Russia-Ukraine latest: Zelenskyy vows to continue retaking towns

Ukrainian forces are not scraping US-provided arms, and instead are reverse-engineering spare parts, and recalling artillery with shrapnel damage to continue the counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion.

Some members of a roughly 50-member repair team showed reporters images of damaged United States-provided arms, including M777 howitzers, that in the West would have long been considered beyond the scope of repair. Not in Ukraine.

Ukrainians are managing to bring these weapons back into battle, thanks to guidance from US forces and manufacturing prowess by Kyiv allowing it to reverse-engineer spare parts.

Since the programme began in June, more than a dozen teleconference channels have been set up with over 100 Ukrainian contacts.

But priority support is being given to the M777s and to the high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) that have been central to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the seven months since Russian forces invaded.

The European Union’s executive arm has proposed suspending $7.5bn in financing for Hungary, as it awaited potential “game-changer” anti-corruption reforms from Budapest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government also came under renewed fire for its close ties with Moscow, accused of having dragged its feet on freezing Russian assets since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The EU’s Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders added to the tensions between Brussels and Hungary on Sunday as he said the government’s friendliness with the Kremlin was potentially behind its foot-dragging on implementing anti-Russian sanctions.

Reynders said that while the bloc had frozen assets worth $14.5bn following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hungary had only contributed just over $3,000 to the total.

“We must put a lot of pressure” on Hungary because “we can assume that its very close ties with Russia are perhaps preventing it from acting”, he told television channel LCI.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak described Hungary as a “Trojan horse seeking the collapse of [the] EU at the expense of European taxpayers.

“Let’s call a spade a spade… Orban hates Ukraine and dreams of [a] ‘Russian world’ in Europe. Should [the] EU finance these diversions?” he wrote on Twitter.

Orbán says that he will fight for the lifting of sanctions against 🇷🇺. Let's call a spade a spade. Hungary – Trojan horse seeking the collapse of 🇪🇺 at the expense of European taxpayers. Orbán hates 🇺🇦 and dreams of "Russian world" in Europe. Should EU finance these diversions?

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 18, 2022

A group of Sri Lankan nationals freed from custody in Russian-held east Ukraine have said they spent months in captivity being beaten.

Police officials said the group had arrived in Ukraine to work and to study in Kupiansk just three weeks before the Russian invasion on February 24.

The group tried to flee Kupiansk after Russian forces conquered the town on February 27, but were detained at a Russian checkpoint and driven to Vovchansk.

There the six men and one woman say they were imprisoned in a factory compound, beaten, fed little and given restricted access to toilets or washing facilities.

They were asked to pay a ransom for their freedom, they said.

Serhii Bolvinov, the regional police chief, said the group walked from Vovchansk to safety at a hotel after Ukrainian soldiers freed them from their cells.

There, a security guard took the group in and informed the local police, who are now housing the group while they testify about their treatment at the hands of the Russian forces.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that mass graves found in Ukraine were evidence of Russia’s war crimes and that full accountability for its actions was needed.

Trudeau, in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, told reporters that he had met with British Prime Minister Liz Truss and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was at the top of their agenda.

“Obviously the UK and Canada have been two of the strongest countries in standing up in support of Ukraine and pushing back against Russia’s illegal actions,” Trudeau said.

Those actions “increasingly, clearly include war crimes, include absolutely unacceptable crimes, whether we think of what we found in Bucha or the discovery of mass graves in the reclaimed territories by Ukraine,” he said.

First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska has paid her respects to Queen Elizabeth II, now lying in state at Westminster Hall, and has joined a reception with Catherine, the Princess of Wales, at Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom.

This was the first visit to the UK by the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Zelenska was accompanied by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal and the country’s ambassador to London, Vadym Prystaiko.

The UK government opted not to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin or an ambassador to the queen’s funeral, prompting anger from Moscow.

