Ukrainian authorities have identified a mass grave of more than 440 bodies in the eastern city of Izium that was recaptured by Russian forces, a regional police chief said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy likened the discovery to what happened in Bucha outside Kyiv early in the war, Reuters reported. “Russia is leaving behind death everywhere and must be held responsible,” he said. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has said she wants Russian President Vladimir Putin to face the international criminal court for war crimes in Ukraine. “That Putin has to lose this war and has to face his actions, that’s important to me,” he told German news agency Bild’s television channel on Thursday. Ukraine has lost almost 15% of its grain storage capacity in the war, threatening its role as the world’s main food supplier, a report said. The US-backed Conflict Monitor said the Russians had seized 6.24 million tonnes of food storage capacity and another 2.25 million tonnes of capacity in Ukrainian hands had been destroyed, AFP reported. As a result, farmers had no room to store their produce for shipment, which could discourage plantings for the next crop, especially winter wheat, the report said. Pope Francis said it is morally legitimate for countries to provide weapons to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russian aggression. “It is a political decision that can be moral, morally acceptable, if it is done under moral conditions… Self-defense is not only legal but also an expression of love for the country,” he said. “Someone who doesn’t stand up for himself, who doesn’t stand up for something, doesn’t love it. Those who defend [something] I adore it.” Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his “balanced” approach to the Ukraine crisis and slammed Washington’s “ugly” policies, in a meeting that followed a major setback for Moscow on the battlefield. Putin told his Chinese counterpart on Thursday: “We understand your questions and concerns in this regard, and we will certainly offer a detailed explanation of our position on this issue during today’s meeting, even though we have already talked about it earlier.” Germany will supply Ukraine with additional armored vehicles and missile launchers, but will not supply the tanks that Kyiv has long requested, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says. He said on Thursday that Soviet BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles would also be headed “very quickly” to Ukraine from Greece. The 35-nation UN nuclear watchdog’s governing council has passed a resolution calling on Russia to end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Reuters reports. Thursday’s resolution is the second on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board. US President Joe Biden announced a new $600 million arms package for Ukraine, according to a White House memo sent to the State Department on Thursday. The US has imposed new sanctions on 22 Russian individuals and two Russian entities. Among the people is Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, who led Russia’s efforts to deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and forced the adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families. The entities include Task Force Rusich, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has fought alongside the Russian military in Ukraine. A Ukrainian volunteer doctor captured by Russian forces during the deadly siege of Mariupol gave devastating testimony before US lawmakers on Thursday, recounting her experiences of torture, death and terror. Yuliia Paievska, who was detained in the port city in March and held by Russian and pro-Russian forces for three months, spoke before the Helsinki Commission, a government agency set up in part to promote compliance with human rights internationally.
Important events Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Following this report on the German government taking control of Rosneft’s German business, Deputy Minister Jörg Kukies tweeted that the move was “a further step to ensure our energy security”. Germany’s 🇩🇪 gvmt @BMWK has just announced that Rosneft Germany will be placed under the guardianship of 🇩🇪 grid regulator @bnetza. This is a further step in ensuring our energy security. We will support the transformation of affected refinery sites.👇https://t.co/EqathWjue1 — Jörg Kukies (@joergkukies) September 16, 2022 Updated at 06.30 BST
Germany takes control of Rosneft’s German business: reports
Germany is taking control of the German unit of Russian oil company Rosneft PJSC, Bloomberg reported. The federal grid regulator will take over RN Refining & Marketing GmbH and Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, which accounts for around 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity, the economy ministry said on Friday. Updated at 06.31 BST Kremlin-linked military contractors the Wagner Group have been running an active recruitment campaign among Russian prisoners since at least July, according to the latest intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military academies have also shortened training periods for cadets, citing “increasingly serious” shortages of junior officers and combat infantry. Updated at 06.15 BST Russia has launched a national drive to recruit new troops after its setbacks in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the latest report by the Institute for the Study of War. The institute said Russia had “almost certainly” drained a large portion of the forces originally stationed in former Soviet states, likely weakening its presence in those areas. The redeployments were notable amid renewed tensions between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the institute said, with hundreds of Russian troops reportedly withdrawn from bases in each country since the invasion began.
Ukraine war has pushed 70 million closer to starvation: UN
The UN’s food chief says the world is facing “a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude”, with up to 345 million people at risk of starvation and 70 million closer to starvation since the war in Ukraine. The Associated Press reports: David Beasley, executive director of the UN’s world food programme, told the UN Security Council that the number of people with acute food insecurity has doubled since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. “What was a wave of hunger is now a tsunami of hunger,” he said, pointing to the growing conflict, the economic impact of the pandemic, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, Beasley said, the rising cost of food, fuel and fertilizer has pushed 70 million people closer to starvation. Despite a deal in July to allow Ukrainian grain to be shipped from three Black Sea ports blocked by Russia and continued efforts to return Russian fertilizer to world markets, “there is a real and dangerous risk of multiple famines this year,” he said. A ship carrying wheat from Ukraine docked in Djibouti last month. Photo: World Food Programme/Reuters The US Department of Defense announced details of the new $600 million in military aid the White House approved for Ukraine on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports. The package will include 37,000 artillery shells, of which 1,000 will be precision-guided, and four anti-aircraft radars, among other weapons and equipment. More munitions will also be provided for the Himars missile system, the Pentagon said, without specifying whether that would include the long-range missiles known as ATACMS that Kyiv has requested for months. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the US has provided more than $15 billion in military aid to Kyiv. Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a US-supplied M777 howitzer. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Updated 06.01 BST Kyrgyzstan’s border guard service said Tajik forces opened fire again on several of its outposts, an escalation of tension between the Russian allies after a brief clash earlier this week, Reuters reports. Kyrgyz border guards returned fire as clashes broke out along the border, the agency said, adding that Tajik forces were using tanks, armored personnel carriers and mortars. In turn, Tajikistan accused Kyrgyz forces of shelling one of its outposts and seven villages with “heavy weaponry”. One civilian was killed and three wounded, authorities in the Tajik city of Isfara said. The governors of Kyrgyz and Tajikistan provinces bordering the border were to meet at a border crossing and try to defuse the situation. Clashes over the poorly demarcated border between the two former Soviet republics are frequent but usually de-escalate quickly, although last year they almost erupted into all-out war. Both host Russian military bases and have close ties to Moscow, which called for a cessation of hostilities this week. When Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping for the first time since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the Russian president said he understood China’s “questions and concerns” about the war. It was a rare nod to tensions between the two states fueled by the invasion, and the Russian leader seemed particularly keen to curry favor with Xi, striking a conciliatory tone on an issue where he is often volatile and uncompromising. You can read our full report on the meeting here: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday. Photo: Alexandr Demyanchuk/AP
