Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine has launched a surprise counterattack in the north-east Kharkiv region, stretching Russian forces who are also facing Ukrainian attacks in the south. An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said Ukrainian forces “encircled” Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 people situated between Kharkiv and Russian-occupied Izium.
Ukrainian forces are planning for a long and brutal campaign with the goal of taking back most of the Russian-occupied region of Kherson by the end of the year, according to reports. Ukraine’s goal of recapturing Kherson by the end of 2022 is ambitious but possible, US officials said.
Ukrainian troops could be in a position to seize the entire right bank of the Dnieper River, including Kherson city, by October, according to a former French general. Ukrainian forces have methodically prepared their counterattack in the southern Kherson region, launching offensives on “almost the entire southern frontline”, Gen Dominique Trinquand, former head of the French military mission to the UN, said.
Ukraine’s top military chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, has claimed responsibility for a series of strikes on Russian airbases in Crimea. The strikes used missiles or rockets and 10 warplanes were destroyed, he said. The attacks Zaluzhnyi took responsibility for reportedly included the devastating August strike on the Saki military facility.
Russia has reportedly resumed shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a day after the UN called for a demilitarised zone around the plant. A local official said the city of Nikopol – on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Zaporizhzhia – was fired on with rockets and heavy artillery. The report has not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has urged residents of Russian-occupied areas around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to evacuate for their own safety. The town of Enerhodar, which serves the nuclear plant, has come under fire from Russian forces and lost electricity, according to its exiled Ukrainian mayor.
Ukraine’s nuclear chief has said he would support the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). Remarks by Petro Kotyn, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom, came a day after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for a demilitarised zone around the nuclear plant, involving the withdrawal of Russian occupying troops and the agreement of Ukrainian forces not to move in.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned we are facing “a very grave danger” as shelling continues at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. In his first television interview since leading an expert mission to the Russian-held plant, Rafael Grossi said what was “urgently needed” was to establish a protection or shield around the perimeter of the facility.
The head of the EU executive has set out plans for windfall taxes, mandatory electricity savings and a cap on the price of Russian gas to limit Kremlin revenues used to finance the “atrocious” war in Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen outlined a five-point plan in response to an energy price crisis, driven by the Russian shutdown of the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline but exacerbated by the climate crisis and lingering effects of the Covid pandemic.
Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut off energy supplies if price caps are imposed on Russia’s oil and gas exports. Russia would walk away from its supply contracts if the west went ahead with its plans, Putin said, warning that Russia would “sentence the wolf’s tail to be frozen”.
The leader of Russia’s governing party has proposed that a referendum should be held in occupied regions of Ukraine on 4 November on whether to become part of Russia. Andrei Turchak, head of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, said it would be “correct and symbolic” to hold votes on that date, a Russian public holiday which is celebrated as the Day of National Unity.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan next week, according to a Russian official. The pair plan to meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on 15-16 September, Russia’s ambassador to China Andrei Denisov told reporters. It would the first face-to-face between the two leaders since Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine in February.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have reached an agreement in principle to restrict the entry of Russian citizens travelling from Russia and Belarus, the Latvian foreign minister said. Edgars Rinkēvičs said the increase of border crossings by Russian citizens was “a public security issue […] also an issue of a moral and political nature”.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thank you for reading.
Updated
James Cleverly has reaffirmed the UK’s “steadfast support” for Ukraine in his first call as foreign secretary.
The Foreign Office said he spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart on Wednesday.
In a statement shared on social media, Cleverly said:
I just spoke to Dmytro Kuleba in my first call as foreign secretary.
I reaffirmed the UK’s steadfast support for Ukraine as they resist Putin’s barbaric invasion.
What happens in Ukraine matters to us all and I will do everything possible to assist their fight for freedom.
