Summary
Thank you for reading today’s Ukraine live blog. We will have more updates tomorrow. It is nearly 1am in Ukraine here’s what has happened in the ongoing conflict today.
Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have taken back 2,400 square miles of Russian-held territory, Reuters reports.
Russian troops have left behind stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies following Ukraine’s days long counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.
The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.
Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President Vladimir Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens.”
Updated
Ukraine is looking for tens of thousands of children in the country’s orphanage system who have been displaced by the months long war happening in the country, according to an in-depth investigation by Reuters.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says they have lost track of that at least 26,000 children who, instead of being moved within Ukraine’s orphanage system, were reunited with their parents and legal guardians once Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The United Nations worry that the lack record-keeping and follow-up by Ukrainian officials can put orphaned children at risk of violence, exploitation and human trafficking.
Ukraine’s National Social Service (NSS), tasked with overseeing children’s rights, said it had done “everything possible to preserve the lives and health of children and prevent them from being left in the epicenter of hostilities.” It said that support for families is provided by specialized social services, and that it was working to resolve problems,” Reuters reports.
Read the rest of this investigation here.
Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have taken back 2,400 square miles of Russian-held territory, Reuters reports.
Since the beginning of September and up to today, our fighters have liberated more than 6,000 square km (2,400 sq. miles) of the territory of Ukraine in the south and in the east,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video. “The advances of our forces continue.”
Updated
Russian troops have left behind stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies following Ukraine’s days long counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports.
More from the story:
Liberated Kharkiv Oblast residents from Zaliznychne told the Washington Post that Russians dropped their weapons on the ground when they fled, with some jumping onto stolen bicycles, trying to pass for locals.
Vehicular losses were also great. Many pictures of Kharkiv Oblast showed abandoned Russian assets ranging from main battle tanks to engineering vehicles, self-propelled mortars and supply trucks.
Analyst Jakub Janovsky estimated that Russia lost a total of 336 fighting vehicles in the country from Sept. 7-11. A full 102 vehicles were lost on Sept. 11 alone, most of them in Kharkiv Oblast.”
Read the rest of Kyiv Independent’s reporting here.
Lend-lease from Russians
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) September 10, 2022
Ukrainian soldiers showed the full Russian ammunition depot that they captured in the Kharkiv direction during the offensive. The "gift" Russian left have been already loaded for the proper use in the next battles. pic.twitter.com/oEO0pF5jJE
Updated
It’s just after 11 PM in Ukraine. I am Abené Clayton and will be taking over the blog for the next hour. The impact of recent counteroffensive operations seems to have swung the pendulum in favor of Ukrainian forces, though it remains unclear how much their gains will impact the ultimate trajectory of the more than six month conflict.
Other notable happenings from the war include:
The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.
The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.
Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens.
Retreating Russian forces have crossed border back into Russia - US military official
The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Overall we assess the Ukrainians are making progress as they fight to liberate and reclaim territory in the south and east.
On the ground in the vicinity of Kharkiv we assess that Russian forces have largely ceded their gains to the Ukrainians and have withdrawn to the north and east. Many of these forces have moved over the border into Russia,” the US military official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, without offering a number.
We’ll bring more details on this shortly.
NEW: Russia's low troop morale, logistics issues, and the inability to sustain operations helped contribute to losses of occupied territory to Ukraine in Kharkiv region in recent days: senior U.S. military official
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) September 12, 2022
Here’s another voice.
#Ukraine has presented #Russia|n forces w/"multiple dilemmas" per senior US military official
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 12, 2022
Russia's ceding ground in #Kharkiv area "indicative" of morale & other issues, per the official
Updated
The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.
As Ukrainian troops retook a wide swath of territory from Russia on Monday, pushing all the way back to the north-eastern border in some places, it was not yet clear if the Ukrainian blitz could signal a turning point in the war.
Momentum has switched back and forth before, but rarely with such a big and sudden swing.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich did not specify the number of Russian prisoners but said the POWs would be exchanged for Ukrainian service members held by Moscow.
Military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov said the captured troops included “significant” numbers of Russian officers.
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister accused fleeing Russian forces of burning official documents and concealing bodies in an attempt to cover up rights violations in the areas they controlled until last week.
Here is some footage with subtitles (and a warning of blurred images of bodies) tweeted by the UK’s Sky News from its reporter in Zaliznychne, which the channel explains is a rural village that was occupied after the Russian invasion and until three days ago.
Sky's Deborah Haynes was granted access to Zaliznychne, a rural village that three days earlier was occupied by the Russians.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 12, 2022
Residents there spoke of relief that they have gone - and gave rare testimony about what has been unfolding.
More here: https://t.co/X3flQUBL0r pic.twitter.com/XOy6EdtBQC
Updated
There’s more detail from Ukraine’s advance to the Russian border, as reported by the Associated Press, quoting residents of the Kharkiv region.
