Summary
It’s 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Ukrainian forces are refusing to discard US-provided arms, with many reverse-engineering spare parts to continue the counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion. “They’re not willing to scrap it,” one soldier said, recalling artillery with shrapnel damage and sometimes completely worn out from firing round after round against Russian troops, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian military said that Russia has deployed Iranian attack drones, the New York Times reported on Sunday. According to a Ukrainian military official who spoke to the New York Times, remnants of the Shahed-136 attack drones have been discovered on the ground during the counteroffensive that Ukraine launched in the northeastern regions of the country this month.
The Ukrainian military has carried out 20 airstrikes in the last 24 hours against Russian strongholds, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Kyiv Independent reported on Sunday that Ukraine’s Air Force has successfully targeted 15 Russian strongholds and four sites, as well as seven control points.
Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili levied heavy criticism against Russia on Sunday after the discovery of mass graves in Izium earlier this week. Zourabichvili condemned “in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Russia in Izium,” adding that “these war crimes must be answered by justice,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Sunday that the mass graves discovered in Ukraine was evidence of Russia’s war crimes in the country. “Obviously the UK and Canada have been two of the strongest countries in standing up in support of Ukraine and pushing back against Russia’s illegal actions,” Trudeau told reporters in London where he will be attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
Updated
Ukrainian forces are refusing to discard US-provided arms, with many reverse-engineering spare parts to continue the counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion.
Reuters reports:
Some members of a roughly 50-member repair team showed reporters images of damaged U.S.-provided arms, including M777 howitzers, that in the West would have long been considered beyond the scope of repair.
Not in Ukraine.
“They’re not willing to scrap it,” one soldier said, recalling artillery with shrapnel damage and sometimes completely worn out from firing round after round against Russian troops.
But Ukrainians are managing to bring these weapons back into battle, thanks to guidance from U.S. forces and manufacturing prowess by Kyiv allowing it to reverse-engineer spare parts.
Since the program began in June, more than a dozen teleconference channels have been set up with over 100 Ukrainian contacts.
But priority support is being given to the M777s and to the high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), which have been central to Ukraine’s counter-offensive nearly seven months since Russian forces invaded.
“Combat power for Ukraine is staying at the level it is because of America’s investment in the sustainment,” the soldier said.
The Ukrainian military said that Russia has deployed Iranian attack drones, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
According to a Ukrainian military official who spoke to the New York Times, remnants of the Shahed-136 attack drones have been discovered on the ground during the counteroffensive that Ukraine launched in the northeastern regions of the country this month.
The weapon is a “kamikaze drone carrying a warhead of about 80 pounds” that can be launched from the back of a flatbed truck, the New York Times explained.
According to Colonel Rodion Kulagin, the commander of artillery operations in the Kharkiv operations, the drone drops out from the sky without any warning.
“It blew the triple-seven in half,” he told the Times, referring to the drone destroying an M777 howitzer supplied by the US to the Ukrainian military. “Instead of firing 100 artillery shells, it’s easier to release one of these drones” to search for a target, he added.
The New York Times also reported Kulagin explaining that the drone is accurate enough to target a self-propelled howitzer in an area close to the turret where gunpowder stored. This in turn creates secondary explosions.
“It’s a very serious problem,” he said, adding that without any countermeasures, the drones “will destroy all our military.”
Updated
The Ukrainian military has carried out 20 airstrikes in the last 24 hours against Russian strongholds, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Kyiv Independent reported on Sunday that Ukraine’s Air Force has successfully targeted 15 Russian strongholds and four sites, as well as seven control points.
⚡️ General Staff: Ukrainian military hits Russian strongholds, control points, air defense systems.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 18, 2022
In the past 24 hours, Ukraine's Air Force has carried out 20 airstrikes, successfully hitting 15 Russian strongholds and four sites with its air defense systems.
Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili levied heavy criticism against Russia on Sunday after the discovery of mass graves in Izium earlier this week.
Zourabichvili condemned “in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Russia in Izium,” adding that “these war crimes must be answered by justice,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
Zourabichvili reacted to the mass burial site reportedly containing around 440 graves in the liberated town in Kharkiv Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 18, 2022
According to Ukraine's officials, almost all the exhumed bodies showed signs of violent death. "These war crimes must be answered by justice," she said.
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Sunday that the mass graves discovered in Ukraine was evidence of Russia’s war crimes in the country.
