Closing Summary
Ukraine’s military intelligence said that a recent drone attack on an airport in northwestern Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory.
Russia said it has captured several strategic heights near Kupiansk, an eastern Ukrainian city where Moscow’s troops stepped up the pressure in August.
A senior Ukrainian official has said that drone strikes on Russian soil were set to increase and that recent such attacks showed that the war in Ukraine was gradually shifting to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to allocate 1.9 trillion roubles (£15 billion) from the federal budget over the next two-and-a-half years to the development of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow last year declared to be part of its territory.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones over the past week, including 29 over the western regions of Russia, indicating the scale of the drone war now underway between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The United States has seen notable progress by Ukrainian forces in the south near the Zaporizhzhia area in the last 72 hours, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
One man was killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday and three people were injured in a missile attack in the central region of Vinnytsia overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky is expected to attend the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York this month and take part in a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine,
More than 2,000 troops from a Russia-led security alliance have opened military exercises in parts of Belarus near the borders of NATO countries.
Denmark said Friday that it had told Russia to reduce the number of staff at its Copenhagen embassy following Russian requests for visas for “intelligence officers”.
Two cargo vessels left a port near Odesa, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday – the third and fourth to transit from deep-water Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea since Russia withdrew from a safe-passage deal for grain ships.
The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that the country’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported.
The Kremlin said on Friday it took a negative view of British defence contractor BAE Systems’ decision to establish itself in Ukraine. It added that any facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military.
Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, leaving participants to issue a non-binding or partial communique, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday.
Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they will boycott this year’s Nobel Prize ceremonies after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran who had previously been barred from attending.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russia had created an underwater barrier of submerged ships to deter attacks on the Crimean Bridge.
Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the continuing conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky is expected to attend the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York this month and take part in a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Albania’s U.N. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha told reporters on Friday.
Albania is president of the 15-member council for September. World leaders are due to begin gathering in New York from Sept. 18 for the high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
The Security Council meeting on Ukraine is due to be held on Sept. 20
Children across Russia have returned to school, where the Kremlin’s narratives about the war in Ukraine and its confrontation with the West are taking an even more prominent spot than before.
Students are expected each week to listen to Russia’s national anthem and watch the country’s tricolor flag being raised, AP reports.
There’s a weekly subject loosely translated as “Conversations about Important Things,” which was introduced last year with the goal of boosting patriotism.
A new high school history textbook has a chapter on the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the “special military operation” — the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war, and some basic military training is included in a course on self-defence and first aid.
More than 2,000 troops from a Russia-led security alliance have opened military exercises in parts of Belarus near the borders of NATO countries.
The exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization include troops from Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Armenia is also a member of the CSTO but did not send any of its forces, amid tense relations with Russia, AP reports.
Belarus’ defence ministry says the exercises through Wednesday are to prepare for joint operations, including responses to a nuclear accident.
The exercises are taking place in three western Belarus regions that border NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Poland’s foreign minister says the military exercises are aimed at destabilizing the region.
Russian airport attacked from own territory says Ukraine
Ukraine’s military intelligence said Friday that a recent drone attack on an airport in northwestern Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory.
The claim, falling on the first day of the school year, came as President Vladimir Putin told Russian students that their country was “invincible” and police in Kyiv scrambled to respond to bomb threats in schools, AFP reports.
The attack this week on Pskov airport some 700 kilometres (more than 400 miles) from Ukraine marked the latest strike to rock Russian territory since Kyiv vowed to “return” the conflict to Moscow in July.
“The drones used to attack the ‘Kresty’ air base in Pskov were launched from Russia,” Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on social media Friday.
“Four Russian IL-76 military transport planes were hit as a result of the attack. Two were destroyed and two were seriously damaged,” he added.
Budanov said the aircraft had been used by the defence ministry to transport troops and cargo.
The Kremlin said this week that military experts were working to find out which routes the drones were taking in order “to prevent such situations in the future”.
Asked about Ukrainian claims on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment and instead deferred questions to the defence ministry.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Russia said it has captured several strategic heights near Kupiansk, an eastern Ukrainian city where Moscow’s troops stepped up the pressure in August.
