Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to address UN general assembly
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is shortly due to address the UN general assembly. He is expected to seek support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, and to present his “victory plan” – a roadmap for Ukraine to end the war with greater western backing.
In a forceful speech to the UN security council on Tuesday, Zelenskyy called on a broad alliance of nations to “force Russia into peace”, saying that Vladimir Putin has violated the foundations of the UN and that the war “can’t be conquered by talks” alone.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of committing “international crimes” by targeting Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, and claimed he had proof that Putin is plotting to target three Ukrainian nuclear power plants to further degrade the country’s energy grid.
In his speech, he added that further pressure was needed to conclude a peace with Russia after it had been “doing things that cannot possibly be justified under the UN charter”.
He has repeatedly called on the US and UK to drop their restrictions on the use of long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia, despite concerns in the Biden administration that those attacks could lead to further escalation of the war.
Key events
Rowena Mason
At the UN general assembly in New York, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will be pushing for a deal on the use of Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, supported by the UK.
Asked about Zelenskyy’s prospects of success, UK prime minister Keir Starmer told reporters it was “at a critical stage”.
Starmer said:
Obviously, President Zelensky has a plan that he wants to walk through with all of us … The support for Ukraine is resolute. We supply quite a lot of capability already under the last government; we’ve increased that under this government – that’s not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully to what Ukraine says it needs by way of capability.”
He said the long-range Storm Shadow missiles would not be the sole issue under discussion but it would also be about “the strategic overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression”.
Starmer’s trip is taking place as negotiations continue with the White House to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons on Russian territory. David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, argued this week it was time for “nerve and guts” to allow a change of policy.
But Starmer’s visit to Washington to see the US president, Joe Biden, earlier this month did not resolve sticking points over the use of the British and French-made weapons, which also rely on US technology.
Even if a breakthrough is made on the talks this week, it is unlikely any decisions on the missiles will be announced at this week’s summit.
The Kyiv Independent reports that a member of Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed that Ukrainian forces captured about 24 Russian soldiers and killed “several dozen” others during an operation to recapture an aggregate plant in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region.
According to the publication, a special forces officer “with the call sign Viking” revealed details of the operation on national television on Wednesday. The officer added that a further four Russian soldiers “tried to leave the plant and were neutralized outside the perimeter”.
“The battle lasted a little over a week. There was intense shelling from the enemy. The enemy at the factory put up a lot of resistance, but in the end we completed the task,” the Kyiv Independent reported the officer as saying.
We reported earlier that Russia’s troops had not reached the outskirts of Ukraine’s eastern town of Vuhledar but its reconnaissance groups are operating there.
Russia said on Wednesday it had captured two more villages in Ukraine, though this has not been confirmed, and was attacking Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold.
Vuhledar is a fortified mining town that has anchored Ukrainian defences in the southern Donetsk region since the start of the war in 2022.
Asked about the attack on Vuhledar, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The dynamic is positive.”
Reuters reported that analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia appeared to be intensifying a push on Vuhledar but its capture would not substantially alter Moscow’s prospects for further advances, as it already controlled most of the main roads running into the town.
Russian emergency services said that a Ukrainian drone had dropped a munition on the territory of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Wednesday though there was no damage according to report from Russian state news agency RIA carried by Reuters. Reuters and the Guardian have not been able to confirm this report.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, has been controlled by Russian forces since March 2022, and remains close to the frontline between the two sides.
An 80-year-old woman has died as a result of Russian shelling in Kherson, the head of the regional military administration, Alexander Prokudin said on Telegram.
“As a result of another shelling, two people who were on the street were injured. An 80-year-old woman was fatally wounded,” he wrote.
Russia has not commented on this and the Guardian has not been able to verify this news from the battlefield.
Nato plans for large-scale transport of wounded troops in case of Russia war – Reuters
Nato plans to coordinate the transport of a large number of wounded troops away from frontlines in case of a war with Russia, potentially via hospital trains as air evacuations may not be feasible, according to a senior general.
The future scenario for medical evacuations will differ from allies’ experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt Gen Alexander Sollfrank, the head of Nato’s logistics command, told Reuters in an interview.
In a conflict with Russia, western militaries would likely be faced with a much larger war zone, a higher number of injured troops and at least a temporary lack of air superiority close to the frontlines, the German general said.
