Closing Summary
Russia is discussing holding joint exercises with North Korea, defence minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying on Monday. When asked about the possibility of joint exercises between the two countries, he reportedly said they were “of course” being discussed.
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 of the former aerospace commander alongside his wife, reportedly taken on Monday in Moscow.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said after talks with Vladimir Putin that it would soon be possible to revive the grain deal the UN says helped to ease a food crisis by getting Ukrainian grain to market.
Vladimir Putin said the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea won’t be restored until the West meets its obligations to facilitate Russian agricultural exports.
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reports.
US, British and EU officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Russia’s overnight attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River on Monday did not generate direct military threats to neighbouring Nato state Romania’s territory, Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Rustem Umerov is poised to become Ukraine’s new defence minister, after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Oleksii Reznikov.
Nobel prize-winning Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will mount a legal challenge to try to overturn his designation as a “foreign agent” by the authorities in Russia, Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper he edits, said.
Reuters reports:
Russia’s justice ministry on Friday added Muratov, a veteran editor and co-laureate of the 2021 Nobel peace prize, to the growing list of people it has formally labelled “foreign agents” – a designation used to stigmatise and complicate the life of people it deems to be working against Russian state interests.
It said Muratov, who sold his Nobel medal at auction to help Ukrainian child refugees, had “created and disseminated material (produced by) foreign agents and used it to spread negative opinions of Russia’s foreign and domestic policies on international platforms”.
Novaya Gazeta, which is famous for its investigations which have sometimes taken aim at the Kremlin, government policy and top officials, said on Monday Muratov would temporarily step aside from his role as editor-in-chief in order to challenge his designation through the courts.
“Muratov categorically disagrees with the decision of the Ministry of Justice and is filing a lawsuit,” Novaya Gazeta said in a statement.
“At his own request, the editorial board is suspending Dmitry Muratov as editor-in-chief for the duration of the legal proceedings. Sergei Sokolov has been appointed acting editor-in-chief.”
It said Muratov had been targeted by the authorities for his opinions and beliefs, something it said ran counter to constitutional guarantees about freedom of thought and speech.
Updated
Rustem Umerov is poised to become Ukraine’s new defence minister, after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Oleksii Reznikov (see earlier post at 08.18).
The Guardian’s foreign correspondent, Luke Harding, has an in-depth profile of Umerov, a leading member of the Crimean Tatar community who has represented his country in sensitive negotiations with Russia.
You can read it here:
Updated
Kyiv officials on Monday said they had checked all of the city’s secondary schools and that earlier reported bomb threats to the city’s education facilities were “false”, AFP reports.
At the start of this academic year, 240,000 children in the Ukrainian capital have chosen to study in school instead of remotely, according to the city hall.
The city’s military administration said on social media:
Following a bomb threat, all secondary schools in Kyiv were thoroughly checked. The information was not confirmed. The call was false.
Earlier on Monday, it said that police had “received a report of a bomb threat in all schools and colleges in Kyiv”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images out of Ukraine coming from the newswires:
Russia discusses joint military exercises with North Korea, defence minister says
Russia is discussing holding joint exercises with North Korea, defence minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying on Monday, Reuters reports.
Interfax news agency quoted Shoigu as saying:
Why not, these are our neighbours. There’s an old Russian saying: you don’t choose your neighbours and it’s better to live with your neighbours in peace and harmony.
When asked about the possibility of joint exercises between the two countries, he reportedly said they were “of course” being discussed.
South Korean news agency Yonhap earlier cited South Korea’s intelligence agency as saying Shoigu had proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that their countries hold a naval exercise, along with China.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006 and had been testing various missiles over recent years but it rarely holds military exercises with its neighbours.
The US and its ally, South Korea, hold regular military exercises, which North Korea denounces as preparations for war against it.
Russia has scrapped its huge Zapad military drills this year because of the war in Ukraine, the country’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, was quoted as saying on Monday.
“No, this year we are having exercises in Ukraine,” state news agency Ria quoted Shoigu as saying in reply to a question.
