September 6, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Romania's defense minister, Angel Tilvar, has confirmed that parts of a Russian drone may have fallen on Romanian territory after it had targeted a Ukrainian port on the River Danube, which runs along the border between the two countries.

Tilvar spoke with CNN’s Romanian affiliate A3CNN while visiting the area Wednesday.

“We have covered a very large area, including the area that has been publicly discussed, and I confirm that in this area pieces that may be from a drone were found,” he told reporters in Tulcea. The wreckage will be taken for further analysis.

The defense ministry had initially denied reports earlier this week that parts of a Russian drone had fallen on the Romanian side of the Danube.

Ukraine's Danube ports have come under heavy and prolonged Russian bombardment in recent weeks, as Moscow targets Ukraine's grain storage facilities and infrastructure after allowing the Black Sea grain deal to lapse in July.

Many of the strikes have landed just across the border from Romania, a NATO member. Romania's defense ministry condemned an attack earlier this week “in the strongest possible terms,” calling it “unjustified and in deep contradiction with the rules of international humanitarian law.”

There were further drone attacks on the Ukrainian side of the river in the early hours of Wednesday, one of them killing an agricultural worker, according to a Ukrainian official.

Editor's note: The headline and first line of this post have been updated to better characterize officials' statements.

Commenting on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the United States has expressed its commitment to continue keeping Ukraine in a state of war “until the last Ukrainian.”

Peskov added that this would not alter the course of the war.

The Ukrainian parliament has approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the new defense minister.

Umerov, a Crimean Tatar, was formerly chairman of the State Property Fund, whose mission is to attract investment into Ukraine.

He replaces Oleksii Reznikov, whose long tenure – he had been in the post since before the full-scale war started – had been damaged by contract scandals involving the defense ministry.

Reznikov submitted his resignation on Monday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy cited the need for "new approaches," with the conflict entering a critical phase.

Ukrainian officials are cautiously optimistic that the next line of Russia’s defensive fortifications on the southern front may be easier to penetrate than the first, which were shrouded by dense minefields.

Geolocated video over recent days indicates that Ukrainian units have made limited progress beyond the village of Robotyne, as they seek to expand a pocket of territory reclaimed in the last few weeks.

Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the south, told Ukrainian television on Monday that in breaching the second line of Russian defenses, Ukrainian units “will benefit from the fact that the network of trenches, dugouts, and overlaps there is not as strong as on the first line.”

However, Shtupun urged caution, stressing that the second line of defenses “is quite powerful.”

The Ukrainian military reported Wednesday that Russian units had tried to counterattack near the village of Robotyne, which fell to Ukrainian forces late in August, but had been repelled.

Ukrainian forces said that units had been successful in consolidating their positions, inflicting artillery fire on enemy targets and conducting counter-battery operations. 

Independent analysts assess that Ukrainian forces continue to make progress in a square-shaped pocket of territory south and east of Robotyne, toward the town of Tokmak. But both sides have reported intense artillery fire and widespread destruction of settlements in the area, which has reduced the village of Robotyne to ruins.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted the "good progress" Ukraine has made in its counteroffensive, as he met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv on Wednesday.

In brief remarks at the foreign ministry, Kuleba said he was “looking forward to a productive, result-oriented conversation with you [Blinken].”

Blinken said that on his third visit since the Russian invasion, he was again “struck by the extraordinary bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian forces, Ukraine's leadership."

"And I'm here, first and foremost, to demonstrate our ongoing and determined support for Ukraine as it deals with this aggression," he said.

He said: “We're also determined to continue to work with our partners as they build and rebuild a strong economy, a strong democracy.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Kyiv on what is his third trip to the Ukrainian capital since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year.

The visit comes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive moves into its fourth month, with both political and military leaders in Kyiv talking up recent gains, especially in the south of the country, following growing concerns the concerted push on the battlefield has failed to produce results.

Blinken’s first stop Wednesday, after a brief visit to the US embassy, was at a military cemetery, where he laid a wreath in honor of Ukraine’s fallen soldiers. Later, he is scheduled to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, from whom he can expect a first-hand report of Ukraine’s efforts to regain land around the eastern city of Bakhmut – the Ukrainian leader visited with his troops there on Tuesday.

The visit by the US’s top diplomat is an opportunity for the United States and Ukraine to align ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later this month, a senior state department official told reporters traveling with Blinken.

While some US officials have been privately critical of Ukraine’s counteroffensive strategy, the official would not delve into specifics other than to say that now is the right time to “come and assess” how the counteroffensive is going.

Read more here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv Wednesday for meetings with key Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. 

His trip comes as Ukraine's counteroffensive has been going slower than hoped.

Blinken is also expected to announce more than $1 billion in new funding for Ukraine, according to a senior State Department official.

Kyiv was targeted by Russian missiles overnight, which were intercepted, according to the city’s military administration. 

Blinken arrived in Kyiv Wednesday morning after making an overnight journey by train from Poland, in common with almost all high-profile visitors to war-torn Kyiv, including US President Joe Biden, who took the ride in February.

It is his third visit to Ukraine’s capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In April 2022 he made the trip with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, just a few weeks after Russian forces had withdrawn from areas immediately to the north of the Kyiv. His second trip was in September last year as Ukraine’s first big counteroffensive was underway in the Kharkiv region.

According to the State Department, Blinken also briefly went into Ukraine in March 2022, when he met on the border with Kuleba.

The United Kingdom is set to classify Russian mercenary group Wagner as a terrorist organization, giving officials the power to prosecute its members and seize assets.

In a statement Wednesday, the UK Home Office said Home Secretary Suella Braverman has put a draft order before Parliament to proscribe the Wagner Group, which will come into effect on September 13.

Once passed, the order will render it “illegal to be a member or support Wagner Group and punishable by up to 14 years in jail,” and allow the government to seize Wagner's assets, the statement said.

Some context: The future of the Wagner Group remains uncertain following the death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash last month. Most security experts doubt Wagner can survive without Prigozhin, posing major questions about what will happen to the group’s fighters, weapons and operations.

Russian forces "tactically left" the southeastern village of Robotyne after losing control of it to Ukrainian troops, a Moscow-backed official said Tuesday.

The Ukrainians breached Russian defenses near the village and are now focusing on expanding their gains in the area, CNN reported earlier.

Speaking on local television, the Russia-appointed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeniy Balitskiy, said Robotyne "almost no longer exists as a result of quite large and prolonged fighting."

Holding the bare ground where the village used to be is "not expedient," so Russian forces withdrew to the hills where they enjoy height advantage, Balitskiy added.

Some context: Much has been made of the strategic importance of Robotyne for Ukraine’s three-month-long southern counteroffensive and the remains of what was a village of 500 before the war continue to be pounded day and night.

Ukrainian efforts are now focused on widening the bridgehead near the village, with fighting near Verbove, a few kilometers to the east, according to Ukrainian sources.