Poland’s foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and conveyed the Polish side’s strong protest against statements made by Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the UN general assembly, it said in a statement. The foreign ministry said in a statement: “Deputy foreign minister Paweł Jabłoński conveyed the Polish side’s strong protest against the statements made by president Zelenskiy at the UN general assembly yesterday, alleging that some EU countries feigned solidarity while indirectly supporting Russia”. In his speech in New York, Ukraine’s president had referred to the grain export situation, saying “It is alarming to see how some in Europe play out solidarity in a political theatre … they may seem to play their own role but in fact they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.”
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, on Wednesday cautioned that the EU member would ban additional Ukrainian imports if Kyiv were to escalate their conflict over a grain embargo
Ukraine wants to reach an understanding with neighbouring countries on imports of agricultural products through negotiations, trade representative Taras Kachka was quoted as saying on Wednesday. “Ukraine wants to avoid a lengthy court in the World Trade Organization framework, and to reach an understanding through negotiations,” Kachka said in a statement released by the economy ministry.
Ukraine claimed to have shot down 17 drones overnight on 20 September. The air force reported in total Russian troops launched 24 unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukraine. Ukraine reports that Russia hit an oil refinery in Kremenchuk, causing a fire and halting operations.
Russia prevented a missile attack on Crimea’s Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said in a post in his Telegram channel.
The Swedish investigation into the Nord Stream sabotage last year is at a sensitive stage and the investigator hopes to conclude it before the end of the year, he said on Wednesday. “We hope to conclude the investigation shortly but there is still a lot to do and nothing will happen for the next four weeks,” Mats Ljungqvist said in an interview.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, reported on Wednesday that three settlements in the region have lost power as a result of cross-border shelling by Ukrainian armed forces, and that one woman was injured. He later reported that a man had been killed and another injured by shelling near the village of Maksimovka.
A Russian Su-34 bomber crashed Wednesday in the Voronezh region during a training flight. Voronezh borders the partially-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk. The pilots are reported to have ejected.
A fire at a fuel tank near an airport in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi has been extinguished, the city’s mayor said on Wednesday. “There were no casualties,” the mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said on Telegram. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu has said that cooperation between Russia and Iran has reached a new level.
China is willing to work with Russia and Mongolia to seek ways to deepen cooperation, promote regional prosperity and stability, and share the outcome of regional development, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said in Moscow on Wednesday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy implored world leaders gathered at the UN general assembly on Tuesday to stand united against Russia’s invasion and said Moscow had to be pushed back so the world could turn to solving pressing global challenges. Zelenskiy drew applause as he took his place at the United Nations General Assembly lectern in New York for his first in-person appearance at the annual gathering since Russia invaded his country in 2022.
UN secretary general António Guterres said countries such as Russia are creating a “world of insecurity” for everyone after its invasion of Ukraine, which he says has “unleashed the next phase of our lives: historic human rights abuse, families torn apart, children traumatised, hopes and dreams shattered.”
The US president, Joe Biden, said the UN gathering this week is “darkened by the shadow of war”, which he described as an “illegal war of conquest without provocation by Russia” against Ukraine. “No nation wants the war to end more than Ukraine”, he said, reiterating US support for Kyiv and its efforts to bring about “a diplomatic resolution to a just and lasting peace”.
Ukrainian children who had been illegally deported to Russia have arrived in Belarus. The 48 children come from the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, which Moscow claims it has annexed. Officials in Belarus have previously denied allegations that the country was involved in the illegal removal of children from Ukraine, but on Tuesday, Belta reported that the removal of the children from Ukraine was organised by a Belarusian charity – supported by the president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Ukraine’s first lady urged world leaders on Tuesday to help return Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia, where she said they are being indoctrinated and deprived of their national identity. Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Olena Zelenska said that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been transferred by force or deported to Russia or occupied territories.
Ukraine appealed to three neighbouring countries in the European Union on Tuesday to embark on “constructive dialogue” to end a dispute over agricultural trade, and approved what it called a “compromise scenario.” Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced restrictions on imports from Ukraine on Friday in a move they said was to protect farmers from a surge of grain and food imports from Ukraine since its invasion by Russia last year.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said Tuesday air defence will continue to be Ukraine’s “greatest need” in the war against Russia. In closing remarks after a meeting the Ukraine defence contact group, secretary Austin said: “Air defence will continue to be Ukraine’s greatest need to protect the skies, its civilians, and its cities as well as innocent people far away from the battlefield.”
Britain will supply “tens of thousands” more artillery shells to Ukraine this year, the government’s defence department announced on Tuesday.
A missile strike that hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka killing at least 17 civilians earlier this month, could have been caused by an errant missile fired by Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. A further 32 people were wounded on 6 September by the impact of the missile 12 miles (20km) from the frontlines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a few hours later accused Russia of responsibility for the attack.
Ukraine told the UN’s highest court in The Hague on Tuesday that Russia justified waging war against Ukraine by invoking “a terrible lie”, namely that Moscow’s invasion was to stop an alleged genocide. “The international community adopted the Genocide Convention to protect; Russia invokes the Genocide convention to destroy,” Ukraine’s representative Anton Korynevych told judges.
