Summary
A battlefield video circulated overnight on social media appeared to show the destruction of a British Challenger 2 in Ukraine, which would be the first time one of the tanks has been destroyed in combat.
More than 900 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year amid broad Russian use of the widely banned weapons, propelling global casualty figures to record levels, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).
The Kremlin refused to confirm a possible summit between Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which US officials have said they expect.
Ukrainian lawmakers voted to restore a requirement that officials declare their assets, a measure sought by the International Monetary Fund, but included a loophole critics say dampens its effect.
Russia‘s pipeline natural gas exports to the EU may fall to 21 billion cubic metres (bcm) this year, almost two-thirds lower than last year and a more than a six-fold drop from 2021, Russian state bank Veb said in a forecast.
Cuba identified an alleged human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry has said. It was working to dismantle a “trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there.”
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, spoke of the intense toll of the war on her family as her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has emerged as a “historical figure” during the 18 months of conflict so far.
A UK defence ministry source has said the destruction of a British Challenger 2 tank highlights “the quality of the kit we are giving Ukraine”.
The last time one of the heavily-armoured battle vehicles had been destroyed is thought to have been during friendly fire in Iraq in 2003, but this is understood to be the first time a Challenger 2 has been disabled by enemy action.
Footage being widely shared on social media shows one of the 14 tanks that the UK gave to Kyiv in January at the side of a road with billowing thick grey smoke and fire emerging from it. It is unclear how the tank was destroyed but it is understood that the Ukrainian crew in the tank survived the attack.
The footage appears to have been filmed from a car containing Ukrainian armed forces personnel who were looking to flee the fighting.
A defence source told PA:
This highlights the quality of the kit we are giving Ukraine. In the tanks Ukraine had at its disposal before Western support, the chances of the crew surviving unscathed were slim to zero.
Defence sources added that the war in Ukraine was the first time the Challenger 2 was being tested against modern military equipment.
Russian officials have criticised a plan to offer some of its swimmers the chance to return to international competitions ahead of the Paris Olympics, arguing it doesn’t go far enough.
It could be another five months before any Russian swimmers compete at a major event. Governing body World Aquatics has excluded swimmers from Russia and its ally Belarus since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, but yesterday launched a scheme to grant “Neutral Individual Athlete” status to athletes who pass a vetting procedure.
The measure comes with conditions, AP reports. World Aquatics mandates no national symbols, plain white uniforms, and only one Russian and one Belarusian “neutral” athlete per event. That means no relays, no synchronized diving or water polo, and none of the artistic swimming duets and teams which have brought Russia a string of Olympic gold medals.
“No improvement has been observed in this situation” was the verdict of the Russian Swimming Federation today. The president of Russia‘s governing body for artistic swimming, three-time Olympic gold medalist Olga Brusnikina, told broadcaster Match TV that “very serious” damage had been done to Russia‘s hopes of competing.
World Aquatics said it is likely that the world championships in February would be the first of its competitions to feature neutral athletes. That’s because of a potentially time-consuming vetting procedure designed to check if swimmers have publicly supported the war or are contracted to the military or security forces in Russia or Belarus. The last major events of 2023 are World Cup swim meets next month.
Ukrainian lawmakers restore requirement for officials to declare assets, but delay public disclosure
Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to restore a requirement that officials declare their assets, a measure sought by the International Monetary Fund, but included a loophole critics say dampens its effect.
The mandatory disclosures were introduced in 2016 but were made optional and restricted from public view after Russia‘s full-scale invasion last year because they were considered a security risk, reports Reuters. The IMF had singled out the return of the requirement as one of several benchmarks for paying out part of a $15.6 billion assistance package.
Fighting graft is also a requirement for Ukrainian accession to the EU and president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has declared it a priority alongside the war effort. The head of Zelenskiy’s own party called the bill “an incredible disappointment”.
Parliament approved a version of the measure requiring officials to declare their assets, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said, but keeping the disclosures sealed off from the public for another year.
Anti-graft campaigners say keeping the registry closed defeats the primary purpose of the declarations, a key pro-transparency reform introduced after the 2014 Maidan revolution.
“The hidden fortunes of deputies and officials will destroy the trust of Ukrainians. Honest officials have nothing to hide,” the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, a leading Ukrainian NGO, said. “The desire to hide one’s property from the public only indicates a desire to steal public money.”
Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral and the historical centre of western Ukrainian city Lviv should join Unesco’s list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the Russian invasion, a senior official at the UN body has said.
“These sites are threatened with destruction. There have been attacks on the buffer zones around these sites and we don’t know what will happen in the future,” the head of the World Heritage programme Lazare Eloundou told AFP.
The World Heritage Committee, set to meet from September 10-25 in Riyadh, will “likely” make the decision “based on experts’ opinion” that the sites are “demonstrably in danger”, Eloundou added.
The centre of Ukrainian port city Odesa is already on the list of endangered World Heritage sites, and several of its buildings were destroyed in late July in what Unesco described at the time as a “brazen” attack.
Another historic building was bombed in Lviv in early July, with the UN body saying it was the first strike on an area protected by the World Heritage Convention and the first “violation” by Russia of the text since its invasion.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has described Russian president Vladimir Putin’s baseless claims related to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage as an attempt “to justify mass crimes against citizens of another country with a monstrous lie”.
Putin alleged earlier that:
Western curators have put a person at the head of modern Ukraine - an ethnic Jew, with Jewish roots, with Jewish origins. And thus, in my opinion, they seem to be covering up an anti-human essence that is the foundation ... of the modern Ukrainian state.
And this makes the whole situation extremely disgusting, in that an ethnic Jew is covering up the glorification of Nazism and covering up those who led the Holocaust in Ukraine at one time - and this is the extermination of one and a half million people.
It was not the first time Putin had tried to associate modern Ukraine’s democratically elected government with the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews in World War Two by Nazi German occupiers of Soviet Ukraine and their local collaborators.
Russia‘s pipeline natural gas exports to the EU may fall to 21 billion cubic metres (bcm) this year, almost two-thirds lower than last year and a more than a six-fold drop from 2021, Russian state bank Veb said in a forecast today.
It expects total Russian natural gas exports to fall this year to 100 bcm from 131 bcm in 2022. According to Reuters calculations, pipeline natural gas exports to Europe by Kremlin-controlled Gazprom have declined to around 17.7 bcm so far this year.
Europe drastically cut purchases of Russian oil and gas following the start in February 2022 of what Moscow has called a special military operation in Ukraine.
Europe managed to overcome a feared energy crunch in the winter of 2022/2023 due to its efforts to reduce energy consumption and find other suppliers, such as sellers of sea-borne liquefied natural gas.
According to VEB’s forecast, Russian gas exports to Europe are expected to fall to 15 bcm in 2026, while Russia would not be able to raise gas supplies to Asia significantly due to infrastructure constraints.
The Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine is now the focus of fighting in the conflict, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has said, as Kyiv’s forces press ahead with their counteroffensive.
Shoigu claimed without providing evidence that Ukraine has brought up reserve brigades there that were trained by Kyiv’s western allies.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, citing geolocated footage, said today that Ukrainian light infantry has advanced beyond some of the anti-tank ditches and dense minefields that make up Russia’s layered defenses in Zaporizhzhia.
However, it said it was unable to state that the defence was fully breached, because no Ukrainian heavy armour has been witnessed in the area. It is in the south that the Ukrainian brigades have made most recent battlefield gains as the counteroffensive inches forward under heavy fire.
Since the grinding counteroffensive began about three months ago, Ukraine has advanced 4.3 miles in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian officials claim. Troops surmounted dense Russian fortifications last week to retake the village of Robotyne, reports AP. That was Ukraine’s first tactically significant victory in that part of the country.
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has said that the Nato member plans to spend more than 4% of its gross domestic product on defence next year amid security concerns over the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
He announced the sum of 137 billion zloty ($33 billion) at the opening of this year’s edition of the region’s biggest trade fair for military equipment, the MSPO in Kielce, Poland, AP reports.
When we see the emerging danger beyond our eastern border... we know perfectly well - history and experience has taught us this - that any price is worth paying to ensure that Poland is free, sovereign, independent and that Poles can live in safety.
Next year, we plan to spend 137 billion zloty on defence. That is more than four percent of our GDP.
Warsaw has been sounding the alarm on threats that it says are posed by its other neighbour to the east, Belarus, warning against “provocations” especially involving the Wagner mercenary group currently based there.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed in a television interview, without citing evidence, that western powers had installed Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish heritage, as president of Ukraine to cover up the glorification of Nazism.
