Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to declare the annexation of four Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 30, 2022. (Sputnik/Grigory Sysoyev/Pool via Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: A regional official in Ukraine says Russian forces have shelled a civilian evacuation convoy in the country’s northeast, killing 20 people. Kharkiv region Gov Oleh Syniehubov called Saturday’s attack on people who were trying to flee the area to avoid being shelled “cruelty that can’t be justified.” Russian forces have retreated from much of the Kharkiv region after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive last month but continued to shell the area.
Ukraine’s nuclear power provider accused Russia Saturday of “kidnapping” the head of Europe’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, a facility now occupied by Russian troops and located in a region of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to annex illegally. Meanwhile, the United States has imposed sanctions on over 1,000 Russian individuals and organisations.
Russia’s annexation of the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia following a referendum has been widely condemned in the West. The developments spilled over to the United Nations Security Council on Friday, where India (along with China and Brazil) abstained on a draft resolution condemning the annexation. However, India called for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine and emphasised the need to find pathways for a return to the negotiating table.
Travellers walk after crossing the border with Russia at the frontier checkpoint Verkhny Lars - Zemo Larsi, Georgia, Sept. 28, 2022. (Reuters)
A regional official in Ukraine says Russian forces have shelled a civilian evacuation convoy in the country's northeast, killing 20 people.
Kharkiv region Gov Oleh Syniehubov called Saturday's attack on people who were trying to flee the area to avoid being shelled “cruelty that can’t be justified.” He said the convoy was struck in the Kupiansky district.
Russian forces have retreated from much of the Kharkiv region after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive last month but continued to shell the area. The bombardment intensified drastically this week, as Moscow moved to annex four Ukrainian regions in the east and the south under its full or partial control.
Ukrainian soldiers on Saturday clambered onto a vehicle with the Ukrainian flag on the outskirts of the eastern town of Lyman, a long-time Russian bastion that Kyiv says it has encircled, a video posted by the president's chief of staff showed.
"Oct. 1. We are unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land. Lyman will be Ukraine," one of the soldiers said before taping the flag onto what appeared to be the "Lyman" welcome sign on the way into the town.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video independently. (Reuters)
The president of the European Union's executive arm traveled Saturday to Bulgaria for the opening of a natural gas link between the country and Greece, emphasising the EU’s determination to stop relying on Russian energy imports by.
Speaking at a ceremony in Sofia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the pipeline as an important contribution to limiting opportunities for Russia to use its gas and oil reserves to blackmail or punish the EU.
“This pipeline changes the energy security situation for Europe. This project means freedom,“ von der Leyen told an audience that included heads of state and government from the region.
The European Commission committed nearly 250 million euros to finance the project, von der Leyen said.
The importance of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria pipeline, which was completed in July, has significantly risen after Moscow decided to turn its natural gas deliveries into a political weapon.
In late April, Russia cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria after it refused Moscow’s demand to pay for the deliveries in rubles, Russia’s currency. Relations between the two former Soviet bloc allies have tanked in recent months, and last month Bulgaria ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats, triggering an angry response from Moscow.
“People in Bulgaria and across Europe are feeling the consequences of Russia’s war. But thanks to projects like this, Europe will have enough gas for the winter,” von der Leyen said. "Europe has everything it needs to break free from our dependency on Russia. It is a matter of political will."
The 182-kilometer conduit runs from the northeastern Greek city of Komotini, where it links to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, up to Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. Plans call for an initial capacity of 3 billion cubic meters of gas a year, and the prospect of future expansion to 5 billion cubic meters.
The Bulgarian executive of the project, Teodora Georgieva, said the pipeline would help supply other countries in southeastern Europe. “We have the opportunity to supply gas to the Western Balkans, to ensure supplies to Moldova and Ukraine,” Georgieva said. (AP)
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was seeking information about the director general of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant whom the state-owned company in charge of the plant said was detained by a Russian patrol.
"We have contacted Russian authorities and are requesting clarifications," a spokesperson for the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said in response to a query on Saturday. (Reuters)
Sweden’s coast guard said on Thursday (September 29) that it discovered the fourth leak in the two damaged offshore pipelines that comprise the crucial Nord Stream pipelines (Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2), designed to carry gas from Russia to Europe via the Baltic sea.
The presently unexplained leak is the second of its kind to be discovered in Swedish waters, while two other leaks were found near Denmark earlier this week, Reuters reported.
The Danish military on Tuesday released a video of gas bubbles at the surface of the Sea, approximately a kilometre in diameter, near the island of Bornholm. While both pipelines contained gas, neither was transporting it to Europe at the time of the leak. Raghu Malhotra explains
Ukraine has encircled Russia's forces around a bastion that is critical for Moscow at the eastern town of Lyman, in an operation that is still underway, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said Saturday.
Russia's forces at Lyman totalled around 5,000 to 5,500 soldiers, but the number of encircled troops may have fallen because of casualties and some soldiers trying to break out of the encirclement, said Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern forces. (Reuters)
The Biden administration is enacting a round of new sanctions aimed at further crippling Russia’s defense and technology sectors and other industries, as well as cutting off more top officials and their families from global commerce, to punish Moscow for its efforts to annex parts of eastern Ukraine.
The Treasury and Commerce Departments will impose sanctions and export controls on any companies, institutions or people who “provide political or economic support to Russia for its purported annexation,” White House officials said Friday.
