This blog is closing now but you can catch up with the latest on the attacks on the Ukrainian gains in Kharkiv and the Russian response here:
And you can follow all our Ukraine coverage here.
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.
It said:
“The leadership of the western grouping of the RF Armed Forces has been removed from command. The reason for this decision is the crushing defeats received as a result of the offensive of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
His replacement is Lt-Gen Alexander Lapin, commmander of army group centre, who will now take charge of both, according to the Ukrainians.
There was no confirmation of the claim from other sources. It should also be noted that in June, Ukrainian sources said Berdnikov had been killed in action.
However, Russia’s 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.
“More than 250 Ukrainian servicemen, 12 armored vehicles, three field artillery pieces, one multiple rocket launcher and 17 vehicles were destroyed,” it said.
If you want a quick catchup on what’s been going on, check out our latest at a glance guide on day 201 of the war.
'Do you still think you can scare us?' Zelenskiy tells 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 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?
Lip reading:
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!
Hello, good morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are in the world. I’m Martin Farrer taking over our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine from Maya Yang.
The big story of the moment is Russian missile attacks on civilian infrastructure such as power stations and water facilities in the Kharkiv region after Ukrainian forces scored a series of notable battlefield victories in the area over the weekend.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has denounced the strikes.
“Russia’s apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east: sending missiles to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure,” Brink tweeted.
Russia’s apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east: sending missiles to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) September 11, 2022
Moscow denies its forces deliberately target civilians.
Summary
It’s just past 2am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
“We will call it victory,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video address on Sunday, referring to a potential Russian retreat. He added that he is confident that Ukrainian forces will liberate all Russian-occupied territories across the country.
Russian forces have launched a total of 11 missiles towards the eastern regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force announced in a tweet on Sunday night. The Ukrainian Air Forces shot down seven cruise missiles in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two more missiles were destroyed in the Poltava region, the UAF said.
Due to shelling of the infrastructure, a number of trains from/to Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava are expected to be delayed. However, not a single train today was cancelled; traffic continues on the entire railway network.
Two cruise missiles hit critical infrastructure in Kharkiv and firefighters were on the scene, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration. Tymoshenko said engineers are working to restore power and electricity should soon be back in vital facilities such as hospitals.
Updated
“We will call it victory,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video address on Sunday, referring to a potential Russian retreat.
“They will call [the Russian retreat] a gesture of goodwill … we will call it victory,” the president said, adding that he is confident that Ukrainian forces will liberate all Russian-occupied territories across the country.
“The world is amazed by our warriors, the enemy is in a panic,” he said.
Updated
Our reporters Lorenzo Tondo and Isobel Koshiw are bringing us the latest from the frontlines of Kharkiv, where Russian attacks on Sunday night damaged infrastructure facilities and power supplies across the region.
Their reporting follows:
Russia targeted infrastructure facilities in central and eastern Ukraine on Sunday evening in a response to a dramatic Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv province that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling.
The mayor of Kharkiv city, Ihor Terekhov, said a strike had knocked out power and water to much of the city, in what he described as an act of “revenge” by Russia for Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes. There were reports of blackouts in Dnipro, Poltava and other eastern cities, potentially affecting millions of civilians.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed “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 an early-evening update on the military situation, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, said Ukrainian soldiers had regained control of about 3,000 sq km of territory since the start of September, and were approaching the border in the country’s north-east.
To find out more, read their latest story:
Updated
Russian forces have launched a total of 11 missiles towards the eastern regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force announced in a tweet on Sunday night.
🇷🇺 launched a missile attack on the eastern regions of 🇺🇦 on Sunday evening. In total, the enemy used 11 cruise missiles. Units of the "East" air command shot down 7 cruise missiles in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Of them, 5 - X-101, 2 - Caliber.
— Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) September 11, 2022
The Ukrainian Air Forces shot down seven cruise missiles in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two more missiles were destroyed in the Poltava region, the UAF said.
Updated
Images have emerged of the fiery aftermath of the destruction of a critical infrastructure object in Kharkiv area.
Updated
Due to shelling of the infrastructure, a number of trains from/to Kharkiv, Sumy, and Poltava are expected to be delayed.
However, not a single train today was canceled; traffic continues on the entire railway network.
At the stations in Kharkiv and other temporarily cut-off cities, safe disembarkation and boarding of passengers has been organized.
