Ukraine conflict newest: Russia ‘nearly definitely’ shopping for weapons from Iran and North Korea amid provide shortages

The EU is just not full with out a few of its jap neighbours, Ursula von der Leyen has mentioned.

Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and international locations within the Western Balkans are a part of the European household, she added.

“You might be a part of our household, you’re the way forward for our union,” Ms von der Leyen mentioned. “Our Union is just not full with out you.”

The Kremlin has acknowledged its defeat in Kharkiv province, the primary time it has been open about one in all its setbacks in Ukraine, the Institute for the Research of Conflict (ISW) has mentioned.

In lower than per week, Kyiv’s forces have retaken hundreds of sq. kilometers of land within the northeast area.

Moscow tried to recast earlier failures – together with its withdrawal from areas round Kyiv this spring – as strategic choices.

Nevertheless, the method to the Kharkiv defeat has been barely completely different.

“The Kremlin’s acknowledgment of the defeat is a part of an effort to mitigate and deflect criticism for such a devastating failure away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and onto the Russian Ministry of Protection (MoD) and the uniformed army command,” the ISW mentioned.

Europe’s solidarity with Ukraine stays “unshakeable”, Ursula von der Leyen has mentioned.

Talking within the bloc’s parliament in Strasbourg, the European Fee president mentioned: “I stand right here with the conviction that with braveness and solidarity, Putin will fail and Europe will prevail.”

“Europe’s solidarity with Ukraine will stay unshakeable,” she added.

Ms von der Leyen additionally introduced a shock go to to Kyiv afterward Wednesday to mark the bloc’s ongoing assist for Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s forces are being pressured to supply gear from North Korea and Iran because the impacts of sanctions and army losses in Ukraine chunk, defence consultants consider.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officers mentioned their forces had shot down on Iranian-made drone in Kharkiv province.

“Russia is nearly definitely more and more sourcing weaponry from different closely sanctioned states like Iran and North Korea as its personal shares dwindle,” the British Ministry of Defence mentioned.

The Kremlin has hailed the importance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deliberate assembly with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping this week amid tensions with the West.

Mr Putin’s international affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov mentioned the 2 leaders are scheduled to satisfy on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of a summit of a safety pact dominated by Moscow and Beijing.

“The assembly has a particular significance in view of the present worldwide scenario,” Mr Ushakov informed reporters, saying Mr Putin and Mr Xi will talk about the worldwide scenario, together with regional points and bilateral cooperation.

China has pointedly refused to criticise Russia’s motion in Ukraine and denounced Western sanctions towards Moscow.

Russia, in flip, has strongly backed China amid tensions with the US that adopted a current go to to Taiwan by US Home speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“China has taken a well-balanced method to the Ukrainian disaster, clearly expressing its understanding of the explanations that prompted Russia to launch the particular army operation,” Mr Ushakov mentioned.

“The difficulty shall be totally mentioned in the course of the assembly.”

Russian forces have been ordered to retreat from advancing Ukrainian troops in Kharkiv to focus as a substitute on defending their place within the jap Donbas area, in accordance with western intelligence sources.

Vladimir Putin’s generals are anticipated to cede an space practically half the scale of Wales earlier than organising a brand new defensive position to the east of the Oskil river, in accordance with intelligence.

Ukrainian forces have reclaimed greater than two hundreds sq. miles of territory as they proceed their counter-offensive, the nation’s president Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned, regaining key areas within the Kharkiv area.

He has urged the West to hurry up arms provides to take care of the momentum of its offensives.

Some Russian items fled their positions in “obvious panic” abandoning a “important amount” of weapons, automobiles and ammunition as they fled, Western officers mentioned.

Jon Stone and David Harding report:

Ukrainian troops piled strain on retreating Russian forces Tuesday, urgent deeper into occupied territory and sending extra Kremlin troops fleeing forward of the counteroffensive that has inflicted a shocking blow on Moscow’s army status.

Because the advance continued, Ukraine’s border guard providers mentioned the military took management of Vovchansk — a city simply 3km (2 miles) from Russia seized on the primary day of the conflict. Russia has acknowledged that it just lately withdrew troops from areas within the northeastern area of Kharkiv.

Russian troops had been additionally pulling out from Melitopol, the second largest metropolis in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia area, the town’s pre-occupation mayor mentioned. His declare couldn’t instantly be verified.

Melitopol has been occupied since early March. Capturing it will give Kyiv a chance to disrupt Russian provide strains between the south and the jap Donbas area, the 2 main areas the place Moscow-backed forces maintain territory.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that the Russian troops had been heading towards Moscow-annexed Crimea. He mentioned columns of army gear had been reported at a checkpoint in Chonhar, a village marking the boundary between the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian mainland.

Within the newly freed village of Chkalovske within the Kharkiv area, Svitlana Honchar mentioned the Russians’ departure was sudden and swift.

“They left just like the wind. They had been fleeing by any means they might.”

Chinese language chief Xi Jinping is conserving the West guessing about whether or not Beijing will cooperate with harder sanctions on Russia as he meets President Vladimir Putin a yr after declaring they’d a “no limits” friendship forward of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

China has prevented violating sanctions however its purchases of Russian oil and gasoline rose nearly 60% in August over a yr in the past to $11.2 billion. That helps to high up Moscow’s money movement after america, Europe and Japan lower purchases and expelled Russia from the worldwide banking system.

Xi and Putin are as a result of meet this week in Uzbekistan at a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Group, an eight-nation Central Asian safety group.

Washington and allies within the Group of Seven main economies wish to squeeze Moscow by imposing an higher restrict on how a lot consumers are allowed to pay for its oil. That might require cooperation from China, India and different energy-hungry Asian economies which have prevented taking sides and nonetheless purchase from Russia.

Pope Francis informed the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and different religion leaders Tuesday that faith mustn’t ever be used to justify the “evil” of conflict and that God mustn’t ever “be held hostage to the human thirst for energy.”

Towards the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Francis opened an interfaith convention within the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan by difficult delegations to unite in condemning conflict.

He cited a Kazakh poet in warning that “he who permits evil and doesn’t oppose it can’t be thought to be a real believer. At greatest he’s a half-hearted believer.”

Within the viewers of the 80 imams, patriarchs, rabbis and muftis was Metropolitan Anthony, answerable for international relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, which has firmly backed Russia’s invasion. His boss, Patriarch Kirill, was alleged to have participated within the congress however canceled final month.

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A few of the Russian forces pushed out of Ukraine’s Kharkiv area have fled again throughout the border, though the elite tank regiment tasked to hold out the primary strike towards Nato and defend Moscow has stopped its retreat at Donetsk.

The Kremlin’s fundamental stronghold within the northwest has fallen, the path to Donbas reclaimed by Ukraine.

The Russian troops left within the jap and southern entrance in Ukraine are battered, “degraded” in army parlance, and morale is low.

The sweeping positive factors made by Ukrainian forces have led to greater than 6,000 sq. kilometres (2,300 sq. miles) of territory being recovered in 12 days – 4 occasions the scale of Higher London or greater than Denmark, in accordance with varied comparisons.

The time and tide of the battle is altering and the start of the top could now be right here, reviews Kim Sengupta from Kyiv.