Ukrainian forces have been able to break through Russian defences and are “gradually” making progress in their counteroffensive against Moscow's troops despite “heavy, difficult fighting”, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. Russia earlier on Thursday described the US decision to supply depleted uranium anti-tank rounds to Ukraine to aid its counteroffensive as “a criminal act”. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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10:44pm: Russia targeting attacks on key Danube river ports in Ukraine
Russia made a fourth attempt in five days on Thursday to damage port infrastructure at Izmail, a Ukrainian city on the Danube river. Drone attacks targeting ports along the river, which Ukraine is using to transport grain for export, have intensified in recent days.
"Clearly the Russians are trying to prevent the Ukrainians using these Danube river ports, which they've been using as an alternative to the Black Sea ports in the Odesa region," FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reported from Ukraine.
9:25pm: Harris says North Korea military support for Russia would be 'a huge mistake'
US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday it would be a "huge mistake" for North Korea to exchange military support with Russia for use in Ukraine.
US officials have warned in recent days that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing, and a report this week said that North Korea's Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss supplying Moscow with weapons for its war effort.
Harris, who was in Indonesia for an ASEAN summit, told CBS News in an interview broadcast on Thursday that it would be a sign of desperation for Russia to seek aid from reclusive North Korea, and that it would further isolate both countries.
"I think it would be a huge mistake. The idea that they would be supplying ammunition to that end, is – would be a huge mistake. I also believe very strongly that for both Russia and North Korea, this will further isolate them," Harris said.
9:23pm: Ukraine's Zelensky praises units for 'effective' action against Russian troops
President Volodymyr Zelensky singled out three military units for praise on Thursday, for what he described as their "very, very effective" action against Russian troops on the front in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Zelensky provided few details in his nightly address, but said one national guard unit was fighting in the east and two in the south – the focal points of Kyiv's three-month-old counter offensive.
"Thank you soldiers for very, very effective results in destroying the occupiers," Zelensky said. "And results are precisely what Ukraine needs now from everyone."
5:29pm: Austria summons EU envoy for calling Russian gas payments 'blood money'
Austria's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it was summoning the European Commission's envoy to the country for reportedly criticising the slow pace at which Austria is weaning itself of Russian gas and saying it was paying "blood money" for the fuel.
Martin Selmayr, a German EU official who was the powerful chief of staff to the Commission's then-President Jean-Claude Juncker until 2018, made the comments at an event in Vienna on Wednesday evening, according to Austrian news agency APA.
"Oh my god, 55 percent of Austrian gas continues to come from Russia," APA quoted Selmayr as saying. He expressed astonishment at the lack of protests over the fact that Austria's gas payments were funding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, adding: "Blood money is being sent daily to Russia."
According to the latest Austrian government data, for June, 60 percent of Austria's natural gas imports came from Russia, down from around 80% before the war but well above the lowest monthly figure since then, 21 percent in September of last year.
"Mr Selmayr has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a meeting with the (ministry's) secretary-general," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Selmayr was currently out of the country but the meeting would take place upon his return.
3:29pm: Sweden awaiting NATO ratification by Turkey, FM says
Sweden is "completely ready" to join NATO and is waiting for Turkey to start the process to ratify the application, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told a press conference in Riga on Thursday.
3:26pm: India seeks G20 consensus by noting Russia's views on Ukraine in joint declaration
India has proposed that a G20 statement condemning the war in Ukraine also accommodate the views of Russia and China to avoid an impasse for the divided bloc, Indian officials said on Thursday.
Leaders including US President Joe Biden gather in New Delhi this weekend for a summit aimed at boosting food security, climate action and debt relief for poor nations.
Western countries want a strong condemnation as a condition for agreeing to a Delhi declaration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will attend instead of President Vladimir Putin, has said Moscow will block the final declaration if it does not reflect its stand.
India has suggested that the G20, while condemning the suffering caused by Russia's invasion, also reflect Moscow and Beijing's view that the forum is not the place for geopolitics.
If the Delhi meeting fails to produce a joint statement, that would be a first in the G20's summit history and potentially raise questions about the group's viability.
At the G20 Bali summit in 2022, leaders managed to produce a declaration at the eleventh hour after wrangling over the conflict for days.
2:50pm: Drone destroyed in Russia's Volgograd region, state news reports
The Russian military intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone over the southwestern Volgograd region on Thursday, the state news agency RIA cited governor Andrei Bocharov as saying.
