Ukraine war: ‘Significant losses’ for Russia as Kyiv retakes village and hits ships

A former Ukrainian government minister has been detained for 60 days with no option of bail, on suspicion of espousing pro-Russian sentiments and committing treason.

Nestor Shufrych is accused of maintaining contacts with a fugitive Ukrainian parliamentarian suspected by investigators to have worked for Russian security services and of abetting plans to encourage pro-Moscow separatism in eastern Ukraine.

A video of a Kyiv court ordering Mr Shufrych’s detention circulated on numerous Ukrainian news sites. “This is what the authorities need,” Mr Shufrych said in a video issued by Public Suspilne Television as court officials placed him in handcuffs and led him away.

News reports quoted Shufrych’s lawyers as saying they would appeal the court’s ruling. He was long a member of political groups friendly to Moscow, including one party banned since Russia’s invasion.

He served as Minister of Emergency Services under disgraced president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine after the mass uprising in 2014. Investigators from the SBU security service said he also had close links with Viktor Medvedchuk, the former parliamentarian sent into exile in Russia last year in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The UN’s World Heritage Committee has placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger, reports Baraa Anwer.

The iconic Saint Sophia Cathedral in the capital, Kyiv, and the medieval center of the western city of Lviv, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites central to Ukraine’s culture and history.

The decision announced on Friday to put those two on the body’s list of sites “in danger” has no enforcement mechanism, but could help deter Russian attacks.

Neither site has been directly targeted since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Lviv has largely been spared from the fighting.

The UK has formally banned Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation weeks after the death of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, reports my colleague Alisha Rahaman Sarkar.

The government order, approved on Friday, makes it a criminal offence to be a member or a supporter of the paramilitary group in the UK.

“The Russian mercenary organisation, Wagner Group, has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation today after an order was laid in Parliament on Wednesday September 6,” the Home Office said in a statement.

Apart from joining the group or showing support, arranging meetings for the group and displacing Wagner’s flag or logo will also be considered a criminal offence.

Russian-installed authorities in Crimea have said they plan to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold “soon” and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures.

The sale contracts amounted to more than 815 million roubles (£6.8m), Mr Konstantinov said in a statement on Telegram.

Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said in February that they had nationalised around 500 properties in Crimea including some belonging to senior Ukrainian politicians and business figures.

Ukraine has claimed fresh success in its counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin’s forces, with the recapture of another village – a liberation that the army says is “key to success in all further directions”.

Kyiv’s forces are seeking to reclaim land occupied by Moscow across multiple areas of southern and eastern Ukraine. The village of Andriivka is about 6 miles (10 kilometres) south of the Russia-occupied town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region. Bakhmut is one of Ukraine’s key targets, with Russia having occupied it after some of the bloodiest fighting of Moscow’s 18-month invasion.

Russian forces suffered significant casualties and lost various pieces of military hardware, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. “Capturing and holding Andriivka – is our path to a breakthrough on the right flank of Bakhmut and the key to the success of the entire further offensive,” said the Third Assault Brigade, which took part in the push.

“There is no Andriivka left per se,… but as a place, as a square, it is an important square,” brigade spokesman Oleksandr Borodin said.

Kim visited aviation facilities in the far eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Yuri Gagarin Aviation Plant and the Yakovlev plant, both units of United Aircraft Corporation, which is under Western sanctions.

At the Gagarin plant, which is also specifically under U.S. sanctions, he inspected assembly workshops where the Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter and Su-57 fighter are made, escorted by Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, the government said.

Kim, dressed in a suit and accompanied by North Korean military officials in uniform, was shown on Russian state television examining the cockpit of a fighter jet.

He then inspected workshops where the fuselage compartments and wing assemblies of Russia’s Sukhoi Superjet 100 are made before watching a demonstration flight of the Su-35. He nodded with approval as the fighter performed.

Russia has gone out of its way to publicise the visit and to drop repeated hints about the prospect of military cooperation with North Korea, which was formed in 1948 with the backing of the then-Soviet Union.

For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the West over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while potentially securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.

Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, which has the world’s biggest store of nuclear warheads, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. view before and after Kim’s visit was that “talks about the provision of weapons by North Korea to Russia, to kill Ukrainians, have been advancing and continued to advance.”

“We’re not going to take their word for that, or basically anything they say,” he told a White House press briefing, when asked about the Russian statement. “We’ll see what actually ends up happening.”

“I can’t name a specific agreement for you today, but we take a look at that with a heavy grain of salt,” Sullivan added.

He said Russia, and China, had legal obligations to uphold U.N. resolutions on North Korea.

“We have very real concerns based on what Russia has just done, that they are going to live up to their basic responsibility as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council,” Sullivan said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a Russian fighter jet factory under Western sanctions on Friday.

It was part of a visit Washington and its allies fear could strengthen Russia’s military in Ukraine and bolster Pyongyang’s missile program.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and deepening cooperation when they met on Wednesday.

South Korea and the United States said military cooperation between North Korea and Russia was a violation of U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang, and that the allies would ensure there is a price to pay.

Putin told reporters Russia was “not going to violate anything”, but would keep developing relations with North Korea. His spokesman said no agreements had been signed during Kim’s visit on military issues or any other topic.

Finland has joined the three Baltic countries in banning vehicles with Russian license plates from entering their territory, a joint move in line with a recent interpretation of the European Union’s sanctions against Moscow over its war on Ukraine.

The Nordic EU member’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the ban would stop private cars from entering Finland as of Friday midnight, Finnish broadcaster YLE said.

Earlier this week, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania imposed the measure. Estonia said the decision followed “the additional interpretation of the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation published by the European Commission” on Sept. 8.

As for the exclave of Kaliningrad, which is surrounded by Lithuania, Russian citizens will be able to continue transiting through the southernmost Baltic state by train.

Under the EU’s decision, motor vehicles registered in the Russian Federation are no longer allowed to enter the territory of the 27-member bloc, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic states are among the most vocal European critics of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

YLE said that Russian-registered cars with fewer than 10 passengers will no longer be permitted to enter Finland from Russia, although some exceptions are likely.

In April, Finland joined NATO, doubling Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) border with its eastern neighbor. The three Baltic states are also NATO members.