At least 51 people were killed and 271 injured on Tuesday, September 3, in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine, which partially destroyed a military institute, according to an official report. “We have lost brave Ukrainians, our brothers and sisters, soldiers,” the Ukrainian armed forces lamented.
Key information to remember
⇒ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Announces Resignation
⇒ Seven dead in strikes in Lviv
⇒ Zelensky denounces “Russian terrorist strikes”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Announces Resignation
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, one of his country’s key voices since the start of the Russian invasion, asked parliament on Wednesday to accept his resignation, the assembly’s president announced on social media, publishing the minister’s letter.
“I ask you to accept my resignation,” wrote in the letter the popular minister, who has held the post since 2020 and whose resignation comes in the midst of a cabinet reshuffle in the Ukrainian government.
Seven dead in Lviv strikes
At least seven people were killed, including three children, and more than thirty injured in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday by Russian strikes against Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine, according to the Interior Minister.
“A total of 7 people died in Lviv, including 3 children,” Minister Igor Klimenko lamented on his Telegram account, while President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced new “Russian terrorist strikes”, once again calling on the West to deliver more anti-aircraft defense means.
Russian strike kills 51 in Poltava
“As of 18:00 (15:00 GMT), 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the attack,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said. Regional Governor Filip Pronin added that “up to 18 people could be under the rubble.” In his daily online address earlier this evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the search for survivors in the rubble was continuing and that the number of injured was currently 271.
In Ukraine, some bloggers questioned the large concentration of soldiers in one place, making it an easy target in times of war. “Poltava… How come so many people were gathered in such a facility?” asked blogger Sergei Naumovitch, followed by more than 135,000 people on Facebook. For his part, US President Joe Biden condemned “in the strongest terms” this “deplorable” strike.
Red carpet for Putin in Mongolia, despite ICC arrest warrant
Fanfare and red carpet: Vladimir Putin was received with great pomp on Tuesday in Mongolia, his first visit to a member country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since the issuance of an arrest warrant against him. Arriving Monday evening in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, the Russian president was greeted by the guard of honor, without being arrested as he got off the plane. He left Mongolia Tuesday evening for Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, where he is to participate in a regional economic forum, the Kremlin announced Wednesday.
His trip to Mongolia appears to be an act of defiance toward the ICC, war-torn Ukraine, and several Western countries and human rights organizations that had called for his arrest. Vladimir Putin was received Tuesday by his Mongolian counterpart Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh at a lavish ceremony held on Ulaanbaatar’s imposing Genghis Khan Square.
IMF: Russia appoints new representative, under US sanctions
Russia has appointed Ksenia Yudaeva as its new representative on the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the current holder of the post confirmed to AFP on Tuesday, while Ksenia Yudaeva is targeted by US sanctions, as a member of the Russian Central Bank. “I confirm that Ksenia (Yudaeva) will be from November 1 the executive director for Russia at the IMF,” Alexei Mozhin, who had been in post in Washington since 1996, confirmed to AFP, making him the longest-serving member of the Fund’s board.
Also questioned by AFP, the IMF did not confirm the information, initially given by the Russian agencies TASS and RIA. Ksenia Yudaeva is currently an advisor to the President of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, having joined the institution in 2013, the same year as its head.
Nuclear: IAEA chief discusses Kursk plant safety with Zelensky
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said he discussed the security of Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, amid a Ukrainian incursion into the Russian region. kyiv launched an unprecedented incursion into Russian territory in the Kursk region on August 6, sparking fighting less than 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the nuclear plant. Grossi visited the plant last week and warned that its proximity to the ongoing fighting in the region was “extremely serious.” After his meeting with the Ukrainian president on Tuesday, Grossi is scheduled to travel on Wednesday to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russia seized shortly after its invasion began in February 2022.