The United States has “noted in the last 72 hours significant advances by the Ukrainian armed forces” in the south, said Friday, September 1 a spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House.
Referring to recent criticism in the American press by unnamed officials of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, John Kirby said: “to criticize a (country) partner and friend who is trying to make progress under bloody, dreadful, violent, it’s really not useful.” “Our priority is to ensure that they are prepared to continue these advances, that they have the instruments and the techniques, that they have the training” necessary, added the spokesman. “Even disregarding the past 72 hours, no objective observer of this counter-offensive could say that they haven’t made progress,” John Kirby said.
Russia says it seized ‘key positions’ near Kupiansk
Russia claimed this Friday, September 1 to have seized “key positions on heights” near the city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine, a sector of the front on which its troops have been on the offensive for several weeks.
“In the direction of Kupyansk, the tactical position of the units of the ‘Western’ troop group has been improved by taking enemy strongholds and key positions on heights,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
Russia is ‘invincible’, says Putin
Russia is “invincible” today as it was during the Second World War, Vladimir Putin launched this Friday during a meeting with teenagers on the occasion of the start of the school year. “I understood why we won during the Great Patriotic War: defeating a people with such a state of mind is impossible. We were absolutely invincible and today we still are,” said, in a statement. broadcast on television, the Russian president, who regularly draws parallels between the war against Nazi Germany and the offensive he launched in Ukraine.
Ukraine announces that two cargo ships have left a southern port and are sailing in the Black Sea
Ukraine announced on Friday that two new cargo ships had left a port in the south of its territory and were sailing in the Black Sea in a maritime corridor established by Kiev, despite Russian threats of reprisals against these ships.
“The bulk carriers Anna-Theresa (flying the flag of Liberia) and Ocean Courtesy (Marshall Islands) have left the port of Pivdennyi and are using the corridor”, declared on X (ex-Twitter) the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandre Kubrakov.
A drone attack in the Moscow region
Russia thwarted a new nighttime drone attack in the Moscow region on Friday, said the mayor of the Russian capital, who did not report casualties or damage.
On Friday, “the air defense forces near Lioubertsy (east of Moscow, in the Moscow region, editor’s note) foiled a new attempt to direct a drone” against Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. “There were no injuries or damage, according to initial information,” added the elected official, adding that the emergency services were on site.
Turkish Foreign Minister pleads for the resumption of the grain agreement
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, visiting Moscow, deemed Thursday “essential” the resumption of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals by the Black Sea. As a reminder, Moscow withdrew, on July 17, from this important agreement for the world food supply, criticizing in particular the fact that exports of Russian cereals and fertilizers were hampered by Western sanctions.
“We reiterated our conviction that the resumption of the agreement will restore stability,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan pleaded during a press conference with Sergei Lavrov. The latter explained that Russia would no longer be satisfied only with “promises” for its own exports, but wanted “guarantees with a concrete result that can be put into practice tomorrow”. And to specify: “in this case, the implementation of (the agreement) will resume in its entirety tomorrow”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of “interfering” with exports of agricultural products and fertilizers from Russia, which is like Ukraine a major world producer. He said he discussed with his Turkish counterpart the possibility of supplying Russian cereals to Turkey at knockdown prices. These Russian cereals would then be redirected to “the countries that need them most in the world”.
US arrests suspected trafficker of microchips to Russia in Cyprus
American justice announced, this Thursday, August 30, the arrest in Cyprus of a Russian-German suspected of having illegally exported to Russia electronic components for military use in violation of Washington sanctions against Moscow linked to the conflict in Ukraine . Arthur Petrov, 33, with dual German and Russian nationality, was arrested in Cyprus on August 26 at the request of US authorities and is being prosecuted for “violations of export rules, smuggling, fraud and money laundering”, announced in a press release the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, under the authority of the Department of Justice.
“Arthur Petrov organized a smuggling of American microelectronic technologies into Russia, intended for military application, the kind of components used by the Russian armed forces in their illegal invasion of Ukraine,” thundered Deputy Justice Minister Matthew Olsen. Under U.S. export control laws and sanctions against Moscow, the U.S. official said his government would “not tolerate any attempt […] to feed the Russian war machine”.
kyiv announces development of a missile capable of traveling 700 kilometers
Two days after a drone attack on Russia’s Pskov airport in northwestern Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Oleksi Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, announced on their social networks to be developing a weapon capable of hitting a target 700 kilometers away. They specify that tests have been “successful and effective”.
The drone attack that targeted Pskov airport in northwestern Russia this week was launched from Russian territory, the military intelligence chief said on Friday, claiming for the first time that the Ukraine operates from Russian territory.
“The drones used to attack the Kresty airbase in Pskov were launched from inside Russia,” Kyrylo Budanov said on his Telegram account, reposting the link to an article from the publication The War Zone to which he wrote. granted an interview. “We operate from the territory of Russia,” he insisted to this publication.