Summary
It’s almost 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Satellite imagery has emerged of the recently discovered mass grave site near Izium. The images, released by Maxar Technologies, show the “Forest Cemetery” entrance from March to August of this year.
Activists from environmental group Greenpeace on Saturday blocked a shipment of Russian gas from unloading at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in northern Finland, the terminal owner and Greenpeace said. The activists demanded Helsinki stop importing Russian gas after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
The EU presidency on Saturday called for the establishment of an international tribunal for war crimes after new mass graves were found in Ukraine. “In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister of the Czech Republic which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency.
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.
Satellite imagery has emerged of the recently discovered mass grave site near Izium.
The images, released by Maxar Technologies, show the “Forest Cemetery” entrance from March to August of this year.
Hundreds of hastily buried bodies were discovered two days ago, including those of children and Ukrainian soldiers, after Izium was liberated from Russian forces.
When Russian forces recently withdrew from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian government and media reported the discovery of a mass grave site near the city of #Izyum. #satelliteimagery of the #Pishanske cemetery or “Forest cemetery" entrance from March 2022 and August 2022. pic.twitter.com/vcb3aAMqoS
— Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) September 16, 2022
Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace on Saturday blocked a shipment of Russian gas from unloading at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in northern Finland, the terminal owner and Greenpeace said.
The activists demanded Helsinki stop importing Russian gas after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
“The shipment contained liquefied natural gas coming from Russia,” Olga Vaisanen, a spokesperson for Gasum, the Finnish company that imported the blocked gas, told Agence France-Presse.
Mika Kolehmainen, the director for the terminal’s operator, Manga LNG, said the action took place around 7am (0400 GMT) at Tornio port.
The operator said the activists climbed the loading arms that allow for the transfer of material and there were two Greenpeace ships outside the terminal’s area, close to the Swedish border.
“It’s completely unacceptable that Russian gas is still allowed to flow in Finland, more than six months after Putin launched his invasion,” a Greenpeace activist, Olli Tiainen, said in a statement.
“The Finnish government and Prime Minister Sanna Marin must ban all fossil fuel imports from Russia immediately,” he added.
There are currently no EU or Swedish sanctions on gas imports from Russia, only on oil and coal. In May, Russia cut gas deliveries by pipeline to Finland, claiming there were issues with payments, but deliveries by sea continue.
Updated
The EU presidency on Saturday called for the establishment of an international tribunal for war crimes after new mass graves were found in Ukraine.
In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavský, foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency.
“We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals,” he said on Twitter.
“I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.”
I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.
— Jan Lipavský (@JanLipavsky) September 17, 2022
The appeal follows the discovery by Ukrainian authorities of around 450 graves outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izium, with most of the bodies showing signs of torture.
Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99 percent showed signs of violent death,” Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said.
“There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is buried with a rope around his neck,” he added.
Updated
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.
For 40 minutes, they had been using a stun gun on me, then they shot at me with either an airgun or a gas gun, I don’t know – I was in a bag,” the Kyiv Independent reported one victim saying.
One of the victims said, "For 40 minutes, they had been using a stun gun on me, then they shot at me with either an airgun or a gas gun, I don't know – I was in a bag."
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 17, 2022
Hi everyone, I’m Maya Yang and I’ll be taking over the blog next with the latest updates. Stay tuned.
Updated
Hundreds of people gathered in Kyiv to say farewell to beloved Ukrainian ballet dancer Oleksandr Shapoval, who was killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Some dropped to their knees and others clapped as soldiers carried his casket draped in a Ukrainian flag into the National Kyiv Opera.
Relatives, colleagues, soldiers and fans came holding flowers walking past photos of the artist on stage and on the frontlines, AFP reports.
Shapoval’s two teenage daughters were in the crowd.
Shapoval, 47, had been a ballet dancer with the Kyiv Opera since 1994.
He retired and started teaching dance in 2021, before volunteering to help defend his country on 25 February, the day after Russia’s invasion.
After Russian troops withdrew from Kyiv, Shapoval fought in the eastern industrial Donbas region.
He died in mortar shelling near Mayorsk, in the Donetsk region, on 12 September.
