Closing summary
Russia has charged four of its soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine with torturing a US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014. It is rare instance for Russia to accuse active soldiers in Ukraine – who are glorified at home – of committing crimes, AFP reported. The authorities did not say what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley, who regularly appeared on pro-Kremlin social media channels, backing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.
Authorities in Ukraine advised residents in the capital Kyiv to stay indoors Friday as air pollution, partly caused by fires in the region, blanketed the city. Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said the pollution was a result of the burning of peatlands and other wildfires in the region combined with autumn temperature fluctuations, AP reported.
Ukraine has banned use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by state officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday. The National Security and Defence Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the Council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.
Nato concluded a major anti-drone exercise this week, with Ukraine taking part for the first time as the western alliance seeks to learn urgently from the rapid development and widespread use of unmanned systems in the war there. The drills at a Dutch military base, involving more than 20 countries and 50 companies, tested cutting-edge systems to detect and counter drones and assessed how they work together, Reuters reported.
Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said that “using immobilised Russian Central Bank assets for non-repayable assistance underscores the EU’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and resilience amid Russia’s aggression.” “Russia must and will pay for their atrocities,” he added.
Italy is about to send another Samp-T anti-missile system to Ukraine, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday, underlining the need, however, to avoid entering war with Russia. “We are sending a new Samp-T (anti-missile system) to protect hospitals, schools, universities … for this country that was attacked by Russia,” Tajani told Radio 24.
The EU will grant a loan of up to 35 billion euros ($39.06bn) to Ukraine to help the country stuck in a grinding war with Russia, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday. The loan, which was announced while the bloc’s Commission chief is on a visit to Kyiv, is part of a wider plan among G7 nations to raise funds using proceeds from Russian assets frozen to sanction the country for invading its neighbour.
Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia depends on quick decisions being taken by allies this year, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday during a visit by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Zelenskyy told a joint press conference with von der Leyen that Ukraine planned to use a proposed multi-billion dollar European Union loan for air defence, energy and domestic weapons purchases.
Russia said on Friday that the West should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and sponsoring “terrorist activity” if it wanted to send a signal it was serious about seeking an end to the war. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that a peace plan put forward by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had nothing to do with settling the conflict.
Ukraine’s forces destroyed 61 out of 70 Russian attack drones and one out of four missiles launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Friday. “The air defence system operated in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson regions,” it said on the Telegram messenger.
The United States should take into account Moscow’s warnings on risks of further escalation around the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday. Commenting on the possibility of a meeting between Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US state secretary Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he said there will not be any meeting as the sides have “nothing to talk about”.
Russia’s military command had anticipated Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region and had been making plans to prevent it for several months, according to a cache of documents that the Ukrainian army said it had seized from abandoned Russian positions in the region. The disclosure makes the disarray among Russian forces after Ukraine’s attack in early August all the more embarrassing. The documents, shared with the Guardian, also reveal Russian concerns about morale in the ranks in Kursk, which intensified after the suicide of a soldier at the front who had reportedly been in a “prolonged state of depression due to his service in the Russian army”.
Ukraine’s offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted about 40,000 Russian troops away from the frontline, Zelenskyy said on Thursday. Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on 6 August in a bid to pull Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.
That’s all from the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Russia charges soldiers with killing pro-Moscow US fighter
Russia has charged four of its soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine with torturing a US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014.
It is rare instance for Russia to accuse active soldiers in Ukraine – who are glorified at home – of committing crimes, AFP reported. The authorities did not say what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley, who regularly appeared on pro-Kremlin social media channels, backing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.
Known as “Texas”, 64-year-old Bentley was declared dead in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in April. His wife said at the time he had been abducted and killed by Russian troops.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday it had “established all the persons involved in the death of Russell Bentley and the circumstances of the offences committed”. It named the four soldiers involved as Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, Andrei Iordanov and Vitaly Vansyatsky.
They are accused of “using physical violence and torture, causing the death of a victim by negligence, as well as the concealment of a particularly serious crime by moving the remains of the deceased to another place”, the committee said.
