August 31, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Demands by the leadership of Poland and the Baltic states for the withdrawal of Wagner Group mercenaries from Belarus are "unreasonable and stupid," President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday.  

Lukashenko added that Poland and the Baltic states should not have "a single foreign military officer or soldier on their territory. "Only in this case they have the right to protest against the presence of the military from other countries here," Lukashenko said, according to BelTa. "Otherwise, these are unreasonable and stupid demands."

Lukashenko condemned the decision by Poland in April to suspend its Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty obligations in relation to Belarus. “This is already a dangerous step, and we should keep reminding Poland's leadership about this – so that their decisions won't come back to hurt them,” he said.  

However, Lukashenko said Belarus is ready to restore good relations with its neighbors but lamented the lack of willingness on their part. 

Lukashenko’s latest comments come as the security situation in the region has become increasingly tense, due to the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus, following the group's short-lived rebellion in Russia. 

On Monday, Poland and the Baltic states pledged to shut their borders with Belarus if a “critical incident” occurs, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said. 

Earlier in August, Poland announced it would move around 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus, while Lithuania said it would temporarily suspend operations at two checkpoints at the border due to concerns over Wagner. 

In July, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the situation along the eastern border has now become "even more dangerous," as more than 100 Wagner fighters had moved closer to a strategic stretch of Polish territory lying between Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

He also said Wagner mercenaries may try to pose as migrants in order to cross from Belarus into Poland, in an effort to destabilize NATO's eastern flank. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia is ready to return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative as soon as what Moscow claims to be promises become concrete guarantees.

Russia withdrew from the initiative in July, nearly a year after it was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to guarantee safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and help facilitate Russian exports of grain and fertilizer.

Russia has persistently complained that benefits due under the agreement never materialized.

Speaking in Moscow after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Lavrov said that "we conveyed to our Turkish partners our understanding of what needs to be done in the West, first of all, to restore the viability of this initiative."

"President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly, officially and clearly said that as soon as measures are taken — not on negotiations on the Russian part of the Black Sea package, but measures to solve all those problems that have remained unfulfilled, despite the promises of the UN secretary general, whose efforts we appreciate — but as soon as the talks turn into a concrete decision on the same day, we are ready to resume the Ukrainian part of the grain package," Lavrov said. 

"I can only confirm that as soon as there are not promises, but guarantees — with a concrete result that can be put into practice tomorrow — the implementation of this package will resume in full," he added.

The Russian foreign minister said he and Fidan had also discussed Putin's initiative to organize "deliveries of up to a million tonnes of Russian grain to Turkey at a reduced price for processing at Turkish enterprises and shipment to the most needy countries in the world." Lavrov said Qatar was prepared to help finance the initiative.

More context on the grain deal: The Black Sea initiative has been significant in stabilizing global food markets since the war started in February last year, particularly for poorer countries relying more heavily on grain supplies from the region.

Before the war, Ukraine was the fifth-largest wheat exporter globally, accounting for 10% of exports, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Ukraine is also among the world’s top three exporters of barley, maize and rapeseed oil, according to Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data firm.

The deal had allowed for the export of almost 33 million metric tons of food through Ukrainian ports, according to UN data.

CNN's Anna Cooban contributed reporting to this post.

On her last day as United Nations Security Council president, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia "did their best (but) they failed" in disrupting goals in August during the US rotation. 

Russia "tried to obstruct the work of the council," she said, adding that "they are isolated in their obstruction."

She said she expects "intense pressure" on Russia to remove its troops from Ukraine during the high-level General Assembly week in mid-September.

The US envoy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "may be here," and Albania — the next country to hold the monthly council presidency — will host a council meeting on Ukraine during the week.

As Ukraine accelerates efforts to develop a sophisticated domestic weapons industry, it has welcomed the opening of an office in Kyiv by UK aerospace and weapons giant BAE Systems.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with BAE Systems CEO Charles Woodburn in Kyiv, telling him, "You are an example for other companies to develop their presence in Ukraine and develop weapons production."

Several cooperation agreements were signed to develop arms production in Ukraine in partnership with other domestic companies.

Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin, whose role includes building a defense industrial base, said BAE's commitment would help "build the future of the Ukrainian defense industry. Together with the company, we will be able to localize the production of advanced weapons."

One project will be the joint production in Ukraine of BAE's L119 light howitzer.

Ukraine has recently announced steps toward producing more of its own artillery munitions and has a rapidly expanding local drone industry.

Some background: BAE Systems (BAESF), Europe’s largest defense contractor by revenue, logged record orders worth £37 billion ($44 billion) last year, though the majority were related to programs predating the war.

