Latest Ukraine updates: Zaporizhzhia backup power disconnected

The Russian foreign minister has called for “additional contacts between countries” to resolve global problems.

Speaking at a briefing for heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Moscow before the 77th UN General Assembly session, Sergey Lavrov stressed that the UN was established to seek collective solutions to global problems.

“We are witnessing the accumulation of crisis processes, both associated with economic policy, with the policy in the field of energy supply to mankind, and processes that are directly caused by the undermining of the foundations on which the entire system of globalisation was based,” he said.

“High-level events are starting this week [in New York], during which tough assessments of various actions of various states will be made – there is no getting away from this.”

The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, is trying to recruit more than 1,500 convicted felons to take part in Russia’s war in Ukraine, but many are refusing to join, a senior US defence official has said.

“Our information indicates that Wagner has been suffering high losses in Ukraine, especially and unsurprisingly among young and inexperienced fighters,” the US official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A backup power line from the Ukrainian grid that supplied the Zaporizhzhia plant with electricity for essential operations was disconnected on Sunday, but the plant is still connected to one of the main power lines that were restored last week, the UN nuclear watchdog has said.

“Last week, we saw some improvements regarding its power supplies, but today we were informed about a new setback in this regard,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement.

Russian pop singer Alla Pugacheva is coming under pressure from Moscow after voicing criticism of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.

“These poets, harlequins and jugglers just need a chance to sing and dance, to make merry and to take vulgar smart-alecky s***,” the head of the Russian president’s human rights commission, Valery Fadeyev, said in a post on the commission’s website.

Pro-Kremlin Russian rap singer Timati also lashed out at Pugacheva, slamming her for lacking patriotism.

Zelenskyy has said Russia is “palpably panicking” as his country continues to mount a counteroffensive that has reclaimed towns and cities from Russian troops.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “stabilising” the situation in the northeastern Kharkiv region, which is now largely back in Ukrainian hands.

“[In] Kharkiv region – we are stabilising the situation, holding our positions. Firmly. So strongly that the occupiers are palpably panicking. Well, we warned that the Russian military in Ukraine has only two options: escape from our land or captivity,” Zelenskyy said.

France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has accused Russia of waging unjustified aggression against Ukraine “in a very brutal way” with the shelling of civilian targets, violent acts, “rapes, torture and forced liquidation”, claiming that “all of these are war crimes”.

She made the comments at a wide-ranging news conference on the sidelines of this week’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has said France will be convening a meeting Wednesday with International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi on the precarious state of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest, which is occupied by Russia.

In a wide-ranging press conference on the sidelines of this week’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, Colonna said she spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Monday morning on the need for Ukraine, Russia, and all countries in the world “to avoid a nuclear catastrophe”.

She said Lavrov seemed to be “open to listening to some detailed proposal” by Grossi, who has called for a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russia-backed separatist Donetsk region of Ukraine, has called on his fellow separatist leader of Luhansk province to combine efforts aimed at preparing a referendum on joining Russia.

In a video posted on social media, he told Luhansk People’s Republic leader Leonid Pasechnik in a phone call that “our actions should be synchronised”.

German utilities RWE and Uniper are close to striking long-term deals to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar’s North Field Expansion project to help replace Russian gas, three sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

Talks between Germany and Qatar have been fraught with differences over key conditions such as the length of contracts and pricing but the industry sources, who declined to be named, said the parties were expected to reach a compromise soon.

Europe’s biggest economy aims to replace all Russian energy imports by as soon as mid-2024, a Herculean effort for a country that mainly relies on natural gas to power its industry.

Ukrainian forensic experts have so far exhumed 146 bodies, mostly civilians, at a mass burial site near the town of Izyum in eastern Ukraine – and some bear signs of a violent death, the regional governor has said.

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, said the exhumed bodies included two children.

“Some of the dead have signs of a violent death. There are bodies with tied hands and traces of torture. The deceased were also found to have explosive, shrapnel and stab wounds,” Synyehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

European electric utility company E.ON has informed the German government of a leak at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant that has not compromised security but could complicate the government’s winter energy plan, the environment ministry has said.

Isar 2, in the southern state of Bavaria, had been scheduled to go offline at the end of the year under Germany’s plan to phase out nuclear power.

But the war in Ukraine and the subsequent plunge in energy imports from Russia prompted a policy change, with Germany now planning to keep two of its three remaining reactors, including Isar 2, on standby into next year.

The ministry said a weeklong repair period is needed in October at the Isar 2 plant, which is run by E.ON subsidiary PreussenElektra, and where operations would stop completely during repairs.

