Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has reportedly departed for Russia for a for what the Kremlin say will be a ‘full-scale visit’ with a ‘formal lunch’ with Vladimir Putin. “It will be a full-scale visit. A formal lunch is also planned,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said. In the US, the Pentagon spokesperson Brig Gen Pat Ryder said: “We do expect some type of meeting [and] based on the information we’ve been provided, KJU is travelling to Russia.”
Putin, meanwhile, has already arrived on his two-day trip to Vladivostok to attend the Eastern economic forum (EEF).
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the “decision-making process in Germany is moving forward” regarding the supply of Taurus missiles after a meeting with the country’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock. Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged Berlin to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Baerbock has said that Ukraine’s place is in the EU during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday morning. Ukraine can “rely on us and on our understanding of EU enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war,” Baerbock said upon arrival. Ukraine already has candidate status, said Baerbock. “And now we are preparing to take a decision on opening EU accession talks.”
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said Russia targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles last month. Speaking to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sunak said: “I can tell the House today that thanks to declassified intelligence, we know the Russian military targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles on 24 August.”
Ukrainian intelligence services claim the country has recaptured oil and gas drilling platforms near the shores of occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, reported Monday that overnight there were no casualties in the region, despite Russian attacks. On Telegram he posted to say that some residential buildings and gas pipes were damaged after “the enemy attacked Dnipropetrovsk region with attack drones, guided missiles from tactical aircraft, and artillery”. He claimed that Ukrainian air defences had shot down 11 “Shahed” drones over the region.
An adviser to the acting head of the Russian-controlled occupied region of Donetsk has told Russian news agency Tass that Ukrainian forces have transferred a lot of equipment to Avdiivka. Yan Gagin told Tass “A large amount of Nato equipment, heavy weapons and a large number of Ukrainian armed forces personnel have now been transferred there. The enemy is preparing attacks in the Donetsk direction.”
Russia is sticking to plans to reduce its budget deficit in the coming years, the finance minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. Reuters reports he said the country will ensure that key areas, including national security and the armed forces, remain well funded.
Rheinmetall has reached an agreement to supply Ukraine with a further 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Late on Sunday night, Zelenskiy paid his condolences to the families of two foreign aid workers whose van was hit by a Russian anti-tank missile on Donetsk on Sunday. The Ukrainian president said Anthony Ignat of Canada was killed, and that it was “likely” that Emma Igual of Spain had also died in the attack. Two other volunteers – German citizen Mawick Ruben and Swedish citizen Johan Mathias – were seriously injured and are being treated in hospitals in Dnipro. The four volunteers were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar.
Updated
Kim Jong-un's Russia trip will be a 'full-scale visit' with a 'formal lunch', Kremlin says
Reuters reports that the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said Kim Jong-un’s trip to Russia and meeting with Vladimir Putin will be a full-scale visit.
“It will be a full-scale visit. A formal lunch is also planned,” Peskov said. Video of his remarks were posted to social media by a Russian television journalist.
Updated
Russia targeted civilian cargo ship with missiles last month, UK says
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said Russia targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles last month.
Speaking to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sunak said: “I can tell the House today that thanks to declassified intelligence, we know the Russian military targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with multiple missiles on 24 August.”
A statement released by the UK Foreign Office said the attacks were “thwarted by Ukrainian forces who shot down multiple missiles heading towards Odesa port”.
“The missiles, which included two Kalibr missiles fired from a Black Sea fleet missile carrier, were successfully shot down by Ukraine’s forces on 24 August,” the statement said.
“Intelligence shows that an intended target was a Liberian-flagged cargo ship berthed in the port,” the statement added.
Updated
US says Kim Jong-un is travelling to Russia
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is travelling to Russia, the Pentagon said on Monday, according to Reuters.
“We do expect some type of meeting [and] based on the information we’ve been provided, KJU is travelling to Russia,” the Pentagon spokesperson Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters.
