Summary
It’s slightly past 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Russian president Vladimir Putin is giving directions directly to generals in the field, CNN reports. According to two sources familiar with American and western intelligence that spoke to CNN, the direct orders from Putin to generals “hints at the dysfunctional command structure” that has affected Russia forces on the battlefield.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban wants EU sanctions on Russia lifted by the end of the year, a pro-government daily newspaper said Thursday. Orban, who has sought close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin in recent years, has frequently railed against the sanctions which were imposed onto Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Many of the Ukrainians exchanged in the largest prisoner swap with Russia since the beginning of the invasion show signs of violent torture, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday. On Wednesday Ukraine announced the exchange of a record-high 215 imprisoned soldiers with Russia, including fighters who led the defence of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said that he is not surprised that that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a UN security council meeting. “I’m not surprised,” Cleverly said at the UN, saying, “I don’t think Mr. Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin is giving directions directly to generals in the field, CNN reports.
According to two sources familiar with American and western intelligence that spoke to CNN, the direct orders from Putin to generals “hints at the dysfunctional command structure" that has affected Russia forces on the battlefield.
Other sources who are familiar with US intelligence told CNN that there are significant disagreements on strategy with military leaders who struggle to agree on where to focus their efforts in Ukraine.
Additionally, a senior NATO official told the outlet that senior officials in Moscow are struggling to assign blame for Russia’s setbacks in the war.
“Kremlin officials and state media pundits have been feverishly discussing the reasons for the failure in Kharkiv and in typical fashion, the Kremlin seems to be attempting to deflect the blame away from Putin and onto the Russian military,” the official said.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban wants EU sanctions on Russia lifted by the end of the year, a pro-government daily newspaper said Thursday.
Orban, who has sought close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin in recent years, has frequently railed against the sanctions which were imposed onto Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
According to Orban, the sanctions are more damaging to Europe than to Russia.
Magyar Nemzet reported that Orban urged members of his Fidesz party at a closed-door gathering late Wednesday to get the sanctions lifted.
“According to our information... Orban called on the members of the Fidesz faction to do their utmost to ensure that Europe lifts these sanctions by the end of the year at the latest,” the newspaper said.
The government said it confirmed the content of the article. It comes as Brussels looks to impose further sanctions on Russia.
Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said further sanctions would only “deepen the difficulties”.
“Europe is suffering more from the restrictions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine than Russia, and therefore the eighth package of sanctions should be forgotten,” he said at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week.
Hungary has been hit by record-high inflation. The country is highly dependent on Russian oil and gas, and there are fears for its energy supplies.
Orban’s ruling Fidesz party meanwhile announced it would soon launch a national public consultation on the issue of sanctions - a method previously used to denounce EU migration policy for instance.
It would aim to give Hungarians the chance to voice their opinion, Mate Kocsis, head of the party’s parliamentary group, told reporters.
“It is not normal that sanctions are only decided by the Brussels elite,” Kocsis said.
EU foreign ministers held an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the issue after Moscow mobilised reservists for its war in Ukraine.
A final decision needs to be made at a formal session.
Many of the Ukrainians exchanged in the largest prisoner swap with Russia since the beginning of the invasion show signs of violent torture, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.
Agence France-Presse reports:
On Wednesday Ukraine announced the exchange of a record-high 215 imprisoned soldiers with Russia, including fighters who led the defence of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.
“Many of them have been brutally tortured,” Kyrylo Budanov said during a press conference, without providing further details on signs of torture.
Some of the detainees “are in a more or less normal physical condition, except for chronic malnutrition due to bad conditions of detention”, Budanov said.
The prisoners were detained in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian troops, as well as in Russia itself, according to the high-ranking official.
Ukrainian interior minister Denys Monastyrsky during the same press conference said “absolutely all” of the Ukrainian prisoners swapped “need psychological rehabilitation.”
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said that he is not surprised that that Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of a UN security council meeting.
“I’m not surprised,” Cleverly said at the UN, saying, “I don’t think Mr. Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Thousands of men across Russia have been handed draft papers after Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilisation. Among those who have been called up since the president’s announcement on Wednesday are Russians detained while protesting against the mobilisation, the OVD-Info rights group said.
Traffic at Russian border crossings with Finland and Georgia surged after Putin’s partial mobilisation announcement sparked fears that men of fighting age would be called to fight on the frontline in Ukraine. Prices for one-way flights out of Moscow to the nearest foreign locations rose above $5,000 (£4,435), with most air tickets sold out completely for the coming days. Photos showed long tailbacks at border crossings with Finland and Georgia.
In response, Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said her government was considering ways to sharply reduce Russian tourism and transit through Finland. “The government’s will is very clear, we believe Russian tourism [to Finland] must be stopped, as well as transit through Finland,” Marin told reporters.
The Kremlin has dismissed reports of an exodus of Russian men of fighting age following Putin’s mobilisation announcement as “exaggerated”. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, also declined to deny Russian media reports that some anti-mobilisation protesters detained on Wednesday night had been given draft papers, saying: “This is not against the law.”
Russian deserters fleeing mobilisation may be able to obtain protection in Germany, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said. “Deserters threatened with serious repression can, as a rule, obtain international protection in Germany,” Faeser said in an interview. The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said Russians fleeing the country will not be issued humanitarian visas by the Czech Republic.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has issued a strongly worded rebuke to Russia for “totally unacceptable” nuclear threats. Speaking at the start of a UN security council meeting the day after Putin raised the stakes in his invasion of Ukraine, Guterres said Moscow’s plans to annex parts of Ukraine were a “violation of the UN charter and of international law”.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, walked out of a UN security council meeting after accusing Ukraine and its western allies of “impunity” in Donbas. Ukraine and its allies were attempting to “impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression”, Lavrov argued. He appeared to walk out of the UN meeting as his British counterpart, James Cleverly, addressed the council.
Also speaking at the UN security council meeting, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, accused Putin of having “shredded” international order “before our eyes”. Russia’s president had added “fuel to the fire” by announcing mobilisation and planning “referendums” in occupied Ukrainian territory, and must be held to account for his actions, Blinken said.
Nato has condemned plans to hold “referendums” in Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, describing them as Moscow’s “blatant attempts at territorial conquest”. “Sham referenda” in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson “have no legitimacy”, the alliance said in a statement following the announcement earlier this week that the regions were planning to hold “referendums” on joining the Russian Federation.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, also denied reports that an undisclosed clause in Putin’s decree on partial mobilisation provided for 1 million reservists to be enlisted to fight in Ukraine. “This is a lie,” Peskov said in response to a report by Novaya Gazeta that quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying the government’s real plan is to call up 1 million people.
Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia overnight at protests denouncing mobilisation, a rights group said. Those figures from across 38 Russian cities include at least 502 in Moscow and 524 in St Petersburg, according to the independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group. These are the largest protests seen since Putin launched his invasion in February.
More than 200 Ukrainian and foreign citizens have been released from Russian captivity, including fighters who led the defence of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, in the biggest prisoner swap since Russia’s invasion began in February. In return, Russia received 55 prisoners from Ukraine, including the former Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Putin accused by Ukraine of high treason.