Russia’s foreign ministry has summoned the Canadian ambassador and issued a protest over attacks on the Russian embassy in Ottawa, the ministry has said.

It said an unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail onto the grounds of the Russian embassy in Ottawa. It also said “aggressive” demonstrators had blocked an entrance to the consular section of the embassy.

The United States Commerce Department has said it will add three Boeing 747 planes operated by Iranian airlines providing cargo services to Russia to a list of aircraft believed to violate US export controls as part of the Biden administration’s sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Using commercially available data, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security identified planes operated by Mahan Air, Qeshm Fars Air, and Iran Air flying and transporting goods, including electronic items, to Russia in apparent violation of the Commerce Department’s stringent export controls on Russia. These are the first three Iranian planes identified.

A total of 183 aircraft have been listed for apparent violations of US export controls, the department said. The three Iranian airlines identified today are already subject to various restrictions by the US government.

The Russian army, seeking contract soldiers for what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine, is using mobile recruiting trucks to attract volunteers, offering nearly $2,700 a month as an incentive.

A special unit stationed one such truck in a central park in the southern Russian city of Rostov on Saturday and removed the sides to reveal a mobile office.

Soldiers in camouflage and black masks showed their guns to interested passersby and handed out colour brochures titled “Military service on a contract – the choice of a real man”.

Read more here.

Germany will supply Ukraine with four more Panzer howitzer 2000 tanks together with an additional ammunition package, the country’s defence ministry has said.

Delivery will be possible and follow immediately after discussions take place with industry on the early intake of refurbished ordnance from army maintenance, the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s military says its troops have crossed the strategic Oskil River and are preparing an assault on Russia’s occupation forces in the eastern Donbas – the region Moscow has promised to conquer.

Crossing the Oskil is another important milestone in Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The river flows south into the Siversky Donets, which snakes through the Donbas, the main focus of Russia’s invasion.

Further beyond lies Luhansk province, the base for Russia’s separatist proxies since 2014 and fully in Russian hands since July after some of the war’s bloodiest battles.

Read more here.

Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine sentenced an employee of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to 13 years in jail on treason charges, Russian news agencies have reported.

“A panel of judges found Dmitry Pavlovich Shabanov guilty … and sentenced him to 13 years in prison,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported, quoting the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR).

Shabanov, who was arrested in April, is accused of passing confidential information to foreign intelligence services.

The OSCE has “unequivocally” condemned the charges against Shabanov, saying he is being “held unjustifiably on fabricated charges”.

A top Russian security official has declared, while on a visit to China, that the Kremlin considers strengthening ties with Beijing to be a top policy goal.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, described the “strengthening of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation with Beijing as an unconditional priority of Russia’s foreign policy”.

Patrushev is one of Putin’s closest associates. Speaking during a meeting with Guo Shengkun, a top official of China’s Communist Party, he said, “In the current conditions, our countries must show even greater readiness for mutual support and development of cooperation.”

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has tilted more strongly towards China as the war and severe Western sanctions torpedoed Russia’s relationship with the US and its European allies.

Just before the invasion, Putin and Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” partnership, though at a meeting last week in Uzbekistan Putin said he understood that the Chinese president had concerns and questions about the conflict.

Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, has denounced Putin’s war in Ukraine saying the Russian leader is killing soldiers for “illusory” aims, burdening common people, and turning his country into a pariah state.

Since the February 24 invasion, Russia has cracked down on dissent with fines for artists who make anti-war comments. State TV casts critics as “traitors to the motherland”.

Pugacheva, aged 73, a Soviet and then post-Soviet icon who is arguably Russia’s most famous woman, requested Russia also class her as a “foreign agent” after her husband, TV comedian Maxim Galkin, was put on that list.

“I am asking you to include me on the foreign agent’s list of my beloved country,” Pugacheva told the Russian justice ministry and her 3.5 million followers on Instagram on Sunday.

Read more here.

Four of the five European Union countries bordering Russia began turning away Russian tourists on Monday, saying they should not travel while their country is at war with Ukraine.

Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania imposed new restrictions as Finland decided to remain open, though it has cut back the number of consular appointments available to Russian travellers seeking visas.

The move was the latest in a series of sanctions and other steps taken by the EU or its member states since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The EU has banned all flights from Russia, leaving only rail and road transport links available, and this month it agreed to limit issuing free travel Schengen zone visas.

Monday’s entry ban is aimed at tourists and excludes Russian dissidents seeking refuge in the EU along with truck drivers, refugees and permanent residents of EU countries as well as those visiting family members.

As the war nears its seventh month, the experiences of injured soldiers paint a picture of the brutal consequences of prolonged fighting as injuries and deaths rise rapidly amidst widespread exhaustion.