Ryder declined to provide more details but said the US remained concerned that North Korea was contemplating providing material support to Russia.
Pyongyang and Moscow on Monday confirmed a summit with Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s deepening isolation over the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Zelenskiy suggests Germany moving closer to supplying Kyiv with long-range missiles
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the “decision-making process in Germany is moving forward” regarding the supply of Taurus missiles after a meeting with the country’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, the BBC’s diplomatic editor, Paul Adams, has said.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged Berlin to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
“You will do it anyway, it’s just a matter of time, and I don’t understand why we are wasting time,” he said in response to a question at a news conference in Kyiv.
After talks with Germany's Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, President Zelensky suggests Germany is edging closer to supplying long-range #Taurus missiles. "The decision-making process in Germany is moving forward." pic.twitter.com/CxQGwKgLzO
— Paul Adams (@BBCPaulAdams) September 11, 2023
Updated
Reuters reports that Sweden has again boosted its planned defence budget for 2024, taking the total planned increase for the year to 27bn crowns ($2.44bn) and exceeding the Nato threshold of 2% of GDP.
The Swedish defence minister, Pål Jonson, announced that Sweden would add 700m crowns to defence in its upcoming autumn budget, lifting overall defence spending to 119bn crowns in 2024, almost double that of 2020.
Jonson told a news conference: “We are in the most serious security policy situation since the end of the second world war.”
Updated
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has issued an image which it claims shows the aftermath of an overnight attack on the village of Chaikine in the Chernihiv region.
In an accompanying social media message, the ministry stated that Russia continued to “deliberately attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine”, describing the Russian strategy as terrorism. It said there were no casualties in the incident.
Their only strategy is terrorism. ruscists continue to deliberately attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Last night, in the village of Chaikine, Chernihiv region, a russian Shahed-136/131 attack UAV destroyed an apartment building. Fortunately, there were no victims. pic.twitter.com/459btFrYbb
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 11, 2023
Updated
Ukraine’s military claimed on Monday it expected Russia would launch a big mobilisation campaign soon to try to recruit hundreds of thousands of additional soldiers from inside Russia and occupied Ukraine.
“A mass forced mobilisation of the population is expected soon in the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine due to the occupiers’ catastrophic losses,” Reuters reports the general staff said in a battlefield roundup.
The mobilisation campaign could target between 400,000 and 700,000 recruits, it said, citing different estimates.
However, it provided no evidence for the claim.
Earlier today, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence briefing that it believed Russia would probably seek to avoid “further unpopular mobilisations” in the run-up to Russia’s next presidential election, which is expected in March 2024.
Updated
Germany will provide an additional €20m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Monday during a visit to Kyiv.
The additional aid will bring Germany’s total to €380m this year, the minister said.
Baerbock also warned that Russia would again target Ukraine’s energy facilities this autumn and winter: “Russia’s perfidious goal is to starve the people again this winter and to let them freeze to death.”
Updated
'You will do it anyway, it’s just a matter of time', Ukraine's foreign minister says urging Germany to send Taurus missiles
Ukraine’s foreign minister said he discussed air defence supplies with his German counterpart in Kyiv on Monday and that Ukraine needed more systems to protect its ports from Russian airstrikes to ensure grain could be exported, Reuters reports.
Dmytro Kuleba also urged Berlin to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
“You will do it anyway, it’s just a matter of time, and I don’t understand why we are wasting time,” he said in response to a question at a news conference in Kyiv.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has rowed back on comments suggesting Vladimir Putin would be able to attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest.
The international criminal court (ICC) has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and, as a signatory of the Rome statute, Brazil must cooperate with the court. But on Saturday Lula told an Indian interviewer there was “no reason” Putin would be detained if he travelled to the November 2024 summit in Brazil.
On Monday, Lula backtracked after an outcry. “If Putin decides to go to Brazil, it’s the justice system that will take the decision over whether he should be arrested, not the government or congress,” Lula told reporters. “I didn’t even know this court existed,” he added of the ICC.
