Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

West should permit Ukraine to launch long-range attacks

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday said Ukraine’s Western allies should not only allow their weapons to be used for strikes deep inside Russia, but also supply Kyiv with more of the arms themselves.

www.thedailystar.net

West should permit Ukraine to launch long-range attacks
Says Zelenskiy, urges them to supply weapons for that

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday said Ukraine's Western allies should not only allow their weapons to be used for strikes deep inside Russia, but also supply Kyiv with more of the arms themselves.

Ukraine has long urged partners to allow it to fire Western weapons at targets far into enemy territory, and those calls have grown louder as Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian energy installations, other infrastructure and residential buildings intensify.

After a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, Zelenskiy said Kyiv was "more positive" about the prospects of getting such permission.

"For today, only to allow – is also not enough," he said, adding that allies should ensure deliveries of weapons to use for such attacks. "We didn't get everything we would like to use," Zelenskiy added.

Zelenskiy added that some agreements on supplies had not been fulfilled.

He said he discussed with Schoof strengthening Ukraine's air defences. He mentioned there were "some ideas" on how to increase the fleet of F-16 jets donated by allies, one of which was lost in a crash in Ukraine last week.

"We will keep providing air defence equipment, and F-16s, and funding for munitions," Schoof said.

Schoof added that the Netherlands would provide Ukraine with around 200 million euros ($221.4 million) in support to repair energy infrastructure and for humanitarian assistance.

The Netherlands will deliver refurbished gas turbines with a total value of 29.5 million euros and has allocated 45 million euros for repairing energy infrastructure, the Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement.

The money comes from a 400-million-euro aid fund the Dutch government pledged to Ukraine earlier this year.

Zelenskiy also commented on the situation on front lines, saying that Ukraine's cross-border incursion into Russia's western region of Kursk was moving "according to the plan".

He added that Ukraine believed the operation could help to ease pressure on the Pokrovsk front in Ukraine's east, where Russia has accelerated its advances.

So far, he said, the situation there remained difficult.​

 

[Saif]

Putin says Ukraine border incursion will not stop Russian advance

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Monday that his army was rapidly advancing in east Ukraine, citing this as proof that Kyiv’s cross-border incursion into the Kursk region was failing...

www.newagebd.net

Putin says Ukraine border incursion will not stop Russian advance
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 03 September, 2024, 00:11

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Monday that his army was rapidly advancing in east Ukraine, citing this as proof that Kyiv’s cross-border incursion into the Kursk region was failing.

His comments came hours after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, wounding at least three people in Kyiv and damaging a mosque moments before the new school year began.

‘People are experiencing and undergoing severe hardship, especially in the Kursk region,’ Putin told school children at a televised event in Siberia.

‘But the enemy did not achieve the main task that they set themselves: to stop our offensive in the Donbas we have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time,’ he said.

The Donbas refers to a large area of east Ukraine covering the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which Moscow claims as its own and where its forces claim to be advancing.

Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk region on 6 August, sending thousands of troops across the border in the biggest incursion on Russian soil since World War II.

Kyiv said the aim of the offensive was to draw Russian troops away from east Ukraine and stretch Moscow’s forces.

Some 1,30,000 people have fled the Russian border region since the start of the fighting, which has killed at least a dozen people and injured more than 100 others, according to Russian state media.

‘We have to, of course, deal with these bandits that entered the territory of the Russian Federation, specifically the Kursk region, attempting to destabilise the situation in the border areas,’ Putin said at the meeting.

The Russian leader’s language marks a change from his previous statements on the incursion, which he had described as an evolving ‘situation’.

Russia has in recent weeks claimed to have captured a string of small villages and settlements in east Ukraine, inching towards the city of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.

Ukraine has rushed to evacuate families from Pokrovsk, which was home to around 60,000 people before Moscow launched its 2022 attack.

The Russian defence ministry said in a briefing Monday that it had captured the village of ‘Skuchne’ in the eastern Donetsk region, without providing further details.

Russia fired more than two dozen missiles and over 20 drones at Ukraine overnight, moments before the school year was set to begin, according to Kyiv.

Loud explosions were heard in the capital around 5:30am (0230 GMT), AFP journalists in Kyiv said.

‘Overnight, Russia fired a total of 35 missiles, including ballistic ones, and 23 drones at Ukraine,’ Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

He said a mosque in the capital had been ‘severely damaged’ and condemned Russia for its ‘destruction campaign against the Ukrainian people’.

