Closing summary
It’s nearly 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Russian shelling hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people including a child and wounding a further 32 people, according to Ukrainian officials. Videos of the aftermath of the attack, one of Russia’s deadliest strikes in months, showed fires raging in destroyed buildings and soldiers carrying body bags away from the scene.
The Russian attack came as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital. Russia also targeted Kyiv with ballistic missiles in the hours prior to Blinken’s arrival, with loud booms audible in the Ukrainian capital shortly before 6am, as the secretary of state’s train was approaching.
Blinken met his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Kyiv and held discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The two-day visit will include an overnight stay in the Ukrainian capital and a visit to McDonald’s.
The US will send a new security assistance package worth up to $175m including controversial depleted uranium ammunition for Abrams tanks, the Pentagon announced. Blinken announced new aid for Ukraine totalling more than $1bn during his visit.
The situation along the eastern frontline remains difficult and the main task for Ukraine’s troops is to ensure reliable defence and prevent the loss of strongholds, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said. “The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders regions,” according to Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, called for an urgent investigation into apparent drone debris discovered on its soil after Russian attacks on neighbouring parts of Ukraine. Romania, a Nato member, had repeatedly rejected claims by Kyiv that Iranian-made Russian drones fell and detonated on Romanian territory during a strike on the Ukrainian port of Izmail on Sunday night.
A Russian-occupation appointed official has acknowledged that Moscow’s forces have abandoned the Ukrainian village of Robotyne, more than a week after Kyiv announced its recapture. “The Russian army abandoned – tactically abandoned – this settlement because staying on a bare surface when there is no way to completely dig in … doesn’t generally make sense. Therefore the Russian army moved off into the hills,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said in an interview.
Commentators and media should not engage in a “fixation on how many hundreds of meters have been achieved today” as they monitor the pace of Ukraine’s counter offensive progress after three months, a senior western official said. Ukraine is making “incremental but methodical progress” on parts of the southern and eastern fronts, the official said, but accepted it was “slower than expected a couple of months ago”.
Ukraine’s parliament voted to approve the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister, a lawmaker said. Umerov is a leading member of the Crimean Tatar community who has represented his country in sensitive negotiations with Russia. He is replacing Oleksii Reznikov, who stepped down after 22 months in the job.
Vladimir Putin’s “gangster”-like nuclear threats require Nato to adopt a much more aggressive response, including flying more aircraft with nuclear weapons, the chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces Gen Rajmund Andrzejczak urged.
The Wagner mercenary group will be declared a terrorist organisation, the UK’s Home Office announced. It said the decision had been taken to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000 due to “the nature and scale of the organisation’s activities as well as the threat they pose to British nationals abroad”.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thank you for following, we’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
Ukraine has made important progress in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said during a visit that was overshadowed by a Russian strike on a crowded market that killed at least 17 people.
Blinken, the first top US official to visit Kyiv since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in early June, was speaking during a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba where he also announced a new package of support worth more than $1bn.
Blinken said:
In the ongoing counteroffensive, progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum.
He had earlier described the progress as important and “very, very encouraging”, Reuters reported.
During his surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, joined Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, for a meal at McDonald’s, where the pair joked about hangovers in front of the cameras.
“When I was a student, my best hangover food was actually to go to McDonald’s,” Kuleba, eating a cherry pie, said. “I would go to McDonald’s and buy double cheeseburger, big Coke, and that would be my hangover breakfast.”
“That never happened to me,” Blinken deadpanned while eating fries.
Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Kuleba went to McDonald’s with Secretary Blinken during his visit to Kyiv.
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) September 6, 2023
Kuleba: When I was a student, my best hangover food was from McDonald’s.
Blinken: I’m sure it was very rare. pic.twitter.com/t6C6bPBi7D
Updated
Blinken announces new $1bn aid for Ukraine
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced a new aid package for Ukraine worth more than $1bn during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Wednesday.
The upcoming package includes $175m for weapons which will include controversial depleted-uranium munitions for the first time, bringing US security assistance to more than $43.2bn since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, Blinken said:
We will continue to stand by Ukraine’s side.