“The Russians were here in the morning. Then at noon, they suddenly started shouting wildly and began to run away, charging off in tanks and armored vehicles,” Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of Zaliznychne, a small town near the eastern front line, said.
Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Kharkiv region, said that “in some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation”.
And a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as “they understand the hopelessness of their situation”.
Video taken by the Ukrainian military showed soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over battle-damaged buildings. In one scene, a fighter wiped his boots on a Russian flag on the ground. Other videos showed Ukrainians inspecting the wreckage of Russian military vehicles, including tanks.
Efforts to disarm landmines were under way in the recaptured areas, along with a search for any remaining Russian troops, Ukrainian military officials said.
Updated
Here’s the Guardian’s editorial on the counteroffensive in Ukraine: “A stunning breakthrough that could be a game-changer for Kyiv”.
Read more here:
Summary
It is 9pm in Ukraine.
The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday. This information could not be corroborated. The Kremlin has yet to respond.
Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. “We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens. We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of President of the Russian Federation!” read the statement published by Ksenia Torstrem, the municipal deputy of the Semenovsky district of St Petersburg.
Ukrainian forces have gained significant ground these past few days, particularly in the Kharkiv region. Today, it appears they continued to make great strides, reaching the border at one more location in the Kharkiv region: near the village of Ternova.
Meanwhile, just today, Russia launched five missile strikes, more than 10 airstrikes and more than 20 attacks from rocket systems on military and civilian targets in Ukraine, the general staff of the country’s armed forces said. After knocking out the power and water supply once again to the Kharkiv region with earlier missile strikes, Russian forces continued its offensive on the city, this time directing its shelling toward the residential Nemyshlyansky district.
Authorities found the bodies of four tortured civilians in the recently recaptured Kharkiv town of Zaliznychne, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said. The discovery is an echo of the war crimes uncovered after Ukrainian troops retook Bucha and other areas around Kyiv.
Russian soldiers engaged in mass looting as they fled Kharkiv oblast, the defence intelligence unit of Ukraine’s defence ministry said. Soldiers loaded “generators, telephones and computers taken from Ukrainians into their cars. Rare cases of school robberies have been recorded, even horizontal bars and sports equipment were taken out of gyms”.
18 municipal deputies of Moscow, St Petersburg demand Putin resign
Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign.
“We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens. We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of President of the Russian Federation!” read the statement published by Ksenia Torstrem, the municipal deputy of the Semenovsky district of St Petersburg.
“It is difficult to speak out publicly because of the repression. Therefore, we came up with such a concise text,” Torstrem told the The Insider. “Deputies are not yet forbidden to have an opinion. And it is also not forbidden to speak for the resignation of the president. He is not a monarch, but a hired worker, receives a salary from our taxes.
“Our function is to represent the interests of the people, and we see that the people are not satisfied. And our people are the source of power according to the Constitution. I personally do not understand the motives of Vladimir Putin’s actions. I think you can’t be in power for so long.”
NEW: Deputies from 18 Moscow & Petersburg regions said Putin should resign as he is ‘harming the future of Russia & its citizens.’ It is another rumble of discontent. Yesterday Putin ally Kadyrov criticised Russia’s army for ‘astounding’ losses in Ukraine https://t.co/yJPXHDBMyU
— Emma Burrows (@EJ_Burrows) September 12, 2022
It’s too early to say whether this poses a real threat to Putin’s power. Most Russians get news from state TV & have no idea what is really going on in Ukraine but will be interesting to see what happens if criticism from Putin allies & opponents continues & living standards fall https://t.co/oyGwOXwXoJ
— Emma Burrows (@EJ_Burrows) September 12, 2022
Ukrainian forces have gained significant ground these past few days, particularly in the Kharkiv region where they launched a dramatic counter-offensive that has completely reshaped the war.
It appears today they continued to make great strides, reaching the border at one more location in the Kharkiv region: near the village of Ternova.
The Ukrainian army have entered the border with Russia in one more location of the Kharkiv region - near the village of Ternova 💙💛💪💪💪 pic.twitter.com/DxkxKOCmrB
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) September 12, 2022
Ukraine: Russian military command has suspended the sending of new units
The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.
“The military command of the Russian federation has suspended the sending of new, already formed units into the territory of Ukraine,” officials said on the general staff Facebook page.
“The current situation in the theatre of operations and distrust of the higher command forced a large number of volunteers to categorically refuse the prospect of service in combat conditions,” the statement continued. “The situation is affected by information about the actual number of dead, while losses from private military companies and those mobilised from temporarily occupied territories are not taken into account. The situation worsens due to the general attitude toward their own wounded. In particular, in Russian hospitals, diagnoses and the nature of combat injuries are deliberately simplified and no time is given for rehabilitation in order to quickly return servicemen to the combat zone.”