Ukraine shot down nine ballistic missiles, 13 cruise missiles and 20 attack drones, the air-force said.​

 

[Saif]

Deadly strike hits Lviv as Zelensky confirms reshuffle

Russia struck the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Wednesday, killing seven people and damaging historical buildings in a rare attack hundreds of kilometres from the frontline...

www.newagebd.net

Deadly strike hits Lviv as Zelensky confirms reshuffle
Agence France-Presse . Lviv, Ukraine 05 September, 2024, 00:23

Russia struck the city of Lviv in western Ukraine on Wednesday, killing seven people and damaging historical buildings in a rare attack hundreds of kilometres from the frontline.

The strike came as several Ukrainian ministers, including top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba, offered their resignations, part of a major reshuffle president Volodymyr Zelensky said would bring ‘new energy’ to government.

Russia has stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine since Kyiv launched an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region last month.

‘In total, seven people died in Lviv, including three children. The search and rescue operation is on-going,’ interior minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.

The missile attack also wounded 40 people, damaging schools and medical facilities as well as buildings in Lviv’s historic centre, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

The western city near the Polish border is home to a UNESCO world heritage site that covers its old town. It has been largely spared the intense strikes that have rocked cities further east.

But at least seven ‘architectural objects of local importance were damaged’ in Wednesday’s barrage, regional head Maksym Kozytsky said.

The assault on Lviv, which is sheltering thousands displaced by over two years of war, came a day after a Russian strike on the central city of Poltava killed 53 people, one of the deadliest single strikes of the invasion.

The overnight attacks triggered renewed appeals from Ukraine for Western air defences, as well as long-range weapons to retaliate by striking targets deep inside Russia.

‘I heard terrible inhuman screams saying ‘Save us,’ said Yelyzaveta, a 27-year-old resident of Lviv who rushed to shelter in her basement.

Others like Anastasia Grynko, an internally displaced person from Dnipro, did not have time to reach a shelter.

‘The rocket hit our house. Everything was blown away. At the time of the explosion, I was somehow miraculously in the corridor, so I was not badly hurt,’ she said.

Zelensky denounced what he called ‘Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities’.

The attack on Lviv was part of a wider barrage on Ukraine, with 13 missiles and 29 drones launched at the war-torn country, the air force said.

The air force said it downed seven missiles and 22 drones.

Wreckage of a downed missile fell on the central city of Kryvyi Rig, Ukrainian emergency services said, damaging the Arena hotel and wounding five people.

‘The hotel is destroyed from the first to the third floor. Thank God, everyone is alive,’ the city’s head Oleksandr Vilkul said.

Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmygal called for more air defence and for long-range weapons to strike Russia in the wake of the attack.

The weapons delivered by Ukraine’s Western partners since the invasion often come with restrictions prohibiting their use against most targets located inside Russia.

The overnight attack took place the day after a Russian strike on a military education institute in Poltava killed 53 people and wounded 271 — though authorities did not say how many of the victims were military or civilians.

Russia also said it was pressing on with its offensive in the country’s east, claiming the capture of the village of Karlivka, the latest in a string of territorial gains.

Karlivka is about 30 kilometres from Pokrovsk, a major Russian target that lies on a key supply route for the Ukrainian army.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Monday his army was making rapid advances in the Donbas that covers the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

‘We have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time,’ he said.

Ukraine was also on Wednesday in the midst of a major government reshuffle, as Zelensky seeks to boost confidence in the government two and a half years into Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s wartime foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba submitted his resignation on Wednesday, a day after six other officials including cabinet ministers said they were stepping down.

‘We need new energy. And these steps are related to strengthening our state in various areas,’ Zelensky told journalists when asked about the changes.

Ukraine’s parliament approved some of the resignations in a session Wednesday, with Kuleba’s expected to be voted on later in the week.

A source close to the presidential office said that Zelensky and Kuleba ‘will discuss and decide’ his future post.