In justifying its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation”, Russia accuses Kyiv’s leaders of being neo-Nazis pursuing a “genocide” of Russian-speakers – an assertion that Kyiv and Western countries dismiss as a baseless pretext for a war of acquisition.
Putin was answering a question from Russian reporter Pavel Zaubin and his comments were shown on Russian state TV, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy, who has said that some of his grandfather’s brothers were killed in the Holocaust, has repeatedly dismissed as false Russian accusations that he has supported neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
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Footage has been released by Nexta purportedly showing the moment where Russian air defence systems destroyed a drone over the Tver region that was on its way to attacking Moscow.
The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said drone debris in the Tver region fell in the Zavidovo village. According to RIA state news agency, Zavidodvo is home to “Rus”, an official residence palace of the Russian president.
A drone flying towards Moscow was shot down in the Tver region near the village of Zavidovo. One of Putin's residences is located there. pic.twitter.com/ji7GDhIRkh
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 5, 2023
Russia has said that Ukraine had used Australian drones to attack targets on Russian territory and that Australia was increasingly being drawn into the conflict.
“As it turns out, Australian drones are actually used to strike targets in Russia,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. She was responding to a question about a report in the Sydney Morning Herald last week that Ukrainian had used the Australian drones to attack an airfield in the Russian city of Kursk.
Zakharova accused the Australian government of “enthusiastically contributing to the anti-Russian campaign directed from Washington” while trying to hide from public opinion “the unenviable circumstances indicating that Australia is increasingly being drawn into the conflict in Ukraine”, Reuters reports.
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My colleague Dan Sabbagh has this analysis on how Kyiv’s counteroffensive slog means war is far from over – and Moscow still has a chance of succeeding in its revised aims.
Ukraine’s declaration that it has breached the first of Russia’s defensive lines, towards the village of Verbove, on the critical southern Zaporizhzhia front, might give rise to hopes that, after three months of counteroffensive slog, it will be possible for Kyiv’s forces to make faster progress in expelling the Russian invaders.
In reality, it would be unwise to be too optimistic – or too pessimistic. Steadily clearing through the mine belt ahead of the first Russian fortifications is a significant achievement: the defenders have laid up to four to five mines a square metre in some places, Ukraine’s military says, a mixture of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, sometimes stacking anti-tank mines on top of each other to ensure the destruction of any mine-sweeping equipment brought forward.
Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds, in a new paper from the Rusi thinktank, estimate that Ukraine has been making “approximately 700–1,200 metres of progress every five days”, taking care to spare lives and western equipment. But there are, Watling adds, second and third Russian lines, defensive positions estimated at 20 miles deep. Moscow’s defenders are also laying further mines, sometimes with the help of drones, whose density may be less certain, but whose threat is significant enough.
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Ukraine’s defence ministry has paid tribute to its outgoing minister, Oleksii Reznikov, after he was sacked by Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
It claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that Reznikov had resigned but on Sunday the Ukrainian president said he was sacking him and proposed Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar and ex-lawmaker, as a replacement.
The Parliament of Ukraine has accepted the resignation of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, @oleksiireznikov. He held this office for 22 months and made the impossible possible by ensuring large-scale arms supplies for the #UAarmy from the free world. First Stingers, Javelins, and NLAWs helped Ukraine repel russia’s attack in the spring of 2022.
Then 155 mm artillery and HIMARS became game changers in the summer of 2022. IRIS-T, NASAMS, Patriots, and others became our air shield. Tanks, long-range missiles, and F-16s will make Ukraine’s victory inevitable.
The Kremlin said earlier today that it did not think Ukraine’s decision to appoint a new defence minister would change the nature of the Ukrainian government.
The Parliament of Ukraine @verkhovna_rada has accepted the resignation of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov@oleksiireznikov
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 5, 2023
He held this office for 22 months and made the impossible possible by ensuring large-scale arms supplies for the #UAarmy from the free…
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Russia said it has detained a woman in occupied east Ukraine for trying to kill an official in an attack that wounded him and his son.
Acts of sabotage and attacks in Russian-controlled Ukraine have been common throughout Moscow’s offensive, and are sometimes attributed to Kyiv’s security forces, AFP reports.
“A suspect was detained for the attempted murder of the former chairman of the customs committee of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” Russia’s investigative committee said. “The man and his son suffered multiple wounds and are currently in a medical facility.”