Russia last staged the Zapad (West) drills with its ally Belarus in September 2021, five months before its invasion of Ukraine. It said then that 200,000 troops were taking part.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said last week that it believed Russia would not hold the exercises this year because it did not have enough troops and equipment to stage them while fighting the war.
Updated
Russian general publicly 'seen for first time' since Wagner mutiny in June
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 of the former aerospace commander alongside his wife, reportedly taken on Monday in Moscow.
Russia relieved Gen Sergei Surovikin of his command of the Russian aerospace forces last month.
Gen Sergei Surovikin has resurfaced. Ostorozhno Media publishes a pictures of the former aerospace commander together with his wife. The outlet says the picture was taken today in Moscow. Surovikin had not been seen since Prigozhin's rebellion pic.twitter.com/Irr15CLBQO
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) September 4, 2023
Prigozhin’s public support for Surovikin, who was seen as an ally of the Wagner militia in the Russian defence ministry, had raised questions of whether he or other senior commanders aided the mutiny or at least had prior knowledge of Prigozhin’s plans.
Surovikin, a prominent commander, was previously rumoured to have been put under house arrest, interrogated, or even put in the notorious Lefortovo prison.
Updated
Turkey's Erdoğan says Black Sea grain deal can be restored soon
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said after talks with Vladimir Putin that it would soon be possible to revive the grain deal the UN says helped to ease a food crisis by getting Ukrainian grain to market.
Reuters reports:
Russia quit the deal in July – a year after it was brokered by the UN and Turkey – complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced serious obstacles.
Erdoğan, who previously played a significant role in convincing Putin to stick with the deal, and the UN are both trying to get Putin to return to the deal.
“As Turkey, we believe that we will reach a solution that will meet the expectations in a short time,” Erdogan said in the Black Sea resort of Sochi after his first face to face meeting with Putin since 2022.
Erdoğan said that Russia’s expectations were well-known to all and that the shortcomings should be eliminated, adding that Turkey and the UN had worked on a new package of suggestions to ease Russian concerns.
Putin has said Russia could return to the grain deal if the West fulfils a separate memorandum agreed with the UN at the same time to facilitate Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Putin says Black Sea grain deal won't be restored until the west meets its obligations
Vladimir Putin said the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea won’t be restored until the West meets its obligations to facilitate Russian agricultural exports.
Russia exported 56m tonnes of grain products under the Black Sea grain deal, earning $41bn in the process, the west claims.
Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other goods that developing nations rely on.
Russia pulled out of the deal in July, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
Putin has said Russia could return to the grain deal if the West fulfils a separate memorandum agreed with the UN at the same time to facilitate Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Standing beside Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday, Putin said Russia could return to the deal but only if the West stopped restricting Russian agricultural exports from reaching global markets.
Putin said:
We will be ready to consider the possibility of reviving the grain deal and I told Mr President about this again today – we will do this as soon as all the agreements on lifting restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented.
He said western claims that Russia had stoked a food crisis by suspending participation in the grain deal were incorrect as prices did not rise on its exit from the deal.
“There is no physical shortage of food,” the Russian president said.
Updated
Erdoğan says Ukraine should soften stance to revive Black Sea grain deal
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that Ukraine should soften its negotiating position against Russia in talks over reviving a grain export deal.
“Ukraine needs to especially soften its approaches in order for it to be possible for joint steps to be taken with Russia,” Erdogan told reporters alongside Vladimir Putin, after the leaders held a meeting in Sochi on Monday.
Turkey has been trying to revive a UN-backed agreement that allowed for the safe passage of grain from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Russia pulled out of the deal in July, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
Erdoğan said more grain needed to be destined for Africa rather than European countries, Reuters reports.
Separaetly, Putin said on Monday that a Russian proposal to supply African countries with 1m tonnes of grain via Turkey, with financial support from Qatar, was not intended as an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he expected Volodymyr Zelenskiy to talk to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Turkish president’s meeting on Monday with Vladimir Putin.
Reuters quoted Kuleba as saying in Kyiv:
Erdoğan I am convinced that, based on the results of Erdoğan’s conversation with Putin, there will be contact between president Erdoğan and president Zelenskiy.