Updated
Ukrainian authorities exhumed more corpses from a burial site by a cemetery in the town of Izium where officials say hundreds are buried in territory recaptured from Russian forces.
Up to 30 emergency service officers carefully dug up bodies at the wooded burial site in Izium using shovels.
Police experts and investigators documented the findings on camera and inspected the bodies.
Some bodies found so far have been of Ukrainian soldiers while others were civilians, Reuters reports.
Updated
Updated
Updated
Some more details on the situation at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, from Reuters.
Even though the six reactors have been shut down, the fuel in them still needs cooling to avoid a potentially catastrophic meltdown.
That means the plant needs electricity to pump water through the core of the reactors.
The power supply at Zaporizhzhia has been a source of major concern after the last main line went down and then three backup lines that can connect it to a nearby coal-fired power plant were also disconnected.
That prompted the plant to go into so-called “island mode” where its last operating reactor provided it with power, though that mode is not sustainable.
A backup power line was reconnected a week ago, enabling that reactor to shut down, too.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the site of Zaporizhzhia that has damaged buildings and caused the disconnection of power lines.
Updated
Main power line back up at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
One of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’s four main power lines has been repaired and has resumed supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid two weeks after it went down, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
“With the main line’s reconnection yesterday afternoon, the three backup power lines are again being held in reserve,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
“The three other main external 750kv (kilovolt) power lines that were lost earlier during the conflict remain down.”
Updated
Summary
It is just after 6pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
The Czech Republic, who currently hold the EU presidency, have called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine. More than 440 bodies have been discovered by Ukrainian officials, with some found with their hands tied behind their backs. In a series of tweets on Saturday, Jan Lipavský, the Czech Republic’s minister of foreign affairs said: “Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals. #StandwithUkraine. I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.”
Russia is likely to stubbornly defend the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive, but it is unclear if Moscow’s forces have “sufficient reserves or adequate morale” to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault, the UK Ministry of Defence says. Its latest intelligence briefing says: “Any substantial loss of territory in Luhansk will unambiguously undermine Russia’s strategy.” The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 sq km of territory including the city of Izium, long regarded as the gateway to the Donbas.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has reported today that two civilians were killed on Friday after Russian shelling in the cities of Bakhmut and Sviatohirsk. In an update on the operational situation, Kyrylenklo added that overnight in the region “passed relatively calmly” and there was only “isolated” shelling on the front line.
The governor of Kharkiv oblast, Oleh Synyehubov, has said an 11-year-old girl was killed in a Russian rocket attack in the city of Chuhuiv, in the eastern Ukrainian region. Synyehubov said the rockets also caused damage to “critical infrastructure, the private sector, an enterprise, and a gas station”.
Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine despite Kyiv’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia. Associated Press reported that the Russian president 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. Speaking to reporters on Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said: “We aren’t in a rush.”
Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. The US president was asked in an interview with CBS News what he would say to Putin if he was considering using the weapons. Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister has renewed criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying the new weapons pledged by Berlin were “not what we need most”. Berlin announced on Thursday it would send Kyiv more multiple rocket launchers and “Dingo” armoured troop-carriers as Ukraine’s troops carry out a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces. But Agence France-Presse reported the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, as saying Germany’s decisions were a “mystery” and that there was a “weapon wall” in Berlin that the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had to tear down.
Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations general assembly next week, president Andrés Manuel López Obrador says. Agence France-Presse reports that the proposal is for Pope Francis, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to form a dialogue and peace committee.
United Nations member states have voted to make an exception to allow Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address next week’s general assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday in favour of allowing the Ukrainian president to “present a pre-recorded statement” instead of in-person as usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states abstained.
Virtually all the exhumed bodies in Izium had signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration chief said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town. Exhumers had uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one “with a rope around his neck”, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media.
The European Union was “deeply shocked” at the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also condemned what he described as the “atrocities” committed in Izium, joining growing outrage in western countries over the burial site.
Ukrainian armed forces have hit four areas held by Russian troops, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. The military also targeted an unloading station, it said, in turn preventing Russian forces from deploying additional reserves.
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted strikes in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against top local officials who have been collaborating with Moscow. At least five Himars missiles crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke pouring out of the complex. In the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor died with his deputy when their office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind the blast.
