Ukraine’s defence minister resigns after Zelenskiy removes him from post

Oleksii Reznikov, whose ministry has been hit by corruption scandals, confirms in letter he is stepping down

Ukraine’s defence minister has submitted his resignation letter after Volodymyr Zelenskiy removed him from his post on Sunday night, in the biggest reshuffle by the president of his government team since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

Oleksii Reznikov, whose ministry has been hit by corruption scandals, said he had written to the chair of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, confirming he was stepping down.

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Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky detained on suspicion of fraud and money laundering

Arrest of one-time ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy comes as Kyiv attempts to crack down on corruption

A Ukrainian court has ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, a striking move against one of the country’s most powerful businessmen.

The detention on Saturday of Kolomoisky, who is under US sanctions and is a one-time supporter of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose election he backed in 2019, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.

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Russia-Ukraine war: critics of counteroffensive are ‘spitting in the faces of soldiers’, says Kyiv – as it happened

Ukraine’s foreign minister also says critics of the offensive’s slow progress should ‘shut up’

At a glance: what we know on day 554 of the invasion

A military spokesperson says Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.

The capture of Robotyne was announced earlier this week. Even though just a few miles from where Ukrainian troops were at the start of the counter-offensive, it marked a significant achievement in breaking through an initial line of Russian defences prepared over the winter.

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Athens offers more support as Zelenskiy takes high-speed tour of Europe

Ukrainian president also meets leaders of Serbia and Croatia in bid to broaden support base

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s high-speed tour of Europe’s smaller countries continued in Athens on Tuesday, where he obtained further military and diplomatic support after securing a long-awaited commitment on the provision of F-16s at the weekend.

The Ukrainian president met Serbia’s president and Croatia’s prime minister at a Balkans summit in the Greek capital, while a day earlier Greece’s prime minister had said his country would help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 543 of the invasion

Russian missile attack on Chernihiv’s central square kills seven and injures 144 as Zelensky vows ‘notable response’

A Russian missile strike on a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv killed seven people, including a six-year-old child, and injured 144 on Saturday, authorities said. Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, condemned it as a “heinous” attack.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces would give “a notable response” to the “terrorist attack”. Of the injured, 15 were children, he said. Fifteen others were police, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said. Most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road or returning from church, he said. The strike occurred during the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Forty-one people were in hospital on Saturday, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Training had begun for Ukrainians to operate US F-16 fighter jets but it would take at least six months and possibly longer, the Ukrainian defence minister said. Oleksiy Reznikov’s comments on Saturday came two days after a US official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.

Ukraine has begun discussing with Sweden the possibility of receiving Gripen jets to boost its air defences, Zelenskiy said on Saturday after meeting Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson. Zelenskiy cast the talks as preliminary, saying: “Today we discussed in detail the future steps regarding the possibility of opening the subject of receiving Swedish Gripens.” Zelenskiy also said that Ukrainian pilots had already begun training on the planes. Kristersson made no mention of Gripens in his remarks. The two leaders announced that the two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation on production, training and servicing of Swedish CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones targeting northern, central and western regions overnight into Saturday. Civilian infrastructure was damaged in at least two regions, authorities said.

Russia’s defence ministry reported a flurry of Ukrainian drone attacks on Saturday targeting the regions of Moscow, Novgorod to the north-west of the Russian capital, and Belgorod, which borders Ukraine. The ministry said nobody was hurt. The Belgorod region, more than 600km from Moscow, is a vital stop on Russian supply lines and is frequently targeted by drones and missiles.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin visited top military officials in the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border. The Kremlin said the Russian president listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military figures at the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district.

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At least seven killed in Russian strike on theatre in centre of Chernihiv

Zelenskiy vows to respond after attack on centre of northern city, reportedly involving drones, that killed six-year-old girl and injured 144

At least seven people were killed and 144 injured in a “vile” Russian missile strike that hit a theatre and a central square in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.

“I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. “A notable response.”

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Zelenskiy sacks military recruitment heads over frontline bribes scandal

Ukrainian president describes taking of cash from people who want to avoid conscription as form of treachery

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced the dismissal of all the heads of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment centres in the latest drive to root out corruption after officials were accused of taking bribes from those seeking to avoid the frontlines.

At a time when the country’s army is in need of new recruits, Ukraine’s president described the taking of cash from people who wanted to avoid conscription while others suffered as a form of treachery.

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China ‘backs further Ukraine peace talks’ after Saudi Arabia summit

Senior officials from about 40 countries met in Jeddah in attempt to draft key principles on ending war

China is said to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine after a meeting of senior officials from about 40 countries in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.

