Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s air force said on Monday (September 9, 2024) it shot down six out of eight Russian-launched drones and two out of three missiles during an overnight attack over four Ukrainian regions.

Kyiv authorities said an attack on the city, the fifth in September, had not done damage or caused injuries in the capital.

Also Read:Two NATO members say Russian drones have violated their airspace

Russia has launched hundreds of missiles and drones to attack Ukraine in the past weeks, prompting Kyiv to reiterate to its Western allies the urgent need for air defence and long-range strike capacity to repel the attacks.

On Monday, the air defence shot down aerial targets in the Kyiv region with debris causing two fires in open areas which have since been put out, the regional authorities said.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, said air defence shot down two missiles there, in addition to one reconnaissance drone.

Russian shelling of the town of Nikopol in this region injured three people and killed a 16-year-old girl, Ms. Lysak said.

The governor of the central Cherkasy region said air defence destroyed one drone and debris caused a fire which has since been put out.

The energy ministry said Russian forces had also attacked energy facilities in seven regions within 24 hours. The statement did not detail the scale of damage at the facilities.

PM Narendra Modi is headed for his much-anticipated trip to Ukraine after wrapping up his two-day visit to Poland this morning. He is scheduled to meet the Ukrainian PM Volodymyr Zelenskyy, upon whose invite he is visiting the conflict-hit nation-state.

PM Modi’s Ukraine visit comes nearly six weeks after he visited Russia to discuss the conflict-ridden situation amid Russia Ukraine. This shall also be an Indian PM’s first visit to Ukraine.

The Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal posted on the social media platform X (formerly, Twitter) that PM Modi’s visit to Poland after four decades will widen and deepen India-Poland relations.

The UN secretary-general’s office said that they hope that the Indian PM’s visit to Ukraine might bring up the possibility of putting an end to the war.

Although India has yet to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, PM Modi’s statement said, “As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region.”

“I look forward to the opportunity to build upon earlier conversations with President Zelenskyy on strengthening bilateral cooperation and share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict. I am confident that the visit will serve as a natural continuation of extensive contacts with the two countries and help create the foundation for stronger and more vibrant relations in the years ahead,” it further added.

The Ukrainian PM congratulated PM Modi on his election victory earlier this year. 

Here are the live updates of PM Modi’s visit to Ukraine: 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister was in China on July 23 for talks on how officials there might help end the war with Russia, whose ties with Beijing have grown stronger since the conflict began.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

However, its deepening “no limits” partnership with Russia has led NATO members to brand it a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s war, which Beijing has never condemned.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s visit until on July 26 is his first since the war began in February 2022.

Kyiv said Mr. Kuleba’s visit would focus on “ways to stop Russian aggression” as well as “China’s possible role in achieving a sustainable and just peace”.

Beijing said on July 23 that the talks would focus on “advancing China-Ukraine cooperation and other issues of common interest”.

“On the Ukraine crisis, China always believes that an early ceasefire and a political settlement serves the common interests of all parties,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

“China will continue to stand on the side of peace and dialogue,” she said.

China has sought to paint itself as a mediator in the war, sending envoy Li Hui to Europe on multiple rounds of “shuttle diplomacy”.

President Xi Jinping told Hungary’s Viktor Orban this month that world powers should help Russia and Ukraine restart direct negotiations. Orban’s visit to Beijing was branded as a “peace mission”.

China also released a paper last year calling for a “political settlement” to the conflict. However, it was criticised by Western countries for enabling Russia to retain much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.

Beijing has rebuffed claims it is supporting Russia’s war effort, insisting last week that its position was “open and above board” and accusing the West of fuelling the conflict through arms shipments to Kyiv.

Beijing, a close political and economic ally of Russia, did not attend a peace summit in Switzerland last month in protest against Moscow not being invited.

‘Extract a price’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called during that summit for Beijing to engage seriously with developing peace proposals.

Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told AFP that Kyiv could likely seek this week to “convince China that it should participate in a second peace summit”.

“Beijing can try to extract a price, even for sending somebody like Special Envoy ambassador Li Hui,” he said.

China has offered a critical lifeline to Russia’s isolated economy since the conflict began.

That economic partnership has come under close scrutiny from the West in recent months, with Washington vowing to go after financial institutions that facilitate Moscow’s war effort.

The United States and Europe have also accused China of selling components and equipment necessary to keep Russia’s military production afloat.

Gabuev suggested that Beijing may this week “try to leverage this Ukrainian interest in a second peace summit… in order to get itself off the hook for deepening sanctions”.

But another analyst said it was possible that Beijing could be keen to play a larger role in mediating a conflict “that threatens to become increasingly costly for Chinese businesses and interests”.

“China is undoubtedly sustaining its overall support for Russia,” Bjorn Alexander Duben, an assistant professor at China’s Jilin University, told AFP.