Five Britons released from Russia overnight are meeting their families after several months of captivity in which it was feared they would be executed for fighting for Ukraine. A major diplomatic effort was behind the release of the five Britons who, together with two Americans, a Moroccan, a Croat and a Swedish national, were released by Russia to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The five Britons have been named.
Poland has distributed iodine tablets to regional fire departments to give to people in the event of radioactive exposure, after concerns about fighting around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The deputy interior minister, Błażej Poboży, said these were “routine, pre-emptive actions” to protect people in the event of a situation “which I hope will not happen”.
Updated
Summons delivered to eligible men at midnight. Schoolteachers pressed into handing out draft notices. Men given an hour to pack their things and appear at draft centres. Women sobbing as they send their husbands and sons off to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The first full day of Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war produced emotional showdowns at draft centres and even signs of protest. And it appears Russia could be considering far more than the 300,000 new conscripts claimed by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.
One woman in a village in the Zakamensky region of Buryatia, eastern Siberia, said she first felt something was amiss when the dogs began barking at about midnight.
In a community of 450 people, the village head was walking from house to house, seeking to hand out more than 20 draft notices. As men gathered before departing the next morning, she said, some drank vodka, while others hugged and told each other to stay safe. Women cried and made the sign of the cross over the small minibus that carried them away.
“It’s not a partial mobilisation, it’s a 100% mobilisation,” said Alexandra Garmazhapova, the president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, an activist group that has reported on the draft in the region. In the past day, she said, she and her colleagues had received and identified more than 3,000 reports of povestka, or draft papers, being delivered in Buryatia within just 24 hours of Vladimir Putin announcing the draft.
Updated
Nato condemns Russia's 'sham referenda' in Ukraine
Nato has condemned plans to hold “referendums” in Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, describing them as Moscow’s “blatant attempts at territorial conquest”.
Earlier this week, four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions announced they were planning to hold votes on joining the Russian Federation. Ukraine and the west have indicated they will not recognise the annexations – and that Russia’s new territorial claims will not slow Ukraine reclaiming its sovereign land.
In a statement today, Nato said:
Sham referenda in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine have no legitimacy and will be a blatant violation of the UN charter.
It added:
Nato allies will not recognise their illegal and illegitimate annexation. These lands are Ukraine.
Updated
Also speaking at the UN’s security council today, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, called for “neutrality” and urged Russia and Ukraine to commit to “dialogue without pre-conditions”.
China supported investigations into violations of international humanitarian law, but they should be “objective and fair, based on facts rather than an assumption of guilt” and “must not be politicised”, Wang said.
Wang spoke with his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau, on the sidelines of the UN meeting, where he argued that an expanded and protracted war was not in the interests of any parties, according to China’s foreign ministry.
China hopes that the “flame of war” will go out as soon as possible, the Chinese ministry cited Wang as saying.
Updated
Boris Johnson has said the UK must be prepared to give “more military assistance” and “more economic support” to Ukraine.
Speaking to the Commons today, the former prime minister said it was “more vital than ever” that Britain has “the strategic patience to hold our nerve” and ensure that Ukrainians succeed in recapturing their territory.
Johnson added:
If Putin is going to double down on his aggression, then we must double down in our defence of the Ukrainians, and we must be prepared to give more military assistance and more economic support.
Detained anti-war protesters among thousands handed draft papers, says rights group
Thousands of men across Russia have been handed draft papers after Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilisation.
First video showing called-up men in Moscow saying goodbyes to crying mothers. Similar scenes unfolded in hundreds of Russians cities and towns today. Some Moscow reservists I spoke to say they are also leaving for training tonight, likely will be on the frontlines in ~2-3 weeks pic.twitter.com/xhBMNT5Oiv
— Mary Ilyushina (@maryilyushina) September 22, 2022
Among those who have been called up since the Russian president’s announcement yesterday are Russians detained while protesting in cities across the country, the OVD-Info rights group said.
One protester in Moscow was told they faced a 10-year jail sentence for refusing to receive an enlistment order, it said.
In a statement, OVD-Info said:
Information was received from 15 police departments that the detained men were handed a summons to the military registration and enlistment office.
Another demonstrator told the Moscow Times that male protesters were given draft papers at the police station. She told the paper:
There was a military recruiting officer who gave the detained men draft notifications. When the first person was asked to go to a separate room, we did not understand what was going on — but when he returned with a draft slip, we just started crying.
Earlier today, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to deny reports that some protesters had been given draft papers, saying only: “This is not against the law.”
Updated
The Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk has written for us today about how Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation will make the war real for thousands of Russian families, and proves it is failing to hold the frontline.
Ukrainians feel hope, not fear, she writes.
Instead of thinking about Putin’s speech, many Ukrainians celebrated the exchange of 215 Ukrainian prisoners of war that took place on the same day. Among them were Azov battalion fighters, members of the the national guard, the head of the Mariupol patrol police, and a nine-months-pregnant paramedic who had spent six months in prison.
Exhausted, thin, and wearing the same clothes they had on when captured in May 2022, many had a chance to call their relatives for the first time in months. “The best soil in the world,” one of the fighters said, kneeling down and kissing the land.
Updated
Russians fleeing the partial mobilisation ordered by Vladimir Putin will not be issued with humanitarian visas by the Czech Republic, the Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said.
In a statement obtained by Agence-France-Presse, Lipavský said:
I understand that Russians are fleeing from the increasingly desperate decisions taken by Putin. But those who are running away from their country because they do not want to fulfil a duty imposed by their own state do not meet the criteria for receiving humanitarian visas.
Earlier today, Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, suggested that Russian deserters may be able to obtain protection in Germany.
Updated
Lavrov walks out of UN security council meeting
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, walked out of a UN security council meeting after accusing Ukraine and its western allies of “impunity” in Donbas.
Ukraine and its allies were attempting to “impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression”, Lavrov argued.
Lavrov was nearly 90 minutes late for the security council meeting and appeared to want to leave as soon as he finished speaking.
Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, speaking at the council meeting after Lavrov, said the UK would support Ukraine all the way and for as long as it takes.
Cleverly said Russia had tried to “lay the blame on those imposing sanctions” and that “every day, the devastating consequences of Russia’s invasion become more clear”.
Cleverly said of Lavrov:
He has left the chamber, I’m not surprised. I don’t think Mr Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council.
"He has left the chamber, I'm not surprised, I don't think Mr Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council" says Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, following Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov walking out of the meeting.https://t.co/X3flQUCiPZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 22, 2022
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/8pymw5lIqw
Updated
Speaking at the UN security council meeting, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, accused Vladimir Putin of having “shredded” international order “before our eyes”.
Russia’s president had added “fuel to the fire” by announcing mobilisation and planning “referendums” in occupied Ukrainian territory, and must be held to account for his actions, Blinken said.
We cannot – we will not – let President Putin get away with it.
Blinken said it was critical to show that “no nation can redraw the borders of another by force”, adding:
If we fail to defend this principle when the Kremlin is so flagrantly violating it, we send the message to aggressors everywhere that they can ignore it too.
