Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature A series of images from the front lines of Ukraine were sent to our news networks today. Ukrainian soldiers are evacuated from Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters Russia’s offensive in Ukraine continues across eastern Ukraine. Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters Ukrainian soldiers drive a tank near Bakhmut. Photo: Ammar Awad/ReutersA Giatsint-B gun fired outside Donetsk, Ukraine. Photo: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters A service member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic walks past boxes of ammunition at a firing position outside Donetsk, Ukraine. Photo: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Kiev forces recapture settlements in Kharkiv, Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remained on guard for a military counterattack in the east, while Ukraine’s military has yet to comment on the alleged new battle plan. Without elaborating, Zelensky reported “good news” from the Kharkiv region east of Kiev, implying that some settlements had been recaptured by Russian forces, but adding that “now is not the right time to name the settlements to which the Ukrainian flag”. In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Zelensky cited “highly successful strikes in areas where the occupiers are concentrated” and thanked Ukrainian artillery troops for what he said were successful strikes against Moscow’s forces in the south.
Ukraine launches a surprise counterattack in the Kharkiv region
Ukraine launched a surprise counterattack in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, expanding Russian forces that are also facing Ukrainian attacks in the south. An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had “surrounded” Balaklia, an eastern town of 27,000 located between Kharkiv and Russian-held Izium. “Today, the Ukrainian armed forces, after prolonged artillery preparation… launched an offensive in Balaklia,” Daniil Bezonov said on Telegram. “Currently, Balakliia is under operational encirclement and within the firing range of Ukrainian artillery. All approaches are cut off by fire,” he said, adding that a successful Ukrainian attack would threaten Russian forces in Izium, a strategically important city that Russia is using for its own offensive in eastern Ukraine. Unverified footage circulating on social media on Wednesday showed what appeared to be a Ukrainian soldier posing in front of an entrance sign for Balakliia. Analysts said the initial target of the attack could be the city of Kupyansk, a key road hub for Russian supplies heading south from the border into eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remained on guard for a military counterattack in the east, while Ukraine’s military has yet to comment on the alleged new battle plan. Russia’s war in Ukraine: the latest developments Russia’s war in Ukraine: the latest developments Without elaborating, Zelensky reported “good news” from the Kharkiv region east of Kiev, implying that some settlements had been recaptured by Russian forces, but adding that “now is not the right time to name the settlements to which the Ukrainian flag”. In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Zelensky cited “highly successful strikes in areas where the occupiers are concentrated” and thanked Ukrainian artillery troops for what he said were successful strikes against Moscow’s forces in the south. One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s advisers, Oleksiy Arestovych, said on Tuesday night that “lightning changes are taking place” in the Kharkiv region, alongside the southern offensive in the Kherson region announced by the Ukrainian military last week.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments for the next while. Whether you followed our coverage overnight or just dropped in, here are the latest lines. Ukraine launched a surprise counterattack in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, expanding Russian forces that are also facing Ukrainian attacks in the south. It is 7.30 in the morning in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Ukraine has recaptured several settlements in the northeastern region of Kharkiv as part of a surprise counter-offensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed. “This week we have good news from the Kharkiv region,” he said in his speech on Wednesday evening, adding that “now is not the right time to name those settlements where the Ukrainian flag has returned.” An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had “encircled” Balaklia, an eastern town located between Kharkiv and Russian-held Izio. US intelligence agencies say Ukrainian forces are making “slow but substantial progress” on the battlefield. “We’ll see how things play out,” Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl said. “But I definitely think things are going better on the Ukrainian side right now in the south than they are on the Russian side.” The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces likely captured Verbivka, less than two miles (3.2 kilometers) northwest of Balakliia, on Tuesday, citing images geo-tagged posted by Ukrainian soldiers. Shelling resumed near Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Wednesday. Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of shelling the city of Nikopoli, across the street from the plant, as well as Enerhodar, where the power plant is located. “Employees of communal and other services simply do not have time to complete emergency and rehabilitation work, as another shelling reduces their work to zero,” the Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, told Telegram. The UN has accused Moscow of forcing Ukrainians into detention camps and even prisons through a Kremlin-directed “filtering” program and removing children from the war zone to hand them over to adoptive parents inside Russia. “We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified process for granting Russian citizenship to children without parental care and that these children will be eligible for adoption by Russian families,” Ilze Brands Kehris, UN assistant secretary-general for human rights. he told the security council. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that estimates show authorities have “interrogated, detained and forcibly deported” between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia since late February in an effort “to prepare for a mount attempt. “.
Vladimir Putin has threatened to scrap a fragile grain deal with Ukraine that allows exports from the Black Sea. During a bellicose speech at an economic conference in Vladivostok, Putin said he would talk to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about “restricting destinations for grain exports”, arguing that only two of the 87 ships that they were leaving Ukraine with grain they had gone to development. Countries. Data from the UN showed that the claim was false by a factor of at least 10.
Putin has also threatened to cut off all gas, oil and coal deliveries to Europe if they impose a price cap on Russian energy imports. “Will there be political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfill them. We will provide absolutely nothing if it goes against our interests,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks by Reuters. “We will not supply natural gas, oil, coal, heating oil – we will not supply anything.” Recalling a Russian fairy tale, he said Europeans could “freeze like a wolf’s tail”.
Putin said Russia had “lost nothing” by starting a war in Ukraine during a bellicose and provocative speech at the Russian Eastern Economic Forum on Wednesday. “We haven’t lost anything and we won’t lose anything,” he said, when asked about the cost of the invasion. “The main gain is the strengthening of our sovereignty.”
A firefighter works to put out a fire after a Russian airstrike heavily damaged a residential building in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Wednesday, September 7. Photo: Léo Corrêa/AP