A senior Ukrainian official has said that drone strikes on Russian soil were set to increase and that recent such attacks showed that the war in Ukraine was gradually shifting to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to allocate 1.9 trillion roubles (£15 billion) from the federal budget over the next two-and-a-half years to the development of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow last year declared to be part of its territory.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones over the past week, including 29 over the western regions of Russia, indicating the scale of the drone war now underway between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The United States has seen notable progress by Ukrainian forces in the south near the Zaporizhzhia area in the last 72 hours, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
One man was killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday and three people were injured in a missile attack in the central region of Vinnytsia overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.
Denmark said Friday that it had told Russia to reduce the number of staff at its Copenhagen embassy following Russian requests for visas for “intelligence officers”.
Two cargo vessels left a port near Odesa, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday – the third and fourth to transit from deep-water Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea since Russia withdrew from a safe-passage deal for grain ships.
The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that the country’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported.
The Kremlin said on Friday it took a negative view of British defence contractor BAE Systems’ decision to establish itself in Ukraine. It added that any facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military.
Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, leaving participants to issue a non-binding or partial communique, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday.
Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they will boycott this year’s Nobel Prize ceremonies after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran who had previously been barred from attending.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russia had created an underwater barrier of submerged ships to deter attacks on the Crimean Bridge.
Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the continuing conflict.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine and Russia:
Russia has said it captured several strategic heights near Kupiansk, an eastern Ukrainian city where Moscow’s troops stepped up pressure in August.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive against Russian positions in the south in June but Russia responded by trying to take back territory in the northeast, AFP reports.
“In the direction of Kupiansk, units of the Western group of forces improved the tactical position by capturing enemy strongholds and key heights,” the Russian defence ministry said.
It also claimed Ukrainian forces had sustained “significant” losses.
Kupiansk and territory nearby in the Kharkiv region were retaken by Kyiv last September, but Moscow is pushing back. Ukrainian officials ordered vulnerable people to evacuate from several villages near Kupiansk, citing an uptick in Russian shelling.
The Russian defence ministry Friday acknowledged that fighting in the south and east of Ukraine was “difficult”. It said Ukrainian military command was staging “meat grinder” assaults without providing sufficient cover for their troops.
Denmark said Friday that it had told Russia to reduce the number of staff at its Copenhagen embassy following Russian requests for visas for “intelligence officers”.
Denmark’s ministry of foreign affairs said the Russian mission would need to reduce its staff to match the level of the Danish embassy in Moscow, and that it had informed Russia’s ambassador Vladimir Barbin, AFP reports.
The ministry said the move followed lengthy negotiations between the countries regarding visas for embassy employees.
“The negotiations have not led to results due to repeated Russian attempts to include visa requests for Russian intelligence officers as part of these negotiations,” the ministry said.
In practical terms, the embassy will be allowed to have five diplomats and 20 administrative and technical employees.
“The decision to introduce parity in the size of the two embassies means that the Russian embassy in Copenhagen must reduce its current staffing,” the ministry said, adding the reduction needed to be completed by September 29.
In April 2022, Denmark expelled 15 Russian diplomats it accused of being intelligence officers in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Several Swedish lawmakers to boycott Nobel ceremony following Russia invitation
Several Swedish lawmakers said Friday they will boycott this year’s Nobel Prize ceremonies after the private foundation that administers the prestigious awards changed its policy and invited Russia, Belarus and Iran who had previously been barred from attending.
The Nobel Foundation said that invitations for the 2023 events were extended to all countries with diplomatic missions in Sweden and Norway as that “promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize to everyone.”
It was unclear whether the invitations have already been sent.
Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement Friday that there was a global trend in which “dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced.”
To counter that, he said, “we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.”
Last year, the diplomatic envoys of Russia and Belarus were barred from attending the prize ceremonies and banquets because of the war in Ukraine, and the ambassador of Iran was also excluded because of “the serious and escalating situation” in the country.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was shared by jailed Belarusian rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties. The prize was seen as a strong rebuke to the authoritarian rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT he would not have allowed Russia to attend if it had been his choice.
“To isolate Russia in every possible way — militarily, economically — it is necessary,” he told the TT news agency.
Kristersson did not comment on whether he would boycott the event, but others were more forthright.
Muharrem Demirok, the leader of Sweden’s small opposition Center Party, said that he had been looking forward to participating in the ceremony. “But as long as Russia is waging war against Ukraine, I cannot attend the same party as their ambassador.”
Märta Stenevi, of the Green Party, agreed, saying “there is nothing to celebrate together with Russia’s ambassador.” Sweden’s employment minister, Johan Pehrson, writing on X — formerly known as Twitter — called the decision “extremely injudicious.”
The foundation also announced that it was extending its invitation to all political parties in Sweden and Norway “that have parliamentary representation via democratic elections.”
This year’s Nobel prize winners will be announced in early October.
The United States has seen notable progress by Ukrainian forces in the south near the Zaporizhzhia area in the last 72 hours, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
Kirby also said he was not in a position to confirm reports that Russia’s nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles were put on combat duty.
A senior Ukrainian official said on Friday that drone strikes on Russian soil were set to increase and that recent such attacks showed that the war in Ukraine was gradually shifting to Russia.
In an interview, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also ruled out peace talks for now, saying any negotiations would amount to “capitulation” on the part of Ukraine and the democracies that support it, Reuters reports.
Ukraine had ramped up its strikes on occupied areas, and attacks inside Russia itself would also increase, carried out by “agents” or “partisans”, Podolyak said.
“As for Russia … there is an increasing number of attacks by unidentified drones launched from the territory of the Russian Federation, and the number of these attacks will increase,” Podolyak said.
“Because this is the stage of the war* when hostilities are gradually being transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said in the interview in his office in the heavily defended government district in Kyiv.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to allocate 1.9 trillion roubles (£15 billion) from the federal budget over the next two-and-a-half years to the development of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow last year declared to be part of its territory, Reuters reports.
Moscow does not control any of the regions in its entirety and the unilateral annexation has been recognised by only a handful of countries allied to Russia, while being condemned by Ukraine and three-quarters of U.N. member states.
Ukrainian children began their second straight school year in wartime on Friday, some heading to new classrooms underground, Reuters reports.
Russian air attacks have totally destroyed 1,300 schools since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to data by the UN Children’s Fund, which recorded damage to many other schools.
The education minister, Oksen Lisovyi, reported this week that 84% of schools were now equipped with operational shelters.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Updated
Russia says it has destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones in past week
Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones over the past week, including 29 over the western regions of Russia, indicating the scale of the drone war now under way between Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reports.
“281 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, including one Tu-141 Strizh, as well as 29 Ukrainian UAVs in the western regions of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said on Friday.
Russia for its part has repeatedly struck Ukraine with waves of one-way drones with explosive payloads, which are far cheaper than missiles and can be difficult, and expensive, for air defence systems to intercept.
Ukrainian aerial drone strikes deep inside Russia have increased since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Drone strikes on the Russian capital have become increasingly common in recent months.
A Ukrainian drone on Friday attacked a town that is home to one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power stations, though no damage to the plant was reported, Russian officials said.
A Russian military plane that took a Russian delegation to Burkina Faso on Thursday flew on and landed in Central African Republic on Friday, Reuters reports, citing Flightradar data.
A security source in Bangui said a Russian delegation had arrived, without providing details.
Updated
At the site of the plane crash which killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, a black Wagner flag flies beside a mound of rocks surrounded by flowers but all the debris of the private jet has been cleared, Reuters reports.
At the crash site near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver region, there was no sign of the remains of the Embraer Legacy 600 jet, footage obtained by Reuters showed on Friday.
All that remained was a makeshift stone memorial of four boulders to the mercenary chief surrounded by red carnations and a Wagner flag flying on a pole made from a tree branch.
The flag sports a white skull surrounded by the words “PMC Wagner group” in both English and Russian.
Updated
Russian shelling of Kherson kills one civilian, Ukraine says
One man was killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday and three people were injured in a missile attack in the central region of Vinnytsia overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.
The 34-year-old man was hit in a residential area of Kherson close to 12:50pm local time, the military administration there said, according to Reuters.
The three civilians were injured when a Russian missile struck a business in Vinnytsia region, the regional governor said (see post at 09.15). These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Summary of the day so far...
Two cargo vessels left a port near Odesa, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday – the third and fourth to transit from deep-water Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea since Russia withdrew from a safe-passage deal for grain ships.
The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that the country’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported.
The Kremlin said on Friday it took a negative view of British defence contractor BAE Systems’ decision to establish itself in Ukraine. It added that any facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military.
Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, leaving participants to issue a non-binding or partial communique, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russia had created an underwater barrier of submerged ships to deter against attacks on the Crimean Bridge.
Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the continuing conflict.