Met with President @ZelenskyyUA to convey the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine and its people. We stand with Ukraine, for as long as it takes. pic.twitter.com/kQ1rpaqR5X
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 6, 2023
Updated
US to send controversial depleted-uranium rounds as part of new $175m military aid package for Ukraine
The US will for the first time send controversial depleted-uranium munitions to Ukraine as part of a new $175m military aid package, the Pentagon announced.
The latest package – the Biden’s administration’s 46th tranche of equipment for Ukraine – includes additional air defence equipment; artillery munitions; anti-tank weapons, including depleted uranium rounds for previously committed Abrams tanks; and other equipment to help Ukraine counter Russia’s ongoing war of aggression.
The package includes an unspecified number of 120mm depleted-uranium tank rounds for the 31 M1 Abrams tanks the US previously committed to Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
These armour-piercing munitions could help destroy Russian tanks, and the US shipment follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite concerns over the dangers such weapons pose to civilians.
Opponents of depleted uranium munitions argue there are dangerous health risks from ingesting or inhaling depleted uranium dust, including cancers and birth defects, Reuters reported.
Updated
Here’s our video report on the Russian strike on a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka earlier today, which officials said resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people.
Video of the aftermath showed fires raging in destroyed buildings and soldiers carrying body bags away from the scene. The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said a child was among those killed.
Updated
The US would provide Ukraine with additional assistance, including munitions and air defence systems, the White House said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The new military assistance package for Ukraine includes HIMARS missile launch systems, Javelin antitank weapons, Abrams tanks and other weapons systems, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far ...
Nato allies on Wednesday expressed “strong solidarity” with Romania after the country briefed them about an incident in which parts of what could be a Russian drone fell on Romanian territory, the alliance said. Confirmation that parts found in Romania this week belonged to a Russian drone would be a serious violation of sovereignty, the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, said earlier.
At least 17 people were killed and 32 injured in a Russian attack on a crowded market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, saying a market, shops and a pharmacy had been struck in the industrial city close to the battlefield. “This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” he wrote on Telegram.
The attack came as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital. Blinken is expected to announce a new package of US assistance of $175m-$200m, with a larger package worth more than $1bn expected later this week, according to a senior state department official.
A senior western official said that commentators and media should not engage in a “fixation on how many hundreds of meters have been achieved today” as they monitor the pace of Ukraine’s counter offensive progress after three months. Speaking to journalists on condition of anonymity, the official, familiar with Kyiv’s strategy, said that Ukraine is making “incremental but methodical progress” on parts of the southern and eastern fronts but accepted it was “slower than expected a couple of months ago”.
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister, a lawmaker said.
Updated
Nato allies 'express solidarity' with Romania after parts of possible Russian drone fell on its territory
Nato has issued a statement after Romania’s defence minister said that parts of what could be a Russian drone fell on Romanian territory (see earlier post at 14:54).
The Nato spokesperson Dylan White said:
The Romanian authorities have confirmed that debris, possibly from a drone, has been found on Romanian soil, close to the border with Ukraine.
The Romanian authorities are investigating the incident. Romania informed Nato allies about this incident in today’s meeting of the North Atlantic Council, and allies expressed strong solidarity with Romania.
Since last year, in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Nato has significantly increased its presence in the Black Sea region. We continue to monitor the situation closely, and we remain in close contact with our ally Romania.
Updated
David Miliband, the head of the International Rescue Committee and the former British foreign secretary, has claimed “the abnormal is becoming normalised” in Ukraine, as Russia’s war on the country continues and increasing weariness creeps into the global response.
Miliband, speaking to the Guardian during a visit to Kyiv, also said he was particularly alarmed by the looming US presidential election, after several candidates for the Republican nomination used a recent debate to call for a scaling back of US aid to Ukraine.
“It’s striking that the debate in the Republican party is going in a very isolationist direction. It’s not just President Trump who’s threatening to pull the rug from under Ukraine,” said Miliband.
You can read the full story, by my colleague Shaun Walker, here:
Updated
Moldova proposed on Wednesday that the energy company Moldovagaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom, pay the Russian gas company $8.6m (£6.9m) after an international audit disputed nearly all of an alleged debt.
AFP reports:
The audit conducted by two international firms detailed “significant discrepancies” in the $709m allegedly owed to Gazprom, the government said in a statement.
The UK’s Forensic Risk Alliance and Norway’s Wikborg Rein found that Moldovagaz, which is 50% owned by Gazprom and 36.6% by the Moldovan government, could insist most of the debt be written off, partly because of a lack of records.
“Citizens of the Republic of Moldova should not bear the burden of nonexistent debts to Gazprom,” Moldovan prime minister Dorin Recean said in the statement.
“Following the external audit, we firmly reject the alleged debts.”
Gazprom in a statement on Telegram said it “categorically disagrees with the Moldovan side’s assertions and intends to continue defending its rights by all possible means.”
The auditor’s conclusions “cannot in any way affect the amount and validity of the said debt,” insisting it was confirmed in “documents regularly signed by Gazprom and Moldovagaz.”
A former Soviet republic wedged between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova used to receive Russian gas via its pro-Moscow separatist region of Transnistria and through Ukraine.
Updated
Vladimir Putin’s “gangster”-like nuclear threats require Nato to adopt a much more aggressive response, including flying more aircraft with nuclear weapons, the chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces urged on Tuesday.
Gen Rajmund Andrzejczak added that he did not think North Korea would be preparing to sell weapons to Russia without the agreement of China.
I don’t believe North Korea is strong enough or so free to make such an offer, so maybe it is testing our determination, attention and political will, but what is even more important is what China says about this than the North Korean leadership.
Washington briefed this week that it believed Putin was preparing to buy weapons from Pyongyang.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
Russian attack on crowded market in Kostiantynivka kills 17 people, officials say
Ukrainian officials have now said at least 17 people were killed and 32 injured in the Russian attack on a crowded market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Wednesday. The reported death toll previously was 16.
The interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said the search and rescue operation in Kostiantynivka had been completed, Reuters reports.
“As of 18.00 [16.00 BST] 17 people were killed and 32 were injured as a result of Russian shelling,” he said. These figures are yet to be independently verified.
Updated
Olena Zelenska chairs mental health summit in Kyiv
Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, chaired a summit on mental health in Kyiv today.
Billed as a “summit of first ladies and gentlemen”, the event was held in the grounds of the St Sophia monastery in central Kyiv and was attended by numerous spouses of world leaders.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on a two-day visit to Kyiv, also dropped in.
Called “Mental health: Fragility and resilience”, the event involved panel discussions on various aspects of mental health in wartime Ukraine and the mental health needs that will come after the end of the war.
It was opened by the British actor Stephen Fry, who spoke about his own struggles with mental health and the importance of recognising the issue.
Zelenska, explaining why she had chosen the topic for the summit in advance of the opening, said:
This topic is the hottest in the whole world, and this topic is very important for our country. In the conditions of attacks, war, the growing number of wounded, injured, under constant stress, our society requires new solutions in this area.
Updated
Oleksii Kuleba, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s deputy chief of staff, has put the number of injured in Kostiantynivka at 34 (see earlier post at 15.45).
Police said the market in the eastern Ukrainian city had been crowded when it was hit at about 2pm, and that nearly 30 shopping kiosks, an apartment block, a bank and cars were damaged, Reuters reports.
Updated
More information has come in from the Associated Press on the market attack in Kostiantynivka.
Twenty shops, power lines, an administrative building and the floor of an apartment building were damaged, according to the prosecutor general’s office.
The regional prosecutor’s office said 31 people were injured in the attack. At least 16 people were killed, Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said.
The defence ministry said the market was hit by a ballistic missile.
Updated
Russia has said it will soon finalise its side of the route for the “power of Siberia 2” pipeline, a huge project to deliver more natural gas to China, AFP reports.
Moscow plans to start building the pipeline next year, after its war in Ukraine forced it to move away from the European market in favour of Asian buyers.
“It is in the final phase,” Russia’s deputy prime minister and top energy official Alexander Novak said in an interview with the Russian magazine Energy Policy.
The pipeline will run through southern Siberia near the city of Achinsk and turn east towards Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk before reaching the Mongolian border, Novak said.
Updated
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has condemned the deadly Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka (reported by officials earlier), expressing her deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims.
Horrific cruelty. Russians attacked local market in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. We already know about 16 dead and 31 wounded. Deepest condolences to the loved ones of the victims. Each attack on 🇺🇦 is an attack on all of us. We have to be strong and stand up against all odds.
— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) September 6, 2023
Updated
The UK’s new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, and officials have played down the destruction of a Challenger 2 tank given to Ukraine.
It is unclear how it was destroyed but the Ukrainian crew inside it survived.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Shapps said:
We gifted 14 of these Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine. We accept that in a war zone there can be material losses, which is what’s happened here.
I can also confirm that all six of the military in the tank, the Ukrainians, were actually able to survive this, which is a great testament to that British kit.
This is the sort of thing that happens but we’ll always keep what we’re providing the Ukrainians with under close review.
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. The record is partly because of the relatively small numbers built and their infrequent deployment.
Britain gave 14 of the tanks to Ukraine earlier this year as part of a European effort to provide western heavy armour. It is not clear if they have been widely used on the frontline in the past couple of weeks.
Updated
Romanian president: serious violation of sovereignty if parts belonging to Russian drone confirmed
Confirmation that parts found in Romania this week belonged to a Russian drone would be a serious violation of sovereignty, the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, said.
Discovery of parts of what could be a Russian drone were found days after Ukraine said Russian drones had detonated on the Nato alliance member’s land, Reuters reported.
“If it is confirmed that the components belong to a Russian drone, such a situation would be inadmissible and a serious violation of Romania’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Iohannis said at the start of a summit of the presidents of Three Seas Initiative countries.
Updated
Updated
Emergency service workers extinguished the fire that damaged about 30 pavilions at the outdoor market, the internal minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.
Associated Press journalists at the site of the attack in Kostiantynivka saw covered bodies on the ground and emergency workers extinguishing fires at market stalls, with blackened mangled cars nearby.
The attack came as US secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Ukraine’s capital, where he was expected to announce more than $1bn in new American funding in a display of Washington’s unflagging support for Kyiv’s fight.
Blinken also aimed to assess Ukraine’s three-month-old counter-offensive and signal continued US backing as some western allies express worries about Kyiv’s slow progress in driving out Russian forces after 18 months of war, according to US officials, the Associated Press reported.
Updated
Child among at least 16 people killed in Russian attack on a market in eastern Ukraine, says Zelenskiy
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has condemned a Russian attack in Kostiantynivka that he said killed at least 16 people, including a child, and injured many more, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy said on Telegram that a market, shops and a pharmacy had been hit in the eastern city close to the battlefield and about 19 miles (30km) from the city of Bakhmut, where fighting has been heavy for months.
“This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” he said. The reports are yet to be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials posted a video on Telegram which showed a loud explosion ripping through shopping alleys, with people falling to the ground and some running for cover. Local media described it as a missile attack.
The interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said at least 28 people were wounded in the attack which hit the central city market, Reuters reported.
He posted pictures on Telegram showing rescue workers sifting through the rubble and carrying out bodies in black sacks.
Updated
South African officials did not know Russian ship under sanctions was assigned to deliver military equipment to the country until the vessel was nearing national waters, according to an inquiry.
The Associated Press reports:
US ambassador Reuben Brigety accused South Africa in May of having weapons intended for Russia loaded on to the Lady R when the container ship docked near Cape Town in December.
The ship is under US sanctions for ties to a company that transported arms for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
South Africa denied there was a government-approved deal to ship weapons to Russia from the country, which officially has taken a non-aligned stance on the Ukraine war.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a three-person panel led by a retired judge to oversee an inquiry into the matter.
An executive summary of the panel’s report released Tuesday night stated that the ship offloaded military equipment but no weapons were loaded onto it.
