Russia-Ukraine war updates: Zelenskyy says ‘UN ineffective’

The US air force commander in the Middle East has warned of “burgeoning” military ties between Iran and Russia, saying shared drone technology was a particular concern.

Modified Iranian drones used by Moscow in its war in Ukraine could feed back to Iran, which in turn may employ them in its campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich told a briefing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Washington accuses Iran of supplying Moscow with drones for use in Ukraine, a charge Tehran denies.

“I think there’s a risk that … as Russia accepts the drones from Iran, as it modifies those weapons, that some of that technology gets shared back with Iran [and] gives them additional capabilities,” Grynkewich, commander of the US Ninth Air Force, told reporters.

“I see the implications of that relationship playing out a little bit in Syria.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has defended his country’s use of its veto power at the UN Security Council as a “legitimate tool” of international relations.

Lavrov was addressing the Security Council on Wednesday shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for stripping Russia of its veto power over Moscow’s war against its neighbour.

“The use of veto is an absolutely legitimate tool laid out in the [UN] Charter with the aim of preventing decisions that could lead to the organisation’s breakup,” Lavrov said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has said that if Russia helped North Korea enhance its weapons programmes in return for assistance for its war in Ukraine, it would be “a direct provocation” and Seoul and its allies would not stand idly by.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Yoon said such a scenario would threaten the peace and security of not only Ukraine but also South Korea.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes were not only an existential threat to South Korea, but a serious challenge to peace in the Indo-Pacific region and across the globe, Yoon said.

Russian forces shelled the city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, killing four people, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office has said.

The office, in a report on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday, said that two people had died inside the city and two more in the adjacent town of Pivnichne.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has called for calm in the dispute pitting Kyiv against three of its neighbours over their decision to impose unilateral ban on Ukrainian farm imports.

On Wednesday, Poland summoned Kyiv’s envoy to the foreign ministry, after comments by Ukraine’s president on a ban on grain imports angered the government in Warsaw, which is toughening its stance in advance of October elections.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, writing on Facebook, said, “We urge our Polish friends to put aside their emotions. The Ukrainian side has offered Poland a constructive path to resolve the grain issue.”

Nikolenko said Ukraine’s ambassador explained Kyiv’s position on the “unacceptability” of the Polish ban and suggested Kyiv’s proposals “will become the basis for moving the dialogue into a constructive course”.

Ukraine’s ambassador, Nikolenko claimed, also underlined the “incorrectness” of remarks by Polish President Andrzej Duda in New York that Ukraine should remember that it receives help from Poland. Duda had likened Kyiv to a “drowning person”.

US businessman and philanthropist Howard Buffett has said Western public interest in the war in Ukraine could wane in the coming year, and that he may step up his own support for Ukraine to set an example.

Buffett, whose foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion and who is the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, cited the US presidential campaign as one of the possible reasons why public interest could flag.

“I do have concerns about whether people can maintain the level of interest in [Ukraine]. Particularly, in the US one of the drawbacks will be the political campaign that we’re going into,” he told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv.

The United States holds a presidential election in November 2024 and several Republican candidate hopefuls have questioned the vast military and financial aid supplied to Kyiv, calling into question Washington’s future stance.

Buffett said the idea that Ukraine “fatigue” could set in among the public in the West showed that Kyiv’s allies should double down on their support.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has said that it was premature to discuss the future of the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines in the “current situation”.

The two pipelines, designed to carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, were ruptured in unexplained blasts a year ago. They have been idle ever since, and it remains unclear who was responsible.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York City on Wednesday, as the wartime leader seeks to enlist Brazil’s backing in its conflict with Russia.

This first get-together between Zelenskyy and Lula, who will also meet with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, has been months in the making. The Ukrainian government asked for the meeting after the two men did not meet at the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima earlier this year.

Lula has advocated the creation of a group of nations to mediate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but in May he stated that both Moscow and Kyiv were to blame for the conflict, angering the United States and European states who back Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.

Last month, the Brazilian leftist leader told reporters neither Zelenskyy nor Russian President Vladimir Putin were ready for peace.

A United Nations expert has urged the United States to reconsider its decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, saying these could harm civilians even decades after the end of the conflict there.

In a letter to the US government and President Joe Biden published on Wednesday, Alice Jill Edwards, a UN special rapporteur, said that cluster munitions “indiscriminately and seriously injure civilians both at the time of use and in post-conflict” and should not be used.

“I respectfully urge Your Excellency’s Government to reconsider the decision to transfer cluster munitions and to halt any plan towards the implementation of such decision,” Edwards, the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, wrote in the letter.