While Zelenskyy does not leave war-torn Ukraine, Zelenska has travelled widely to urge Kyiv’s allies to help the country’s armed forces with weaponry.

This week Zelenska visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and received a standing ovation from lawmakers.

Zelenska also addressed the United States Congress in July.

The top United States general has cautioned that it was still unclear how Russia might react to the latest battlefield setbacks in Ukraine and called for vigilance among US troops as he visited a base in Poland aiding Ukraine’s war effort.

“The war is not going too well for Russia right now. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to maintain high states of readiness, alert,” US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Warsaw following a visit to a US military base.

Milley said he was not suggesting US troops in Europe were under any increased threat, but said they had to be ready, Reuters reported.

“In the conduct of war,” Milley said, “you just don’t know with a high degree of certainty what will happen next.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned against punishing African nations for maintaining ties with Russia.

The Biden administration has put a new focus on Africa after being taken aback by the reluctance of some nations to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Ramaphosa, however, warned President Joe Biden over a piece of legislation that has passed through the US House of Representatives, which would require a strategy to counter Moscow’s role in Africa.

“I think it will harm Africa and marginalise the continent,” Ramaphosa told reporters after his meetings. “We should not be told by anyone who we can associate with.”

The legislation, called the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, has yet to clear the Senate and US policymakers stress that it does not in itself lay out any repercussions for African countries.

Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, has denounced Russia’s war in Ukraine which she said was killing soldiers for illusory aims, burdening common people and turning Russia into a global pariah.

Pugacheva, 73, a Soviet and then post-Soviet icon who is probably Russia’s most famous woman, requested Russia also class her as a “foreign agent” after her husband, 46-year-old TV comedian Maxim Galkin, was on Friday included in the state’s list.

“I ask you to include me among the ranks of foreign agents of my beloved country because I am in solidarity with my husband,” Pugacheva said on Instagram, which is banned in Russia.

According to Reuters, labelling someone a “foreign agent” is often the first sign of serious trouble from authorities. The label has negative Soviet-era connotations, and its bearers have to place it prominently on all content they publish. They also face arduous financial and bureaucratic requirements.

The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, has called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izyum, a town in northeastern Ukraine.

“In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” said Jan Lipavsky, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic.

Ukrainian officials have discovered more than 440 bodies, some found with their hands tied behind their backs.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global food crisis aggravated by the war will be the focus of world leaders when they convene at the United Nations in New York this week.

“It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres before the high-level meeting of the 193-member UN General Assembly, which starts on Tuesday.

“The chances of a peace deal are minimal at the present moment,” he said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country is “steadfast in its support of Ukraine” and would continue to provide aid to the country as it defends itself against a months-long invasion by Russia.

Trudeau, in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, is scheduled to meet Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Sunday evening.

A total of 165 ships with 3.7 million tonnes of agricultural products on board have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry has said.

The ministry said 10 ships with 169,300 tonnes of agricultural products are due to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday.

Ukraine’s grain exports slumped after Russia invaded the country on February 24 and blockaded its Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.

Ukraine, a global major grain producer and exporter, shipped up to 6 million tonnes of grain per month before the war.

Three Black Sea ports were reopened under a deal signed on July 22 by Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian seaports, and the ministry has said these ports are able to load and send abroad 100-150 cargo ships per month.

A leading Ukrainian ballet dancer who died this week fighting on the front line of his country’s war against Russian occupiers has been honoured with a memorial service in the National Opera of Ukraine.

The National Opera described Oleksandr Shapoval as a “courageous romantic” and brave warrior who died under Russian mortar shelling in eastern Ukraine on September 12.

Mourners, including soldiers from Shapoval’s unit, honour guards and members of the artistic community of Kyiv, crowded the lobby of the opera house, laying flowers on his coffin before it was wrapped in a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.

Shapoval, 47, retired from a long dancing career at the National Opera last year and began teaching in Kyiv before joining a territorial guard to defend the capital after Russia’s invasion.