The two-day summit in Jeddah was the second of its kind, after a similar forum in Copenhagen earlier this summer, and aims to draft key principles on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 527 of the invasion

Ukraine claims to have incapacitated a ship in Russia’s Black Sea fleet; Ukraine and allies aim to rally global support for Saudi peace talks

Ukraine’s security service and navy claimed to have used an unmanned boat, known as a sea drone, to scupper a landing ship in Russia’s Black sea port of Novorossiysk, as on-board camera footage emerged of an apparent twilight attack. The 112 metre long Olenegorsky Gornyak from Russia’s Northern Fleet, which has been used to transport troops and military hardware into occupied Ukrainian ports, was said by officials in Kyiv to be sufficiently damaged to have been put out of combat action.

The claim came as images emerged of both a Russian war ship tilting to its side and then footage from the head of the marine drone of it apparently moving stealthy across the Black Sea towards the ship and then striking it at its centre. The images could not be immediately independently verified. Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry had claimed that they had successfully destroyed two unmanned sea boats targeting the Russian naval base overnight. The Black Sea port of Novorossiysk hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia.

The Security Service of Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of preparing to stage a “false flag” attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine and its allies aim to rally global support for a peace blueprint in talks hosted by Saudi Arabia this weekend, with western officials increasingly optimistic that China will attend, lending the talks a new weight.

The UN nuclear watchdog has “finally” been granted access to areas of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine that it first requested a month ago and has found no explosives, the agency said in a statement on Friday.

The jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was sentenced on Friday to an additional 19 years in prison after being found guilty on a series of new charges, according to his supporters. James Cleverly, the British foreign secretary, has condemned the court’s decision on Friday to add an extra 19 years to the jail term of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law introducing a windfall tax on excess profits of Russian companies, which was published on a government website on Friday.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers, the army said Friday. Shoigu got an update on the situation on the front and “thanked commanders and soldiers... for successful offensive operations” in Lyman in eastern Ukraine, it said, without mentioning when the visit took place. The minister, the subject of intense criticism from Yevgeny Prigozhin leading up to the aborted Wagner rebellion, was also shown getting on a Swedish CV90 - “one of the many armoured vehicles taken during fighting”, the army statement said.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 523 of the invasion

At least six people have been killed in Kryvyi Rih, and two people killed in occupied Donetsk, after several strikes across Ukraine

At least six people, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed and more than 50 people injured when Russia struck a high-rise apartment in Kryvyi Rih. Authorities said people were trapped under rubble. Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, called for revenge, saying: “Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days.” He said targeting civilians was a sign of “the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front”.

Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said “This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away”, and offered condolences to the victims and their families. The city is the home town of both Zelenska and her husband.

On Telegram, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 350 people are working on the rescue mission in Kryvyi Rih after what he said were two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city.

Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday lost an appeal against his 25-year jail sentence, the RIA state news agency reported. Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British citizenship, was jailed for 25 years in April for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports. Britain added six new designations to its Russia sanctions list, an update to the government website showed on Monday, targeting judges and officials involved in the trial of Kara-Murza.

According to Reuters, Ukraine and Croatia have agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea for the export of Ukrainian grain, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said after talks with his Croatian counterpart on Monday.

Russian airstrikes destroyed an estimated 180,000 metric tonnes of grain crops in the space of nine days this month, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said Russia lost 87 units of equipment last week, including 33 strongholds, 26 armored combat vehicles and 15 tanks. These claims have not been independently verified.

The Kremlin on Monday described a recent drone attack on Moscow as an “act of desperation” by Ukraine after setbacks on the battlefield. AFP reports that Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said it has been “very difficult” for Ukrainian forces on the frontline since it launched its counteroffensive in June. He added: “It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not a success. In an act of desperation, the regime in Kyiv is turning to such terrorist attacks. All possible measures have been taken to defend civil infrastructure [against Ukrainian strikes].”

Ukrainian forces have recaptured nearly 15 sq km (5.8 sq miles) of land from Russian troops in the east and south over the past week during their counteroffensive, a senior defence official said on Monday. Kyiv’s forces have now retaken 204.7 sq km in the south since they launched a major push back against Russian forces early last month, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.

The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”, during the course of a two month-long operation that has seen limited gains for Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: one killed and cathedral in Odesa hit as Moscow launches fresh strikes

Another 19 wounded in overnight attack on the southern Ukrainian port city, governor says

Ukraine’s most famous rock star Andriy Khlyvnyuk has said the transition to becoming a soldier, receiving orders, was “surprisingly easy”.

I thought it would be [difficult]. I was afraid of the brutality, noise and dirt of war. But it wasn’t – it was surprisingly easy.” Why? “Look, if I was sent somewhere to fight, I’d be useless, terrified; I don’t want to kill or be killed. But that’s not what happened. They came for our streets and our children’s playgrounds.

Music is a universal language. But music also comes from where you come from; it reflects the feeling of home, and what home means – and on the obligation to protect your family, your neighbour. Anyone who grew up learning their language, and their poets and music by heart knows to say to the empire, any empire: ‘You will not do this to us.’

