Russia-Ukraine War: List Of Major Events, Day 570

Here is the situation as of Saturday, September 16, 2023.

Contents

Battle

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that his troops have recaptured the village of Andriivka near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
A nighttime Russian drone strike on a military air base in Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region – home to the Starokostiantyniv air base – showed that Moscow was searching for fighter jets involved in the recent attack on Crimea, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Russia sent 17 “kamikaze” drones to attack the airfield, which was repeatedly attacked during the war.

A Ukrainian intelligence source said a maritime drone damaged the small Russian missile ship Samum near Sevastopol Bay in Crimea, contradicting a Russian account that the attack was repelled. The ship had to be towed for repairs and lay on its side after the attack, the source added.
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Russian forces had “neutralized” hundreds of foreign spies in recent years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed whether Minsk could join Moscow’s efforts to revive an alliance with North Korea following Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia this week.
Finland will ban the entry of vehicles with Russian license plates from Saturday midnight, following Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which also recently banned all cars registered in Russia from crossing the border.
Romania has imposed additional flight restrictions in parts of its airspace along its border with Ukraine amid a rise in Russian drone attacks on nearby Ukrainian Danube ports.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected repairs and modernizations of the Russian Pacific Fleet’s nuclear submarines at a key military shipyard.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said a man has been found guilty of treason and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for sending Russian missile components to the United States. The FSB said a court in the Tver region convicted Sergei Kabanov of smuggling components used in Russian anti-aircraft missile systems and radar weapon systems.

The Kremlin denied that Russia and North Korea signed any agreements on military affairs or other security areas during Kim’s visit to Russia earlier this week. The US said it had information that talks about North Korea supplying Russia with weapons for its war in Ukraine were making progress.

Kim visited a Russian military aviation factory that produces the country’s most advanced fighter jets.
Putin said Moscow would not break any agreements regarding South Korea after meeting with North Korea’s Kim this week. “[South] Korea is our neighbor and we need to build good neighborly relations with our neighbors in one way or another,” Putin said.
South Korea and the U.S. said any military cooperation between North Korea and Russia would be a serious violation of U.N. sanctions and that if Moscow and Pyongyang did so, Moscow and Pyongyang would “have to pay a price.”

The Group of Seven (G7) is likely to announce a ban on Russian diamonds in the next two to three weeks, a Belgian government official said.

Zelensky is expected to visit the White House in Washington, DC next week during his expected visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The visit marks the third time that US President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian leader have met at the White House.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow expected a visit from the Vatican’s Ukraine envoy and was ready to meet him.

Ukraine exported more grain through the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta through the end of August this year than in 2022, although volumes fell as Russia stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports. Kiev shipped 9.2 million tons of grain via Constanta in the first eight months. According to the news organization Portal, Ukraine shipped 8.6 million tons through Constanta during the same period in 2022.

Romania plans to double the capacity of Ukrainian grain shipped through its port in Constanta in the coming months, the country’s transport minister Sorin Grindeanu said.
A cargo ship has left the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa amid a Russian naval blockade of the country’s ports and threats from Moscow against any ships transiting the Black Sea near Ukraine.
The European Union said it would lift a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain in five member states after Kiev vowed to control exports.

Zelensky welcomed the EU’s decision to lift the ban on grain exports from Ukraine, calling it an example of real unity and trust.
Following the EU decision, Hungary imposed a unilateral import ban on 24 Ukrainian agricultural products, including grain, vegetables, several meat products and honey, according to a government decree. Shortly after the EU decision, Poland and Slovakia also announced that they would extend the embargo against Ukrainian grain.

Ukraine has adopted a draft budget for 2024 that sets the deficit at 1.548 trillion hryvnias ($41.92 billion) and increases defense spending to 1.7 trillion hryvnias ($46 billion), more than 21 percent of the corresponds to the gross domestic product of the country.
Despite the war, real estate prices in some areas of Ukraine have held their value – and even increased. However, in the east of the country, near the front line, property prices have fallen.

The Russian Olympic Committee said Moscow would not boycott the 2024 Paris Olympics and athletes could choose to compete under a neutral banner.

The United Nations World Heritage Committee has added two significant historical sites in Ukraine to its list of endangered sites. The famous St. Sophia Cathedral in the capital Kiev and the medieval center of the western city of Lviv are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are central to Ukraine’s culture and history.

Thousands of Jewish pilgrims gathered in the Ukrainian city of Uman to mark the religious holiday of Rosh Hashanah, despite warnings not to travel due to the Russian invasion.