September 11, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

After hundreds of hours of negotiations at the G20 held in New Delhi, India, representatives of the world’s richest nations accepted a watered-down declaration that stopped short of condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The final group statement said “all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition” without any explicit condemnation of Russia’s invasion.

Moscow on Sunday hailed the G20 Summit as an "unconditional success" while Kyiv said the group had "nothing to be proud of."

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Two drones were shot down by Russia's air defense forces while flying over the Belgorod region early Monday morning, according to the regional governor.

 "Our air defense system was engaged over the Yakovlevo urban district. Two aircraft-type UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were shot down. There were no casualties. Fragments of one of the drones fell on the roadway near a private residential house," Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on Telegram. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense said the interceptions occurred at about 1:20 a.m. Moscow time.

Two foreign aid volunteers have been killed and another two hospitalized in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine, Spanish and Ukrainian authorities said.

"As of now, we know for certain that Canadian citizen Anthony Ignat was killed. Unfortunately, a Spanish citizen, Emma Igual, is also likely to have been killed," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Sunday evening address. 

Emma Igual, a Spanish aid worker and director of the NGO Road to Relief and Canadian citizen Anthony Ignat were traveling in the direction of Bakhmut when their vehicle was hit by Russian shelling near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, according to Zelensky and Road to Relief.

Two other foreign volunteers, German citizen Mawik Ruben and Swedish citizen Johan Mathias Thyr, were hospitalized in Dnipro and are receiving medical care, Zelensky said.

The president said the vehicle took "a direct hit from an anti-tank missile system."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released a statement confirming the volunteers belonged to an organization called Road to Relief, which focuses on evacuating civilians from the Ukrainian frontline and is in the country in a strictly humanitarian capacity.

On Saturday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said a Spanish aid worker had been killed in eastern Ukraine after a projectile fell on the vehicle she was traveling in.

“We have verbal confirmation of her death, and we are now seeking certified confirmation from the Ukrainian authorities of her death,” the foreign minister added. 

What happened: In a post on its Instagram account, Road to Relief provided an account of the attack, saying that four team members set off from Slovyansk in the direction of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Saturday morning. 

On their way into the city of Chasiv Yar, the team’s vehicle “came under Russian attack,” the post said, adding that after being hit, the vehicle flipped over and caught fire. 

In the post, the NGO said Canadian volunteer Anthony “Tonko” Ihnat was also killed in the attack.

The remaining passengers, German medical volunteer Mawick and Swedish volunteer Thyr, have both stabilized after being “badly injured with shrapnel wounds and burns," Road to Relief said.

Russia on Sunday deemed the G20 Summit in India’s capital New Delhi an “unconditional success,” a day after the meeting’s final declaration stopped short of explicitly condemning its invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the summit was a success not just for India but “for all of us.”

The final group statement said “all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition” without singling out Russia.

In a reflection of the deep fractures among the G20 nations, the statement acknowledged “there were different views and assessments of the situation.”

Diplomats had been working furiously to draft a final joint statement in the lead-up to the summit but hit snags on language to describe the Ukraine war.

The eventual compromise statement amounted to a coup for the summit’s host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but still reflected a position far softer those the United States and its Western allies have adopted individually.

Read more here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party unsurprisingly dominated the ballot box at home and in the occupied Ukrainian territories following regional elections, state-run news agency TASS reported Sunday.

The elections were held on Saturday, despite the international community widely dismissing them as a sham.

"Incumbent and acting governors are leading in all the regional elections held in Russia, according to the data of the Central Election Commission," TASS reported. 

In the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, United Russia took home nearly 75 percent of the vote, according to the LPR electoral commission.

Some context: The elections are seen as another attempt by Moscow to enforce a narrative of Russian legitimacy in the parts of Ukraine it holds – some but not all of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk regions – even as Kyiv’s counteroffensive makes some progress toward liberating towns in the south.

Kremlin-backed candidates, some of whom are running unopposed, are widely expected to be installed after the process.

What Ukraine says: The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that the so-called elections further violated Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and the Council of Europe has labeled them “a flagrant violation of international law which Russia continues to disregard.”

The United States’ top general has warned Ukraine has just six weeks left before changing weather hampers its counteroffensive, even as Kyiv is signaling it could fight on into the winter.

