Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine took prisoners and advanced deep into Russian territory as their cross-border raid intensified on Thursday.

The anti-Kremlin militants behind the joint operation were battling against Moscow’s forces “several dozen kilometres” inside the country after launching a surprise strike from Ukraine, a commander said.

The Russian Volunteer Corps chief, known by his codename Fortuna, said: “There are directions where divisions have advanced several kilometres, others have advanced several dozen kilometres.”

“We have prisoners, I can not say the number yet as hostilities are still ongoing,” he added.

It was the third day of fighting since the operation was launched by the Freedom of Russia Legion alongside the Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps.

All three groups are made up of Russian citizens but are under the control of the Ukrainian military.

On Thursday, the groups urged Russian soldiers to surrender and urged civilians to evacuate the Russian frontier regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

The Kyiv loyalists repeatedly warned of large-scale attacks against Moscow’s military presence in the area as the cross-border scuffles escalated.

Earlier this week, the Russian rebels used tanks and armoured vehicles to punch across the border in separate directions.

The Freedom of Russia Legion claimed to have occupied a small frontier village, Tyotkino, in the Kurk region in the initial attack.

On Thursday, unverified battlefield footage appeared to show Russian soldiers waving white flags to surrender to the pro-Kyiv forces in Spodariushino, almost 100 miles to the southeast in the Belgorod region.

Before the video was circulated online, the Russian rebel groups had urged their countrymen fighting in Vladimir Putin’s forces to surrender.

“It is enough to simply surrender to representatives of the Russian liberation forces, notifying them that you are surrendering because of ‘I want to live’,” the Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion wrote in a joint statement.

As shelling on Belgorod intensified, Denis Nikitin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, urged civilians to also escape the fighting.

“Immediately leave Kursk and Belgorod regions, all major population centres,” he said in a video shared on the Telegram messaging app.

“We will open fire on military targets in this area within 1.5 hours of this announcement.”

Soon after the rebel groups began sharing battlefield footage of burning buildings.

The Russian Volunteer Corps released footage that it claimed to be of first-person view drones smashing into Russian armoured vehicles.

The group also claimed to have killed a “military man”, named as Dmitry Alekseevich Golyshkin, in an attack on a car in Russia.

Footage shared on social media showed the burning wreckage of a vehicle on a road.

The Freedom of Russian Legion posted an aerial video shot from a drone appearing to show two buildings being pounded by artillery fire.

“While Putin’s army is destroying civilian homes, Legion artillerymen destroyed two ammunition depots of Putin’s combatants in Tyotkino at once,” it wrote on X.

It is the largest cross-border incursion launched by Kyiv loyalist Russians since the start of the full-scale invasion.

The three groups said they aimed to sow chaos in the lead-up to Putin’s expected victory in this weekend’s Russian presidential elections.

“The raid had been prepared for several months. We have a number of different scenarios for this kind of raid,” Commander Fortuna said.

While Kyiv has said the units are made up of Russian citizens operating independently, officials have acknowledged the groups were acting as part of “Ukraine’s security and defence forces”.

The cross-border skirmishes were accompanied by sustained Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Belgorod.

Russian officials said Ukrainian forces had fired at least eight missiles at the frontier region, killing one person and wounding six others.

Ukraine’s defence intelligence released purported intercepted audio of a discussion between two Russian citizens about orders to evacuate civilians from the area.

“Uncle texted, basically, that buses are standing or going. Grayvoron is being evaluated,” a voice said. “Mum called me, Dima called. They said they were evacuating.”

Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have repelled the cross-border raids. It shared footage of what it said were destroyed tanks and armoured fighting vehicles belonging to the anti-Putin fighters.

That’s all for today

Thanks for following the Telegraph’s live blog coverage of the war in Ukraine. To recap:

• Russian soldiers fighting for Ukraine continue cross-border attacks near Belgorod and Kursk, warning Russian authorities to evacuate civilians.

• Ukrainian rationing of ammunition - particularly shells - could lead to a Russian breakthrough on the front lines, according to a US think tank.

• Russia reportedly jams signals on a plane carrying Grant Shapps, the UK’s Defence Minister.

• Russia sanctions 227 US nationals on the eve of the presidential election, which will all but certainly see Vladimir Putin reelected.

• Nato’s secretary general has accused the alliance’s member states of not doing enough to help Kyiv as Ukrainian suffers acute shell shortage

We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates.