Updated
International criminal court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan has said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe crimes within the jurisdiction of the court have been committed in Ukraine.
Speaking at the UN’s security council, Khan said the ICC investigation priorities were intentional targeting of civilian objects and the transfer of populations from Ukraine, including children.
Updated
Hours after Vladimir Putin shocked Russia by announcing the first mobilisation since the second world war, Oleg received his draft papers in the mailbox, ordering him to make his way to the local recruitment centre in Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan republic.
As a 29-year-old sergeant in the Russian reserves, Oleg said he always knew that he would be the first in line if a mobilisation was declared, but held out hope that he would not be forced to fight in the war in Ukraine.
“My heart sank when I got the call-up,” he said. “But I knew I had no time to despair.”
He quickly packed all his belongings and booked a one-way ticket to Orenburg, a southern Russian city close to the border with Kazakhstan.
“I will be driving across the border tonight,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday from the airport in Orenburg.
“I have no idea when I’ll step foot in Russia again,” he added, referring to the jail sentence Russian men face for avoiding the draft.
Oleg said he was leaving behind his wife, who is due to give birth next week.
I will miss the most important day of my life. But I am simply not letting Putin turn me into a killer in a war that I want no part in.
The Kremlin’s decision to announce a partial mobilisation has led to a rush among men of military age to leave the country, likely sparking a new, possibly unprecedented brain drain in the coming days and weeks.
The Guardian spoke to over a dozen men and women who had left Russia since Putin announced the so-called partial mobilisation, or who are planning to do so in the next few days.
Updated
The Finnish government is considering ways to sharply reduce Russian tourism and transit through Finland, the country’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said.
Her remarks came after the Finnish border guard said traffic arriving at the country’s eastern border “intensified” overnight after Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilisation.
Some 4,824 Russians arrived in Finland via the country’s eastern border on Wednesday, an increase of 1,691 compared with the same day last week, it said.
Traffic at the border remained elevated on Thursday but was under control, it added.
Incoming traffic at the eastern border increased during the night. Traffic has increased compared to previous weeks, but the amount is still small compared to the time before the pandemic. Our resources are sufficient and the situation is under the control. #Finnishborder pic.twitter.com/B7GfUQyZti
— Rajavartiolaitos (@rajavartijat) September 22, 2022
The situation at Finland's borders has not changed alarmingly in recent days. Incorrect and misleading information is circulating in social media. We will regularly post about the situation on this twitter account in the coming days. #Finnishborder pic.twitter.com/Jng6BhDs35
— Rajavartiolaitos (@rajavartijat) September 22, 2022
At the Vaalimaa border crossing, roughly three hours’ drive from St Petersburg, three lanes of cars each stretched for 300-400 metres at around 1.15pm local time (1015 GMT), a border official told Reuters.
A couple of hours later, traffic had quietened with cars stretching over three lanes for some 150 metres, according to a Reuters witness.
Updated
Russian deserters fleeing the partial mobilisation ordered by Vladimir Putin may be able to obtain protection in Germany, the German interior minister has said.
In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Nancy Faeser said:
Deserters threatened with serious repression can as a rule obtain international protection in Germany.
She added:
Anyone who courageously opposes Putin’s regime and thereby falls into great danger, can file for asylum on grounds of political persecution.
Following Putin’s mobilisation announcement yesterday, Latvia’s foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said his country, which borders Russia, would not offer refuge to Russians escaping mobilisation due to “security reasons”.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The Kremlin has dismissed reports of an exodus of Russian men of fighting age following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation as “exaggerated”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also declined to deny Russian media reports that some anti-mobilisation protesters detained on Wednesday night had been given draft papers, saying: “This is not against the law.”
Traffic at Russian border crossings with Finland and Georgia surged after Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation announcement sparked fears that men of fighting age would be called to fight on the frontline in Ukraine. Prices for one-way flights out of Moscow to the nearest foreign locations rose above $5,000 (£4,435), with most air tickets sold out completely for coming days. Photos showed long tailbacks at border crossings with Finland and Georgia.
Peskov also denied reports that an undisclosed clause in President Putin’s decree on partial mobilisation provided for 1 million reservists to be enlisted to fight in Ukraine. “This is a lie,” Peskov said in response to a report by Novaya Gazeta that quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying that the government’s real plan is to call up 1 million people.
Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia overnight at protests denouncing mobilisation, a rights group said. Those figures across 38 Russian cities include at least 502 in Moscow and 524 in St Petersburg, according to the independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group. These are the largest protests seen since Putin launched his invasion in February.
More than 200 Ukrainian and foreign citizens have been released from Russian captivity, including fighters who led the defence of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, in the biggest prisoner swap since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. In return, Russia received 55 prisoners from Ukraine, including the former Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Vladimir Putin accused by Ukraine of high treason.
The five Britons released from Russia overnight are meeting their families after several months of captivity in which it was feared they would be executed for fighting for Ukraine. A major diplomatic effort was behind the release of the five Britons, who together with two Americans, a Moroccan, a Croat and a Swedish national, were released by Russia to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The five Britons have been named.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the prisoner swap carried out by Russia and Ukraine, involving almost 300 people and mediated by Turkey, was an important step towards ending the war. Erdoğan was quoted as saying that the exchange occurred as a result of the diplomatic traffic he conducted with Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy and Russia’s President Putin.
The UK’s ministry of defence has described the mobilisation as an admission that Russia has “exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine”. It said “Russia is likely to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of even mustering the 300,000 personnel. It will probably attempt to stand up new formations with many of these troops, which are unlikely to be combat effective for months.”
Poland has distributed iodine tablets to regional fire departments to give to people in the event of radioactive exposure, after concerns about fighting around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The deputy interior minister, Błażej Poboży, said these were “routine, pre-emptive actions” to protect people in the event of a situation “which I hope will not happen”.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has thanked Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his “facilitation” of the release of foreign citizens from Russian captivity.
Had a cordial conversation with 🇸🇦 Crown Prince Mohammed bin #Salman. Thanked for facilitation in the release of foreign citizens, involvement in mediation and the leading role of 🇸🇦 in the region. We discussed 🇺🇦's energy security, post-war recovery and joint investment projects
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 22, 2022
Updated
The Russian national airline, Aeroflot, said it would refund people who were unable to fly as planned if they were called up as part of Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation.
Russian citizens subject to conscription are entitled to a refund on their plane ticket, the company said in a statement.
Aeroflot 2018: We've won an award for having the best and newest fleet of any European airline and fly to most European capitals.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) September 22, 2022
Aeroflot 2022: We'll give you a refund if you bought a ticket for one of remaining non-sanctioned routes but then got mobilised to fight in Ukraine.
Russia’s war on Ukraine ‘shows no sign of letting up’, says UN chief
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has been speaking at the security council meeting, where he said Russia’s war on Ukraine “shows no sign of letting up”.
Addressing the UN security council meeting, Guterres said talk of a nuclear conflict was “totally unacceptable”.