Further south, the Russian-backed separatist authority in Berdiansk also blamed Kyiv for the “double murder” of a deputy head of the military civil administration and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum.
The United States department of defence has announced it is providing an additional $600m in military assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”. In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8bn in security aid to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.
Czech Republic calls for 'special international tribunal' for war crimes
The Czech Republic, who currently hold the EU presidency, have called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine.
More than 440 bodies have been discovered by Ukrainian officials, with some found with their hands tied behind their backs.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy invoked the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass graves of civilians, Associated Press reported.
“Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium,” Ukraine’s president said. “Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it.”
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Jan Lipavský, the Czech Republic’s minister of foreign affairs said:
Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals. #StandwithUkraine
I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.
Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals. #StandwithUkraine
— Jan Lipavský (@JanLipavsky) September 17, 2022
I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.
— Jan Lipavský (@JanLipavsky) September 17, 2022
One person was killed and two more injured today after Ukrainian shelling of a village in Russia.
The alleged attack occurred in the city of Belgorod, not far from the border with Ukraine, the TASS news agency cited local authorities as saying.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
An honour guard fired a three-gun salute toward cloudy skies as friends and comrades-in-arms gathered in Kyiv to bid farewell to a Russian woman who was killed while fighting on Ukraine’s side in the war with her native country, Associated Press reports.
Olga Simonova, 34, was remembered for her courage and kindness at a funeral in the Ukrainian capital on Friday.
Simonova’s coffin was draped in the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag, with a cuddly toy lion on top. Her nom de guerre was “Simba”, the name of the main character in the Disney cartoon The Lion King.
Born in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, Simonova said she started feeling uncomfortable about her native country after reading about Russia’s war in Chechnya and its actions in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Filled with doubts that she “would ever be able to raise the flag of my country, my homeland” again, Simonova travelled to Ukraine to join the conflict in the Donbas on the Ukrainian side, first as a volunteer fighter, then as a paramedic and ultimately as an enlisted member of the armed forces.
Friends and colleagues said Simonova, who was unmarried and had no children, had recently redeployed from the east to the southern Kherson region, where Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
They said she died on 13 September, after her vehicle hit a landmine.
Updated
Girl, 11, killed after Russian rocket attack in Kharkiv region
The governor of Kharkiv oblast, Oleh Synyehubov, has said an 11-year-old girl was killed in a Russian rocket attack in the city of Chuhuiv, in the eastern Ukrainian region.
Synyehubov said the rockets also caused damage to “critical infrastructure, the private sector, an enterprise, and a gas station”.
He said on Telegram:
An innocent child died from Russian terror.
Unfortunately, the 11-year-old girl, who was hospitalised in Chuguyev, died from her injuries.
Another woman was injured after the attacks on Chuguiev; the condition of the victim is average.
The report could not be independently verified.
Updated
Ukrainian forces have continued to cross the key Oskil River in the Kharkiv region as they try to press on in a counteroffensive targeting Russian-occupied territory, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
The institute said in today’s report that satellite imagery it examined suggested that Ukrainian forces have crossed over to the east bank of the Oskil in Kupiansk, placing artillery there.
The river, which flows south from Russia into Ukraine, had been a natural break in the newly emerged frontlines since Ukraine launched its push about a week ago, reports Associated Press.
The institute said:
Russian forces are likely too weak to prevent further Ukrainian advances along the entire Oskil River if Ukrainian forces choose to resume offensive operations.
Eastern #Ukraine Update:
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) September 17, 2022
Ukrainian forces captured all of #Kupyansk City on September 16, continuing offensive operations east of the #Oskil River. /1https://t.co/6Txay9PZV3 pic.twitter.com/2TwVvuSQ5G
Updated
President Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, has responded to reports that Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations general assembly next week.
Directing his tweet at Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Podolyak said:
“Peacemakers” who use war as a topic for their own PR are causing only surprise. @lopezobrador_, is your plan to keep millions under occupation, increase the number of mass burials and give Russia time to renew reserves before the next offensive? Then your “plan” is a plan.
Agence France-Presse reports that the proposal to be put forward by Mexico is for Pope Francis, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to form a dialogue and peace committee.
