missile strike. They also claimed 105 other occupiers were injured. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s Black Sea fleet commander ‘killed in attack on Crimea navy HQ’ Ex-Ukraine president derides ‘crazy’ figure at centre of GOP’s Biden allegations in Fox News interview Putin’s Black Sea fleet commander ‘killed in navy attack’ as Ukraine breakthrough triggers ‘panic’ How Ukraine’s forces have surged back against Russia Russia unleashes hypersonic missiles on Odesa port in overnight attack