- 5:52 pm: ➤ Putin critic Kara-Mursa arrived at a penal colony in Siberia
- 3:17 pm: Dead and injured in air strikes in the Ukrainian region of Kherson
- 2:33 pm: Russian Foreign Minister accuses the West of “direct” fighting against Moscow
- 1:29 pm: Polish President Duda promises help to Ukraine in grain transit
- 12:31 pm: Russia: Ukrainian drone attack hits administrative building in Kursk
- 9:59 am: Ukraine reports advance in the Zaporizhia region
- 8:30 am: Second grain ship loaded in Ukraine arrives in Istanbul
➤ Kara-Mursa, critic of Putin, arrived at the penal colony in Siberia
Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Mursa, sentenced to 25 years in prison, arrived at a prison camp in Siberia. His client was taken to the IK-6 high-security colony in Omsk to serve his sentence, Kara-Mursa’s lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on Sunday. The entire journey from Moscow to Omsk, 2,700 kilometers away, took almost three weeks. “He was immediately placed in an isolation cell,” Prokhorov added.
According to lawyer Prokhorov, placement in an isolation cell puts the health of 42-year-old Kara-Mursa at risk. According to his lawyers and family, he suffers from polyneuropathy, a nervous disease, due to two poison attacks.
Kara-Mursa was found guilty in April, after a closed-door trial, of spreading “false information” about the Russian army and having links to an “undesirable organization”. Several Western countries called for the release of the opposition activist, who has Russian and British citizenship. (AFP)
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The situation at a glance
More news about the war in Ukraine from September 24
Killed and injured in air strikes in Kherson region, Ukraine
According to local authorities, two people were killed and several were injured in Russian airstrikes in the Kherson region, in southern Ukraine. A woman died on Sunday in the town of Beryslaw, on the banks of the Dnipro River, and a man died in the village of Lvove. Several people were also injured in the bombing of Russian aircraft.
The Ukrainian army recaptured part of the area northwest of Dnipro last November. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia also launched airstrikes on Sunday in the Black Sea region of Odessa and other regions of southern Ukraine. (dpa)
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Russian Foreign Minister accuses West of “direct” fight against Moscow
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western states of fighting “directly” against Moscow through their support for Kiev. Referring to financial aid and arms deliveries, Lavrov spoke of a “hybrid war” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The West is “in fact fighting against us using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians,” Lavrov told reporters.
The US and European states repeatedly emphasize that, despite providing weapons systems, they are not at war with Russia, but support Ukraine in its defense. Lavrov, however, pointed to billions of dollars in military equipment for Kiev, as well as support from US and British intelligence services and the presence of Western military advisers in Ukraine. “You can call it whatever you want, but they are fighting us, they are fighting us directly,” said the Russian chief diplomat.
Lavrov made the remarks on the sidelines of the general debate at the UN General Assembly in New York, where all eyes were on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called for greater support in the fight against the invasion. (AFP)
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Polish President Duda promises help to Ukraine in grain transit
According to President Andrzej Duda, Poland is still willing to help export cereals from Ukraine to third countries. The national conservative politician said Sunday on TVP1 that he is absolutely of the opinion that everything must be done to ensure that transit transport is as extensive as possible. Cereals can be transported through special corridors to where they are really needed, namely to the poorest countries in the world.
At the same time, Duda defended the recent decision to maintain the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grains on the Polish market as correct. The Warsaw government had to take radical decisions to support Polish farmers and defend the domestic agricultural market. The EU Commission, however, decided to let its trade restrictions expire. Duda criticized that this would cause harm to Ukraine’s neighboring states.
Recently, there have been disagreements between Poland and Ukraine over Ukrainian grain imports. The heads of state and government of both countries made serious accusations against each other. Warsaw declared that it would limit its arms deliveries to Ukraine to contracts already concluded and would ban “insults” from Kiev. There is currently an election campaign in Poland. The national-conservative government is trying to score points by protecting local farmers.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to calm things down. The challenges on the common path are nothing compared to the strength that exists between the two peoples, said Zelenskyy during a stopover in Lublin, Poland, and thanked the people of the NATO and EU country for supporting Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion . (dpa)
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Russia: Ukrainian drone attack hits administrative building in Kursk
According to Russian authorities, a Ukrainian drone attack hit an administrative building in the center of the city of Kursk, in the southwest of the country. As the governor of the region of the same name, Roman Starowoit, announced on Sunday on the Telegram online service, the roof of the building was slightly damaged in the attack. “Emergency service personnel are on scene.”
Kursk is about 90 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. In August, a Ukrainian drone strike hit the railway station in the Russian city of Kursk. Five people were injured and there was significant material damage.
Drone attacks on Russian territory have increased since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive against Russian troops in June. Recently, there have been almost daily attacks on Russian cities. Ukraine is also regularly attacked by drones. (dpa)
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Ukraine reports advance in Zaporizhia region
According to official military information, Ukrainian troops continue to advance on the front in the south, near the village of Werbowe. The report of the General Staff in Kiev for Sunday morning said: The troops “displace the enemy from their positions near Werbowe in the Zaporizhzhia region and establish themselves in the positions they have reached.”
The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) wrote that Ukraine had breached the region’s best-fortified Russian defense belt at this time. This belt included minefields, manned trenches, anti-tank trenches and concrete barriers. The commander of Ukrainian troops in this sector, Brigadier General Olexander Tarnavskyi, said in an interview with US broadcaster CNN that a breakthrough had been achieved near Werbowe.
On the flat steppes, Russian positions were often hidden in long rows of trees. “We are moving from one tree line to another, sometimes 50 to 100 meters a day, sometimes 300 to 400 meters,” an army spokesman told Ukrainian television.
In their counteroffensive since June, Ukrainian troops have been trying to advance south towards the Sea of Azov. A tentative objective is to move artillery so close to the occupied city of Tokmak that this Russian supply center can be bombed. (dpa)
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Second bulk carrier loaded in Ukraine arrives in Istanbul
Two months after Russia withdrew the grain deal, a second ship loaded with wheat from Ukraine arrived in Turkey. The cargo ship “Aroyat” entered the Sea of Marmara on Sunday morning from Istanbul through the southern exit of the Bosphorus, according to data from the websites Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder. The ship carries 17,600 tons of wheat bound for Egypt.
On Thursday, the first ship carrying Ukrainian wheat, the “Resilient Africa”, arrived in Turkey. The “Africa Resiliente” and the “Aroyat”, both flying the Palau flag, have already headed to the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk to embark a total of around 20 thousand tons of wheat. They were the first grain cargo ships to arrive at a Ukrainian port since the end of the Black Sea agreement with Moscow.
“Africa Resiliente” left again on Tuesday and “Aroyat” on Thursday. The Sea of Marmara connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
Military tensions in the Black Sea have increased since Russia withdrew from the grain deal. Russia attacked Ukrainian port infrastructure on the coast and along the Danube, while Kiev attacked Russian ships. (AFP)
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With material from dpa and AFP
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