This information could not be corroborated. The Kremlin has yet to respond.
Updated
Authorities found the bodies of four tortured civilians in the recently recaptured Kharkiv town of Zaliznychne, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said.
The discovery is an echo of the war crimes uncovered after Ukrainian troops retook Bucha and other areas around Kyiv.
⚡️ Prosecutor General’s Office: Bodies of 4 tortured civilians found in liberated Zaliznychne, Kharkiv Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) September 12, 2022
According to local law enforcement, the victims were allegedly killed by Russian troops during the community’s temporary occupation by Russian forces.
Updated
Russian soldiers engaged in mass looting as they fled Kharkiv oblast, the defence intelligence unit of Ukraine’s defence ministry said.
Soldiers loaded “generators, telephones and computers taken from Ukrainians into their cars. Rare cases of school robberies have been recorded, even horizontal bars and sports equipment were taken out of gyms”, officials said.
Updated
Russian forces hit Kharkiv hard on Monday, striking a densely populated residential district and knocking out power and water supplies for the second day in a row.
The mayor of Kharkiv city, Ihor Terekhov, said the targeted strikes on the region’s infrastructure were Russia’s revenge for Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes. The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, posted on Telegram that one person was known to have been killed and six injured on Monday.
Here are some of the most recent shots from Kharkiv:
Updated
Russia launched five missile strikes, more than 10 airstrikes and more than 20 attacks from rocket systems on military and civilian targets in Ukraine on Monday, the general staff of the country’s armed forces said.
“The Russian occupiers continue their tactics of terror and intimidation of the civilian population of Ukraine,” officials said on the general staff Facebook page. “Unable to respond on the battlefield, Russian troops once again hit the critical infrastructure of peaceful Ukrainian cities with missiles.”
Russian forces targeted “energy, water supply, factories and residential buildings” in Kharkiv city in the north-east, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, and Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk oblast to the east, using rockets and volleys of multiple-launch rocket systems to inflict harm, officials said.
“The infrastructure in the areas of Pervomaiske, Bilogorivka, Zaytseve, Vesela Dolyna, Sukhy Stavok, Shiroke, Partyzanske and Lyubomirivka settlements was [also] damaged,” they said.
Updated
Ukraine made great gains this weekend, according to the country’s general staff, who said its forces had recaptured more than 20 towns and villages in the Kharkiv region in the past days.
Here’s a helpful infographic from Anadolu Agency showing areas that Ukraine purports to have recaptured, and those that remain under Russian occupation.
• Ukraine has reclaimed control of 40 settlements
— ANADOLU AGENCY (@anadoluagency) September 12, 2022
• More than 40 settlements regained from Russian forces during the Ukrainian army's offensive in Kharkiv region
• 3,000 square kilometers of land in Kharkiv retaken from Russia pic.twitter.com/jBw4OdXqVa
Updated
In the recently recaptured territories of Kharkiv, Ukrainian forces are finding bodies of civilians that show signs of torture, said Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian parliament – echoes of the war crimes discovered after Ukrainian forces retook Bucha.
A Telegraph reporter said on Friday that police exhumed two bodies that bore signs of torture in Hrakove, one of more than 20 towns and villages that Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had retook in the past days. Russian soldiers had forced local men to bury the bodies, which wore civilian clothing, months back.
Corpses of civilians were found in the recently liberated territories of #Kharkiv region.
— Inna Sovsun (@InnaSovsun) September 12, 2022
In one of the villages, 4 corpses with signs of torture were already found.
Do you remember #BuchaMassacre? So, this is happening throughout the occupied territory.#KharkhivMassacre pic.twitter.com/ODEnsvyqW7
Updated
Kharkiv mayor accuses Russian forces of targeting ‘densely populated residential area’ as they shell city
After knocking out the power and water supply once again to the Kharkiv region with missile strikes earlier today, Russian forces continued its offensive on the city, this time directing its shelling toward the residential Nemyshlyansky district, Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv city, said on Telegram.
“Another shelling of Kharkiv,” the mayor wrote. “Nemyshlyansky district is now under attack. “Primarily – a blow to a densely populated residential area. There is no military infrastructure nearby. Information about victims and destruction is being clarified.”
Today’s attacks came after Russia spent Sunday evening targeting infrastructure facilities in central and eastern Ukraine in a response to a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv province that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling.
Terekhov called these targeted strikes on the region’s infrastructure “revenge” by Russia for Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes, while Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the “Russian terrorists” for the blackouts. “No military facilities [were attacked],” the Ukrainian president said in a statement on social media. “The goal is to deprive people of light and heat.”
Rescue workers had restored about 80% of the power and water to the region before the Russian shelling began anew today.
