Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin trying to create new 'assault units'; 'two-hour drone offensive' in Odesa

The apparent ingenuity of Ukraine's armed forces has repeatedly proven to be among its biggest assets in repelling the advances of its much larger neighbour's invasion.

Kyiv has made increasing use of airborne drones that explode on impact, with some notable successes - including inside Russian territory.

The latest example of Ukraine's often innovative approach to fighting the war comes in the form of an underwater drone.

According to footage released online, the Marichka is a black unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) which is six metres long and a has a range of around 1,000km (621 miles).

It is reportedly a self-developed system made by volunteer engineers at a cost of $433,000 (£355,573) and can perform attack, transport or reconnaissance missions.

Marichka is expected to be used in suicide operations against Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) assets, along with other critical Russian infrastructures and establishments.

Recent attacks on Russia's Black Sea fleet, including a large missile strike on its headquarters that reportedly killed its leader, have left it "diminished" but still capable of carrying out its core wartime functions, the UK's Ministry of Defence has said. 

"The physical damage to the Black Sea fleet is almost certainly severe but localised," it said in its daily intelligence update.

"The fleet almost certainly remains capable of fulfilling its core wartime missions of cruise missile strikes and local security patrols."

However, the MoD says it is "likely" that the fleet's ability to continue wider regional security patrols and enforce its blockade of Ukrainian ports will be "diminished". 

"It also likely has a degraded ability to defend its assets in port and to conduct routine maintenance."

The MoD adds that recent attacks also serve to undermine the Kremlin's influence in one of the ports it has direct control over in an occupied territory. 

A two-hour drone offensive has injured two people and damaged port infrastructure in Izmail, Odesa, according to the region's governor.

"For two hours, Russian terrorists attacked the Odesa region with attack drones," Oleg Kiper said on Telegram. 

"Most of the drones were shot down," he added.

He said the port infrastructure in the Izmail district was damaged and that two male truck drivers were injured .

"One of them was given medical help on the spot, the second with a severe hand injury was hospitalised," Mr Kiper said.

A checkpoint building, an unspecified number of warehouses, around 30 trucks and six vans were damaged, he claimed.

"Firefighters [have] extinguished the fire."

President Zelenskyy's hometown has been struck once again with a missile attack, according to the head of the military administration in the city.

Kryvyi Rih has been targeted a number of times since the war began, most recently two weeks ago when over 60 people were injured after a residential building was struck by Russian forces. 

"The enemy continues his vile tactics of terrorising peaceful cities," Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram. 

"In the morning, the occupiers attacked Kryvyi Rih with a missile. They hit one of the city's enterprises," he said. 

No casualties have been reported, and we haven't yet received any pictures from the scene - but we'll bring you more as we get it. 

Ukraine's seemingly unrelenting drone offensive looks to be continuing, as seven settlements in the Russian region of Kursk have lost power after what appears to be a successful UAV attack, according to the region's governor. 

Kursk shares a border with Ukraine, and comes under frequent shelling and drone attack from Kyiv's forces, officials in the region claim. 

This morning, in the village of Snagost in the Korenevsky district, a Ukrainian drone "dropped an explosive device on an electrical substation, cutting off power to seven settlements", Roman Starovoit said on Telegram. 

"None of the residents were injured," he added. 

The governor added that emergency crews would begin restoring power supply as soon as possible. 

Russian military officials are pressing forward with building out their armed forces despite a "multitude of endemic mobilisation issues" facing the country, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The US-based thinktank noted a report from Russian outlet Izvestia.

'Assault troops'

According to that report, the new units will be "comprised of assault troops intended to break through layered defences and reconnaissance troops that will conduct reconnaissance at 'tactical depth'... each brigade will receive tanks, light armoured vehicles, artillery, and various drones", ISW said. 

The new brigades are designed to overcome prepared Ukrainian defensive positions, particularly in areas of Donbas - which Kyiv has been equipping for defence since 2014. 

Colonel Valery Yuryev, who is chairman of the Russian Union of Paratroopers, told Izvestia that the war had stressed the "need to have specialised units for storming fortified areas" and that "separate assault units and formations are necessary."

But can Putin do it?

Despite the needs and wants of the military officials, ISW says it will be difficult to create these new specialised units given the current climate in Russia - despite a number of tweaks and changes to the country's legal system to allow for easier recruitment. 

ISW says it is "unclear how the Russian force generation apparatus will be able to recruit, train, and staff brigade, army, or army corps level formations considering the multitude of endemic mobilisation issues the Russian army faces at this time".

Hello and welcome back to our coverage of the war in Ukraine.

The main news over the last 24 hours has been that the commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, was killed in an attack on the fleet's headquarters, according to Ukrainian special forces.

He was killed along with 62 others after two Storm Shadow missiles struck the roof of their base in Sevastopol, Crimea, during a meeting of the Russian naval leadership, Kyiv claimed.

Although Russia has so far not commented on the claims, Sky News analyst Professor Michael Clarke says it is "very likely" Admiral Sokolov was killed in the strike.

Here's what else happened yesterday: 

• Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said he would only support Ukraine if they "restored the rights of Hungarians" in the country;
• Russia was found to have tortured some Ukrainian captives to death, according to a UN inquiry;
• Poland's president said he saw "no problem" restarting supplying weapons to Ukraine - once Warsaw had replenished its own supply;
• Four people were confirmed to have died in a Russian strike on Odesa, which caused "significant damage" to the port.

Here's the latest territorial picture in the country...

Russian air defence units shot down seven Ukrainian drones over southern Belgorod region on Monday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. 

According to Mr Gladkov, there were no casualties. 

Russia's defence ministry later said Russian forces had destroyed two drones over Kursk region. 

No details of the attack were provided. 

Both the Belgorod and Kursk regions border Ukraine. 

The air raid alert over Sevastopol has been lifted after Russian forces repelled an attack on the Crimean port of downing one missile, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, has said on Telegram. 

Mr Razvozhayev, citing preliminary data, said Russian air defence units downed a missile near the Belbek military airfield. 

Traffic on the main bridge linking the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, had been stopped but is now running again, according to reports.

The Kremlin says it is closely monitoring what it called a "potentially dangerous" situation in Kosovo, after ethnic Serb gunmen stormed a village at the weekend, battling police and barricading themselves into a monastery. 

Russia does not recognise Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, as an independent country and traditionally supports Serbia, with which it has close religious and cultural ties. 

"The situation is extremely difficult. On Kosovo, we see a traditionally biased attitude towards the Serbs... The situation is very, very tense and potentially dangerous, we are monitoring it very closely," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

Kosovo police units retook the monastery late on Sunday after three attackers and one police officer were killed. 

They were securing the village in northern Kosovo on Monday. Ethnic Albanians form the vast majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia. 

But some 50,000 Serbs in the north have never accepted Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence and still see Belgrade as their capital.