Luhansk, which has been partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, is one of four regions Moscow claimed to have annexed last year.
The investigative committee, which probes serious crimes, did not name the official but state-run news agency Yass and Ukrainian media identified him as Yuri Afanasievsky, who is under EU, Swiss, Canadian and Japanese sanctions. There are conflicting reports over whether he and his son are in a serious condition.
Moscow said the suspect was a female resident of Luhansk, the main city in the region, alleging that she gave the official “a phone with an explosive device” on 3 September. It said the device “switched on after the phone was activated”.
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Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has spoken of the intense toll of the war on her family as her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has emerged as a “historical figure” during the 18 months of conflict so far.
She told the BBC:
This may be a bit selfish, but I need my husband, not a historical figure, by my side … But we stay strong, we have strength both emotionally and physically. And I am sure we will handle it together.
We don’t live together with my husband, the family is separated. We have the opportunity to see each other, but not as often as we would like. My son misses his father. It pains me to watch that my kids don’t plan anything. At such an age, young people. My daughter is 19. They dream of travelling, of new sensations, emotions. She does not have such an opportunity.
I believe in him [Zelenskiy]. And I support him. I know that he has enough strength. For any other person, I know, I think, it would be much harder, this situation. He really is a very strong and resilient person. And this resilience is what we all need right now.”
No one can know what awaits them. After all, no one could have imagined that in the 21st century, such a war would be unleashed in the middle of Europe, that it would be so cruel. A bloody war. So I never imagined that I would be in this role at this time. We have huge hope for victory, but we don’t know when it comes. And this long wait, constant stress, it has its toll.”
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Zelenskiy visits troops in eastern town of Bakhmut
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited troops leading a counteroffensive towards the war-battered eastern town of Bakhmut, Kyiv said.
“As part of a working trip to Donetsk region, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited combat brigades conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut region,” the presidency said. It added that Zelenskiy had “listened to reports on the operational situation” on the eastern front, AFP reports.
Bakhmut, an industrial town that was once home to some 70,000 people, was captured by Russian forces this summer after months of brutal fighting. Ukrainian troops have been carrying out a grinding assault around the flanks of the town, now reduced to ruins.
Zelenskiy met the commanders of the troops in that area and discussed “the problems and needs of the units” including “the provision of artillery shells, missiles for front-line air defence systems”.
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Ukrainian forces breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, but the scale of losses incurred to make such gains has been vast, according to a report.
“Sure, we’ve breached the first line of the Russians but fucking hell. What a cost,” “Boyets”, from a special tasks unit fighting south of Robotyne, told the Times. His unit has allegedly lost 75% of its personnel since joining the counteroffensive in July.
The 47th brigade took 15 weeks to move forward eight miles to capture Robotyne, heralded as a key strategic victory. Brigade medics said casualties were in four figures. “One day in July we piled 24 wounded into and on to a single vehicle,” “Taras”, a doctor heading a medevac unit said. “We were just stacking casualties.”
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Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions, which harm and kill many more civilians than combatants, are striving to prevent erosion in support for the deal.
The Cluster Munitions Coalition released its latest annual report today, ahead of a meeting next week of envoys from the 112 countries that have acceded to or ratified the convention on cluster munitions, which prohibits the explosives and calls for the clearing of areas where they litter the ground. A further 12 countries have signed the convention. The US and Russia are not among them.
Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, who has long championed the 15-year-old convention, says the coalition was “extremely concerned” about the US move in July to transfer unspecified thousands of 155mm artillery-delivered cluster munition rounds to Ukraine.
Hoping to avoid defections from the convention, Wareham says supporters hope signatories will “stay strong – that they do not weaken their position on the treaty as a result of the US decision. And we don’t see that happening yet. But it’s always a danger.”
Wareham cited “widespread evidence of civilian harm that [is] caused by these weapons. It was just an unconscionable decision.” Washington’s decision “is certainly a setback,” said Wareham, “but it’s not the end of the road for the convention on cluster munitions by far.”
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The Kremlin has refused to confirm a possible summit between Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which US officials have said they expect.
“No, we cannot” confirm this, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said, when he was asked if Kim would meet Putin soon. “We have nothing to say on this.”