According to the investigation, the soldiers tortured and killed Bentley in Donetsk on 8 April. Two of them then blew up a military car containing his body, before another moved the remains to cover up the crime, investigators said.
Authorities in Ukraine advised residents in the capital Kyiv to stay indoors Friday as air pollution, partly caused by fires in the region, blanketed the city.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said the pollution was a result of the burning of peatlands and other wildfires in the region combined with autumn temperature fluctuations, AP reported.
The capital woke up to thick smog with the rancid smell of blazing fires in the air. Some people were spotted wearing masks.
The Ukrainian capital topped a list of the most polluted major cities early Friday in a real-time database by IQAir, a Swiss company that monitors air quality levels. Its air quality appeared to have improved somewhat since as the city came down in the ranking later in the day.
Kyiv’s Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change said that “the likely cause of this is fires in the Kyiv region.”
Fires have been reported in the Vyshhorod district, about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) north of the capital.
Officials warned about an increased concentration of suspended particles, such as dust, soot, and smoke, in the air. In some areas of the city, air pollution levels have reached the maximum of the 100-point scale.
Ukraine bans use of Telegram on official devices amid spying fears
Ukraine has banned use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by state officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday.
The National Security and Defence Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, presented the Council with evidence of Russian special services’ ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement.
But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council’s centre on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones.
Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But Ukrainian security officials had repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war.
Updated
Ukraine joins Nato anti-drone exercises
Nato concluded a major anti-drone exercise this week, with Ukraine taking part for the first time as the western alliance seeks to learn urgently from the rapid development and widespread use of unmanned systems in the war there.
The drills at a Dutch military base, involving more than 20 countries and 50 companies, tested cutting-edge systems to detect and counter drones and assessed how they work together, Reuters reported.
The 11-day exercise ended with a demonstration of jamming and hacking drones in a week when their critical role in the Ukraine war was demonstrated once again.
On Wednesday, a large Ukrainian drone attack triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major Russian arsenal. The following day, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ramping up drone production tenfold to nearly 1.4 million this year.
Updated
Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said that “using immobilised Russian Central Bank assets for non-repayable assistance underscores the EU’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and resilience amidst Russia’s aggression.”
“Russia must and will pay for their atrocities,” he added.
Grateful to President @vonderleyen and the European Commission for their decisive step in reinforcing Ukraine's financial stability.
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) September 20, 2024
The Commission has proposed an additional unprecedented support package of 35 billion euros, thanks to the joint efforts of the EU and G7 partners,… pic.twitter.com/j4UxVxMyAs
The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region has said that a Russian missile strike damaged port areas in Odesa and an Antigua-flagged civilian vessel, Reuters reported.
“The prompt implementation of all our agreements is crucial,” Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Kyiv.
I welcome the President of the European Commission @vonderleyen to Ukraine. I am grateful for her efforts to provide Ukraine with additional support ahead of the winter season.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 20, 2024
Today, we discussed in detail what can be done together, what supplies are needed, and what funds are… pic.twitter.com/jT19CyTtXc
The day so far
Italy is about to send another Samp-T anti-missile system to Ukraine, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday, underlining the need, however, to avoid entering war with Russia. “We are sending a new Samp-T (anti-missile system) to protect hospitals, schools, universities … for this country that was attacked by Russia,” Tajani told Radio 24.
The EU will grant a loan of up to 35 billion euros ($39.06bn) to Ukraine to help the country stuck in a grinding war with Russia, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday. The loan, which was announced while the bloc’s Commission chief is on a visit to Kyiv, is part of a wider plan among G7 nations to raise funds using proceeds from Russian assets frozen to sanction the country for invading its neighbour.
Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia depends on quick decisions being taken by allies this year, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday during a visit by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Zelenskyy told a joint press conference with von der Leyen that Ukraine planned to use a proposed multi-billion dollar European Union loan for air defence, energy and domestic weapons purchases.
Russia said on Friday that the West should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and sponsoring “terrorist activity” if it wanted to send a signal it was serious about seeking an end to the war. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that a peace plan put forward by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had nothing to do with settling the conflict.