In a separate attack on Wednesday, Ukrainian shelling killed three people in occupied east Ukraine, according to the Russian-installed Donetsk region governor Denis Pushilin.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine names new foreign minister, two deputy PMs in cabinet overhaul

Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Thursday to appoint a new foreign minister and two new deputy prime ministers, as President Volodymyr Zelensky carries out his biggest government shakeup since Russia’s Feb 2022 invasion. Andrii Sybiha, 49, an experienced diplomat who does not have a prominent pu

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Ukraine names new foreign minister, two deputy PMs in cabinet overhaul
REUTERS
Published :
Sep 05, 2024 20:48
Updated :
Sep 05, 2024 20:48

A first deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is seen, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 4, 2023. Ukrainian parliament on Thursday appointed Sybiha as Ukraine's new foreign minister. Photo : Reuters/Stringer

Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Thursday to appoint a new foreign minister and two new deputy prime ministers, as President Volodymyr Zelensky carries out his biggest government shakeup since Russia’s Feb 2022 invasion.

Andrii Sybiha, 49, an experienced diplomat who does not have a prominent public profile, takes the reins of the foreign ministry, replacing Dmytro Kuleba, who has been one of the best known public faces of Ukraine in the West in recent years.

The new foreign ministry leadership is not expected to affect policy significantly; Zelensky and his office have taken the leading role in foreign affairs during the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian leader, who travels to the United States this month and hopes to present a “victory plan” to President Joe Biden, has said that Ukraine needs “new energy” and that this autumn will be important for Ukraine in the war.

Dmytro Razumkov, an opposition lawmaker, predicted the new appointments would change little, saying most decisions were made in Zelensky’s office, which was conferred considerable new emergency powers under wartime martial law.

Parliament re-appointed 38-year-old Olha Stefanyshyna as deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, while also handing her a bigger portfolio that includes overseeing the justice ministry.

Stefanyshyna said in her speech to lawmakers ahead of her appointment that “hundreds and thousands” of legal changes were required as Ukraine seeks to become a member of the European Union.

Lawmakers also signed off on the appointment of Oleksiy Kuleba, a former deputy head of Zelensky’s office, as a deputy prime minister in charge of reconstruction, regions and infrastructure.

Parliament is expected to appoint other new ministers on Thursday as part of the government reset.

KYIV AIMS TO RECAPTURE WAR INITIATIVE

Russian forces are inching forward in the east and have stepped up their campaign of missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities far from the frontline, hitting the power sector and other infrastructure in almost daily attacks.

Zelensky has said his team is preparing several important meetings with foreign partners in September to try to ensure Kyiv’s recaptures the initiative in the war.

In his latest evening address to the nation, he said the current priorities were securing supplies of air defences from the West, improving the situation on the battlefield and getting foreign help to rebuild his country.

He is expected to take part on Friday in a meeting of the Ramstein group of nations which supplies arms to Ukraine, Germany’s Der Spiegel media outlet reported.

Zelensky has repeatedly called on allies to lift restrictions that ban Kyiv from using Western weapons for long-range strikes into Russia.​

 

[Saif]

‘Time is now’ for peace

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday called for diplomatic efforts to be intensified to achieve peace in Ukraine “more quickly”, as the war grinds through its third year.

www.thedailystar.net

‘Time is now’ for peace
Says Germany’s Scholz over Ukraine war

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday called for diplomatic efforts to be intensified to achieve peace in Ukraine "more quickly", as the war grinds through its third year.

The call comes as Scholz is under growing pressure at home amid signs of public fatigue with the conflict that started with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"I believe that now is the time to discuss how we can get out of this war situation and achieve peace more quickly," Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF, in an annual summer interview.

The far-right AfD and far-left BSW parties -- who both want to end weapons deliveries to Ukraine -- made huge gains in two regional elections in Germany last week, while Scholz's coalition parties received a bruising.

Germany is the second largest contributor of aid to Ukraine after the United States, and Scholz's government has repeatedly pledged to keep up the support for "as long as it takes".

Scholz said Russia should attend the next international peace summit on ending the war, after Moscow was excluded from the first one. "It's important that we make progress," Scholz said.

On the ground, Russia yesterday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia's borders.

Two people were killed yesterday in a Russian air strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, the capital of the region from where Ukraine poured troops and tanks across the border into Russia in its shock counter-attack.​

 

[Saif]

Russia advances in east Ukraine, launches deadly air strikes

Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia’s borders...

www.newagebd.net

Russia advances in east Ukraine, launches deadly air strikes
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 September, 2024, 23:45

Russia on Sunday said its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv reported deadly air attacks and urged the West to allow it to carry out more retaliatory strikes inside Russia’s borders.

Moscow has upped its aerial attacks in recent weeks at the same time it tries to fight off a major Ukrainian cross-border offensive into its Western Kursk region that has reshaped the course of the two-and-a-half-year war.

