September 22, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

European Union foreign ministers agreed in New York to push forward with a new round of sanctions against Russia, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell told reporters late Wednesday night.

The exact details on those new sanctions must still be determined, he said. The agreement reached in New York, which he said was unanimous, was a “political” one.

He said that he was confident that “unanimous agreement” would be possible for the new sanctions package.

“It’s clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukraine,” he said.

“In line with the United Nations charter, and international law, Ukraine is exercising its legitimate right to defend itself against Russian aggression, to regain full control of its territory, and has the right to liberate occupied territories within its internationally recognized borders. And for that, we will continue supporting Ukraine’s efforts, the provision of military equipment, as long as it takes.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, according to statements from both sides.

On the issue of Ukraine, Wang stressed that China would continue to “maintain its objective and impartial position” and “push for peace negotiations,” according to a readout from the Chinese Foreign Ministry released Thursday.

A summary of the meeting from Russian state media agency TASS noted that the two sides discussed subjects including Ukraine, but did not provide details on what was said about the issue, which looms large at the opening of this year's assembly.

It was unclear whether the two discussed the “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens announced by Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an address Wednesday morning Moscow time, or his endorsement of referendums on joining Russia that Russian-appointed leaders in four occupied regions of Ukraine announced they would hold this week. Both actions were decried by Ukraine and its allies.

When asked about the referendums in a regular scheduled press briefing on Wednesday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry in Beijing said China’s position on Ukraine had been “consistent and clear.” 

“China stands ready to work with members of the international community to continue to play a constructive part in de-escalation efforts,” he said, before declining to respond further when asked specifically about the mobilization. 

Some context: China has refused to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine and has decried Western sanctions on Moscow, while boosting its own purchases of Russian energy. During a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan last week, Putin praised China’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, though conceded Beijing had “questions and concerns” over the invasion.

An analysis by researchers from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) concludes that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization is unlikely to “dramatically shift the tide of the war.”

The analysis says that it will take weeks or months to bring reservists up to combat readiness, that Russian reservists are “poorly trained to begin with,” and that the “deliberate phases” of deployment outlined by Russia’s Defense Minister are likely to preclude “any sudden influx of Russian forces that could dramatically shift the tide of the war.”

“Russian mandatory military service is only one year, which gives conscripts little time to learn how to be soldiers, to begin with. The absence of refresher training after that initial period accelerates the degradation of learned soldier skills over time.”

The analysis downplays any “explicit threat” of the use of nuclear weapons by President Putin.

“Putin emphatically did not say that the Russian nuclear umbrella would cover annexed areas of Ukraine nor did he tie mobilization to the annexation,” the analysis reads.

“He addressed partial mobilization, annexation referenda in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, and the possibility of nuclear war in his speech – but as separate topics rather than a coherent whole. The fact that he mentioned all three topics in a single speech was clearly meant to suggest a linkage, but he went out of his way to avoid making any such linkage explicit.”

The ISW researchers say that they do not believe that the speech should be read “as an explicit threat that Russia would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine if Ukraine continues counter-offensives against occupied territories after annexation.”

The Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia was shelled early Thursday, a city council official has reported.

Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtiev said on his Telegram Channel that "civil infrastructure has been destroyed" and that "there are casualties." 

There have been claims of five explosions from both pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian media, but CNN cannot independently verify the claims. 

The shelling comes on the heels of a turbulent 24 hours for the region, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would back a referendum for Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia to join the Russian Federation. 

More than 1,300 people have been detained in dozens of cities across Russia in a crackdown on anti-war protests, according to the independent protest monitoring group OVD-Info.

The group said the figure includes at least 502 people in Moscow and 524 people in St Petersburg. 

Vladimir Putin can call up all the troops he wants, but Russia has no way of getting those new troops the training and weapons they need to fight in Ukraine any time soon.

With his invasion of Ukraine faltering badly, the Russian President on Wednesday announced the immediate "partial mobilization" of Russian citizens. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Russian television that the country will call up 300,000 reservists. 

If they end up facing Ukrainian guns on the front lines, they are likely to become the newest casualties in the invasion Putin started more than seven months ago and that has seen the Russian military fail at almost every aspect of modern war.

"Russia is already struggling to effectively equip its professional forces in Ukraine, following significant equipment losses during the war," Lord said.

The recent Ukrainian offensive, which has seen Kyiv recapture thousands of square meters of territory, has taken a significant toll.