Updated
“People are crying, people are joyful, of course. How could they not be joyful?” Zolochiv resident Zoya, 76, told Reuters today.
Zolochiv, located 18km (10 miles) from the Russian border, was one of more than 20 towns and villages that Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had recaptured in the past days, as part of a counteroffensive that has forced Russian forces to abandon their positions and leave behind huge stocks of ammunition and equipment.
Today joyful residents returned to their former frontline villages. Zoya, a retired English teacher, wept as she described months she spent sheltering in the cellar.
Nastya, 28, had fled the village in April but returned last week after news of Ukrainian advances. “I think everyone’s in a great (mood)! It’s all over now. At least we hope it’s all over,” she said, waiting in line for groceries with two small children.
Updated
While much focus has been on gains made by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region to the north of the country, Denis Pushilin, the pro-Russian leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has claimed that the DPR has had some success in Donetsk.
The Russian RIA Novosti news agency is carrying a quote from Pushilin appearing on Russian television, where he said pro-Russian forces were active in the region of Bakhmut. The agency quotes him saying: “This is the Bakhmut direction, it is quite important for us, and now our units have also achieved some success.”
The agency describes it as “an important transport hub located on the territory of the DPR controlled by Ukraine”.
The DPR was formed in 2014, and is only recognised as a legitimate authority by three UN member states: Russia, Syria and North Korea.
Updated
There is a quick snap from Reuters that Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said his government will present a proposal to the United Nations aimed at resolving Russia’s war against Ukraine.
It seems unlikely, given the noises out of both sides in the last 48 hours, that it will get much of a hearing from the combatants.
Updated
The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, has posted to Telegram to say that one person is known to have been killed and six injured in today’s attacks by Russia. He posted to the Telegram app:
A 37-year-old man died as a result of today’s shelling of the Osnovianskyi and Kyiv districts of Kharkiv. According to the Centre for Emergency Medical Assistance, a total of six people were injured, including an 18-year-old girl. She and a 33-year-old woman suffered minor injuries and did not require hospitalisation.
Here are some of the latest images we have been sent from Ukraine over the newswires.
Today so far
Russian missile strikes on Monday have once again knocked out power and halted the water supply in Kharkiv, said Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv city, on Telegram. The shelling targeting the region’s infrastructure came after rescue workers had restored about 80% of the power and water to the region following more targeted attacks the day before. Both Terekhov and Volodymyr Zelenskiy have decried these attacks on infrastructure as “Russian terrorists”. “No military facilities [were attacked],” the Ukrainian president said in a statement on social media. “The goal is to deprive people of light and heat.”
Ukrainian forces have recaptured about 500 sq km of territory in the south of the country over the past two weeks, Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said on Monday. This includes five settlements in the Kherson region, Humeniuk said.
The Kremlin responded on Monday to Ukraine’s weekend advances by doubling down and saying that Russia will achieve the goals of its “special military operation”. In this same call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said that there were no discussions taking place about the possible demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, despite it being one of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s key recommendations from its visit to the plant.
At least 1,000 people have been killed in the last six months fighting in Izium, a city in north-eastern Ukraine. Izium is one of the more than 20 towns and villages that Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had recaptured in the past days, as part of a counteroffensive that has forced Russian forces to abandon their positions and leave behind huge stocks of ammunition and equipment. Now with the city back in Ukrainian hands, officials are able to assess its losses and warned that the real figure of people killed since Russian forces took the city as a main stronghold is probably much higher.
Updated
Russian missile strikes have knocked out power and water supply lines once again to Kharkiv city, after emergency workers had restored 80% of it to the region following attacks the day before. Here, eerie video of the powered down metro line shows what residents must contend with:
This is how the metro in #Kharkiv looks like now. pic.twitter.com/ohbZtRQPPm
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 12, 2022
At least 1,000 people have been killed in the last six months’ fighting in Izium, a city in north-eastern Ukraine, Reuters is reporting.
Two days after Ukrainian forces recaptured the major supply hub, Ukrainian officials warn that the real figure of people killed since the Russian forces took the city as a main stronghold is probably much higher.
Its recapture represents a major setback for Moscow.
“Izium suffered heavily due to Russian aggression,” Maksym Strelnikov, a member of the city council, told a televised news conference. He said 80% of the city’s infrastructure, including the central heating system, had been destroyed.
“According to the information we have, at least 1,000 residents unfortunately died as a result of fighting, but we believe that an even larger number of people suffered due to not being able to receive necessary medical help as the Russians destroyed all medical institutions in Izium in March,” he said.
He did not specify a source for the information and Reuters and the Guardian were not immediately able to confirm the estimated toll. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Only about 10,000 people remained in Izium, about a fifth of the city’s prewar population, Strelnikov said.