Ukraine’s forces destroyed 61 out of 70 Russian attack drones and one out of four missiles launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Friday. “The air defence system operated in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson regions,” it said on the Telegram messenger.
The United States should take into account Moscow’s warnings on risks of further escalation around the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday. Commenting on the possibility of a meeting between Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US state secretary Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he said there will not be any meeting as the sides have “nothing to talk about”.
Russia’s military command had anticipated Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region and had been making plans to prevent it for several months, according to a cache of documents that the Ukrainian army said it had seized from abandoned Russian positions in the region. The disclosure makes the disarray among Russian forces after Ukraine’s attack in early August all the more embarrassing. The documents, shared with the Guardian, also reveal Russian concerns about morale in the ranks in Kursk, which intensified after the suicide of a soldier at the front who had reportedly been in a “prolonged state of depression due to his service in the Russian army”.
Ukraine’s offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted about 40,000 Russian troops away from the frontline, Zelenskyy said on Thursday. Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on 6 August in a bid to pull Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured the village of Heorhiivka, east of the city of Kurakhove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in an afternoon report, referred to the village as one of several engulfed by fighting. Popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said the village was in Russian hands. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s forces had “managed to diminish the occupiers’ assault potential in Donetsk region,” though the situation remained difficult in areas subjected to the heaviest attacks, near Kurakhove and another key Russian target, the city of Pokrovsk.
Russian forces hit a geriatric care home in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and targeted its energy sector in a new wave of airstrikes on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. During a daytime strike on the northern city, a Russian guided bomb hit a five-storey building, regional and military officials said. One person was killed and 12 wounded, the interior ministry said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said rescue teams were checking to see whether people were trapped under rubble. Images from the site shared alongside the ministry’s post showed elderly patients evacuated from the damaged building lying on the ground on carpets and blankets.
The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said attacks on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall in the critical winter months could reach about a third of expected peak demand. Moscow has repeatedly attacked the Sumy region, which borders Russia’s Kursk region, the site of a major Ukrainian incursion in which Kyiv says it seized over 100 settlements.
Zelenskyy says Ukraine 'victory plan' depends on decisions by allies this year
Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the war against Russia depends on quick decisions being taken by allies this year, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday during a visit by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Zelenskyy told a joint press conference with von der Leyen that Ukraine planned to use a proposed multi-billion dollar European Union loan for air defence, energy and domestic weapons purchases.
Updated
The EU will grant a loan of up to 35 billion euros ($39.06bn) to Ukraine to help the country stuck in a grinding war with Russia, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday.
The loan, which was announced while the bloc’s Commission chief is on a visit to Kyiv, is part of a wider plan among G7 nations to raise funds using proceeds from Russian assets frozen to sanction the country for invading its neighbour.
“Relentless Russian attacks means Ukraine needs continued EU support,” von der Leyen said in a post on X.
Ukraine is facing huge financial needs after more than two years of intensive warfare that have devastated its infrastructure.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia’s forces would restore control of its Kursk region “in a timely manner”, declining to say how soon this could be achieved.
Ukraine launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since the second world war, bursting through the border into the western Kursk region supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including western-made arms.
Russia has been fighting since then to expel the Ukrainian forces, Reuters reported. On Thursday, a senior Russian commander said Russian troops had recaptured two villages in the Kursk region.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added on Friday that Russian authorities did not doubt that its forces would return control over the region, though the situation there was “extreme”.
Russia said on Friday that the West should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and sponsoring “terrorist activity” if it wanted to send a signal it was serious about seeking an end to the war.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that a peace plan put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had nothing to do with settling the conflict.
Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Ukraine had completed preparation of a “Victory Plan” that he intends to discuss with President Joe Biden when he visits the United States next week.
Ukraine says it downed 61 drones, one missile during Russia's overnight attack
Ukraine’s forces destroyed 61 out of 70 Russian attack drones and one out of four missiles launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Friday.
“The air defence system operated in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson regions,” it said on the Telegram messenger.
The United States should take into account Moscow’s warnings on risks of further escalation around the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday.