Washington has accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Moscow for its Ukraine offensive. Russia is one of a handful of countries that has friendly relations with the secretive state.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, who in July visited North Korea, yesterday said Moscow was considering joint military drills with North Korea.
“Why not? They are our neighbours,” Shoigu was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency, when asked about the possible exercises. Shoigu became Kim’s first known foreign guest since the Covid-19 pandemic when he visited Pyongyang in July.
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Cuba has identified an alleged human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry has said.
AFP reports that the ministry said it was working to dismantle a “trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces involved in military operations in Ukraine.”
The Cuban government had initiated criminal proceedings against those carrying out the trafficking, it added. The Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the government was “acting with the full force of the law” against trafficking operations.
“Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine,” the ministry said, adding it would take action against anyone “who participates in any form of human trafficking for the purpose of recruitment or mercenarism for Cuban citizens to use arms against any country”.
On Friday, Miami’s América TeVé newspaper published what it described as testimonies from two teenagers who said they had been tricked into working alongside the Russian army on construction sites in Ukraine.
In a video message posted on the newspaper’s website, one of the teenagers called for help in getting out as quickly as possible. América TeVé said the video message was sent from a bus transporting the pair from Ukraine to the Russian city of Ryazan along with Russian servicemen.
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900 people killed or injured by Russian cluster bombs in Ukraine last year, says monitor
More than 900 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year amid broad Russian use of the widely banned weapons, propelling global casualty figures to record levels, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).
AFP reports that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, it has “extensively” used stocks of old cluster munitions and newly developed ones, the campaign group said in its annual report.
It added that Ukrainian forces also used such weapons “to a lesser extent”, though this may now be changing following an influx of the controversial weapons from the US.
Ukraine had registered no cluster munition casualties for several years but recorded 916 deaths and injuries last year, nearly all of them involving civilians, it said.
Mary Wareham, the arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, who participated in the report, said:
The vast majority of the cluster munition rocket missile and artillery attacks in Ukraine ... have been conducted by Russian forces. That is I think the major reason for the uptick in civilian casualties.
The Ukrainian casualties accounted for the vast majority of the global figure, which rose to 1,172 in 2022 – the highest since CMC began reporting in 2010. A full 890 of the casualties registered in Ukraine - 294 deaths and 596 injuries - happened during attacks using cluster munitions, the monitor said.
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery before exploding in midair and scattering bomblets over a wide area. They also pose a lasting threat, as many fail to explode on impact, effectively acting as landmines that can go off years later. Twenty-six of the casualties recorded in Ukraine last year were caused by such remnants.
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Footage appears to show first time British Challenger 2 tank destroyed in combat
A battlefield video circulated overnight on social media appears to show the destruction of a British Challenger 2 in Ukraine, which would be the first time one of the tanks has been destroyed in combat.
Visible at the beginning of the video, filmed from a car trying to flee the fighting, the Challenger 2 is shrouded in thick grey smoke with its distinctive gun barrel, though it is unclear what has caused the explosion to knock it out.
Though experts confirmed the identity of the tank from the video, it is unclear exactly when and where it was filmed, though the voices are speaking (and swearing) in Ukrainian, when they see a second immobilised tank.
No Challenger 2 has been lost in combat since it was first deployed in 1994, although one was destroyed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in 2003, although the record is partly due to the relatively small numbers built and its infrequent deployment.
Britain gave 14 of the tanks to Ukraine earlier this year, as part of a European effort to provide western heavy armour, but until now it was not clear they had been heavily used in the frontline.
They were attached to Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade, with Kyiv hoping to keep them in reserve to exploit any frontline breakthrough. But the brigade was thrown into battle on the key Zaporizhzhia front around Robotyne in August, where Ukraine said over the weekend it had breached the first Russian defensive line.
Britain has 213 Challenger 2 tanks remaining, after donating the 14 to Ukraine, although MPs were told in March that 157 were available for operations. The only other country to use the tanks is Oman.
Destroyed Ukrainian Challenger 2 outside of Robotyne, most likely from the 82nd Air Assault Brigade. pic.twitter.com/KInjnmfs4F
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 5, 2023
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Summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
Kim Jong-un will reportedly travel to Russia this month to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying weapons to the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said details of the expected meeting were still unclear, but added that it was likely to take place in the Russian port city of Vladivostok, given its proximity to North Korea.