Updated
Reuters has more information on the two cargo vessels that left a port near Odesa (see earlier post at 10.08 for more details).
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the bulk carriers Anna-Theresa and Ocean Courtesy had left the port of Pivdennyi through a temporary corridor for civilian vessels.
The Anna-Theresa and Ocean Courtesy were, respectively, carrying 56,000 metric tonnes of pig iron and 172,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate, Kubrakov wrote on X.
Updated
Russia says Sarmat intercontinental missiles put on combat duty - reports
The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that the country’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported.
In June, Vladimir Putin said Sarmat missiles would be deployed for combat duty “soon”.
Putin has repeatedly said since the start of the war in Ukraine that Russia is ready to use all means, including nuclear weapons, to defend its “territorial integrity”.
Last year, the Russian president said he was placing territories seized in Ukraine – that Russia now claims as its own – under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella. But he has also said Russia has no need to resort to using nuclear weapons.
Updated
Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Friday that Russia’s nuclear energy infrastructure remained a target of Ukrainian strikes, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
Earlier on Friday, Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone attacked a town in western Russia close to one of the country’s biggest nuclear power stations, though there was no damage reported to the plant.
Updated
Kremlin suggests BAE Systems' Ukraine entity could be target for Russian military
The Kremlin said it saw BAE Systems opening a local entity in Ukraine “negatively”, and that any production facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military, Reuters reports.
Asked about the move in a call with reporters, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said:
Of course, any facilities for the production of weapons, especially if these weapons fire at us, they become objects of special attention for our military.
BAE has said it would work directly with Kyiv to explore potential partners for a plan to ultimately produce 105mm light artillery guns in Ukraine and to better understand Ukraine’s requirements.
As the UK’s biggest defence contractor, BAE has manufactured much of the equipment that Britain and other governments have provided to Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion.
BAE, which has benefited from increased defence spending as a result of the conflict, is already providing training and repair services to Ukraine’s armed forces.
Updated
Russia to block G20 declaration if its views are ignored, minister warns
Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, leaving participants to issue a non-binding or partial communique, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday.
Lavrov is due to represent Russia at the 9-10 September meeting of the Group of 20 leading industrialised and developing countries in New Delhi.
“There will be no general declaration on behalf of all members if our position is not reflected,” Lavrov told students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Lavrov said the west had raised Ukraine in meetings preparing for the summit, to which Russia had replied that “the issue is closed for us”, Reuters reports.
He accused the west of undermining international institutions by pushing its own agenda and suggested that, if consensus could not be reached at the G20 meeting, a non-binding communique could be issued by the G20 presidency.
“Another option is to adopt a document that focuses on specific decisions in the sphere of G20 competences, and let everyone say the rest on their own behalf,” Lavrov said.
Vladimir Putin is not known to have travelled abroad since the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him in March on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine.
Last year, the G20 unanimously adopted a declaration saying most members condemned the war in Ukraine, but the document at the end of the summit acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently.
Updated
The Swedish foreign minister said on Friday he remained hopeful that Turkey would ratify Sweden’s planned Nato membership when the Turkish parliament reconvenes in October, as agreed with the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a summit of the alliance in July.
“The Swedish government has not had any signals during the summer other than that the cards that were put down then are ones that are valid now in this question and that the statement given at Vilnius is still valid,” Reuters quotes the foreign minister, Tobias Billström, as telling reporters.
Sweden and Finland submitted simultaneous membership applications last May, abandoning decades of military nonalignment to seek security as Nato members after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey soon abandoned its objections to Finland joining Nato, but the hope that the two Nordic nations would be able to join together was dashed when Erdoğan claimed Sweden had not done enough to rein in Kurdish separatist demonstrations there.
Finland joined the alliance earlier this year while negotiations with Sweden continued.
Updated
Two ships have been spotted leaving port in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, local lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Friday.
He also posted a photograph on the Telegram app that showed two ships in the water, Reuters reports.
The date and location of the photo have not yet been independently verified.
If they successfully leave Odesa’s ports through the Black Sea, they would be the third and fourth vessels to do so since Moscow withdrew from the Black Sea Grain deal in July.
Odesa’s three seaports shipped tens of millions of tonnes of grain under a year-long UN-brokered deal.
Russia threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets after pulling out of the deal two months ago.
In response, Ukraine announced a “humanitarian corridor” hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.