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West must focus on preparing Ukraine’s troops – or we will all pay the price | Jack Watling

A bureaucratic, peacetime approach to training and stockpiling among Zelenskiy’s allies is posing a threat to European security

For two months Ukrainian forces have been endeavouring to fight their way through densely fortified Russian positions to breach the so-called Surovikin line in an attempt to liberate their territory. Fighting has been exceedingly hard, with heavy losses of equipment and personnel on both sides. Irrespective of how much progress is made over the coming months, Ukraine’s international partners need to focus their assistance on preparing Ukrainian armed forces for the next fight.

It is important to understand the challenge the Ukrainians are trying to overcome. Russian troops are fighting from successive layers of concrete-hardened positions, each behind 120-500 metres of complex minefields. They are backed up by significant artillery and attack helicopter support and protected by dense electronic warfare and air defences. Although Ukrainian troops tend to win when they get into close combat with the Russians, getting there without taking unsustainable losses is not always possible.

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Russia-Ukraine war: arrest of Russian pro-war blogger likely to trigger fury in military, says UK – as it happened

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Road traffic on the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula has been temporarily blocked, an official Telegram channel has said.

“Those on the bridge and in the inspection area are asked to remain calm and follow the instructions of transportation security officers,” it said.

A preliminary assessment in Odesa has revealed damage to several museums inside the world heritage property, including the Odesa Archaeological Museum, the Odesa Maritime Museum and the Odesa Literature Museum. They had all been marked by Unesco and local authorities with the Blue Shield, the distinctive emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention.

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Ben Wallace to quit as defence secretary and stand down as MP at next reshuffle

Defence secretary rows back comments about Ukraine needing to show ‘gratitude’ and says he will not contest next general election

Ben Wallace is to leave government at the next cabinet reshuffle after four years as defence secretary and will not stand in the general election.

Wallace, who has played a key role in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson, told the Sunday Times he was “not standing next time” but he ruled out leaving parliament “prematurely” and forcing another byelection on Rishi Sunak, of whom he remains supportive.

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South Korean president makes surprise visit to Ukraine in show of support

Yoon Suk-yeol, whose country gives humanitarian and financial aid but not arms, laid flowers at monument to war dead

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for the country in its war with Russia.

Yoon travelled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon-hee, after trips to Lithuania for a Nato summit and to Poland, his office said. It is his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 17 months ago.

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US and UK call for more gratitude from Kyiv after Zelenskiy’s Nato complaint

Comments come after Ukrainian leader complained his country had not been given firm timetable for joining alliance

Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser have suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.

Their unscripted remarks – at two different events on the margins of the second day of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius – appeared to prompt a change of tack from the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, who later said he was “grateful to all leaders of Nato countries” for their support and help.

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Zelenskiy forced to recalibrate to avert Nato summit falling-out

Ukrainian president’s frustration threatened to overshadow meeting – and did not go unnoticed by other leaders

It was, by the standards of international summits, an undiplomatic intervention. A clearly frustrated Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that Nato allies were showing Ukraine disrespect, that they were discussing his country’s hopes of joining the military alliance without him. “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to Nato nor to make it a member of the alliance,” he wrote.

The outburst was certainly last minute, coming less than an hour before Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Nato other’s 29 leaders were due to sign off a final summit declaration on the topic. It turned out to be a communique that did not spell out a timeline by which Ukraine could join, nor a list of conditions it would have to meet, nor even extend an invitation to join at an unspecified future date once the war with Russia is over.

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Zelenskiy fails in effort to secure invitation to join Nato at Vilnius summit

Leaders of military alliance sign off on declaration that does not give Ukraine firm membership timetable

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has failed in a last-ditch effort to secure an invitation for Ukraine to join Nato after leaders of the 31 countries signed off on a declaration that did not give a firm timetable or clear conditions for its eventual membership.

The frustrated Ukrainian president had accused Joe Biden and other leaders present at a summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, of showing disrespect and complained that there was “no readiness” to invite his country to join.

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Ukraine pessimistic about joining Nato ahead of Vilnius summit

The US and Germany are unwilling to support Ukraine’s membership while the conflict with Russia is ongoing

Ukraine is increasingly pessimistic about taking a significant step forward in joining Nato as leaders of the western military alliance are set to assemble on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

Kyiv is expected to be offered a package of last-minute “enabling security guarantees” at the two day summit – an assurance from countries such as the US, UK, France and Germany that military aid and training will continue in the long term.

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Sunak needs all his persuasive powers to sway Biden on Ukraine’s Nato membership

Meeting between US president and UK PM carries more significance than previous visits in light of recent disagreements

Joe Biden’s meeting in Downing Street on Monday with Rishi Sunak – their fifth in the past five months and the sixth since Sunak become prime minister – probably carries more significance than any other.

Never mind that it is essentially a stopover on the way to the Nato summit in Vilnius and being squeezed between tea with King Charles at Windsor Castle and a speech on climate finance.

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