President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his troops on Ukraine’s eastern frontlines on Sunday to understand the position of Ukrainian defenders as Russia’s assault on Donbas continues. According to a release from his office, Zelenskiy visited command posts and frontline positions of Ukrainian troops in the area of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, just a few kilometres south from Sievierodonetsk, where Ukraine claims to be fighting back in one of the war’s biggest ground battles.
Russian forces continue to storm the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and fired missiles at the nearby cities of Sloviansk, Lysychansk and Orikhove, Ukraine’s military has said. Russian troops fired at Ukrainian units defending Sievierodonetsk with mortars and artillery fire, damaging infrastructure in the towns of Metolkino, Borivske, Ustynivka and Toshkivka.
Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has reported today that the situation has worsened a little for Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk and that there is intense street fighting. He told national television “Our defenders managed to undertake a counterattack for a certain time; they liberated almost half of the city. But now the situation has worsened a little for us again.”
Haidai also said that “the number of shellings in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk increased tenfold. In the Luhansk region there are many cities with a situation comparable to Mariupol: Now the Russians are levelling Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.”
Ukraine has concentrated enough forces to repel Russian attacks in Sievierodonetsk but neither side is preparing to withdraw, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Stryuk.
A total of 262 children have been killed and 467 injured since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to newly released figures from Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office.
Zelenskiy, said there could be as much as 75 million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine by this autumn, and that Kyiv wanted anti-ship weapons that could secure the safe passage of its exports.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has urged countries not to trust Vladimir Putin’s promises not to use trade routes to attack the southern port city of Odesa.
Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, has reported on Telegram that there have been explosions in the city.
The headquarters of the territorial defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has posted to Telegram to say that one person has been killed and five people have been injured in the last 24 hours by Ukrainian shelling into the occupied territory of Donetsk.
The Russian missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday was likely an attempt to disrupt the supply of western military equipment to frontline Ukrainian units, according to British intelligence.
Britain is to supply long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, despite a threat on Sunday from Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to bomb fresh targets if similar weapons from the US were delivered to Kyiv. The UK will send a handful of tracked M270 multiple launch rocket systems, which can hit targets up to 50 miles away, in the hope they can disrupt the concentrated Russian artillery that has been pounding cities in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would respond to western deliveries of long-range weapons to Ukraine by pushing back Kyiv’s forces further from Russia’s borders.
Anthony Albanese, Australia’s new prime minister, has confirmed Australia will attend the G20 meeting in Bali in November despite Russia’s controversial attendance at the summit.
Russia should not close the US embassy in Moscow despite the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine because the world’s two biggest nuclear powers must continue to talk, the US ambassador to Moscow John J Sullivan was quoted as saying.
The UK ministry of justice has announced a second tranche of support for the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Ukraine, including the deployment of a specialist legal and police team.
A Moscow court has fined US-backed broadcaster Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe 20m roubles (£260,000/$325,214) over what it deems to be “fake” content about Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine
Nato kicked off a nearly two-week US-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, air personnel and marines from 16 nations, including Finland and Sweden – who aspire to join the military alliance. “It is important for us, the United States, and the other Nato countries to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said.
A Russian general, Maj Gen Roman Kutuzov, was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow. There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been cancelled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft, according to local media reports. A senior foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow’s top diplomat to Belgrade on Monday. “Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” the source said. The Kremlin has described the move as a “hostile action”.
Spain is to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks in a step up of its military support, according to government sources cited by newspaper El País. Spain will provide essential training to the Ukrainian military in how to use the tanks, according to the reports.
A Ukrainian lawmaker, Yevhen Yakovenko, was detained at the Moldovan border at the request of Interpol, Moldova’s border police said on Sunday. Viorel Tentiu, the head of Interpol in Moldova, said in a statement that Yakovenko was put on the list following accusations from Belarus of bribery and corruption.
Russia’s sanctions against Gazprom Germania and its subsidiaries could cost German taxpayers and gas users an extra €5bn (£4.27bn) a year to pay for replacement gas, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported, citing industry representatives.