And in the relative safety of western Ukraine, hospitals are struggling to treat hundreds of soldiers. But while many of these soldiers have suffered critical wounds and are not physically or mentally ready to return to the front line, some feel an immense need to do so.

Read more here.

Thirteen people have been killed by Ukrainian shelling in the country’s eastern, separatist-held city of Donetsk, its Russian-backed mayor says.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Donetsk’s separatist mayor Alexei Kulemzin said those killed in the alleged raid on the city’s Kuybyshevsky district were all civilians, and included two children. He added the number of wounded was being confirmed.

Donetsk city has been controlled by the Russian-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) since 2014. The Ukrainian army continues to hold positions on Donetsk’s outskirts, and the city has come under artillery fire repeatedly in recent months.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to Kulemzin’s accusations and Al Jazeera could not independently verify his report.

Click here for a rundown of the key events from day 208 of the war in Ukraine.

KEEP READING

• Ukraine’s hidden conflict: Wounded and wanting to return to war
• Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva condemns Putin’s war on Ukraine
• Italy and Bulgaria: Europe’s big tests for Russian energy unity
• Russia turns to trucks and big wages to woo volunteer soldiers

US President Joe Biden says he told his Chinese counterpart it would be a “gigantic mistake” to violate sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden said he spoke with Xi after the latter met Putin during the Winter Olympics in February. Russia attacked its neighbour shortly thereafter.

“I said: ‘If you think that Americans and others will continue to invest in China based on your violating the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia, I think you’re making a gigantic mistake. But that’s your decision to make,’” the US leader told American broadcaster CBS in an interview that aired on Sunday.

Read more here.

The Kremlin has rejected claims made by Kyiv that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, calling the claims a “lie”.

“It is the same scenario as in Bucha. It’s a lie, and of course, we will defend the truth in this story,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Ukrainian reports of alleged Russian atrocities following the discovery of a mass grave in the recently recaptured town of Izyum.

Russia previously rejected claims that its troops had committed war crimes in Bucha, outside Kyiv, after evidence of civilians being killed while the town was controlled by Russian troops came to light when Moscow’s forces’ withdrew from there at the end of March.

Russia’s foreign ministry has said Moscow is ready for talks on a prisoner exchange to free US citizens jailed in Russia, but accused the American embassy of “not fulfilling its official duties” to maintain dialogue.

“We have stated many times that we are ready for negotiations to resolve the fate of  US citizens convicted in Russia and Russian citizens in the US,” Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, said in a statement posted on Telegram.

“[But] the fact is that instead of fulfilling their direct official duties – maintaining contacts with the diplomats of the host country – the US Embassy in Moscow is engaged in some kind of media madness,” she added.

Russia has previously suggested that it is open to a prisoner exchange which could include US Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan, basketball star Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in Illinois.

The United Kingdom’s defence ministry says Russia has “highly likely” lost at least four combat jets in Ukraine within the last 10 days, possibly due to shifts in battlefield strategy triggered by the multi-pronged counteroffensive carried out by Kyiv’s forces.

“There is a realistic possibility that this uptick in losses is partially a result of the Russian Air Force accepting greater risk as it attempts to provide close air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances,” the ministry said in its latest daily intelligence update.

It added that the probable loss of the four combat jets had taken Russia’s total attrition of such units to approximately 55 since the start of its invasion in late February.

“Russia’s continued lack of air superiority remains one of the most important factors underpinning the fragility of its operational design in Ukraine,” the ministry said.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 19 September 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/yCVZk0byX5

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/264kqpPpTW

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 19, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised there will be no let-up in his country’s efforts to regain territory seized by Russian forces.

Zelenskyy’s pledge on Sunday came as the UK said Russian forces were stepping up raids on civilian infrastructure and a top US general warned it was unclear how Moscow would react to its battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.

“Perhaps now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we now have a lull of sorts,” he said in his nightly video address. “But this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series … Because Ukraine must be free – all of it.”

Read more here.

Russian forces have struck the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant (PNPP) in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, but its reactors have not been damaged and are working normally, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom says.

A blast took place 300 metres (330 yards) away from the reactors and damaged power plant buildings shortly after midnight, Energoatom said in a statement. The reported attack, which the company described as an act of “nuclear terrorism”, also damaged a nearby hydroelectric power plant and transmission lines.

“Currently, all three power units of the PNPP are operating normally. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the station staff,” Energoatom said.

Energoatom published two photographs showing a crater it said was caused by the blast. There was no immediate Russian reaction to Ukraine’s accusations and Al Jazeera could not independently verify Energoatom’s report.

The PNPP is also known as the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant.