Ukraine war: Kyiv claims success in counteroffensive as Musk accused of aiding Russia

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked and singled out military units in the east and south for their actions against Russian troops in his nightly address as other officials reported some breakthroughs in a counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-occupied territory.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces described a “partial success” near the eastern city of Bakhmut, long a focal point of fighting.

Mr Zelensky provided few details of operations. “Thank you soldiers for very, very effective results in destroying the occupiers,” he said. “And results are precisely what Ukraine needs now from everyone.”

Ukrainian troops were making gradual progress in their southward advance to the Sea of Azov, the armed forces said.

The general staff report said: “As a result of its assault operations, the defence forces have achieved a partial success south of Bakhmut, pushing the enemy out of and reinforcing their own positions.”

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar told national television that Ukrainian forces were pressing their drive near southward from the village of Robotyne, captured last week.

Maliar said that on the southern front, where Ukrainian forces are trying to sever a land bridge established by Russia between the Crimean peninsula Russia annexed in 2014, and the occupied east, “events are developing rapidly.”

Russian accounts of the fighting said their troops had beaten back Ukrainian attacks near Bakhmut.

A Russian missile slammed into a police building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, killing a policeman and injuring many more people, interior minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed.

The police administrative building was destroyed and rescue workers pulled several people out of the rubble after the attack on president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

He put the number of wounded at 25. In a later update, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said about 40 had been wounded.

“A policeman was killed as a result of a Russian attack,” Klymenko said in an Telegram post accompanied by photos showing a building that had been reduced to rubble and rescue workers carrying away a man on a stretcher.

The discovery of drone debris on Romanian territory this week has left some local residents fearing that the war in neighboring Ukraine could spread into their country, as Russian forces bombard Ukrainian ports just across the Danube River from NATO-member Romania.

Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets with a sustained campaign of attacks targeting Ukrainian Danube ports, and has attacked the port of Izmail four times this week, Ukrainian officials say.

Across from Izmail, pieces apparently from a drone were found near the Romanian village of Plauru, Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilvar said Wednesday. It was unclear if Romanian authorities had determined when or from where the drone was launched, and Tilvar said the debris didn’t pose a threat, but the development has left citizens in the European Union nation feeling uneasy.

Daniela Tanase, 46, who lives in Plauru with her husband and son, told The Associated Press that the drone strikes on Izmail this week have woken her up, and that villagers “are scared” of the persistent Russian attacks.

“In the first phase (of the war) things were calmer, but now it has come to our territory,” she said. But added: “For now, we haven’t thought of leaving the area — we hope it will pass.”

The strikes are now daily and on Tuesday the Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed two drones over the Kaluga and Tver regions, which border the Moscow region, as well as one closer to the capital, over the Istra district.

A map reveals where the most recent strikes have hit. Maryam Zakir-Hussain reports:

China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing will visit Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 10-12, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

A Russian missile attack killed one person and injured nine others in Kryvyi Rih, the home city of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the regional governor said.

Oleh Lysak said on Telegram that the missile hit an administrative building in the southern Ukrainian city on Friday morning.

The Russian embassy in the US has defended elections taking place in occupied parts of Ukraine including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

It comes after Antony Blinken, the US state secretary, condemned them as “sham elections” and “illegitimate”. And earlier this week, the UK’s Ministry of Defence reported Moscow had handpicked candidates, meaning the elections would be “unfree”

Vladimir Putin is “determined” to destroy Ukraine and assimilate its citizens into the Russian Federation, Ukraine’s ex-defence minister warned.

Oleksii Reznikov said any deal with the Kremlin would not end the war. ““Russia demands the recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine as its territory in exchange for the end of the war,” he wrote in the Guardian.

He added: “Its goal is the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and assimilation of Ukrainians.” Mr Reznikov was removed from his post on Sunday.

The Ukrainian parliament approved ex-law maker Rustem Umerov as the country’s next defence minister on Wednesday.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has clapped back at the recent criticism of “slow” counteroffensive from Ukrainian troops as he pointed out the numbers of mines in the battlefield Ukraine is encountering are at a historic high.

“The starting point is that the Russian army used to be the second strongest in the world. And now the Russian army is the second strongest in Ukraine. That’s quite impressive by Ukrainians,” he said, praising the Ukrainian forces for their achievements on the battlefield.

“No one ever said that this was going to be easy,” Mr Stoltenberg told lawmakers at the European parliament.

“Hardly any time in history we have seen more mines on the battlefield than we are seeing in Ukraine today. So it was obvious that this was going to be extremely difficult.”

He added: “The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground. They have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward.”

In the past four months, Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield have struggled to break through entrenched Russian lines, dotted heavily with mines and recently faced flak from Western media for concentrating forces in the wrong places.

Ukrainian officials say the war being fought in the country is unlike any other, as its air space has not been shut down and it does not have top-tier warplanes like F-16s.

“They are making progress. Not perhaps as much as we hoped for but they are gaining ground gradually,” the Nato chief said.

“Some hundred metres per day, meaning that when the Ukrainians are gaining ground, the Russians are losing ground.”

India has faced a seemingly insurmountable task in bridging the gap between Western nations on one side and allies Russia and China on the other, with their differences over the Ukraine war having only widened throughout the year since India assumed the G20 presidency, analysts say.

The G20 began in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis and India says this year’s summit is a huge opportunity at a time when global growth is projected to fall to 3 per cent, while more than 50 countries across the world face debt crises.

Yet, the economic forum is being overshadowed by the geopolitical fallout of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and objections over the wording of joint communiques when it comes to the conflict have impacted all this year’s G20 meetings and working groups so far. Instead of joint statements, India has been issuing a “chairman’s summary” after each event, outlining what was discussed.

If this weekend’s summit only ends in a similar “chairman’s summary” it would be seen as an “embarrassment” for India, says Rand Corporation analyst Derek Grossman – but hardly a surprise.