Zelenskiy announces military progress and reportedly liberated regions in Ukraine
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced that dozens of regions in Ukraine have been liberated from Russian occupation, seemingly confirming information from Russia’s maps that show Russia withdrawing from eastern and western Ukraine.
During an address today, Zelenskiy said the country’s armed forces were making progress against Russia in the southern part of the country.
“Today we have good news from the front line. First: the Ukrainian army is making quite fast and powerful progress in the south of our country as part of the current defence operation,” said Zelenskiy.
The president also announced that dozens of regions have been reportedly released from Russian occupation: “Dozens of settlements have already been exempted from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone,” he said.
He added: “This [has happened] in Kherson region, Kharkiv region, Luhansk region and Donetsk region … In particular, according to the military reports from the Kherson region: the settlements of Lyubimivka, Khreshchenivka, Zolota Balka, Bilyaivka, Ukrainka, Velyka and Mala Oleksandrivka, and Davidiv Brid were liberated from the occupier and stabilised.”
Zelenskiy noted that the list of released territories is not complete, vowing to continue fighting against Russian forces: “And this is far from a complete list. Our soldiers do not stop. And it’s only a matter of time before we expel the occupier from all of our land.”
About 2,000 videos, photographs and audio files of alleged war crimes captured through an app designed to create verifiable evidence have been submitted to the United Nations mandated international commission of inquiry (UN COI) on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s economy will shrink at a rate eight times that of Russia this year as a result of the war triggered by Moscow’s invasion in February, the World Bank has estimated.
The operators of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea that had major leaks last week said that restrictions imposed by Danish and Swedish officials had prevented them from inspecting the damaged sections, Reuters reports.
Europe is continuing to investigate the cause of the leak of the gas pipelines near Swedish and Danish waters. Denmark and Sweden have said the leaks were caused by blasts equivalent to “several hundred kilograms of explosive”, with the UN environment programme saying the ruptures likely caused the biggest single release on record of climate-damaging methane.
Reuters has the latest developments:
Nord Stream 2 AG, Switzerland-based operator of that gas pipeline, said on Tuesday it will examine the condition of the leaking pipelines once a police investigation of the “crime scene” is completed and a cordon is lifted.
Later on Tuesday, Nord Stream AG, operator of the older Nord Stream 1 pipeline, said they had been told by Danish authorities that receiving the necessary permits to carry out an inspection could take over 20 working days.
Nord Stream AG also said that the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs had not given permission for a ship to depart to investigate the damage, CNN reported. More from last week:
Ukraine’s foreign minister, who is in Senegal this week, promised that his country will do all it can to send more grain to Africa, which is facing a food crisis in the wake of the war, the AP reported.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba met with Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who is also the chair of the African Union.
At a joint press conference, Kuleba said Ukraine would be sending “boats full of seeds for Africa”, adding, “We will do our best until the last breath to continue exporting Ukrainian grain to Africa and the world for food security.”
Prior to the war, African countries relied on Ukraine and Russia for 44% of their wheat and Ukraine grew enough food for 400m people. Russia has sought to place the blame shortages and rising food prices on western sanctions.
Ukraine may restart the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, to ensure its safety, the president of the company that operates the plant told the Associated Press today. The potential restart comes weeks after there were escalating fears of a radiation disaster at the Russian-occupied facility.
We talked with the head of the company running Europe’s biggest nuclear plant in Ukraine, now occupied by Russian troops. Our @AP interview with @h_arhirova https://t.co/v9Ox9zJfNK
Energoatom, the Ukranian state nuclear company, shut down the plant’s six remaining reactors on 11 September amid fighting in the area. Russian military activity had cut off power supplies for safety systems, raising fears of a meltdown, the AP noted.
But Energoatom president Petro Kotin told the AP today that the company may restart two of the reactors in the coming days to “protect safety installations as winter approaches and temperatures drop”. Kotin said:
If you have low temperature, you will just freeze everything inside. The safety equipment will be damaged. So you need heating and the only heating is going to come from the working reactor.”
Even with the reactors shut down, damage to the systems or failures due to cold weather could still lead to catastrophe, the company’s president said, adding, “You have residual heat and you should constantly provide the coolant for these fuel assemblies. If you stop cooling, then you will have meltdown. And that is how it works … We, at the moment, are evaluating all the risks. And this depends on the weather. And actually, we don’t have much time to do that.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked US president Joe Biden for his “continued defence and financial support” in a phone call today, AFP reports.
Zelenskiy said in a statement that the two sides discussed “additional sanctions (and) the situation on the battlefield”. The White House announced earlier today that it would be providing $625m (£544m) in new military aid, which would include High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) launchers. Zelenskiy wrote:
I am grateful to the President of the United States and the entire American people for the continued defence and financial support … I was pleased to hear the words of President Biden that our servicemen inspire the whole world, our people inspire the whole world.”
Ukraine already has access to 16 of the Himars systems, AFP noted, adding that the US state department has confirmed that the US has now sent more than $16.8 billion in aid since the invasion began.
Zelenskiy announces military progress and reportedly liberated regions in Ukraine
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced that dozens of regions in Ukraine have been liberated from Russian occupation, seemingly confirming information from Russia’s maps that show Russia withdrawing from eastern and western Ukraine.
During an address today, Zelenskiy said the country’s armed forces were making progress against Russia in the southern part of the country.
“Today we have good news from the front line. First: the Ukrainian army is making quite fast and powerful progress in the south of our country as part of the current defence operation,” said Zelenskiy.
