00:12
End of tracking
Continuous monitoring of Monday, September 18, 2023 has ended.
10:40 p.m
Volodymyr Zelensky came to the United States
The Ukrainian president came to the US to attend the UN General Assembly and then meet his American counterpart Joe Biden. “Olena Zelenska and I have arrived in the United States,” the Ukrainian president announced on X (formerly Twitter), referring to his wife, for meetings at the United Nations in New York before traveling to Washington.
Olena @ZelenskaUA and I came to the United States for the UN General Assembly High-Level Week and a visit to Washington, DC
I will attend the General Assembly, the SDG Summit and the Security Council meetings at the United Nations, as well as a number of important bilateral discussions.…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володиmir Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 18, 2023
7:50 p.m
Grain embargo: Ukraine files WTO lawsuit against three EU countries
Kiev said on Monday that it had filed a complaint with the WTO against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, which extended their embargo on Ukrainian grain imports despite Brussels’ decision to lift restrictions. “It is crucial for us to ensure that individual member states cannot ban the import of Ukrainian goods,” Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a press release.
7:47 p.m
Germany announces 400 million euros in aid for Ukraine
Germany will send Ukraine a new package of mainly military aid worth 400 million euros. This new tranche of aid includes, in particular, various types of ammunition because it is “what Ukraine needs most,” Minister Boris Pistorius told Bild newspaper on the eve of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies. Ukraine in Germany. However, “the government has not yet decided whether to send Taurus cruise missiles,” the minister added.
5:06 p.m
Ukraine says it has broken through the Russian defense line near Bakhmut
After recapturing the villages of Andriivka and Klichchiivka, “the enemy’s defensive line was broken,” said General Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, quoted from the army press center. These small towns “were an important element of the Russian defensive line stretching from Bakhmut to Gorlivka,” he added.
The Russian 72nd, 31st and 83rd Brigades “were destroyed and completely lost (their) combat capability” in the fighting at Bakhmut. “The general situation in the eastern zone remains complicated” and “heavy fighting near Bakhmout continues,” the soldier admitted.
16:11
Thomas Süssli, head of the Swiss army: “We have increased our own protection”
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Swiss army has decentralized and strengthened counterintelligence, said its chief Thomas Süssli in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger. “We have increased our own protection. We must always protect our shelters and camps first before we can protect others,” he said.
As for decentralization, which is intended to prevent an opponent from being able to disable the army with a few bombing raids, Thomas Süssli emphasizes that the Luftwaffe will again train on improvised air bases and that the army has frozen the sale of its old bunkers to private individuals. “We are currently going through the entire catalog of command and combat facilities again,” he added. […] We have to take advantage of what we have.”
1:50 p.m
Uproar in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry with six resignations
The Ukrainian government dismissed six deputy defense ministers from their posts on Monday, just two weeks after the resignation of former minister Oleksiy Reznikov. Among them we find in particular Ganna Maliar, who we have seen frequently in the media in recent weeks. Only the first deputy minister, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, remains in office.
Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar was dismissed from office this Monday. — © GLEB GARANICH / Portal
According to information from the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, all deputy ministers resigned voluntarily at the request of the new Defense Minister Roustem Umerov, who spoke on Facebook of a “new beginning”.
Under his predecessor Reznikov, the ministry experienced corruption scandals. However, the former minister always rejected these allegations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to intensify the fight against corruption in order to meet the conditions set by the European Union for starting accession negotiations.
13:37
Tbilisi accuses senior Ukrainian official of “plotting” to “overthrow the government.”
Georgia on Monday accused a senior Ukrainian official of preparing a coup to overthrow that Caucasian country’s government, at a time when relations between Tbilisi and Kiev are strained.
Georgia’s National Security Service has accused Georgi Lortkipanidze, deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence department, of plotting a “plot to violently overthrow the government” with the support of a foreign state. Georgiy Lortkipanidze is a former deputy interior minister of Georgia.
Also read: In Georgia, the ruling party wants to dismiss the pro-European president
According to Georgia’s statement on Monday, the plot envisages anti-government demonstrations in Tbilisi “in October and December” – dates when the next assessments of Georgia’s progress towards European Union membership are to be published.
Tbilisi is accused of collaborating with the Kremlin, even though Russian forces have been stationed in the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since 2008, the date of Moscow’s invasion.
12:37
An explosive drone was found for the first time in Bulgaria
The plane is on the Black Sea coast, the Bulgarian government said on Monday, citing “an increase in risks related to the war in Ukraine.” A team of specialized soldiers was dispatched to the site after a hotelier reported the plane had become stuck between rocks the previous evening. “Checks revealed that it was an 82mm mortar shell attached to drone debris,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. “Due to the poor condition, it was not possible to transport the ammunition,” the authorities said, adding that the ammunition was destroyed on site after a security zone had been set up.
The approximately three meter large wreck was discovered in the town of Tulenovo (northeast) near the border with Romania. “We can certainly assume that this drone is related to the conflict in Ukraine,” Defense Minister Todor Tagarev told reporters. “This war inevitably poses risks to our security that continue to increase,” he lamented. Since the conflict began in February 2022, four mines have already been defused in Bulgarian territorial waters.
12:27
“Russophobic and neo-Nazi”: Russia castigates Kiev before the International Court of Justice
Moscow attacked Kiev on Monday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where the two countries are clashing in a case brought by Ukraine that accuses Russia of wrongly justifying its 2022 invasion with genocide allegations.
One of Moscow’s officials, Gennady Kuzmin, criticized Kiev for not being “further from the truth” by claiming that Russia had invoked the UN Genocide Convention as a reason to end its war against its neighbor in February last year begin. The Russian diplomat also addressed the court and called the Ukrainian government “Russophobic and neo-Nazi.”