05:41 PM GMT

Watch: Bizarre TV advert urging Russians to vote

05:21 PM GMT

Kherson apartment building hit in Russian attack

Russian troops have hit an apartment building in the central city of Kherson, according to a post by Ukraine’s service for emergency situations on Telegram.

None were injured in the attack.

04:37 PM GMT

Russia sanctions over 200 US nationals ahead of presidential vote

Moscow announced on Thursday it would bar entry to 227 US citizens they claim are involved in “anti-Russian activity”.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement published to its website: “Entry to the Russian Federation is closed to 227 Americans involved in the development, implementation and justification of the Russophobic course of the current US administration.”

The latest sanctions target Matthew Miller, the US State Department spokesman, several journalists from The Washington Post and The New York Times as well as university professors at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

Moscow has banned more than 2,000 Americans from entering Russia in what it says is a response to a barrage of US sanctions against Russian individuals and companies.

Russia’s foreign ministry also warned against any “attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation” during the upcoming election.

The announcement came on the eve of Russia’s presidential elections, which are all but certain to see Putin granted another six-year term in office.

04:12 PM GMT

Italy condemns attack on Navalny ally as Russian persecution

Italy has criticised the attack on Leonid Volkov, a Russian opposition leader and close ally of Alexei Navalny, saying it has proved Russia’s persecution of Putin critics.

Antonio Tajani, the Italian foreign minister, told reporters: “Something really serious happened with the death of Navalny and also the attack on his closest collaborator.

“It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation.”

Lithuania, where Mr Volkov was struck outside his home in Vilnius, said it suspects Russia’s special services of involvement in Tuesday’s attack.

03:58 PM GMT

Russia reportedly jams signal on plane carrying Grant Shapps

Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft being used by Grant Shapps, the Defence Minister, to travel from Poland back to Britain, a government source travelling with him on Thursday said.

The source told Reuters the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

Mr Shapps is conducting a day trip on Thursday to eastern Europe to meet with UK troops taking part in the Nato exercise Steadfast Defender.

The Ministry of Defence has not commented.

03:48 PM GMT

Update: Russian authorities close shopping centres in Belgorod amid shelling

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, has said shopping centres in and around the city will remain closed until the end of the day.

He quoted safety concerns as the reason behind the closures in a post to Telegram and said they will reopen in the following days depending on the situation in the region.

Belgorod has come under fire over the course of the day with anti-Kremlin group the Freedom of Russia Legion urging civilians to flee the area.

The group of soldiers called on the Russian governors of Kursk and Belgorod to “immediately announce” civilian evacuations of the regions.

03:36 PM GMT

MoD: ‘Challenging’ situation for Ukrainian forces in coming weeks

02:52 PM GMT

Watch: Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod

02:39 PM GMT

Ukraine rotates troops amid man-power shortage

Ukraine has begun rotating its front-line troops amid concerns of an acute man-power shortage.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian army chief, announced Kyiv has commenced troop rotations for those who have been at the front “for a long time” as its forces come under heavy Russian attacks on the eastern front.

“Despite the quite difficult situation across the front line, we have managed to launch the process of rotating and replacing battalions and units that have been performing combat missions on the front line for a long time,” Gen Syrskyi said on Facebook.

“This will allow us to stabilise the situation and positively affect the moral and psychological state of our soldiers,” he added.

Ukraine is struggling with an acute manpower shortage as the war enters its third year, with parliament considering a new mobilisation law after its initial efforts to lower the age of conscription failed.

02:27 PM GMT

Ukraine wipes out 12 per cent of Russian capacity in series of targeted strikes

Ukrainian drone strikes on Putin’s oil refineries have slashed Russia’s oil-processing capacity by 12 per cent.

Recent Ukrainian attacks targeted three oil refineries deep inside Russian territory, in what Vladimir Putin described as an attempt to disrupt the upcoming presidential election.

Yesterday’s strike caused a fire at Rosneft PJSC’s Ryazan plant near Moscow, one of the country’s largest crude-processing facilities, while a further attack damaged the smaller Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the southern Rostov region.

These followed a similar attack at Lukoil PJSC’s Norsi plant in Nizhny Novgorod on March 12, and have together caused significant disruption.

Ukrainian intelligence sources told Suspilne that the strikes are intended to reduce Russia’s economic output and reduce oil revenue and fuel supplies that Russia uses directly for its war effort in Ukraine.

02:11 PM GMT

Russian elections in occupied Ukraine are ‘illegal’, says Nato Chief

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has condemned tomorrow’s elections in occupied regions of Ukrraine as “illegal”.

“Any attempt to organise Russian elections in occupied regions of Ukraine would be completely illegal,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

His comments come as the Ukrainian foreign ministry called on Western allies to refuse to recognise the results of the elections taking place in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.

In a statement, the ministry said the electoral campaign demonstrated Moscow’s “continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles”.

02:02 PM GMT

Pictured: Pro-Kyiv Russian legion advances in Belgorod

01:48 PM GMT

Nato chief blasts allies for lacking ‘political will’ to support Ukraine

Nato members are not doing enough to help Kyiv as Ukrainian suffers acute shell shortage, the alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said.

In an unusually blunt address about the state of the war, Mr Stoltenberg said Nato allies had the capacity to provide more to Ukraine but needed to show the political will to do so.

“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition,” he told reporters in Brussels. “Ukraine needs even more support and they need it now.”

His urgent warning comes as the US continues to drag its feet over passing a $65 package of aid for Ukraine through congress.

“Nato allies are not providing Ukraine with enough ammunition and that has consequences on the battlefield every day,” Stoltenberg said. “It is one of the reasons why the Russians have been able to make some advance on the battlefield over the last weeks and months.

“We have the capacity, the economies, to be able to provide Ukraine what they need. This is a question of political will. To take the decisions and to prioritise support for Ukraine.”

01:21 PM GMT

Russia forced to abandon daring river crossing raid

Russian reconnaissance troops attempting to cross the Dnipro River in Kherson were forced to abandon their mission after suffering heavy casualties, Ukraine’s military reported.

A boat carrying Moscow’s forces attempted to land on the western bank near the Antonivskyi Bridge, the Southern Operational Command said.

“A bunch of invaders were sent from the left bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast in a motor boat to test their fate,” it said in a post on Telegram.

“Under heavy fire from the defense forces, the occupying boat magically repeated the fate of the Russian fleet – having lost a quarter of its capacity and fullness, it retreated to the left bank again.”

This comes as a total of 70 clashes broke out on the front lines in the past day, with the Russian army carrying out 68 airstrikes and 37 rocket attacks, the army’s general staff posted on social media.

The main fronts where fighting took place include Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Novopavlivka and Orikhiv.

12:52 PM GMT

Watch: Pro-Kyiv rebels ‘destroy’ Russian ammunition depot

12:29 PM GMT

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant shelled by Ukrainian army, claims Russia

The Ukrainian army has shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Russia has claimed.

The Russian-controlled management of the nuclear plant - which is the largest in Europe - said an explosive device was dropped by the Ukrainian army near a fence at the site where diesel fuel tanks are located.

“Such attacks are unacceptable,” it said.

It was not immediately clear when the attack had taken place.

Rafael Grossi, the EU nuclear chief, has repeatedly warned of the danger of attacks on the plant, which was captured by Russia in March 2022 and has been shutdown ever since.

12:04 PM GMT

Pictured: Pro-Ukrainian forces strike Belgorod

11:43 AM GMT

Putin never threatened to use nuclear weapons, claims Kremlin

Vladimir Putin’s comments that Russia technically has nuclear weapons at the ready was not a threat to use them, the Kremlin has said.

Putin fuelled international concern on Wednesday when he warned the West that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

However, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, has said that Putin had merely been answering a journalist’s questions and that his comments were not a threat to use nuclear weapons.

He added that Putin has never considered using nuclear weapons on Ukraine, and that western media had purposefully misconstrued the Russian leaders comments.

“This was deliberately taking something out of context,” said Mr Peskov. “Putin made no threats about the use of nuclear weapons in this interview. The president was just talking about the reasons that could make the use of nuclear weapons inevitable.”

Putin has made numerous alleged threats to use nuclear weapons since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

11:30 AM GMT

Putin urges Russians to ‘Vote for a candidate of your choice’

11:21 AM GMT

Russian oil tycoon dies ‘suddenly’ in fifth mystery death linked to top oil firm.

Vitaly Robertus, the vice president of the Russian oil giant Lukoil, has died “suddenly” at the age of 53, Russian media reported.

The company announced the death of Mr Robertus in a brief statement yesterday, expressing “deep regret” over his death but providing no further details on the cause.

“It is with deep regret that we inform you that the vice-president of the company, Vitaly Robertus, suddenly died at the age of 54,” Lukoil said.

He is the fourth executive to die since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, and the fifth prominent figure associated with the oil giant.

In late October, Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of the company’s board, died unexpectedly of what the company said was acute heart failure, aged 66. He had been brought in to head the board after the previous chairman, Ravil Maganov, plunged from a sixth-floor hospital window and died in September 2022.

