Russia-Ukraine updates: Lavrov rails against the West in UNGA address

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded two Polish volunteers state awards during a stopover, but did not meet any officials as relations between the two countries are strained over grain imports.

On Saturday, on his way back home from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he handed awards to Bianka Zalewska, a journalist who helped transport wounded children to Polish hospitals, and Damian Duda, who gathered a medical team to help wounded soldiers near the front line.

Zelenskyy thanked all Poles who “from the first days opened their families, their homes, opened themselves up and helped”.

“I believe that any challenges on our common path are nothing compared to the fact that there is such strength between our people”.

One of the award recipients, Duda, told Reuters that Zelenskyy was very informal at the meeting, like an old friend.

“For us, politics are not important, what is important to us is to help people who need it,” Duda said.

Lavrov says he will visit Pyongyang next month to continue negotiations with his counterpart off the back of recent agreements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Moscow, Reuters reported.

Putin accepted an invitation to visit North Korea earlier this month after the two leaders held their first face-to-face summit in four years.

The talks in Russia have raised concern in the United States and elsewhere that Kim might be prepared to sell arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine, perhaps in exchange for technology that would further his military ambitions.

Western powers through their support to Ukraine have effectively entered direct war against Moscow, Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations.

“You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us. We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn’t change things,” he said.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Ukraine’s proposed peace plan, as well as the latest UN proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative, were “not realistic.”

Lavrov spoke at a news conference after speaking at the UN headquarters in New York.

“It is completely not feasible,” he said of a 10-point peace blueprint promoted by Kyiv. “It is not possible to implement this. It’s not realistic and everybody understands this, but at the same time, they say this is the only basis for negotiations.”

The conflict would be resolved on the battlefield if Kyiv and its Western allies stick to that stance, he added.

Commenting on Moscow’s decision to leave the Black Sea grain initiative, he said the latest UN proposals to revive that export corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products were “simply not realistic” and that promises made to Russia – including on removing sanctions on a Russian bank and reconnecting it to the global SWIFT system – had not been met.

Russia’s foreign minister has accused Western nations of provoking crises in the food and energy markets by imposing “unilateral coercive measures” – or sanctions – on weaker nations.

“We continue to insist on a swift and full cessation of the US’s unprecedented and inhumane blockade of Cuba and the lifting of the absurd decision to declare Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism,” he said, adding Venezuela and Syria to the list of unfairly targeted nations.

He added the tool had been used by the US to “punish those they don’t like”. Washington has also imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in order to degrade Moscow’s military following its invasion of Ukraine.

The February 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered trade disruptions and significant increases in international prices for energy, agricultural commodities, and fertiliser, which were already elevated due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lavrov has taken aim at the United States during his speech at the UN General Assembly, saying Washington and its allies are “doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order”.

“The US and its subordinated collective continue to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims,” Lavrov said.

“They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centred rules.”

He urged Western leaders to re-read the UN charter, which underscores the “sovereign equality of states large and small irrespective of their form of government”.

In his address to the United Nation’s General Assembly, Lavrov accused Americans and Europeans of failing to keep “all sorts of promises”, including legally binding ones, and of exercising “quasi-colonial methods of subjugation.”

“Our future is being shaped by a struggle, a struggle between the global majority, in favour of a fair distribution of global benefits… and the few who wield near-colonial methods of subjugation in order to maintain their dominance, which is slipping through their fingers,” Russia’s foreign minister said.

“The collective West has … long rejected the principle of equality, looking down to the rest of the world,” he said, adding that Western countries did not keep their promises, including a NATO pledge not to expand eastwards towards Russia.

“As [Russian President Vladimir] Putin pointed out, the West is the one who is truly an empire of lies,” he added.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent, says Lavrov’s speech was a “tour around the world of Russia’s views” with no real mention of Ukraine, except for a few brief remarks.

“What was interesting was that there was no specific section about the war in Ukraine,” Bays said. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to do that in a few minutes, because he’s going straight from the General Assembly podium to a press briefing.”

Lavrov said a few countries were still practising “colonial methods” and claimed Russia was misled by NATO at the end of the Cold War when it gave guarantees that it would not expand eastward.

Representatives from 57 companies have visited a military base in the Dutch town of Vredepeel to present their systems to the NATO brass.

The systems they offer are designed to counter threats ranging from off-the-shelf drones available to the public to the Iranian Shahed drones used by Russia’s forces.

“The best way to kill a Shahed is a jet”, meaning a jet-propelled drone, according to Ludwig Fruhauf, head of DDTS, a German firm specialised in anti-drone defences.