The panel also said that South African officials had no say in how the equipment ordered from the United Arab Emirates was shipped.
Ramaphosa made the summary public but has said the full report would remain classified. “To reveal the details of the equipment offloaded would compromise important military operations and put our soldiers’ lives at risk,” he said.
Updated
Rustem Umerov has made comments after Ukraine’s parliament voted to approve him as defence minister on Wednesday (see earlier post at 11.41)
Writing on Facebook, he said:
Our main objective is victory. I will do everything possible and impossible for Ukraine’s victory – when we will liberate every centimetre of our country and each our person.
Before his appointment, Umerov, who speaks English and Turkish, headed Ukraine’s main privatisation agency – the State Property Fund – for about a year.
He was credited for overturning the institution and restarting the efforts to sell loss-making state-owned companies to private investors, despite the war.
Romania says parts of a Russian drone fell on its territory – reports
Parts of a Russian drone have fallen on Romanian territory, the Romanian defence minister, AngelTîlvăr, reportedly said on Wednesday.
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, but Bucharest denied then its territory had been hit.
“I confirm that pieces which might be the elements of a drone were found,” Tîlvăr said, according to the HotNews website, which cited Romanian broadcaster Antena 3 CNN.
He added the area was not evacuated because there was nothing to suggest that the parts posed a threat, Reuters reports.
The defence and foreign ministries, along with Romania’s president, Iohannis Klaus, had all denied reports of the drones detonating on Romanian territory and said Russian attacks did not cause a direct threat to Romanian territory.
Updated
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia’s new school year has begun with a new curriculum incorporating military skills and the Kremlin’s view of the history of Ukraine.
The MoD tweeted:
Russian President Vladimir Putin personally held an open lesson with 30 schoolchildren on the first day of term.
Topics in the updated national history exam include Crimean reunification with Russia and the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Russia’s parliament approved the curriculum last year.
One element, the ‘Basics of Life Safety’, is aimed towards senior students and includes a basic military training module. This will include handling Kalashnikovs, the use of hand grenades, uncrewed aerial vehicle operations, and battlefield first aid. Pupils may also be visited by Ukraine veterans.
The new curriculum serves three objectives: to indoctrinate students with the Kremlin rationale for the ‘special military operation’, instil students with a martial mindset, and reduce training timelines for onwards mobilisation and deployment.
Updated
A Russian-occupation appointed official has acknowledged that Moscow’s forces have abandoned the Ukrainian village of Robotyne, more than a week after Kyiv announced its recapture.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said in a television interview that the Russian army had withdrawn for what he called tactical reasons.
News outlet RBC quoted him as saying:
The Russian army abandoned – tactically abandoned – this settlement because staying on a bare surface when there is no way to completely dig in … doesn’t generally make sense. Therefore the Russian army moved off into the hills.
Russia has not previously acknowledged the loss of Robotyne, whose recapture was announced by Ukraine on 28 August.
In its daily update on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled two Ukrainian attacks near Robotyne.
More than 18 months after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine says it is gaining ground and has broken through Russia’s first line of fortifications in several places on the frontline, despite repeated statements from Moscow that Ukraine’s three-month-old counteroffensive has been a failure.
Robotnye lies in an area where Ukrainians have been successfully pushing into Russia’s first line of defences around the so-called Surovikin line.
Lying to the east of Verbove, which has been the focus of heavy fighting in recent weeks. In recent days, military analysts have suggested that Ukrainian troop had cleared obstacle barriers to reach dug in Russian positions on the outskirts of Verbove itself.
The fighting around Robotnye and Verbove has signalled attempts by Ukrainian forces to widen a salient that is now pushing into the Russian lines along a gradually broadening front.
However, Ukrainian forces have faced formidable obstacles including physical barriers of dragon’s teeth, minefields that are in places 500m deep, and the more effective use of Russia’s air superiority against the armoured forces trying to penetrate Moscow’s defences which Ukrainian officials have said has required infantry to dismount from carriers more than they had initially planned. (Additional reporting by Reuters)
Updated
Ukraine making incremental but methodical progress in counteroffensive - western official
A senior western official said that commentators and media should not engage in a “fixation on how many hundreds of meters have been achieved today” as they monitor the pace of Ukraine’s counter offensive progress after three months.
