Drone footage shows Russian invasion of Vovchansk as Ukrainian soldiers fight back
Watching a live drone feed, it was possible to make out three people running down a street in a frontline town in northeastern Ukraine.
“Are they Russians?” I asked a Ukrainian soldier, who was also on the ground in Vovchansk and was showing us the footage from a secret location as we spoke to him via video link from outside the town.
“Yes, yes,” said Denys, 42, the commander of a reconnaissance unit.
“They come in groups like this of three to five soldiers.”
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Other footage from Monday shared with Sky News appeared to be of more Russian troops inside the town – just three days after Russia launched a surprise assault across its border into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
Sky News has verified the location of the images.
“They are advancing in a residential area of Vovchansk and moving into people’s houses,” Denys said.
“This is just the first wave… They’re testing our defences, they’re preparing their artillery. When they completely enter the town, they’ll bring in their reserves.”
Sky News has verified the location of the images
Denys was speaking from a position where he and his team were operating their drone, hunting for Russian targets for Ukrainian forces to strike.
Asked what their main task was, he spun the camera he was speaking to us on around to let one of his soldiers – he described them as his “fellow hero brothers” – answer.
“We will fight under these difficult conditions by whatever means,” said the serviceman, called Andrii.
“We simply have no other choice because behind us are our homes, our families, our children.”
Russian forces have unleashed a ferocious barrage of fire against the town, using a combination of airstrikes, gliding bombs, armed drones and heavy artillery.
Another feed, shared by Denys, captured apocalyptic scenes of smoke spiralling into the air from multiple impact sites across Vovchansk.
“The town was not prepared for this bombardment,” he said.
Drone footage shows the Russian assault on Vovchansk
Asked how dangerous it was for him and his team, Denys panned around his makeshift base.
“If they target us with a guided bomb… it’ll be a mass grave,” he said, smiling.
Denys had been a senior police officer and then a lawyer before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Then, like many civilians, he volunteered to serve to defend his country and has been fighting ever since.
But, in an unusual move for a member of the military, Denys has publicly expressed frustration at what he believes was a failure by his own side to ensure Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia was better defended by landmines and fortifications.
This was despite the Ukrainian military repelling an initial assault by Russia against the Kharkiv region in the first months of the war.
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On Friday “we saw the first breaches of the state border line by enemy armoured vehicles – the initial rush,” he said. “They passed without encountering any mined positions.”
Explaining why he had chosen to speak out about his concerns, he said: “We’re fighting for freedom and truth. We defend our interests, the interests of our state, voluntarily. And we believe that this truth needs to be spoken.”
Having fought to defend Kharkiv once already, Denys said he and his team now “feel some deja vu”.
He added: “It’s shocking. We’re having to defend ourselves again – losing territory and the lives of soldiers.”
He also said, this time around, the Russians were more prepared.
“The enemy prepared their FPV [attack drone] forces,” he said. “They loaded up with an incredible amount of MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems] and artillery.”
As well as capturing images of Russian troops on the ground, the drone footage also showed Ukraine fighting back.
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Russian forces bear down on Vovchansk
One clip was of what Denys said was a group of Russian troops on the edge of Vovchansk, carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher.
His team relayed the coordinates of the location to another unit. Moments later, what looks to be a Ukrainian strike chugs up smoke in the area of the Russian position.
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As he prepared to fight into the night, Denys had a message for Ukraine’s top commanders.
“Trust your soldiers, your officers. Trust those on the ground. Give them the opportunity, give them help, give them the chance to defend this land,” he said.
“There are many people here who voluntarily came to give their lives for this country. The command should respect them, trust them, and allow them to do their job.”
World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has been cremated after a state funeral as politicians and the public mourned his death.
Widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform programme, he died on Thursday aged 92.
His body was taken on Saturday morning to the headquarters of his Congress party in New Delhi, where party leaders and activists paid tribute to him and chanted: “Manmohan Singh lives forever.”
Former Indian PM Manmohan Singh pictured in 2014. File pic: AP
Abhishek Bishnoi, a party leader, said Mr Singh’s death was big loss for the country.
“He used to speak little, but his talent and his actions spoke louder than his words,” he said.
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Later, Mr Singh’s body was transported to a crematorium ground for his last rites as soldiers beat drums.
Government officials, politicians and family members paid their last respects to Mr Singh, whose casket was adorned with flowers and wrapped in the Indian flag.
Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called Mr Singh one of the country’s “most distinguished leaders”, attended the funeral ceremony.
Gursharan Kaur (right), wife of Mr Singh, attends his funeral. Pic: AP
Mr Singh’s body was then transferred to a pyre as religious hymns played and he was cremated.
Authorities have declared a seven-day mourning period and cancelled all cultural and entertainment events during that time.
Mr Singh was prime minister for 10 years and leader of the Congress party in parliament’s upper house.
He was chosen to be prime minister in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Mr Singh was re-elected in 2009, but his second term was clouded by financial scandals.
This led to the Congress party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 national elections by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
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