Summary
It’s nearly 11:30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Iran announced Sunday that it will supply Russia with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported. Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the oil ministry’s news agency.
Ukraine and the US on Sunday denounced suggestions from Russia that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb” as dangerous lies. “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. A statement from the US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Sunday echoed Ukraine’s words, saying: “We reject reports of Minister Shoigu’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.”
Ukraine’s special operations forces said that Iranian drone instructors have been spotted in Belarus, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to special operations forces, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are training Russian forces in Belarus and coordinating the launches of Iranian-made drones.
One person was killed by a homemade bomb in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, according to the Russia-installed authorities in the region of the same name, Agence France-Presse reports. “An improvised explosive device, attached to a street pole and detonated remotely, killed a civilian from Kherson,” local pro-Russian official Kirill Stremousov wrote on social media, adding that a passerby had been wounded.
Russia told people in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson to flee for their lives on Sunday as more residents joined an exodus to escape an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. In a video message, the Russian education minister, Sergei Kravtsov, said: “The situation today is difficult. It’s vital to save your lives … It won’t be for long. You will definitely return.”
Following talks between the UK and Russia, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, rebutted claims made by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, that Ukraine, facilitated by western counties including UK, was planning to escalate the conflict. “The defence secretary refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation,” the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service said on Sunday it had detained two officials of the Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich on suspicion of working with Russia. SBU “detained the president of industrial giant Motor Sich. He is suspected of working with the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement. It added that it had also detained the company’s department head for foreign economic activities but did not name them.
Updated
Iran announced Sunday that it will supply Russia with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported.
Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the oil ministry’s news agency.
“Currently, 85 percent of the facilities and equipment needed by the gas industry are built inside the country, and based on this capability, a contract has recently been signed to export 40 Iranian-made turbines to Russia,” he added.
Noushadi did not specify when the contract was signed, and when the turbines are due to be delivered.
After the imposition of economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine, Russia reduced or halted supplies to different European nations, causing energy prices to soar.
The Kremlin insists sanctions have prevented the proper maintenance of Russian gas infrastructure and, in particular, blocked the return of a Siemens turbine that had been undergoing repairs in Canada.
“Give us a turbine, we will turn Nord Stream on tomorrow,” Russian president Vladimir Putin said at the Vladivostok forum in September, referring to a vital gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
Western countries have accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon.
Noushadi said the US sanctions on Russia are aimed at excluding Moscow from the gas market.
“In recent years, the United States of America has widely set up LNG production plants, and recently, with the all-out embargo on Russia and then the explosion in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, it effectively eliminated one of its biggest competitors in gas exports,” he noted.
Russia and Iran hold some of the world’s largest gas reserves, and are both under strict US sanctions.
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