Russia's war in Ukraine

A top Kremlin official is leading Russia’s efforts to stage sham referenda in occupied parts of Ukraine, US State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Tuesday.

“Preparations for the sham referenda are being led by the first deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, Sergey Kiriyenko,” Patel said during a phone briefing. 

Kiriyenko was sanctioned in March 2021 and sanctioned again in February 2022 — two days before the Russian war in Ukraine began — in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as “independent.”

Patel reiterated that the US assesses that Russia could hold sham referenda in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and parts of Kharkiv. They “could take place in the coming weeks,” he said.

“We expect Russia to manipulate the results of these referenda in order to falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia,” he said. 

European countries bordering the Baltic Sea agreed on Tuesday to ramp up offshore wind energy seven-fold by 2030, as Europe seeks to wean itself off Russian gas supplies.  

The agreement was signed at the Baltic Sea Summit in Copenhagen, which was hosted by Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and government heads from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Organizers said the summit's aim was to strengthen the EU’s independence from Russian gas, improve energy security and boost the Baltic Sea’s offshore energy potential.

More on the agreement: Initial projects announced include a hybrid offshore wind park between Estonia and Latvia, a cross-border district heating grid between Germany and Poland and a project to produce renewable electricity in Italy, Spain and Germany for conversion, transport and use of green hydrogen in the Netherlands and Germany, according to a news release issued by the European Commission.

During a news conference following the summit, the European Commission president also addressed concerns over rising energy prices across Europe.

“The real driver for the increase of electricity prices is somewhere else, that is gas, and mainly Russian gas that has been manipulated by Putin. Putin who uses gas as a weapon and you can see that in the figures,” she said, adding the electricity market is no longer functioning because of Putin “who is systematically trying to destroy it and to manipulate it.”

These are some of the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi ahead of a planned visit this week by a delegation of the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.

As Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling the area around the plant, the European Union is donating 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets to Ukraine to safeguard people from potential radiation exposure in what the EU Commission called a “preventative safety measure.”

Ukrainian southern counteroffensive: US President Joe Biden's administration has been helping the Ukrainian military prepare for its now-ongoing counteroffensive for the last couple of months by fulfilling specific arms requests leading up to the launch this week, according to an administration official.

Ukrainian officials also said that the damage to bridges across the Dnipro river in the Kherson region means that Russian forces are unable to cross the river to assist units on the front lines further north.

Kharkiv strikes: At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in shelling of central Kharkiv — Ukraine's second-largest city — on Tuesday, according to Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional military administration. 

Rssian gas supplies: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while saying that Russia is using gas as a strategy in the war against Ukraine, assured Germans that "we can deal quite well with the threats that are coming our way" in terms of the gas supply for the coming winter months. On Aug. 19, Gazprom announced unscheduled maintenance orders onNord Stream 1 from Aug. 31-Sept. 2, which will suspend gas flow. Meanwhile, French industrial energy group Engie said that Russian gas company Gazprom will reduce its supply of gas to France, effective today.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday, according to a press officer with Zelensky’s office. 

The meeting came as Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of a planned visit by a delegation of the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, later in the week.

Zelensky told Grossi that the IAEA's mission in Ukraine is "urgent" and that Ukraine wants its team to do more than carry out an inspection at the plant.

Zelensky said that he hoped the delegation would "find an opportunity, thanks to our special services, thanks to the security corridors, to get to the station, and do the best to avoid all those threats on a global scale."

He blamed the Russian military for the "creation of great risks, regarding explosions, regarding the failure to work of the nuclear reactors, regarding the risks of disconnecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant units from our network, and regarding the risks of the heating season for our citizens." 

Zelensky urged the IAEA to do more than inspect the plant, saying that strategic decisions were required "regarding the urgent demilitarization of the station, the withdrawal of all, any, military personnel of the Russian Federation with explosives, with any kind of weapon."

Zelensky insisted that the area should become a demilitarized zone and that there should be a transition of the plant to full control of the Ukrainian state.

The Biden administration has been helping the Ukrainian military prepare for its now ongoing counteroffensive for the last couple of months by fulfilling specific arms requests, an administration official says.

Ukraine had been asking the US for weapons specifically suited to their planned southern counter offensive in the months leading up to the launch this week, the official says.

The US fulfilled many of those requests — including additional ammunition, artillery and Javelins — over the course of several presidential drawdown assistance packages provided to Ukraine over the last two months, the official said. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top US General Mark Milley have routinely talked to their Ukrainian counterparts to determine what specific weapon needs depending on Ukraine’s battlefield goals. 

All European Union member states agree on launching the “work necessary to define the parameters for a new military assistance mission for Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday. 

There are “many training initiatives on the way” for the Ukrainian military, he said after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague.

The top EU diplomat also said that the Ukrainian defense minister had shown the EU a list of short-, medium- and long-term training activities that country’s military needs. 

"We need to ensure the coherence of this effort,” he said. “It’s clear that we need to be quick and ambitious, demonstrate added value, flexibility, once again based on the needs of Ukrainian armed forces."

Ukrainian officials say that the damage to bridges across the Dnipro river in the Kherson region means that Russian forces are unable to cross the river to assist units on the front lines further north.

"The enemy is trying to pull up reserves from the Left (south) bank," Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Operational Command South, said at a briefing Tuesday.

That had proved impossible, she added, "because we carefully and precisely worked on these bridges: they are the main transport arteries across the Dnipro, they became impassable for heavy equipment." 

"They may continue to try to set up a ferry or pontoon crossing, but the whole area where it can be deployed is also under our fire control and will be hit," Humeniuk added.

There were further strikes reported on the main Antonivskiy road bridge connecting southern Kherson with Kherson city early Tuesday.

Germany would want to see Russian persecuted opposition members excluded from a possible European Union-wide visa ban for Russian citizens, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the side of a German cabinet retreat on Tuesday. 

Berlin is ready to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia and stop issuing multiple visas or multiple-years visas, Baerbock said. 

During a two-day informal gathering in Prague, EU defense and foreign ministers are considering further measures against Russia, and one proposal put forward by Eastern European countries is to ban Russian tourists from entering the EU.

The German government wants to enable "persecuted people in Russia to leave the country very quickly," Baerbock said. 

The visa opportunity should offer refuge not only for "very well-known journalists or very well-known opposition members, but we must also leave the possibility for students who have the courage at their university to inform themselves elsewhere," the minister said.

"We must prepare ourselves for the fact that Russia will continue to pose a threat to our security and our freedom in the near future and that at the same time we cannot view the entire security policy solely in terms of this Russian war of aggression,” she added. 

In a Vatican statement, Pope Francis today issued by far his strongest words yet on Russia's war in Ukraine, calling it “morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious.”

The Vatican's daily news bulletin called for everyone to pray to “rebuild peace” and the “defense of human life and the values connected to it, and not as political positions.”

In the bulletin, the Pope also responded to some of the criticism he’s faced due to his recent comments concerning the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist firebrand Alexander Dugin. 

Dugina was killed after a bomb planted in a car she was driving went off in the outskirts of Moscow on Aug. 20.

Last week, the Pope said: “I think of that poor girl who was blown up by a bomb that was under her car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay for war, the innocent.”

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) have blamed Ukrainian special services for the murder of Dugina; however, Ukraine has denied any involvement, calling the FSB claims fiction.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted last week by expressing disappointment over the Pope's statement, saying it "unjustly" equates "the aggressor and the victim."