Izium was one of the more than 20 towns and villages that Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had recaptured in the past days, as part of a counteroffensive that has forced Russian forces to abandon their positions and leave behind huge stocks of ammunition and equipment.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russia had probably ordered its forces to withdraw from all of Kharkiv region west of the Oskil River, abandoning the main supply route that had sustained Russia’s operations in the east.
Updated
Russian shells knock out power, water to Kharkiv once again
Russian missile strikes on Monday have once again taken down power and halted the water supply in Kharkiv, said Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv city, on Telegram.
“The situation of yesterday evening is repeated. Because of the shelling, critical infrastructure facilities were disabled,” Terekhov wrote. “Power engineers, rescuers and utility workers are working to eliminate the consequences of the shelling.”
This weekend, Terekhov called these targeted strikes on the region’s infrastructure “revenge” by Russia for Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the “Russian terrorists” for the blackouts. “No military facilities [were attacked],” the Ukrainian president said in a statement on social media. “The goal is to deprive people of light and heat.”
In a message on Telegram on Sunday night, he said the Kremlin would not succeed in breaking the Ukrainian people. “Do you still think that we are ‘one people’? Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions? You really did not understand anything?”
Read more about the attacks on infrastructure here:
Updated
In total, Ukrainian forces recaptured about 500 sq km of territory in the south of the country over the past two weeks, Reuters is reporting.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retaken five settlements in the Kherson region.
“On various sections we have advanced by (between) four and several tens of kilometres. We have liberated areas totalling around 500 sq km,” she said. Neither Reuters nor the Guardian could not independently verify her comments.
Updated
Reports of Russian missile strikes in central Kharkiv
Following a weekend of the Ukrainian military gaining ground in the Kharkiv region, claiming to have forced Russian forces out of more than 20 towns and villages, there are reports of incoming rockets and explosions in central Kharkiv.
The sound of several incoming rockets in #kharkiv city center just now
— Melissa Bell (@MelissaBellCNN) September 12, 2022
Another big blast audible in Kharkiv just now.
— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) September 12, 2022
Kharkiv est bombardée à nouveau à l’instant.
— Loup Bureau (@LoupBureau) September 12, 2022
Updated
Kremlin responds to Ukraine's weekend advances
The Kremlin doubled down on Monday, saying that Russia will achieve the goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine, Reuters is reporting.
The statement made by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was the Kremlin’s first response to significant Ukrainian advances over the weekend in the Kharkiv region.
Peskov also said in the call that there were no discussions taking place about the possible demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, despite it being one of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s key recommendations from its visit to the plant.
Peskov refused to respond to questions about a possible mobilisation to support the military campaign.
Updated
The Ukrainian military claims it has made serious gains in the past 24 hours, forcing Russian forces from more than 20 towns and villages. Ukraine general staff claim that Russian forces are fleeing deep into occupied areas of the Donbas or back into Russia itself.
Here are some handout photos released by the security service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian ministry of defence today showing what they say is what the Russian forces left behind when they fled.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
The Ukrainian military claims it has forced Russian forces from more than 20 towns and villages in the past 24 hours, according to the Ukraine general staff. The general staff also claimed that Russian forces were fleeing deep into the occupied areas of the Donbas or back into Russia itself. It said that the Russians were concentrating their fire on controlling the Donetsk oblast. In the Kherson area, Ukraine says the Russians have suffered heavy losses. “The rest of the servicemen have an extremely low morale and psychological state, they refuse to return to the combat zone.”
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of “terrorist” attacks on infrastructure targets in Kharkiv, the country’s second city. The attacks came hours after Ukrainian forces reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory east of the city as Russian forces abandoned their positions in the face of a counteroffensive. Zelenskiy said in a message on Telegram on Sunday night that “Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts” and that Russia was trying to deprive his people of “gas, light, water and food”. He added that Ukraine would prevail and appeared to address the Russian leadership saying: “Do you still think that you can scare us?”
Russian forces launched a total of 11 missiles against eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force announced in a tweet on Sunday night, causing a total blackout in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, and partial blackouts in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said Kharkiv’s CHPP-5 electricity station – one of the largest in Ukraine – had been hit. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, said later that power had been restored in some regions.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, denounced Russia’s strikes on the power and water facilities. “Russia’s apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east: sending missiles to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure,” Brink tweeted.
The general commanding Russia’s western army group has been sacked in the wake of the retreat in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. It reported on its Telegram channel that Gen Roman Berdnikov has been replaced after only 17 days in his post, the GUR said.
Moscow’s leadership has remained silent on the defeats in Ukraine, with neither President Vladimir Putin or his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, making any comment as of Monday morning. However, its defence ministry said on Telegram that its forces in the Kharkiv region had “inflicted defeat” on Ukrainian units in Pristin, Boldyrevka, Sinikha, Beloe, Komarovka, Gorokhovatka, Kupyansk, Senkovo and Podvysokoye of the Kharkov region.
