Summary and welcome
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. At 7.30am in Kyiv, these are the latest developments.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was involved in a traffic accident in Kyiv, but he is not seriously hurt, his spokesperson said in a Facebook post early on Thursday. Serhii Nykyforov, who did not say when the accident occurred, said Zelenskiy’s car had collided with a private vehicle. “The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” he said, adding the accident would be investigated. Medics accompanying Zelenskiy gave the driver of the private car emergency aid and put him in an ambulance, he said.
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Eight Russian missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday were directed at hydraulic structures, causing enough damage that the water level of the Inhulets RInhulets riveriver was rising and posing a serious threat to the city. This aligns with Ukraine’s concerns that Russia will continue to target Ukraine’s infrastructure in retribution for its success in regaining occupied territory. Kryvyi Rih is Zelenskiy’s home town.
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In his nightly televised address, video of which was posted shortly after the accident, Zelenskiy said he had just returned from the area around Kharkiv, adding that “almost the entire region is de-occupied” after a lightning counteroffensive to dislodge Russian troops. “It was an unprecedented movement of our soldiers – the Ukrainians once again managed to do what many thought was impossible,” he said. After visiting the liberated city of Izium, Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s troops had recaptured around 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) of territory.
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Ukraine’s defence ministry found what its officials believe to be a “torture chamber” used by Russian troops to hold Ukrainian prisoners in the city of Balakliia. While some Balakliia residents told the Guardian that they had little interaction with the Russian forces, who mostly stayed on edges of the town, and did not experience the scenes of torture and execution seen elsewhere in the country, Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv region national police investigation department, said that 40 people had been detained during the occupation. One resident told the BBC that he was held by Russians in the city’s police station for more than 40 days and was tortured with electrocution.
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Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft guns and 65 refrigerators to Ukraine, the German government announced on Wednesday. The four additional units bring the total number of Gepard units provided by Germany to Ukraine to 24.
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Kremlin sources “are now working to clear [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin of any responsibly of the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv oblast on under-informed military advisers”, according to the Institute of the Study of War. In a statement reported by CNBC, the institute said that “Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail”.
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The prospects for peace in Ukraine are currently “minimal”, the UN secretary general said on Wednesday after a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin. “I have the feeling we are still far away from peace. I would be lying if I would say it could happen soon,” Guterres said, adding: “I have no illusion; at the present moment the chances of a peace deal are minimal.” Even a ceasefire was “not in sight”, he said.
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Putin still believes he was right to launch an invasion of Ukraine, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Wednesday after a 90-minute telephone call with the Russian president. “Sadly, I cannot tell you that the impression has grown that it was a mistake to begin this war,” Scholz said in a press briefing.
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Russian troops have returned to Kreminna, a city in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region that was “completely empty” yesterday, said Serhiy Hadai, the region’s governor, and tore down the Ukrainian flags that local partisans had raised in celebration. Yesterday, a similar situation happened in Svatove – Russian troops left but returned after some time, Hadai said. Russian troops also left Starobilsk, another city in the Luhansk region.
Key events
Flooding ‘receding’ in Krivyi Rih after 112 homes affected – reports
Following a Russian strike with eight cruise missiles on Wednesday on civilian water infrastructure on the town of Kryvyi Rih there has been flooding.
Reuters reports that Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Krivyi Rih military administration, said in a post on Telegram that 112 homes were flooded but that works to repair the dam on the Inhulets river were under way, and that “flooding was receding”.
Rail services will resume between Kharkiv and Balakliia in Kharkiv oblast on Thursday, the Kyiv Independent reports, based on a Telegram post from Ukrainian Railways. Workers have already repaired bridges and dozens of damaged tracks after Balakliia was liberated on 8 September.
Ukrainian forces shot down four Russian planes in the past 24 hours, the Kyiv Independent reports, based on an update from the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. The update said three Russian Su-25 and one Su-24m were shot down while operating over Ukrainian territory, while the Russian forces’ primary tactic continued to be the targeting of civilian settlements, 30 of which were fired at with artillery, missiles, or a combination of both.
A Russian official who called for Vladimir Putin to resign on Monday is standing by his statements, despite being fined and threatened with jail time, CNN reports.
Nikita Yuferev, a deputy in Smolninskoye Municipal District in St Petersburg, reportedly said: “We will continue to insist on his resignation.”
Yuferev said he was doing it for his children, saying that he wants them to be able to speak their minds at demonstrations and protests. “I don’t want them to fear retaliation from the police.”
Some Russian units fled ‘in apparent panic’, says MoD
Ukraine has continued to consolidate control of the newly liberated Kharkiv region, the UK Ministry of Defence says in its latest briefing. The update, posted on Twitter, said some Russian forces appeared to have fled the Ukrainian troops’ advance “in apparent panic”, leaving behind key equipment.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv on Thursday. In his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelenskiy said the European Commission president would visit as Ukraine continues its bid for full EU membership, and comes a day after a representative from Kyiv attended a full meeting of the European parliament.
The rout of the Russian army in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region seems likely to be a turning point in Kyiv’s battle to kick Russian troops out of the country, but it may also cause much broader fallout for Moscow, as other former Soviet countries witness what appears to be the limits of Moscow’s capabilities.