Any annexation of a state’s territory by another state through the threat or use of force is a violation of the UN charter and international law, he continued.
On the subject of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Guterres described the situation as remaining “of grave concern”.
He said:
All attacks on nuclear facilities must end and the purely civilian nature of such plants must be reestablished.
Any damage to nuclear infrastructure, whether deliberate or not, could have terrible consequences for people around the planet.
Guterres welcomed yesterday’s release of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, describing the prisoner swap as a “welcome development”.
Updated
Earlier we reported a video circulating on social media reportedly showing a military recruitment officer in Dagestan encountering some resistance from local men.
Our Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth has shared a tweet suggesting protests may be taking place in Dagestan against the mobilisation.
Possibly some draft protests bubbling in Dagestan. Reportedly footage of locals blocking a federal highway in Babaiurt. https://t.co/NkqagMfa4G
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) September 22, 2022
Erdoğan: exchange of prisoners 'important step towards ending the war'
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the prisoner swap carried out by Russia and Ukraine, involving almost 300 people and mediated by Turkey, was an important step towards ending the war, Turkish broadcaster NTV has reported.
Erdoğan was quoted as telling reporters in New York that the exchange occurred as a result of the diplomatic traffic he conducted with Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy and Russia’s President Putin.
“Turkey has now received the result of its belief in the power of dialogue and diplomacy,” he was cited as saying at the end of his visit to the US.
“This exchange of prisoners, which took place under the mediation of Turkey, is an important step towards ending the war,” Reuters report he said.
“We will continue our efforts to achieve peace and stability in the future. For example, as soon as we return, we will call the leaders again and continue our telephone diplomacy with them,” he added.
Updated
The Kremlin has been moved to bluntly deny reports by the independent Novaya Gazeta Europe news service that an undisclosed clause in President Vladimir Putin’s decree on partial mobilisation provided for 1 million reservists to be enlisted to fight in Ukraine. [See 13.01]
“This is a lie,” the presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told the RIA Novosti news agency.
The story hinges on the seventh paragraph in Putin’s decree, which in public versions is redacted and simply marked “for official use”.
RIA reports:
The seventh point is hidden in the document, which attracted the attention of journalists. As Peskov explained, this paragraph is for official use, so he cannot disclose its content. The spokesperson clarified that it was about the number of conscripts.
Earlier today Peskov dismissed reports of an exodus of Russian men of fighting age following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation as “exaggerated”. In November 2021, Peskov said reports Russia intended to invade Ukraine were a “hollow and unfounded” invention of the western media.
Updated
Reuters reports that Poland has distributed iodine tablets to regional fire departments to give to people in the event of radioactive exposure, after concerns about fighting around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Shelling at the site of Zaporizhzhia – Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant – has damaged buildings close to its six reactors and cut power cables, risking a nuclear catastrophe that would affect neighbouring countries. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling around the plant, which Russia has occupied.
“After the media reports about battles near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, we decided ahead of time to take protective action to distribute iodine,” the deputy interior minister, Błażej Poboży, told private broadcaster Radio Zet.
“I would like to reassure all citizens that these are routine, pre-emptive actions that are to protect us in the event of a situation which I hope will not happen,” he added.
Iodine is considered a way of protecting the body against conditions such as thyroid cancer in case of radioactive exposure.
Updated
Sweden’s foreign affairs minister, Ann Linde, has condemned the arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s first military draft since the second world war.
Writing on Twitter, Linde described the demonstrators as “courageous” who had her “deep respect”.
Condemn widespread arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters in Russia who took to the streets to protest Putin’s decision to scale up Russia’s war in #Ukraine even further by decision of partial mobilization. These courageous demonstrators have our deep respect. #StopWar
— Ann Linde (@AnnLinde) September 22, 2022
Updated
The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth writes that the actual number of reservists called up to support Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine could exceed the 300,000 figure stated by the country’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.
Just spoke with a woman from a small village of 450 people in Buryatia. She said that local authorities tried to hand out 20 draft notices, including to several in their 50s. Even if many turned away, would still produce far more than 300k conscripts if repeated across Russia. https://t.co/s8wWbQoPk7
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) September 22, 2022
Updated
A video circulating on social media reportedly shows men outside a military enlistment office in Dagestan challenging Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation.
In the video, which has not been independently verified, a military recruitment officer is seen addressing a group of men in the mountainous Caucasus region.
Pretty powerful video. In Dagestan locals clearly don't want to go to war with Ukraine. The recruiting officer argues they have to fight for the future. – We don't even have a present, what future are you talking about," replies a Dagestani man. pic.twitter.com/1O4ob2GhSN
— Tadeusz Giczan (@TadeuszGiczan) September 22, 2022
Updated
The five Britons released from Russia overnight are meeting up with their families after several months of captivity in which it was feared they would be executed for fighting for Ukraine.
Shaun Pinner, who was released alongside Aiden Aslin, was pictured with his family in a hotel room this morning by his mother, Debbie Price, who thanked “all the amazing people” who made his release possible.
The Presidium Network, a group involved in supporting the rescue of one of the five, said they knew all five had been reunited with close relatives, although they may not have returned home yet.
Dominik Byrne, co-founder of Presidium, said:
We know they’re safely in the UK and (have) been reunited with their families.
A major diplomatic effort was behind the release of the five Britons, who together with two Americans, a Moroccan, Croat and Swede, were released by Russia to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia said its mediation effort was led by its crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had pulled out of attending the Queen’s funeral because of the ongoing controversy over his alleged role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
It is unclear if the activity represented an attempt to boost the crown prince’s standing in the UK, but the Saudis were keen to show the former captives were safe in a video and pictures released as they got off the plane last night.
Aslin, Pinner and the other three released Britons - John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy - had been held by pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, accused of being mercenaries fighting for Ukraine.
Aslin and Pinner, who had joined Ukraine’s army and were captured in Mariupol, were sentenced to death by the court, a ruling that broke the Geneva conventions, which require that prisoners of war are not treated as criminals simply for taking part in fighting.
It had been assumed that Russia or the pro-Russia separatists were trying to use the five men as diplomatic leverage. Their release was something of a surprise and came after internet rumours that Aslin and Pinner had been executed.
It was also part of a wider prisoner swap deal, in which Russia released five commanders from the Azov steelworks battle, in a mediation involving Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk and 200 other prisoners in exchange for 55 Russians.
Russia typically swaps prisoners on a one-to-one basis, and it had been feared the separatists would put the Azov steel plant defenders from Mariupol on trial. That it has backed away from keeping the prisoners suggests a rare concern for global public opinion on the part of Moscow.
Updated
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on Ukraine’s allies to stand firm against Vladimir Putin’s “blackmail” of nuclear retaliation.
Speaking to BFM television following his return from the UN general assembly in New York, Macron said:
Our task is to hold our line, that is to say, help Ukraine as we are doing, to protect its territory and never to attack Russia.
Russia is “very clearly under pressure” and has decided to “take a step toward escalation” but “we must never get carried away”, Macron added.
Updated
Dutch TV launches campaign for a referendum to return Russia to its historical Dutch roots… https://t.co/A72nLCeANJ
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) September 22, 2022
Putin to order 1 million Russians to fight in Ukraine – report
One million Russian citizens could be called up to fight in the war in Ukraine as part of Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation drive, according to a report by a Russian newspaper.
In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, the Russian president said military service would only apply to “citizens who are currently in the reserve, especially those who have served in the armed forces, have certain military professions and relevant experience”.
Shortly after Putin’s announcement, the country’s defence ministry Sergei Shoigu said 300,000 Russians would be called up as part of the mobilisation that would apply to “those with previous military experience”.
“These are not people who’ve never seen or heard anything about the army,” he said, adding that students can “keep going to class”.
But Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper operating in exile, has quoted an unnamed official in Putin’s government as saying that the real plan is to call up 1 million people.
The source told the newspaper that a classified seventh paragraph of the decree, signed by Putin on Wednesday, allows the Russian defence ministry to call up 1 million people.
The source said:
The figure was corrected several times, and in the end, they settled on a million.
Updated
Traffic at Russian border crossings with Finland and Georgia surged after Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation announcement sparked fears that men of fighting age would be called to fight on the frontline in Ukraine.
Prices for one-way flights out of Moscow to the nearest foreign locations rose above $5,000 (£4,435), with most air tickets sold out completely for coming days.
Photos showed long tailbacks at border crossings with Finland and Russia.
The Kremlin has described reports of an exodus of draft-age men from Russia as exaggerated.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has shared photographs of the Ukrainian citizens who have been released by Russia in the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war.
In a post on Telegram, Zelenskiy wrote:
Ours. Free. We keep working to return all Ukrainians from Russian captivity. Glory to Ukraine!
Updated
France will continue to support Ukraine with arms and training, the country’s defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said.
Speaking after a meeting with his German counterpart, Christine Lambrecht, Lecornu added that France needed cooperation within the Nato alliance to continue its support for Kyiv.
Updated
Vladimir Putin is “desperate” and “bluffing” with his threats to use nuclear weapons, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.
In his speech yesterday, the Russian president warned that he had “lots of weapons to reply” to what he called western threats on Russian territory and added that he was not bluffing.
Speaking to Sky News today, Prystaiko said:
When somebody is saying that I’m not bluffing, that’s the first sign that they are actually bluffing. Otherwise, they would do something like prepare the nuclear arsenal.
They’re not doing it, which means that he’s trying to find a magic wand which will allow him to get out of the situation because he’s deeply, deeply in trouble.
Putin was trying to “intimidate all of us”, Prystaiko said, adding that he didn’t believe it would work.
He added:
We just believe in the hope that there are some forces around him (Putin) who will be able to tell him that, you know: ‘We are going nowhere, we’re going down and we’re bringing the whole nation with us.’
Updated
Kremlin denies Russian men fleeing to avoid fighting in war
The Kremlin has dismissed reports of an exodus of Russian men of fighting age following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation as “exaggerated”.
Flight sales data showed flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia, all destinations that allow Russians to enter without a visa, were sold out within minutes of Putin’s announcement on Wednesday.
In his regular briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also declined to deny Russian media reports that some anti-mobilisation protesters detained on Wednesday night had been given draft papers, saying:
This is not against the law.
Updated
Moscow says 55 fighters returned to Russia in prisoner exchange
Russia’s defence ministry has said 55 of its servicemen have been released in the largest prisoner exchange deal with Ukraine since the start of the war.
In a statement, the Kremlin said:
All servicemen have been delivered to the territory of the Russian Federation by military transport aircraft and are in medical institutions of Russia’s defence ministry.
The fighters, who came from Russia’s armed forces and its proxies in the Russian-backed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, were currently undergoing health checks, it added.
The statement did not mention Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Vladimir Putin accused of high treason. The Russian-installed separatist head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said Medvedchuk had been freed as part of the deal.
Nearly 300 people, including 10 foreigners and Ukrainian fighters who took part in the siege of Mariupol, were involved in the prisoner swap.
Updated
Presidium Network has confirmed that the five Britons captured by Russian-backed forces have been released and are safely home.
The organisation, a UK-based company that says it carries out evacuations of families and individuals from war zones, said:
We know that all are back safely in the UK.
The five are Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill.
The men are all “looking forward to normality with their families after this horrific ordeal”, said Dominik Byrne, co-founder of Presidium.
Five Britons held by Russian authorities named
The names of five British nationals released by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine overnight have been confirmed.
Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill were flown to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia before being flown back to Britain.
They were reunited with their families after landing at Heathrow Airport.
On Wednesday, the UK prime minister, Liz Truss, confirmed that five Britons held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine had been released after the intervention of Saudi Arabia.
Aslin’s MP Robert Jenrick tweeted yesterday that he and “the other British prisoners of war held captive by the Russian authorities” were on their way back to the UK.
In a video filmed on a plane with Pinner beside him, Aslin said:
We just want to let everybody know we are out of the danger zone.
“By the skin of our teeth,” Pinner added, and both men thanked those who had supported them during their detention.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia overnight at protests denouncing mobilisation, a rights group said, hours after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military draft since the second world war.
The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group said that according to information it had collated from 38 Russian cities, more than 1,311 people had been held by late evening. It said those figures included at least 502 in Moscow and 524 in St Petersburg, Russia’s second most populous city. Unsanctioned rallies are illegal under Russia’s anti-protest laws.
Russian interior ministry official Irina Volk, in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, said officers had cut short attempts to stage what it called small protests. “In a number of regions, there were attempts to stage unauthorised actions which brought together an extremely small number of participants,” Volk was quoted as saying. “These were all stopped.”
The Moscow Times is carrying a report that a Russian military recruitment office and an administration building were attacked overnight in two separate locations during the anti-mobilisation protests.
The UK’s ministry of defence has described the mobilisation as an admission that Russia has “exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine”. It said “Russia is likely to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of even mustering the 300,000 personnel. It will probably attempt to stand up new formations with many of these troops, which are unlikely to be combat effective for months.”
Traffic arriving at Finland’s eastern border with Russia has “intensified” during the night, the Finnish border guard said early on Thursday, while adding that the situation was under control. One-way flights out of Russia were rocketing in price and selling out fast on Wednesday after Putin ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists.
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, and currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has threatened attacks on Europe and US, saying “Referendums will be held, and the Donbas republics and other territories will be admitted to Russia. Any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used [to protect them]. Therefore, various retired idiots with generals’ stripes do not need to scare us with talk about a Nato strike on Crimea. Hypersonic is guaranteed to be able to reach targets in Europe and the United States much faster.”
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described Joe Biden’s speech on Wednesday at the UN as “indecent”, and accused the US president of mis-quoting his Russian counterpart over nuclear threats.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shrugged off Russian moves to escalate the war, saying his country’s forces would continue their counteroffensive, not giving Russia breathing space to mobilise and dig in on Ukrainian soil. “We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms, but we need time,” Zelenskiy said in a recorded broadcast to the UN general assembly on Wednesday.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
The British prime minister, Liz Truss, has just tweeted: “We will not rest until Ukraine prevails” alongside the full text of her speech to the UN general assembly yesterday, during which she said:
No one is threatening Russia. Yet we meet here this evening… In Ukraine, barbarous weapons are being used to kill and maim people, rape is being used as an instrument of war, families are being torn apart.