He later volunteered to join the army and fought in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the scene of some of the war’s most intense fighting.

The funeral ceremony extended to the environs of the National Opera.

A final ovation for ballet dancer Oleksandr Shapoval at the Kyiv Opera House.

He’d performed for 28 seasons before volunteering to fight in the east.

While Ukraine enjoys successes on the battlefield, his death is a reminder of the enduring, awful cost of this war. pic.twitter.com/6V1m2vVFlr

— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) September 17, 2022

Australia will not ban Russian tourists from entering the country as part of sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, Defence Minister Richard Marles has said.

Since the start of the conflict, Australia has sanctioned hundreds of Russian individuals and entities, including most of Russia’s banking sector and all organisations responsible for the country’s sovereign debt.

It has also supplied defence equipment and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine, while outlawing exports of alumina and aluminium ores, including bauxite, to Russia.

Asked if Australia would also ban Russian tourists, Marles said sanctions were aimed at Russia’s government, “not the Russian people themselves”.

“This is not something we are considering at the moment,” he told ABC television.

Meanwhile, Australia is “assessing” whether to reopen the Australian embassy in Kyiv.

It is also considering sending further military aid to Ukraine to bolster existing commitments.

“We do need to be preparing ourselves for protracted conflict and on that basis, we get that we are going to need to provide support for Ukraine over the long term,” Marles said.

US President Joe Biden urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine in a clip released by CBS on Sunday.

“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,” he told the news programme 60 Minutes.

Ukraine’s military drove back Russian forces in a lightning rout in the northeast of the country last week, putting Putin under pressure from nationalists at home to regain the initiative.

Putin has warned that Moscow would respond more forcefully if its troops were put under further pressure, raising concerns he could at some point use unconventional means such as small nuclear or chemical weapons.

Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of provoking fighting in Kherson after a video showed clashes in the centre of the occupied Ukrainian city the previous evening.

Russian official media Vesti-Crimea broadcast the video showing an exchange of fire around two armoured vehicles near Kherson train station. The Moscow-installed administration of Kherson said later in the day it had “destroyed” a group of attackers.

“There was a clash in the centre of Kherson between sections of the Russian armed forces patrolling the streets of the city and an unidentified group of people,” the administration said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian southern army command spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said the shootings in Kherson were “provocations by the occupiers”.

Russia has widened its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in the past week and is likely to expand its target range further in “a move to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian government and people”, the UK’s defence ministry said in a brief.

“In the last seven days, Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect,” it said.

“As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.”

The Russian army is offering nearly $2,700 a month as an incentive for civilians to fight in Ukraine.

Soldiers in camouflage and black masks showed their guns to interested passersby in the southern Russian city of Rostov and handed out colour brochures titled “Military service on a contract – the choice of a real man”.

The officer in charge said Russians and foreigners aged from 18 to 60 with at least a high school education would be eligible.

“Patriotically minded citizens are choosing to sign contracts for three or six months to take part in the special military operation,” Major Sergey Ardashev said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says investigators have discovered new evidence of torture used against some soldiers buried near Izyum, one of more than 20 towns retaken in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

In a video address on Saturday, he said authorities found a mass grave containing the bodies of 17 soldiers in Izyum, some of whom he said bore signs of torture.

Valery Marchenko, mayor of Izyum, has told state television that “the exhumation is under way, the graves are being dug up and all the remains are being transported to Kharkiv”.

He added, “The work will continue for another two weeks, there are many burials. No new ones have been found yet, but the services are looking for possible burials.”

Moscow regularly denies committing atrocities in the war or deliberately attacking civilians. The Kremlin has not commented publicly on the discovery of the graves.

The head of the pro-Russian administration that abandoned the area earlier this month accused Ukrainians of staging the atrocities at Izyum. “I have not heard anything about burials,” Vitaly Ganchev told Rossiya-24 state television.