There is trust in relations between president Zelenskiy and president Erdoğan.
Turkey has sought to maintain strong ties with both Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
Updated
Ukraine is facing a future with upward of 20,000 amputees, many of them soldiers who are also suffering psychological trauma from their time at war, the Associated Press reports.
Olha Rudneva, the head of the Superhumans centre for rehabilitating Ukrainian military amputees, estimated that 20,000 Ukrainians have endured at least one amputation since the war began.
The government has not confirmed how many of those people are soldiers.
Rehabilitation centres Unbroken and Superhumans provide prostheses for Ukrainian soldiers with funds provided by donor countries, charities and private Ukrainian companies.
Ukraine reports advances on eastern and southern fronts
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Kyiv’s forces had retaken about 3 square km of land in the past week around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of heavy fighting.
She also reported unspecified “success” in the direction of the villages Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, but gave no details.
Ukraine has now taken back about 47 square km of territory around Bakhmut since starting its counteroffensive in early June, Maliar wrote on Telegram.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Kyiv has retaken a number of villages and settlements in its three-month-old offensive but its soldiers have been hampered by vast Russian minefields and trenches.
Maliar said last week that Ukrainian troops had broken through the first line of Russian defences, and Ukraine’s military expects now to advance more rapidly.
Updated
Ukraine’s top diplomat said on Monday that Kyiv had photographic evidence to show that Russian drones struck Romanian territory during an overnight air attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River.
Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba made the comment to reporters after a press conference in Kyiv.
Romania denied earlier on Monday that Russian drones had struck its territory overnight.
Romanian territory was not hit by Russian drones or debris in an overnight air strike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River, the Romanian foreign minister, Luminița Odobescu, said on Monday.
“Of course, there is a risk because what happened there is very close to our borders,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to Berlin.
“We have seen that Russia cynically continues to attack the civilian infrastructure, not allowing Ukraine to export their cereals. Of course, there is a risk of accidents or incidents, but for the time being it was not the case.”
Updated
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a video posted on Telegram that the first part of talks between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had been very constructive (see earlier post at 11.12).
Separately, Russian state news agency Ria reported that Peskov said no documents are expected to be signed on conclusion of the talks, according to Reuters.
Western officials plan to warn UAE over trade with Russia - report
US, British and EU officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Officials from Washington and European capitals were visiting the UAE from Monday as part of a collective push to keep computer chips, electronic components and other so-called dual-use products out of Russian hands, the report said.
The UAE, a member of the OPEC+ oil alliance that includes Russia, has maintained good ties with Moscow despite western pressure to help to isolate Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. It has not matched global sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Updated
Russia proposed joint naval exercise with North Korea and China - reports
Russia’s defence minister proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that their countries hold a naval exercise, along with China, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, citing South Korea’s intelligence agency.
Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean war, in July when he met Kim Jong-un.
They attended a defence exhibition featuring North Korea’s banned ballistic missiles, North Korean state media reported at the time.
Yonhap reported that Shoigu had made the proposal for a three-way naval exercise to the North Korean leader during his visit, but it provided no details.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told the National Assembly that Shoigu appeared to have held a private meeting with Kim to agree on broad military expansion, Yonhap reported.
On Saturday, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, told news agency Tass that he was not aware of any plans for North Korea to participate in trilateral military drills with China and Russia.
But added that in his opinion it would be appropriate in light of US-led exercises in the region, Reuters reports.
North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006 and had been testing various missiles over recent years but it rarely holds military exercises with its neighbours.
The US and its ally, South Korea, hold regular military exercises, which North Korea denounces as preparations for war against it.
Updated
Rumours that Oleksii Reznikov was to be replaced as defence minister have swirled for months (see earlier post at 08.18), write my colleagues Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh.
Appointed in November 2021, Reznikov played a key role in building good personal relations with Ukraine’s international partners, including the US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, and the former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace.
At the same time, Reznikov’s ministry has been hit with corruption scandals.
In January two senior officials – a deputy minister and head of procurement – were dismissed after allegations the ministry had inflated contracts for food suppled to troops, including eggs.
The latest allegations involved the delivery of winter coats. The ministry is also suing to recoup money paid for weapons that were not delivered.