No damage was reported, he said.
2:42pm: Ukraine tycoon Kolomoisky is suspect in second criminal case, says Ukrainian MP
Ukraine's anti-corruption agency is treating tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky as a suspect in a criminal investigation into the embezzlement of funds from lender Privatbank, a Ukrainian lawmaker said on Thursday.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on the Telegram messaging app that Kolomoisky had been formally served a notice of suspicion. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said in a statement that it had identified six people as suspects in a case into embezzlement at Privatbank.
2:34pm: Putin not planning video address to G20, says Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to make a video address at the upcoming G20 summit in New Delhi this weekend, the Kremlin said Thursday.
Asked whether Putin would make a video address, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "No, there are no plans."
He said "all the work" would be led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is leading Russia's delegation.
Lavrov also represented Russia at August's BRICS meeting in Johannesburg, following a row over whether South Africa would be forced to arrest Putin under an International Criminal Court warrant.
In the end Putin made an address by video-link, in which he blamed the West for the conflict in Ukraine.
2:23pm: Blinken hails Ukrainians' 'extraordinary resilience' during visit
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday praised Ukraine's strength in the face of the Russian invasion during a visit to the Chernigiv region, which was occupied by Moscow at the beginning of the war.
Blinken visited a school's basement in Yagidne, where Russian troops kept dozens of villagers including elderly people and children captive.
"This is just one building... (but) this is a story we've seen again and again," Blinken said. "But we are also seeing something else that's incredibly powerful... the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people."
Blinken said up to a third of Ukraine's territory was now dealing with mines or unexploded ordnance as a result of Russian occupation since February 2022.
"But Ukrainians are coming together to get rid of the ordnance, to get rid of the mines, and to literally recover the land," Blinken said.
The top US official said Washington was "proud" to support Ukraine's efforts to "take on the aggression as they recover, as they rebuild".
12:04pm: Russia detains smugglers supplying military aircraft parts which reached Ukraine, state media reports
Russia's FSB state security service said on Thursday it has detained a group of smugglers trading in military aircraft parts, some of which had ended up in Ukraine, state news agency TASS reported.
The smugglers were from Ukraine and a Central Asian country, TASS cited the FSB as saying.
11:25am: Kremlin says US transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine will be contested
A US plan to use seized funds of Russian businessmen targeted by sanctions to help Ukraine is illegal and such actions will be contested, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
Peskov said some Russian businessmen had already challenged similar actions in certain countries where courts found them illegal.
Washington's top diplomat in Kyiv previously announced the US would give Ukraine $5.4 million in forfeited oligarch assets to support veteran reintegration and rehabilitation.
"We consider all cases related to the seizure and other withholding of any funds related to state property or private property of the Russian Federation to be illegal," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that, "one way or another they will lead to legal proceedings."
10:06am: Ukrainian forces ‘gradually gaining ground’ in counteroffensive, says NATO chief Stoltenberg
Ukrainian forces have been able to break through Russian defences and are making progress in their counteroffensive against Moscow's troops, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.
"The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground and it proves the importance of our support and also our ability and willingness to continue the support," Stoltenberg told EU lawmakers.
"This is heavy fighting, difficult fighting, but they have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward."
In recent days, Ukraine has claimed to have broken through Russia's heavily fortified first line of defence in its gruelling southern offensive.
Ukraine received shipments of Western armour from NATO members, including battle tanks and armoured vehicles, to aid its push.
But Kyiv admits the months-long drive southwards has been slower than hoped and has inflicted a heavy toll on its forces.
9:45am: Five Ukrainian drones shot down in Russia, say authorities
Moscow said Thursday it had shot down five Ukrainian drones in the south of Russia and near the capital on Thursday, leaving one injured.
The defence ministry said one drone was downed in Ramenskoye, 60 kilometres southeast of Moscow, at around 3am local time (2400 GMT), without causing any casualties.
The drone exploded on the fifth floor of a block of flats, breaking the windows of five flats and damaging four vehicles, according to the head of the local administration, Nikolai Khanin.
Air defence systems downed two more drones around the same time in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, with one falling in the city, injuring one person, the region's governor said.
The city is a key military operational hub for Russia's military fighting in Ukraine. It was briefly captured by Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin last June before he died in a plane crash.
Two other Ukrainian drones were downed several hours later in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine without causing any casualties, the defence ministry said.