The success of Ukrainian forces in pushing Russian troops out of the Kharkiv region “have significant implications for Russia’s overall operational design”, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, and for the morale of its soldiers on the ground. “The majority of the force in Ukraine is highly likely being forced to prioritise emergency defensive actions. The already limited trust deployed troops have in Russia’s senior military leadership is likely to deteriorate further.”
Kirill Stremousov, one of the leaders of the Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, has questioned the situation to the north, saying that “Kherson is and will be a Russian city. No one is going to surrender the city, let alone retreat. Regarding the situation in the Kharkiv region, many of us are at a loss about the current situation.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the hawkish long-term ally of Russia’s president, and currently deputy chairman of the security council of Russia, has threatened Ukraine again, saying “Zelenskiy said that he would not engage in dialogue with those who put forward ultimatums. The current ‘ultimatums’ are a child’s warm-up for the demands of the future. And he knows them: the total capitulation of the Kyiv regime on Russia’s terms.”
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. Vivian Ho will be with you for the next few hours. I will be back later.
Updated
Reuters reports that Xi Jinping will leave China for the first time in more than two years for a trip this week to central Asia where he will meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The trip, Xi’s first abroad since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, will see him undertake a state visit to Kazakhstan on Wednesday. China’s president will then meet Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters last week that the Russian president was expected to meet Xi at the summit. China has today confirmed the details.
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Joe Biden’s new ambassador in Berlin has urged Olaf Scholz’s government to “take more of a leadership role”, as calls grow for Germany to support Ukraine’s advances in the north-east by delivering tanks.
After praising Germany’s military and financial support for Kyiv, US ambassador Amy Guttmann told broadcaster ZDF “my expectations for Germany are higher”.
“We have to do even more,” she added. “We are defending our own prosperity, our own democracy when we support Ukraine. My impression is that Germany wants to take more of a leadership role, and we hope that it will fulfil that.”
Previously, Berlin’s argument against delivering tanks to Ukraine has been that such a step would have to take place in coordination with other western Nato partners and Germany could not go its own way. In her interview however, Gutmann, appeared to support Berlin taking the lead on the issue.
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Kirill Stremousov, one of the Russian-imposed leaders in occupied Kherson, has been very active on Telegram this morning, posting several videos that appear to be an attempt to boost morale, having questioned the loss of territory by pro-Russian forces earlier. [See 8.12am]
In his latest post, he has appeared on the Antonivskyi Bridge, the crossing that links the city of Kherson to the bulk of the oblast to the south. He has posted that it has been struck again by Ukrainian forces, whom he dubs “Ukronazis”, and he heaped praise on the Soviet Union. He writes:
Ukronazis continue shelling the civilian infrastructure of Kherson and the Kherson region. The shelling of the Antonivskyi Bridge continues. The bridge stands as a symbol of the reinforced concrete unity of a large and friendly country – the USSR. The city of Kherson has never been and will never be given to the Nazis.
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The Russian news agency Tass is reporting claims by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that it has prevented “a series of sabotage and terrorist acts against officials” in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine and in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Without presenting any evidence, the FSB stated:
During the course of operations, the FSB of the Russian Federation prevented an attempt by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to commit a series of sabotage and terrorist acts against officials of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region of Ukraine and members of the government of the Republic of Crimea.
The FSB goes on to claim that it has detained an SBU officer in charge of the plans.
The acting United Nations high commissioner for human rights said on Monday morning that Russia was intimidating opponents of the war in Ukraine.
“In the Russian Federation, the intimidation, restrictive measures and sanctions against people voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine undermine the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms, including the rights to free assembly, expression and association,” Reuters reports Nada al-Nashif said in a speech at the opening of the human rights council in Geneva.
She also said Moscow was violating the right to access information by pressuring journalists, blocking the internet and through other forms of censorship.
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Here are some of the latest images that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, the hawkish long-term ally of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and currently deputy chairman of the security council of Russia, has been threatening Ukraine again on Telegram. He has posted:
Zelenskiy said that he would not engage in dialogue with those who put forward ultimatums. The current “ultimatums” are a child’s warm-up for the demands of the future. And he knows them: the total capitulation of the Kyiv regime on Russia’s terms.
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Kirill Stremousov, who is one of the leaders of the Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine, has posted to Telegram this morning a message that references the reported territorial losses for Russian forces to the north, while striking a defiant tone about the future of Kherson. The post reads:
Stremousov is at his workplace in Kherson. Kherson is and will be a Russian city. No one is going to surrender the city, let alone retreat.
Along the entire perimeter of the Kherson region, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has built lines of defence and nothing threatens the city of Kherson and the Kherson region.