"Peacemakers" who use war as a topic for their own PR are causing only surprise. @lopezobrador_, is your plan to keep millions under occupation, increase the number of mass burials and give Russia time to renew reserves before the next offensive? Then your "plan" is a 🇷🇺 plan.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 17, 2022
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry today said that its forces have launched strikes on several parts of Ukraine.
It also accused Kyiv of carrying out shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.
Russian forces conducted their strikes in the Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, according to the ministry.
It said that Ukrainian forces had carried out an unsuccessful offensive near Pravdyne in Kherson.
The radiation situation at Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, remains normal, according to the ministry.
It said two incidents of Ukrainian shelling were recorded near the plant on Saturday.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry denied that Ukrainian forces had carried out shelling near the facility.
Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the nuclear power plant.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution on Thursday demanding that Russia end its occupation of the plant.
Updated
Two dead after Russian shelling in Donetsk region
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has reported today that two civilians were killed on Friday after Russian shelling in the cities of Bakhmut and Sviatohirsk.
In an update on the operational situation, Kyrylenklo added that overnight in the region “passed relatively calmly” and there was only “isolated” shelling on the front line.
On the Telegram, he said:
On September 16, the Russians killed 2 civilians of Donetsk region: in Sviatohirsk and Bakhmut. Another 11 people were injured.
Currently, it is impossible to establish the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovas.
It was not possible to independently verify the report.
Our report on US president, Joe Biden’s, first meeting with the family members of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan:
Joe Biden, met with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, on Friday, the first face-to-face encounter that the president has had with the relatives.
In a statement after the meetings, which were held separately, White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Biden stressed to the families his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely”.
“He asked after the well-being of Elizabeth and Cherelle and their respective families during this painful time,” Jean-Pierre said. “The president appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Brittney and Paul from those who love them most, and acknowledged that every minute they are being held is a minute too long.”
Read more: Joe Biden meets with families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan
Updated
Summary
It is just after 1pm in Kyiv. This is what you might have missed:
Russia is likely to stubbornly defend the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive, but it is unclear if Moscow’s forces have “sufficient reserves or adequate morale” to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault, the UK Ministry of Defence says. Its latest intelligence briefing says: “Any substantial loss of territory in Luhansk will unambiguously undermine Russia’s strategy.” The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 sq km of territory including the city of Izium, long regarded as the gateway to the Donbas.
Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine despite Kyiv’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia. Associated Press reported that the Russian president 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. Speaking to reporters on Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said: “We aren’t in a rush.”
Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. The US president was asked in an interview with CBS News what he would say to Putin if he was considering using the weapons. Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister has renewed criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying the new weapons pledged by Berlin were “not what we need most”. Berlin announced on Thursday it would send Kyiv more multiple rocket launchers and “Dingo” armoured troop-carriers as Ukraine’s troops carry out a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces. But Agence France-Presse reported the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, as saying Germany’s decisions were a “mystery” and that there was a “weapon wall” in Berlin that the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had to tear down.
Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations general assembly next week, president Andrés Manuel López Obrador says. Agence France-Presse reports that the proposal is for Pope Francis, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to form a dialogue and peace committee.
United Nations member states have voted to make an exception to allow Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address next week’s general assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday in favour of allowing the Ukrainian president to “present a pre-recorded statement” instead of in-person as usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states abstained.
Virtually all the exhumed bodies in Izium had signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration chief said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town. Exhumers had uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one “with a rope around his neck”, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media.
The European Union was “deeply shocked” at the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also condemned what he described as the “atrocities” committed in Izium, joining growing outrage in western countries over the burial site.
Ukrainian armed forces have hit four areas held by Russian troops, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. The military also targeted an unloading station, it said, in turn preventing Russian forces from deploying additional reserves.
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted strikes in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against top local officials who have been collaborating with Moscow. At least five Himars missiles crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke pouring out of the complex. In the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor died with his deputy when their office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind the blast.
Further south, the Russian-backed separatist authority in Berdiansk also blamed Kyiv for the “double murder” of a deputy head of the military civil administration and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum.
