Russia-Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy, Brazil’s Lula to meet in New York

Zelenskyy says he has arrived in New York in advance of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly and meetings in Washington, DC.

In a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian president said he has already visited Ukrainian servicemen being treated for war injuries in the United States.

He said his schedule included talks with US President Joe Biden, members of Congress and military and business officials.

Zelenskyy and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet on Wednesday in New York City, the Brazilian president’s office said, after previous attempts at a sit-down fell through.

Lula, who has faced accusations in the West of being soft on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, will meet with Zelenskyy after a bilateral meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Lula’s office said.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has injected a dose of grim realism into an annual NATO naval drill in the northern Baltic Sea as Western forces practise for the first time how to respond to any Russian strike on the region.

German Rear Admiral and Exercise Director Stephan Haisch said Russia’s presence in the Baltic Sea, including frigates and an intelligence-collecting vessel, was normal and expected, but that this year’s Northern Coasts drills had moved away from artificial scenarios towards reality.

“For many years, we had a kind of artificial scenario. Right now, we are a bit closer to the realistic meaning, the geography and the partners and the opponent. So, this is more realistic than it was before,” Haisch said aboard the Mesa Verde.

Germany will send Ukraine additional ammunition, protective vehicles and mine clearance systems as part of a 400 million euro ($427m) aid package but has not yet made a decision on sending Taurus cruise missiles, the German defence minister has been quoted as saying.

Boris Pistorius said Germany would supply various additional ammunition to Ukraine, including mine rockets and plans to send clothing as well as electricity and heat generators for the coming winter.

“In total, the package will be worth 400 million euros,” Pistorius was quoted as saying by the Bild newspaper.

Ukraine has filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary over their bans on food imports from Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy in Kyiv has said.

It said Ukraine saw such restrictions as a violation of the EU countries’ international obligations.

The three countries announced their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports on Friday after the European Commission decided to not extend its ban on imports into Ukraine’s five EU eastern European member states.

Moscow has denounced EU restrictions imposed on Russian citizens entering the bloc, including a ban on bringing some personal items, as “absurd” and aimed at harming ordinary Russians.

Moscow’s foreign ministry said the rules “go beyond the point of absurdity” and were aimed at “causing harm specifically to ordinary Russians and at making it impossible for Russian citizens to enter the European Union”.

It accused the bloc of trying to build a “new Iron Curtain” and warned Russians to weigh the “risks” before travelling there.

“The desperate desire of the current EU leadership to erect a new Iron Curtain in Europe is now completely obvious, limiting as much as possible the possibilities of communication between people,” it said.

Travel from Russia to the West has become far more difficult since Moscow launched its offensive on Ukraine.

Poland has proposed that new EU sanctions against Russia should include a ban on Russian diamonds and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and called for aligning sanctions against Belarus with those against Moscow.

In a proposal seen by the Reuters news agency, Poland calls for banning imports of Russian diamonds, the sales of which brought the Russian budget $4.5bn in 2021, it said, and putting individual sanctions on the Russian Alrosa diamond company.

“Alrosa has supported Russian military forces and the Russian war efforts in Ukraine, both directly and indirectly, for many years,” a Polish paper said.

The EU should also stop buying Russian LPG, Poland said, to preserve the integrity and transparency of the LPG market and avoid distortion of competition.

The commander of Ukrainian ground forces has said the recent recapture of the eastern villages of Andriivka and Klishchiivka enabled Kyiv’s troops to breach Russian lines near the devastated city of Bakhmut.

“These settlements, at first glance small, were important elements in the enemy’s defensive line which stretched from Bakhmut to Horlivka,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app, referring to a town about 40km (25 miles) from Bakhmut.

“As a result of our troops’ successful actions, the enemy’s defensive line – which it tried to close by throwing all available reserves into battle – was breached.”

Syrskyi said Russian troops were still trying to regain the positions they had lost in the Bakhmut sector, and that fighting there was heavy. He gave no further details.

World leaders head to New York to take part in high-level United Nations talks this week, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will figure prominently during this year’s event.

Speaking to reporters in late August, the United States envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said she expects most Western countries to exert “intense pressure” on Russia to withdraw troops from neighbouring Ukraine.

The invasion has renewed calls to expand decision-making power on the 15-member UN Security Council, where Russia is among the five permanent members – alongside China, France, the United Kingdom and the US – who wield veto power.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned French ambassador Pierre Levy on Monday to protest over what it called the “discriminatory and openly Russophobic” actions of French authorities against Russian journalists at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi.

It said reporters of RIA Novosti and the editor-in-chief of Russia News were “rudely denied” access to the news conference of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Ukrainian officials have said that four people have been killed due to overnight Russian strikes.

A man aged 72 and an elderly woman were among those killed, and three others were wounded, in an overnight attack on the southern region of Kherson, according to the regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

The general prosecutor’s office added that a man riding a bicycle had been killed in Russian shelling near the eastern town of Toretsk, and that a woman had been killed in an air strike at around noon in the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Russia’s defence ministry has said it scrambled a MiG-31 jet fighter on Monday, to intercept a US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol plane approaching its airspace over the Barents Sea.

It is not clear if this interception was linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The European Union is gearing up for a fight over what should be included in its 12th package of sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a Bloomberg report.

The new measures, which could be presented as early as next month, would likely include the EU’s version of the upcoming G7 ban on purchases of Russian diamonds and possibly a long-awaited proposal to use the profits generated by frozen central bank assets to aid Kyiv, the report added quoting people familiar with discussions.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has shared a video on the social media platform X of what it says are Kyiv’s air defence systems destroying Russian drones launched overnight.

17 out of 17 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 missiles and 18 out of 24 Shaheds launched by russian terrorists were shot down by Ukrainian air defense last night. pic.twitter.com/SLugkhIuJA

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 18, 2023

The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) has arrested two men, including one who works for the Ministry of Defence, for evading sanctions against Russia.

The first suspect, a 53-year-old man, was arrested on August 29. The second suspect, a 48-year-old employee of the Defence Ministry, was arrested on August 30.

“Searches have taken place at various locations, including a home, a business premises and a storage space. Data storage and records were seized, among other things. In addition, more than 250,000 euros [$357,000] and $8,000 in cash, bank balances of approximately 160,000 euros [$170,000], aircraft parts, weapons, cartridge holders and ammunition were seized from a home,” the FIOD said in a statement.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser in the Office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says it is a big mistake to look at Russia’s war in Ukraine only as Kyiv’s and Eastern Europe’s problem.

“Putin’s Russia today has become, without a doubt, the problem of humanity – and this problem did not arise yesterday,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The task of responsible countries in all parts of the world is to let Russia crash against the rock of Ukraine and let the world move on. This includes letting the future of Russia move on without Putin. This is not a matter of politics. This is a matter of universal civilisation,” he added.

It is a big mistake to try to look at this war as a problem of Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Putin's Russia today has become, without a doubt, the problem of humanity – and this problem did not arise yesterday. Throughout its history, Russia has been missing out on the events that…

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 18, 2023

Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov says it has no information on the health of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Several social media reports claim 46-year-old Kadyrov has been unwell.

Spokespeople for Kadyrov did not answer Reuters’s repeated phone calls seeking comment on the reports, which said Kadyrov had been treated at a Moscow hospital.

“In any case, the presidential administration can hardly give out health certificates, so we have nothing to tell you here,” Peskov added.