And this morning we have seen Putin trying to justify his catastrophic failures. He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate. He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms. And he is making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.
This will not work. The international alliance is strong and Ukraine is strong.
The contrast between Russia’s conduct and Ukraine’s brave, dignified first lady, Olena Zelenska, who is here at the UN today, could not be more stark.
The Ukrainians are not just defending their own country – they are defending our values and the security of the whole world.
Updated
The general staff of the Ukraine army has issued updated figures of the losses it claims to have inflicted on Russia and pro-Russia forces within occupied areas of Ukraine.
It has raised the casualty count by 400 personnel in the last 24 hours, taking it to a total of ~55,510.
Загальні бойові втрати противника з 24.02 по 22.09 орієнтовно склали / The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 22.09 were approximately: pic.twitter.com/fRcXHBHZUk
— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) September 22, 2022
Yesterday Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, spoke of losses amounting to just under 6,000 personnel during what he termed Russia’s “special military operation”.
The Ukraine figure likely includes forces fighting for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, who would not be expected to be counted in any official figure of Russian losses.
Nevertheless, the two claimed figures – 55,510 and 5,937 – are some magnitudes apart. Neither figure has been independently verified.
Updated
Medvedev threatens attacks on Europe and US: 'Russia has chosen its own path. There is no way back'
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, and currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has issued another Telegram message containing his typically hawkish rhetoric. He says:
Referendums will be held, and the Donbas republics and other territories will be admitted to Russia. The protection of all the territories that have joined will be significantly strengthened by the Russian armed forces.
Russia announced that not only mobilisation capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection.
Therefore, various retired idiots with generals’ stripes do not need to scare us with talk about a Nato strike on Crimea. Hypersonic is guaranteed to be able to reach targets in Europe and the United States much faster.
But the western establishment, in general, all citizens of the Nato countries need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path. There is no way back.
Updated
The Moscow Times is this morning carrying a report that a Russian military recruitment office and an administration building were attacked overnight in two separate locations during anti-mobilisation protests.
Citing local news sources, it reports:
In the city of Nizhny Novgorod 440km east of Moscow, a molotov cocktail attack started a small fire at a local enlistment building, according to the local nn.ru news website.
A slightly larger fire broke out at a local administration building in Tolyatti, a city located 1,000km east of Moscow.
The city’s news website nesluhi.info reported, citing emergency officials, that the molotov cocktail attack burned down the administration’s entrance.
The Moscow Times reports it is not known if there were any arrests or injuries as a result of the apparent attacks.
Telegram channel Mash posted pictures which it claims showed the damage to the building in Nizhny Novgorod.
The claims have not been verified directly by the Guardian.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to thank Turkey and Saudi Arabia for their role in the recent prisoner release. Ukraine’s president writes:
Ukraine returned 215 heroes from Russian captivity. We greatly appreciate the contribution of everyone involved in rescuing the defenders and will never forget it. Many thanks to the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for leading this process.
We agreed that the five released commanders of Azov will be in comfortable conditions in Turkey until the end of the war and will be able to see their families.
Also, as a sign of gratitude for the help to our country, Ukraine freed from Russian captivity five citizens of Great Britain, two citizens of the USA, citizens of Morocco, Sweden, and Croatia. Thank you for your support Saudi Arabia.
We remember all those who are in Russian captivity, and we will do everything for their rescue.
Updated
Since Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilisation of Russia yesterday, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group more than 1,300 people have been arrested in 38 different Russian cities. These are the largest protests seen since Putin launched his invasion in February.
Agence France-Presse journalists in central Moscow report they saw at least 50 people detained by police in riot gear, while in the former imperial capital St Petersburg, police surrounded and detained a small group of protesters, loading them onto a bus as they chanted: “No mobilization!”
“Everyone is scared. I am for peace and I don’t want to have to shoot,” AFP reports protester Vasily Fedorov, a student wearing a pacifist symbol on his chest, said.
Here is a video clip of some of the scenes from the streets of Russia overnight.
Updated
Traffic arriving at Finland’s eastern border with Russia has “intensified” during the night, the Finnish border guard said early on Thursday, while adding that the situation was under control.
Reuters reports that Finnish border guard’s head of international affairs, Matti Pitkaniitty, said: “The number clearly has picked up.”
“It is an exceptional number in the sense that it clearly is busier,” he said, adding that the situation was under control and border guards were ready at nine checkpoints.
Updated
Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who is chair of the House of Commons defence committee in the British parliament, has been interviewed on Sky News this morning in the UK. He has been a strong proponent of more direct action and support from Nato for Ukraine, since Russia’s latest invasion began. He told viewers:
I think our leaders are now recognising where this is all going and we need to step back and ask ourselves the fundamental security question that I pose ever more regularly. Is the world likely to become more dangerous or less over the next few years? I think the answer is clearly the former.
This is not just about Ukraine, but the emergence of a new alliance with Russia, China, and other authoritarian states challenging the status quo that we’ve enjoyed since the end of the cold war. So our actions now, in how we handle Ukraine, given the conflict has now moved into a darker chapter, will determine I think how the next decade plays.
He said:
We’re involved in an economic war with Russia over oil, over gas, over energy. We’re training Ukrainians to fight, we’re arming them with other sophisticated weapons. We’re involved in a political war with Russia.
We need to recognise that we need to move to a war footing, and how we protect our energy supplies, how we develop greater resilience to thwart expected grey zone attacks, how we procure and replace weapons systems that we’ve gifted – our cupboards are almost empty – and how we better assist vulnerable states such as such as Moldova.
Specifically on the issue of the use of nuclear weapons, Ellwood expressed concern that Nato did not have a properly formulated doctrine, saying:
We need to recognise we need to have proportionate responses if nuclear weapons are used, or indeed chemical weapons. We need robust protocols in place in case a tactical low yield nuclear weapon is used. When I visited Nato I asked this very question, and there wasn’t an answer. We need to be very, very clear if Putin steps over this threshold what the west will do.
Updated
Kirill Stremousov, part of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram ahead of the planned referendum in the region at the weekend. He has said:
Residents of the Kherson region expect real statehood from Russia. After all, in recent years Ukraine has been turned into a colony according to the principles of the tribal system. Nazism was literally brought to the inhabitants of Ukraine in the open, we were forbidden to speak our native Russian language, “history” was being rewritten before our very eyes. We want the development of our Kherson region, and not allow our region to be robbed by “our European partners”. Residents of the Kherson region deserve respect and development opportunities. And this can only be done with Russia, but it will be a completely different story, country ...
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, has posted a lengthy status update to Telegram detailing damage from a large number of strikes across the region.
