Wednesday, September 18

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A mine recently destroyed by Russian forces bellows smoke near the city of Myrnohrad on Sept. 17, 2024 in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast. Russian forces have been advancing in areas southeast of Pokrovsk. (Vlada Liberova/Libkos/Getty Images)

‘Syrians disappear in Luhansk Oblast’ — Ukraine’s intelligence says Moscow uses foreign fighters as cannon fodder. “Russia has established a scheme with travel companies to recruit Syrians for the war against Ukraine. First, poor people are offered jobs as security guards in Russian oil regions, and then they are lured with a higher salary” to fight the war against Ukraine, HUR said on social media.

Russia striking Sumy Oblast due to Kyiv’s successes in Kursk incursion, Ukraine’s military says. Vadym Mysnyk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Tactical Group Siversk, said that the attacks would have continued even if Ukraine had not advanced in the Kursk sector of the front line.

Around 1 million killed, wounded in Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, WSJ reports. Roughly 1 million Ukrainians and Russians have been killed or wounded during Moscow’s all-out war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sept. 17, citing undisclosed sources and Western intelligence estimates.

Russia reportedly executes POW with sword, Kyiv appeals to UN, Red Cross. On the morning of Sept. 17, a photo of an allegedly executed Ukrainian soldier with a sword in his chest and the inscription “For Kursk” appeared on social media. Remnants of gray tape are visible on the soldier’s hand.

None of Ukraine’s plans to end the war envisages ceasefire, ceding territory, Podolyak says. “(Freezing of the conflict) will not lead to the end of the war,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Presidential Office, told Current Time on Sept. 17.

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Ukraine destroys Russian ammunition depots near occupied Mariupol, Navy says. The strike destroyed both the storage infrastructure and tons of ammunition that Russian troops were stockpiling for use against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Navy said.

Russia claims Ukraine made new attempts to break into Kursk Oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Sept. 17 that it had repelled Ukraine’s new attempts to cross into Russia’s Kursk Oblast west of the currently controlled territories.

Trump assassination attempt suspect has no ties to Ukrainian institutions, Kyiv says. “We urge everyone to refrain from artificially linking the suspect’s actions to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said at a briefing on Sept. 17.

US believes Zelensky’s peace strategy ‘can work,’ official says. “We have seen President Zelensky’s peace plan. We think it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Sept. 17.

Trump Jr urges Biden to negotiate with Moscow after Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling. Donald Trump Jr. and former U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opposed permitting Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-supplied long-range missiles, calling on the Biden-Harris administration to negotiate with Moscow.

Read our exclusives

‘It’s personal’ — Why Germany still refuses to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine

While Washington and London are facing pressure to allow Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia using the Western-made missiles already in the country, Berlin declines to even provide such missiles.

Photo: Fabian Sommer/picture alliance/Getty Images

‘Too dangerous to ignore’ – Russia’s malicious activity in the Baltics set to test NATO resolve

“Russian intelligence is everywhere. And its propaganda is everywhere, not only in Estonia but all over the world,” Estonian President Alar Karis told the Kyiv Independent during the 20th annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) Conference.

Photo: Fred Tanneau / AFP via Getty Images

Why Russia still rakes in cash transporting gas through Ukraine: 4 key charts

While Russia’s deadly war rages on Ukraine’s soil, one unexpected aspect of the invasion is that natural gas continues to flow through Ukraine from Russia, with both sides profiting from the deal and financing each other’s war machines.

Image: Lisa Kukharska / The Kyiv Independen

‘A wave of lawlessness’ – returning from war in Ukraine, Russian convicts commit crimes at home

Several months after Russian Sergei Kozlov, an assault fighter of the infamous Wagner Group, returned home from the war in Ukraine, he violently killed his 18-year-old partner Daria, who was pregnant with his child.

Photo: Paula Bronstein /Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 2, including child, injure 9. Ukrainian air defense shot down 34 of the 51 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight on Sept. 17, according to the Air Force.

Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia Oblast kills at least 2, injures 5. The attack targeted the Kamyshuvakha community, killing at least two people and injuring five. The strike also damaged several homes and an infrastructure facility.

Russian attack injures 4 first responders in Kharkiv, as Ukraine marks Rescuer’s Day. Russian forces attacked the city of Kharkiv with guided aerial bombs on Sept. 17, injuring at least seven people, local authorities reported.

General Staff: Russia has lost 635,880 troops since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,020 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Opinions and insights

Opinion: IMF’s trip to Moscow is effectively enabling Russia’s war against Ukraine

“The visit later this month, which is to be led by Deputy Head of Division Jacques Miniane, marks a quiet but significant shift in the Fund’s approach toward Russia,” write Tymofiy Mylovanov and Nataliia Shapoval of the Kyiv School of Economics.

Photo: Valerie Plesch/picture alliance via Getty Images

International response

EU preparing to raise up to 40 billion euros in loans for Ukraine without US, FT reports. The EU is preparing to gather up to 40 billion euros ($44.5 billion) in loans for Ukraine as Budapest keeps disrupting plans on a joint loan with the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Sept. 16, citing sources and a draft proposal.

Von der Leyen names new European Commission with pro-Ukraine figures leading diplomacy, defense. For the first time in history, the European Commission will include the position of defense commissioner. Former Lithuanian Prime Minister and Member of the European Parliament Andrius Kubilius will take up the new post overseeing the EU’s defense policy.

Germany pledges over $110 million in winter aid for Ukraine. Russia is once again planning a “winter war with the aim of making the lives of people in Ukraine as terrible as possible,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

Italy to deliver promised SAMP/T air defense system by end of September. “By the end of the month the new Samp/T system will be delivered to Ukraine, and we know how much every minute of delay costs,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Sept. 17.

Doctors Without Borders closes programs in Russia. The reason for the closure was that in August, the organization received a letter from the Russian Justice Ministry with a decision to exclude the affiliate office of the non-profit association “Doctors Without Borders”(Netherlands) in Russia from the register.

‘Brazil cannot take part in Russia-Ukraine war,’ Lula says after Zelensky’s criticism. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said “those who want to talk to us now could have done so before the war started.”

In other news

Ukrainian boxer Usyk detained at Krakow airport. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced shortly after midnight on Sept. 18 that Usyk had been released following the intervention of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry. “I was outraged by this treatment of our citizen and champion,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s parliament backs major tax hike in first reading. Ukraine’s parliament approved on Sept. 17 a bill that proposes a tax increase of Hr 58 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2024 and Hr 137 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2025.

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