Passengers will also be allowed to stay on the territory of the stations during the curfew.
Updated
Cruise missiles hit critical infrastructure in Kharkiv
Two cruise missiles hit critical infrastructure in Kharkiv and firefighters are now on the scene, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.
Tymoshenko said engineers are working to restore power and electricity should soon be back in vital facilities such as hospitals.
Power was cut to areas Russia was attempting to capture in the early weeks of the invasion.
Tymoshenko confirmed that Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and part of the Donetsk region were suffering from blackouts.
Tymoshenko said power had been 100% restored in Sumy region, which neighbours Kharkiv, and that power in the Poltova region is back.
“Russians want to leave us without light, water and heat.”
Updated
Summary
It’s nearly 10pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
A counteroffensive is occurring in the Kharkiv region, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry. “Prepare to swim, occupiers,” the ministry said in a tweet on Sunday. Meanwhile, Russian forces have been disrupting power supply in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A 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 front lines 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, which ended took place two days after the revolution started.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned his French counterpart of “catastrophic consequences” of apparent Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Putin “drew attention to regular Ukrainian attacks on [the Zaporizhzhia nuclear] facilities, including a radioactive waste storage facility, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences”, according to the Kremlin, as reported by AFP.
Moscow’s leadership has remained “silent” on the defeats in Ukraine, with neither Putin or the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, making any comment as of midday on Sunday. Moscow’s almost total silence on the defeat – or any explanation for what has taken place in north-eastern Ukraine – has provoked significant anger among some pro-war commentators and Russian nationalists on social media.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, has criticised the Russian army’s leadership after it appeared to be caught off-guard by Ukraine’s fightback against the Russian invasion in the north-east. In a sign that the Kremlin may face serious fallout over the loss of territory that the Russian occupation administrations had repeatedly stated they planned to keep “for ever”, Kadyrov also suggested that Vladimir Putin might not be aware of the real state of affairs.
Updated
“Nobody knows” where Russian rockets will land in Ukraine after the invasion by the larger neighbor, president Voldymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday.
Talking in broken English to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Zelenskiy said of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “you cannot be afraid of him” as a way of explaining why he was doing the interview while walking on the grounds of the Ukrainian presidential palace in Kyiv.
Zakaria noted that previous interviews with him had been held in a bunker or similar setting.
Zelenskiy noted that, morning and night, however, Russian bombs can land anywhere.
“Nobody knows” where Putin’s rockets will land, Ukrainian Pres. @ZelenskyyUa told me, walking freely outside at Kyiv’s presidential palace.
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) September 11, 2022
From our exclusive interview, airing today @ 1pm ET on @CNN: pic.twitter.com/pW75nNT10n
Updated
Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh has written this analysis on how Ukraine has exploited thin Russian cover with its sweeping counter offensive, and how more gains are possible
In five days, Ukraine’s northern counter-offensive has changed everything. What began as a push in a part of the front largely ignored by military analysts became an advance of 43.5 miles (70km), capturing “more territory than Russian forces have captured in all their operations since April”, according to the Institute of the Study of War.
Before Wednesday, Ukraine had struggled to make much progress with offensive operations. Yet, south-east of Kharkiv, Kyiv has shown it can dynamically exploit military circumstances in its favour – opening up the prospect of further, dramatic gains before winter settles in.
Russia had diverted thousands of its best combat troops to defending the southern city of Kherson, in response to a Ukrainian offensive that it said it had begun a couple of weeks ago. Exhausted by months of continuous war, the Kremlin left the sector south-east of Kharkiv lightly defended.
Read more:
Ukraine’s defence ministry has shared this tweet, after the 130th battalion made it to Hoptivka near the Russian border.
🇺🇦 counteroffensive is ongoing in the Kharkiv region. Dozens of villages and towns have been liberated. #UAarmy reached Hoptivka check point, at the border of the terrorist state.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 11, 2022
🇺🇦 will restore its territorial integrity, including Donbas and Crimea.
Prepare to swim, occupiers. pic.twitter.com/6L3hO7MvJN
Yaroslav Trofimov of the Wall Street Journal has said that Russian forces are disrupting the power supply to eastern Ukraine, affecting the power supply to Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava. Reports have suggested that Kharkiv is without power completely.
