Russia-Ukraine warfare reside: Russian counter-offensive reported in Kursk

Russian drones inflicted important harm to the northern Ukrainian city of Konotop’s vitality infrastructure in an in a single day assault that injured no less than 14 folks and reduce electrical energy to the settlement, native officers stated on Thursday.

In line with a report by the Reuters information company, rescuers have been working to revive energy within the city, which had a prewar inhabitants of about 83,000. Regional officers stated there had been 10 explosions throughout the assault and mayor Artem Semenikhin stated the facility system was in vital situation.

“At the moment, energy workers are doing everything they can to provide electricity to the hospital and the water supply system,” he stated within the early hours of Thursday. Hospitals continued to function, he added.

Konotop is in Sumy area, which has been notably focused by Russia in current weeks.

The strike on Konotop was a part of a broader Russian assault utilizing 64 drones, the air drive stated. It shot down 44 of them over 9 completely different areas, it stated.

Reuters reviews that Semenikhin stated the authorities in Konotop didn’t know when the facility could be restored and so they deliberate to produce water on hourly foundation.

The assault additionally broken seven house buildings, medical and academic establishments, a store, a financial institution and a piece of the city’s tramway, regional prosecutors and native officers stated.

The Russian drone assault additionally precipitated a fireplace at a furnishings storage warehouse within the central Khmelnytskyi area which emergency providers have been nonetheless attempting to extinguish within the morning, governor Serhiy Tiurin stated.

The governor of the northern Chernihiv area stated Russia had stepped up its assaults there up to now day, inflicting harm to the area’s infrastructure. He didn’t say what precisely had been hit, reviews Reuters.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest trace but that the White Home is about to elevate its restrictions on Ukraine utilizing long-range weapons equipped by the west on key navy targets inside Russia, with a choice understood to have already been made in non-public.

Talking in Kyiv alongside the UK overseas secretary, David Lammy, Blinken stated the US had “from day one” been keen to adapt its coverage because the scenario on the battlefield in Ukraine modified. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised.

Blinken stated he and Lammy would report again to their “bosses” – Joe Biden and Keir Starmer – after their talks on Wednesday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The overseas secretary urged Iran’s dispatch of ballistic missiles to Moscow – revealed this week – had modified strategic pondering in London and Washington. It was a “significant and dangerous escalation”, he stated.

He added: “The escalator here is Putin. Putin has escalated with the shipment of missiles from Iran. We see a new axis of Russia, Iran and North Korea.” Lammy urged China “not to throw in its lot” with what he known as “a group of renegades”.

British authorities sources indicated {that a} resolution had already been made to permit Ukraine to make use of Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia, though it’s not anticipated to be publicly introduced on Friday when Starmer meets Biden in Washington DC.

The 2 leaders are planning to debate the warfare in Ukraine, and the way it may very well be ended, as a part of a wide-ranging overseas coverage dialogue, although they are going to keep away from an intense give attention to any particular person weapons system, because the goal of the dialog is strategic.

You possibly can learn the total piece by Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh right here:

Russian forces have begun a major counter-offensive in opposition to Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk area, in accordance with pro-Moscow warfare bloggers and a senior Russian commander.

Professional-Ukrainian observers additionally reported heavy combating in a part of the occupied space and the doable Russian recapture of villages.

Russian forces have been stated to have taken a number of villages on the west of the sliver of Russia that Ukraine has carved out, pushing Ukrainian forces to the east of the Malaya Loknya river south of Snagost. Russia’s defence ministry stated it had defeated Ukrainian items at quite a lot of villages.

There was no impartial affirmation or speedy remark from Ukraine.

In different developments:

• Ukraine’s air drive stated on Thursday it had shot down 44 out of 64 drones launched by Russia in a single day. Russian forces additionally used 5 missiles, the air drive added in a press release posted on the Telegram messaging app.

• The Institute for the Examine of Warfare stated on Thursday morning that it could be “premature to draw conclusions” concerning the counterattacks at this stage. The thinktank reported: “Russian forces began counterattacks along the western edge of the Ukrainian salient in Kursk oblast and reportedly seized several settlements north-east and south of Korenevo on September 10 and 11.”

• The ISW continued: “The size, scale, and potential prospects of the September 11 Russian counterattacks in Kursk oblast are unclear and the situation remains fluid as of this report … Ukrainian forces reportedly began new attacks against the Russian counterattack west of Snagost and throughout the Ukrainian salient in Kursk oblast.” Maj Gen Apti Alaudinov, who instructions Chechnya’s Akhmat particular forces combating in Kursk, stated Russian troops had gone on the offensive and brought again management of about 10 settlements in Kursk.

• The UK’s overseas secretary, David Lammy, and his US counterpart Antony Blinken have returned to Poland after their go to to Ukraine. The pair took the in a single day prepare from Kyiv and crossed into jap Poland at 6.30am native time.

• US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest trace but that the White Home is about to elevate its restrictions on Ukraine utilizing long-range weapons equipped by the west on key navy targets inside Russia. A call is known to have already been made in non-public. Blinken and the British overseas secretary, David Lammy, met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, in Kyiv on Wednesday.

• British authorities sources indicated {that a} resolution had already been made to permit Ukraine to make use of Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia, though it’s not anticipated to be publicly introduced on Friday when Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, meets Joe Biden in Washington DC.