“Obviously the UK and Canada have been two of the strongest countries in standing up in support of Ukraine and pushing back against Russia’s illegal actions,” Trudeau told reporters in London where he will be attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
“Those actions “increasingly, clearly include war crimes, include absolutely unacceptable crimes, whether we think of what we found in Bucha or the discovery of mass graves in the reclaimed territories by Ukraine,” he added.
“There needs to be a proper investigation and transparency and Vladimir Putin, his supporters and the Russian military need to be held to account for the atrocities they have and are continuing to commit in Ukraine.”
Updated
Ukraine’s first lady meets the Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace
The first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, paid her respects to the Queen lying in state at Westminster Hall on Sunday, before a reception with the Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace.
Ukraine's First Lady has visited Buckingham Palace and met with the Princess of Wales.
— Sophie Williams (@sophierose233) September 18, 2022
📷: Reuters#Ukraine pic.twitter.com/O8M9kRSIAF
Updated
Top US general issues warning
The top US general has cautioned that it is still unclear how Russia might react to the latest battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, calling for vigilance among US troops during a visit to a military base in Poland aiding Ukraine’s war effort.
“The war is not going too well for Russia right now. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to maintain high states of readiness, alert,” US army general Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Warsaw following a visit to a base hosting US troops.
Reuters was asked not to publish the name of the base or describe its location.
Milley said he was not suggesting US troops in Europe were at any increased threat, but said they had to be ready.
“In the conduct of war, you just don’t know with a high degree of certainty what will happen next.”
Policy research organisation the Institute for the Study of War has published data suggesting Ukrainian forces are expanding positions east of the Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River that could allow them to envelop Russian troops holding the city of Lyman.
They say: “The Russian defenders in Lyman still appear to consist in large part of Bars (Russian Combat Army Reserve) reservists and the remnants of units badly damaged in the Kharkiv oblast counteroffensive, and the Russians do not appear to be directing reinforcements to this area.”
September 17 Assessment Highlight:
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) September 18, 2022
Ukrainian forces appear to be expanding positions east of the #Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River that could allow them to envelop Russian troops holding around #Lyman. 1/3 https://t.co/l5bvXHjM1g pic.twitter.com/oQzD73crgP
Updated
Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, has written an analysis piece for the Guardian on Russia’s underperforming military capability, and why it could lead to its downfall.
“Russia’s military was designed to fight short, high-intensity wars. Without full national mobilisation, it is too small, its units lack the logistical enablement and its equipment is ill-suited to a protracted war. When the Russian military issued orders to its troops in the autumn of 2021, it estimated a need for them to be deployed for nine months. They are now reaching that limit. The Ukrainians, by contrast, have been organising their military since 2014 for precisely this kind of war.”
Updated
Our reporters Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer have spoken to Ukrainian teachers resisting occupation, who say there is “no way” they could work for the Russians.
“We have neither a moral nor legal right to demand heroism from people living under occupation. Their main goals should be to save lives and not voluntarily collaborate,” said Ukraine’s education ombudsman. Others want to see all who collaborated punished.
Updated
Summary
It is 6pm in Kyiv. Here is everything you might have missed:
Four medics have been killed and two patients injured after Russian forces fired at a psychiatric hospital in the village of Strelechya, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, has said. The facility was in the process of being evacuated and medical staff were removing patients from the hospital while under heavy fire, Syniehubov said. He added on Telegram: “During the evacuation, the Russians started a massive shelling. According to preliminary data, unfortunately, 4 medical workers died, 2 patients were injured.”
Vladimir Putin is “failing on all of his military strategic objectives”, the chief of the defence staff has said. Adm Sir Tony Radakin said the conflict was likely to “grind on for a long time”, despite recent successes by Ukrainian military forces. Asked about the situation in Ukraine, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “At the very outset, we said that this was a strategic error by President Putin and strategic errors lead to strategic consequences. And in this instance, it’s strategic failure. Putin is failing on all of his military strategic objectives. He wanted to subjugate Ukraine, that’s not going to happen.”
Russia has reacted to its military setbacks in the past week by increasing its missile attacks on civilian infrastructure even if they do not have any military impact, according to the latest intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defence. It says in a post on Twitter that the move is intended to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of provoking fighting in Kherson after a video showed clashes in the centre of the occupied Ukrainian city on Saturday evening. The Ukrainian army is leading a counter-offensive to retake the southern city, which was seized by the Russian army in the first weeks of the invasion. Russian official media Vesti-Crimea broadcast a video on Saturday evening showing an exchange of fire around two armoured vehicles near Kherson train station.