Just arrived in Kharkiv, there’s no electricity. The Kharkiv branch of the public broadcaster Suspilne say Russia has hit critical infrastructure and the regional energy company is working to restore power.
— Isobel Koshiw (@IKoshiw) September 11, 2022
Updated
A 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 front lines 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, which ended took place two days after the revolution started.
Ukraine has hailed its rapid advance, which saw thousands of Russian soldiers flee, leaving behind ammunition stockpiles and equipment, as a turning point in the 6-month-old war.
Girkin, who has been unsparing in his criticisms of the country’s top brass, dubbing defence minister Shoigu “the cardboard marshal”, has said repeatedly that Russia will be defeated in Ukraine if it doesn’t declare a nationwide mobilisation, Reuters reports.
Nationalist anger at military failure is potentially a far greater problem for the Kremlin than pro-Western liberal criticism of Putin: opinion polls continue to show broad support for what Moscow calls the “special military operation”.
As the capital celebrated Moscow Day with street parties and concerts on Saturday, rumblings of disquiet even spread to Russia’s ordinarily subservient parliament.
Sergei Mironov, leader of the nominally opposition but Putin-loyal Just Russia party, said on Twitter that a firework display in honour of the holiday should be cancelled, in view of the military situation.
One message reposted on Telegram by the prominent war correspondent Semyon Pegov referred to the celebrations in Moscow as “blasphemous” and the refusal of Russian authorities to embark on full-scale war as “schizophrenic”.
“Either Russia will become itself through the birth of a new political elite ... or it will cease to exist,” it read.
More on that telephone conversation between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin (see 16:54), as the Kremlin readout has now been published.
The Russian president warned his French counterpart of “catastrophic consequences” of apparent Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
During the call, Putin “drew attention to regular Ukrainian attacks on [the Zaporizhzhia nuclear] facilities, including a radioactive waste storage facility, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences”, according to the Kremlin, as reported by AFP.
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been a focal point of fighting in recent weeks, raising concerns of a potential nuclear incident.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator said on Sunday the final reactor at Zaporizhzhia had been shut off as a safety measure.
During the call with Macron, Putin also accused Ukrainian forces of using western-supplied weapons to target civilian infrastructure in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.
Updated
Updated
More on the discussion (see 15:22) between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Macron told Putin that its occupation by Russian troops was the root cause of danger at the site.
The Élysée Palace said in a statement that Macron asked Putin to withdraw heavy and light weapons, and that Moscow should abide by the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure security.
“The president will remain in contact with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy as well as the director general of the IAEA and will speak again in the coming days with President Putin so that an accord to guarantee security at the power plant can be found,” the statement said.
Macron also asked Putin to ensure that a UN-brokered deal on grains was implemented to ensure they went to the most in need. He also repeated that the Russian invasion should stop immediately.
Updated
Moscow’s leadership has remained “silent” on the defeats in Ukraine, with neither Vladmir Putin or the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, making any comment as of midday on Sunday.
As Russian forces abandoned town after town on Saturday, Putin was opening Europe’s largest ferris wheel in a Moscow park, while fireworks lit up the sky over Red Square to celebrate the city’s founding in 1147.
Moscow’s almost total silence on the defeat – or any explanation for what has taken place in north-eastern Ukraine – has provoked significant anger among some pro-war commentators and Russian nationalists on social media.
However, according to a Kremlin transcript of Putin’s message there was no mention of the war. The Russian president told Muscovites: “We take pride in Moscow, and love this city with its majestic antiquity and its modern and dynamic pace of life, the charm of its cosy parks, lanes and streets and abundance of business and cultural events.”
Putin, who has described his shock on being told as a KGB spy in East Germany that “Moscow is silent” as the Berlin Wall crumbled, said those who had fallen in the Ukraine operation had given their lives for Russia.
The defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Updated
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, has criticised the Russian army’s leadership after it appeared to be caught off-guard by Ukraine’s fightback against the Russian invasion in the north-east.
In a sign that the Kremlin may face serious fallout over the loss of territory that the Russian occupation administrations had repeatedly stated they planned to keep “for ever”, Kadyrov also suggested that Vladimir Putin might not be aware of the real state of affairs.
“They have made mistakes and I think they will draw the necessary conclusions,” Kadyrov said in an audio message posted to his Telegram channel on Sunday.