The publication of the letter, dated July 14, comes days after US officials said the Biden administration was close to approving the shipment of longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine to give Kyiv the ability to cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has justified arming Kyiv, imposing sanctions on Moscow and support for UN resolutions as actions to defend the founding UN Charter.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said: “Ukraine exercises its right to self-defence.

“Helping Ukraine with weapons in this exercise, by imposing sanctions and exerting comprehensive pressure on the aggressor, as well as voting for relevant resolutions, would mean helping to defend the UN Charter.”

Ukraine and Western countries have successfully isolated Russia diplomatically at the UN, where the 193-member General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted several times to condemn the invasion and demand Moscow withdraw its troops, saying Moscow violated the 1945 UN Charter.

The official social media channel of Ramzan Kadyrov, strongman leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic and strong ally of President Vladimir Putin, has showed a video of him and dismissed social media reports that he was in poor health.

When asked about the reports, which alleged that the 46-year-old had been treated at a Moscow hospital, the Kremlin said this week that it had no information on the subject.

But a video posted on Kadyrov’s Telegram channel on Wednesday showed him sitting at the bedside of a man said to be “our dear uncle Magomed Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov” and kissing him on the hand and head. It was not clear when the video had been shot.

“Praise be to the Almighty, I am alive and well and I don’t understand at all why there should be a fuss even in the case of my illness?” read the posting, purportedly written by Kadyrov himself.

All 32 states who spoke at the World Court on Wednesday have urged judges to determine that it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Kyiv alleging that Russia abused the Genocide Convention to provide a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine.

The states asked to take the case forward to the merits stage. This unprecedented number of intervening countries is a strong show of support for Kyiv, which said it will seek reparations if the court’s final ruling is in its favour.

Some 150 states have signed the Genocide Convention and as such have an interest in how it should be interpreted by the court.

The UK’s attorney general, Victoria Prentis, told journalists after the hearing that she “very much hopes” the court will rule the case can go forward.

Addressing the UN Security Council’s special session on the war in Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian soldiers are now doing with their blood what the UN Security Council should do with their votes: stopping aggression and defending the principles of the UN Charter.

Zelenskyy then went on to propose “specific actions” that should be implemented by the UNSC.

“Firstly, there should be complete withdrawal of all Russian troops and military formations, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet or those leaky troughs that will remain from it during the war, as well as the withdrawal of all Russian mercenaries and quasi-military formations from the entire sovereign territory of Ukraine within our internationally recognised borders 1991 year,” he said.

“Secondly, Ukraine should hold effective control over our entire state border and exclusive economic zone in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as in the Kerch Strait once again. Only the fulfillment of these two points will result in a fair, reliable and complete cessation of hostilities.”

Addressing the special session of the UN Security Council focusing on Moscow’s actions in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the United Nations is at a dead end regarding aggressions.

“Everyone in the world can see what exactly makes the UN ineffective. In this seat in the Security Council, which Russia occupies illegally due to behind-the-scenes manipulations after the collapse of the Soviet Union, sit liars whose job it is to justify the aggression and genocide committed by Russia,” he said.

“The veto in the hands of the aggressor is what drove the UN into a dead end. No matter who you are, the existing UN system still makes you less than the veto power that only a few have and that is used by one – Russia – to the detriment of all other UN members,” he explained.

“Many years of talks and projects on reforming the UN should become a process of reforming the UN. The use of the veto is what needs reform, and this could be a key reform,” he added.

The special session of the United Nations Security Council focussing on Russia’s war in Ukraine has begun.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Council that Russia’s war in Ukraine “is aggravating geopolitical tensions and divisions, threatening regional stability, increasing the nuclear threat, and creating deep fissures in our increasingly multipolar world”.

Ukraine’s trade representative has said he believed compromise was possible in a trade dispute with some of the country’s neighbours and that he expected a “balancing” of the situation by Friday.

“This working week, so Friday, we can expect to reach a certain balancing of the situation,” he said in televised comments. “By Friday I think we can consolidate the positions of all five countries with regard to transferring to the [compromise] mechanism we have proposed.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the the United Nations General Assembly is an ideal place to synchronise watches, clarify positions and understand which way the world is moving today.

“Despite the difference in vision of approaches, the world is united in basic things: Russia has to lose; Ukraine’s restoration of territorial integrity is imperative for restoring respect for international law,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The #UN General Assembly is an ideal place to synchronize watches, clarify positions and understand which way the world is moving today. Despite the difference in vision of approaches, the world is united in basic things: #Russia has to lose; #Ukraine's restoration of territorial…

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 20, 2023

Ukrainian forces have attacked a Russian Black Sea fleet command post near Sevastopol in Crimea, the Ukrainian military said.

The military gave no further details except to say the attack was successful.

Earlier, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said a missile attack on the city had been prevented. Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014.