8:53am: Romania will ‘enhance’ land routes for Ukrainian exports, says President Iohannis
Russian attacks on Ukraine's Danube river ports will slow down the export of grains, and other routes will be enhanced, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said late on Wednesday.
"Of course the attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube are a huge problem. Of course it will in a way slow down exports," said Iohannis, speaking at a summit of Three Seas Initiative countries in Bucharest.
"We will enhance the other routes, we accepted Ukrainian maritime transports through our Romanian territorial waters off the Black Sea, we will continue to enhance exports on the rail and on the road."
Since July, when Moscow abandoned a deal that lifted a de facto Russian blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, it has repeatedly struck Ukrainian river ports that lie across the Danube from Romania.
Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta is Ukraine's largest alternative export route, with grains arriving by road, rail or barge on the Danube.
8:39am: Russia says US supply of depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine ‘a criminal act’
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that the US supply of depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine was "a criminal act", the state TASS news agency reported.
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced a new security assistance package worth up to $175 million for Ukraine, including depleted uranium ammunition for US Abrams tanks.
A by-product of uranium enrichment, depleted uranium is used for ammunition because its extreme density gives rounds the ability to easily penetrate armour plating. Critics say there are dangerous health risks from ingesting or inhaling depleted uranium dust, including cancers and birth defects.
"This is not just an escalatory step, but it is a reflection of Washington’s outrageous disregard for the environmental consequences of using this kind of ammunition in a combat zone. This is, in fact, a criminal act, I cannot give any other assessment," TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.
7:45am: 'Important for Ukrainians to hear' Blinken say Kyiv's forces making progress
It was "important for Ukrainians to hear" US Secretary of State Antony Blinken say that Kyiv's forces are making progress in their counteroffensive during his visit to Ukraine's capital on Wednesday, FRANCE 24's correspondent in Kyiv Gulliver Cragg says. This is because "they were worried that the United States was feeling quite critical of their performance in the course of this counteroffensive which started in June; they have not advanced as rapidly as they hoped." Cragg reports that progress seems to have accelerated in recent days, and that there is "photographic evidence" Ukrainian forces have "passed what they hope is the strongest line of Russian defences" – the notorious "dragon's teeth" anti-tank defences along the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.
6:34am: Russian drone strikes hit Odesa region port district for fourth time in five days
Russian drone strikes have damaged port infrastructure, a grain silo and administrative buildings in the Izmail district of Ukraine's Odesa region, its governor, Oleh Kiper, said on Thursday.
One person was injured in the attack, the fourth on the district in the last five days, he said. Izmail is home to a Ukrainian Danube river port.
4:12am: Ukrainian drones downed near Moscow, Rostov, reports RIA
A Ukrainian drone was downed near Moscow and two over the southern Rostov region in the early hours of Thursday, the RIA news agency cited Russia's defence ministry as saying.
According to another news agency, TASS, three buildings were damaged in the city of Rostov-on-Don and one person was injured when one of the drones crashed in the downtown area. The other drone in the Rostov region fell outside the city.
3:45am: Russia says depleted uranium rounds for Ukraine sign of US 'inhumanity'
The United States providing depleted uranium tank ammunition to Ukraine "is a clear sign of inhumanity", Russia's embassy in Washington said Wednesday on Telegram.
"The US is deliberately transferring weapons with indiscriminate effects. It is fully aware of the consequences: explosions of such munitions result in the formation of a moving radioactive cloud," the embassy said, following Washington's announcement of more than $1 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
2:15am: US to send controversial depleted-uranium munitions to Ukraine
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced a new security assistance package worth up to $175 million for Ukraine that includes depleted uranium ammunition for Abrams tanks, the first time the US is sending the controversial armor-piercing munitions to Kyiv.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the military aid would also include anti-armour systems, tactical air navigation systems and additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
Key developments of Wednesday, September 6:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced over $1 billion of new assistance to Ukraine, which he said would help Ukraine’s counteroffensive "build momentum", during a surprise visit to Kyiv.
Ukraine's parliament on Wednesday approved President Volodymyr Zelensky's nomination of Rustem Umerov as Kyiv's new defence minister after the resignation of Oleksiy Reznikov. Umerov vowed to recapture all territory under Russian military control in his first comments in the new role.
The Russian mercenary Wagner Group is set to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government, the interior ministry said.
Read yesterday's live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