Russia shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones early on Tuesday that were targeting the country’s capital, the Russian defence ministry said. The ministry said that its air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region, as well as one closer to the capital, over the Istra district of the Moscow region.
Moscow’s two major airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, as well as the Zhukovksy airport, resumed normal operations from 7.30am (0430 GMT) after a temporary traffic suspension early on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said. Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones that were targeting the country’s capital.
Russian air defences destroyed a Ukrainian aeroplane-style drone over Crimea on Tuesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. It comes after Russia said it had shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones early on Tuesday that were targeting Moscow.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it did not think Ukraine’s decision to appoint a new defence minister would change the nature of the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he was sacking defence minister Oleksii Reznikov and proposed Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar and ex-lawmaker, to replace him.
The governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said border guards and security forces had “thwarted” an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage group that tried to cross into Russia. Russia has this year repeatedly reported Ukrainian sabotage attempts on its borders, and sent helicopters to put down a cross-border incursion in the Belgorod region in May.
Gen Sergei Surovikin, who had not been publicly seen since Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive mutiny in June, has apparently resurfaced. Ostorozhno Media published a picture, reportedly taken on Monday in Moscow, of the former aerospace commander alongside his wife.
There was no evidence of a breakthrough in the Black Sea grain deal. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, concluded face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin by claiming a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea could be revived, but Putin again accused the west of reneging on promises.
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing farther south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reported.
US, British and EU officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Ukraine said on Monday that Russian drones had detonated on the territory of Nato member Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River. Romania’s government denied its territory had been hit. Reuters could not independently verify either account. It is a rare report of stray fire from the war in Ukraine hitting a neighbouring member of Nato.
Rustem Umerov is poised to become Ukraine’s new defence minister after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Oleksii Reznikov.
Ukraine on Monday named a Russian helicopter pilot it said defected over his opposition to Moscow’s invasion after flying across the border in a “long-term special operation” led by Kyiv. The intelligence wing of Ukraine’s defence ministry identified him as 28-year-old Maxim Kuzminov from the 319th separate helicopter regiment based in Russia’s far eastern Primorye region.
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The Kremlin said on Tuesday it did not think Ukraine’s decision to appoint a new defence minister would change the nature of the Ukrainian government.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Sunday he was sacking Oleksii Reznikov as defence minister and proposed Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar and ex-lawmaker, to replace him.
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The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, described Ukraine’s counteroffensive on Tuesday as completely unsuccessful.
“Ukraine’s armed forces have not achieved their goals on any front,” the defence ministry quoted Shoigu as saying.
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A photo has emerged that appears to show Russian general Sergei Surovikin, who is regarded as an ally of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group and has not been seen in public since the militia’s brief rebellion in June.
“General Sergei Surovikin is out. Alive, healthy, at home, with his family, in Moscow. Photo taken today,” Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian journalist and the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss, said on Telegram.
The photo, which has not been verified, showed a man in sunglasses and a cap walking alongside a woman resembling Surovikin’s wife, Anna.
Unnamed US officials said Surovikin appeared to have been freed but that it was not clear if his movement was restricted, the New York Times reported.
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Russian air defences destroyed a Ukrainian aeroplane-style drone over Crimea on Tuesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
It comes after Russia said it had shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones early on Tuesday that were targeting Moscow.
The ministry said its air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region, as well as one closer to the capital, over the Istra district of the Moscow region.
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After years of backing UN sanctions targeting North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, Russia is now reaching out to its neighbour for help. The war in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to reassess its relationship with Pyongyang as it seeks to secure weapons to replace its own depleted stocks.
A possible meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un later this month in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok would add geopolitical substance to the symbolic meeting of minds that has unfolded between the leaders of the pariah states over 18 months of fighting in Ukraine.
With Russia quickly using up its munitions, Putin is expected to build on recent high-level diplomatic exchanges, including a visit to the North by his foreign minister, Sergei Shoigu, to secure North Korean artillery shells and antitank missiles.
In return, North Korea is hoping to receive valuable foreign currency to continue funding its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles – its trump card in its quest to secure concessions, and recognition as a legitimate nuclear state, from the US.
Closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang extend beyond bartering for bullets, however. Russia’s growing isolation has sent it in a new, worrying direction as it seeks to build a united front against a “hostile” west that includes China and now, it seems, North Korea and its million-strong army. As news emerged of Kim’s possible trip to Vladivostok, media reported that the North could take part in joint naval drills with Russia and China.