Prosecutors in an area of Ukraine where Russian forces recently retreated in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive are accusing Russia of torturing civilians in one freed village. Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said, in an online statement, that they had found a basement where Russian forces allegedly tortured prisoners in the village of Kozacha Lopan, near the border with Russia, Associated Press reports. They released images showing a Russian military TA-57 telephone with additional wires and alligator clips attached to it. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Soviet-era radio telephones as a power source to electrocute prisoners during interrogation.
Beloved Russian singer Alla Pugacheva has posted a message on her Instagram account asking the country’s justice ministry to list her as a foreign agent alongside her husband, Maxim Galkin. The post called for an end to “the deaths of our boys for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and weigh down the lives of its citizens”. Pugacheva’s message comes a day after Galkin – a comedian who has repeatedly spoken out against the war with Ukraine – was designated a foreign agent by Russia for political activities. Russia’s ministry of justice says that his source of foreign funding is from Ukraine.
The US president, Joe Biden, urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine. Asked by CBS what he would say to Putin if he was considering using such weapons, Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. It would change the face of war unlike anything since world war two.” Biden said the US response would be “consequential”, but declined to give detail.
A total of 165 ships with 3.7 m tonnes of agricultural products onboard have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry has said. The ministry said 10 ships with 169,300 tonnes of agricultural products were due to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports, reports Reuters.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis aggravated by the war will be the focus of world leaders when they convene at the United Nations in New York this week. “It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,” said the UN secretary general, António Guterres, before the high-level meeting of the 193-member UN general assembly, which starts on Tuesday. “The chances of a peace deal are minimal, at the present moment.”
The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, has called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavský, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic. Ukrainian officials have discovered more than 440 bodies, some found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Satellite imagery has emerged of the recently discovered mass grave site near Izium. The images, taken from March to August this year and released by Maxar Technologies, show the entrance to the “forest cemetery” where many bodies have been discovered.
One of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s four main power lines has been repaired and is supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, the UN nuclear watchdog has said. Even though the six reactors at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, have been shut down, the plant needs electricity to keep them cool.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, told Putin on Saturday that “today’s time is not a time for war” when the pair met during a regional Asia summit in Uzbekistan. Putin told Modi he knew of India’s “concerns” about the conflict, echoing language he had used with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the day before. “We will do our best to end this as soon as possible,” Putin said, while accusing Kyiv of rejecting negotiations.
Speaking to reporters later, Putin vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces targeted facilities in Russia. Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he saw no need to revise it. “We aren’t in a rush,” he said, after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Samarkand.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told leaders at the summit that efforts were being made “to finalise the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible”. Putin told Erdoğan, who has been a key broker in limited deals between Russia and Ukraine, that Moscow was keen to build closer ties with Turkey and was ready to “significantly increase” all exports to the country.
The security service of Ukraine said Russia’s federal security service (FSU) officers tortured residents in Kupiansk, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The Kyiv Independent reports that when FSU officers were in then occupied Kupiansk, they tortured residents and threatened to send them to minefields and kill their families.
Updated
Critical Threats and the Institute for the Study of War have created an interactive map that shows the progress Ukrainian military forces have made in taking back Russian-occupied territory.
The first 200 days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as mapped by @criticalthreats and @TheStudyofWar.
— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) September 18, 2022
Ukrainian forces have liberated more than 60,000 square kilometers of territory since April. pic.twitter.com/UNTHihw5UL
Peter Pomerantsev is an author and senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and writes for us today to argue that Despite his defeats, Putin still shapes our perceptions. Let’s fight him at his own game:
The Ukrainians have (again) done what nobody believed they could. They have (again) defeated the supposedly mighty Russia on the battlefield, shown up the underlying incompetence and moral rot of the Putin system.
It took them just six days to take back whole swaths of territory in north-eastern Ukraine that it took Russia six months to conquer. The Russian military, political and propaganda elites are all blaming each other: rifts that usually rumble under the surface are now visible to all. Putin looks shaken.
Now it’s time for us to act as well. Not just by increasing help to Ukraine on the battlefield (which is paramount), but also by advancing along the other fronts in this conflict: energy, information, finance and diplomacy.
