September 11, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine lobbying for longer-range missiles "is not just a whim, but a real need," said Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. "The effectiveness of the army on the battlefield, as well as the lives of the military and our progress depend on it,” he added.

Ukrainian officials had been working with partners on the issue for a long time, and that Ukraine’s request for ATACMS missile was moving forward, he added.

The ATACMS is a long-range US-guided missile with a range of around 300 kilometers (186 miles). It would extend the range of Ukrainian attacks well beyond the front lines to Russian supply lines and logistics hubs. Acknowledging this missile capability, Yermak said it would "speed up" Ukraine's victory.

Ukraine is also developing its own longer-range missiles. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized the critical need for further air defense systems to protect Ukrainian ports used to export grain to the world and to prepare against expected Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and cities as winter approaches.

At a news conference in Kyiv with the visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, he said discussion on the supply of German long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been under discussion in Berlin for weeks, and expressed frustration at the delay in receiving the weapons. 

Germany is pledging an additional 20 million euros (about $21 million) in humanitarian aid for Ukraine to prepare for winter, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a surprise visit to Kyiv Monday.

Baerbock’s visited a transformer substation outside Kyiv which has seen several attacks, as it is playing a major part in the region’s electricity supply.

Ukrainian officials had urged Germany to provide Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles for the country's self-defense. “We could have achieved more and saved more lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians if we already had Taurus,“ said Kuleba, adding that there was not a single argument against the delivery of the Taurus cruise missiles from Germany.

However, Germany is hesitant about delivering long-range cruise missiles as they could be used for attacks on Russian territory.

Kuleba said Ukraine expects German companies to participate in the defense industries forum that will be held in Kyiv soon.

On the issue of sanctions against Russia, Kuleba resisted the idea of diluting them to enable a revival of the Black Sea grain initiative, as has been demanded by Russia.

“I am aware that there are some forces that support Russia's concessions in this demand,” Kuleba said, but reconnecting Russian banks to the international SWIFT payments system would allow senior Russian officials to make tens of millions of dollars.

The Kremlin has confirmed what until now had only been speculation: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia “in the coming days,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday. The US government first warned last week that Kim may travel to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin for discussions on a potential deal to supply Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.

While Peskov did not specify when the meeting would take place, multiple South Korean media outlets reported earlier Monday that Kim appeared to be on a train headed to Russia.

Here are the latest developments:

Unofficial pro-Russian sources in Donetsk region are contesting Ukrainian claims that they have established a foothold in a village north of the eastern city Donetsk.

Donbas Operatsiya ZOV, an unofficial Telegram channel, said the Ukrainians had taken a quarry near the village and positions north of it.

The channel added: “Is it bad that we screwed up the quarry? Yes, it's not good. The guys from the 1st Sloviansk Brigade are on their way to take it back.”

The comments came after Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar claimed Monday that Ukrainian units had managed to take part of Optyne village, north of Donetsk airport.

Barabash said Ukrainian soldiers had entered the village, but added that “the fighting is still ongoing. The enemy is constantly putting pressure, the enemy is constantly trying to recapture lost ground.”

He said that “at the beginning of the full-scale war, 44 people stayed in Opytne. Now there are 5-6, and we have no contact with them.”

The European Union "strongly" condemned the "illegitimate" elections held over the weekend in Russian-annexed parts of Ukraine, adding that it will not recognize their results.

Borrell urged Russia to "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its troops and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders."

"Sham" elections: Russia staged regional and local elections from September 8-10 in southern and eastern parts of Ukraine it has illegally annexed.

The elections represented another attempt by Moscow to enforce a narrative of Russian legitimacy in the parts of Ukraine it holds — areas of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk regions — even as Kyiv's counteroffensive makes some progress towards liberating towns in the south.

The international community broadly dismissed the elections as a sham.

A resident of the southern city of Melitopol told CNN "the election results are already well known" — before the vote had even been held.

Read more about the elections here.

Russia’s armed aggression “is becoming synonymous with torture and other inhuman cruelty,” according to the United Nations official responsible for investigating torture.

