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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was “not in a hurry” to end military operations in Ukraine and threatened to step up attacks on civilian targets. The leaders of China and India both expressed concern about the war to Putin.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia had committed war crimes following the discovery of a mass burial site in one of Ukraine’s newly-liberated eastern regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed an upcoming visit by United Nations investigators to the sites.
Another Ukrainian wheat cargo has sailed for Ethiopia under a UN humanitarian program, as Putin renews his threat to torpedo a safe-transit agreement reached in July for Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports.
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Key Developments
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Biden Meets Griner, Whelan Families as Russia Sits on Swap Offer
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Putin Threatens New Military Strikes on Ukraine Infrastructure
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Zelenskiy Says Russia Responsible for Grave Site Found in Izyum
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Russia Puts Rate Path in Doubt After Smallest Cut This Year
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Modi Urges Peace in Ukraine, Joining Xi in Questioning Putin
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Putin’s War Is Deepening a Tussle for Influence in Central Asia
On the Ground
Russia’s invasion is approaching the seven-month mark. Overnight, Moscow’s troops shelled the towns of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, and Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region. The Slavyanska thermal power plant was hit, causing equipment damage and a fire. Ukrainian’s ministry on reintegration said over 80,000 people had left dangerous areas of Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv in the past month. Earlier this week, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said as many as 1.2 million Ukrainians are still in occupied areas. Russia’s defense ministry reported more shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by Ukraine; Kyiv and Moscow have repeatedly blamed each other for shelling near the plant.
(All times CET)
Russian Envoy Warns on Weapons; ‘Poisoned Offer’ Seen Soon From Kremlin (12:24 p.m.)
Russia’s ambassador to Germany warned that delivering more armaments to Ukraine will merely lead to a longer war, as Western countries look for ways to boost Kyiv’s recent counteroffensive in the northeast.
“Supplying weapons is a path to a dead end,” Sergei Netshaev told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “It will prolong the fighting. It will bring additional victims.” His comment comes after Putin threatened new strikes on civilian targets.
The prospects of peace talks with Russia is being viewed skeptically by foreign policy experts in Berlin, the newspaper reported. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael Roth told the paper, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kremlin soon makes a poisoned offer of negotiations to Ukraine to secure the occupied territories, given the dramatic losses of the past few days.”
Ukrainian Wheat Cargo Headed for For Ethiopia (12:30 p.m.)
A vessel charted by the UN’s World Food Program has departed Ukraine carrying 30,000 tons of wheat for Ethiopia, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said on Twitter.
The shipment comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to curtail the safe-transit deal reached in July for exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, saying not enough cargoes are going to the world’s poor.
Millions of tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been exported under the deal so far, including to Africa. The availability of supplies from Ukraine has helped knock benchmark wheat prices down to pre-war levels, benefiting all buyers.
Read more: Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Grain Deal Belied by Shipping Data
Ukraine PM Says $1.5 Billion Grant Delivered (12:12 p.m.)
Kyiv has received a grant of $1.5 billion from the US, the final tranche of $4.5 billion from World Bank Trust Fund, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Twitter.
Scholz Pledges Weapons, Wants to Avoid Broader Conflict (10:17 a.m.)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to keep supplying weapons to Ukraine, even while trying to avoid stoking a broader conflict between Moscow and Germany’s NATO allies.
“We have supported Ukraine, we will do that, we are doing it on a very large scale and also with very relevant weapons that we are providing,” Scholz told the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “At the same time, our goal remains that there should not be an escalation of the war.”
Germany has reportedly agreed to export and finance additional artillery for Kyiv. Eighteen units of the RCH-155 weapon system from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann worth 216 million euros ($216 million) have been approved for delivery, Welt am Sonntag reported, citing Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk.
Russia Hangs Onto Key Resupply Route in Luhansk, UK Says (7 a.m.)
Even as Ukraine’s offensive operations continue in the northeast, Russian forces have established a defensive line between the Oskil River and the town of Svatove in Luhansk, east of Izyum, the UK defence ministry said.
“Russia likely sees maintaining control of this zone as important because it is transited by one of the few main resupply routes Russia still controls from the Belgorod region of Russia,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Biden Meets Griner, Whelan Families as Russia Sits on Swap Offer (6 a.m.)
President Joe Biden met on Friday with family members of two Americans who detained in Russia, as his national security adviser said Moscow hadn’t responded to a prisoner-swap offer from August.
Biden met separately with Elizabeth Whelan, sister of former US Marine Paul Whelan, and Cherelle Griner, wife of WNBA player Brittney Griner. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan attended both meetings.
Ukraine FM Speaks With UN Atomic Chief About Zaporizhzhia NPP (3 a.m.)
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke Friday with the head of the UN’s atomic agency about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia since March and shut down this week for safety reasons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has started talks with Russia and Ukraine about creating a safety and security zone around the plant.
Read more: IAEA Says Zaporizhzhia NPP ‘Stabilized’ After Unit 6 Shutdown
Zelenskiy Welcomes a UN Inquiry Into Izyum Graves (1:28 a.m.)
Zelenskiy welcomed a UN decision to send investigators to the Ukrainian town of Izyum after the discovery of hundreds of bodies there, including civilian adults and children. In his nightly video address on Friday he said that Ukraine would provide full access now that the town has been recaptured from Russian forces.
Earlier Friday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva said some its personnel in Ukraine would be going to Izyum.
“There is already clear evidence of torture, humiliating treatment of people,” Zelenskiy said. “Moreover, there is evidence that Russian soldiers, whose positions were not far from this place, shot at the buried just for fun.”
Blinken Accuses Russia of War Crimes in Ukraine (6:27 p.m.)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine and that the world must collect evidence so that perpetrators are brought to justice.
Reports of a mass burial site near the retaken city of Izyum are “part, horrifically, of a continuum, an ongoing story,” Blinken told reporters at a briefing in Washington.
Still, he again pushed back against pressure to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Putin Sees No Hurry to End Campaign, Warns of Stepped-Up Efforts (6:20 p.m.)
Vladimir Putin said Russia was “not in a hurry” to end its military campaign against Ukraine, hours after telling India’s leader that Moscow would strive to end the conflict as soon as possible. Putin threatened to step up attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, days after damaging a major dam in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home town, causing widespread flooding.
Putin made televised remarks after a regional summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He said Russia remains committed to the “liberation” of Donbas, the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“The Russian army is occupying newer and newer territories,” Putin said, adding that Moscow is “not fighting with a full army” in Ukraine.
Putin Threatens New Military Strikes on Ukraine Infrastructure
Putin Meets With Modi, Who Urges Peace in Ukraine (3:39 p.m.)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Putin to seek peace in Ukraine, following China in expressing concern about the almost seven-month-old conflict roiling the global economy.
Modi told Putin that “today’s era is not one for war,” during in their first face-to-face meeting on Friday since Russia invaded Ukraine and launched the bloodiest war in Europe in more than 70 years.
The Indian leader, whose country has continued to buy oil and arms from Russia despite US pleas to cut off funding, indicated he had previously expressed similar concerns in phone calls.
Read more: Modi Urges Peace in Ukraine, Joining Xi in Questioning Putin
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