Regarding the situation in the Kharkiv region, many of us are at a loss about the current situation. Time will put everything in its place and we will definitely get answers to our questions.
In the city of Kherson, everything is calm and there is no panic. We will go on the air more often and give most up-to-date information.
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Here is an image that has been supplied to the newswires showing smoke rising earlier this morning in the aftermath of a Russian attack on the electricity supply in Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s security service has posted pictures of what it claims is captured ammunition to social media this morning, with the message: “The Russian invaders are fleeing from Ukrainian soldiers so that they leave behind entire arsenals of ammunition. And we will definitely use them for their intended purpose – against the enemy.”
Наші захисники радять почати цей ранок з Ізюму. Кажуть, корисно для здоров’я 😉
— СБ України (@ServiceSsu) September 12, 2022
А от російські окупанти тікають від українських воїнів так, що залишають після себе цілі арсенали боєприпасів.
І ми обов’язково використаємо їх за призначенням - проти ворога.
Слава Україні! 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Aumo1iOcTo
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One of the Telegram channels of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has given civilian casualty figures for the last 24 hours, stating that 11 settlements in the territory it claims to control were fired upon by Ukrainian forces. It claims that four people were killed, three injured, and that seven houses and three civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged.
The claims have not been independently verified. Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only UN member states to recognise the Donetsk People’s Republic as a legitimate authority.
This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live coverage for the next few hours. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
The Ukrainian military claims it has forced Russian forces from more than 20 towns and villages in the past 24 hours, according to a Facebook post by the Ukraine general staff.
The general staff also claimed that Russian forces were fleeing deep into the occupied areas of the Donbas or back into Russia itself.
The liberation of settlements from the Russian invaders in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions continues. As previously reported, during the retreat, Russian troops quickly abandon their positions and flee deep into the temporarily occupied territories or into the territory of the Russian Federation. This trend persists. So, over the past day, the occupiers have taken away property and vehicles looted from local residents from Velikiy Burluk and Dvorichna settlements of Kharkiv oblast.
In general, during the past day, the defence forces managed to dislodge the enemy from more than 20 settlements. Taking them under full control and stabilisation measures are being carried out.
The post said that the Russians were concentrating their fire on controlling the Donetsk oblast, “holding the temporarily captured territories and disrupting the offensive of our troops in certain directions”. All areas of Ukraine were under threat from Russian fire, it said.
In the Kherson area, Ukraine says that the Russians have suffered heavy losses. “The rest of the servicemen have an extremely low morale and psychological state, they massively refuse to return to the combat zone,” the post claimed.
For its part, Russia’s military said on Monday on Telegram that it had “inflicted defeat on” Ukrainian units in Pristin, Boldyrevka, Sinikha, Beloe, Komarovka, Gorokhovatka, Kupyansk, Senkovo and Podvysokoye of the Kharkiv region. More than 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, the Russian defence ministry said.
The Russians also said that heavy losses had been inflicted on Ukraine in the Nikolaev (Mykolaiv) area. In all, the ministry said, more than 4,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed.
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Ukraine has accused Russia of launching cruise missile attacks on Kharkiv in “revenge” for the battlefield defeats the invading force has suffered in recent days.
The mayor of Kharkiv city, Ihor Terekhov, said one strike had cut electricty and water supplies to the city. There were also reports of blackouts in Dnipro, Poltava and other eastern cities, potentially affecting millions of civilians, but Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of president Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s office, said later that power had been restored in some regions.
Here is a video showing some of the destruction.
You can read the full story here:
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Ukraine successes have 'significant implications' for Russian operation, says UK
The success of Ukrainian forces in pushing Russian troops out of the Kharkiv region “have significant implications for Russia’s overall operational design”, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, and for the morale of its soldiers on the ground.
“The majority of the force in Ukraine is highly likely being forced to prioritise emergency defensive actions,” it said in a Twitter post on Monday morning.
“The already limited trust deployed troops have in Russia’s senior military leadership is likely to deteriorate further.”
(1/6) In the face of Ukrainian advances, Russia has likely ordered the withdrawal of its troops from the entirety of occupied Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil River.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 12, 2022
Russia has probably ordered the withdrawal of its troops from the whole of the occupied Kharkiv oblast region west of the Oskil river, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
British military intelligence said in a Twitter post on Monday morning that “isolated pockets of resistance remain in this sector, but since Wednesday, Ukraine has recaptured territory at least twice the size of Greater London”, which would be the equivalent of 3,000 sq km.
In the south of Ukraine, near Kherson, the MoD says Russia could be struggling to bring sufficient reserves forward across the Dnipro river to the front line on the west bank of the river. “An improvised floating bridge Russia started over two weeks ago remains incomplete,” the MoD says. “Ukrainian long-range artillery is now probably hitting crossings of the Dnipro so frequently that Russia cannot carry out repairs to damaged road bridges.”