Lula has irked western leaders who support Ukraine’s fight against Russia with his refusal to take a clear side in the war or supply Kyiv with weapons. Lula has attempted to position himself as a potential peacebroker between Moscow and Kyiv, arguing some countries must remain “neutral” if peace is to be achieved.
However, many believe Brazil’s stance is partly explained by its heavy reliance on Russian fertilizer for its powerful agribusiness sector. About a quarter of Brazil’s fertilizer imports come from Russia. On Saturday Lula said he planned to attend next year’s Brics summit in Russia, before the G20. Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, visited Putin in Moscow just days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry has said air defences shot down a Ukrainian drone over Russia’s western Kursk region, Reuters reports, citing the RIA news agency.
Updated
King Jong-un will visit Russia and meet with Vladimir Putin in coming days, Kremlin and North Korean state news say
The Kremlin has confirmed that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will visit Russia in the coming days at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports.
The North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reports that Kim will meet and have talks with Putin during his trip.
Updated
Reuters reports that EU sanctions against those responsible for elections held in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine are conceivable, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, appears to have departed for Russia by train for a meeting with Vladimir Putin, South Korean media reported, amid concerns in the west that Pyongyang plans to provide weapons to Moscow to use in the war against Ukraine.
According to the South Korean broadcaster YTN, an armoured train carrying Kim was headed on Monday to North Korea’s north-eastern border, with a meeting likely to be held in the Russian port city of Vladivostok as early as Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Kim was expected to visit the far east “in the coming days”.
The White House said last week it had intelligence that showed Russia was looking to purchase additional artillery shells from North Korea to shore up its defence industrial base.
Summary of the day so far …
South Korean media has reported that a North Korean train presumed to be carrying leader Kim Jong-un has departed for Russia for a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday.
Putin, meanwhile, has already arrived on his two-day trip to Vladivostok to attend the Eastern economic forum (EEF).
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said that Ukraine’s place is in the EU during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday morning. Ukraine can “rely on us and on our understanding of EU enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war,” Baerbock said upon arrival. Ukraine already has candidate status, said Baerbock. “And now we are preparing to take a decision on opening EU accession talks.”
Ukrainian intelligence services claim the country has recaptured oil and gas drilling platforms near the shores of occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, reported Monday that overnight there were no casualties in the region, despite Russian attacks. On Telegram he posted to say that some residential buildings and gas pipes were damaged after “the enemy attacked Dnipropetrovsk region with attack drones, guided missiles from tactical aircraft, and artillery”. He claimed that Ukrainian air defences had shot down 11 “Shahed” drones over the region.
An adviser to the acting head of the Russian-controlled occupied region of Donetsk has told Russian news agency Tass that Ukrainian forces have transferred a lot of equipment to Avdiivka. Yan Gagin told Tass “A large amount of Nato equipment, heavy weapons and a large number of Ukrainian armed forces personnel have now been transferred there. The enemy is preparing attacks in the Donetsk direction.”
Russia is sticking to plans to reduce its budget deficit in the coming years, the finance minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. Reuters reports he said the country will ensure that key areas, including national security and the armed forces, remain well funded.
Rheinmetall has reached an agreement to supply Ukraine with a further 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Late on Sunday night, Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid his condolences to the families of two foreign aid workers whose van was hit by a Russian anti-tank missile on Donetsk on Sunday. The Ukrainian president said Anthony Ignat of Canada was killed, and that it was “likely” that Emma Igual of Spain had also died in the attack. Two other volunteers –German citizen Mawick Ruben and Swedish citizen Johan Mathias – were seriously injured and are being treated in hospitals in Dnipro. The four volunteers were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back with you later on. Taking over from me for the next few hours is Sammy Gecsoyler.
Citing officials, Suspilne reports that the Russian army has been shelling the centre of Kherson and the coastal areas of the region from the occupied left bank of the Dnipro River.