“If today or tomorrow no changes in strategy are made, I will be forced to speak with the leadership of the defence ministry and the leadership of the country to explain the real situation on the ground to them. It’s a very interesting situation. It’s astounding, I would say,” said Kadyrov, a former rebel turned Kremlin ally who rules Chechnya – a Russian republic in the Caucuses – with an iron fist and has a paramilitary force at his command.
Read more:
Summary
Here is a round-up of all the day’s main news stories:
Ukrainian forces have advanced north from Kharkiv to within 30 miles (48km) of the border with Russia and are also pressing to the south and east in the same region, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on Sunday. Ukrainian troops have retaken more than 3,000 sq km of territory this month, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding: “Ukraine continues to liberate territories occupied by Russia.
The Ukrainian advance into Russian-occupied territory in the north-east of the country continued on Sunday as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the next three months would be critical in determining the outcome of the war. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have retaken the key rail hub of Kupiansk and claim to have seized Izium, previously the major base for Russia in Kharkiv province.
Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s armed forces have retaken about 2,000 sq km (770 sq miles) of territory from Russian forces since their surprise north-eastern counteroffensive was launched earlier this month. In his Saturday night address, the Ukrainian president said: “These days, the Russian army is showing its best – showing its back. And, in the end, it is a good choice for them to run away. There is and will be no place for the occupiers in Ukraine.”
The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has been shut down and the plant “completely stopped”, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator has said. The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected from the grid last week after all its power lines were disconnected as a result of fighting in the area, and was operating in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining reactor in operation.
A backup power line to Zaporizhzhia has been restored, providing it with the external electricity it needs to cool its reactors, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday. “After yesterday’s restoration of [the] power line ... #ZNPP operator this morning shut down its last operating reactor, which over past week had been providing ZNPP w/ required power after it was disconnected from grid,” the IAEA said on Twitter.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. Speaking by phone, the two leaders expressed readiness for a “non-politicised interaction” on the matter with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the statement published on the Kremlin’s website.
France’s transport minister has said he will sign an agreement with Romania to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries including to the Mediterranean. “Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out ... towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean, which need it for food,” Clement Beaune told France Inter radio on Sunday, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.
The UK government has said Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant gains in the Kharkiv region over the last 24 hours. Russia has probably withdrawn units from the area, but fighting continues around the cities of Kupiansk and Izium, the British defence ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
Britain also dismissed Vladimir Putin’s assertion that only a fraction of grain exported from Ukraine under an international deal is going to poor countries. Putin said on Wednesday, without citing a source, that only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of products, had gone to poor countries. The deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, took effect last month.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Harry Taylor will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Updated
Putin discusses Ukrainian nuclear plant with Macron
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Speaking by phone, the two leaders expressed readiness for a “non-politicised interaction” on the matter with the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the statement published on the Kremlin’s website.
Updated
Reuters has some more detail on the news that France is to sign an agreement with Romania (see 13.03) to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries, including in the Mediterranean.
“Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out ... towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean, which need it for food,” the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, told France Inter radio on Sunday, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.
Reuters reports:
According to a draft agreement of the French-Romanian deal, seen by Reuters, Paris would cooperate in developing a project aimed at increasing efficiency at the port of Galați, equipping border points in northern Romania.
It would also help to build a medium-term strategy on the axes of the corridor between Romania and Ukraine, and provide pilings to optimise ship traffic. France will also provide funding for the initial technical expertise and work with Bucharest to identify financing for the future.
Without citing a source, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on 7 September that only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of exported grain products as part of an international deal brokered by the United Nations, had gone to poor countries.
The accord to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports took effect in August. Beaune dismissed Putin’s assertion. Quoting UN figures, the British defence ministry also rejected the claim and said that about 30% of grain exported under the deal has been supplied to low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Updated
Alisa, a 16-year-old art student from Kharkiv, arrived in Hungary in April with her family after fleeing their apartment in the suburb of Saltivka, which came under heavy shelling for weeks on end.
After two days in a Budapest hotel, the family found an elderly Hungarian couple living in the countryside nearby who agreed to host Alisa, her brother and parents. The couple said their Ukrainian guests could stay as long as they needed.
But recently, as the Hungarian government announced massive increases in energy bills for households that use above the national average, the couple made an embarrassed request.