Speaking to journalists on condition of anonymity, the official, familiar with Kyiv’s strategy, said that Ukraine is making “incremental but methodical progress” on parts of the southern and eastern fronts but accepted it was “slower than expected a couple of months ago”.
This was due to the heavier than expected minefield belt laid by the Russians on the frontline, at times forcing Ukrainian soldiers to dismount and “crawl on their bellies to get through,” meaning that the pace of advance has been at best a few hundred meters a day.
Acknowledging the war will almost certainly go on well into the new year, the senior figure chose to emphasise what had been achieved so far, notably Russia’s initial failure to take Kyiv, Ukrainian recovery of half the initially occupied territory and Nato members rallying behind Ukraine.
The next meeting of western defence ministers in September, aimed at coordinating military aid for Ukraine, is expected to not to focus on giving lots more new military equipment but instead “equipment support,” in other words maintenance and repair.
A side-effect of Ukraine’s slow, infantry led advance is that more of the tanks and fighting vehicles donated by the west earlier this year for an anticipated armoured offensive remain undamaged. “A lot more of the kit has been preserved,” the official said.
Updated
Russian mercenary group Wagner is “threatening democracy and freedom around the world”, Rishi Sunak has said as the UK government prepared to ban it as a terrorist organisation (see earlier post at 09.50).
The prime minister said the private military firm had been “unleashed” around the world under Vladimir Putin, carrying out “torture, theft and barbarism”.
After being asked to comment on the UK government’s decision, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that the Wagner mercenary group did not exist from a legal point of view.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
There’s nothing to comment on. Perhaps one can add only that, legally speaking, there is no such group.
Updated
Ukraine's parliament approves Rustem Umerov as new defence minister
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister, a lawmaker said.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram that an overwhelming majority had supported Umerov after he was put forward for the role by Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine’s biggest wartime shake-up of the defence sector so far.
Umerov is a leading member of the Crimean Tatar community who has represented his country in sensitive negotiations with Russia.
In a video address on Sunday night, Zelenskiy named Umerov as the successor to Oleksii Reznikov, who was stepping down after 22 months in the job.
His appointment is a clear signal that Kyiv is determined to expel Russia and its occupying forces from Crimea, defence ministry sources suggest. Some of Ukraine’s western allies including the US are privately sceptical about the feasibility of this ambition.
On the train journey to Kyiv, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, also on an official visit, to discuss the war, the Associated Press reports.
Blinken thanked her for Denmark’s leadership in a coalition training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and for promising to donate the fighter jets to Ukraine, according to state department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
In August, Frederiksen said her country would provide 19 jets – “hopefully” six around new year, eight more next year and the remaining five in 2025.
“Please take this donation as a token of Denmark’s unwavering support for your country’s fight for freedom,” she said at the time.
Updated
As reported earlier (see post at 09.19), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit that is his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.
Blinken has now began talks with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and is reportedly due to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the official said.
Standing alongside Kuleba, Blinken said:
We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, not only to succeed in the counteroffensive, but has what it needs for the long term, to make sure that it has a strong deterrent.
We’re also determined to continue to work with our partners as they build and rebuild a strong economy, strong democracy.
Asked about Blinken’s visit, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow believed Washington planned to continue funding Ukraine’s military “to wage this war to the last Ukrainian”.
Updated
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 7pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Morning summary
Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
The situation along the eastern frontline remains difficult and the main task for Ukraine’s troops is to ensure reliable defence and prevent the loss of strongholds, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Wednesday. “The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders cregions,” the ground forces cited Syrskyi as saying on the Telegram messaging app.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv, according to media reports on Wednesday morning. The visit, unannounced in advance, is Blinken’s first for a year to the Ukrainian capital. Blinken will be in the city for two days and is expected to announce a new package of US assistance worth over $1bn, Reuters reported. He is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.
It comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister this week amid a number of corruption scandals over military procurement, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country. US media have frequently quoted unnamed US officials criticising the counteroffensive as too slow and poorly planned, which has irritated Ukrainian officials. An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip.
In the hours before Blinken’s arrival, Russia launched a new wave of air attacks on Kyiv, with missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defences, Ukrainian officials claimed. Loud explosions could be heard in the capital shortly before 6am. “Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on Telegram. Officials said there had been damage to buildings by falling debris but there were no casualties.
Following the collapse of the deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports. Ukrainian forces downed 17 Russian drones over the Odesa region overnight into Monday. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that the attacks had taken place “very, very close” to his country’s border.
The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed a drone just before midnight on Tuesday over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that there was no destruction or casualties.
Russian mercenary group Wagner is set to be declared a terrorist organisation by the UK, as British ministers condemned its “devastating” role across the world. Defence secretary Grant Shapps defended the time it has taken to proscribe the group, ahead of a draft order being laid in parliament on Wednesday, PA Media reports.
The US warned Kim Jong-un that North Korea would “pay a price” for supplying Russia with weapons to use in Ukraine, saying that arms negotiations between the two states were actively advancing. Providing weapons to Russia “is not going to reflect well on North Korea and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting Cubans to fight as mercenaries for Russia in its war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry has said, as Moscow seeks to increase the size of its forces. In a statement, the Cuban foreign ministry said the authorities were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network, which it said was operating within the Caribbean island nation and in Russia.
A battlefield video circulated 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).
In the hours before Blinken’s arrival, Russia launched a new wave of air attacks on Kyiv, with missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defences, Ukrainian officials claimed. Loud explosions could be heard in the capital shortly before 6am.
“Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on Telegram. Officials said there had been damage to buildings by falling debris but there were no casualties.
In southern Ukraine, where Russia has been targeting grain export facilities in recent weeks, a three-hour drone attack killed one person and damaged agricultural and port facilities, the regional governor said.
“An employee of an agricultural enterprise, who was seriously injured, died in the hospital,” said Oleh Kiper.
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Russian mercenary group Wagner is set to be declared a terrorist organisation by the UK, as British ministers condemned its “devastating” role across the world.
Defence secretary Grant Shapps defended the time it has taken to proscribe the group, ahead of a draft order being laid in parliament on Wednesday, PA Media reports.
The group has played a prominent role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine since it was launched in February 2022.
The order will mean that, once passed, it is illegal to be a member of or support the Wagner Group. Wagner’s assets can also be categorised as terrorist property and seized.
Certain proscription offences can be punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
The newly appointed defence secretary told LBC:
Essentially it means that you can no longer or will no longer be able to be a part of that group in the UK because they will be deemed as a terrorist organisation so you wouldn’t be able to belong to it, you wouldn’t be able to use their insignias or logos.
We’ve seen how Wagner operate. Obviously we’ve seen the devastating impact they’ve had or tried to have in Ukraine, but they also operate in Africa or across the Sahel.
And we do not want to see that organisation here. Prescribing them means that becomes illegal once parliament passes it.
Blinken visits Kyiv amid challenging Ukrainian counteroffensive
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv, according to media reports on Wednesday morning. The visit, unannounced in advance, is Blinken’s first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.
Blinken will be in the city for two days and is expected to announce a new package of US assistance worth over $1bn, Reuters reported. He is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.
It comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister this week amid a number of corruption scandals over military procurement, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country.
US media have frequently quoted unnamed US officials criticising the counteroffensive as too slow and poorly planned, which has irritated Ukrainian officials.
An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip.
“I think what’s most important is that we get a real assessment from the Ukrainians themselves,” the official said. “We want to see, hear how they intend to push forward in the coming weeks.”
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Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting Cubans to fight as mercenaries for Russia in its war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry has said, as Moscow seeks to increase the size of its forces.
In a statement, the Cuban foreign ministry said the authorities were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network, which it said was operating within the Caribbean island nation and in Russia.
“The ministry of the interior … is working on the neutralisation and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the ministry statement said.
“Cuba has a firm and clear historical position against the use of mercenaries … Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine.”