Commenting on the possibility of a meeting between Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US state secretary Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he said there will not be any meeting as the sides have “nothing to talk about”.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said separately that giving carte blanche for Kyiv to carry out long-range strikes deep inside Russia would change the nature of the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
“We would like to remind the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic … They are playing with fire and have lost all sense of reality,” she told a briefing.
“The scale of conflict which started because of the West risks becoming completely different, which could bring dangerous consequences for the whole world.”
European Commission's Ursula von der Leyen arrives in Kyiv
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday she had arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to discuss Europe’s support, winter preparedness, defence and progress on the G7 loans.
“My 8th visit to Kyiv comes as the heating season starts soon, and Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure,” von der Leyen said on the X social network.
Von der Leyen said on Thursday that the sum of 160 million euros from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets would be allocated to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, Reuters reported.
Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which von der Leyen said was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”.
She also said that the EU aimed to restore 2.5 GW of power generating capacity and would increase exports to supply 2 GW of electricity to Ukraine.
Von der Leyen will meet Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials.
Defence of Ukraine "must not bring world war", says Italian foreign minister
Italy is about to send another Samp-T anti-missile system to Ukraine, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday, underlining the need, however, to avoid entering war with Russia.
“We are sending a new Samp-T (anti-missile system) to protect hospitals, schools, universities … for this country that was attacked by Russia,” Tajani told Radio 24.
He added that “defending Ukraine does not mean bringing a world war … We are helping Ukraine and must reach a fair peace”.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and the time in Kyiv is 10.15am.
We start with news that Russia’s military command had anticipated Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region and had been making plans to prevent it for several months, according to a cache of documents that the Ukrainian army said it had seized from abandoned Russian positions in the region.
The disclosure makes the disarray among Russian forces after Ukraine’s attack in early August all the more embarrassing. The documents, shared with the Guardian, also reveal Russian concerns about morale in the ranks in Kursk, which intensified after the suicide of a soldier at the front who had reportedly been in a “prolonged state of depression due to his service in the Russian army”.
Unit commanders are given instructions to ensure soldiers consume Russian state media daily to maintain their “psychological condition”.
In other news:
Ukraine’s offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted about 40,000 Russian troops away from the frontline, Zelenskyy said on Thursday. Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on 6 August in a bid to pull Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured the village of Heorhiivka, east of the city of Kurakhove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in an afternoon report, referred to the village as one of several engulfed by fighting. Popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said the village was in Russian hands. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s forces had “managed to diminish the occupiers’ assault potential in Donetsk region,” though the situation remained difficult in areas subjected to the heaviest attacks, near Kurakhove and another key Russian target, the city of Pokrovsk.
Russian forces hit a geriatric care home in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and targeted its energy sector in a new wave of airstrikes on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. During a daytime strike on the northern city, a Russian guided bomb hit a five-storey building, regional and military officials said. One person was killed and 12 wounded, the interior ministry said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said rescue teams were checking to see whether people were trapped under rubble. Images from the site shared alongside the ministry’s post showed elderly patients evacuated from the damaged building lying on the ground on carpets and blankets.
The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said attacks on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall in the critical winter months could reach about a third of expected peak demand. Moscow has repeatedly attacked the Sumy region, which borders Russia’s Kursk region, the site of a major Ukrainian incursion in which Kyiv says it seized over 100 settlements.
Zelenskyy will meet Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the White House next week in what is likely to be his last such visit before US elections that could upend Washington’s policy on Kyiv. Zelenskyy is expected to share a “victory plan” with the US leaders to end the war with Russia during the visit on 26 September – as Kyiv frets that a second Donald Trump presidency could loosen US commitment to Ukraine. In a separate announcement, Zelenskyy said he would also meet Trump.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, accused Elon Musk on Thursday of disabling a Tesla Cybertruck that he claimed to have received from the billionaire last month. Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for over 17 years, shared a video in August of him driving around in the electric vehicle with what appeared to be a machine gun mounted on its roof. Kadyrov said he received the vehicle from Musk, a claim that the Tesla owner called a lie on his social media platform, X. “Now, recently, Musk remotely disabled the Cybertruck,” said Kadyrov in a post on his Telegram account. It was not possible to independently verify Kadyrov’s claims.