In the southern oblast of Zaporizhzhia there were also reports on Friday of a “powerful explosion” in the Russian-occupied Melitopol, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol. “I hope the Russian fascists have suffered losses, among their personnel and equipment,” he said. “Awaiting good news from the armed forces of Ukraine.”
The United States department of defence has announced it is providing an additional $600m in military assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”. In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8bn in security aid to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.
Switzerland on Friday aligned itself with the European Union in suspending a 2009 agreement easing rules for Russian citizens to enter the country. “The suspension of the agreement does not mean a general visa freeze for Russians but rather they will need to use the ordinary visa procedure to enter Switzerland,” the country’s federal council said in a statement. The EU took a similar step earlier, suspending a visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopping short of a wider visa ban in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has given its latest update on Russia’s total combat losses since the war started in February this year.
The figures show that Vladimir Putin’s military forces have lost 54,250 troops, 2,202 tanks, and 4,701 armoured combat vehicles.
Ukrainian forces have also downed 251 military jets, 216 helicopters and 911 drones.
The figures could not be independently verified.
"Sometimes it seems that russia is destined only to show the whole world how not to live and what not to do."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 17, 2022
Petr Chaadaev
Total combat losses of the enemy from Feb 24 to Sep 17: pic.twitter.com/wykj2QHtYD
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, writes for us that she lost a rigged election in Belarus – only the west can help us win freedom from Russia:
Peat bogs span almost 15% of my home country of Belarus. But, in recent times, citizens have grown wary of these dense, acidic wetlands.
Their decaying vegetative matter is a valuable source of fuel and, after decades of being gradually drained and stripped away, the drying marshes that remain pose a significant fire risk. Smouldering underground fires can burn for months unseen before bursting out into the open and wreaking devastation.
Much like these underground peat fires that grow shielded from view, democracy in Belarus is currently burning and President Alexander Lukashenko’s corrupt, despotic regime is the decaying marshland, tinder-dry and ripe for destruction.
Read more here: I lost a rigged election in Belarus – only the west can help us win freedom from Russia
President Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, has urged European countries to provide Ukraine with “modern and effective” missile defence systems.
His tweet comes after Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
Western countries have many modern and effective missile/air defense systems. But missiles do not fly over Paris, Rome or Berlin. They fly over 🇺🇦 cities. Maybe it is time to protect civilians and critical infrastructure? Or will we wait for a large-scale man-made disaster?
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 17, 2022
Updated
Our colleague Dan Sabbagh writes that Ukraine depends on morale and Russia on mercenaries. It could decide the war:
The Ukrainian video begins with the Dunkirk beach scene from the film Atonement, the soldiers’ stirring rendition of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.
Until it transitions to several hundred Ukrainian troops, singing the country’s national anthem in the open air, ahead of last week’s successful Kharkiv offensive.
Life may be trying to imitate art, but in this case there is no clearer demonstration of Ukrainian national morale as the war heads towards the end of its seventh month.
The unprovoked attack by their larger neighbour has unleashed a patriotic mobilisation that is having a transformational effect on the battlefield.
Read more of Dan Sabbagh’s analysis here: Ukraine depends on morale and Russia on mercenaries. It could decide the war
In case you missed it on Friday, Ukrainian authorities say 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
President Biden warns Putin not to use chemical or tactical weapons
Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine.
The US president was asked in an interview with CBS News what he would say to Putin if he was considering using the weapons.
Biden said:
Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.
The US president refused to elaborate on what the US would do if Putin did take things that far.
He added:
They’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been. And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he had spoken to Nike Inc and thanked the US sport manufacturer for making what he called the “right decision” to pull out of Russia.
“This is an example of how business can play a significant role in protecting humanity and freedom,” Reuters reported the Ukrainian president as saying in his nightly video address.
If a state chooses the path of terror, it is the duty of every self-respecting company to distance itself from such a state.
Nike told Reuters in June that it was making a full exit from Russia.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has renewed criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying the new weapons pledged by Berlin were “not what we need most”.
Berlin announced on Thursday it would send Kyiv more multiple rocket launchers and “Dingo” armoured troop-carriers as Ukraine’s troops carry out a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces.
But Agence France-Presse reported the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, as saying Germany’s decisions were a “mystery” and that there was a “weapon wall” in Berlin that the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had to tear down.