“But there are signs that Beijing is getting increasingly wary of the diplomatic, political, and economic cost of its ongoing de facto support for Moscow,” he added.

After almost 30 months of war with Russia, Ukraine’s difficulties on the battlefield are mounting even as its vital support from the United States is increasingly at the mercy of changing political winds.

A six-month delay in military assistance from the U.S., the biggest single contributor to Ukraine, opened the door for the Kremlin’s forces to push on the front line. Ukrainian troops are now fighting to check the slow but gradual gains by Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army.

“The next two or three months are going to be probably the hardest this year for Ukraine,” military analyst Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment said in a recent podcast.

Lurking in the background is another nagging worry for Ukraine: how long will Western political and military support critical for its fight last?

On July 15, former President Donald Trump chose Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate for the Republican ticket in November’s U.S. election, and Mr. Vance wants the United States to attend to its own problems — not necessarily war thousands of miles away on a different continent, even though he has said Putin was wrong to invade.

That view dovetails with Mr. Trump’s own stance. Mr. Trump has claimed that if elected, he would end the conflict before Inauguration Day in January. He has declined to say how.

Meanwhile, Hungary’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency — recently infuriated other EU leaders by holding rogue meetings with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Europe’s biggest war since World War II has already cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides, including thousands of civilians. There is no sign of it ending any time soon.

And Mr. Putin wants to draw out the war in the hope of sapping Western willingness to send billions more dollars to Kyiv.

Here’s a look at Ukraine’s major challenges:

Russia holds 18% of Ukrainian territory, after defensive forces pushed it out of half of the area it seized following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank, said in May. In 2014, Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea.

Russia hasn’t accomplished a major battlefield victory since taking the eastern stronghold of Avdiivka in February. But its forces are now pushing in border regions: Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, Donetsk in the east and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

To buy time, Ukraine has employed an elastic defense strategy by ceding some territory to wear down Russian troops until Western supplies reach brigades. But, analysts warn, Russia will undoubtedly win a lengthy war of attrition, unless Ukraine can strike using an element of surprise.

Russia claimed on July 14 its forces had taken control of the Donetsk village of Urozhaine, but Ukrainian officials said there was still fighting there. Moscow’s army is aiming to take the nearby strategic hilltop city of Chasiv Yar, which could allow it to drive deeper into Donetsk.

Ukraine’s forces are largely holding back the Russian push around northeastern Kharkiv city, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank. The Kremlin’s troops have been trying to get within artillery range of the city and create a buffer zone in the region to prevent Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

Meanwhile, Russia is firing missiles into rear areas, hitting civilian infrastructure. Last week it conducted a massive aerial attack that killed 31 civilians and struck Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv.

Crippling Ukraine’s electricity supply has been a key goal of Russia’s relentless long-range missile and drone attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the bombardment has destroyed 80% of Ukraine’s thermal power and one-third of its hydroelectric power.

A hard winter likely lies ahead for Ukraine, analysts say.

Ukraine is such a large country that massive air defences would be needed to protect it all. The country needs 25 Patriot air defence systems to fully defend its airspace, Mr. Zelenskyy said on July 15.

New deliveries of ammunition to Ukraine are trickling to units along the line of contact, shrinking Kyiv’s heavy disadvantage in artillery shells and allowing it to start stabilizing the front line.

But it will take time for Kyiv’s army to fully replenish its depleted stocks. Ukraine won’t be able to assemble a counteroffensive until late this year at the earliest, military analysts estimate.

Russia, meanwhile, is spending record amounts of money on defence to finance its grinding war of attrition.

Russia’s go-to tactic is to smash towns and villages to pieces, rendering them unlivable and denying Ukrainians defensive cover. Powerful glide bombs flatten buildings. Then the Russian infantry moves in.

Ukraine was late to build defensive lines but its fortifications have improved in recent months, according to analyst reports.

The Russian army has made creeping progress at eastern and southern points along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line but has not recently made any significant breakthrough and its advances have been costly, Ukrainian officials say.

Ukraine in April adopted an expanded military conscription law that aimed to replenish its depleted and exhausted forces.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on July 15 the drive is going well, though the country doesn’t have enough training grounds for the new troops. Also, 14 brigades haven’t yet received their promised Western weapons.

NATO countries have taken steps this month to ensure that Ukraine keeps receiving long-term security aid and military training.

Alliance leaders attending a summit in Washington last week signed a deal to send more Stinger missiles, a portable surface-to-air defense system.

Ukraine is also preparing to receive the first F-16 warplanes donated by European countries.

Even so, Mr. Zelenskyy is frustrated. He says Ukraine cannot win the war unless the U.S. scraps its limits on the use of its weapons to attack military targets on Russian soil.

