Russia attacks Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, Ukraine says
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the Russian occupiers in Ukraine are in panic mode as he announced that his soldiers have moved further east into territory recently vacated by Russia.
“The occupiers are clearly panicking,” Zelensky said in his evening speech last night, adding that Ukrainian forces would advance with a focus on “speed” in the liberated areas.
The advance by Ukrainian troops could trigger a possible assault on Moscow’s forces deployed in the Donbas region with Kyiv poised to receive more Western weapons, including tanks from Washington.
“The speed at which our troops are moving. The speed in restoring normal life,” the wartime president said.
However, Ukrainian officials have dug up 146 bodies buried without coffins in Izium, the recaptured city of Kharkiv, in a makeshift cemetery in the forest. Satellite images of the vast forest showed the cemetery made in the forest.
Meanwhile, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has said the war in Ukraine will be the most important issue at the UN General Assembly this week.
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Seven dead in Ukrainian attack in Luhansk region: more details
A Ukrainian attack on a Russian-held village in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region killed seven civilians, including three children, on Monday night, officials based in Russia said on Tuesday.
The attack hit Krasnorichenske, a part of Luhansk region held by Russian forces, Luhansk’s representative to the Joint Control and Coordination Center (JCCC) said on Tuesday.
As a result of artillery shelling by the armed forces of Ukraine in the village of Krasnorichenske, seven civilians were killed, including three children (twins, a girl and a boy born in 2021, and a girl born in 2015), say the representative in a statement.
Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.
The JCCC was created as part of the failed Minsk Agreement, a deal between Russia and Ukraine designed to mediate and de-escalate the conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine that began after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 08:47
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Medvedev says Moscow-backed separatists must hold referendums to join Russia
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday it was “essential” that Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine hold referendums allowing their regions to join Russia.
In a social media post, Medvedev said making the Moscow-backed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics officially part of Russia was a vital step to protect its interests and could further justify the use of military force to protect them.
(AP)
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 08:29
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Seven dead in a Ukrainian attack in the Lugansk region
A Ukrainian attack on a village in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region killed seven people on Tuesday, the TASS news agency reported, citing authorities installed by Russia in the region.
The agency said the attack hit the village of Krasnorichenske in a part of Luhansk region controlled by Russian forces.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 08:13
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Ukraine uses captured Russian tanks to reinforce its lines
Ukraine is now deploying captured Russian tanks to consolidate its gains in the northeast amid an ongoing counteroffensive, a Washington-based panel of experts said on Tuesday, as Kyiv vowed to push further into territories held by Moscow. The Institute for the Study of War, citing a Russian claim, said Ukraine had been using Russian T-72 tanks backwards as it tried to enter the Russian-held Luhansk region.
Ukrainian soldiers on top of a Russian tank
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“The initial panic of the counteroffensive caused Russian troops to abandon better quality equipment in working order, rather than the more damaged equipment left behind by Russian forces that withdrew from Kyiv in April, indicating even more the gravity of the Russian defeat,” the institute said. .
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 07:55
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ICYMI- Russia says claims it committed war crimes at Izyum a ‘lie’
Russia has dismissed allegations that its forces committed war crimes in the Ukrainian city of Izyum as a “lie”.
It was the Kremlin’s first public statement on the allegations.
Around 450 bodies, most of whom Ukraine says are civilians, were found in mass graves near Izyum after Russian troops were forced out of the Kharkiv region, much of which they had controlled, this month. since the first weeks of his military campaign in Ukraine.
Our international editor David Harding has more:
Russia says claims it committed war crimes in Izyum a ‘lie’
Ukraine’s leaders accuse Moscow of carrying out ‘genocide’
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 07:40
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Hungary says the EU should not consider new sanctions against Russia
Hungary’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that the European Union should not consider new sanctions against Russia, as this would only deepen the energy supply crisis and harm Europe.
“The EU should…stop mentioning an eighth package of sanctions, it should stop flagging measures that would only deepen the energy supply crisis,” Peter Szijjarto said in his statement.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Maryam Zakir-Hussain 20 September 2022 07:22
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UK to meet or exceed military aid spent on Ukraine by 2022 next year
British Prime Minister Liz Truss said the UK will match record cash aid to Ukraine by 2023 in a statement released today.
The UK will meet or exceed the amount of military aid spent on Ukraine, which was £2.3 billion this year, by 2023, Ms Truss said.
UK military support to Ukraine is likely to include equipment such as the multiple rocket launch system, Truss’ office said in a statement.
Arpan Rai September 20, 2022 7:05 am
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In the photos: Ukraine exhumes more than a hundred bodies with signs of torture in Kharkiv
Rescue workers and forensic police exhume bodies from unidentified makeshift graves at the Pishanske cemetery in Izium, Ukraine
(Getty Images)
The bodies will be examined by forensic officials for possible war crimes
(Getty Images)
Ukrainian rescuer seen exhuming bodies from unidentified makeshift graves at Pishanske cemetery
(Getty Images)
Workers have been seen digging up earth to exhume bodies buried in Izium. The city was recently liberated from Russian occupation after six months.
(Getty Images)
Kharkiv rescue workers take a break from exhuming bodies from makeshift graves at Pishanske Cemetery in Izium, Ukraine
(Getty Images)
Arpan Rai September 20, 2022 6:43 am
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Putin forces move Black Sea fleet from Crimea to Krasnodar amid security threat – British MoD
Russian forces have “almost certainly” moved their submarines from Crimea to Krasnodar in southern Russia amid a threat to local security, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said today.
“Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Command has almost certainly moved its KILO-class submarines from their home port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai, southern Russia,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
“This is most likely due to the recent change in the level of threat to local security in the face of Ukraine’s increased long-range strike capability. In the last two months, the fleet headquarters and the their main naval airfield have been attacked,” he added.
The Ministry of Defense noted that “securing the Crimean base of the Black Sea fleet was probably one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations for annexing the peninsula in 2014.”
Base security has now been directly undermined by Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine, he added.
Arpan Rai 20 September 2022 06:27
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Putin failed to achieve any strategic goals in Ukraine, US official says
A senior US official has said that Vladimir Putin has failed to achieve any strategic goals in his invasion of Ukraine.
“The bottom line of the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine is that Russian President Vladimir V Putin has failed to achieve any of his strategic objectives by launching the brutal and unprovoked attack,” a senior defense official said on Monday.
The official added: “It failed and the Russians withdrew from the region near the capital and moved troops to the east,” referring to the Kremlin’s exit from Kharkiv.
“On September 1 … President Putin called for all of Donetsk province to be under Russian control by September 15,” the official said, according to a statement from the state department.
“But Putin’s forces have clearly failed to deliver,” he added.
The US official added that “On the other hand, the morale of the Ukrainian military is high as it continues to advance in a very deliberate manner.”
Arpan Rai September 20, 2022 6:15 am