Latest Ukraine updates: Moscow seeks UNSC meeting on Nord Stream
Ukraine news from September 28: UN Security Council meeting is set to take place on Friday to discuss Nord Stream.
- Russia is requesting a UN Security Council meeting after European officials said the leaks on major gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe were the result of “sabotage“.
- Moscow-installed officials in occupied Ukrainian regions appeal to President Vladimir Putin for incorporation into Russia following annexation votes.
- Russia is requesting a UN Security Council meeting after European officials said the leaks on major gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe were the result of “sabotage“.
- Moscow-installed officials in occupied Ukrainian regions appeal to President Vladimir Putin for incorporation into Russia following annexation votes.
- Kyiv and its Western allies have decried the referendums as illegal, saying the announced outcomes are meaningless.
- Russia says its offensive will continue “at a minimum” until it seizes all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. Here are the updates for Wednesday, September 28:
Moldova to boost defences as Russia maintains troops on the ground
The ex-Soviet state of Moldova must boost defences because Russia is not respecting its neutrality, pro-Western President Maia Sandu has told national television.
“Moldova is a neutral country … but now Russia does not respect our neutrality, keeping its military on the territory of Moldova. We therefore need to strengthen our defence capability,” Sandu said.
Russia has stationed peacekeeping troops in Transnistria since the early 1990s when an armed conflict saw pro-Russian separatists wrest most of the region from Moldovan control.
Moldova, which borders Ukraine and Romania, applied for European Union membership this year and strongly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Three poets held in Russia for reading anti-conflict text
A Russian court has remanded three young poets who took part in an event against the mobilisation to fight in Ukraine, with one claiming he was raped by police during his arrest.
OVD-Info, a non-governmental organisation monitoring human rights issues, said Artyom Kamardin, Egor Shtovba and Nikolay Dainenko were remanded in custody for two months.
It said they were suspects in an open case for “inciting hatred with the threat of violence”. If charged, they face six years in prison.
On Sunday, they took part in a reading in front of the statue of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in central Moscow, a place where dissident intellectuals gathered during the Soviet era. At the start of the readings, a speaker stated that it was an “anti-mobilisation” action.
Russia sets up draft offices at border crossings as men continue to flee
Russia has set up draft offices at border crossings, Russian news agencies said, as long lines of Russians trying to escape being called up to fight in Ukraine continue to clog highways out of the country.
North Ossetia restricted many passenger cars from entering its territory and set up a draft office at the Verkhny Lars border crossing, with some media outlets releasing photos showing a black van with “military enlistment office” written on it.
Another such draft checkpoint was set up in Russia along the Finnish border, according to the independent Russian news outlet Meduza.
US won’t recognise ‘illegal’ Russian annexation of Ukraine territory
The United States has said it will not recognise Russian-annexed areas across Ukraine amid what the White House called “illegal and illegitimate” referendums that were manipulated by Moscow and would be challenged internationally.
“Based on our information, every aspect of this referenda process was pre-staged and orchestrated by the Kremlin,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing, adding that Washington would rally opposition to recognising the annexed territories, “including at the UN”.
“Regardless of Russia’s claims, this remains Ukrainian territory,” she said.
Russia probing damage to Nord Stream pipelines as ‘international terrorism’: Report
Russia’s FSB security service is investigating the damage sustained by the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea as “international terrorism”, the Interfax news agency has cited the general prosecutor’s office as saying.
Germany, Denmark and Sweden said attacks caused gas from the two Russian-owned pipelines, at the centre of an energy standoff, to pour into the sea. The countries have not said who they suspect of carrying out the attacks.
US announces $1.1bn in new arms aid for Ukraine
The United States has announced a new package of arms and supplies for Ukraine worth $1.1bn for reinforcing Kyiv’s forces over the medium and long term.
It includes 18 more high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), which the Ukrainians have been using effectively since June to hit Russian arms depots and command posts far behind the front lines, according to a US Department of Defense statement.
The package “represents a multi-year investment in critical capabilities to build the enduring strength of Ukraine’s Armed Forces” as they continue to battle the invading Russian army, the Pentagon said.
Denmark says more than half of Nord Stream gas has escaped
Denmark has said that more than half of the gas in the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea had leaked into the atmosphere after they were damaged by suspected sabotage.
“A clear majority of the gas has already come out of the pipes,” head of the Danish Energy Agency, Kristoffer Bottzauw, told a press conference.