11:11 AM GMT

Update: Ukraine ‘destroys’ ammunitions depots in Russian border village

Fighting is raging around the border village of Tetkino in Kursk, where pro-Kyiv Russian forces have destroyed two Russian ammunition depots, the fighters reported.

The Freedom of Russia Legion posted a video on Telegram reportedly showing the destruction of the ammunition stores.

The group of soldiers called on the Russian governors of Kursk and Belgorod to “immediately announce” civilian evacuations of the regions.

Footage posted on social media allegedly shows civilians rushing to evacuate from Belgorod on foot and having their paths blocked by Russian authorities.

So far, one person has been killed and another three have been injured following aerial attacks on Belgorod, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said.

“As a result of an explosion, a car driven by a female civilian overturned into a ditch. The woman died on the spot from her injuries,” the governor posted on social media, adding three more people had been wounded by shrapnel.

Also in Belgorod, footage posted on social media allegedly records exchanges of gunfire in in the village of Grayvoron. Meanwhile, footage posted on Telegram by the Russian ministry of defence allegedly shows the bodies of scores of Ukrainian soldiers strew across the ground in Belgorod following a drone strike.

10:38 AM GMT

Update: Russia ‘repels pro-Kyiv militia’

Russia is repelling attacks from pro-Kyiv militia troops, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported.

Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardia) together with the armed forces are repelling a Ukrainian-backed armed group’s attack near the village of Tetkino in Russia’s western Kursk region, it said.

The Russian ministry of defence claimed that its troops had thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian forces to make a breakthrough into the Belgorod and Kursk regions. It added that Ukraine had lost 250 military personnel, seven tanks and several other vehicles and rocket launchers.

10:26 AM GMT

Kyiv intelligence foils Ukrainian railway bomb plotter

A Ukrainian man suspected of working for Moscow has been arrested for planning to blow up a railway in Kharkiv, Kyiv intelligence services reported.

The alleged saboteur is accused of trying to destroy power lines using homemade explosives, in an attempt to disrupt supplies headed for Ukrainian troops.

The security service said in a post on Telegram that the man’s plans were discovered before he had a chance to carry out the attack and the identities of his Russian contacts had been established.

“As a result of the special operation, an enemy saboteur who tried to detonate power lines of railway tracks and rolling stock near the junction station was detained,” it said.

“The attacker turned out to be a local resident who worked for the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (known as GRU).”

10:06 AM GMT

Watch: Russian rebel strikes target Belgorod

09:48 AM GMT

Russian drone strikes disrupt TV signal in northeast Ukraine

The northeastern Ukrainian border region of Sumy said parts of its territory had lost television and radio signal this morning after Russia launched a mass overnight drone attack that damaged communications infrastructure.

The attack with 36 drones hit four cities in Sumy and television facilities in the neighbouring Kharkiv region, officials said, suggesting Moscow was testing a new tactic of targeting communications infrastructure.

“As a result of the damage, part of the territory of the region (temporarily) cannot receive Ukrainian television and radio signal,” the region’s administration said in a statement on Telegram messenger.

It also warned that mobile phone signal in the area could be disrupted.

In Kharkiv, the local governor said repairs were underway after TV infrastructure was struck, but gave no further details.

Ukraine’s military said in a statement that its air defences had shot down 22 of the 36 drones launched by Russia overnight.

Five were shot down over Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv and southeastern Dnipropetrovsk regions, local officials said.

09:29 AM GMT

Watch: Russian airport ‘on fire’

A Russian airport in Sochi is on fire, multiple Ukrainian sources have reported.

Footage of the incident posted on social media shows a blaze and black smoke rising from the region of the airport in Sochi, which sits on Russia’s Black Sea coast.

Videos taken from the airport itself appears to show a plane on fire.

Russian authorities claimed it was “planned” and attributed it to military “exercises”.

The cause of the blaze remains unclear.

09:28 AM GMT

Pictured: Ukrainian artillery fire on Russian positions

09:07 AM GMT

Watch: ‘Armed Russian solider intimidates voter’

As Russian citizens go to the polls for the presidential election tomorrow, a video has emerged online showing alleged voter intimidation.

The footage allegedly shows an armed Russian soldier watching over an old woman as she casts her vote.

The incident reportedly took place in occupied Severodonetsk at a voter’s home before the day of the official ballot.

This follows reports of pro-Russian collaborators accompanied by armed soldiers going from house to house with ballot boxes looking for voters.

