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A burning vehicle damaged in shelling is seen in a street in Donetsk, an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Alexei Alexandrov/AP

Russia ‘likely to step up attacks on Ukraine civilian targets’, UK intelligence says

Overnight shelling hit a hospital in the city of Mykolaiv, a significant Black Sea port, the regional governor said.

PROSECUTORS IN AN area of Ukraine where Russian forces recently retreated in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive are accusing Russia of torturing civilians in one freed village.

Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said, in an online statement, that they had found a basement where Russian forces allegedly tortured prisoners in the village of Kozacha Lopan, near the border with Russia.

They released images which showed a Russian military TA-57 telephone with additional wires and alligator clips attached to it. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Soviet-era radio telephones as a power source to electrocute prisoners during interrogation.

Russian shelling hit cities and towns across a wide stretch of Ukraine during the night, officials said today, while Britain’s Ministry of Defence warned that Russia was likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets as it suffered battlefield defeats.

“In the last seven days, Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect,” the ministry said in an online briefing.

“As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.”

Russian fire killed four medics attempting to evacuate a psychiatric hospital in the Kharkiv region yesterday, governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Two patients were wounded in the attack in the village of Strelecha, he added.

embedded268866940 A damaged Russian military vehicle in a street in Donetsk, an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Alexei Alexandrov / AP Alexei Alexandrov / AP / AP

Overnight shelling also hit a hospital in the city of Mykolaiv, a significant Black Sea port, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.

He also said there had been shelling in other parts of the region, and two people had been wounded.

Three people were wounded in night-time shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is across the river from Europe’s largest nuclear power station, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.

The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was captured by Russian forces in March, but is operated by Ukrainian engineers. Its last reactor was switched off a week ago after repeated power failures because shelling put crucial safety systems at risk.

Vatican Almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, whose role includes making charitable contributions in the name of the pope, and his convoy came under fire near the city of Zaporizhzhia yesterday, the Vatican news service reported. The group had been forced to seek cover while unloading supplies.

“For the first time in my life, I didn’t know where to run. Because it is not enough to run, you have to know where to go,” the Polish-born cardinal said.

Five people have died over the past day in Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, one of two Ukrainian regions that Russia recognises as sovereign states, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

The separatist forces that control much of Donetsk claimed today that Ukrainian shelling of a prisoner-of-war colony in Olenivka had killed one prisoner and injured four.

More than 50 prisoners of war were reportedly killed in a July attack on the Olenivka prison, which both Russian and Ukrainian authorities blame each other for.

A Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said Russian forces in Donetsk continued to conduct “meaningless operations” on villages as opposed to reinforcing the front line.

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    Mute Paul Cahoon
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:07 PM

    UK intelligence, as an Irish person I have grown to know not too a believe a word out of their mouths.

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:08 PM

    @Paul Cahoon: It doesn’t take UK intelligence to figure it out. Russia commentators all over RT are calling for attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

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    Mute Sean Casey
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:43 PM

    @Paul Cahoon: in the fog of war UK intelligence is pretty good. Obviously Ukrainian Intelligence take with a pinch of salt. I think US intelligence is probably the most objective in this Fog. Russian Intelligence… well i dont have to say anything about that

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    Mute Sean Casey
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:44 PM

    I’m a foreign policy expert. If anyone has any question please ask. Last year I was a virologist. So I’m very well informed

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    Mute Abraza Farola
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:04 PM

    Cowardly psych paths. There is no military value in doing this.

    Russia is like the jilted boyfriend who cannot stand to see his ex moving on. No one wants to live in the Russian sphere of influence.

    There was a time when Russia was associated with Tschychovsky, Bolshoi Ballet, Tolstoy. Now Russia stands for corruption, internet trolls and murder.

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    Mute Abraza Farola
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    Sep 18th 2022, 4:06 PM

    Those who said that Russia was acting because of NATO concerns have gone very quiet. Simple fact is that was just another lie, just like when Russia said there would be no invasion…

    Putin isn’t just as bad as Blair, Bush and the rest. He is Hitler with a bit more weirdness

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nikita-konkin-boy-who-vladimir-putin-kissed-on-the-stomach-speaks-about-the-spontaneous-gesture-a6829786.html%3famp

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    Mute Declan Edward
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    Sep 18th 2022, 5:34 PM

    Not condoning anything, but a report that Russia are likely to attack civilian targets and no reports at all on Ukraine targeting civilians over the weekend in the Donbas region isn’t much in the line of journalism.

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    Mute Wooden Spoon
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    Sep 18th 2022, 5:37 PM

    @Declan Edward: This is where you’re mistaken. Ukraine has conducted the first war in the history of the world without killing any civillians.

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    Mute John Elliott
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    Sep 18th 2022, 6:01 PM

    Ukraine needs to start lashing rockets over the border

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    Mute alan
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    Sep 18th 2022, 5:41 PM

    The issue is the specific targeting of civilians.

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    Mute James Johnson
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    Sep 18th 2022, 7:39 PM

    As if they haven’t already going on the mass graves discovered

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    Mute Aidy McBride
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    Sep 18th 2022, 10:02 PM

    That truck has a bad oil leak

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    Mute Margaret Doyle
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    Sep 19th 2022, 9:18 AM

    UK intelligence – you could fit that on a stamp.

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