“There is still a reasonable amount of time, about 30 to 45 days’ worth of fighting weather left,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the BBC on Sunday. After that, mud and rain would likely have an impact on battlefield maneuverability, he said.

In keeping with the “glass half full” messaging coming from Biden administration officials of late, Milley said the counteroffensive had achieved “very steady progress” since it began in early June.

“The Ukrainians aren’t done, this battle is not done, and they haven’t finished the fighting part of what they are trying to accomplish. It’s too early to say how this is going to end,” he said.

Reports on Sunday suggested only incremental gains around one of Ukraine’s main areas of attack, near the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region, which lies on the way to the strategic town of Tokmak.

An unofficial Telegram channel belonging to Ukraine’s 46th brigade, which has proved a reliable source of information, said troops had advanced to the east of a neighboring village, but cautioned Russian forces still held higher ground nearby, giving them an advantage.

Meanwhile, an online update from the southern ‘Tavria’ command said: “we continue to make small advances in the area of Robotyne. About 1.5 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory have been liberated,” though it did not say how long a period of time it was referring to.

Asked about his forces’ rate of advance on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Ukraine still had the initiative, but he urged a conference audience in Kyiv not to see the counteroffensive like a feature film that was all done in 90 minutes.

Read more here.

Four people were injured as a result of a night-time Russian attack on the Kyiv region, the head of the local military administration said Sunday.

“All the injured have been provided with the necessary medical assistance. One person was hospitalized with a head injury and injuries to his limbs. The others suffered minor injuries. Their lives and health are not in danger,” Ruslan Kravchenko said on Facebook.

It comes as Ukrainian air defenses downed 25 out of 32 Russian attack drones early Sunday, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.  

Air raid sirens went off just after 1 a.m. local time on Sunday in most northern regions of the country. Most of the attack drones were launched toward Kyiv, the general staff said.

"Most of the debris fell on an open, uninhabited area. Cars, trolleybus power lines, and road surfaces were damaged," said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration.

Leaders gathered for the annual Group of 20 summit showed the fractures within the group by stopping short of explicitly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a joint statement from the gathering.

Diplomats had been working furiously to draft a final joint statement in the lead-up to the summit but hit snags on language to describe the Ukraine war. The eventual compromise statement amounted to a coup for the summit’s host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but still reflected a position far softer those the United States and its Western allies have adopted individually.

US President Joe Biden was hoping to convince the world’s largest economies to rally behind Ukraine during his two-night stay in India for the summit. He also pressed his case for American investment in the developing world.

On Saturday, as the summit was still underway, the leaders agreed to the joint declaration acknowledging the situation in Ukraine while not papering over the group’s major divides.

The document also stated opposition to the use of nuclear weapons and highlighted the economic effects of the war.

In a reflection of the deep fractures among the G20 nations, the statement acknowledged “there were different views and assessments of the situation.”

The declaration earned the praise of the United States. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the statement a “significant milestone for India’s chairmanship and a vote of confidence that the G20 can come together to address a pressing range of issues.”

Still, the language differed from last year’s G20 declaration, which stated “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.”

Russia, as a member of the G20, would have to agree on any consensus statement on Ukraine. Russia and China had resisted stronger language in a final statement, making any kind of agreement difficult. No G20 summit has concluded without a joint declaration of some type.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko criticized the declaration.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s president said the example of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary leader who died in a plane crash last month, shows what happens when you try to make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Ukraine’s counteroffensive so far has resulted in only modest gains, but Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN he rejected suggestions it was time to negotiate peace with the Kremlin. 

The Wagner leader’s fiery end, after apparently receiving promises over his freedom to continue operating, just weeks after leading a revolt against Putin’s handling of the war, was a warning to be heeded, Zelensky suggested.

While the United States and other key Ukrainian allies continue to supply weapons to Kyiv, stressing that conditions to pursue a “just and durable” peace are not yet in place, several other prominent world leaders, such as Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, have put the onus on Ukraine to end the war.

Ukraine’s leader pointed to examples of other countries that have been attacked by Russian soldiers and continue to be partly occupied by Moscow, as support for his position.

“Did you see any compromise from Putin on other issues? With Georgia? With Moldova?” Zelensky asked rhetorically.