You can read the full story here:
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the Ukraine grain export corridor was the most important issue in his talks with Vladimir Putin on Monday, and that the message after the meeting would be a very important step.
He said in preliminary comments to Putin:
The most important step everyone is looking at in Turkey-Russia relations today is the grain corridor.
I believe the message at the news conference will be a very important step, especially for underdeveloped countries in Africa.
“I know that you intend to raise the issue of the grain deal,” Putin reportedly told Erdoğan. “We are open to negotiations on this question.”
The Black Sea grain deal – which Russia exited in July – was designed to alleviate a food crisis sparked by a Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that had frozen millions of tonnes of grain exports around the world, much of it to developing countries.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has now formally welcomed Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to talks in Sochi, saying they would discuss Ukraine and that Russia was open to talks on the Black Sea grain deal.
At the start of the talks, the Russian president said the two of them had raised relations between the two countries to a “very good, high level”.
Welcoming Erdoğan, Putin said he hoped they would wrap up talks soon on creating a “hub” in Turkey for exports of Russian gas.
Updated
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the talks between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would take place in the middle of the day, Moscow time.
Erdogan’s top economic policymakers are also visiting Russia on Monday, a Turkish official who requested anonymity told Reuters.
Finance minister Mehmet Simsek and Hafize Gaye Erkan, the central bank governor, will attend meetings.
Updated
Erdoğan arrives in Russia for talks with Putin
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has arrived in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Vladimir Putin, Turkish state media reported.
Erdogan was accompanied by a large delegation that included Turkey’s defence, foreign, energy and finance ministers, the Anadolu state news agency said.
The Turkish leader is due to make brief opening remarks before the meeting, which is due to be followed by a press conference, according to his office, AFP reports.
Turkey has been trying to revive a UN-backed agreement that allowed for the safe passage of grain from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Russia pulled out of the deal in July, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
The deal was designed to alleviate a food crisis sparked by a Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that had frozen millions of tonnes of grain exports around the world, much of it to developing countries.
Nato member Turkey is hoping to use the grain agreement as a basis for restarting peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
You can read more on why the Black Sea grain deal collapsed here:
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:
Russia has launched its second attack in two nights on Ukrainian ports, with Ukrainian officials warning residents of Izmail to remain in shelters in the early hours of Monday. Oleg Kiper, the governor of Odesa, said Moscow launched an almost two-hour drone attack on the city, one of Ukraine’s two major grain-exporting ports on the Danube River in the south of the region. The Ukrainian air force also said drones had targeted the nearby district of Kili.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 17 drones targeting the Odesa region, governor Oleg Kiper has said in a Telegram post, but added “unfortunately there were also hits”. In an update to previous posts he said the attack on Izmail had lasted a total of three and a half hours. Several buildings including warehouses were struck and agricultural machinery and industrial equipment were damaged, he said.
Russia’s overnight attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River on Monday did not generate direct military threats to neighbouring Nato state Romania’s territory, Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement. Earlier, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said drones had detonated on Romanian territory.
The abduction of Ukrainian children and their subsequent transportation to Russia is being investigated as potential genocide by an independent international commission of inquiry on Ukraine. Chairman Erik Møse told a press conference on Monday that the commission is trying to establish what has happened to the children once they enter occupied territory or Russia itself.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted his resignation letter to the chairman of parliament, he said in a post on Twitter on Monday. Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had decided to replace his wartime defence minister, the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, PA Media reports.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy previously said he planned to dismiss the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, from his post and will ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s main privatisation fund. The announcement, made in the Ukrainian president’s nightly video address to the nation, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since the war was launched by Russia in February 2022. Zelenskiy has to submit Umerov’s candidacy to parliament for review.
The Russian defence ministry claimed it had thwarted overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the border region of Kursk and on the occupied Crimean peninsula, with drones shot down by air defences. But Roman Starovoit, the governor of the Kursk region, said a Ukrainian drone attack had resulted in a fire at a non-residential building in the city of Kurchatov. There were no casualties, he said.