Read more: Despite his defeats, Putin still shapes our perceptions. Let’s fight him at his own game
Our colleague Luke Harding reports from Izium:
Standing in the gloom, Maksim Maksimov pointed to the spot where he was tortured with electric shocks. Russian soldiers took him from his cell in the basement of Izium’s police station.
They sat him on an office chair and attached a zig-zag crocodile clip to his finger. It was connected by cable to an old-fashioned Soviet military field telephone.
And then it began. A soldier cranked the handle, turning it faster and faster. This sent an excruciating pulse through Maksimov’s body.
“I collapsed. They pulled me upright. There was a hood on my head. I couldn’t see anything. My legs went numb. I was unable to hear in my left ear,” he recalled. “Then they did it again. I passed out. I came round 40 minutes later back in my cell.”
Read more here: Izium: after Russian retreat, horrors of Russian occupation are revealed
Beloved Russian singer Alla Pugacheva has posted a message on her Instagram account asking the country’s justice ministry to list her as a foreign agent alongside her husband, Maxim Galkin.
The post, reported by Kevin Rothrock, the managing editor of Meduza, also called for an end to “the deaths of our boys for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and weigh down the lives of its citizens.”
Pugacheva’s message comes a day after Galkin - a comedian who has repeatedly spoken out against the war with Ukraine - was designated a foreign agent by Russia for political activities.
Russia’s ministry of justice say that his source of foreign funding is from Ukraine.
Alla Pugacheva publicly asks Russia's Justice Ministry to list her as a foreign agent with her husband, Maxim Galkin. Her message also calls for an end to "the deaths of our boys for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and weigh down the lives of its citizens." pic.twitter.com/PHMYgP58JF
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) September 18, 2022
Updated
Prosecutors in an area of Ukraine where Russian forces recently retreated in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive are accusing Russia of torturing civilians in one freed village.
Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said, in an online statement, that they had found a basement where Russian forces allegedly tortured prisoners in the village of Kozacha Lopan, near the border with Russia, Associated Press reports.
They released images showing a Russian military TA-57 telephone with additional wires and alligator clips attached to it.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Soviet-era radio telephones as a power source to electrocute prisoners during interrogation.
Updated
Our colleague Josh Butler reports:
Australia won’t ban Russian tourists from entering the country as requested by Ukraine’s ambassador but is “assessing” whether to reopen the Australian embassy in Kyiv.
The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, also said on Sunday that Australia was considering sending further military aid to Ukraine to bolster existing commitments.
“We do need to be preparing ourselves for protracted conflict and on that basis, we get that we are going to need to provide support for Ukraine over the long term,” Marles told the ABC’s Insiders program.
Read more here: Australia won’t ban Russian tourists but is considering reopening embassy in Kyiv
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
The BBC’s James Waterhouse has shared a video on Twitter of the final ovation, at the Kyiv Opera House, for ballet dancer Oleksandr Shapoval. He had performed for 28 seasons before volunteering to fight in the east. Waterhouse points out: “While Ukraine enjoys successes on the battlefield, his death is a reminder of the enduring, awful cost of this war.”
A final ovation for ballet dancer Oleksandr Shapoval at the Kyiv Opera House.
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) September 17, 2022
He’d performed for 28 seasons before volunteering to fight in the east.
While Ukraine enjoys successes on the battlefield, his death is a reminder of the enduring, awful cost of this war. pic.twitter.com/6V1m2vVFlr
Updated
Russia likely to step up Ukraine civilian target attacks
Associated Press is reporting that Russian shelling hit cities and towns across a wide stretch of Ukraine during the night. The British Ministry of Defence has warned that Russia is likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets as it suffers battlefield defeats.
Russian shelling hit cities and towns across a wide stretch of Ukraine during the night, officials say. The British Defense Ministry has warned that Russia is likely to increase its attacks on civilian targets as it suffers battlefield defeats. https://t.co/pzV7l6REXS
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 18, 2022
Updated
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of provoking fighting in Kherson
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of provoking fighting in Kherson after a video showed clashes in the centre of the occupied Ukrainian city on Saturday evening.
The Ukrainian army is leading a counter-offensive to retake the southern city, which was seized by the Russian army in the first weeks of the invasion.