Putin reportedly to meet Kim Jong-un
Kim Jong-un will reportedly travel to Russia this month to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying weapons to the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said details of the expected meeting were still unclear, but added that it was likely to take place in the Russian port city of Vladivostok, given its proximity to North Korea.
Kim, who rarely leaves the capital, Pyongyang, is expected to travel to Russia’s Pacific coast by armoured train, according to military intelligence first reported by the New York Times.
The Eastern Economic Forum is scheduled to run from 10 to 13 September on the campus of Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, which both leaders are due to attend. Kim also plans to visit Pier 33, where naval ships from Russia’s Pacific fleet dock.
The meeting comes as Kim and Putin, who first met in 2019, seek greater military and economic cooperation to counter their growing international isolation prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the North’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
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Moscow airports resume normal operations
Moscow’s two major airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, as well as the Zhukovksy airport, resumed normal operations from 7.30am (0430 GMT) after a temporary traffic suspension early on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said.
Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones that were targeting the country’s capital.
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Vladimir Putin’s main residences are the Novo-Ogaryovo residence in the Moscow region as well as the Grand Kremlin Palace – where official events are held.
Russian news agencies reported that almost 50 flights were cancelled or postponed early on Tuesday from the four major airports around the capital – Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky.
Drone attacks on Russian targets, especially in Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – and in regions bordering Ukraine, have become almost a daily occurrences since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.
The attacks have disrupted flights in and out of Moscow in recent weeks. Ukraine rarely takes direct responsibility for such drone strikes but says destroying Russian military infrastructure helps a counteroffensive Kyiv began in June.
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Drone attack causes damage in Moscow suburbs, says mayor
Reuters: Russia shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones early on Tuesday that were targeting the country’s capital, the Russian defence ministry said.
The ministry said that its air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region, as well as one closer to the capital, over the Istra district of the Moscow region.
The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said the drones “were trying to carry out an attack on Moscow” and that a consumer services facility was damaged in the Istra district, which is located some 65km (40 miles) north-west of the Kremlin.
There was no damage or casualties elsewhere, the mayor and defence ministry said. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Sobyanin said drone debris in the Tver region fell in the Zavidovo village. According to RIA state news agency, Zavidodvo is home to “Rus”, an official residence palace of the Russian president.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: Russia shot down at least three Ukraine-launched drones early on Tuesday that were targeting the country’s capital, the Russian defence ministry said.
The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said the drones “were trying to carry out an attack on Moscow” and that a consumer services facility was damaged in the Istra district, which is located 65km (40 miles) north-west of the Kremlin.
Elsewhere, Kim Jong-un will reportedly travel to Russia this month to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying weapons to the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said details of the expected meeting were still unclear, but added that it was likely to take place in the Russian port city of Vladivostok, given its proximity to North Korea.
More shortly. Meanwhile:
The governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said border guards and security forces had “thwarted” an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage group that tried to cross into Russia. Russia has this year repeatedly reported Ukrainian sabotage attempts on its borders, and sent helicopters to put down a cross-border incursion in the Belgorod region in May.
Gen Sergei Surovikin, who had not been publicly seen since Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive mutiny in June, has apparently resurfaced. Ostorozhno Media published a picture, reportedly taken on Monday in Moscow, of the former aerospace commander alongside his wife.
There was no evidence of a breakthrough in the Black Sea grain deal. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, concluded face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin by claiming a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea could be revived, but Putin again accused the west of reneging on promises.
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing farther south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reported.
US, British and EU officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Ukraine said on Monday that Russian drones had detonated on the territory of Nato member Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River. Romania’s government denied its territory had been hit. Reuters could not independently verify either account. It is a rare report of stray fire from the war in Ukraine hitting a neighbouring member of Nato.
Rustem Umerov is poised to become Ukraine’s new defence minister after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Oleksii Reznikov.
Ukraine on Monday named a Russian helicopter pilot it said defected over his opposition to Moscow’s invasion after flying across the border in a “long-term special operation” led by Kyiv. The intelligence wing of Ukraine’s defence ministry identified him as 28-year-old Maxim Kuzminov from the 319th separate helicopter regiment based in Russia’s far eastern Primorye region.
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