US President Joe Biden plans to announce a significant military aid package for Ukraine on Thursday to coincide with a visit to Washington by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a US official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

Zelenskyy is in the US for the UN General Assembly and is also expected to attend a special UN Security Council meeting to discuss the “maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine”.

Ukraine wants to reach an understanding with neighbouring countries on imports of agricultural products through negotiations, trade representative Taras Kachka has said.

“Ukraine wants to avoid a lengthy court [process] in the WTO [World Trade Organization] framework and to reach an understanding through negotiations,” Kachka added in a statement released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Poland to “set aside emotions” as the trade dispute between the two countries mounts.

“We urge our Polish friends to put aside their emotions. The Ukrainian side has offered Poland a constructive path to resolve the grain issue,” foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a Facebook post.

The Swedish investigation into the Nord Stream sabotage last year is at a sensitive stage and the investigator hopes to conclude it before the end of the year, Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told Reuters.

“We hope to conclude the investigation shortly but there is still a lot to do and nothing will happen for the next four weeks,” he added.

Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over comments made by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the state-run Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Wednesday, citing “unofficial information”.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly that Kyiv was “working hard to preserve the land routes for grain exports” and that the “political theatre” around grain imports was only helping Moscow.

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska has called on world leaders to help ensure the return of thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly taken by Russia as Belarusian state media published photos of dozens of Ukrainian children arriving in Belarus from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Zelenska said more than 19,000 Ukrainian children had been forcibly transferred or deported to Russia or the territories it has occupied.

In Russia, “they were told that their parents don’t need them, that their country doesn’t need them, that nobody is waiting for them,” Zelenska said.

“The abducted children were told that they are no longer Ukrainian children, that they are Russian children.”

Read more.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) has said that a crowdfunded “people’s satellite” had a role in the September 13 attacks on Sevastopol, near Crimea.

“Exactly one year ago, on September 20, 2022, volunteers handed over the ICEYE spacecraft to the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Throughout this year, the ‘people’s satellite’ has brought many benefits in our fight for freedom – its capabilities allow us to receive intelligence data critical for combat operations and burn tons of enemy deadly equipment every day,” the agency said in a statement.

“ICEYE, for example, played a very important role in the attack on Sevastopol Bay on September 13, 2023, when the Russian amphibious assault ship Minsk and the submarine Rostov on Don were destroyed,” the agency added.

More than a dozen European states, as well as Australia and Canada, have asked the World Court to decide it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Kyiv alleging that Russia abused the Genocide Convention to provide a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine brought the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest UN court for disputes between states, days after Russia launched a full-scale war on its smaller neighbour on February 24 last year.

Germany told judges the countries “strongly believe” the court has jurisdiction. German representative Wiebke Ruckert said her country had a strong interest in how the genocide treaty was interpreted “not least in view of our past”.

Ukraine’s parliament has passed an amended bill on asset declarations on Wednesday after a previous text passed by the chamber was vetoed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a lawmaker said.

The lawmaker, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said 341 lawmakers had voted for the bill, representing a large majority.

China is ready to continue business cooperation with Russia, China’s foreign minister tells Putin during their meeting in St Petersburg.

Wang is on a four-day tour of Russia, seeking to deepen ties and also discuss arrangements prior to Putin’s landmark visit to China in October.

Putin has formally accepted an invitation to visit China in October, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reports.

It would be Putin’s first known trip abroad since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him over the deportation of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin denies the war crime allegations.

News of Putin’s visit was released on the same day he hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for talks in St Petersburg.

Moscow and Beijing’s close ties have made the West wary. Beijing has not publicly condemned Moscow’s actions in Ukraine but has sent a peace envoy to Russia, Ukraine and European countries to find a “political settlement” to end the crisis.

Russia has downed several drones near Sevastopol, the largest city in Russian-annexed Crimea, according to the RIA Novosti state news agency.

The Kremlin has said Ukrainian forces have been launching drones in the region and Russia has been successfully downing them.

Ukrainian air attacks inside Russia have increased since the first reported drone attack against the Kremlin was averted in early May.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu has visited an exhibition organised by Iran’s aerospace forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, according to his ministry.

“During the show, Sergey Shoigu got acquainted with missile weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] as well as Iranian-made air defence systems,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

“In particular, tactical missile systems were demonstrated as well as long- and medium-range ballistic missiles. In addition, the exhibition includes captured American-made UAVs,” the ministry added.

While in Iran, Shoigu said the “interaction between Moscow and Tehran is reaching a new level”.

The West has accused Iran of supplying drones to aid Russia in its war in Ukraine. But Russia has denied using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. Iran, meanwhile, has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but says it did so before Russia’s widely condemned invasion in February 2022.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, says one civilian was killed due to Ukraine’s repeated shelling in the village of Maksimovka in Shebekinsky.