“Back then, they said we could stay until the end of the war, but now they’ve realised they can’t afford the energy bills. They very politely told us we had to leave,” said Alisa, who spent the summer working long shifts in a Hungarian factory, even though she is still a minor.
“It took me two buses and four hours to get there, and the same to get back every day. The work was tiring, taking apart old electronics for hours on end. But at least I got some money which I could help my family with,” she said.
In the six months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the countries that border Ukraine, as well as others all across Europe, have launched an unprecedented effort to help millions of Ukrainian refugees. Governments have funded emergency support programmes, and millions of ordinary citizens have volunteered to provide food, clothing and shelter.
But as an uncertain and potentially costly winter approaches, governments are rolling back support programmes for Ukrainians, while many volunteers who were happy to host a Ukrainian family for a few weeks or months are now realising that the war could go on for years. More and more Ukrainian refugees are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet.
The Ukrainian advance into Russian-occupied territory in the north-east of the country continued on Sunday as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the next three months would be critical in determining the outcome of the war.
In recent days, Ukrainian forces have retaken the key rail hub of Kupiansk and claim to have seized Izium, previously the major base for Russia in Kharkiv province.
“The Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do – showing its back,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.
Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, said on Sunday that Ukraine had regained control of about 3,000 sq km of territory since the beginning of September. On Saturday night, Zelenskiy gave the figure as 2,000 sq km. The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine has retaken more territory in five days than Russia had taken since April.
Videos from recently recaptured territory illustrate the scale of the rout, showing military hardware and ammunition left behind by fleeing Russians at their former positions. Ukrainian politicians shared morale-boosting videos of the country’s soldiers raising the national flag in various towns and villages.
The counteroffensive in the north-east of the country came as a surprise to Moscow and most military observers, who had been expecting instead the long-promised Ukrainian advance in the southern Kherson region.
Updated
France’s transport minister has said he will sign an agreement with Romania to increase Ukrainian grain exports to developing countries including to the Mediterranean.
“Tomorrow, I will sign an accord with Romania that will allow Ukraine to get even more grains out ... towards Europe and developing countries, notably in the Mediterranean, which need it for food,” Clement Beaune told France Inter radio on Sunday, adding that the deal covered exports by land, sea and river.
Updated
Backup power line to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant restored, IAEA says
A backup power line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) inside Ukraine has been restored, providing it with the external electricity it needs to cool its reactors, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday.
“After yesterday’s restoration of [the] power line ... #ZNPP operator this morning shut down its last operating reactor, which over past week had been providing ZNPP w/ required power after it was disconnected from grid,” the IAEA said on Twitter.
“This power can now come from the grid instead.”
A back-up power line to Ukraine’s #Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (#ZNPP) has been restored, providing the plant with the external electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other safety functions.
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) September 11, 2022
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine has recaptured 770 sq miles of territory so far this month in a series of offensives.
“The movement of our soldiers in different directions of the front continues,” the Ukrainian president said in an address late on Saturday.
Updated
Zelenskiy hails Ukraine territorial gains in surprise north-east counteroffensive
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s armed forces have retaken about 2,000 sq km (770 sq miles) of territory from Russian forces since their surprise north-eastern counteroffensive was launched earlier this month.
In his Saturday night address, the Ukrainian president said: “These days, the Russian army is showing its best – showing its back. And, in the end, it is a good choice for them to run away. There is and will be no place for the occupiers in Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy spoke after the Russian army was forced to pull back thousands of troops following a series of crucial battlefield defeats in the north-east, as the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin entered its 200th day.
Ukrainian forces confirmed the liberation of the crucial rail hub of Kupiansk and shortly after seized Izium, the major base for Moscow’s forces in the Kharkiv region, in what was perhaps Ukraine’s most significant success in pushing back the Russians since the beginning of the invasion.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in Kyiv that Ukrainian forces had demonstrated they were capable of defeating the Russian army with the weapons given to them. “And so I reiterate: the more weapons we receive, the faster we will win, and the faster this war will end,” he said.
Ukrainian troops had also liberated the villages of Vasylenkovo and Artemivka in the Kharkiv region, Zelenskiy said.
Updated
The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has been shut down and the plant “completely stopped”, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator has said.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected from the grid last week after all its power lines were disconnected as a result of fighting in the area, and was operating in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining reactor in operation.
