Following claims by Ukrainian officials, a US think tank has confirmed Kyiv’s forces have retaken a village near the symbolic city of Bakhmut – and said it’s launching “successful operations” elsewhere. Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar removed from role.
Monday 18 September 2023 18:47, UK
Germany has announced it will send a new aid package worth €400m (£345m) to Ukraine.
It will include additional ammunition, protective vehicles and mine clearance systems, defence minister Boris Pistorius was quoted as saying by German newspaper Bild.
The country also plans to send clothing, as well as electricity and heat generators for the upcoming winter.
Mr Pistorius said the country has still not made a decision whether to send German Taurus missiles – a weapon that Berlin has signalled in the past it may give to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is expected to meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in New York on Wednesday, according to two Brazilian government sources.
It comes as a senior Ukrainian official said Mr Zelenskyy plans to attend the United Nations General Assembly in the US city.
He is also expected to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, according to NBC.
A meeting between Mr Zelenskyy and Lula could be momentous, as when the Ukraine war first began, hopes were highest that Brazil might support the Western position.
But earlier this year, the Brazilian leader attacked the US for “encouraging” and “incentivising” the Ukraine conflict.
Also, when celebrating his first 100 days back in office, Lula went on a state visit to China, and played host to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The country has since maintained a neutral stance, with foreign minister Fernando Haddad saying they are “too big to be choosing partners”.
Earlier today (see post at 7.43am), we reported Bulgaria had sent a special unit to inspect and deactivate a drone carrying explosives which landed in the Black Sea town of Tyulenovo.
The drone has now been destroyed in a controlled explosion, carried out by a Bulgarian army bomb disposal team.
After inspection, the defence ministry said transporting the drone to another location with the explosives still attached would not be possible.
Defence minister Todor Tagarev also told reporters they can “certainly assume” the drone is related to the “war that Russia launched against Ukraine”.
Not giving any further details on where the drone came from or how it reached the NATO member country, Mr Tagarev said the war is “inevitably associated with increasing risks to our security”.
The tourist resort of Tyulenovo is situated 43 miles (70km) south of the Romanian border and across the Black Sea from Crimea – which was annexed by Russia in 2014 and is now a regular target of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s economy has withstood “unprecedented external pressure” from the West.
Speaking via video link at a meeting focused on the draft federal budget for 2024–2026, Mr Putin described the economic situation in the country as “stable and balanced” and praised the resilience of Russia’s economy, according to CNN.
The Russian leader said the country’s GDP has reached the level last seen in 2021, and the government is now set to create conditions for “further stable and long-term development”.
What Russian sanctions are in place already?
Since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the EU has agreed 11 sanction packages against Russia.
They are in the form of economic sanctions, individual sanctions and visa measures.
Last week, the US also imposed further sanctions on more than 150 individuals and entities in connection with Russia’s invasion.
Sanctions from the West were first imposed in the hopes that they would effectively thwart Russian abilities to continue the war.
But, due to Russia’s gas and oil reserves, the country’s economy was able to weather the storm.
Proposed diamond and fuel ban
Today, Poland proposed that new EU sanctions against Russia should include a ban on Russian diamonds and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
It said individual sanctions should be put on the Russian Alrosa diamond company, which Poland says has “supported Russian military forces and the Russian war efforts in Ukraine, both directly and indirectly, for many years”.
In addition, in order to preserve the integrity and transparency of the LPG market and avoid distortion of competition, Poland suggested that the EU should stop buying the fuel from Russia.
LPG is used as a fuel in a range of ways including in heating and cooking appliances, in vehicles and in industry.
Pierre Levy, the French ambassador to Russia, was today summoned by the Russian Foreign Ministry to protest the actions of French authorities while at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.
The ministry said reporters from RIA Novosti – a Russian state-owned domestic news agency – and the editor-in-chief of Russia-News were “rudely denied” access to French President Emmanuel Macron’s press conference at the event a few weeks ago.
It called the actions “discriminatory and openly Russophobic”.
By Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer
Rumours surrounding the whereabouts of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have been circulating online as some Russian social media reports suggest he is unwell.
The Kremlin says it has “no information” on his health – so what do we know?
Sky News has geolocated footage posted on Kadyrov’s Telegram page to his residence of the Head of the Chechen Republic in central Grozny.
In the video, posted yesterday at 1pm local time, Kadyrov films himself walking in the rain.
He captioned the video: “I strongly advise everyone who cannot tell the truth from lies on the internet to take a walk in the fresh air and put their thoughts in order. The rain is wonderfully invigorating.”
The line of tall trees, the distinctive two footpaths separated by grass and a building which appears in the background of the video helped us locate the footage to his residence.
We’ve also matched Kadyrov’s video with recent Grozny weather reports.
The city experienced “rain showers” in the early morning and afternoon and overcast weather on Sunday, according to a weather report by timeanddate. Data on the site also shows that it did not rain in Grozny any other day last week.
Kadyrov is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and commands extensive military forces in Chechnya. He had previously been seen as an ally of former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and shared some of his criticisms of the Russian military hierarchy.
As we have been reporting, Ukraine have taken control of Andriivka and Klishchiivka – two villages on the southern flank of Bakhmut.
The former, Andriivka, which is in the Donetsk region, was taken on 16 September.
Below are the latest images released by the Ukrainian Armed Forces Press, which show the conditions during the liberation of the village.
If you’re just joining us, let us get you up to speed on today’s developments so far.
In the last hour, the Russian defence ministry has said Moscow has scrambled a MiG-31 fighter jet to intercept a US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol plane approaching its airspace over the Barents Sea.
We will bring you the latest updates on this as we get it.
Elsewhere…
Moscow has scrambled a MiG-31 fighter jet to intercept a US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol plane approaching its airspace over the Barents Sea, the Russian defence ministry has said.
“Russian airspace control equipment over the Barents Sea detected an air target approaching the State border of the Russian Federation,” it wrote on Telegram.
“To identify an air target and prevent violation of the State Border of the Russian Federation, a MiG-31 fighter from the air defence duty forces of the Northern Fleet was scrambled into the air.”
As the Russian fighter approached, the US aircraft “made a U-turn” and did not cross the border, it added.
“The flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace over neutral waters without crossing air routes or dangerously approaching an aircraft of a foreign state,” it said.
Russia’s Pacific Fleet is holding exercises in the Bering and Chukchi Seas as well as on the Chukchi Peninsula in the country’s Far East, the Russian defence ministry has announced.
The drills involve some 10,000 service personnel and more than 50 units of surface ships, submarines, naval aircraft, helicopters as well as coastal defence rocket systems, it said.
The exercise is aimed at training defence operations on Russia’s northeastern border.
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