Two people were killed on Sunday in a Russian air strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, the capital of the region from where Ukraine poured troops and tanks across the border into Russia in its shock counter-attack.

‘As a result of the air strike, two people died. Four more people were injured, including two children,’ Sumy military authorities in the region said in a statement.

A Russian rocket strike on a village close to the front line in the Donetsk region also killed two people, the regional prosecutor’s office said Sunday.

‘Two local women aged 43 and 53 died as a result of cluster munitions’ hitting their gardens, it said in a statement.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on August 6 hoping to force Russia to redeploy troops currently pressing forward in the east of the country.

But Moscow has appeared to intensify its attacks there, chalking up its most significant territorial gains in almost two years over the month of August.

Its military claimed Sunday to have captured another small village as it advances towards the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region.

The defence ministry in Moscow said its troops had ‘liberated the settlement of Novohrodivka,’ which lies around 20 kilometres from Pokrovsk.

The town is one of Russia’s larger territorial conquests of recent weeks, home to more than 14,000 inhabitants before Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area — which includes Donetsk — and claimed that Ukraine’s Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged Kyiv’s partners to give him more scope to use Western-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.

‘In just one week, Russia has used over 800 guided aerial bombs, nearly 300 Shahed drones, and more than 60 missiles of various types against our people,’ he said in a Facebook post.

‘Terror can only be reliably stopped in one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror,’ he said.

Officials in the central city of Poltava on Sunday said the death toll from a strike on a military education facility last week had risen to 58, after three who were wounded in the attack succumbed to their injuries.

Russian strikes also killed seven in the western city of Lviv last week, a relatively rare deadly strike on the city hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine’s borders with EU and NATO members.

Kyiv has for months been calling for the West to supply longer-range missiles and lift restrictions that limit their use to the direct combat zone.

Ukraine’s SBU security services said Saturday they had struck an ammunition depot in Russia’s Voronezh region in a drone attack.

Kyiv has also carried out a string of drone hits on Russian oil depots and refineries, including some hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines.

Seeking the ability to use more effective Western-supplied missiles for its aerial campaign, Kyiv says such sites are legitimate targets as they provide fuel for Russia’s military and are a key source of revenue for the Russian state.

‘A country that defends itself against aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter cannot be restricted in its defence,’ Ukraine’s newly appointed foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

‘International law allows Ukraine to strike legitimate military targets on Russia’s territory,’ he added.​

 

[Saif]

US, UK vow to work for Ukraine’s victory

The US and British top diplomats yesterday vowed to work together for Ukraine’s victory as they discussed further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.

www.thedailystar.net

US, UK vow to work for Ukraine’s victory
Top diplomats of the nations discuss long-range arms supply to Ukraine

The US and British top diplomats yesterday vowed to work together for Ukraine's victory as they discussed further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.

In a rare joint trip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the nine-hour train from Poland to Kyiv alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose two-month-old Labour government has vowed to keep up Britain's role as a key defender of Ukraine.

At three-way talks with their Ukrainian counterpart, Blinken said the visit sent a "strong message that we are committed to Ukraine's success, committed to Ukraine's victory".

Lammy also promised British support until the war of "Russian imperialism and aggression come to an end" and called attacks that have killed Ukrainians "horrific, barbaric, unbelievable".

"The only person that gains from any sense that we are not together" is Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lammy said.

The trip comes at a fraught time for Ukraine, with Russia advancing on the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region and a month after Kyiv launched a shock counter-offensive into Russia's Kursk region.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has ramped up his requests over recent months to the West to provide weapons with more firepower and fewer restrictions.

US President Joe Biden, asked in Washington whether he would let Ukraine use longer-range weapons for strikes on Russian targets, said: "We're working that out right now."

Biden, while strongly supportive of Ukraine, has previously made clear he wants to avoid devolving into direct conflict between the United States and Russia, the world's two leading nuclear powers.

Blinken, speaking Tuesday in London alongside Lammy, said the United States was committed to providing Ukraine with "what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression".

Asked how Moscow would respond to such a development, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday the response "will be appropriate," without providing specific details.