He says in the city of Mykolaiv itself “massive rocket fire” just after midnight led to “multi-story buildings were damaged, windows were broken, gas pipelines, water pipes, cinema and theatre courtyards, administrative buildings were damaged.”
However, there appear to be no casualties or deaths as a result of the strikes. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has, according to Russia’s RIA news agency, described Joe Biden’s speech at the UN as “indecent”, and accused the US president of mis-quoting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. RIA quotes Zakharova saying:
As for the speech of the president of the United States, I consider it absolutely indecent how it began. Indecent not because they have nothing to do or they do not have the right to touch other countries. The fact is that he allegedly started quoting the president of Russia. We, as we always do, began to double-check Biden’s words. Biden said it for sure, but the president of Russia did not say that.
She described the way that Putin’s words were being portrayed by Biden and the US media as “absolutely propaganda” and “contrary to what was actually said”.
Here is how Joe Biden opened his speech in the UN, saying:
Let us speak plainly. A permanent member of the United Nations security council invaded its neighbour, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map.
Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations charter – no more important than the clear prohibition against countries taking the territory of their neighbour by force.
Again, just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe and a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime.
Later in his speech he also said:
Russia shunned the non-proliferation ideals embraced by every other nation at the 10th NPT review conference. And again, today, as I said, they’re making irresponsible nuclear threats to use nuclear weapons.
Here is the passage, in translation, from Vladimir Putin’s speech on Tuesday where he mentioned nuclear blackmail and nuclear weapons:
Nuclear blackmail was also launched. We are talking not only about the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is encouraged by the west, which threatens a nuclear catastrophe, but also about the statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading Nato states about the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction against Russia – nuclear weapons.
For those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components more modern than those of the Nato countries.
And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them.
Updated
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has said her thoughts are with the recently released prisoners of war and their families. She tweeted:
My thoughts this morning are with the released POWs, and with their loved ones. Thank you to President Zelenskiy and his team for including all prisoners of war, including two US citizens, who will be reunited with their families, in negotiations.
My thoughts this morning are with the released POWs, and with their loved ones. Thank you to President Zelenskyy and his team for including all prisoners of war, including two U.S. citizens who will be reunited with their families, in negotiations. https://t.co/ivGIrJE4NV
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) September 22, 2022
Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh, both US military veterans from Alabama who had volunteered to fight, were released yesterday. Drueke’s aunt, Dianna Shaw, said the two men were “safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the states”.
Updated
UK MoD: mobilisation is 'admission Russia exhausted supply of willing volunteers'
The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing about how it sees the situation in Ukraine. It has concentrated today on the consequences of Russia’s partial mobilisation announced yesterday by Vladimir Putin, which it judges unlikely to be effective. It writes:
Russia is likely to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of even mustering the 300,000 personnel. It will probably attempt to stand up new formations with many of these troops, which are unlikely to be combat effective for months.
Even this limited mobilisation is likely to be highly unpopular with parts of the Russian population. Putin is accepting considerable political risk in the hope of generating much needed combat power.
The move is effectively an admission that Russia has exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 22 September 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 22, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/XL4XfL3qRG
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/8VtmvHnfPb
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me on martin.belam@theguardian.com
Uzbekistan’s state prosecutors warned citizens against joining foreign armies after Russia offered fast-track citizenship to those who sign up and Ukraine said it had captured Uzbeks fighting alongside Russians, Reuters reports.
Those fighting in military conflicts abroad faced criminal prosecution under Uzbek law, the Central Asian nation’s Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement late on Wednesday.
A video circulated in Ukrainian social media this month showed two Uzbeks captured in fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces; the detainees said they had been recruited in Moscow.
Hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks live in or regularly travel to Russia to find work and provide for their families at home; some work illegally and risk being deported.
Russia’s parliament passed a law this week offering fast-track citizenship to foreigners who join its army, part of a broader drive to strengthen the military amid the stalled Ukrainian campaign which also included partial mobilisation.
Updated
Key event
Russia is set to face direct pressure at the United Nations on Thursday over its invasion of Ukraine, whose leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the world to punish Moscow. Agence France-Presse reports.
As global leaders convened for the annual general assembly, the security council will hold a special session among foreign ministers called by France on impunity for rights abuses in Ukraine.
The morning session is expected to bring Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov face to face with top western diplomats including secretary of state Antony Blinken, who has refused a one-on-one meeting since the 24 February invasion.
After two years of pandemic restrictions, only one leader was still allowed to address the assembly virtually – Zelenskiy, who in a pre-recorded video called 15 times for “punishment” of Russia and received a rare standing ovation.
The partial mobilisation announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin will not generate significant extra combat capability for months, the Institute for the Study of War writes in its latest report. The thinktank’s analysts also believe Putin comments about nuclear weapons did not mean he would use them to defend annexed areas of Ukraine.
Putin’s order to mobilize part of Russia’s “trained” reserve, that is, individuals who have completed their mandatory conscript service, will not generate significant usable Russian combat power for months. It may suffice to sustain the current levels of Russian military manpower in 2023 by offsetting Russian casualties, although even that is not yet clear.
Updated
Nuclear watchdog head meets Lavrov and Kuleba over Zaporizhzhia plant
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said Wednesday he met with Ukraine’s and Russia’s foreign ministers in a bid to establish a safety and security zone around a nuclear plant in south-eastern Ukraine that is Europe’s largest, AP reports.
The Zaporizhzhia power plant has faced almost daily shelling and bombardment, raising fears of a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that as a result of the separate meetings with Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, work has already begun on establishing and shaping the zone.
He said he hopes to visit Kyiv soon, and “perhaps later on” go to Russia.
“Given the urgency of the situation and the gravity of what’s going on in the field we have to move fast,” Grossi said. Both nations, he said, share “a conviction that the establishment of the zone is indispensable.”
“The mere fact that the two foreign ministers are sitting down with me and are listening to our ideas, I think it’s a good indicator that there is a very strong solid base for this thing to happen,” he said.
Updated
North Korea has denied it is providing arms to Russia, state media said, weeks after the US said Moscow was turning to Pyongyang to replenish its stocks depleted by invading Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports.
We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them,” an official at the defence ministry’s General Bureau of Equipment said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The statement comes after the White House said earlier in September that Russia was buying artillery shells and rockets from communist North Korea to support its war in Ukraine.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US believed purchases “could include literally millions of rounds, rockets and artillery shells.”
Updated
Liz Truss has dismissed as “sabre-rattling” Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia will use “all the means at our disposal” to protect itself, warning in her UN speech: “This will not work.”
The Russian president’s threats in a televised address to the nation appeared to suggest the conflict in Ukraine could spiral into a nuclear crisis, prompting a furious response from world leaders, led by the US president, Joe Biden.
The new UK prime minister, who addressed the UN in New York hours after a virtual speech by the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged world leaders not to “let up” on dealing with Putin despite domestic concerns about soaring energy prices.
Updated
Zelenskiy's UN address
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has shrugged off Russian moves to escalate the war, saying his country’s forces would continue their counteroffensive, not giving Russia breathing space to mobilise and dig in on Ukrainian soil.
