The President of Ukraine said on Monday that Kyiv managed to protect the country’s independence during the eight-month war waged by Russia.
In his nightly address, Uladzimir Zelensky marked the eighth anniversary of the invasion and noted that Ukrainian troops are advancing in the partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, and intend to return the Zaporozhye region and the annexed Crimea.
“Ukraine is defeating the so-called second army of the world,” