The essentials in brief:
- At least 16 dead in attack on a market in eastern Ukraine
- Kyiv parliament confirms Umerov as new defense minister
- Defected Russian pilot gets half a million US dollars
- Dead in Russian drone attack
- Blinken wants to announce US billions in aid in Kiev
According to official sources, at least 16 people were killed when a market square in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka was shelled. A child was also among the dead, as Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal announced on the online service Telegram. More than 30 other people were killed, according to the
authorities violated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the attack on civilians in the Donetsk region city. “A normal market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who haven’t done anything wrong,” he wrote online, expressing his condolences to the victims’ families. The number of victims could continue to rise.
The head of state also released a short video intended to show the moment of the explosion in the busy neighborhood. He also showed photos of damaged house facades, pools of blood on the ground and rescue workers extinguishing the flames. It is not yet clear what exactly hit the target. According to some local media, it was an S-300 missile.
The city of Kostyantynivka is located not far from the front in eastern Ukraine and has repeatedly been the target of Russian attacks in recent months. In July, Ukraine accused Russia of using a cluster bomb in Kostyantynivka, which also killed a child. Even before that, civilians were repeatedly killed by Russian attacks in the Ukrainian-controlled city.
Kyiv parliament confirms Umerov as new defense minister
Ukraine’s parliament has approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defense minister. 338 out of 450 deputies voted in Kiev for the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed 41-year-olds, as MPs Yaroslav Jelesniak and Iryna Herashchenko wrote in the online service Telegram. The previous head of Ukraine’s most important privatization fund replaces Oleksiy Reznikov, who was fired by Zelenskyi.
The new defense minister is considered a skillful negotiator and was also involved in the talks on the Türkiye and the United Nations mediated Black Sea Grain Agreement involved, which was terminated by Russia in July.
Umerov belongs to the Crimean Tatar ethnic group and comes from a Muslim family. His ancestors had been deported from the Soviet Union to Uzbekistan in the 1940s, where Umerov was born.
Russian defector receives bonus for helicopter
one in the Ukraine defected Russian pilot who handed over a Mi-8 helicopter to Kiev’s armed forces will receive a bonus of the equivalent of half a million US dollars (around 463,000 euros). Military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said the money would be paid out in Ukrainian hryvnia. He called on other Russian military personnel to follow suit. The case of the 28-year-old Russian, who also appears in public, has been reported by Ukrainian media for days.
According to the Internet portal “Ukrajinska Pravda”, the pilot landed with the transport helicopter in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. Two uninitiated members of the crew were killed. The pilot was in Ukraine with his family, who had previously fled Russia. The helicopter, which is said to have had spare parts for Russian fighter jets on board, is also in the country.
Ukraine has an official list of military equipment rewards that Russian soldiers can hand over. For a tank, for example, there is 100,000 US dollars. In Russia on the other hand, kill bonuses are paid for Ukrainian planes, tanks and other weapons.
One dead in Russian drone strikes
According to the authorities, one person was killed in renewed drone attacks by Russia in the southern Ukrainian Black Sea region of Odessa. The Russian army had been shelling the Ismail district with drones for “almost three hours,” Governor Oleg Kiper said in the online service Telegram. An agricultural worker was injured and succumbed to his injuries in hospital. In addition, agricultural and port infrastructure was damaged.
The attacks come as no surprise. After Russia canceled the grain agreement for the export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea at the end of July, the Danube port of Ismail has developed into one of the most important transhipment points for grain exports. Since the end of the agreement, Russia has repeatedly launched attacks on infrastructure that is important for maritime trade.
Ukraine demands German Taurus cruise missiles again
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has again Germany appealed as soon as possible Taurus cruise missile to deliver. “Every additional day of discussions, coordination meetings, and reflection processes costs Ukraine lives,” Kuleba told the Welt news channel. “We’ve had this issue over and over since last year.”
He is Chancellor Olaf Scholz grateful, but you know that the decision now rests with him alone. “I don’t want to put pressure on him, but I hope that the decision will be made quickly now and not in a few months,” said Kuleba.
US Secretary of State Blinken again in Kiev
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Kiev for a visit. In the course of the visit, which was not publicly announced in advance, the minister wants to announce further aid for Ukraine in the amount of more than one billion dollars (930 million euros), a high-ranking representative of the US State Department told journalists during the trip. Blinken meanwhile met his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. A meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is also planned. It is the US Secretary’s fourth visit to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The US is Ukraine’s main military ally in the fight against Russia’s war of aggression. Since the war began, they have provided or pledged more than $43 billion in military aid. At the end of July, the Pentagon announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine, including armored personnel carriers and ammunition for Patriot air defense systems.
Poland increases defense budget significantly
Because of safety concerns about the Russian war of aggression in neighboring Ukraine wants that NATO-Country Poland significantly increase its defense budget. In the coming year, Warsaw will spend 137 billion zlotys (around 30.6 billion euros) and thus more than four percent of its gross domestic product on defense, said President Andrzej Duda, according to the Polish news agency PAP. This is an increase from the four percent already planned this year and far more than the two percent agreed by the NATO partners.
Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s war of aggression began in February 2022. Most recently, Warsaw had announced that it would increase its troop strength on the border with the neighboring country in view of feared “provocations” in the border area with Belarus and potential dangers from the mercenaries of the Russian Wagner Group who are now based there.
London wants to ban Wagner Group as terrorist organizations
According to media reports, Great Britain wants to put the Russian mercenary group Wagner on its list of terrorist organizations. The newspaper “Daily Mail” reports, citing Interior Minister Suella Braverman, that this should be done on the basis of anti-terror laws. The project will be presented to Parliament this Wednesday.
Such a ban already applies to the jihadist militia “Islamic State” and the terrorist network al-Qaeda. Wagner is “a brutal and destructive organization that operates abroad as a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” the Interior Minister quoted the Daily Mail as saying. The Wagner group was “involved in looting, torture and barbaric murders”. The group’s actions in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa are a “danger to global security,” the minister added.
Ukrainian border guards prevented more than 20,000 men from escaping
Since the Russian invasion began more than 18 months ago, Ukraine’s border guards have prevented more than 20,000 conscripts from escaping. “In total, the border guards have arrested around 14,600 people who wanted to leave Ukraine illegally since February 24 last year,” said border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko. In addition, around 6,200 men were caught with forged exit permits. Demchenko said that fugitives were apprehended at the “green border” in particular to Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, however, more than 650,000 Ukrainian men aged 18 to 64 are registered as refugees in the 27 EU countries as well as in Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
se/mak (rtr, afp, dpa, ap)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.