Here is a summary of today's events:
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska said the death toll in Russia’s strike on the city of Poltava on Tuesday rose to 47 with 206 more people injured.
The head of Ukraine’s state-run electricity grid said Tuesday he had been sacked, a move that raised fears over political interference at a company battling to keep the lights on amid Russia’s invasion.
The U.S. is close to an agreement to give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles that could reach deep into Russia, but Kyiv would need to wait several months as the U.S. works through technical issues ahead of any shipment, U.S. officials told Reuters.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, denounced the ICC warrant against Vladimir Putin as “illegal” in an online statement Tuesday and those who would try to carry it out as “madmen.” Putin is visiting Mongolia with no sign that the host country will bow to calls to arrest him on the international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the invasion of Ukraine.
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog was holding talks with senior officials Tuesday in Ukraine over safety concerns for Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, where attacks were recently reported nearby.
Ukraine’s state railways said on Tuesday that Russia’s overnight attack targeted its infrastructure in the northeastern region of Sumy and central Dnipropetrovsk region.
An eight-year-old boy was among two people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region overnight, while a third person died in a missile attack on the central city of Dnipro, Ukrainian officials said.
Ousted head of Ukraine's electricity grid blames anonymous media campaign
The head of Ukraine’s state-run electricity grid said Tuesday he had been sacked, a move that raised fears over political interference at a company battling to keep the lights on amid Russia’s invasion.
“On 2 September, the Supervisory Board of Ukrenergo decided to terminate my mandate as the Chairman of the Management Board,” Volodymyr Kudrytsky said Tuesday in a Facebook post.
Kudrytsky said he had been the subject of an anonymous paid-for media campaign to discredit the company and his leadership by people - who he did not name - trying to gain control of the firm.
The company’s Western backers had urged against his removal ahead of the decision.
The EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, in a letter published by Ukrainian media expressed “grave concern” over reports Kudrytsky was to be sacked, saying it “could compromise our collective ability to support Ukrenergo”.
It was not immediately clear who the victims in the Poltava strike were. Ukrainian military bloggers suggested some might be cadets or recently mobilised men undergoing training.
Serhiy Beskrestnov, a prominent Ukrainian Telegram blogger followed by many radio, communications and electronic warfare specialists in Ukraine’s military, posted a tribute to “my signals operator comrades”.
In Poltava, some 300 km (186 miles) southeast of Kyiv and 120 km to the nearest Russian border, governor Filip Pronin said that many residents had donated blood for the wounded. Local authorities announced three days of mourning.
Fighting has intensified over the past month, with Russian forces advancing in heavy battles in eastern Ukraine, while Kyiv’s troops have mounted their first large-scale cross-border assault into a Russian region, for which Moscow has vowed to retaliate.
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska said the death toll in Russia’s strike on the city of Poltava on Tuesday rose to 47 with 206 more people injured.
“This is a stunning tragedy for all of Ukraine. The enemy hit an educational institution and a hospital,” she wrote on X.
Мої глибокі співчуття рідним загиблих і постраждалих унаслідок російського ракетного обстрілу Полтави. Це приголомшлива трагедія для всієї України. Ворог влучив у навчальний заклад і лікарню. Вже відомо про 47 загиблих і 206 поранених. Росія забирає в нас найцінніше – життя.…
— Olena Zelenska / Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) September 3, 2024
Updated
Two independent members of the supervisory board of Ukraine’s national power grid operator resigned on Tuesday, saying they believed the decision to dismiss the operator’s head was “politically motivated”.
On Sept. 2, a majority of Ukrenergo supervisory board members decided terminate early the powers of Volodymyr Kudrytskyi after he presented a report on ensuring the protection of grid facilities during Russian attacks.
“Today, on September 3, we have submitted our written notices about the early termination of powers as members of the Company’s Supervisory Board,” chairman of the board Daniel Dobbeni and board member Peder Andreasen said in a statement.
“We strongly believe that the decision on the early dismissal of the CEO of Ukrenergo is politically motivated and, based on the results of the presented report, there are no valid grounds for it,” they added.
US close to agreement to give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles
The U.S. is close to an agreement to give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles that could reach deep into Russia, but Kyiv would need to wait several months as the U.S. works through technical issues ahead of any shipment, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The inclusion of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) in a weapons package is expected to be announced this autumn, three sources said, though a final decision has not been made. The sources declined to be named because they are not authorized to discuss the topic.
According to the foreign ministry, the type of weapons used in the strike on a military institute in the central town of Poltava with two missiles – in which at least 41 people were killed and more than 180 wounded – left little time for people to find cover once the air alert had sounded.
Photographs posted on social media in Ukraine showed several bodies lying on the ground covered in dust and debris, with the badly damaged side of a large building behind them. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.
“One of the institute’s buildings was partially destroyed, and many people were trapped under the rubble,” the defence ministry said on Telegram.
“Thanks to the coordinated work of rescuers and medics, 25 people were rescued, 11 of whom were taken from the rubble. The rescuers are currently continuing their work.”
Russia has yet to comment on the attack.
Updated
UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi met Ukrainian energy officials on Tuesday before a planned visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, part of efforts to prevent a wartime nuclear catastrophe.
On his latest visit to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Grossi – the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – met energy minister German Galushchenko, as well as Petro Kotin, head of state nuclear power company Energoatom, and Oleh Korikov, acting head of Ukraine’s state nuclear regulatory Inspectorate.
The IAEA was “fully committed to safety & security of (Ukrainian) nuclear sites, with (a) presence at each”, Grossi wrote on X alongside photos showing him and Ukrainian officials holding talks.
He said they were “exchanging (views) on our support to Ukraines NPPs (nuclear power plants) ahead of my ZNPP visit”.
Started my 10th visit to Ukraine meeting @minenergo_ua @G_Galushchenko, regulator Korikov, and @energoatom_ua Kotin, and exchanging on our support to Ukraine’s NPPs ahead of my ZNPP visit.@IAEAorg fully committed to safety & security of 🇺🇦 nuclear sites, with presence at each. pic.twitter.com/r4Nkquy6fY
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 3, 2024
Updated
Reuters has some more comments from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy about the strike on Poltava.
“The Russian scum will definitely be held accountable for this strike,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
He repeated his calls for more western air defences and urged allies to allow their long-range weapons to be used for strikes deeper into Russian territory in order to protect Ukraine.
“We keep telling everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: air defence systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine, not in a warehouse somewhere.
“Long-range strikes that can protect us from Russian terror are needed now, not some time later. Unfortunately, every day of delay means loss of life.”
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has said at least six children have been seriously wounded by heavy bombing in Sumy in recent days.
In response, it is donating medical supplies to the Regional Children’s Clinical hospital in Sumy, meeting the needs of approximately 4,000 paediatric patients. The hospital treats about 5,500 children per month, and can host up to 375 patients at a given time.
Andrii Moskalenko, pharmaceutical manager at the IRC, said: “It is difficult to imagine the horror of children being woken up by explosions, with the roof shattered above their heads. There are no words strong enough to condemn bombarding and wounding children. They are bearing the heaviest burden of this war.
“Our paediatric patients need medical care and critical supplies to recover from the attacks. Most importantly, though, children need an end to the hostilities targeting innocent people so they can safely sleep at night.”
41 killed in Russian missile strike on Poltava
At least 41 people have been killed and 180 more wounded in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Poltava on Tuesday, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said in a video that the Russian forces hit the city with two ballistic missiles, damaging a building of the Institute of Communications.
The Associated Press has some colour from Vladimir Putin’s visit to Mongolia:
Russian president Vladimir Putin was welcomed in the main square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, by an honour guard dressed in vivid red and blue uniforms styled on those of the personal guard of 13th century ruler Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.
He and Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa walked up the red-carpeted steps of the government palace and bowed before a statue of Genghis Khan before entering the building for their meetings.
A small group of protesters who tried to unfurl a Ukrainian flag before the welcome ceremony were taken away by police.
The two governments signed agreements for a feasibility study and the design of an upgrade to a power plant in Ulaanbaatar and to ensure the continuous supply of aviation fuel to Mongolia. Putin also outlined plans to develop the rail system between the two countries.
He invited the Mongolian president to attend a summit of the BRICS nations – a group that includes Russia and China among others – in the Russian city of Kazan in late October. Khurelsukh accepted, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The head of Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom said on Tuesday that Moscow sees a very high risk of attacks on a nuclear plant in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces pierced the Russian border last month, the RIA state news agency said.
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog visited the plant last week and warned of the risk of a serious accident, after Russia had accused Ukraine of attacking it with drones.
Ukrainian forces crossed into the Kursk region on Aug. 6 in a surprise incursion which is still ongoing, and fighting has taken place within about 40 km (25 miles) of the nuclear facility.
Only 'madmen' would arrest Putin under ICC warrant, Russia security council
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, denounced the ICC warrant against Putin as “illegal” in an online statement Tuesday and those who would try to carry it out as “madmen.”
More than 50 Russians outside the country have signed an open letter urging the government of Mongolia to “immediately detain Vladimir Putin upon his arrival.” The signers include Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was freed from a Russian prison in August in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.
On Monday, the EU expressed concern that the ICC warrant might not be executed and said it had shared its concern with Mongolian authorities.
“Mongolia, like all other countries, has the right to develop its international ties according to its own interests,” European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said. But she added, “Mongolia is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC since 2002, with the legal obligations that it entails.”
Kenneth Roth, the former longtime director of Human Rights Watch, described Putin’s trip to Mongolia as “a sign of weakness,” posting on X that the Russian leader “could manage a trip only to a country with a tiny population of 3.4 million that lives in Russia’s shadow.”
Updated
A Moscow court sentenced a prominent physicist to 15 years in a penal colony on Tuesday after finding him guilty of “treason” – the latest prison term for a scientist accused of sharing state secrets.
Several high-profile scientists have been arrested in recent years, with at least three detained since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022.
The Moscow city court found scientist Alexander Shiplyuk guilty of “state treason,” and “punished him in the form of 15 years in prison,” the TASS news agency quoted the court as saying.
Shiplyuk, the director of the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, was arrested in summer 2022 and has since been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
Updated
Ukraine’s energy ministry said a drone attack on energy facility in the northern region of Chernihiv injured three employees.
The overnight attack also targeted railway infrastructure and rolling stock in the northeastern region of Sumy and central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Ukraine’s state railways.
Mykolaiv’s regional governor Vitaliy Kim said a missile attack on the southern region did not result in any casualties.
Kyiv’s regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko reported no damage to critical infrastructure or casualties after air defences intercepted incoming fire. He said debris caused fires in forest areas and minor damage to a high-rise building.
Head of UN nuclear watchdog holding talks in Ukraine over 'accident' fears
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog was holding talks with senior officials Tuesday in Ukraine over safety concerns for Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, where attacks were recently reported nearby.
Rafael Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, was making his 10th visit since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.
Grossi posted on X that he was on his way to Zaporizhzhia to “help prevent a nuclear accident.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which came under Russian control in the wake of its 2022 invasion, saw artillery shelling in the area the previous day that damaged the nuclear facility’s power access, according to its operator Energoatom, which blamed Russia for the attacks.
It’s been two years since we established @IAEAorg Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (#ISAMZ) to help ensure nuclear safety and security at Europe's largest NPP.
— Rafael MarianoGrossi (@rafaelmgrossi) September 2, 2024
I’m on my way to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya NPP to continue our assistance & help prevent a nuclear accident. pic.twitter.com/GLli4kkRL9
Updated
An eight-year-old boy was among two people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region overnight, while a third person died in a missile attack on the central city of Dnipro, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia also attacked railways infrastructure in two regions and an energy facility in the northern region of Chernihiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
The interior ministry said the overnight strike on a hotel complex in Zaporizhzhia killed a woman and her son, injuring her husband and teenage daughter, who is receiving intensive care.
The explosion sounded minutes after the air alert came on, Anna Savchenko, an employee at the gas station near the hotel, told Reuters.
A French researcher accused of breaching Russia’s “foreign agent” law is set to go on trial on Tuesday amid tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
Laurent Vinatier, who worked for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO before he was arrested in Moscow in June, is one of several Western citizens who have been held in Russian prisons in recent years on charges that the West says are baseless.
Vinatier’s trial is being held in Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky district court. The 48-year-old faces a five-year prison sentence if convicted.
France has urged Russia to release Vinatier, saying he has been “arbitrarily detained”.
Updated
Russia targeted Ukraine's railway infrastructure overnight, Kyiv claims
Ukraine’s state railways said on Tuesday that Russia’s overnight attack targeted its infrastructure in the northeastern region of Sumy and central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it had deployed additional air defence systems in Belgorod region.
Ukrainian forces have long subjected the town of Belgorod and nearby districts to shelling and other attacks.
Russia’s trade with India is booming and bilateral payments are proceeding smoothly without the glitches that have been hampering trade with other countries, Anatoly Popov, deputy CEO of Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, told Reuters.
Sberbank handles payments for up to 70% of all Russian exports to India. Russia’s trade with India nearly doubled to $65 billion in 2023, with the south Asian country becoming a major importer of Russian oil after the imposition of Western sanctions on Moscow in 2022 over the conflict in Ukraine.
“In 2022, there was a significant increase in the interest of Russian businesses in the Indian market because this market serves as an alternative,” Popov told Reuters in an interview ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum, an economic conference targeting Russia’s Asian partners.
“Today, we are opening accounts in rupees for Russian clients as well. We do not rule out the possibility that, in addition to being a means of payment, the rupee may also become a means of savings,” he added.
On a recent morning deep in Ukrainian-occupied Russia, three soldiers from a Ukrainian special operations team jumped into their car, the back windscreen missing after being smashed out the previous day by explosives dropped from a Russian drone, and sped away in the direction of Ukraine.