Russia’s defence ministry claims it has destroyed four US-made Ukrainian military boats carrying landing troops in the Black Sea. In a Telegram post, the ministry said the Willard Marine Sea Force inflatable boats were heading towards Cape Tarkhankut on the Crimean peninsula. It was not possible to verify the claim and Ukraine has not so far made any comment.
Zelenskiy and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, spoke on Sunday, discussing the “functioning” of a sea corridor set up by Kyiv for safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal in July. The phone call came on the eve of a summit in Russia between president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who wants to revive the deal.
Russia is exploiting foreign nationals in its effort to acquire more personnel for its war effort in the face of mounting casualties, and probably views millions of migrants from central Asia as potential recruits, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
Moscow has recruited 230,000 people into the army since the start of the year, ex-president and Security Council chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday according to Tass news agency. “Part of them were in the reserves, part of them volunteers and other categories,” he said during a visit to the Far Eastern Russian island of Sakhalin. It was not possible for the Guardian to verify these numbers.
Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. The detention of the one-time supporter of Zelenskiy, whose election he backed in 2019, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.
Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has told the Observer. Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy said Ukrainian forces were now pushing out on both sides of the breach and consolidating their hold on territory seized in recent fighting.
A non-residential building in the western Russian city of Kurchatov caught fire on Sunday after an attack by a Ukrainian drone but emergency services put the fire out and there were no casualties, Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region, said.
Ukraine expects a boom in drone production as early as this autumn, according to its outgoing defence minister. Reznikov told the state-run Ukrinform news agency one reason for the growth of production was that authorities had reduced various regulations and laws.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for now. My colleague Yohannes Lowe will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Romania denies Ukraine reports that Russian drones were detonated on its territory
Russia’s overnight attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River on Monday did not generate direct military threats to neighbouring Nato state Romania’s territory, Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said drones had detonated on Romanian territory.
The Romanian defence ministry’s statement “categorically denied” the reports while condemning the Russian attack, Reuters reported.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced the replacement of the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, on Sunday.
In his nightly video address Zelenskiy said that “the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society at large”.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman said Russian drones fell and detonated on Romanian territory on Monday during an overnight attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River.
Romania is a member of the Nato military alliance.
“According to Ukraine’s state border guard service, last night, during a massive Russian attack near the port of Izmail, Russian ‘Shakheds’ fell and detonated on the territory of Romania,” Ukrainian official, Oleg Nikolenko, wrote on Facebook.
“This is yet another confirmation that Russia’s missile terror poses a huge threat not only to Ukraine’s security, but also to the security of neighbouring countries, including Nato member states,” he said.
Nikolenko published a photo showing the flames of an explosion on the opposite bank of the Danube river.
An Ukrainian industry source told Reuters that two Russian drones had fallen on the Romanian side of the Danube.
Ukraine’s Danube ports, Reni and Izmail, accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal that provided safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.
The Danube ports have since become the main route out of Ukraine, with grain also sent on barges to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.
Updated
The abduction of Ukrainian children and their subsequent transportation to Russia is being investigated as potential genocide by an independent international commission of inquiry on Ukraine.
Chairman Erik Møse told a press conference on Monday that the commission is trying to establish what has happened to the children once they enter occupied territory or Russia itself.
He said:
In order to find that there is such a genocidal act with respect to the transfer of children, you would have to know exactly what is happening further on in the Russian Federation.
We have limited access to this and the information we are receiving is not always the same.
He added:
We receive some information from persons who have been able to reach from Ukrainian parents who have been able to go either into the occupied territories or even into Russia to retrieve their children or grandchildren and that gives an indication.
We will pursue these investigations and see whether, as a whole, there is an intent to destroy a group and these are the strict qualifications under the genocide convention. As of now, we have no such conclusion and our work continues.
Ukraine's defence minister submits resignation letter
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted his resignation letter to the chairman of parliament, he said in a post on Twitter on Monday.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had decided to replace his wartime defence minister, the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, PA Media reports.
He tweeted:
I have submitted my letter of resignation to Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine.
It was an honor to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the #UAarmy for the last 22 months, the toughest period of Ukraine’s modern history.