The Institute for the Study of War earlier this week said analysis from Western experts and Ukrainian intelligence found Russia had lost 50% to 90% of its strength in some units due to that offensive, and vast amounts of armor.

And that comes on top of staggering equipment losses over the course of the war.

The open source intelligence website Oryx, using only losses confirmed by photographic or video evidence, has found Russian forces have lost more than 6,300 vehicles, including 1,168 tanks, since the fighting began.

But even if they did have all the equipment, weapons and motivation they need, getting 300,000 troops quickly trained for battle would be impossible, experts said.

Reforms in 2008, aimed at modernizing and professionalizing the Russian military, removed many of the logistical and command and control structures that had once enabled the forces of the old Soviet Union to rapidly train and equip vast numbers of mobilized conscripts.

Read more

Shaun Pinner is among five British nationals to be released in a Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange on Wednesday, after being held by Russian-backed proxies in eastern Ukraine for months, according to Ukraine’s Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Fellow Briton Aiden Aslin was also released as part of a prison swap deal, said the Ukrainian government institution.

Both men were sentenced to death by courts in the pro-Russian, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in June.

in what appears to be a cell-phone video, the pair are seen seated side-by-side in an airplane, discussing their release and thanking “everyone that’s been supporting us.”

"We want to let everyone know we’re now out of the danger zone and we’re on our way home to our families,” Aslin said. “By the skin of our teeth,” Pinner then interjected. 

US President Joe Biden's historic mission is now clear — shepherding the world through the most alarming nuclear brinkmanship since the darkest days of the Cold War.

All of Biden's other challenges -- from high inflation, Covid-19, climate change and the building showdown with China -- pale against the peril posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's fresh escalation of the war in Ukraine.

Putin's implied threat that he could use nuclear weapons, delivered in a speech on Wednesday -- and his warning that he was not bluffing -- made Biden's own speech at the UN General Assembly seem all the more grave.

"That should make your blood run cold," he added.

Putin's announcement of a partial national mobilization is being seen outside Russia as an admission of failure for his Ukraine operation so far, and of rising domestic political pressure. But forthcoming referendums in captured Ukrainian territory on joining Russia, that are described by the West as a sham, take the war to a tense new stage. 

If these areas do join Russia, Ukrainian attacks on them using Western arms could in theory be interpreted as an assault on the Russian motherland itself. 

This potentially makes Putin's threat to use nuclear arms to defend Russian territory a significant escalation.

The Russian leader is clearly seeking to scare Western publics and to make Washington and allied capitals think again about their support for Ukraine, which has helped turn his invasion into such a disaster. 

Putin could well be bluffing about the possible use of Russia's nuclear arsenal. But then again, maybe he's not.

RELATED

Analysis: Biden's new mission: Heading off a nuclear crisis with Russia

Pro-Kremlin Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was captured back in April, is being exchanged with Russia as part of a prisoner swap, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said 200 Ukrainian prisoners had returned home in exchange for Medvedchuk. 

Vasyl Maliuk, the acting head of the Ukrainian security service, said Medvedchuk "is not just a godfather to Putin's child, but also a documented by us as a traitor."

"Moreover, while working on the Medvedchuk case, we have neutralized multiple agent networks, detained multiple traitors, and received a lot of valuable information that we are using for counterintelligence and will bring us closer to our victory," Maliuk added.

Five Ukrainian commanders were included in the prisoner swap, as were 55 prisoners to be sent to Russia, according to Zelensky.

It's unclear whether the 55 prisoners are all Russians or pro-Russians, but Zelensky described them as people "who fought against Ukraine, and those who betrayed Ukraine." 

According to Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, a total of 215 prisoners of war have been released as part of an exchange of POWs between Russia and Ukraine, including ten foreign prisoners.

Yermak also said 10 foreigners were among those swapped.

"Based on the requests of our international partners, we have also returned 10 foreign defenders of Ukraine. These are the representatives of those countries, who assist us the most – the United States, Great Britain, Croatia, Sweden and Morocco," Yermak said.

The head of the State Property Fund, Rustem Umerov, said, "They are safe and liberated from captivity. We are currently in the Saudi Arabia capital – Riyadh. The further safe transfer is planned from here to their countries with our partners." Yermak added.

The Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (CHTPW), a government institution under the Defense Intelligence, said five British and two Americans are among the ten foreign prisoners.