Russian official media Vesti-Crimea broadcast a video on Saturday evening showing an exchange of fire around two armoured vehicles near Kherson train station.
The Russian-installed administration of Kherson said later in the day it had “destroyed” a group of attackers.
“There was a clash in the centre of Kherson between sections of the Russian armed forces patrolling the streets of the city and an unidentified group of people,” the administration said on Telegram.
On Sunday morning, the Ukrainian southern army command spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said: “Yesterday’s shootings and explosions in Kherson are provocations by the occupiers.”
The Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak blamed the shootings on “growing tensions” between different pro-Moscow factions preparing to flee amid news of the Ukrainian army’s advances.
Kirill Stremousov, a pro-Moscow official in Kherson, said the city was “calm” on Sunday morning.
Kyiv was “trying to attack but without any results”, he said.
“We won’t say that everything is smooth and there is no problem in the Kherson region ... [but] everything will be fine.”
There have been a series of targeted attacks against pro-Russian officials in Kherson and in other occupied areas in recent weeks.
Updated
In Diary of an Invasion, the Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov has documented Russia’s attack on his homeland. This morning, the Observer published extracts in which Kurkov recounts the first weeks of the conflict.
“You have to get used psychologically to the idea that war has begun. Because from that moment on, war determines your way of life, your way of thinking, your way of making decisions.”
Updated
Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, writes for us that Russia’s underperforming military capability may be key to its downfall:
Viewed purely in terms of the size of their formations and equipment, Russian ground forces in Ukraine still pose a serious threat on a number of axes.
In practice, however, it is highly unlikely the Russian military can recover from its increasingly terminal trajectory on the battlefield, though its defeat will take time and bitter fighting. To understand why, it is necessary to examine the force beyond its equipment and personnel.
The US assesses military capability through the abbreviation DOTMLPF. That senior US officers regularly try to roll this off the tongue as an acronym may exemplify military absurdity, but the abbreviation is somewhat redeemed by being fairly comprehensive.
It stands for: doctrine, organisation, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel and facilities. Looking at the Russian military across these categories reveals why it is underperforming its potential and struggling to regenerate.
Read more analysis from Jack Watling: Russia’s underperforming military capability may be key to its downfall
Four medics killed after Russian shelling of psychiatric hospital
Four medics have been killed and two patients injured after Russian forces fired at a psychiatric hospital in the village of Strelechya, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, has said.
The facility was in the process of being evacuated and medical staff were removing patients from the hospital while under heavy fire, Syniehubov said.
He added on Telegram:
During the evacuation, the Russians started a massive shelling. According to preliminary data, unfortunately, 4 medical workers died, 2 patients were injured.
The report could not be independently verified.
Updated
In case you missed it, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday they have found a mass burial site of more than 440 bodies in the eastern city of Izium that was recaptured from Russian forces.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has likened the discovery to what had happened in Bucha, saying: “Russia leaves death everywhere, and must be responsible for it.”
Russia has repeatedly denied it targets civilians or has committed war crimes
Summary
It is 1pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
Vladimir Putin is “failing on all of his military strategic objectives”, the chief of the defence staff has said. Adm Sir Tony Radakin said the conflict was likely to “grind on for a long time”, despite recent successes by Ukrainian military forces. Asked about the situation in Ukraine, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “At the very outset, we said that this was a strategic error by President Putin and strategic errors lead to strategic consequences. And in this instance, it’s strategic failure. Putin is failing on all of his military strategic objectives. He wanted to subjugate Ukraine, that’s not going to happen.”
Russia has reacted to its military setbacks in the past week by increasing its missile attacks on civilian infrastructure even if they do not have any military impact, according to the latest intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defence. It says in a post on Twitter that the move is intended to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people.
The US president, Joe Biden, urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine. Asked by CBS what he would say to Putin if he was considering using such weapons, Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. It would change the face of war unlike anything since world war two.” Biden said the US response would be “consequential”, but declined to give detail.
A total of 165 ships with 3.7 m tonnes of agricultural products onboard have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry has said. The ministry said 10 ships with 169,300 tonnes of agricultural products were due to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports, reports Reuters.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis aggravated by the war will be the focus of world leaders when they convene at the United Nations in New York this week. “It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,” said the UN secretary general, António Guterres, before the high-level meeting of the 193-member UN general assembly, which starts on Tuesday. “The chances of a peace deal are minimal, at the present moment.”
