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The Ukrainian president says his forces have recaptured the strategically important village of Klishchiivka on the southern flank of the key frontline city of Bakhmut.
“Today I would like to particularly commend the soldiers who, step by step, are returning to Ukraine what belongs to it, namely in the area of Bakhmut,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, shared a video of Ukrainian forces displaying flags including the blue and yellow national flag, with ruined buildings and the sound of ongoing fighting in the background. Russia was still trying to regain lost positions despite Klishchiivka’s liberation, she said on Telegram.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, also confirmed the recapture of the village, which Russia claimed control of in January and is about 9km (six miles) south of Bakhmut, the city taken by Russia in May after months of heavy fighting.
Ilia Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said the battle inflicted “powerful damage” on Russian forces.
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Russia called on the UN’s highest court in The Hague on Monday to throw out a case that centres around claims by Moscow that its invasion of Ukraine was carried out to prevent genocide.
The request was made at the start of hearings dealing with the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court.
Ukraine brought the case just days after the Russian invasion on 24 February last year. Kyiv argues Russia is abusing international law by saying the invasion was justified to prevent an alleged genocide in eastern Ukraine.
Russian officials continue to accuse Ukraine of committing genocide. On Monday, Russia repeated allegations that the “Russophobic and neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” was using the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which both countries are a party, as a pretext to “drag” a case before the court.
Russia wants the case to be thrown out and says the court has no jurisdiction. The hearings, set to run until 27 September, will not delve into the merits of the case and are instead focused on legal arguments about jurisdiction.
Reuters reports that while Russia has so far ignored the ICJ’s orders to stop its military actions and the court has no way of enforcing its decisions, experts say an eventual ruling in favour of Ukraine could be important for any future reparations claims.
Reuters has a quick snap that Ukraine’s government has dismissed deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar along with five other deputies.
More details soon …
Ukraine plans to sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, Politico quoted Ukrainian trade representative Taras Kachka as saying in an interview published on Monday.
Restrictions imposed by the EU in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports on Friday after the executive European Commission decided not to extend its ban on imports into Ukraine’s five EU neighbours.
Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest say they are acting in the interests of their economies and that their moves are intended to protect their farmers from a glut of products.
“It is important to prove that these actions are legally wrong. And that’s why we will start legal proceedings tomorrow,” Politico quoted Kachka as saying.
Kachka told Politico that Ukraine could also impose reciprocal measures on Poland if Warsaw did not drop its additional measures.
“We would be forced to retaliate on the additional products, and would prohibit the import of fruit and vegetables from Poland,” Politico quoted him as saying.
Reuters reports Kyiv had already said it could seek international arbitration over the restrictions.
A United Nations report said on Monday that the human rights situation in Russia had significantly deteriorated since it invaded Ukraine in February last year, describing a “systematic crackdown” on civil society organisations.
“Russian authorities have severely curtailed the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, both online and offline, and have fundamentally undermined the independence of the judiciary and the guarantees of fair trial,” said a copy of the report seen by Reuters.
“An array of administrative sanctions is being applied arbitrarily against dissenters and force used against peaceful protesters,” it said.
The report by the special rapporteur is the first time that the 16-year-old Human Rights Council (HRC) has been mandated to examine the rights record of one of the members which hold permanent seats on the security council.
Reuters reports there was no immediate comment from the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, reports that power supplies have been cut to the villages of Glotovo and Bezymeno near the border with Ukraine after shelling. He said there were no casualties.
Earlier, Roman Starovoyt, governor of neighbouring region Kursk in Russia, reported on Telegram that a woman had been injured by cross-border fire into the village of Tetkino.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Overnight Ukraine claims to have shot down all 17 cruise missiles fired into its territory by Russia. The air force also reported that 18 out of 24 “Shahed” drones were downed.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, also reports that four people have been injured near a bus station in Beryslav in Kherson region, and that a recreational facility in Odesa region was set on fire during an attack, but that there were no casualties.
In the Mykolaiv region, debris from a downed drone hit a residential building, but there were no injuries.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the regional authority in Kherson has recorded one person killed and another injured after an overnight Russian attack on residential buildings in the village of Mykolaivka in the region.
Bulgaria’s defence ministry said on Monday it had sent a special unit to inspect and deactivate a drone carrying explosives which landed on Sunday evening in the Black Sea town of Tyulenovo.
Following inspection the team from Bulgaria, a Nato member, will decide how to dispose of it, Reuters reports the defence ministry said in a statement adding that the team was sent upon the request of the regional government.
The tourist town of Tyulenovo is situated 70km from the Romanian border and across the sea from Crimea, which Russia occupied and unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Bulgarian media reported that a drone carrying explosives landed late on Sunday evening. One local news website quoted witnesses saying that the drone was between 3 and 3.5 metres long, and had a container with explosives attached to it.
In her statement on Telegram, Hanna Maliar also gave new figures for the amount of territory recaptured by Ukraine. She said 2 sq km had been captured around Bakhmut, and in the past week, and that 51 sq km had been recaptured there since the start of the counteroffensive.
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has issued a lengthy update on Telegram, claiming that Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks in a number of areas, including in the Kupyansk, Bakhmut, and Marinka directions.
She claimed that the successes Ukraine says it has had in Andriivka and Klishchiivka “is carried out by the forces with which we defend ourselves. That is, without the creation of an offensive group, without the use of additional resources and material means”. She said that “the enemy is trying with all its might to regain lost positions” in those areas.
Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks over several parts of Crimea, outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.
The Russian defence ministry said the attacks were thwarted, Agence France-Presse reports.
The ministry said on the Telegram messaging app:
Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern parts of the Crimean peninsula; Istra and Domodedovo districts of Moscow region, Belgorod and Voronezh regions.
Most of the attacks were early on Sunday. Later on Sunday, three drones were destroyed over south-western Crimea, as was a solitary drone over the Belgorod border region, defence ministry updates said.
The Telegram updates throughout the day totalled 13 drones destroyed, including nine over Crimea.
They did not say whether there had been any casualties or damage in the attacks.
Attacks on Russian-annexed Crimea have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, while Russia has been hit by waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in Moscow.
The Hungarian parliamentary speaker of the ruling Fidesz party says he is “not sure” it needs to approve the ratification of Sweden’s accession to Nato, Reuters has quoted Hungary’s Hír TV as reporting.
Sweden’s bid to join the western military alliance has been held up by Hungary and Turkey.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed in July to set aside his veto and recommend to his parliament that Sweden’s application go ahead.
At the time Hungary was also yet to approve it, though the government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, vowed it would not be the last to make the step, implying it would move soon.
Finland, a fellow Nordic country to Sweden, was admitted to Nato in April.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, will begin a four-day visit to Russia for security talks on Monday, his foreign ministry said.
Agence France-Presse reports that his trip is the latest in a series of high-level visits and phone calls between the two sides, which have a “no limits” partnership.
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that Wang would go to Russia for the “18th round of the China-Russian strategic security consultations” from 18 to 21 September at the invitation of Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Moscow’s security council.
In an earlier briefing, Moscow’s foreign ministry said Wang would meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and the two planned to “focus on efforts to strengthen collaboration on the international scene”.
A spokesperson said:
There will be a detailed exchange of views on issues related to a settlement in Ukraine, as well as ways of ensuring stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region.
China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the Ukraine war while offering Moscow a vital diplomatic and financial lifeline as its international isolation deepens.
The high-level contact looks set to ramp up, with an aide to Vladimir Putin saying in July that the Russian president was planning to visit China in October.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow after Ukraine claimed its forces had recaptured the village of Klishchiivka, near Bakhmut.
On Sunday, Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing that its forces kept up their attacks near Klishchiivka, Reuters reports.
The heavy fighting for the strategically important village, spread on higher grounds about 9km (six miles) south of Bakhmut, has taken weeks and comes after Kyiv said on Friday it had gained control of the tiny nearby village of Andriivka.
The gains have been among the most significant in Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began in June and has struggled to break through entrenched Russian lines.
The Ukrainian president says his forces have recaptured the strategically important village of Klishchiivka on the southern flank of the key frontline city of Bakhmut.
“Today I would like to particularly commend the soldiers who, step by step, are returning to Ukraine what belongs to it, namely in the area of Bakhmut,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, shared a video of Ukrainian forces displaying flags including the blue and yellow national flag, with ruined buildings and the sound of ongoing fighting in the background. Russia was still trying to regain lost positions despite Klishchiivka’s liberation, she said on Telegram.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, also confirmed the recapture of the village, which Russia claimed control of in January and is about 9km (six miles) south of Bakhmut, the city taken by Russia in May after months of heavy fighting.
Ilia Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said the battle inflicted “powerful damage” on Russian forces.
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Welcome back to our rolling coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s a roundup of the latest developments.
Ukrainian forces have recaptured the tactically important village of Klishchiivka near the key frontline city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian president has said, in what would be Ukraine’s second significant gain in three days.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the soldiers fighting near Bakhmut and singled out those who had retaken Klishchiivka, saying “well done!” in an address.
Russia, meanwhile, said it repelled Ukrainian 13 drone attacks on Crimea as well as outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.
And China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, will begin a four-day visit to Russia for security talks on Monday, his foreign ministry said.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was on his way home from Russia on Sunday, ending a six-day trip that triggered global concerns about weapons transfer deals between the two countries. Kim began his journey back onboard his armoured train from the Primorye region in Russia’s far east after a farewell ceremony at the train station, Russian state news agency RIA said. After entering Russia on Tuesday in his first overseas trip in more than four years, Kim met Russian president Vladimir Putin, visited key military and technology sites and pledged to step up military and economic cooperation.
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North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for Nato meetings. US army Gen Mark Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said the recent meeting between Kim and Putin would probably lead North Korea to provide Soviet-era 152mm artillery rounds to Moscow. But he said it was not yet clear how many or how soon.
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US oil and gas multinationals are facing fresh questions over their trade with Russia after Russian customs records revealed that more than $7.1m (£5.7m) worth of equipment manufactured by Halliburton has been imported into the country since it announced the end of its Russian operations. Last September Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of products and services for oil and gas exploration, sold its Russian office to local management amid pressure on all US companies to cease their trade after the invasion of Ukraine.
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Ukraine will be able to conduct more attacks on Russian ships, a Ukrainian minister who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids. “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” the digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said.
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The US expects to announce additional aid to Ukraine next week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, while announcing that the US president, Joe Biden, would host Zelenskiy next Thursday at the White House. The Ukrainian leader was also expected to meet with congressional leaders from both political parties.
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A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago. Daniel Burke, 36, from south Manchester, was reported missing on 16 August by family who had not heard from him, believing that he had travelled to Ukraine. Officers searching for Burke have been informed by Ukrainian authorities they have found a body.