CNN's Anna Cooban contributed reporting to this post.

Russian air defenses repelled drones flying toward Moscow and the southwest Bryansk region bordering Ukraine Thursday, according to officials. Kyiv appears to be again intensifying aerial attacks on Russian territory amid grueling battles on the ground.

Here are the latest developments:

Here's the latest map of control:

Ukrainian authorities have urged citizens in occupied areas not to vote in upcoming elections planned by Russian-appointed officials, adding they should "leave the region" if possible.

"Russians have started holding 'elections' to pseudo-local councils and 'legislative bodies' in the temporarily occupied territories," Ukraine's National Resistance Center (NRC), an official agency, said on Thursday.

Occupation authorities were planning "early voting" in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions through September 8 at people's homes, the NRC added. The voting will begin in Kherson and Luhansk on September 2.

Voting will then take place at polling stations between September 8 and 10. "The Russians need this long scheme to hide the turnout and the lack of interest of the locals in the 'expression of will,'" the NRC said.

The NRC also alleged that "election commission members" accompanied by Russian soldiers are going around Ukrainians' homes to identify those willing to vote, which happened in referendums last year on the status of the occupied regions in Ukraine universally dismissed as sham by Ukrainian and Western leaders.

Russian authorities in the southwestern Bryansk region bordering Ukraine have thwarted a Ukrainian sabotage operation, killing two of the alleged saboteurs and detaining five others, a local official claimed Thursday.

In a Telegram post, Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz claimed the group were armed with Western-supplied weapons and planned to strike military and energy facilities.

"The activities of a Ukrainian sabotage and terrorist group consisting of staff employees of the SBU [Ukrainian security service], military personnel of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the special forces of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were suppressed," Bogomaz said.

Russian state news agency TASS also released a video showing weapons and equipment that authorities said were seized from the group.

Ukrainian officials have declined to comment on the claims.

Two members of the Russian National Guard were injured as a result of a clash with the group of Ukrainian saboteurs, according to the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The agency quoted Valery Gribakin of the National Guard as saying: “The Russian Guards organized pursuit, blocked the enemy, and entered into battle. Despite the injuries received during the clash by two Russian Guard servicemen, two members of the Sabotage and Reconnaissance Group were eliminated, five were captured and held until the arrival of special units."

Ukrainian forces are making gradual progress in their counteroffensive against Russian defense lines in southeastern regions of the country, according to official Ukrainian accounts and Russian military bloggers.

The Ukrainian military claimed on Thursday that its units advanced towards two villages to the south and east of Robotyne, a village in Zaporizhzhia that Kyiv took last week. 

"In the Novodanylivka-Novoprokopivka direction, they have been successful, are consolidating their positions, inflicting artillery fire on the identified enemy targets, and conducting counter-battery operations," the military's General Staff said.

Combat moved to the northern outskirts of Novoprokopivka -- a small rural settlement about four kilometers (2.5 miles) south of Robotyne and close to a line of Russian fortifications, according to the 46th Brigade, which is fighting in the area.

Units were also stationed on the western edge of the village of Verbove in southeastern Ukraine, the brigade said on Telegram. Fighting was already taking place very close to Russian defensive lines, the brigade added.

"(The) Russians are constantly counterattacking and actively defending -- we are moving, squeezing out the occupiers, but a month of fighting has shown that the enemy is not going to give up the captured land -- there is a lot of work ahead."

Two Ukrainian assault groups had tried to break through the defensive line on the outskirts of Verbove "and were destroyed," the Russian-appointed official in control of occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeniy Balitsky, said.

And a well-known Russian military blogger, WarGonzo, said Ukrainian troops had advanced toward Verbove from the west but Russian units "hold the defense on the outskirts of the settlement."

Ukraine reported multiple Russian air strikes in the area, amid intense combat on the ground and the persistent use of artillery by both sides.

Russia shot down three drones over its southwestern region of Bryansk on Thursday, a local governor said, as Kyiv continues to ramp up aerial assaults on Russian territory. The Bryansk region borders both Ukraine and Belarus.

"Thanks to the vigilance of our citizens, the call center for emergency operational services received a message about a suspicious aircraft over the city of Bryansk today," Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.

Defense forces downed "three aircraft-type UAVs" using anti-drone weapons and a special carbine, he added. There were no casualties or damage to infrastructure, Bogomaz said.

Several videos appeared on social media channels on Thursday purporting to show the drones in flight.

It came a day after Russia was hit by the biggest drone assault since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.