The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, has called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavský, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic. Ukrainian officials have discovered more than 440 bodies, some found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Satellite imagery has emerged of the recently discovered mass grave site near Izium. The images, taken from March to August this year and released by Maxar Technologies, show the entrance to the “forest cemetery” where many bodies have been discovered.
One of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s four main power lines has been repaired and is supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, the UN nuclear watchdog has said. Even though the six reactors at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, have been shut down, the plant needs electricity to keep them cool.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, told Putin on Saturday that “today’s time is not a time for war” when the pair met during a regional Asia summit in Uzbekistan. Putin told Modi he knew of India’s “concerns” about the conflict, echoing language he had used with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, the day before. “We will do our best to end this as soon as possible,” Putin said, while accusing Kyiv of rejecting negotiations.
Speaking to reporters later, Putin vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces targeted facilities in Russia. Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he saw no need to revise it. “We aren’t in a rush,” he said, after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Samarkand.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told leaders at the summit that efforts were being made “to finalise the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible”. Putin told Erdoğan, who has been a key broker in limited deals between Russia and Ukraine, that Moscow was keen to build closer ties with Turkey and was ready to “significantly increase” all exports to the country.
The security service of Ukraine said Russia’s federal security service (FSU) officers tortured residents in Kupiansk, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The Kyiv Independent reports that when FSU officers were in then occupied Kupiansk, they tortured residents and threatened to send them to minefields and kill their families.
Updated
Putin 'failing on all of his military strategic objectives', says UK defence chief
Vladimir Putin is “failing on all of his military strategic objectives”, the chief of the defence staff has said.
Adm Sir Tony Radakin said the conflict is likely to “grind on for a long time”, despite recent successes by Ukrainian military forces.
Asked about the situation in Ukraine, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme:
At the very outset, we said that this was a strategic error by President Putin and strategic errors lead to strategic consequences.
And in this instance, it’s strategic failure. Putin is failing on all of his military strategic objectives. He wanted to subjugate Ukraine, that’s not going to happen.
He wanted to take control of the capital, we saw that that was defeated earlier on. We saw that he wanted to weaken Nato. Nato is now much stronger, and we have Finland and Sweden joining.
He wants to break the international resolve. Well, actually that strengthened over this period, and he’s under pressure, his problems are mounting.
He added:
He’s always had a problem in terms of crewing the equipment that he’s got. He hasn’t got sufficient manpower. His forces are thin on the ground. And we’re also seeing a magnificent Ukrainian armed forces who have been courageous, they’re fighting for their country, and they’ve embraced the international support that all of us are providing.
"At a strategic level this is a failure for Putin"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 18, 2022
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin says Russia's problems are "mounting" in Ukraine but the "likely result is it's going to grind on for a long time"#BBCLauraK https://t.co/p2GNG2dHv6 pic.twitter.com/xvmZcojNQE
Updated
A total of 165 ships with 3.7m tonnes of agricultural products onboard have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry said today.
The ministry said 10 ships with 169,300 tonnes of agricultural products are due to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports, reports Reuters.
The ministry said in a statement:
At 10am, eight ships left the ports of Great Odesa, and two more are waiting for their turn and favourable conditions.
Ukraine’s grain exports slumped after Russia invaded the country and blockaded its Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.
Ukraine, a major global grain producer and exporter, shipped up to 6m tonnes of grain a month before the war.
Three Black Sea ports were reopened under an agreement signed on 22 July by Moscow and Kyiv and the ministry has said these ports are able to load and send abroad 100-150 cargo ships a month.
Updated
Reuters reports that Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev will hold security consultations and meetings during a two-day visit to China starting Sunday, China’s foreign ministry said.
Patrushev will attend the 17th round of China’s Russia strategic security consultations and the 7th meeting of the China-Russia law enforcement security cooperation during his visit, the foreign ministry said in a statement released on its website on Sunday.
The meetings come after Chinese president Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held face-to-face talks in Uzbekistan on Thursday, their first since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
Our colleague Andrew Roth reports from Belgorod:
The war has become impossible to ignore in Belgorod, southern Russia, just miles from the border with Ukraine. Russian soldiers retreating from the Ukrainian counterattack now roam the streets. Air defences boom out overhead several times a day. The city is once again filled with refugees. And, at the border, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers stand within sight of each other.