08:47 AM GMT

US aid delays could enable Russian breakthrough, says think tank

Ukrainian shell hunger could soon lead to a Russian breakthrough on the front lines, a leading think thank has warned.

Ukraine is being forced to ration critical ammunition – in particular, artillery shells – and prioritise allocation based on those areas currently facing the most intense Russian attacks, the Institute for the Study of War reported.

This could create “vulnerabilities elsewhere that Russian forces may be able to exploit to make sudden and surprising advances if Ukrainian supplies continue to dwindle”, it said.

The warning echoes that of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian army chief, who said yesterday that “the situation is gradually becoming more difficult and there is a threat of enemy units advancing deep into our battle formations”.

According to the ISW, the current front line is not stable, and “timely Western resourcing of Ukrainian troops is essential to prevent Russia from identifying and exploiting an opportunity for a breakthrough on a vulnerable sector of the front”.

The think tank’s sobering assessment comes as a $65 billion package of US aid remains tied up in Congress.

08:26 AM GMT

Pro-Kyiv Russian soldiers call for ‘immediate’ evacuation of Russian territories

Russian volunteers who are fighting for Ukraine have warned of imminent strikes and urged the residents of two Russian territories to evacuate “immediately”.

The pro-Kyiv militia, called the Freedom of Russia Legion, yesterday urged civilians to flee Belgorod and Kursk.

This morning, the soldiers released a video renewing its calls for an evacuation of the regions and said military strikes will start very shortly.

“Immediately leave Kursk and Belgorod regions, all major population centers,” a member of the unit reportedly said the video. “We will open fire on military targets on this territory within an hour and a half after this appeal”

08:16 AM GMT

Russia’s FSB security HQ hit by Ukrainian drone

A Ukrainian drone attacked the building of Russia’s FSB state security service in Russia’s Belgorod on Wednesday, the Tass news agency reported,  writes Michael Murphy.

There were no casualties from the attack, it said, although the building has been damaged.

It comes as the Ukrainian army launched a sweeping drone attack on several Russian regions for the second night in a row, officials said on Wednesday, again targeting energy facilities and setting at least one refinery on fire.

“The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a UAV,” Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region that borders the Moscow region to its north, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russians Warned to Flee Border Cities While They Still Can

Anti-Kremlin Russian fighters have begun urging their fellow citizens to abandon their homes in the Belgorod and Kursk regions as part of a militant campaign aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The group, made up of three different battalions known as the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps, and the Siberian Battalion, issued a statement Wednesday warning that it would be attacking shortly, urging Russians to evacuate.

“Putin’s killers are carrying out massive attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities, setting up their positions between your homes, your children’s schools and government institutions. Every day, dozens of ordinary innocent people (mostly women and children) die from shelling from Belgorod,” the statement said. “In this regard, we are forced to inflict fire on military positions located in the cities of Belgorod and Kursk.”

“The shelling of Ukraine from the territory of Belgorod must stop,” the groups added.

The warning comes after the group vowed to take matters into their own hands in trying to combat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The pro-Ukraine Russian groups, which Kyiv said are not operating on orders from the Ukrainian government, earlier claimed to have taken over the Kursk village of Tyotkino and reportedly targeted three different locations in Belgorod.

Moscow has claimed that it successfully fought off the militant groups. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the incursions in an interview with Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, accusing Ukraine of directing the attacks as part of an effort to achieve any wins against Russia.

“All this is happening against the backdrop of failures on the line of contact, on the front line. They did not achieve any of the goals they set for themselves last year,” Putin said. “Against the backdrop of those failures, they need to show at least something.”

Putin added that he suspected the attacks were aimed at disrupting the upcoming presidential elections later this month.

“I have no doubt that the main goal is, if not to disrupt the presidential election in Russia, then to somehow interfere with the normal process,” he said.

The attacks in Belgorod and Kursk are ongoing. On Wednesday, residents in Kursk were warned of an impending drone attack, Governor Roman Starovoyt said on social media, adding that the village of Tyotkino was also under attack. In Belgorod, a drone struck a regional FSB Directorate building and a house, blowing out its windows upon impact. Another drone damaged a private house in the village of Grafovka before being shot down by air defenses.

Local authorities have been advising residents not to go near their windows, warning that a missile could be incoming, according to TASS.

Moscow has once again blamed the operations on Ukraine, calling it an “attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack.”

The three pro-Kyiv Russian groups shared a video on social media that they claimed showed militants facing off with Russian forces.

“We beat them up,” the social media post accompanying the video on Telegram states. It’s not clear where the video was filmed.