“We expect the rest to escape by Sunday,” he added.
According to climate groups, Nord Stream 1 and 2 contained some 350,000 tonnes of natural gas.
US dismisses Russia’s hints of blame for gas leak
Russia has questioned whether the US caused undersea gas pipeline leaks in Europe that have been blamed on sabotage, in a turn of the tables that US officials bluntly called “ridiculous”.
President Joe “Biden is obliged to answer the question of whether the US carried out its threat”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on social media.
Washington dismissed the suggestion, with a spokeswoman for the National Security Council saying: “We all know Russia has a long history of spreading disinformation and is doing it again here.”
US to sanction Russia following ‘sham’ referendums
The United States is working with allies and partners to quickly impose severe economic costs on Moscow over “sham” referendums held by Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine, according to the US Department of State’s head of sanctions coordination.
“There will be more packages. We are working on more sanctions,” James O’Brien told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Everything is on the table,” he said, adding that Washington would look to the financial sector and high technology, especially for energy exploitation, and to human rights violators.
UN Security Council to meet over Nord Stream leaks on Friday
The United Nations Security Council will meet to discuss the leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, suspected to be sabotage.
The deputy head of Russia’s UN mission in New York, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Telegram that Russia had called for a special session of the UN Security Council that would be held on Friday.
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde told a press conference that “the current Security Council president France has informed us today that Russia has requested a meeting about the Nord Stream leaks and this meeting is being planned for Friday”.
Finland closes highway for fighter jet drill for first time in decades
Finland has shut down a section of one of its main highways for five days for the first time in decades to allow its fighter jets to practice landings and take-offs on a reserve road runway.
The reserve road base, located in Joutsa in central Finland, had not been used for decades due to its importance as the main highway connecting the capital Helsinki to the more northern parts of the country.
The site was used for an exercise involving some 200 staff and Finland’s F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, older Hawk Mk 51 trainer planes and other military aircraft, the head of Finnish Air Force Academy, Colonel Vesa Mantyla, told Reuters.
The Finnish Air Force can rapidly disperse all its aircraft across the country. “The threat from Russia or the actions from Russia with the cruise missiles and ballistic missiles [in Ukraine] proves that the concept of dispersed operations is right,” Mantyla said.
Zelenskyy calls allies in bid to rally support against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sought to rally international support for his country against Russia in a series of calls with foreign leaders, as Moscow looked poised to annex a swath of Ukrainian territory.
Zelenskyy spoke to the leaders of countries including Canada, Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom to press demands for more military aid and tougher sanctions on Moscow after what Kyiv and the West denounced as illegal sham referendums in four partially occupied provinces on Ukraine.
“We expect London’s leadership in reaction to Russian sham referenda as well. Defence and financial aid to Ukraine must be enhanced in response,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter after speaking to UK Prime Minister Liz Truss.
He told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau separately that the world must not bow to Russian “nuclear blackmail”.
“The aggressor must clearly understand all the consequences of his irresponsibility,” Zelenskyy added.
Poland condemns Russia’s Ukraine referendums
Poland’s Foreign Ministry has condemned referendums in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.
“We call on members of the international community not to recognise the legitimacy of these pseudo-referendums and their ‘results’, which cannot in any way reflect the will of the people of these regions, who were often forcibly coerced into voting,” the ministry said in a statement.
Moscow says occupied Ukraine regions made ‘free choice’
Moscow’s foreign ministry has said that Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine made a “conscious and free choice” to join Russia.
“The results of the plebiscites speak for themselves: the people of the Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions do not want to go back to their old lives and have made a conscious and free choice in favour of Russia,” the ministry said in a statement.
The statement said that an “overwhelming majority” had backed joining Russia, and claimed almost one hundred percent backing in the Donetsk region — “99.23 percent”.
UK tells Ukraine it will never recognise Russian attempts to annex territory
British Prime Minister Liz Truss has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United Kingdom will never recognise Russian attempts to annex its territory, according to a spokesperson for her office.
“The prime minister made clear that the UK would never recognise Russian attempts to annex sovereign territory. She reiterated that Ukraine could depend on the UK’s support until President Putin was defeated,” the spokesperson said following a call between the pair.
The two leaders also discussed how to work together to secure gas supplies in the long term, the spokesperson added.