The Guardian’s eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker, has analysed what Moscow’s setbacks could mean for the wider region. You can read that report here:
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Uzbek city of Samarkand in preparation for his meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Reuters reports.
Putin and Xi will meet early on Thursday afternoon, a schedule distributed by the Russian delegation to media showed. The two leaders are in Uzbekistan to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security group. They will also hold a three-way meeting with Mongolia’s president, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, on Thursday.
As the leaders prepared to meet, China and Russia have held joint naval exercises in the Pacific. The navies of the two countries conducted tactical manoeuvres and exercises involving artillery and helicopters, Reuters reported.
As Moscow’s forces pull back from the Kharkiv region, our Russia correspondent, Andrew Roth, reports that some of its supporters are in shock as the Kremlin reneges on a vow that helped project power into captured towns and villages.
Just weeks ago, Irina was working in the Russian occupation administration in Kupiansk, a large town in northern Ukraine that had been captured days after Vladimir Putin launched his war against the country.
But then, as Russian troops fled the city and the Ukrainian army retook occupied territories in the country’s north, she and her family fled what they expected would be swift punishment for collaborating with the Russian invasion force.
You can read the full story here:
Kryvyi Rih flood threat after missiles hit water system
The major city of Kryvyi Rih is struggling to contain damage to its water system from Russian missile attacks. The largest city in central Ukraine, with an estimated pre-war population of 650,000, was targeted by eight cruise missiles on Wednesday, officials said.
A report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said footage of the aftermath of the attack showed a 2.5 metre rise in the level of the Inhulets River in Kryvyi Rih.
“The water pumping station was destroyed. The river broke through the dam and overflowed its banks. Residential buildings are just a few meters away from the river,” Ukrainian legislator Inna Sovsun said on Twitter.
The missile strikes hit the Karachunov reservoir dam, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video address released early on Thursday. The water system had no military value and hundreds of thousands of civilians depend on it daily, he said.
The ISW report said the attacks may have been intended to damage Ukrainian pontoon bridges further downstream as part of efforts to disrupt the Kherson counteroffensive, it said.
Summary and welcome
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. At 7.30am in Kyiv, these are the latest developments.
-
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was involved in a traffic accident in Kyiv, but he is not seriously hurt, his spokesperson said in a Facebook post early on Thursday. Serhii Nykyforov, who did not say when the accident occurred, said Zelenskiy’s car had collided with a private vehicle. “The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” he said, adding the accident would be investigated. Medics accompanying Zelenskiy gave the driver of the private car emergency aid and put him in an ambulance, he said.
-
Eight Russian missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday were directed at hydraulic structures, causing enough damage that the water level of the Inhulets RInhulets riveriver was rising and posing a serious threat to the city. This aligns with Ukraine’s concerns that Russia will continue to target Ukraine’s infrastructure in retribution for its success in regaining occupied territory. Kryvyi Rih is Zelenskiy’s home town.
-
In his nightly televised address, video of which was posted shortly after the accident, Zelenskiy said he had just returned from the area around Kharkiv, adding that “almost the entire region is de-occupied” after a lightning counteroffensive to dislodge Russian troops. “It was an unprecedented movement of our soldiers – the Ukrainians once again managed to do what many thought was impossible,” he said. After visiting the liberated city of Izium, Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s troops had recaptured around 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) of territory.
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Ukraine’s defence ministry found what its officials believe to be a “torture chamber” used by Russian troops to hold Ukrainian prisoners in the city of Balakliia. While some Balakliia residents told the Guardian that they had little interaction with the Russian forces, who mostly stayed on edges of the town, and did not experience the scenes of torture and execution seen elsewhere in the country, Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv region national police investigation department, said that 40 people had been detained during the occupation. One resident told the BBC that he was held by Russians in the city’s police station for more than 40 days and was tortured with electrocution.
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Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft guns and 65 refrigerators to Ukraine, the German government announced on Wednesday. The four additional units bring the total number of Gepard units provided by Germany to Ukraine to 24.
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Kremlin sources “are now working to clear [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin of any responsibly of the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv oblast on under-informed military advisers”, according to the Institute of the Study of War. In a statement reported by CNBC, the institute said that “Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail”.
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The prospects for peace in Ukraine are currently “minimal”, the UN secretary general said on Wednesday after a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin. “I have the feeling we are still far away from peace. I would be lying if I would say it could happen soon,” Guterres said, adding: “I have no illusion; at the present moment the chances of a peace deal are minimal.” Even a ceasefire was “not in sight”, he said.
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Putin still believes he was right to launch an invasion of Ukraine, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Wednesday after a 90-minute telephone call with the Russian president. “Sadly, I cannot tell you that the impression has grown that it was a mistake to begin this war,” Scholz said in a press briefing.
-
Russian troops have returned to Kreminna, a city in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region that was “completely empty” yesterday, said Serhiy Hadai, the region’s governor, and tore down the Ukrainian flags that local partisans had raised in celebration. Yesterday, a similar situation happened in Svatove – Russian troops left but returned after some time, Hadai said. Russian troops also left Starobilsk, another city in the Luhansk region.