“We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms, but we need time,” Zelenskiy said in a recorded broadcast to the UN general assembly on Wednesday, which Russia had tried to stop but was overwhelmingly voted down by member states.
“Russia wants to spend the winter on the occupied territory of Ukraine … It wants to prepare fortifications on occupied land and carry out military mobilisation at home. We cannot agree to a delayed war because it will be even hotter than the war now.”
Zelenskiy laid out what he said were five non-negotiable conditions for peace. These included punishment for Russian aggression, restoration of Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity, and security guarantees.
A crime has been committed against Ukraine, and we demand just punishment,” Zelenskiy told the UN body.
“A special tribunal should be created to punish Russia for the crime of aggression against our state... Russia should pay for this war with its assets,” the Ukrainian president said, urging the UN to “remove the right of veto” from Russia as a Security Council member.
Zelenskiy reminded world leaders of the mass graves being exhumed in the recently liberated town of Izium as the general assembly gathered, saying that among the bodies was a man strangled with a rope, and another who had been castrated before the murder. The Ukrainian president said that was not the first of such atrocities.
He told the global assembly: “Ask, please, the representatives of Russia why the Russian military are so obsessed with castration. What was done to them so that they want to do this to others?”
Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia on Wednesday at protests denouncing mobilisation, a rights group said, hours after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military draft since the second world war.
The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group said that according to information it had collated from 38 Russian cities, more than 1,311 people had been held by late evening.
EU foreign ministers agree on preparing new sanctions
EU foreign ministers have agreed to prepare new sanctions on Russia and increase weapons’ deliveries to Kyiv, Reuters reports.
The bloc’s 27 foreign ministers are in New York for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Vladimir Putin’s announcement of partial mobilisation – which included moves to annex swaths of Ukrainian territory and a threat to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia – showed panic and desperation.
“It’s clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukraine,” Borrell told reporters after ministers met to decide how to respond.
After being briefed by Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, the ministers agreed to task their teams to prepare an eighth sanctions package that would target “more relevant sectors of the Russian economy and continue targeting people responsible for the war of aggression in Ukraine,” Borrell said.
EU ministers will hold their next formal meeting in mid-October when a sanctions package could be formalised.
The ministers also agreed to ramp up weapons supplies to Ukraine. Borrell declined to give further details on the type of sanctions or military support, but said he believed there would be “unanimous” support within the bloc for new measures.
Ukraine has announced that 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens have been released by Russia in a prisoner exchange, including fighters who led the defence of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.
Russia received 55 prisoners including Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, accused of high treason, the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his daily address.
Medvedchuk was arrested in April, after escaping house arrest on treason charges days after the Russian invasion. At the time, Zelenskiy suggested exchanging him for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia but the Kremlin rejected the offer.
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There was never any doubt Russia would respond to its latest military setbacks, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, writes in his latest analysis.
It was inevitable, after Russia’s sudden military reverse near Kharkiv, that Vladimir Putin would respond, announcing a partial mobilisation of extra troops and a fresh bout of sabre-rattling on nuclear weapons a day after announcing plans to hold high-speed annexation referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine.
The timing, on the morning of Joe Biden’s speech to the UN general assembly aimed at rallying support for Ukraine, demonstrates that, to some extent, Putin’s announcements are about news management – to seize the agenda with tenuous claims that Russia is threatened by Nato “nuclear blackmail”.
You can read the full report here:
Summary and welcome
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the war dominated the first in-person UN general assembly meeting in two years, EU foreign ministers agreed on new sanctions on Russia, a major prisoner swap was announced and more than 1,300 Russians were arrested for demonstrating against Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation.
Here are the latest developments, as of 7.30am Kyiv time:
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday to prepare new sanctions on Russia and increase weapons’ deliveries to Kyiv after President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s first wartime mobilisation since the second world war. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Putin’s announcement – which included moves to annex swaths of Ukrainian territory and a threat to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia – showed panic and desperation.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on the international community to adopt a five-point formula to achieve peace and security in Ukraine, in a wide-ranging and impassioned televised speech to the UN general assembly on Wednesday. The points include punishment for crimes of aggression, protection of life, restoration of security and territorial integrity, security guarantees and the determination of Ukraine to continue defending itself.
Joe Biden and allied leaders have reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons and pledged to maintain support for Ukraine. In his speech to the UN on Wednesday, Biden sought to unite the international community in the face of what he called “reckless” threats and “an extremely significant violation” of the UN charter.
More than 1,300 protesters have been arrested in anti-mobilisation rallies that are taking place throughout Russia. According to OVD-Info, more than 1,311 people have been detained in 38 cities across Russia, with most of the detainees in Moscow and St Petersburg.
North Korea has said it has never supplied weapons or ammunition to Russia and does not plan to do so in the future, according to a statement released by the state media service, KCNA.
Russia has released 215 Ukrainians it took prisoner after a protracted battle for the port city of Mariupol earlier this year, including top military leaders, a senior official in Kyiv said. The freed Ukrainians included the commander and deputy commander of the Azov battalion that did much of the fighting, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Russian-occupied Melitipol in Ukraine, has urged local men to evacuate the city amid mobilisation orders from Russia, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Finland said it was working on a federal strategy to “limit or completely prevent” tourism from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. “This national solution may include new legislation, which would be adopted very quickly,” the foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, told a press conference on Wednesday.
Five British nationals held by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine have been safely returned, the UK prime minister, Liz Truss, has said. Among those released was Aiden Aslin, a British-Ukrainian former care worker from Nottinghamshire.
The Saudi foreign ministry said Russia had released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine after mediation by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. US citizens Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh were among those released.
Joe Biden has denounced Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons as “reckless” and “irresponsible” and called Russia’s planned annexation of more regions of Ukraine as “an extremely significant violation” of the UN charter. The US president was speaking to the UN general assembly, where he sought to galvanise the outrage of UN member states at the threat that Putin’s actions and “imperial ambitions” posed to the UN’s founding values.
Earlier on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation in Russia in a significant escalation that places the country’s people and economy on a wartime footing and sent shock waves across Russia. The Russian president said in a televised address that the “partial mobilisation” was a direct response to the dangers posed by the west. According to the decree, the contracts of soldiers fighting in Ukraine will also be extended until the end of the partial mobilisation period.
Liz Truss and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said Putin’s speech on Wednesday was “a statement of weakness”. They said in a joint statement following a meeting between the pair in New York that Putin’s calls for partial mobilisation were “a sign that Russia’s invasion is failing”.
Russia fired a series of long-range missiles at Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv early on Wednesday, hours after the Kremlin announced plans to annex Ukrainian territory and to carry out the partial mobilisation. Explosions were heard across Kharkiv at around 2am. At least one missile struck a high-rise apartment in the western Zalutino district. Ten residents were injured.
The security service of Ukraine has released a recording of an intercepted call by a Russian soldier in which he appears to complain about the setbacks faced by Russian troops in recent months. “Locals hate us here. Ours rape local women,” the soldier appeared to say into the phone, adding there was little to no chance of him returning home anytime soon.
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