Fruhauf told AFP that signal “jamming” would be a solution, sending the device off-course rather than capturing it.

In some cases, the best method is to catch or redirect the drone. Argus Interception, another German company, has developed a sort of “fishing net” to be used against enemy devices.

Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, says Ukraine’s military intelligence confirmed at least nine dead and 16 wounded following Friday’s attack in Sevastopol.

At least two senior generals were wounded, while the fate of the head of the Russian Black Sea navy, Viktor Sokolov, remained unknown, Basravi said.

The reporter added that residents in Crimea were clamouring for the last spots in air-raid shelters as Ukrainian attacks breached Russia’s defences.

“Four or five areas in Crimea are being targeted, but the primary target is the [navy’s] headquarters,” he said.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America that at least nine people were killed and 16 injured as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday.

He claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.

Budanov’s claim could not be independently verified, and he did not comment on whether Western-made missiles were used in Friday’s attack.

A year has passed since explosions rocked the Nord Stream pipelines, cutting off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and fuelling geopolitical tensions already at a fever pitch after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

However, despite official investigations in three countries, the question of who is responsible for the act of sabotage remains unanswered.

Read the story here.

Daniel Hawkins, reporting from Moscow, said “both sides have remained tight-lipped about their own casualties” in Crimea, “downplaying their numbers and significance and playing up the numbers and significance on the other side”.

“Russia confirmed that a service member was killed in the attack, initially we had heard that six people were injured from media reports in the area,” Hawkins told Al Jazeera. “That’s about all we know so far.”

He added that the attacks on Crimea were likely to be “very concerning” for Moscow due to the presence of its Black Sea Fleet, “a symbol of Russian naval power projected across the globe”, and the peninsula’s strategic importance in controlling the passage of Ukrainian grain and targeting key positions.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani will visit Moscow in the next few weeks, an Iraqi foreign ministry statement quoted Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as saying during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he held an impromptu meeting in Ireland’s Shannon airport with the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and that they discussed Russia-funded armed groups.

“We discussed our common security challenges, namely the activities of illegal armed groups financed by Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

He thanked Sudan, which is currently in the midst of a deadly civil war, for its support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has operated in Ukraine throughout Moscow’s invasion. Western diplomats and media have said the group is also present in Sudan, although Wagner denied this.

Hanna Shelest, a security analyst with the Ukrainian Prism NGO, says Kyiv’s attacks on Crimea are important for its strategy and morale.

The attacks of Ukraine in the last two weeks clearly demonstrate that Russian forces are not almighty and they can be countered, she told Al Jazeera.

“From the strategic point of view, it [the attack] is also important,” she said.

Shelest added that the majority of the attacks on Ukraine’s southern region come from Crimea, and moves to diminish the capabilities there are strategically important.

Poland’s prime minister has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to never “insult” Poles again, using harsh rhetoric towards Kyiv over a simmering dispute between the two countries about Ukrainian grain imports.

Zelenskyy angered his neighbours in Warsaw – a key military ally against Russia – when he told the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week that Kyiv was working to preserve land routes for its grain exports amid a Russian blockade of the Black Sea, but that “political theatre” around grain imports was helping Moscow’s cause.

Read more here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, together with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, has expressed “serious concern” over the discussion of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

Blinken, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa agreed to respond firmly to any acts that threaten regional security in violation of UN Security Council resolution in a brief meeting on Friday, the ministry said in a statement.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un made a weeklong visit to Russia last week and discussed military cooperation with President Vladimir Putin.

US and South Korean officials have expressed concern that the summit was aimed at allowing Russia to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for its war in Ukraine.

Kyiv’s army has broken through Russian lines in southern Ukraine, making progress in the Zaporizhia region, the general leading the offensive there has told the US media.

“On the left flank [near the village of Verbove] we have a breakthrough and we continue to advance further,” General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy told CNN.

He acknowledged the advance had been slower than Ukraine hoped, adding: “Not as fast as it was expected, not like in the movies about the second world war.”

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive to claw back territory from Russian forces in June.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, told worried residents to remain calm, saying the military is targeting missile attacks on the occupied territory.

Russian air-defence systems “responded” and missile debris has been scattered over the main city of Sevastopol, he wrote on Telegram.

Air sirens are sounding and a smoke screen has been deployed over the city, social media reports said.

“I see your messages on social networks regarding shelters in Sevastopol. We earnestly ask everyone: stop sowing panic and pleasing our enemies with this. Panic is their main goal,” said Razvozhaev.

Norwegian police have arrested a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion that he tried to illegally cross the border back into Russia after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year, according to the man’s lawyer.

Andrei Medvedev, who escaped Russia in January via its Arctic border with Norway, has described running as Russian guards fired shots at him. He has spoken about his time fighting in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group.