Finding ways: Andrii Denysenko, head of the startup UkrPrototyp, stands by a ground drone prototype in northern Ukraine. 
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Struggling with manpower shortages, overwhelming odds and uneven international assistance, Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in an abandoned warehouse or a factory basement.

An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.

Defence startups across Ukraine — about 250 according to industry estimates — are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.

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Cost-effective

Employees at a startup run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days at a shed used by the company.

Its most important feature is the price tag: $35,000, or roughly 10% of the cost of an imported model.

Mr. Denysenko asked not to publish details of the location.

The site is partitioned into small rooms for welding and bodywork. That includes making fibreglass cargo beds, spray-painting the vehicles gun-green and fitting basic electronics, battery-powered engines, off-the-shelf cameras and thermal sensors.

The military is assessing dozens of new unmanned air, ground and marine vehicles produced by the no-frills startup sector, whose production methods are far removed from giant Western defence companies’.

A fourth branch of Ukraine’s military — the Unmanned Systems Forces — joined the army, navy and air force in May.

Engineers take inspiration from articles in defence magazines or online videos to produce cut-price platforms.

‘War is mathematics’

“We are fighting a huge country, and they don’t have any resource limits. We understand that we cannot spend a lot of human lives,” said Mr. Denysenko, who heads the defence startup UkrPrototyp. “War is mathematics.”

One of its drones, the car-sized Odyssey, spun on its axis and kicked up dust as it rumbled forward in a cornfield in the north of the country last month.

The 800-kilogram (1,750-pound) prototype that looks like a small, turretless tank with its wheels on tracks can travel up to 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) on one charge of a battery the size of a small beer cooler.

The prototype acts as a rescue-and-supply platform but can be modified to carry a remotely operated heavy machine gun or sling mine-clearing charges.

“Squads of robots … will become logistics devices, tow trucks, minelayers and deminers, as well as self-destructive robots,” a government fundraising page said after the launch of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. “The first robots are already proving their effectiveness on the battlefield.”

“There will be more of them soon,” the fundraising page said. “Many more.”

Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service said on May 30 that its forces had used naval drones to destroy two Russian patrol boats off Moscow-annexed Crimea.

The GUR agency wrote on Telegram that its Group 13 special forces unit using Ukrainian naval drones “successfully attacked the boats of the aggressor state of Russia in temporarily occupied Crimea”.

It said that Russia used fighter planes and helicopters to try to destroy the drones in the Vuzka bay in northwestest Crimea, as well as firing on them using small arms and 30 mm cannons.

It posted video footage of a helicopter firing into the water and bright flashes of fire apparently coming from the coast, saying this did not prevent the Ukrainians from “successfully completing their combat mission”.

“As a result of the strike, two Russian boats were destroyed,” GUR said, adding that according to preliminary data, they were high-speed amphibious vessels of the KS-701 Tunets type.

The GUR video shows footage from a drone showing it honing in on two moored boats, as well as nighttime footage of a massive explosion sending a plume of smoke up into the air.

The KS-701 small motor boats, made in Russia, are used for coastal patrols.

Russia said earlier it had destroyed two Ukrainian naval drones “heading for Crimea” and intercepted 13 aerial drones in the southern Krasnodar region and over the Black Sea near Crimea.

Russia also said it shot down eight tactical ATACMS missiles over the Sea of Azov, near Crimea.

Russia’s defence ministry later said the Black Sea fleet had destroyed four Ukrainian naval drones, without giving details.

Faced with more than two years of Russian bombardments, Ukraine has taken the fight to Russian soil, often targeting energy infrastructure across the border.

Separately, Russia’s FSB security service said that it had foiled a series of sabotage attacks planned by Ukrainian special services on railway lines in Crimea.

The FSB said it detained four local residents recruited by Ukraine, while their leader, a Russian citizen, was killed during capture by an exploding IUD, Russian news agencies reported.

Russian television said the agents had planned to paralyse the movement of trains, so that Ukrainians could attack them with rockets. Video footage showed confiscated cartridges, an old machine gun, a pistol and a Kalashnikov.

Washington, United States:

The United States blacklisted five Turkish companies as part of sweeping new sanctions aiming to hamstring the Russian economy over its war on Ukraine.

Three Turkish firms were placed under sanctions for supplying Russian defense-related manufacturers, including UAV producers, with parts and technology equipment.

Another two Turkish firms, and the owner of one of them, were hit for providing ship repair services to vessels controlled by or involved with the Russian defense sector.

They were among more than 150 individuals, companies and institutions added to the US Treasury and State Department blacklists for their alleged roles in supporting Russia’s nearly 19 month old war against Ukraine.

Most of those named were Russian manufacturers, trading companies and institutes supporting the production of arms and other supplies for the Russian armed forces, and individuals who own or manage those entities.