He said the authorisation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory would serve as "further proof" of why Moscow launched its offensive, which he said was itself an "answer" to the West's support for Ukraine.​

 

[Saif]

Biden, Starmer meet as Russia warns over long-range missiles for Ukraine

The leaders of Britain and the United States meet on Friday in Washington on whether to let Kyiv fire Western-provided long-range missiles into Russia — an option that has sent...

www.newagebd.net

Biden, Starmer meet as Russia warns over long-range missiles for Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Washington 14 September, 2024, 01:04

The leaders of Britain and the United States meet on Friday in Washington on whether to let Kyiv fire Western-provided long-range missiles into Russia — an option that has sent tensions soaring with Moscow.

Prime minister Keir Starmer’s visit to president Joe Biden comes with Kyiv increasingly pushing for permission to use the weapons — and secure Western help shooting down Russian missiles and drones.

But president Vladimir Putin has warned that giving Ukraine the green light to use long-range weapons would mean NATO was ‘at war’ with Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s message was unambiguous: ‘We have no doubt that this statement has reached its recipients.’

British media reported that Biden, who is wary of provoking a nuclear conflict, was ready to let Ukraine deploy British and French missiles using US technology but not US-made missiles themselves.

Responding to Putin’s warning, Starmer told UK media travelling with him that ‘Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away.’

In a sign of increasing tensions, Russia’s FSB security service announced on Friday that the accreditation of six British diplomats had been withdrawn and accused them of spying.

But London dismissed the claims as ‘completely baseless’ and indicated they were a tit-for-tat measure after it slapped new restrictions on Russian diplomats in May.

The talks come with Biden on his way out of office and November’s US election a toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Trump repeatedly refused to take sides on the war during a debate with Harris on Tuesday, saying only: ‘I want the war to stop.’

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he will meet Biden ‘this month’ to present his ‘victory plan’ on how to end two and a half years of war with Russia.

He also said Kyiv’s recent offensive into Russia’s border region of Kursk had ‘slowed’ Moscow’s advance in eastern Ukraine and that there are currently 40,000 Russian troops fighting in the area.

But he accused the West of being too ‘afraid’ to even raise the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles and Iranian drones, even though it was helping Israel to do so.

Starmer is set to meet Biden in the Oval Office at 4:30pm (2030 GMT) but has no scheduled meetings at this stage with Trump or Harris, both of whom will be on the campaign trail on Friday.

Biden said on Tuesday that he was ‘working’ on Ukraine’s demands, while top US and British diplomats Antony Blinken and David Lammy made a rare joint visit to Kyiv on Wednesday.

Blinken promised that Washington would now quickly review Kyiv’s long-standing request and would ‘adjust, we’ll adapt as necessary’ to help Ukraine defend itself.

Washington currently authorizes Ukraine to only hit Russian targets in the occupied parts of Ukraine and some in Russian border regions directly related to Moscow’s combat operations.

But Putin, who has rattled the saber of nuclear conflict since the start of his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, warned the United States and United Kingdom against such a move.

‘This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict. It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,’ he said on Thursday.

Biden has strongly supported Ukraine since Russia’s invasion to the tune of billions of dollars in aid as well as political capital at home.

But he has been risk averse about stepping up to new kinds of weaponry deliveries — with Ukraine having to wait until this year to get F-16 jets.

The looming US election means the clock is ticking, with Kyiv in particular eyeing a Trump presidency with trepidation.

Trump has long been lukewarm on supporting Kyiv, and has frequently praised Putin.

In his debate with Harris on Tuesday, he pledged to get an agreement to end the war ‘before I even become president’ — a deal many Ukrainians fear would force them to accept Russia’s territorial gains.

Vice president Harris has in contrast pledged to keep up staunch support for Ukraine if elected.​

 

[Saif]

Russia, Ukraine swap 206 POWs

Russia said Saturday it swapped 103 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an equal number of Russian POWs in an exchange deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates.

www.newagebd.net

Russia, Ukraine swap 206 POWs
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 14 September, 2024, 22:09

Moscow and Kyiv swapped 103 prisoners of war each. | AFP photo

Russia said Saturday it swapped 103 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an equal number of Russian POWs in an exchange deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates.

The Russian troops freed in Saturday’s swap were captured during Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, which began on 6 August, according to the Russian defence ministry.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Ukrainian side.

‘As a result of the negotiation process, 103 Russian servicemen captured in the Kursk region were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,’ the Russian defence ministry said.

‘In return, 103 Ukrainian army prisoners of war were handed over.’

‘At present, all Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives,’ the ministry added.

The announcement comes just three weeks after Russia and Ukraine swapped 115 prisoners of war each in an exchange deal also mediated by the UAE.