Russia pledges imminent action over occupied Ukrainian regions
Russia’s foreign ministry has said that Moscow will soon take action to meet the aspirations of four occupied regions in Ukraine to become part of Russia, a day after the completion of what Kyiv and the West said were illegal sham referendums.
In a statement, the ministry claimed the votes in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia were held in compliance with international law.
Russian region limits incoming cars amid queues at Georgia border to escape draft
Authorities in North Ossetia, a Russian region that borders Georgia, have imposed restrictions on cars arriving from other parts of the country as an exodus of military-age men led to a queue of over 3,000 vehicles at a crossing point into Georgia.
North Ossetia Governor Sergei Menyailo said the ban was being introduced after 20,000 people crossed the border in two days, with far more remaining in line waiting to leave following Moscow’s partial mobilisation order last week.
“We will not be physically able to ensure order and security if this flow continues to grow,” Menyailo said in a statement posted on Telegram. He added the ban would not apply to residents or tourists.
The move came after North Ossetian authorities on Tuesday announced the creation of a temporary draft office at the region’s Verkhny Lars crossing point into Georgia that would issue draft papers to reservists barred from leaving Russia under the mobilisation order.
Putin’s Central Asian allies embrace Russians fleeing draft
Moscow’s traditional allies in Central Asia are quietly making moves that are likely to upset Russia’s leader.
Read more here.
Fresh EU sanctions will ‘make Kremlin pay’ for escalating war: Von der Leyen
The president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, has proposed a new package of sanctions on Russia designed “to make the Kremlin pay” for escalating the war in Ukraine with what she called “sham” annexation votes in occupied territory.
“We do not accept the sham referenda and any kind of annexation in Ukraine, and we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.
The proposed eighth sanctions package includes further import bans on Russian products, expected to deprive Moscow of an additional seven billion euros ($6.7bn) in revenues, and more export bans on key technology used for the military such as aviation items, electronic components and specific chemical substances, von der Leyen announced.
Beyond this, the sanctions package will lay the legal basis for an oil price cap and ban EU citizens from sitting on governing bodies of Russian state-owned companies, she said.
Russia has escalated the invasion of Ukraine to a new level.
And we are determined to make the Kremlin pay the price for this further escalation.
Today, we are proposing a new package of biting sanctions against Russia ↓
https://t.co/MrirRm1m4l— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 28, 2022
Moscow’s Red Square readied for annexation announcement
On Moscow’s famous Red Square, a stage with giant video screens has been set up, with billboards proclaiming “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson – Russia!”
The site has been readied as Putin reportedly prepares to officially announce the incorporation of the four partially occupied regions in Ukraine into Russia within days.
Germany does not accept ‘sham’ referendums, Scholz tells Zelenskyy
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Germany will never accept the results of “sham” referendums on joining Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine, according to a government spokesperson.
Scholz also said Germany’s financial, political and humanitarian support for Ukraine would not waver and it would continue to back Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity, including weapons deliveries, the German government spokesperson said in a statement.
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Moscow-installed officials in Kherson, Zaporizhia appeal to Putin for annexation
The Moscow-installed administrator of Ukraine’s partially Russian-controlled Kherson region has appealed to President Vladimir Putin for Moscow to incorporate it into Russia.
In a letter published on his Telegram account, Vladimir Saldo said that the residents of the Kherson region had made “a historic choice” in favour of Russia during an annexation vote dismissed by Kyiv and its Western allies as a “sham”.
In a near-identical move, the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, also appealed to Putin for the region’s incorporation into Russia.
Balitsky sent a letter to Putin saying the Kherson residents had decided “to do away with alien values and reunite with their native harbor – Russia” during the region’s annexation vote, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.
Serbia will not recognise results of annexation votes: President
Serbia will not recognise the results of referendums held in four regions of Ukraine partly occupied by Russian forces, President Aleksandar Vucic has said.
“Serbia … will not recognise that [referendums] as it adheres to international law, the United Nations Charter and UN resolutions,” Vucic told reporters.
Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, has warm ties with Moscow.
It is solely reliant on Russia for its natural gas supplies and has refused to impose sanctions on Moscow over its offensive, but it has repeatedly declined to support the invasion, too.
Photos: Russians flee to neighbouring countries amid mobilisation
Click here to see the latest pictures from Russia’s borders, across which tens of thousands of people have fled in the wake of Moscow’s partial mobilisation order last week.