The foreign ministry did not comment on whether any Cubans joined the war in Ukraine as part of the trafficking ring, or if the ring had any connections to the Russian government.
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The US warned Kim Jong-un that North Korea would “pay a price” for supplying Russia with weapons to use in Ukraine, saying that arms negotiations between the two states were actively advancing.
Providing weapons to Russia “is not going to reflect well on North Korea and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had “nothing to say” about statements by US officials that Kim planned to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss weapons supplies to Moscow.
Kim expects discussions about weapons to continue, Sullivan said, including at leader level and “perhaps even in person”.
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The Wagner mercenary group will be declared a terrorist organisation, the UK’s Home Office has announced.
A draft order will be laid in parliament on Wednesday, which will make it illegal to be a member of or support the Russian group in the UK. The group has played a prominent role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine since it began in February 2022.
It has also been active in conflicts in Syria, Central African Republic, Sudan and Libya.
The Home Office said the decision had been taken to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000 due to “the nature and scale of the organisation’s activities as well as the threat they pose to British nationals abroad”.
Situation on Ukraine's eastern front remains difficult, says ground forces commander
The situation along the eastern frontline remains difficult and the main task for Ukraine’s troops is to ensure reliable defence and prevent the loss of strongholds, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Wednesday.
“The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders cregions,” the ground forces cited Syrskyi as saying on the Telegram messaging app.
“Our main task is to ensure reliable defence, to prevent the loss of our strongholds and positions in the Kupiansk and Lymansk directions, as well as to successfully move forward and reach the designated lines in the Bakhmut direction.”
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More now on the strikes on Izmail port in the Danube, via AFP: Following the collapse of the deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports.
Ukrainian forces downed 17 Russian drones over the Odesa region overnight into Monday.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that the attacks had taken place “very, very close” to his country’s border.
Bucharest has strongly condemned Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube infrastructure.
Russia launches missiles at Kyiv
Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Wednesday, with the country’s air defence systems shooting down all missiles before they reached their targets, the capital’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters’ witnesses heard several blasts which sounded like air defence systems being deployed at around 05.50am (02.50 GMT) when air raid alerts were issued for all of Ukraine before being called off about an hour later.
“Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city with the aim of killing the civilian population and destroying the infrastructure,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added that according to preliminary information, there was no destruction in Kyiv and no casualties.
The scale of the attack, which Popko said involved missiles of different types, was not immediately known.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
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Moscow reports drone attack over Bryansk
The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed a drone just before midnight on Tuesday over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.
Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that there was no destruction or casualties.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
One killed in Russian drone attacks on port district: Ukrainian governor
AFP: One person was killed in Russian drone attacks on a port district in Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region early Wednesday, the regional governor said.
The night-time attacks lasted three hours and targeted the Izmail district, Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.
The Danube river port of Izmail, which borders NATO member Romania, has become a main export route for Ukrainian products following Russia’s withdrawal from a UN-brokered grain deal in July.
“Unfortunately, one person died,” said Kiper, adding that it was an agricultural worker who was seriously injured and died in hospital.
“Destruction and fires were recorded in several settlements,” he added, saying that port and agricultural infrastructure had been damaged, including administrative buildings.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story: One person was killed in Russian drone attacks on a port district in Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region early Wednesday, the regional governor said.
The night-time attacks lasted three hours and targeted the Izmail district, Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.
Meanwhile the Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed a Ukraine-launched drone just before midnight on Tuesday over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.
Elsewhere:
A battlefield video circulated 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.
The Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate expressed support for continued assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday, as lawmakers returned to Washington facing a tight deadline for passing spending bills. President Joe Biden last month asked Congress to approve about $40bn in additional spending, including $24bn for Ukraine and other international needs, in a test of the country’s willingness to keep supporting Ukraine as it fights Russian invaders.
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 on Russia’s side in the 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. “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,” she told the BBC.
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 (04.30 GMT) after a temporary traffic suspension early on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said.
Russian air defences also destroyed a Ukrainian aeroplane-style drone over Crimea on Tuesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
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.