In addition two individuals involved with Russia’s Wagner private military group were placed on the sanctions blacklist, one for facilitating arms trade with North Korea, and the other over Wagner’s role in the Central African Republic.

“The US government is targeting individuals and entities engaged in sanctions evasion and circumvention, those complicit in furthering Russia’s ability to wage its war against Ukraine, and those responsible for bolstering Russia’s future energy production,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Friday that “slower” arms shipments from Western countries were threatening his counteroffensive, calling for more powerful and long-range weapons to push back Russian forces.

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western weapons, but has made limited gains as its troops encounter heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

“All processes are becoming more complicated and slower — from sanctions to the provision of weapons,” Zelensky said in comments published on the presidential website.

“The longer it takes, the more people suffer,” he warned.

– Elections –

His comments came as Moscow held local elections on Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, condemned by Kyiv and international groups as a sham.

“Russia’s pseudo-elections in the temporarily occupied territories are worthless,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement, accusing Moscow of “grossly violating” its sovereignty.

Russia said voting was underway in the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — none of which Moscow fully controls — as well as in Crimea.

Zelensky also said that Russia was hoping upcoming US presidential elections would reduce Washington’s support for Kyiv, insisting it was “important that the American people support democracy, support Ukraine, support our struggle”.

He acknowledged that while Ukraine had bipartisan backing, there were “voices in the Republican Party who say that support for Ukraine should be reduced”.

In a meeting in Kyiv, Zelensky also declared he was prepared to hold elections in Ukraine despite the possibility of ongoing combat, saying his government was ready to adjust to wartime constraints to make sure legitimate polls were held.

“I am ready for the elections. I mean, we are ready if it is necessary,” he said.

He acknowledged potential difficulties, including for refugees and people in Russian-occupied territories, and the need for servicemen on the front to have their say.

“For us the main thing is not to hold elections, but for them to be recognised,” he said.

– ‘War crime’ –

Russia continued to pound central and eastern Ukraine with air strikes Friday, with Ukrainian officials posting images of the destruction on social media.

“A Russian aerial bomb killed three civilians in Odradokamyanka — two women and a man. Four local residents were injured,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, calling the attack a “war crime”.

Odradokamyanka is about 60 kilometres (40 miles) upstream of Kherson city, on the west bank of the Dnipro river, which was recaptured by Ukraine’s forces last November.

A separate Russian strike on Friday targeted Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rig, hitting a police building in the city centre and killing a policeman, Klymenko said.

Photos from the scene showed smoke spewing from the ruins of the building as rescue workers carried an injured person to an ambulance.

“Rescuers of the State Emergency Service pulled out three more from under the rubble. They are in serious condition,” Klymenko said.

Russia also struck the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine, officials said, while one man was wounded in a rocket attack on Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.

– ‘The next step’ –

Zelensky and Ukrainian officials have frequently hit back at criticism that Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and east has been too slow.

“When some partners say: what about the counteroffensive, when will the next step be? My answer is that today our steps are probably faster than new sanctions packages,” Zelensky said Friday.

“There is a specific impact of a specific weapon. The more powerful and long-range it is, the faster the counteroffensive is,” he said.

Zelensky’s request for new arms supplies came a day after top US diplomat Antony Blinken wrapped up his surprise two-day visit to Ukraine, in which he announced $1 billion of new wartime aid.

Also on Friday, Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash last month.

“He killed Prigozhin, at least we all have this information and not any other,” he said.

Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, died with nine other people when a plane flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed on August 23.

Exactly two months earlier, Prigozhin had openly challenged Russia’s military high command by leading a short-lived mutiny with his fighters that threatened to spiral into civil conflict.

The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said he is not very hopeful that there will be a peace solution in the immediate future for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Addressing a press conference here ahead of the G20 summit, Antonio Guterres said the two countries still do not appear to be ending the conflict.

Asked whether India could mediate to end the war, he said, “When you have a conflict, all efforts of mediation are welcome…. (But) I am not very hopeful that we will have a peace solution in the immediate future.” On the need for reforms to multilateral institutions, Antonio Guterres said when these multilateral institutions were created, many of the countries of today did not even exist.

“This is true for the UNSC and many others,” he said.

Asked whether it was time for India to become a member of the UNSC, Antonio Guterres said, “It is not for me to decide who would be in the UNSC, it is for the members (to decide).” “But it is obvious that India is today the country of the world with the largest population and it is a very important partner in the multilateral system.”

“All I can say is that I believe that we need reforms in the multilateral system to reflect today’s world,” he added.

Asked whether there should be a timeline for reforms to the multilateral institutions, Antonio Guterres said, “There is a need to do it, but I am not sure if we get it. But I think it is urgent.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)