Russia said on Saturday it had recaptured another village in eastern Ukraine, where it has made a string of advances.

‘The locality of Zhelannoe Pervoe (Zhelanne Pershe in Ukrainian) was freed thanks to the active and decisive operations of the southern units,’ the defence ministry said.

The village is located in the Pokrovsk district, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.

Russian forces have advanced rapidly in the eastern region of Donetsk in recent weeks, putting pressure on a Ukrainian army that is short of both soldiers and weapons.

The Kremlin regularly claims its army has captured small villages in eastern Ukraine.

In a rarer announcement, it said on Tuesday it had captured a town in the region, called Krasnogorivka.

On August 6, the Ukrainian army launched an incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk, advancing kilometres into Russian territory and seizing dozens of settlements.

It hopes to force Moscow to redeploy troops from Donetsk to Kursk and hamper the Russian advance in Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday Kyiv had ‘slowed’ Russia’s progress.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that capturing the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, the industrial basin comprising Donetsk and Lugansk was his top priority.​

 

[Saif]

Biden, Starmer put off Ukraine long-range missiles decision

Before the meeting officials had said Starmer would press Biden to back his plan to send British Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine to hit deeper inside Russia

en.prothomalo.com

Biden, Starmer put off Ukraine long-range missiles decision
AFP Washington
Published: 14 Sep 2024, 08: 34

US President Joe Biden meets with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House in Washington, US, 13 September 2024. Reuters

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden on Friday delayed a decision to let Ukraine fire long-range Western-supplied missiles into Russia, a plan that sparked dire threats from Moscow of a war with NATO.

Starmer told reporters at the White House that he had a "wide-ranging discussion about strategy" with Biden but that it "wasn't a meeting about a particular capability."

Before the meeting officials had said Starmer would press Biden to back his plan to send British Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine to hit deeper inside Russia as allies become increasingly concerned about the battlefield situation.

But the Labour leader indicated that he and Biden would now discuss the plan at the UN General Assembly in New York the week after next "with a wider group of individuals."

As they met with their teams across a long table in the White House, backed by US and British flags, Biden played down a warning by Russian President Vladimir Putin that allowing Ukraine to fire the weapons would mean the West was "at war" with Russia.

"I don't think much about Vladimir Putin," Biden told reporters when asked about the comments.

'Will not prevail'

But while Biden said it was "clear that Putin will not prevail in this war," he is understood to be reluctant to grant Ukraine's insistent demand to be able to use long-range US-made ATACMS missiles against Russian territory.

US officials believe the missiles would make a limited difference to Ukraine's campaign and also want to ensure that Washington's own stocks of the munitions are not depleted.

The two leaders said they also discussed the war in Gaza, with Britain having recently suspended arms deliveries to Israel over concerns that they could be used to violate international humanitarian law.

The US, Israel's main military and diplomatic backer, has held off such a step.

Biden and Starmer agreed on their "ironclad commitment" to Israel -- but stressed the "urgent need" for a ceasefire deal and a "need for Israel to do more to protect civilians" in Gaza, the White House said in a readout.

The White House had earlier played down the chances of a Ukraine decision coming from Friday's visit by Starmer, the Labour leader's second to the White House since he took office in July.

"I wouldn't expect any major announcement in that regard coming out of the discussions, certainly not from our side," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

'Afraid'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky however pushed Kyiv's Western allies to do more.

Speaking in Kyiv, Zelensky accusing the West of being "afraid" to even help Ukraine shoot down incoming missiles as it has done with Israel.

Zelensky added that he will meet Biden "this month" to present his "victory plan" on how to end two and a half years of war with Russia.

Russia has reacted angrily to the prospect of the West supplying long-range weapons to the country it invaded in February 2022.

In another sign of increasing tensions, Russia revoked the credentials of six British diplomats whom it accused of spying in what London termed "baseless" allegations.

Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia warned separately that letting Ukraine use long-range weapons would plunge NATO into "direct war with... a nuclear power."

Ukraine and the United States's allies are all meanwhile anxiously waiting for the result of a tense US presidential election in November that could upend Washington's Ukraine policy.

Biden is on his way out of office while the election is a toss-up between his Democratic political heir Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump.

Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, and refused to take sides on the war during a debate with Harris on Tuesday, saying only: "I want the war to stop."

Starmer denied he was worried about a Trump presidency, and said the need to help Ukraine in coming weeks and months was urgent "whatever timetables are going on in other countries."​