Six hours later, they would be in Kyiv, together with a precious cargo of documents stashed in boxes piled on the back seat, the fruits of a four-day mission into enemy territory for the trio. The documents included Russian interior ministry papers and military orders, seized from official buildings in Sudzha, the town at the heart of Ukraine’s surprise Kursk operation, and from abandoned Russian trenches nearby.
Soldiers told Shaun Walker they had no warning of what they were undertaking before the morale-boosting incursion into Russia began. Read his full report here:
Kyiv says international law dealt ‘heavy blow’ by Mongolia’s failure to arrest Putin during visit
Vladimir Putin is visiting Mongolia with no sign that the host country will bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the invasion of Ukraine.
Mongolia’s failure to arrest Putin dealt a “heavy blow” to the international criminal law system, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Monday as the Russian president arrived for talks likely to focus on a new gas pipeline connecting Russia and China. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhiy Tykhyi said: “Mongolia has allowed an accused criminal to evade justice, thereby sharing responsibility for the war crimes.”
The trip is Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court since it issued a warrant for his arrest about 18 months ago. Before his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the European Union expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant.
Members of the international court are bound to detain suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but Mongolia is a landlocked country highly dependent on Russia for fuel and some of its electricity. The court doesn’t have a mechanism to enforce its warrants.
The International Criminal Court has accused Putin of being responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine. On Monday, the European Union expressed concern that the International Criminal Court warrant might not be executed and said it has shared its concern with Mongolian authorities.
In other developments:
Russian invaders advanced on 477 sq km (184 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in August, Moscow’s biggest monthly increase since October 2022, according to data supplied by the Institute for the Study of War and analysed by Agence France-Presse. Ukraine meanwhile made its own rapid gains in early August, advancing more than 1,100 square kilometres into Russia’s Kursk region in two weeks, though its progress has slowed recently as the situation there has stabilised.
Russia claimed to have captured a string of villages and settlements in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, inching towards the city of Pokrovsk. The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that it had captured the Donetsk village of Skuchne, without providing further details. Volodymyr Zelenskiy insisted the frontline had not moved. “In the Pokrovsk direction, no matter how difficult it is, there has been no progress for two days. This is what the commander-in-chief told me.”
Putin on Monday acknowledged the difficulties Ukraine’s Kursk invasion – the largest attack by a foreign army on Russia since the second world war – was putting on Russian border regions. “People are experiencing and undergoing severe hardship, especially in the Kursk region,” Putin said in a speech to schoolchildren at a televised event in Siberia. “But the enemy did not achieve the main task that they set themselves: to stop our offensive in the Donbas … We have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time.”
Russian forces launched a missile attack on Ukraine’s central city of Dnipro on Monday, killing one person and injuring three while damaging homes, said the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, Serhiy Lysak. A Russian attack on Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Monday hit a residential area and wounded at least 13 people, local officials said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukraine’s western allies should not only allow their weapons to be used for strikes deep inside Russia, but also supply Kyiv with more of them. After a meeting with the Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, Zelenskiy said Kyiv was “more positive” about the prospects of getting such permission.
Schoof announced his government would give Ukraine €200m to help protect and repair the electricity infrastructure targeted almost daily by Russian bombs. He said the Netherlands would continue providing F-16 fighter jets and munitions to Ukraine and noted a plan floated last month by the US senator Lindsey Graham to let retired F-16 pilots from other countries join the fight in Ukraine. “But we have to look into those things, with all the countries involved with the F-16 coalition.”
Schoof visited an underground school in Zaporizhzhia. “It must never be normal for children to have to go to school underground. It must never become normal for people’s homes to be cold because power plants have been bombed,” Schoof said. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched an overnight barrage of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles as children prepared to return to school on Monday after summer vacation. Three people were wounded and two kindergartens were damaged.
Children and parents gathered outside a damaged school in Kyiv as firefighters put out flames and removed rubble. One mother arrived with her seven-year-old daughter, Sophia, unaware it had been hit. It was Sophia’s first day at a new school, her mother said, after a frightening night. “We hid in the bathroom, where it was relatively safe,” said the mother, who gave only her first name, Olena.
Large numbers of Ukrainian refugee children are expected to begin attending Polish schools this autumn for the first time. For many, Monday will be their first time back at school in years since the double disruptions of the pandemic and the war. Many have been continuing their online education with schools in Ukraine from Poland. But now the Polish government says if they don’t attend in person it will withhold a monthly benefit of 800 złotys, about US$200, that is paid to families.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said he met his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu on Monday to discuss the situation on the frontline and air defences. Joint defence industries ventures were also discussed, he added.
A senior Russian military commander, Maj Gen Valery Mumindzhanov, has been detained in a fraud case. He is the ninth top military figure to be arrested on charges of fraud, bribery or abuse of office in recent months. The Leningrad military district deputy commander was detained on suspicion of receiving a bribe of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
