His latest info update says: Any significant loss of ground in Luhansk will undoubtedly undermine Russia’s strategy. The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 square kilometers of territory, including the town of Izium, long seen as the gateway to Donbas. Updated at 08.38 BST Important events Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature President Zelenskiy’s senior adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged European countries to provide Ukraine with “modern and effective” anti-missile defense systems. His tweet comes after Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could step up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia. Western countries have many modern and effective missile/air defense systems. But the rockets don’t fly over Paris, Rome or Berlin. They fly over cities 🇺🇦. Is it time to protect citizens and critical infrastructure? Or will we wait for a large-scale man-made disaster? — Mykhailo Podolyak (@Podolyak_M) September 17, 2022 Updated at 10.01 BST And Sabbagh Our colleague Dan Sabbagh writes that Ukraine depends on morale and Russia on mercenaries. He could decide the war: The Ukrainian video opens with the Dunkirk beach scene from the movie Atonement, the soldiers’ shocking performance of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Until he switched to several hundred Ukrainian troops singing the country’s national anthem in the open, ahead of last week’s successful attack on Kharkiv. Life may try to imitate art, but in this case there is no clearer demonstration of Ukraine’s national morale as the war nears the end of its seventh month. The unprovoked attack by their larger neighbor has unleashed a patriotic mobilization that is having a transformative effect on the battlefield. Read more of Dan Sabbagh’s analysis here: Ukraine depends on morale, Russia depends on mercenaries. He could decide the war In case you missed it on Friday, Ukrainian authorities say they have found a mass grave of more than 440 bodies in the eastern city of Izium that was retaken by Russian forces. Volodymyr Zelenskiy likened the discovery to what happened in Bucha, saying: “Russia leaves death everywhere and must be responsible for that.” Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes Ukraine says it discovered mass grave with 400 bodies in recaptured city – video
President Biden warns Putin against using chemical or tactical weapons
Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. The US president was asked in an interview with CBS News what he would say to Putin if he was considering using the weapons. Biden said: Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. You will change the face of warfare unlike anything since World War II. The US president declined to elaborate on what the US would do if Putin took things that far. He added: They will become more pariahs in the world than ever before. And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response there will be. President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP Updated 09.09 BST Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he had spoken with Nike Inc and thanked the US sportswear maker for making what he said was the “right decision” to pull out of Russia. “This is an example of how business can play an important role in protecting humanity and freedom,” Reuters quoted the Ukrainian president as saying in a video speech overnight. If a state chooses the path of terror, it is the duty of every self-respecting company to distance itself from such a state. Nike told Reuters in June that it was pulling out of Russia entirely. Ukraine’s foreign minister reiterated criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying the new weapons promised by Berlin “were not what we need most”. Berlin said on Thursday it would send more multiple rocket launchers and Dingo armored personnel carriers to Kyiv as Ukrainian troops launch a counter-offensive against Moscow’s forces. But Agence France-Presse reported that the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Germany’s decisions were a “mystery” and that there was a “gun wall” in Berlin that the chancellor, Olaf Solz, had to break down. Kuleba said in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published online: We want Leopard and Marder tanks [armoured vehicles] and Germany supplies Dingo-type armored vehicles We are grateful to them. But that’s not what we need most in battle… What’s the problem? Why can’t we get what we need and what Germany has? Germany has sent a range of different weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, but has so far refused to transfer Leopards and Marders, despite repeated requests from Kyiv.
Russia may not have the reserves to withstand a counterattack in Luhansk
Russia is likely to stubbornly defend the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region amid Kiev’s counteroffensive, but it is unclear whether Moscow’s forces have “sufficient reserves or sufficient morale” to withstand another coordinated Ukrainian offensive, he says the UK Ministry of Defence. His latest info update says: Any significant loss of ground in Luhansk will undoubtedly undermine Russia’s strategy. The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 square kilometers of territory, including the town of Izium, long seen as the gateway to Donbas. Updated at 08.38 BST Mexico will present a peace plan for Ukraine to the United Nations general assembly next week, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. AFP reports that the proposal is for Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form a dialogue and peace commission. López Obrador said in a speech on Mexican Independence Day: It is a matter of urgently seeking an agreement to stop the war in Ukraine. The peacekeeping mission should immediately seek an end to hostilities in Ukraine and start direct talks with Ukrainian President Zelensky and Russian President Putin. Lopez Obrador, whose country is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, criticized the UN for being “inert” in the face of the conflict. He said his foreign minister, Marcelo Brandt, would present the proposal at the UN general assembly in New York, which will be addressed by around 150 heads of state and government.
Putin warns that Russia may step up attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure
Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue his assault on Ukraine despite Kiev’s latest counter-offensive and warned that Moscow could step up its attacks on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia. The Associated Press reported that the Russian president said that the “liberation” of the entire eastern Donbas region of Ukraine remains Russia’s main military objective and that he saw no need to revise it. Speaking to reporters on Friday after attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Putin said: We are not in a hurry. The Russian leader added that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Russia withdrew its forces from large areas of northeastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. In his first comment on the Ukrainian advance, Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.” He said Ukraine had tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “so far we have responded with restraint, but still.” If the situation develops like this, our response will be more serious. “Just recently, the Russian armed forces carried out some spectacular strikes,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south. Let’s think of them as warning shots. Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after the summit in Uzbekistan. Photo: Sergei Bobylev/AP
Summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. These are the latest developments as it approaches 9.30am in Kyiv.
United Nations member states voted for an exemption to allow Volodymyr Zelensky to address next week’s general assembly via video, despite opposition from Russia. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday to allow the Ukrainian president to “present a pre-recorded statement” instead of in person, as is usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states were away. Almost all the bodies exhumed in Izium showed signs of violent death, the head of Ukraine’s regional administration said of the mass grave site discovered after Kiev forces recaptured the eastern Ukrainian city. Diggers had uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and one “with a rope around his neck,” Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media. The European Union was “deeply shocked” by the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms…