Energoatom, the state-run operator of all four of Ukraine’s nuclear power stations, said one of the power lines was restored on Saturday night, allowing plant operators to shut down the last reactor.
“A decision was made to shut down power unit No 6 and transfer it to the safest state – cold shutdown,” the operator said.
Electricity supply to the plant has been cut with increasing frequency over the past few weeks, including at least three times last week.
Volunteers at a railway station in Lviv in western Ukraine are doing all they can to help refugees flee the violence of Putin’s invasion and reach safety.
Lviv is less than 50 miles from the Polish border and thousands of people have been arriving daily from the rest of country.
The Guardian spent the day with one volunteer named Sergyi Mykolaiv.
Updated
Ukraine says its forces are within 30 miles of Russian border north of Kharkiv
Ukrainian forces have advanced north from Kharkiv to within 30 miles (48km) of the border with Russia and are also pressing to the south and east in the same region, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on Sunday.
Ukrainian troops have retaken more than 3,000 sq km of territory this month, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding: “Ukraine continues to liberate territories occupied by Russia.”
Reuters was not immediately able to verify his account.
Updated
In case you missed it, the much-publicised Ukrainian southern offensive was a disinformation campaign to distract Russia from the real one being prepared in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s special forces have said.
Ukrainian forces are continuing to make unexpected, rapid advances in the north-east of the country, retaking more than a third of the occupied Kharkiv region in three days. Much of Ukraine’s territorial gains were confirmed by Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday.
“[It] was a big special disinformation operation,” said Taras Berezovets, a former national security adviser turned press officer for the Bohun brigade of Ukraine’s special forces.
“[Russia] thought it would be in the south and moved their equipment. Then, instead of the south, the offensive happened where they least expected, and this caused them to panic and flee.”
On 29 August, Ukraine’s southern command announced that the long-anticipated offensive in the Kherson region had begun. But soldiers on the Kherson frontline said at the time that they saw no evidence of said offensive, or that the active battles taking place were a reaction to an attempted Russian offensive several days earlier.
Over the past two weeks, Ukrainian forces in the south have taken several villages – no small feat given the reported strength of Russian positions.
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The Associated Press has a piece today about Ukraine’s success in reclaiming broad swathes of the south and east in a long-anticipated counter-offensive that has dealt a heavy blow to Russia.
The counter-attack began in the final days of August and at first focused on the southern region of Kherson, which was swept by Russian forces in the opening days of the invasion, it reports.
But, just as Moscow redirected attention and troops there, Ukraine launched another, highly effective offensive in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv.
AP reported:
Facing the prospect of a large group of its forces becoming surrounded, Moscow ordered a troop pullback from Kharkiv, in a dramatic change of the state of play that posed the biggest challenge to the Kremlin since it launched the invasion on February 24.
Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military expert with the Razumkov Centre, a Kyiv-based think tank, said: “The Ukrainian army has taken advantage of the relocation of the bulk of the Russian forces to the south and is trying to direct the course of the war, excelling in manoeuvre and showing great ingenuity.”
Ukraine’s quick gains, he added, are “important both for seizing initiative and raising troops’ spirit”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commended the military in a video address late on Saturday, saying it has reclaimed more than 770 square miles (2,000 sq km) of territory so far this month.
He also taunted Moscow over its withdrawal, saying the Russian army is “demonstrating the best it can do - showing its back” and “they made a good choice to run”.
Both sides have suffered heavy losses in Europe’s largest conflict since the Second World War.
Since the counter-offensive began, Ukraine said, its forces have reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region.
Britain has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s assertion that only a fraction of grain exported from Ukraine under an international deal is going to poor countries.
Putin said on Wednesday, without citing a source, that only two of 87 ships, carrying 60,000 tonnes of products, had gone to poor countries. The deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, took effect last month.
Quoting UN figures, the British defence ministry said about 30% of grain exported under the deal has been supplied to low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Reuters reported.
Russia is pursuing a deliberate misinformation strategy as it seeks to deflect blame for food insecurity issues, discredit Ukraine and minimise opposition to its invasion, the ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
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The UK government has said Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant gains in the Kharkiv region over the last 24 hours.
Russia has probably withdrawn units from the area, but fighting continues around the cities of Kupiansk and Izium, the British defence ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 11 September 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 11, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/XE7QGQnZeh
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/88KnwEqDNj
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Summary
Aside from the latest news at the Zaporizhzhia plant, here are the main developments:
Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the north-east of the country has inflicted an extraordinary defeat on Moscow, prompting the Russian army to pull back thousands of troops after a series of battlefield defeats.
Ukraine appears to have regained control of the two key cities of Kupiansk and Izium after a major counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region in recent days, after wrongfooting Russian forces with a much-publicised Ukrainian southern offensive to distract Russia from the real one being prepared in Kharkiv.
Photos published by the Ukrainian security forces showed troops raising the national flag in Kupiansk, an important logistical hub for Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, where rail lines linking Russia to eastern Ukraine converge and which, in the last months, has supplied Russian forces in north-eastern Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed the withdrawal of its troops from Izium, the major base for Moscow’s forces in Kharkiv, claiming they were being “regrouped” so that efforts could be stepped up in Donetsk. Retaking Izium is perhaps Ukraine’s most significant success in pushing back the Russians since the beginning of the invasion.
The Ukrainian flag has also been raised in the city of Balakliia, according to the Kharkiv regional governor.
The UK Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were “likely taken by surprise” by the counteroffensive. The much-publicised Ukrainian southern offensive was a disinformation campaign to distract Russia from the real one being prepared in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s special forces said. “[Russia] thought it would be in the south and moved their equipment. Then, instead of the south, the offensive happened where they least expected, and this caused them to panic and flee,” said Taras Berezovets, a former national security adviser turned press officer for the Bohun brigade of Ukraine’s special forces.
In a video address on Saturday, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian forces had liberated about 2,000 sq km (700 square miles) of territory since the counteroffensive against Russia started earlier this month, saying: “The Russian army these days is demonstrating its best ability – to show its back.”
Residents in Russian-controlled parts of the Kharkiv region have been advised to evacuate to Russia, according to the state-run news agency Tass.
A woman has been killed and at least 20 civilians injured in Russian shelling in the Kharkiv district, according to the regional governor.
A resident of Izium, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed to the Guardian that Ukrainian troops had entered the city. Before that, “Russian occupying forces were rapidly withdrawing, leaving ammunition and equipment behind.”
The UN said it has documented “torture and ill-treatment” of prisoners of war held by Russian forces in Ukraine. It also said it had corroborated at least 5,767 civilian deaths, though added that the actual numbers are “likely considerably higher”.
The Ukrainian military said a further 350 Russian soldiers had been killed, bringing the total number since the start of the invasion to 52,250.
The military also said Russia was also sending 1,300 Chechen fighters to the southern Kherson region. It comes as western intelligence suggests that Russian forces in Kherson are coming under sustained pressure from Ukrainian attacks.
Despite the gains made by Ukraine’s armed forces, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the war was entering a critical period and he urged Ukraine’s western backers to keep up their support through what could be a difficult winter.
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Today’s shutdown follows the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief saying on Friday that recent shelling made the “situation increasingly precarious” as reliable supply was unlikely to be restored.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said vital offsite electricity supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had been destroyed by shelling and there was little likelihood a reliable supply would be re-established.
He said shelling had destroyed the switchyard of a nearby thermal power plant. The plant has supplied power to the nuclear facility each time its normal supply lines had been cut over the past three weeks.
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The sixth reactor had been operating in “island mode” for the past three days, it said, feeding only its own needs after power lines were severed by Russian shelling.
The restoration of one of these lines on Saturday enabled the operator to make the decision to place the site in “the safest state – cold shutdown”.
If lines continue to be damaged, the plant will rely on backup diesel generators, “the duration of which is limited by the technological resource and the amount of available diesel fuel”, Energoatom said.
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In a statement posted on Telegram, Energoatom said the sixth and last functioning reactor was disconnected from the national grid at 3.41am and that “preparations are under way for its cooling and transfer to a cold state”.
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Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant shuts down
Operations at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine have fully halted, Energoatom, the state agency in charge of the plant, said on Sunday.
The agency said the restoration of power to the plant had allowed it to do the safest thing and power down its sixth and last working reactor.
Kyiv on Wednesday called for residents of Russian-occupied areas around the plant, Europe’s largest, to evacuate for their own safety. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling the nuclear plant, risking a nuclear disaster.