I have submitted my letter of resignation to Ruslan Stefanchuk @r_stefanchuk, Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine @verkhovna_rada
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) September 4, 2023
It was an honor to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the #UAarmy for the last 22 months, the toughest period of Ukraine’s modern history.
🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/x4rXXcrr7i
In his resignation letter, Reznikov provided an overview of his 22 months in the post, praising Ukraine’s fierce wartime resistance against Russian forces and his ministry’s lobbying efforts to secure vital military aid from the west, Reuters reported.
“Over 50% of the temporarily occupied territories by Russia have already been liberated. Every day our defenders are moving forward,” he said in the letter posted on X, formally known as Twitter.
“There is an understanding that Ukraine is a shield of Europe in the east.”
Reznikov, who has been tipped as Ukraine’s possible next ambassador to London, said he saw one of Kyiv’s key priorities as building long-term partnerships with key allies and securing “real security guarantees”.
Reznikov’s ministry has faced wartime scandals over the procurement of food and clothing, as well as allegations from some military aid NGOs that bureaucratic red tape has not been cut quickly enough. Reznikov denies wrongdoing.
He said in his resignation letter that defence procurement and purchase processes had been reformed during his tenure, and that he had fulfilled all the tasks which had been set for him when he was appointed 22 months ago.
Updated
In a dusty workshop, a unique group of Ukrainian weapons experts race to produce artillery guns that will never be fired, radar trucks that cannot detect anything, and missiles without explosives.
The pieces are decoys that aim to draw Russian fire, wasting enemy ammunition, missiles and drones while protecting real equipment and the soldiers manning it.
The team’s skill, honed over more than a year, is shaping plastic, scrap wood, foam and metal into copies of advanced weapon systems, precise enough to convince Russian operators of drone cameras and battle-seasoned troops on the ground that they are real military targets.
They measure success by how quickly their products are destroyed. “When the military come to us and says ‘we are out of these’, it means we were totally successful in our job,” says one.
A cupboard near their workshop is stuffed with expensive souvenirs of that success, including the engine and crumpled fragments of an Iranian-made Shahed suicide drone and the crashed wing of a Russian-made Lancet loitering drone, both lured to attack the fake equipment.
Earlier, the Russian defence ministry claimed it had thwarted overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the border region of Kursk and on the occupied Crimean peninsula, with drones shot down by air defences.
But Roman Starovoit, the governor of the Kursk region, said a Ukrainian drone attack had resulted in a fire at a non-residential building in the city of Kurchatov. There were no casualties, he said.
One of Russia’s biggest nuclear plants is about 4 km (2.5 miles) from Kurchatov, according to Reuters, but there were no reports the plant was affected or targeted. The news agency reported further:
Starovoit did not say which building was damaged in the Sunday evening drone attack, but Russia’s Baza news outlet, which has good sources among law enforcement agencies, said drone debris fell on the roof of the security services building.
The full extent of the damage was not immediately reported. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry claims it has destroyed four US-made Ukrainian military boats carrying landing troops in the Black Sea.
In a Telegram post, the ministry said the Willard Marine Sea Force inflatable boats were heading towards Cape Tarkhankut on the Crimean peninsula. It was not possible to verify the claim and Ukraine has not so far made any comment.
Last week the ministry said Russia had destroyed another four Ukrainian military boats carrying up to 50 soldiers in the Black Sea. That claim was also not able to be verified.
Updated
Here’s a bit more background on the upcoming meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, courtesy of AFP:
Erdoğan’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin since October comes as Russian forces try to hold off a new Kyiv offensive that has started to show promise after three months of brutal battles along Ukraine’s southern front.
The Turkish leader hopes to use the informal summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as a basis for peace negotiations that some western officials are debating, but that both sides only want held on their own terms.
Erdoğan has been one of the few leaders within the Nato defence alliance to maintain open access to Putin.
The two leaders have had a close but tempestuous relationship that appears to have grown stronger since Russia launched its “special military operation” in February 2022.
Putin’s decision to discount and delay Turkey’s payments for Russian gas imports helped ease an economic crisis that almost kept Erdogan from winning re-election in May.
Turkey reciprocated by refusing to join western sanctions on Moscow and becoming a crucial venue for Russia to access services and goods.
But Erdoğan has also irritated Putin by supplying Ukraine with weapons and backing its ambitions to join Nato.
The Kremlin grew particularly angry when Erdoğan in July allowed visiting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to bring back five commanders that Russia sent to Turkey in a major prisoner swap.
The commanders were meant to stay in Turkey and the Kremlin warned that it would “take this into account in our future agreements” with Erdogan.
Yet both Moscow and Kyiv are now seeking Erdoğan’s backing in their standoff over grain and hostilities in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 17 drones targeting the Odesa region, governor Oleg Kiper has said in a Telegram post, but added “unfortunately there were also hits”.
In an update to previous posts he said the attack on Izmail had lasted a total of three and a half hours. Several buildings including warehouses were struck and agricultural machinery and industrial equipment were damaged, he said.
Several fires also broke out in civilian residences due to falling debris, he said, but they had since been put out. There were no deaths or injuries.
Russia launches overnight assault on Danube port of Izmail
Russia has launched its second attack in two nights on Ukrainian ports, with Ukrainian officials warning residents of Izmail to remain in shelters in the early hours of Monday.
Oleg Kiper, the governor of Odesa, said Moscow launched an almost two-hour drone attack on the city, one of Ukraine’s two major grain-exporting ports on the Danube River in the south of the region. The Ukrainian air force also said drones had targeted the nearby district of Kili.
A day earlier, Russia attacked the Danube port of Reni. The defence ministry in Moscow said the drones had struck fuel depots used by the Ukrainian military.
Russia has increasingly targeted port infrastructure since July, when it pulled out of the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that had allowed Ukraine to export its grain via its Black Sea ports.
Monday’s assault comes just hours ahead of a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at which the Turk is expected to push to revive the deal.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
Russia has launched an attack on a Ukrainian port critical to the country’s grain exports hours ahead of a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Ankara is keen to use the meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to revive a deal that had allowed Kyiv to export its grain via its Black Sea ports but which Moscow refused to renew in July.
In the early hours of Monday, Odesa governor Oleg Kiper warned residents of Izmail, a port on the Danube River in the region’s south, to remain in shelters as Moscow launched a drone attack that continued for “almost two hours”. No information about casualties or damage to infrastructure was immediately available.
The attack came a day after Russia targeted the Danube port of Reni, saying its drones had hit a fuel depot used by the Ukrainian military. That assault was condemned by Romania, which is just across the river, and Moldova, which is just miles away to the north.
In other developments:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he plans to dismiss the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, from his post and will ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s main privatisation fund. The announcement, made in the Ukrainian president’s nightly video address to the nation, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since the war was launched by Russia in February 2022. Zelenskiy has to submit Umerov’s candidacy to parliament for review.
Zelenskiy and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, spoke on Sunday, discussing the “functioning” of a sea corridor set up by Kyiv for safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal in July. The phone call came on the eve of a summit in Russia between president Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who wants to revive the deal.
Russia is exploiting foreign nationals in its effort to acquire more personnel for its war effort in the face of mounting casualties, and probably views millions of migrants from central Asia as potential recruits, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
Moscow has recruited 230,000 people into the army since the start of the year, ex-president and Security Council chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday according to Tass news agency. “Part of them were in the reserves, part of them volunteers and other categories,” he said during a visit to the Far Eastern Russian island of Sakhalin. It was not possible for the Guardian to verify these numbers.
Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky has been arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. The detention of the one-time supporter of Zelenskiy, whose election he backed in 2019, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.
Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has told the Observer. Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy said Ukrainian forces were now pushing out on both sides of the breach and consolidating their hold on territory seized in recent fighting.
A non-residential building in the western Russian city of Kurchatov caught fire on Sunday after an attack by a Ukrainian drone but emergency services put the fire out and there were no casualties, Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region, said.
Ukraine expects a boom in drone production as early as this autumn, according to its outgoing defence minister. Reznikov told the state-run Ukrinform news agency one reason for the growth of production was that authorities had reduced various regulations and laws.
Updated