“The challenge will be to swiftly ensure high-quality care for, in the worst case, a great number of wounded,” he said without specifying how many injured troops Nato would expect, reports Reuters.
The planning for medical evacuations is part of a much broader drive by Nato, prompted by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to overhaul and boost its ability to deter and defend against any Russian assault.
The German military has said it expects Russia to be able to attack a Nato country as soon as 2029, while Russian president Vladimir Putin casts the west as the aggressor for arming Ukraine.
Sollfrank runs Nato’s Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC), tasked with coordinating the swift movement of troops and tanks across Europe as well as logistical preparations such as the storage of munitions on Nato’s eastern flank.
Recently, reports Reuters, JSEC – which is based in the southern German town of Ulm – staged an exercise in coordination of patient flows.
Should a conflict with Russia arise, wounded troops will not only need to be transported over a larger distance than in other wars of recent years, Sollfrank said. Russian air defences and jets would threaten medical evacuation flights in a way that insurgents in Afghanistan or Iraq could not, likely creating a need for hospital trains that can transport more casualties at the same time than aircraft.
“Air superiority will have to be achieved in the first place. It will require time to succeed over the entire length and depth of the frontline,” Sollfrank told Reuters.
He added:
For planning reasons, all options to take a great number of wounded to medical installations need to be considered, which includes trains but potentially also buses.”
Differing medical regulations between countries are another hurdle to overcome, Sollfrank said. A “military medical Schengen”, akin to the political Schengen zone that allows free movement within most of the EU, could be a solution. It could entail an area of free passage for sensitive medications such as narcotics or strong painkillers, which would be needed to treat wounded troops but whose cross-border transport is regulated.
Russian troops have not reached Ukraine’s Vuhledar outskirts, governor says
Russia’s troops have not reached the outskirts of Ukraine’s eastern town of Vuhledar but its reconnaissance groups are operating there, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
“Our defenders are trying to knock them out. The town has not been captured,” he said in televised comments.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posted on his X account about a meeting with the outgoing Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at the UN general assembly.
Zelenskyy wrote:
I thanked him [Stoltenberg] for supporting Ukraine throughout his tenure as secretary general of the alliance and for his efforts to unite the world in helping Ukraine and strengthening our army.
We discussed the need to enhance Ukraine’s air defence, the continued efforts on an invitation for our state to join Nato as soon as possible, and the importance of the timely implementation of all agreements reached at the alliance’s Washington summit.”
During my meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg @jensstoltenberg, I thanked him for supporting Ukraine throughout his tenure as Secretary General of the Alliance and for his efforts to unite the world in helping Ukraine and strengthening our army.
We discussed the… pic.twitter.com/Gyq4V6WHmX
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 25, 2024
The Ukrainian president also shared posts of meetings with other notable figures, including the president of Vietnam, Tô Lâm, Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
I had a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau where we discussed the implementation of the Peace Formula, military support for Ukraine, the situation on the battlefield, and the needs of our defenders.
We deeply appreciate Canada’s military and humanitarian… pic.twitter.com/a4eW6HypUb
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 25, 2024
On the previous post (see 11.10am BST), Reuters has some additional background and quotes.
The Russian parliament’s said its initial backing to legislation that would ban nationals from countries that allow people to change their gender from adopting Russian children, is a move that is essential to uphold “traditional values.”
Russia itself last year introduced a ban on people legally or medically changing their gender, part of a widening crackdown on LGBT rights.
The adoption legislation, which had already been conceptually approved by the government, on Wednesday won the backing of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in the first of three readings.
According to Reuters, the law’s authors cast it as a measure aimed at protecting adopted Russian children from what they describe as potentially dangerous conditions in countries that belong to the Nato military alliance, which backs Ukraine in the war against Russia.
“This decision is aimed at protecting childhood and traditional values,” Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Duma and a close ally of president Vladimir Putin said after it had been voted on.
Volodin added:
It is necessary to protect our children from the dangers they may face when they are adopted or fostered by citizens of foreign countries where gender reassignment is allowed.”
Russia’s parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of a bill to ban the adoption of Russian children in countries where gender reassignment is legal, in another ultra-conservative social measure as its troops fight in Ukraine, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Lawmakers voted almost unanimously to back the proposed law in a first reading, with 397 in favour and one against.
“With this law we are protecting the child, we are doing everything for the child not to end up in a country where same-sex marriage and sex change is allowed,” Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