The president also announced that dozens of regions have been reportedly released from Russian occupation: “Dozens of settlements have already been exempted from the Russian pseudo-referendum this week alone,” he said.
He added: “This [has happened] in Kherson region, Kharkiv region, Luhansk region and Donetsk region … In particular, according to the military reports from the Kherson region: the settlements of Lyubimivka, Khreshchenivka, Zolota Balka, Bilyaivka, Ukrainka, Velyka and Mala Oleksandrivka, and Davidiv Brid were liberated from the occupier and stabilised.”
Zelenskiy noted that the list of released territories is not complete, vowing to continue fighting against Russian forces: “And this is far from a complete list. Our soldiers do not stop. And it’s only a matter of time before we expel the occupier from all of our land.”
The UN rights office has warned that Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukrainian territory could worsen human rights violations in the area, reported AFP:
Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukraine territory will only exacerbate human rights violations, the UN rights office said Tuesday as it outlined the “unspeakable suffering and devastation” inflicted on Ukrainians.
Christian Salazar Volkmann, presenting a report on rights in Ukraine to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said UN experts had documented “a range of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security”.
“The Russian Federation’s wide-scale armed attack has resulted in a dire human rights situation across Ukraine,” the UN rights office’s field operations chief said.
“The people in Ukraine have experienced unspeakable suffering and devastation.”
He said the office’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission, which has been present in Ukraine since 2014, had documented 6,114 civilians killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, stressing though that “the real figures are likely considerably higher.”
The US announced earlier today that it would give Ukraine an additional $625m (£544m) in new security assistance.
Here’s a more specific breakdown of what the package will entail:
The security assistance to Ukraine 🇺🇦 continues.
Today’s package is tailored to meet Ukraine’s immediate needs, providing more of the systems and equipment the Ukrainians have been using so effectively on the battlefield. pic.twitter.com/crG5BjwDgp
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 4, 2022
The US has urged Russia to provide a counter-offer to its attempts to broker the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, reported Reuters, calling Griner’s upcoming court date to appeal her sentence “a sham”.
“We are aware of Russia’s announcement that Brittney Griner will be forced to undergo another sham judicial proceeding. She should be released immediately,” said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, during a briefing today, reported AFP.
The White house said today that it has offered to swap Viktor Bout, the jailed arms dealer, for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who has been incarcerated in Russia since 2018.
Jean-Pierre told reporters that the US has yet to receive a serious response from Russia. “We need to see a serious counter-offer,” said Jean-Pierre.
Griner has been incarcerated in Russia since February and was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.
The court date to appeal her sentence is set for 25 October.
The United States said today that there is no indication Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, Reuters reported, despite posturing from Vladimir Putin.
White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said during a briefing that despite “nuclear saber rattling”, there are no signs that the Russia is planning to actually use such weapons.
“We take any nuclear weapons or nuclear saber rattling very seriously here, but I do want to say … that we have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor do we have any indication that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons,” Jean-Pierre said.
Putin has escalated the more than seven month war in Ukraine with a military mobilisation and warnings of nuclear weapons use.
Ukraine’s economy is set to contract by 35%, the World Bank reported on Tuesday, as the country deals with Russia’s ongoing invasion.
The international financial institution described Ukraine’s economy as “scarred by the destruction of productive capacity, damage to agricultural land, and reduced labor supply” in an economic update for Europe and Central Asia, reported AFP.
The World Bank also estimated that upwards of 14 million people have been displaced by the war, with recovery and rebuilding efforts billed at $349bn, 1.5 times the size of Ukraine’s pre-war economy.
The US gave Ukraine an additional $12.3bn in aid last week to help the war-torn country in its fight against Russia, AFP further reported.
Here is what’s happened so far today with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine:
The US president, Joe Biden, told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Washington will provide Kyiv with $625m (£544m) in new security assistance, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) launchers, the White House said.
Russian defence ministry maps appear to show rapid withdrawals of Russian invasion forces from areas in eastern and southern Ukraine where they have been under severe pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russia is at risk of losing control of the strategic towns critical to retaining the city of Kherson and eventually Crimea, western officials said, but they warned the fighting along the Dnipro River “will not be an easy rush into constrained territory”.
The European Union has summoned Russia’s envoy to condemn and reject Moscow’s “illegal annexation” of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, the EU diplomatic service has said.
Vladimir Putin is “likely” to sign laws to incorporate four Ukrainian territories into Russia during the course of the day, according to the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov.
Giorgia Meloni, set to become Italy’s next prime minister, promised “her full support” for Ukraine on Tuesday in a phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, her Brothers of Italy party said.
Reuters reports:
In one of her first calls with a foreign leader since winning an election last week, Meloni “underlined her commitment to every diplomatic effort useful for ending the conflict” with Russia, the party statement said.
It added that Zelenskiy had invited her to visit Kyiv as soon as possible and had expressed his gratitude for the arms that Italy had sent Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Meloni has been one of the few Italian political leaders to wholeheartedly endorse outgoing prime minister Mario Draghi’s decision to ship weapons to Ukraine, even though she was in opposition to his government.
By contrast, Meloni’s two political allies, the League and Forza Italia, which were both in Draghi’s coalition, have been much more ambivalent, reflecting their historically close ties with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Underscoring the depth of those ties, Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi said last month that Putin had been “pushed” into invading Ukraine and had wanted to put “decent people” in charge in Kyiv.