A former Ukrainian naval commander who defected to Russia has been reportedly assassinated in a bomb blast in the port city of Sevastopol. Robert Shageyev, who once commanded Kyiv's only submarine, switched sides after Russian troops invaded Crimea in 2014. He later joined the Kremlin's naval command structure and is thought to have been involved in bombing Ukraine's cities with cruise missiles fired from submarines and ships.
Bomb planted by suspected female spy
According to reports, the bomb that killed him was planted by a woman aged between 28 and 30, seen with a backpack and had been watching him. Witnesses described a woman who had been seen observing him before he died. It is thought a bomb was placed in a trash can outside a building he was in and detonated as he walked by along with another person.
Shageyev was part of the Russian naval command structure that has fired cruise missiles at Ukraine, killing many civilians and blasting his homeland. The 49-year-old was in charge of Kyiv's submarine Zaporizhzhia when he turned traitor, signing up with the Russian navy. Ukraine accused him of surrendering the submarine to Russian forces without a fight and subsequently swearing allegiance to the Russian military.
Career with Russia's Black Sea Fleet
It is believed he had continued his service with Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and Ukrainian authorities notified him of suspicion of high treason in July 2022. After switching sides, Shageyev was appointed commander of a submarine division in Sevastopol Bay in 2015. From 2017 to 2018, he was in charge of the Russian submarine B-262 Stary Oskol, a Varshavyanka-class submarine capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles.
Shageyev participated in Russian strikes on Syria and later served in the Black Sea Fleet submarines equipped with Kalibr missiles, which were used against Ukrainian cities. It is believed Russia has lost as many as 19 senior Army generals, mostly assassinated by Ukraine's undercover operatives.
Ukraine seeks US Patriot missiles
Ukraine has appealed to US President Donald Trump to sell it up to 10% of its badly-needed Patriot defence missiles before winter. President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine could destroy all of the Kremlin's deadly ballistic missiles and save lives with just 10% of the US Patriots. Last night, Russian forces launched 133 drones at Ukraine, hitting 15 locations and killing two more civilians in Odesa and wounding five in Dnipropetrovsk region and another in Zaporizhzhia.
Zelensky is keen to acquire Patriots before winter as Russia will likely weaponise the bitter cold by targeting civilian energy supplies. It is widely reported that the US has depleted its Patriot stocks by up to a third throughout its five-month war with Iran, defending against Tehran's firepower. American weapons manufacturers have been told to speed up production of the Patriots, which are usually produced at a rate of around 650 a year.
President Zelensky said: "This year I'm asking American partners to sell me five per cent of missiles, what they have in their stocks. If they sell us five per cent we will go through the winter and save people's lives. If they can sell us 10%, we will destroy all the Russians' ballistic missiles." In July, Ukraine intercepted just 29 of the 195 ballistic missiles fired by Vladimir Putin's military - many of them at civilians. Last month was the deadliest for Ukraine's civilians since the full-scale invasion was launched in 2022.
At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 injured in Ukraine in July, a 30 per cent increase compared with the previous month. Zelensky argued: "Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before." It is believed Moscow is producing 1,000 ballistic missiles a year and now it is stepping up production and also buying in North Korean missiles. Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, said of the Ukrainian casualties: "Every month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July. The number of civilian casualties in July was the highest we documented in a single month since March 2022."
Russia has suffered 1.4 losses of frontline troops to death or injury since war began, according to Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have recently retaken 26 settlements and pushed Russian troops back across at least six areas of the frontline. The counter-attacks, led by air assault soldiers, have won back roughly 700 square miles of territory for Ukraine.
