Ukraine’s Top General Says Situation ‘Difficult’ around Main Russian Attack

 Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Ukraine’s Top General Says Situation ‘Difficult’ around Main Russian Attack

 Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen gather around a pickup truck in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as they prepare to move into battle, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, August 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday the situation was "difficult" around Russia's main attack, which is focused in eastern Ukraine, but that all the necessary decisions were being taken.

Syrskyi did not give the exact location of the main Russian offensive, but earlier both he and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces were targeting the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

"The situation is difficult in the direction of the enemy's main attack. But all the necessary decisions at all levels are being made without delay," Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.

Syrskyi said last week he spent several days on the eastern front near Pokrovsk and described fighting there as "exceptionally tough".

Russia, which has captured swathes of eastern Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, continues to inch forward there in heavy fighting.

The gains have continued since Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia's west Kursk region on Aug. 6, apparently aimed at diverting Russian resources and strengthening Kyiv's position in any future negotiations.



Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
TT

Iran Police Commander Dismissed After Death in Custody

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iran's police force has dismissed the commander of a city in the northern province of Gilan after the death in custody of a detainee, state media said on Saturday.

Mohammad Mir Mousavi, 36, was arrested on July 22 after being involved in a fight in Lahijan, police said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

"The police commander... was dismissed due to insufficient oversight of the conduct and behaviour of staff," the police said, AFP reported.

"Due to the complexity of the matter, the final conclusion on the cause of Mohammad Mir Mousavi's death depends on the medical examiner's final report.

The police said the station commander and several officers involved in the incident had been suspended.

"The behaviour of some law enforcement officers was against the professional policy of the police and that is not acceptable in any way, so they were referred to the judicial authority," the statement added.

The Norway-based Kurdish human rights organization, Hengaw, on Wednesday said Mir Mousavi "was killed under torture in the detention center".

On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the case.

Dismissals of members of the security forces are rare in Iran.

In 2022, the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women, sparked months of deadly nationwide protests.