In this image released by the Police Press Service, the view from a drone shows the site of a Russian rocket attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Sept. 30, 2022. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to host a ceremony Friday for while his Ukrainian counterpart said Putin would have to be stopped if Russia was to avoid the most damaging consequences of the war. Russia’s expected annexation of the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia has been widely condemned in the West. UN chief Antonio Guterres said it was a “dangerous escalation” that would jeopardise prospects for peace.
Meanwhile, Zaporizhzhia regional governor said that a convoy of vehicles carrying Ukrainian civilians was hit during a Russian missile strike on Friday near the southern city. The strike killed 23 people and wounded 28 in a humanitarian convoy, reported Associated Press, quoting an official.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Thursday evening address promised a strong response to the annexations and summoned his defence and security chiefs for an emergency meeting on Friday where “fundamental decisions” will be taken, an official said. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres too warned against Putin’s move, and said the planned annexations were a “dangerous escalation” and jeopardise prospects for peace.
Travellers walk after crossing the border with Russia at the frontier checkpoint Verkhny Lars - Zemo Larsi, Georgia, Sept. 28, 2022. (Reuters)
Britain will never accept the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as "anything other than Ukrainian territory" Prime Minister Liz Truss said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin was violating international law.
"Putin cannot be allowed to alter international borders using brute force. We will ensure he loses this illegal war," Truss said in a statement on Friday.
"Putin has, once again, acted in violation of international law with clear disregard for the lives of the Ukrainian people he claims to represent." (Reuters)
Russia's top spy said on Friday that Moscow had materials which indicated the West had a role in ruptures to the undersea Nord Stream pipelines that have threatened to put them permanently out of use, Russian news agencies reported.
"We have materials that point to a Western trace in the organisation and implementation of these terrorist acts," the Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, as saying on Friday.
Naryshkin's remarks are the most direct accusation against the West from a senior Russian official. He did not say what evidence Russia had. (Reuters)
The Ukrainian capital was supposed to fall in a matter of days.
But plagued by tactical errors and fierce Ukrainian resistance, President Vladimir Putin’s destructive advance quickly stalled, and his forces became bogged down for most of March on the city’s outskirts.
From trenches, dugouts and in occupied homes in the area around Bucha, a western suburb of Kyiv, Russian soldiers disobeyed orders by making unauthorised calls from their cellphones to their wives, girlfriends, friends and parents hundreds of miles from the front line.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the “unprecedented sabotage” against the Nord Stream gas pipelines was “an act of international terrorism,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin made the remarks in phone call with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.
He also said it was necessary to fulfil an internationally-brokered deal on Ukrainian grain exports, including the removal of barriers for Russian food and fertilizer supplies to the global markets, the Kremlin said.
Russian strike in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed 23 people and wounded 28 in a humanitarian convoy, reports Associated Press, quoting an official.
➡️ Ukrainian President Zelenskiy promised a strong response to the annexations and summoned his defence and security chiefs for an emergency meeting.
➡️ Democratic and Republican US lawmakers said they wanted to continue the flow of money and weapons for Ukraine's battle against Russia's invasion, denouncing Moscow's annexation plan. (Reuters)
President Vladimir Putin plans to declare on Friday that some 40,000 square miles of eastern and southern Ukraine will become part of Russia — an annexation broadly denounced by the West, but a signal that the Russian leader is prepared to raise the stakes in the 7-month-old war.
Putin is expected to deliver a “voluminous” speech, his spokesperson said. He is likely to downplay his military’s struggles in Ukraine and rising domestic dissent. He will probably ignore worldwide denunciations of discredited referendums held in occupied Ukraine on joining Russia, where some were made to vote at gunpoint.
The United Nations Security Council has scheduled a vote for Friday afternoon on a resolution that would condemn Russia for its “illegal so-called referenda” in four Ukrainian regions and declare that they “have no validity”.
The US- and Albanian-sponsored resolution would call on all countries not to recognise any alterations to the status of Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
It would reaffirm the UN commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence within its internationally recognised borders. (AP)
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Uzbekistan has no plans to deport Russians who are fleeing en masse to Central Asia to evade conscription amid Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, the Tashkent government said on Friday.
Hundreds of thousands of men, some with families, have left Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation last week; many headed to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian former Soviet republics.
Some draft dodgers, however, remain concerned about their safety in those countries since their governments have close ties with Moscow.
Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said in a statement it remained committed to principles such as respecting other states' sovereignty and territorial integrity and supported a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to host a Kremlin ceremony on Friday annexing four regions of Ukraine, while his Ukrainian counterpart said Putin would have to be stopped for Russia to avoid the most damaging consequences of the war.
There was a warning too from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, who said the planned annexations were a “dangerous escalation” and jeopardise prospects for peace.
Putin has doubled down on the invasion he ordered in February despite suffering a major reversal on the battlefield this month and discontent in Russia over a widely criticised “partial mobilisation” of thousands more men to fight in Ukraine. Russia calls the war in Ukraine a “special operation.”