Closing summary
We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Our US team will be covering Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House later in the latest US politics live blog:
US president Joe Biden will host Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at 1.45pm local time (5.45pm GMT/6.45pm BST), the White House said. The Ukrainian leader and Kamala Harris will deliver remarks at 3.05pm local time before their meeting in the vice-president’s office.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:
US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a “surge” in assistance to Ukraine, including nearly $8bn in military aid and new long-range munitions, ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Today, I am announcing a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war,” Biden said in a statement, which did not, however, mention Kyiv’s hoped-for green light to fire US-made long-range missiles into Russia.
Biden on Thursday said he would convene a high-level meeting of 50 of Ukraine’s allies in Germany in October. “I will convene a leader-level meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group in Germany next month to coordinate the efforts of the more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression,” he said in a statement.
Zelenskyy said that the almost $8bn in military aid announced by the US on Thursday will help his country achieve victory against Russia. “We will use this assistance in the most effective and transparent way possible to achieve our main common goal: a victorious Ukraine, a just and lasting peace, and transatlantic security,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
Ahead of his White House visit, Zelenskyy met a handful of senators on Capitol Hill before heading across the Capitol to talk to House members, including the Republican chairs of several committees.
Zelenskyy will present his “victory plan” to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Thursday, but a row with Donald Trump underscored how the US election could soon upend support for Kyiv. Trump accused Zelenskyy on the eve of the visit of refusing to strike a deal with Moscow and once again questioned why the US was giving billions of dollars to Kyiv. Additionally, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that changes outlined by president Vladimir Putin to Russia’s nuclear weapons documents should be considered a signal to the west that there will be consequences if western powers participate in attacks on Russia. “It must be considered a specific signal. A signal that warns these countries of the consequences if they participate in an attack on our country by various means, not necessarily nuclear,” Peskov told reporters of changes outlined by Putin.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has discussed ways to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart at the UN general assembly, Kyiv said on Thursday. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga and the head of Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said. Wang earlier discussed the war in Ukraine with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN general assembly in New York.
Putin said on Thursday that Russia should strengthen what he called its global leadership in the nuclear power sphere. Putin, who was speaking at the Russian energy week forum, also said that Moscow would continue to cooperate with OPEC+, saying that Russia fulfilled its obligations on energy supplies.
The EU on Thursday rejected as “reckless and irresponsible” a plan by president Vladimir Putin to authorise a nuclear response to a massive air attack on Russia. “Not for the first time, Putin is playing [a] gamble with his nuclear arsenal,” EU foreign policy spokesperson Peter Stano told reporters. “We of course strongly reject these threats.” “This is just the continuation of the very irresponsible and unacceptable behaviour on the side of Putin,” the Stano said of the latest threat.
A Nato spokesperson said a Reuters report that Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in its war against Ukraine was “deeply concerning” and that Nato “allies are consulting on this matter”. The White House national security council said it appeared to be an instance of a Chinese company providing lethal assistance to a US-sanctioned Russian firm. The White House had not seen anything to suggest the Chinese government was aware of the transactions involved, but China had a responsibility to ensure companies were not providing lethal aid to Russia for use by its military, a spokesperson added.
Ukraine and Russia are to exchange 13 children, displaced by Moscow’s invasion, reuniting them with their families after mediation by Qatar, officials in the Gulf state said on Thursday. The “family reunification process involves the safe reunification of nine minors and one adult with their families in Ukraine,” a Qatari official said. “It will also include the reunification of four minors with their families in Russia.”
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s east on Thursday killed at least three people and injured five more, regional authorities said. Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messenger that one person was killed and three others injured near the town of Chasiv Yar. In the night hours, Filashkin added, two people were killed and two injured in Russian shelling of nearby Toretsk.
Russia conducted another massive combined strike on Ukraine’s energy system overnight, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday. In particular, three power transmission facilities were targeted, he said on the Telegram messenger, including one in the southern Mykolaiv region. Shmyhal said the attacks did not achieve their goal and Ukraine’s energy system was operating in a “balanced mode”.
Russia unleashed an overnight airstrike on Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least one person and damaging critical infrastructure, authorities said. Kyiv’s military said Russian forces fired 78 attack drones and six missiles over various regions across the country during the hours-long attack. Air defences destroyed 66 drones and four missiles, it added. One woman was killed in a missile strike on southern Ukraine’s Odesa and another eight people were injured in a guided-bomb attack on the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.
Around a dozen drones were destroyed over the capital Kyiv, where 20 cars and a residential gas pipe were damaged, said Serhiy Popko, head of the local military administration. Parts of the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk were left without power after a Russian strike on critical infrastructure there, said regional governor Svitlana Onyshchuk. Ukraine’s national grid operator also reported outages in the central Poltava and northern Chernihiv regions. On Thursday morning, Kyiv’s air force said it had recorded the launch of several hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, but offered no immediate details
The UN lacks the funds needed to help Ukraine through the winter, as Russian bombardments have wiped out half the capacity of the power grid, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday. “The reality is that the funding situation for organisations like ours is far too low at this time of the year – we are 47-percent funded,” UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Lindholm Billing added: “It’s critical that Ukraine receives support to repair damaged energy infrastructure, to create decentralised energy generation capacity.”
The UK said on Thursday it had sanctioned five new ships and two other shipping entities under its Russian sanctions regime. Earlier this month the UK slapped sanctions on 10 further ships in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of vessels which it says use illicit practices to avoid western restrictions on Russian oil.
Updated
The UN lacks the funds needed to help Ukraine through the winter, as Russian bombardments have wiped out half the capacity of the power grid, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday.
“The reality is that the funding situation for organisations like ours is far too low at this time of the year – we are 47-percent funded,” UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ukraine is bracing for a difficult cold season after Moscow’s bombing campaign has ravaged its critical infrastructure.
“The expectations and asks from the authorities for support from organisations like UNHCR is actually increasing,” Lindholm Billing said.
AFP reports that Ukraine currently has 3.6 million internally displaced people, but advances by the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region and an increase in airstrikes are forcing more to flee their homes.
“Almost 99,000 people have been evacuated or fled from frontline villages in Donetsk region since 1 August,” Lindholm Billing said.
The UNHCR assists local Ukrainian organisations to house those displaced and helps the most vulnerable with supplies to help get them through the winter. About 650,000 people receive aid such as warm clothing or kits to better insulate their homes.
“If we can get the funds, I am convinced we’ll be able to help them,” said Lindholm Billing.
European officials in countries neighbouring Ukraine fear that unless there is urgent help to fix power supplies there could be a new wave of refugees entering the EU this winter.
AFP reports that the UNHCR since the summer has seen increasing numbers of people citing power cuts or lack of electricity as a key reason for leaving the country.
A sharp increase in Russian strikes and a harsh winter could see a big leap in the numbers fleeing, said Lindholm Billing.
“So the main message is that it’s critical that Ukraine receives support to repair damaged energy infrastructure, to create decentralised energy generation capacity,” she added.