“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I urge all members of the international community to reject Russia’s illegal attempts at annexation and to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
➡️ Putin, without providing evidence, blamed the United States and its allies for blowing up pipelines under the Baltic Sea, raising the temperature in a crisis that has left Europe racing to secure its energy infrastructure and supplies.
➡️ US President Biden said it "was a deliberate act of sabotage and now the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies," adding that Washington and its allies would send divers to find out what happened.
➡️ The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme said. (Reuters)
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Russia's Gazprom said it will ship 41.7 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday versus the 43.7 mcm it said it would ship on Friday. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reminded the world of the West’s colonial policy, plundering of India and Africa, slave trade, and the use of nuclear and chemical weapons by the US, as he slammed them for their “utter deceit” and “double standards” on insisting on a rules-based global order.
Putin made the remarks during a carefully-choreographed formal speech at the Kremlin’s opulent St George’s Hall on Friday, days after the so-called referendums in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that were dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and the US-led Western nations.
In his address, Putin said, “All we hear is, the West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them? Listen, this is just a lot of nonsense, utter deceit, double standards, or even triple standards! They must think we’re stupid.” Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by such makeshift, false rules, Putin said in his speech in Russian, the English version of which has been uploaded later on the Kremlin’s official website.
The director general of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was detained by a Russian patrol, Energoatom, the state agency in charge of the plant, said on Saturday.
Ihor Murashov was detained on his way from Europe's largest nuclear plant to the town of Enerhodar around 4 pm (1300 GMT or 6.30 pm IST) on Friday, the company said in a statement.
"He was taken out of the car, and with his eyes blindfolded he was driven in an unknown direction," it said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian forces appeared to have made progress toward recapturing Lyman, a rail hub in the country’s east, with the head of Russia’s proxy administration in the province saying Friday that the town was “half encircled.”
“This is very unpleasant news, but we must look soberly at the situation and draw conclusions from our mistakes,” said Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
In another sign of Ukraine’s progress in the strategic town, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram that Russian forces “will have to ask for an exit” from Lyman.
The Russian Consulate in New York was vandalised with spray paint early Friday morning, according to police.
Officers responded to a 911 call about vandalism on the facade of the building, located on East 91st Street, just off Fifth Avenue, about 1.30 am on Friday, police said.
No words were visible, just wide streaks of red paint sprawled across the ground floor facade of the building, covering windows and a set of double doors. But some on social media and a few people passing by interpreted the vandalism to be a protest of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin asserted Friday that Russia would annex four Ukrainian regions and decried the United States for “satanism,” in a speech that marked an escalation in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. In starkly confrontational terms, he positioned Russia as fighting an existential battle with Western elites he deemed “the enemy.”
Speaking to hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a grand Kremlin hall, Putin said that the residents of the four regions — which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces — would become Russia’s citizens “forever.” He then held a signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of those regions to start the official annexation process, before clasping hands with them and chanting, “Russia! Russia!”
The World Bank has said it will provide an additional $530 million in support to Ukraine, bringing the total aid by the bank to $13 billion, as Russia's invasion of the country continues.
The aid is supported by the United Kingdom ($500 million) and the Kingdom of Denmark ($30 million), the World Bank said in a statement.
Of the total aid of $13 billion to Ukraine to date, $11 billion has been fully disbursed, the bank added.
The World Bank's most recent analysis puts the total long-term cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine over the next three years at well over $100 billion, said Arup Banerji, World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on routine autumn conscription, said a report in The Kyiv Independent, quoting TASS.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Sept. 30 authorizing routine autumn conscription for men aged 18 to 27, calling 120,000 people for military service, according to Russian state-controlled media TASS," it said in a tweet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday presided over a ceremony at the Kremlin to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces. During the ceremony, he made several remarks on Russia’s “historical” past and mentioned the West’s “plunder of India” while criticising colonialism.
Following are extracts from his speech, translated by Reuters:
On colonialism
"The West ... began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China ..."
"What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminate entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice." (Read more)
Japan and South Korea said that they condemned the Russian annexation of four territories of Ukraine.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in a telephone call Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, condemned Russia’s new annexation of parts of Ukraine as illegal and a violation of the country's sovereignty, reported AP.
Meanwhile, South Korea said Saturday it does not recognise Russia's declared annexation of parts of Ukraine or what Moscow called referendums that took place in those areas, reported Reuters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his speech Friday announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, termed the West as "satanic" and referred to its "plunder of India" while criticising their colonial past.
"The West ... began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, and then followed the slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India, of Africa, the wars of England and France against China ...," said Putin.
"What they did was hooking entire nations on drugs, deliberately exterminate entire ethnic groups. For the sake of land and resources they hunted people like animals. This is contrary to the very nature of man, truth, freedom and justice," he added. (Reuters)
➡️ Russian President Putin proclaimed the annexation of territory seized in his invasion in four regions amounting to 15% of total Ukrainian territory while Kyiv said it would continue its fight to retake occupied land.
➡️ Before signing documents to annex four regions — an act denounced as illegal by Ukraine, the United States, the European Union and the head of the United Nations — Putin delivered a 37-minute anti-Western diatribe.
➡️ President Zelenskyy of Ukraine said it was formally applying for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance and that Kyiv was ready for talks with Moscow, but not while Putin was president.
➡️ Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution introduced by the United States and Albania condemning Moscow's proclaimed annexations, with Russia's strategic partner China abstaining from the vote.
➡️ The United States responded to the annexations by imposing sanctions on Russia, targeting hundreds of people and companies, including those in Russia's military-industrial complex and lawmakers. (Reuters)