Police said in a statement late on Friday that a man in his 20s had been taken into custody for attempting to illegally cross the Russian border, but did not name him.

An officer with the Finnmark local police declined to give the arrested man’s identity, according to the Reuters news agency.

Crossing the border to Russia is allowed only at designated points.

The use of heavy weapons supplied by the West in the fierce battle raging on the outskirts of eastern Bakhmut region is inflicting a significant toll on enemy lines, Ukrainian commanders have told the Reuters news agency.

Buoyed after the capture last week of the key village of Klishchiivka, Ukrainian troops have lauded the 155mm howitzers as key equipment being provided by the United States and its NATO allies.

Unit commander Oleksandr said Ukraine’s armed forces “very much rely” on heavy artillery, including the Polish-made Krab gun and the US-made M109 self-propelled howitzer.

“Even one gun can completely turn the situation around. An attack can be stopped with one such gun,” he said.

Pavel Felgenhauer, a defence analyst, says Ukraine’s recent strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters and similar attacks create a significant “psychological effect” in Moscow.

Felgenhauer told Al Jazeera from Moscow that angry statements coming from Russian “military society hierarchy in Russia” showed this effect.

He said both Ukraine and Russia need more weapons in the war, but the world arms market is not really equipped for this.

“The global defence industry in the West and the East is not prepared for such consumption of weapons,” the analyst said.

“It means that there will be a crunch further on … Both sides will begin to run out of ammunition,” he added.

US President Joe Biden has informed Zelenskyy that Washington will provide Kyiv with ATACMS long-range missiles, according to NBC News, which cited three US officials and a congressional official.

Kyiv has repeatedly asked the Biden administration for Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to help attack and disrupt supply lines, airbases and rail networks in Russian-occupied territory.

Read more here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered his nation’s thanks to Canada for its assistance in the war against Russia.

Zelenskyy made his remarks in a speech to the Parliament in Canada, where the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been one of the most vocal supporters of Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion of February 2022.

Since the beginning of 2022, Canada has committed more than 8 billion Canadian dollars ($5.9bn) in aid to Ukraine, including about 1.8 billion Canadian dollars in military assistance.

“Canadian support for Ukraine with weapons and equipment has allowed us to save thousands of lives,” said Zelenskyy, making his first visit to Canada since the start of the war.

The Russian-installed head of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea has warned of new Ukrainian missile strikes after Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters was targeted.

“Attention! Missile danger!” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. “Close your windows properly and stay away from them.”

He also asked commuters to get out of cars and public transport and seek shelter in a safe place.

A Russian-installed official of Crimea says the peninsula’s internet services were interrupted during the Ukrainian attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters.

The peninsula was simultaneously hit by an “unprecedented cyberattack” on its internet providers, said Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Crimea governor.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, says there are two options for the future of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – voluntary or forced “self-neutralisation”.

If it did not choose the voluntary option, it “will be sliced up like a salami”, he said on X.

“The process is painful, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine conduct precision strikes exclusively on military infrastructure,” he said.

There are two options for the future of russia’s Black Sea fleet: voluntary or forced self-neutralization. The best and safest way to preserve the integrity of the property-economic complex of the city of Akhtiar (old name – sevastopol) and the surrounding areas is voluntary…

— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) September 22, 2023

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi in Kyiv reports Ukraine’s air force targeted the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea at the time of a high-level military meeting.

According to Ukrainian officials, the attack was carried out after timely intelligence was gathered from the ground about the meeting.

Russia has not commented on Ukraine’s military statements.

Ukraine says dozens were killed or wounded – including “senior Russian navy commanders” – when it launched a missile barrage at Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol on Friday.

“The details of the attack will be revealed as soon as possible and the result is dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including senior fleet commanders,” the Ukrainian army said.

The strike happened when “a meeting of the Russian navy’s leadership” was ongoing, it added.

No immediate response from Russia to the claims was available.

Crimea has served as the key hub supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Sevastopol, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has had particular importance for navy operations since the start of the war.

Russia’s Defence Ministry says one serviceman is missing after the attack on its naval headquarters in occupied Crimea.

The ministry revised an earlier statement that the man was killed, adding multiple Ukrainian missiles were destroyed during the attack.

The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been a frequent target since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost 19 months ago.

Ukraine says missile strikes inflicted a number of casualties among Russian forces at Moscow’s naval headquarters in occupied Crimea.

Kirill Budanov, head of the Central Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, said at least nine people were killed in the attack on Friday.

Budanov said 16 people were also wounded, including Russian generals, according to a report by the Voice of America.