“These grievous acts appear neither random nor incidental, but rather orchestrated as part of a state policy to intimidate, instil fear, punish, or extract information and confessions,” Edwards said.

Edwards said she had gathered “harrowing testimonies involving electric charges being applied to ears and genitals, beatings of all kinds, mock executions at gunpoint, simulated drowning, being required to hold stress positions, threats of rape or death, and various ceremonies of ridicule and humiliation.”

Edwards also visited places in Ukraine where Russian prisoners of war are held.

“I found that sincere efforts have been made by the Ukrainian authorities to treat Russian prisoners of war respectfully. The barrack-style facilities I visited were hygienic and orderly. Prisoners were being well fed," she said.

Growing evidence: Edwards' comments came days after Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin claimed that roughly 90% of Ukrainian prisoners of war had been subjected to torture, rape and other forms of cruel treatment.

Ukraine found "evidence of these horrors in all the liberated territories," Kostin said, during a meeting with Edwards last week.

According to Ukrainian government figures, over 103,000 war crimes proceedings have been registered so far.

However, Edwards warned that there are major obstacles to bringing the alleged perpetrators to justice. The inaccessibility of presently-occupied areas, the loss of crucial evidence due to deterioration and lapse of time between the crime and liberation when investigations can begin, and adapting the criminal justice system to be able to process and prosecute international atrocity crimes, will all pose challenges to Ukrainian prosecutors.

“No one will be able to compete” with Russian President Vladimir Putin if he decides to run for reelection in 2024, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

Peskov, quoted by the state-run media Russia-24, claimed Putin “enjoys absolute support from the population.”

Preparations for the presidential elections have not yet begun in the Kremlin, Peskov said.

Russia’s next presidential election is due to be held in March 2024, with a possible second round theoretically being held in April.

In 2020, Russian lawmakers voted in favor of a last-ditch proposal to reset the clock on Putin’s presidential term count in an updated version of the constitution, in effect allowing Putin to remain as president until 2036.

Peskov's comments about the next presidential election come the day after elections were held in several annexed regions of Ukraine. These elections — expected to deliver victories for Putin's United Russia party candidates, many of whom ran unopposed — were widely dismissed as a sham by the international community.

The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative has put “the right to food far out of reach for many people.” 

Speaking at the opening of the Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, Türk said that global hunger levels have returned to as they were in 2005, with almost 600 million people projected to be “chronically undernourished” by 2030.

Türk said the planet has sufficient financial resources, technology, and land to provide “adequate food for all.”

Despite this, he continued, “climate change, the consequences of the pandemic, and Russia’s war on Ukraine” are some of the reasons behind the continued existence of global hunger and food insecurity.

“All of us need to play our part,” he added.

Some context: Ukraine, often referred to as the “breadbasket of Europe,” is a major exporter of grain, much of which is sent to developing countries in Africa. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country, its navy blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, preventing Ukraine from exporting its crops to countries in need.

The blockade remained in place for several months, before Russia agreed to the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022 – a major diplomatic breakthrough brokered by the United Nations and Turkey – which allowed the exports of grain to continue.

However, Russia allowed the deal to lapse in July of this year. It has since resumed its blockade of Ukraine’s ports – as well as launching a prolonged bombardment of Ukraine’s port infrastructure and grain storage facilities.

Ukrainian forces have regained control of oil and gas drilling platforms off the north-west coast of Crimea, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (DI) said Monday.

The platforms, known as the Boyko Towers, have been controlled by Russia since soon after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Ukraine’s DI said the Towers had been used by the Russians as helicopter landing sites and for the deployment of radar equipment.

“During the operation, the special forces managed to capture valuable trophies: a stockpile of helicopter munitions of the UAM type (unguided aircraft missiles), as well as the Neva radar, which can track the movement of ships in the Black Sea,” DI said.

Noting clashes for control of the Towers last month, the UK Defense Ministry said that they could serve “as advanced bases for force deployment, helicopter pads, and sites for the placement of long-range missile systems.”