Updated
Regional governors in Russia said defence systems stopped three drones in the Kursk, Belgorod and Moscow regions, the Associated Press reports.
Moscow airports briefly halted flights, but no major damage or injuries were reported, according to Russian authorities.
Drones aimed at targets inside Russia – and blamed by Moscow on Ukraine – have become almost a daily occurrence as the war has entered its 19th month and Kyiv’s forces pursue a counteroffensive.
Reuters has more information on reports of a long-range cruise missile hitting Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine, as we referenced in an earlier post (see 07.56).
Ukrainian authorities now say three people were injured after Russian forces struck a private enterprise with the missile in Vinnytsia.
“Unfortunately, there are victims – three civilians, they are being provided with all necessary assistance,” the regional governor, Serhiy Borzov, wrote on Telegram.
He added that property and cars had been damaged.
Updated
There cannot be “sustainable peace” in Ukraine unless the country regains control of Crimea, Donbas and other territories occupied by Russia, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said at the European House Ambrosetti business forum in Italy on Friday.
Russia has previously said it is open to peace talks with Kyiv but insists on its claim to four Ukrainian provinces it said it annexed last year and fully or partly controls, as well as Crimea that it annexed in 2014 – a condition Kyiv will not accept.
Updated
Russian forces struck a private enterprise with a long-range cruise missile overnight in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
The strike damaged property and caused an unspecified number of injuries, said the regional governor, Serhiy Borzov.
“Unfortunately, there are victims, they are being provided with all necessary assistance,” he wrote on Telegram.
Kyiv’s air force said it shot down one out of two incoming cruise missiles in the attack, Reuters reports.
The missile was downed over the central Kirovohrad region, the governor said on Telegram. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Updated
Russia has created underwater barrier of submerged ships to deter attacks on Crimean Bridge, MoD says
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had created an underwater barrier of submerged ships to deter against attacks on the Crimean Bridge, which the country is logistically reliant upon.
The MoD tweeted:
The Kerch strait is a bottleneck for military logistics support to Russian forces in occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Russia is heavily reliant on the Crimean Bridge and ferries to cross the straits.
Russia is employing a range of passive defences such as smoke generators and underwater barriers, alongside active defence measures such as air defence systems, to strengthen the survivability of water crossings and minimise damage from future attacks.
The bridge’s importance for both logistics and symbolism of Russian occupation mandates these extensive protection measures.
As of 29 August 2023, imagery confirms Russia has created an underwater barrier of submerged ships and containment booms to deter against uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) attacks against the Crimean Bridge.
At the southern part of the bridge, this includes several vessels 160 metres apart. These are located at the same place as the Ukrainian “Sea Baby” USV attacks on 17 July 2023.
Previously, in September 2022, the Russian navy briefly trialled radar decoys on barges for several days, likely to deter radar-seeking missiles.
The Crimean Bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, was built by Russia after it invaded and de-facto annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The 12-mile bridge, which includes a separate roadway and railway, spans the Kerch strait and connects Crimea with mainland Russia.
You can read more about the bridge’s significance to the war in Ukraine here:
Updated
Ukrainian drone attacks Russian town near major nuclear plant, officials say
A Ukrainian drone attacked a town in western Russia close to one of the country’s biggest nuclear power stations, though there was no damage reported to the plant, Russian officials said.
The Kursk regional governor, Roman Starovoit, said a Ukrainian drone had damaged the facade of a building in the town of Kurchatov, just a few kilometres from the Kursk nuclear power station, early on Friday, Reuters reports.
He had earlier said there were two drones but clarified his remarks.
“There are no casualties,” Starovoit said. He did not mention any potential damage to the Kursk nuclear power plant. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Updated
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 3pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
British arms maker BAE Systems sets up in Ukraine
The British defence company BAE Systems is setting up a local entity in Ukraine and has signed deals with its government to help ramp up its supply of weapons and equipment.
BAE said it would work directly with Kyiv to explore potential partners for a plan to ultimately produce 105mm light artillery guns in Ukraine and to better understand Ukraine’s requirements.
As the UK’s biggest defence contractor, BAE has manufactured much of the equipment that Britain and other governments have provided to Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion.
Britain is a key defence supplier for Ukraine and in May became the first country to start supplying Kyiv with long-range cruise missiles.
“The best weapons that are currently helping our warriors defend Ukraine should be produced in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeted after a meeting with the BAE chief executive, Charles Woodburn.
“The development of our own weapons production is a top priority.”
Voting in the elections held by Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine also began on Thursday in the Zaporizhzhia region, whose Russian-installed governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, held talks with Vladimir Putin in August shown on state television in which he said the province would return an emphatically pro-Kremlin vote.
“We are sure that United Russia will receive the result it deserves in the elections,” Balitsky, a former pro-Russian MP in the Ukrainian parliament whose region is at the forefront of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, told Reuters. About 80% of it is controlled by Russia.
Russian-installed authorities in the four regions extended voting over multiple days, saying it was necessary to reduce danger to voters.
Data published by a Kremlin-controlled pollster in early August showed United Russia candidates drawing at least 80% of the vote across all four regions. According to independent Russian news site iStories, only around half of United Russia’s candidates in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are local people, with the balance being drawn from Russia.
Last year, Moscow said the four territories returned overwhelming votes in favour of annexation by Russia, in “referendums” Ukraine and its western allies said were fraudulent.
Updated
More now on the illegal elections held by Russia in parts of occupied Ukraine.
In the Donetsk region port city of Mariupol, which was taken by Russia in May 2022 after a grinding, months-long siege, Reuters saw electoral officials set up a temporary polling booth on Thursday in the courtyard of a residential complex. Reuters reports:
A trickle of residents came out to cast their ballots, showing newly distributed Russian passports to officials while police officers stood by.
Many people have fled Russian-occupied territory, which has suffered some of the worst damage of the conflict.
The exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, told Reuters people from the city, which he escaped on 26 February 2022, two days after Russia’s invasion, had told him there were no voter lists and no candidate lists.
“It is clear that there is no trust from the people toward this process, which should be called a sham election,” he said in an interview in Kyiv, adding that he expected a repeat of what he said had happened in annexation votes last year.
“They [Russian-installed officials] are going to walk from apartment to apartment, as they did before, talking to people. There are two soldiers standing nearby, carrying machine guns, and they tell the people that they must vote,” he said.
Reuters could not immediately verify his account.
Updated
Moscow stages ‘sham’ elections in illegally occupied areas of Ukraine
Reuters: Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the continuing conflict.
Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.
Three-quarters of countries at the United Nations general assembly condemned what they termed Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of the four regions in a vote last October.
Ukrainian officials say the elections are also illegal and show why it is impossible to hold any peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.
In all four regions, Moscow’s handpicked governors, a mix of veteran pro-Russian politicians and others known only locally, are seeking full terms of office in the polls, which conclude on 10 September, when Russia holds regional polls.
The governors are all running with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s endorsement having joined the Kremlin’s United Russia bloc with fanfare in recent months and they face only nominal opposition.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia illegally claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the continuing conflict.
Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say the elections are illegal and show why it is impossible to hold any peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory.
Reviving the Black Sea grain deal is “critical” for food security, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said. During a joint media appearance with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, he said: “We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea.”
Russian-installed authorities began holding regional elections on Thursday in parts of Ukraine Russia claimed as its own last year, seeking to cement Moscow’s authority in what it calls its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.
The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, criticised what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave, AFP reported. Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighbouring countries.
Ukrainian troops achieved some new “successes” in the south and east as they tried to advance their counteroffensive against Russian forces, the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. Kyiv’s forces have been making slow progress against Russian minefields and trenches that have blocked a Ukrainian push in the south intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces, the Associated Press reported.
The alleged co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Dmitry Utkin, was buried near Moscow on Thursday.
British defence company BAE Systems said on Thursday it had set up a local entity in Ukraine and signed deals with the government there to help ramp up Kyiv’s supply of weapons and equipment.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.
Royal Navy warships and RAF patrol aircraft have tracked a series of Russian warships as they travelled close to the UK including through the Channel.
Two Ukrainian “saboteurs” were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official reportedly said on Thursday. Separately, Russia reportedly said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea.
A newly released video of Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show the Wagner group boss in Africa addressing rumours about his wellbeing and threats to his life, just days before his death.
The UK government has named ex-energy secretary Grant Shapps as the new defence secretary. A former chief of the general staff of the British army said Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”.
A military spokesperson said Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.
Russia’s air defences are struggling to detect and destroy Ukrainian drones launched on its territory, judging by how many have reached their targets, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.
Updated
