A Ukrainian court ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in pre-trial detention for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering on Saturday. The detention of Kolomoisky, who is under U.S. sanctions and a former supporter of Zelensky, comes at a time when Kiev is trying to signal progress in fighting corruption.
The Nobel Foundation has reversed its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm after the move sparked outrage in Sweden and abroad. The foundation said on Saturday that it had decided to “repeat the exception to last year’s regular practice – that is, not inviting the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran.”
Russia shot down three Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday, while the regional governor said a man was killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on a village near the border. Separately, governors of the nearby Bryansk and Kursk border regions said a number of border villages had come under fire from Ukraine and a woman was injured in the Kursk region.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that two more ships had passed through a “temporary” Black Sea shipping corridor founded after Russia withdrew from a United Nations-backed grain export deal in July. On Friday, officials said two ships had cleared the corridor, bringing the number of those using it to four.
Russia risks splitting its forces if it tries to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in southern Ukrainesaid the British Ministry of Defense. It said Ukrainian forces continued to conduct offensive actions on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, with units reaching the main Russian first line of defense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks on Monday, the Kremlin has announced. This comes just over six weeks after Moscow broke the deal brokered by Ankara and the United Nations that allowed Ukrainian grain to enter global markets.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed an unmanned Ukrainian boat used in an attempted attack on the bridge Connecting the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia. The ship, along with three naval drones, was “sighted and destroyed off the Black Sea coast in good time,” it said early Saturday.
Elections are taking place in the Russian-controlled provinces of Ukraine as part of an attempt to consolidate Moscow authorities in its “new territories” despite the ongoing conflict. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes will take place – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Poland has closed the largest refugee center for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion after it was said that the sanctuary was no longer needed as most had now found homes elsewhere.