“The man was driving along the highway when the shell arrived. He died on the spot from his wounds. I express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” Gladkov said in a statement on Telegram.

“Another man was injured; he was also moving along the highway at the time of the shooting. The victim has shrapnel wounds to the abdominal cavity and upper extremities,” he added.

The Kremlin says Russia wants to expand ties with North Korea in all possible areas.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was replying to a question from reporters about last week’s visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Russia’s Far East, where he held talks with President Vladimir Putin.

At their meeting, Kim pledged his full support to Putin and supported Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

“North Korea is one of the few countries to publicly support Russia in its invasion and war in Ukraine. Now Kim has stated that he considers this war a righteous endeavour, and he also said that North Korea is ready to stand with Russia against imperialism,” said Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi, reporting from Seoul.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi for talks in St Petersburg, according to the Kremlin.

Earlier, the Kremlin also said Putin would visit Beijing in October for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Beijing and Moscow’s budding relationship has made the West wary. According to a Reuters report, at the UN Security Council, EU Council President Charles Michel will ask China directly to do more to push Russia towards “just peace” in Ukraine.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, has said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine’s continuous shelling of three settlements in the region has cut power supplies.

“The village of Golovchino, Grayvoronsky urban district, came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There were no casualties. But damage of varying degrees was detected in 4 private households, one car and a mini tractor. The power supply to one of the households was also disrupted,” he said.

“Cannon artillery was also fired at the village of Maksimovka, Shebekinsky urban district. There is a direct hit on a private residential building. The woman, the owner of this house, was injured,” Gladkov added.

China says it is willing to work with Russia and also Mongolia to deepen cooperation, promote regional prosperity and stability, and share the outcome of regional development, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said.

Wang made the comments at a high-level security affairs consultation in Moscow with delegates from Russia and Mongolia.

Earlier, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet China’s Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing in October. The visit will be Putin’s first known international trip since an arrest warrant was issued against him over the deportation of children from Ukraine.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, has warned Ukraine that if the grain conflict escalates further then Warsaw could issue import bans on more of Kyiv’s agricultural products, according to a report by Polish state news agency PAP.

Ukraine has filed a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary over banning grain and some other food products. But Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava say the bans are needed to protect their domestic farmers.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence says the recent redeployment of Russia’s airborne forces from the eastern city of Bakhmut to Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine “have likely weakened Russia’s defences around Bakhmut”.

In a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the ministry added that while Ukraine has had tactical success in the Bakhmut area, “Russia continues to hold the railway line which runs along an embankment between Klishchiivka and the T 05-13 [road], creating a readily defendable obstacle.”

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 20 September 2023.

Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/zM33VFupoe

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/VWdtEUc6w9

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 20, 2023

Here’s a list of the latest key developments on the 574th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Discussions of the conflict also dominate the United Nations General Assembly in New York with Zelenskyy due to face off with top Russian officials at the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday – the first time that has happened since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

European Council President Charles Michel will ask China directly at the UN Security Council to do more to push Russia towards a “just peace” in Ukraine, according to his draft speech at the UN.

At a Security Council meeting to be held on Wednesday during the annual high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Michel will call for “a just peace that respects the UN Charter and its core principles — the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation”, according to the Reuters news agency.

Michel will then turn directly to the Chinese delegation to say: “As responsible nations, let’s join forces – to persuade Russia to end this criminal war that is hurting so many,” the draft says.

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng is in New York for the annual UNGA gathering and is currently expected to attend the meeting of the 15-member council on Beijing’s behalf.

China has previously abstained from UN votes demanding that Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

A fire at a fuel tank near an airport in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi has been extinguished, Reuters news agency reported quoting the city’s mayor.

“There were no casualties,” Alexei Kopaigorodskyi was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“The airport and the entire transport system are operating as normal.”

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but authorities in Sochi are investigating, the report said.

⚡️A large diesel fuel reservoir owned by #Rosneft has caught fire in #Sochi. An explosion occurred around 05:00, followed by a fire. Local Telegram channels report a drone strike. pic.twitter.com/qnDWDZMJ7f

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) September 20, 2023

Ukraine’s air defence systems have shot down 17 out of 24 drones that Russia launched at Ukraine overnight, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces says.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to make another appearance on the second day of the UN General Assembly.

According to reports, Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the “maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine”.

On Tuesday, he addressed the General Assembly, calling on world leaders to show unity in the face of Russia’s continued “aggression” and accusing Moscow of “weaponising” food and energy.

Russia has struck the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region of central Ukraine in an overnight drone attack, causing a fire, according to Governor Dmytro Lunin.

Refinery operations have been temporarily stopped, Lunin said, adding that there was no information about casualties.

The refinery has been attacked repeatedly by Russia since it invaded Ukraine last year.