Updated
Explosions have been heard in Kherson, according to local reports from Suspilne. This is not an unusual occurrence, as the city sits right on the frontline between the Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied portions of the region.
Tass reports that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has arrived on a two-day trip to Vladivostok to attend the Eastern economic forum (EEF).
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is reported to be on a train to Russia in order to meet with Putin while he is in the region.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, citing Ukraine’s intelligence services, reports that Ukraine has recaptured oil and gas drilling platforms near the shores of occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.
More details soon …
Kim Jong-un reported to be on train en route to Russia for meeting with Putin
South Korean media has reported that a North Korean train presumed to be carrying leader Kim Jong-un has departed for Russia for a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the train likely left the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting is possible as early as Tuesday. The Yonhap news agency and some other media published similar report, the AP writes.
It would be the reclusive leader’s second visit to Russia. He previously visited in 2019, arriving at Khasan station, and then visiting Vladivostok.
Several sources have also told Russian news agency Interfax that the leader was expected in Russia’s far east in the coming days.
The US has been accusing North Korea since last year of providing Russia with arms, including artillery shells sold to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Both Russian and North Korean officials denied such claims.
An adviser to the acting head of the Russian-controlled occupied region of Donetsk has told Russian news agency Tass that Ukrainian forces have transferred a lot of equipment to Avdiivka.
Yan Gagin told Tass:
Our intelligence data indicates the strengthening of the enemy group near Avdiivka. A large amount of Nato equipment, heavy weapons and a large number of Ukrainian armed forces personnel have now been transferred there. The enemy is preparing attacks in the Donetsk direction.
Gagin reportedly said that the intensity of fighting in this sector had increased.
The claims have not been independently verified.
An air raid alert has been declared in Kherson.
Russia is sticking to plans to reduce its budget deficit in the coming years, the finance minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday. Reuters reports he said the country will ensure that key areas, including national security and the armed forces, remain well funded.
Updated
If Kim Jong-un is on his way to Russia, as reported, he will probably arrive in Vladivostok. Reuters reports that there was a higher police presence than usual on the streets of the city but no North Korean flags had been put up, which was done the last time he visited the country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have departed for Russia on a train for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reports, citing South Korean broadcaster YTN.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that Rheinmetall has reached an agreement to supply Ukraine with a further 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
German foreign minister: EU enlargement to include Ukraine 'necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war'
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said that Ukraine’s place is in the EU during her unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday morning.
Ukraine can “rely on us and on our understanding of EU enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war,” Reuters reports Baerbock said upon arrival.
Ukraine already has candidate status, said Baerbock. “And now we are preparing to take a decision on opening EU accession talks.”
On judicial reform and media legislation, Ukraine’s reform results are already impressive, she said.
But the foreign minister added there is still a long way to go in the implementation of the anti-oligarch law and the fight against corruption.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced trip. It is her fourth such visit since the war began.
Updated
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, has reported that overnight there were no casualties in the region, despite Russian attacks.
On Telegram he posted to say that some residential buildings and gas pipes were damaged after “the enemy attacked Dnipropetrovsk region with attack drones, guided missiles from tactical aircraft, and artillery”.
He claimed that Ukrainian air defences had shot down 11 “Shahed” drones over the region.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has used his social media channels to again call for renewed sanctions against Russia. He posted to Telegram to say that:
Our task is to make these zombies [Russian soldiers] fight with spears against modern weapons. The more [the Russians] spend efforts on killing, the stronger the sanctions should be against the military industry, energy and all sectors that provide the enemy with missiles and attack UAVs. Quantity is always destroyed by quality.
In its latest intelligence briefing on the war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that conscription in Russia has worsened “non-defence workforce shortages”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 11 September 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 11, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/38oaXNIpgS
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/LIJEaPJZ2C
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
I’ll now pass the reins to my colleague Martin Belam. Thanks for following along.
Brazil’s Lula backtracks on Putin’s safety at Rio G20
News via AFP:
Brazil’s leader withdrew on Monday his personal assurance that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would not be arrested if he attends next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, saying it would be up to the judiciary to decide.
Putin missed this year’s gathering in the Indian capital New Delhi, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
Brazil is an ICC member but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva raised eyebrows at the weekend when he told Indian news network Firstpost: “If I’m the president of Brazil and if he comes to Brazil, there’s no way that he will be arrested.”
He changed tack on Monday, telling reporters: “I don’t know if Brazil’s justice will detain him. It’s the judiciary that decides, it’s not the government.”
Putin has skipped recent international gatherings and sent his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to New Delhi instead for the September 9-10 G20 meeting, even though India is not an ICC signatory.
In March, the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Putin over the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. The Kremlin denies the accusations, insisting the warrant against Putin is “void”.
Updated
Watered-down G20 statement on Ukraine is sign of India’s growing influence
In case you missed it, my colleague Patrick Wintour has written an analysis piece on why the G20 statement on Ukraine – which softened the language around Russia’s role in the Ukraine war compared to last year - is sign of India’s growing influence.
Wintour writes:
The outcome obviously reflects India’s rigid determination not to take sides in the war, but it is extraordinary that the majority of countries at the G20 that do oppose Russia’s war of conquest were so prepared to be muzzled by the minority that prefer to look away.
A UK official said the joint declaration, widely seen as weak, was in fact effective at putting pressure on Moscow. “By achieving consensus in New Delhi, the G20 has forced [Vladimir] Putin to commit to a cessation of attacks on infrastructure, to the withdrawal of troops and to the return of territory,” they said.
[Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei] Lavrov, unsurprisingly, did not share this interpretation. “We were able to prevent the west’s attempts to ‘Ukrainise’ the summit agenda,” the veteran diplomat said, calling the two-day gathering a success. He pointed out: “The text doesn’t mention Russia at all.”
The compromise must be hard for Ukraine to take, and will only increase its nervousness that the next diplomatic staging post – an EU decision on Ukraine’s accession in December– will be equally empty. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the G20 had “nothing to be proud of”.
Read more of Wintour’s take here:
Exclusive: Zelenskiy urged to intervene in case of British soldier who deserted to fight in Ukraine
A decorated Ukrainian commander has urged Volodymyr Zelenskiy to intervene in the case of a British soldier who has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after deserting his unit to go to fight in Ukraine.
Alexander Garms-Rizzi, 21, slipped away from his regiment while it was deployed in Estonia and joined Ukraine’s foreign legion. He spent six months fighting on the frontline near the southern city of Mykolaiv before returning to the UK.
In July, he became the first British soldier to be imprisoned for deserting the army and signing up with Ukraine’s armed forces. He had defied orders and created a “security risk”, a tribunal was told.
Roman Kostenko, a politician and special forces colonel, said Garms-Rizzi had served in Ukraine under his personal command. He has written to Zelenskiy and asked him to raise Garms-Rizzi’s imprisonment with Downing Street.
The letter reads:
I had the opportunity to meet him personally on the battlefield and watch how he, as part of a group, selflessly and bravely defended our lands. Despite his young age, and at that time he was 19 years old, he understood the strategic importance of defending Ukraine.
I ask you to appeal to the leadership of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with a request to consider the possibility of a pardon.
More on this story from my colleagues Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh here:
Russia says it destroyed Ukraine-launched drones over Belgorod region
News via Reuters:
Russia’s air defence systems destroyed two Ukraine-launched drones over the Belgorod region in the early hours of Monday, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, said in a statement on Telegram that there were no injuries and drone debris fell on a road in the Yakovlevsky district.
Zelenskiy pays tribute to foreign aid workers
Late on Sunday night, Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid his condolences to the families of two foreign aid workers whose van was hit by a Russian anti-tank missile on Donetsk on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president said Anthony Ignat of Canada was killed, and that it was “likely” that Emma Igual of Spain had also died in the attack. Two other volunteers –German citizen Mawick Ruben and Swedish citizen Johan Mathias - were seriously injured and are being treated in hospitals in Dnipro. The four volunteers were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar, according to the Associated Press.
“This Russian shelling once again confirms how close the war against Ukraine is to everyone in the world who truly values human life and who believes it is the common moral duty of humanity to stop terror and defeat evil,” he said in a Telegram post.
Ukraine’s summer offensive probably has a “reasonable amount of time, probably about 30 to 45 days, worth of fighting weather left”, the head of the US military has said. Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Gen Mark Milley said: “That offensive kicked off about 90 days ago. It has gone slower than the planners anticipated. But that is a difference between what Clausewitz called war on paper and real war. So these are real people in real vehicles that are fighting through real minefields, and there’s real death and destruction, and there’s real friction.”
The US deputy secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, has said Washington is “impressed” by the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Nuland, deputy to Antony Blinken, said Russia’s defences were on the largest scale seen in 100 years. “We need to understand what Ukraine needs to clear these defences, and we cannot do that until Ukraine confronts the defences. We got a good sense of what was needed when we were here.” She added: “If Ukraine does not win, if Putin succeeds, this type of evil will be normalised across the world. Ukraine stands on the right side of democracy and needs our support.”
Ukraine’s newly nominated defence minister, Rustem Umerov, has called on Kyiv’s partners to increase deliveries of heavy weapons, amid a long and difficult counteroffensive against Russian forces. “We are grateful for all the support provided … we need more heavy weapons,” Umerov said in an embargoed speech released on Saturday.
Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, on Sunday spoke at the Yalta European strategy forum in Kyiv, which gathered Ukrainian and international policymakers to discuss the progress of the war. Budanov had this to say on Russia’s tactics: “In terms of creativity and flexibility, we still have an edge over them, they are rather outdated. But they are adapting, they are trying to change tactics, to alter the way they use forces, they miserably fail with their strategy, but their tactics do have some improvements.”
Ukraine said air defence systems stopped 25 out of 32 Iran-made Shahed drones launched by Russia in a wave aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Reuters witnesses heard at least five blasts across Kyiv, and Ukrainian media footage showed cars damaged. “Drones came on to the capital in groups and from different directions,” Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said on Telegram.
Residents and Ukrainian activists have alleged that Russian poll workers made house calls with armed soldiers detaining those who refuse to vote in the sham elections that Russia is imposing in occupied regions of Ukraine. People are put under pressure to write “explanatory statements” that could be used as grounds for a criminal case.
Russia has meanwhile said there were efforts to sabotage the illegitimate elections – including a drone strike destroying one polling station in Zaporizhzhia province in the hours before it opened on Sunday.
At the G20, both the US and Russia praised a consensus that did not condemn Moscow for the war in Ukraine but called on members to shun the use of force.
Vladimir Putin can attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said as he took leadership of the forum. Putin is charged with war crimes before the international criminal court (ICC). Lula – who has controversially tried to position himself as a peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv – said: “What I can tell you is that, if I’m Brazil’s president, and if he comes to Brazil, there’s no reason he’ll be arrested.” Brazil is a member of the ICC.
The Romanian foreign ministry has called in the head of Russia’s mission in Bucharest to complain about the discovery of more fragments of a Russian drone thought to have been used in an attack on Ukraine. Romanian government minister Iulian Fota said he was unhappy about the apparent violation of Romania’s airspace. It is the second discovery of its kind in Romanian territory this week.
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, said on Sunday that South Korea would provide an additional $2bn in aid to Ukraine starting in 2025, in addition to the $300m previously pledged for next year, Yonhap news reported. Yoon made the comment at a session of the G20 summit held in Delhi, India.
The International Atomic Energy Agency warned of a potential threat to nuclear safety after a surge in fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The UN atomic watchdog said its experts at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant reported hearing explosions over the past week.
This is Jordyn Beazley, here to cover the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.
Updated