Kuleba said in an interview with German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published online:
We ask for Leopard tanks and Marder [armoured vehicles] and Germany supplies armoured vehicles of the Dingo type
We are grateful for them. But that is not what we need most in combat ... What is the problem? Why can’t we get what we need, and what Germany has?
Germany has sent a raft of different armaments to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February but has so far refused to transfer Leopards and Marders, despite repeated requests from Kyiv.
Russia may not have reserves to withstand counter-offensive in Luhansk
Russia is likely to stubbornly defend the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive, but it is unclear if Moscow’s forces have “sufficient reserves or adequate morale” to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault, the UK ministry of defence says.
Its latest intelligence briefing says:
Any substantial loss of territory in Luhansk will unambiguously undermine Russia’s strategy.
The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 sq km of territory including the city of Izium, long regarded as the gateway to the Donbas.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 17 September 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 17, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/6uJ9hVTrLq
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/e6OKSzJF08
Updated
Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations general assembly next week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says.
Agence France-Presse reports that the proposal is for Pope Francis, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to form a dialogue and peace committee.
Lopez Obrador said in a speech marking Mexican Independence Day:
It’s a matter of urgently seeking an agreement to stop the war in Ukraine.
The peacemaking mission should immediately seek a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine and the start of direct talks with Ukranian president Zelensky and Russian president Putin.
Lopez Obrador, whose country is a non-permanent member of the UN security council, criticised the UN for being “inactive” in the face of the conflict.
He said his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, would present the proposal to the UN general assembly in New York, which will be addressed by about 150 heads of state and government.
Putin warns Russia could intensify attacks on Ukraine infrastructure
Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue his attack on Ukraine despite Kyiv’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
Associated Press reported that the Russian president 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.
Speaking to reporters on Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said:
We aren’t in a rush.
The Russian leader added that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
Russia pulled back its forces from large swaths of north-eastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. In his first comment on the Ukrainian advance, Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.”
He said Ukraine had tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “we so far have responded with restraint, but just yet””.
If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious.
“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south.
Let’s consider those as warning strikes.
Summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. These are the latest developments as it approaches 9.30am in Kyiv.
United Nations member states have voted to make an exception to allow Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address next week’s general assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday in favour of allowing the Ukrainian president to “present a pre-recorded statement” instead of in-person as usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states abstained.
Virtually all the exhumed bodies in Izium had signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration chief said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town. Exhumers had uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one “with a rope around his neck”, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media.
The European Union was “deeply shocked” at the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also condemned what he described as the “atrocities” committed in Izium, joining growing outrage in western countries over the burial site.
Ukrainian armed forces have hit four areas held by Russian troops, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. The military also targeted an unloading station, it said, in turn preventing Russian forces from deploying additional reserves.
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted strikes in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against top local officials who have been collaborating with Moscow. At least five Himars missiles crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke pouring out of the complex. In the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor died with his deputy when their office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind the blast.
Further south, the Russian-backed separatist authority in Berdiansk also blamed Kyiv for the “double murder” of a deputy head of the military civil administration and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum.
In the southern oblast of Zaporizhzhia there were also reports on Friday of a “powerful explosion” in the Russian-occupied Melitopol, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol. “I hope the Russian fascists have suffered losses, among their personnel and equipment,” he said. “Awaiting good news from the armed forces of Ukraine.”
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, made his first public comment since his troops were forced to withdraw from the territories they held in the north-east, a move that prompted unusually strong public criticism from Russian military commentators. Putin said he invaded Ukraine because the west wanted to break up Russia. He grinned when asked about Ukraine’s recent military success, saying: “Let’s see how it develops, how it ends up.” Putin said nothing had changed with the ultimate goal of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, which was to capture the Donbas.
The United States department of defence has announced it is providing an additional $600m in military assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”. In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8bn in security aid to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.
Switzerland on Friday aligned itself with the European Union in suspending a 2009 agreement easing rules for Russian citizens to enter the country. “The suspension of the agreement does not mean a general visa freeze for Russians but rather they will need to use the ordinary visa procedure to enter Switzerland,” the country’s federal council said in a statement. The EU took a similar step earlier, suspending a visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopping short of a wider visa ban in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