Three Russian soldiers from Ossetia are wandering the unfamiliar streets past the grand Transfiguration Cathedral late one evening. They seem unsteady on their feet, perhaps drunk or tired. And they’re looking for a place to eat.
Since February, they say, they have fought in Ukraine as part of the invasion force. They were stationed in the village of Velyki Prokhody, just north of Kharkiv, when the urgent signal came to flee back to Russia last week.
Read more: ‘They won’t invade, will they?’ Fears rise in Russian city that Ukraine war could cross border
Australia will not ban Russian tourists from entering the country as part of sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, defence minister Richard Marles said today.
Since the start of the conflict, Australia has sanctioned hundreds of Russian individuals and entities, Reuters reports.
It has also supplied defence equipment and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine, while outlawing exports of alumina and aluminium ores, including bauxite, to Russia.
Asked if Australia would also ban Russian tourists, Marles said sanctions were aimed at Russia’s government, “not the Russian people themselves.”
He told ABC television:
This is not something we are considering at the moment.
Marles refused to be drawn on whether Australia would provide more Bushmasters and other protected vehicles to Ukraine after a recent request from the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia.
Australia in July pledged 60 Bushmasters and 28 M113AS4 Armoured Vehicles to Ukraine.
Updated
Biden urges Putin not to use nuclear or chemical weapons
US president Joe Biden urged Russian president Vladimir Putin not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Asked by CBS what he would say to Putin if he was considering using such weapons, Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. It would change the face of war unlike anything since world war two.”
Biden said the US response would be “consequential,” but declined to give detail. Russia “would become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Biden said. “Depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.”
Russian government officials have dismissed Western suggestions that Moscow would use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, but it remains a worry for some in the west.
And if you want to read more about this issue, our columnist Simon Tisdall has been thinking about it too:
Updated
Russia has increased attacks on civilian targets, says UK
Russia has reacted to its military setbacks in the past week by increasing its missile attacks on civilian infrastructure even if it does not have any military impact, according to the latest intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defence.
It says in a post on Twitter that the move is intended to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 18 September 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 18, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/NZPAVSgfAN
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/j7bINlhTKp
Russia has launched several thousand long-range missiles against Ukraine since 24 February 2022. However, in the last seven days, Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect.
This category of mission has included strikes against the electricity grid, and a dam on the Inhulets River at Kryvyi Rih.
As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.
Welcome
Welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be with you for the next hour or so.
The main developments you need to know about are here:
US president Joe Biden urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to not use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine. Asked by CBS what he would say to Putin if he was considering using such weapons, Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. It would change the face of war unlike anything since world war two.” Biden said the US response would be “consequential,” but declined to give detail.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis aggravated by the war will be the focus of world leaders when they convene at the United Nations in New York this week. “It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,” said UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres ahead of the high-level meeting of the 193-member UN general assembly, which starts on Tuesday. “The chances of a peace deal are minimal, at the present moment.”
The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, have called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavský, foreign minister of the Czech Republic. More than 440 bodies have been discovered by Ukrainian officials, with some found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Satellite imagery has emerged of the recently discovered mass grave site near Izium. The images, taken from March to August this year and released by Maxar Technologies, show the entrance to the “forest cemetery” where many bodies have been discovered.
One of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s four main power lines has been repaired and is supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, the UN nuclear watchdog has said. Even though the six reactors at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, have been shut down, the plant needs electricity to keep them cool.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi told Putin on Saturday that “today’s time is not a time for war” when the pair met during a regional Asia summit in Uzbekistan. Putin told Modi he knew of India’s “concerns” about the conflict, echoing language he had used with Chinese president Xi Jinping the day before. “We will do our best to end this as soon as possible,” Putin said, while accusing Kyiv of rejecting negotiations.
Speaking to reporters later, Putin vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia. Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he saw no need to revise it. “We aren’t in a rush,” he said after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Samarkand.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told leaders at the summit that efforts were being made “to finalise the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible”. Putin told Erdogan, who has been a key broker in limited deals between Russia and Ukraine, that Moscow was keen to build closer ties with Turkey and was ready to “significantly increase” all exports to the country.
The security service of Ukraine said that Russia’s federal security service (FSU) officers tortured residents in Kupiansk, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The Kyiv Independent reports that when FSU officers were in then-occupied Kupiansk, they tortured residents and threatened to send them to minefields and kill their families.
