All current developments on the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine attacks the Crimean air base
The Ukrainian army said Thursday it attacked a Russian military airfield near the Crimean town of Saky. This was another attack by Kiev on the Ukrainian peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow and used as a base for the invasion of Ukraine.
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“Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out a combined attack against an occupier military airfield near the town of Saky,” the army communications center said on Telegram on Wednesday evening, without giving further details.
A Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) source said it was a joint operation between the SBU and the naval forces using drones and Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles.
The attack comes just a day after Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea announced they had foiled Ukrainian missile and drone attacks on Sevastopol and the area around its major port, a key Russian navy facility.
According to Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Rasvoyaev, Ukrainian forces attacked the city with rockets and two neighboring towns, Kakha and Verkhnesadovoye, with drones.
On September 13, a strike at a shipyard in Sevastopol damaged two ships and injured 24 people. In August, after a commando operation by Ukrainian armed forces, there was a particularly massive attack with 42 drones on the peninsula.
The Ukrainian army has also repeatedly attacked Russian ships traveling in the Black Sea or docked in Crimea and at Russian ports along the coast.
Ukraine is facing difficult times, warns Kiev
Ukrainian officials have warned that the country faces “difficult months ahead.”
“Difficult months await us: Russia will continue to attack Ukrainian energy and vital facilities,” Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Oleksiy Kuleba said in Telegram.
With winter approaching, Ukrainian authorities fear that Moscow will resume its campaign of attacks aimed at plunging civilians into the cold and darkness like last winter.
Russian missiles rain down on Ukrainian cities
Several cities and towns in Ukraine were hit by Russian missiles on Wednesday night, killing two people in Kherson and injuring others in Kiev.
Residential areas in the southern city of Kherson were reportedly bombed, with two men aged 29 and 41 killed in an attack on a residential building. Four other people were taken to hospital, one of whom was in serious condition.
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According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, seven people, including a nine-year-old girl, were injured in the capital Kiev by falling debris from Russian missiles.
Several people were also injured in the city of Cherkassy after a hotel was hit in a Russian attack.
The eastern city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border, and the northwestern Lviv region were also bombed.
Although Moscow denies attacking Ukrainian civilians, experts told Euronews in June that there was a deliberate strategy behind the bombing campaign.
Poland wants to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine
Warsaw announced on Wednesday evening that it would stop sending weapons to Kiev amid a growing dispute over grain between the two countries.
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“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on television.
“Our main focus is on modernizing and rapidly arming the Polish army so that it becomes one of the most powerful land armies in Europe,” he said.
Morawiecki specified that a military hub in Rzeszow, through which Western equipment is transported for Ukraine, continues to function normally.
The prime minister did not say when Poland, one of Ukraine’s biggest arms suppliers, would stop deliveries or whether the move was related to the grain dispute.
With elections looming at home, Warsaw has imposed a ban on Ukrainian grain to protect its own farmers who have complained that they cannot compete with cheaper imports.
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In a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a sharp comment on Poland’s move, saying “certain countries” were “feigning solidarity” with Kiev “by indirectly supporting Russia.”
This in turn triggered a sharp reaction from Poland’s deputy foreign minister, who said it was “wrong” and “unjustified, considering that Poland has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war.”
Zelensky in Washington to ensure continued US support
Aware that some in the US are tired of providing support, Ukraine’s number one will visit the White House on Thursday.
As his country’s counteroffensive continues, Zelensky will likely want five things from Washington, his richest and most powerful ally.
Read more below.
Zelensky rails against “criminal” Russia at the UN
The Ukrainian leader challenged Russia during a special session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, condemning Moscow’s “aggression”.
He also complained that Russia was “blocking” the UN body with its veto power.
“Most countries in the world recognize the truth about this war,” Zelenskyy told Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia.
“This is a criminal and unjustified aggression by Russia against our nation, aimed at seizing Ukraine’s territory and resources,” he said, dressed in his usual khaki green uniform.
He called on the United Nations to remove Russia’s veto power on the Security Council, which the country holds as one of five permanent members alongside China, France, Britain and the United States.
“The veto power in the hands of the aggressor is blocking the UN,” he said, claiming it was “impossible to stop the war” because Russia vetoed it and other countries in the UN supported it.
There are different attitudes towards the Ukraine war in the global south. Many countries are abandoning UN resolutions condemning Moscow and calling for peace talks instead.
Wednesday’s address marked the first time Zelensky had personally addressed the UN Security Council since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.