The Russian delegation in front of the International Court of Justice, with Gennady Kuzmin in the middle. On the left is the Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Vasilyevich Shulgin, and on the right is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Maria Zabolotskaya. — © PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW / Portal
The case, being heard in the magnificent Peace Palace in The Hague, concerns a dispute over the legitimacy of the UN’s highest court to order an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
In March 2022, the ICJ sided with Ukraine and ordered Russia to “immediately halt” its ongoing military operations in Ukraine.
12:17
Russia is hosting the Chinese foreign minister this week
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Russia for security talks from Monday to Thursday, his ministry said. “At the invitation of Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Wang Yi (…) will travel to Russia to attend the 18th session of China-Russia strategic security consultations,” said a statement published by the ministry website .
China and Russia, long-time allies, often boast of their “borderless” partnership and their economic and military cooperation, which will intensify. Relations between the two countries have grown even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which was never condemned by Beijing.
11:11
Human rights struggles in Russia since the beginning of the war
According to the UN special rapporteur for that country, the human rights situation in Russia has “deteriorated significantly” since the start of the war in Ukraine. Mariana Katzarova denounces “serious restrictions” on freedoms and harsher punishments.
In his first report published in Geneva on Monday, the Bulgarian takes particular aim at the increase in “politically motivated” convictions. Recent laws have been adopted to “muzzle” civil society and its opponents.
Their “often violent” use led to “systematic repression” against NGOs. It has led to mass arbitrary arrests, detentions and harassment of human rights defenders, protesters and minorities. Women were victims of humiliation. And the use of torture remains widespread in prisons, the report continued.
09:19
Kiev is advancing further in the south and east of the country
Ukraine called on Monday for the liberation of 7 km2 in the east and south occupied by the Russian army, small advances that Kiev hopes to convert sooner or later into a breakthrough of enemy lines after more than three months of counteroffensive.
There is not much left of the village of Andriivka, which was just liberated by Ukrainian forces. — © Alex Babenko / keystone-sda.ch
Ukrainian forces have been waging a difficult counteroffensive against fortified Russian lines since early June and have increased their pressure in the last two weeks.
Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar stated that Ukrainian forces recaptured 2 km2 in the Bakhmut region last week, particularly in the villages of Andriivka and Klichchiivka. In the south they took over 5.2 km2. In total, since the start of the counteroffensive, Kiev has recaptured 51 km2 around Bakhmout and 261.7 km2 in the southern part of the front.
Our warriors, our heroes. The front line.
I am proud of each and every one of them.
And I am grateful to every brigade for their strength! pic.twitter.com/FQMIWqyMum
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володиmir Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 18, 2023
“Our warriors, our heroes on the front lines. I am proud of each of them. And I am grateful to every brigade for its strength!” commented President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on X (ex-Twitter).
These towns, which had only a few hundred inhabitants before the war, were destroyed by the fighting.
06:55
Russia has reportedly shot down around 10 Ukrainian drones, particularly in Crimea and near Moscow
On the night of Sunday to Monday, Russia claimed to have shot down several Ukrainian drones in the annexed Crimea, in the Moscow region and in Belgorod and Voronezh near Ukraine. “Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern areas of the Crimean Peninsula, the Istria (west) and Domodedovo (south) districts of the Moscow region, as well as the Belgorod and Voronezh regions (southwest),” the Russian Defense Ministry explained in Telegram.
These devices bring the number of drones shot down by Russian defense on Sunday to 13, including nine in Crimea, according to reports from the defense, which reported no casualties or damage at the time. “The production halls of the Kharkiv Tank Plant, where the repair and restoration of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were carried out, were hit by a missile attack,” the Defense Ministry said.
For its part, the Ukrainian army announced on Monday that it had shot down 18 drones and 17 missiles fired by Russia towards the Mykolaiv and Odessa regions (south) in new night raids.
03:58
Ukraine and Russia clash at the International Court of Justice
Moscow and Kiev will face off at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from Monday in a case brought by Ukraine, which accuses Russia of wrongly justifying its 2022 invasion with genocide allegations.
Representatives of the two warring nations will present their arguments before judges at the court’s headquarters, in the magnificent Peace Palace in The Hague, in a dispute over the legitimacy or wrongfulness of the UN’s highest court to order an end to Russian military operations in Ukraine .
03:57
Chinese Foreign Minister visits Russia
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Russia for security talks from September 18 to 21, his ministry said on Monday. “At the invitation of Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Wang Yi (…) will travel to Russia to attend the 18th session of the China-Russia strategic security consultations,” said a press release published on the ministry website.
China and Russia, long-time allies, often boast of their “borderless” partnership and their economic and military cooperation, which will intensify. Their relations have become even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which China refused to criticize.
03:56
Russia says it has shot down Ukrainian drones, particularly in Crimea and near Moscow
On the night of Sunday to Monday, Russia claimed to have shot down several Ukrainian drones in the annexed Crimea, in the Moscow region and in Belgorod and Voronezh near Ukraine.
“Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern areas of the Crimean Peninsula, the Istria (west) and Domodedovo (south) districts of the Moscow region, as well as the Belgorod and Voronezh regions (southwest),” explained the Russian Defense Ministry via Telegram, without To provide information on the number of aircraft destroyed or to report any damage or loss at this time.
“The production halls of the Kharkiv Tank Plant, where the repair and restoration of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were carried out, were hit by a missile attack,” the same source also explained.
Earlier, the head of the local Ukrainian military administration, Oleg Synegubov, reported on Telegram that a company in the city was hit by “four S-300 guided missiles” and a fire broke out.