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'Do you still think that you can scare us?' Zelenskiy asks Russia
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has delivered a fierce response to Russian attacks on the Kharkiv region.
In a nightly message on Telegram, the Ukrainian president said that although the Kremlin was trying to deprive his people of “gas, light, water and food”, it would not succeed in defeating them.
“Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions?” he asks in a stirring polemic that is worth posting in full:
Even through the impenetrable darkness, Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts.
Deliberate and cynical missile strikes on civilian critical infrastructure. No military facilities. Kharkiv and Donetsk regions were cut off. In Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy there are partial problems with power supply.
Do you still think that we are “one people”?Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions?
You really did not understand anything?
Don’t understand who we are? What are we for? What are we talking about?
Read my lips:
Without gas or without you? without you
Without light or without you? without you
Without water or without you? without you
Without food or without you? without you
Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as scary and deadly for us as your “friendship and brotherhood”.
But history will put everything in its place. And we will be with gas, light, water and food … and WITHOUT you!
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Western governments are mobilising their arms manufacturers to ramp up production and replenish stockpiles heavily diminished by supplying Ukraine’s six-month-old battle against Russia’s invasion, according to Agence-France Presse.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is organising a meeting of senior national armaments directors from allied countries to make long-term plans for supplying Ukraine and rebuilding their own arms reserves.
“They will discuss how our defence industrial bases can best equip Ukraine’s future forces with the capabilities that they need,” he said at a meeting at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany of the Ukraine Contact Group, 50 countries supporting the war effort.
Pentagon’s arms acquisition chief, Bill LaPlante, said the meeting would take place in Brussels on 28 September. The goal was to determine “how we can continue to work together to ramp up production of key capabilities and resolve supply chain issues and increase interoperability and interchangeability of our systems”, LaPlante told reporters at the Pentagon.
Nato has provided millions of dollars worth of military supplies to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, including Himars mobile missile systems.
The US has pledged $15.2bn-worth of weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, artillery and ammunition compatible with Nato weaponry.
European Union countries agreed in July to spend another €500m (£425m) to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to €2.5bn since February.
Britain has has committed to spending more than a £1bn on arming Ukraine.
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Hello, I’m Martin Farrer and I will be bringing you updates on the war in Ukraine for the next hour or so.
The main development is the aftermath of Ukraine’s swift counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region which has seen it reclaim at least 3,000 square kms of territory east of the city.
Russia, which has not commented on the losses, responded by launching 11 cruise missiles against the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of “terrorist” attacks on infrastructure targets in Kharkiv, the country’s second city. The attacks came hours after Ukrainian forces reclaimed thousands of square miles of territory east of the city as Russian forces abandoned their positions in the face of a counteroffensive. Zelenskiy said in a message on Telegram on Sunday night that “Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts” and that Russia was trying to deprive his people of “gas, light, water and food”. He added that Ukraine would prevail and appeared to address the Russian leadership saying: “Do you still think that you can scare us?”
Russian forces launched a total of 11 missiles against eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force announced in a tweet on Sunday night, causing a total blackout in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, and partial blackouts in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said Kharkiv’s CHPP-5 electricity station – one of the largest in Ukraine – had been hit. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, said later that power had been restored in some regions.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, also denounced Russia’s strikes on the power and water facilities. “Russia’s apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east: sending missiles to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure,” Brink tweeted.
The general commanding Russia’s western army group has been sacked in the wake of the retreat in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. It reported on its Telegram channel that Gen Roman Berdnikov has been replaced after only 17 days in his post, the GUR said.
Moscow’s leadership has remained silent on the defeats in Ukraine, with neither President Vladimir Putin or his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, making any comment as of midday on Sunday. However, its defence ministry said on Telegram that its forces in the Kharkiv region had “inflicted defeat on” Ukrainian units in Pristin, Boldyrevka, Sinikha, Beloe, Komarovka, Gorokhovatka, Kupyansk, Senkovo and Podvysokoye of the Kharkov region.
A Russian nationalist militant and former FSB officer who helped launch a 2014 war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region compared the collapse of one of the conflict’s principal frontlines to a catastrophic defeat in the Russo-Japanese war which triggered Russia’s 1905 Revolution. Igor Girkin said it was like the 1905 Battle of Mukden.
Ukraine on Sunday shut down the last operating reactor at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant to guard against a catastrophe as fighting rages nearby. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia plant, risking a release of radiation. The International Atomic Energy Agency said a backup power line to the plant had been restored, providing the external electricity it needed to carry out the shutdown while defending against the risk of a meltdown.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Putin in a phone call on Sunday the plant’s occupation by Russian troops is the reason why its security is compromised, the French presidency said. Putin blamed Ukrainian forces, according to a Kremlin statement.
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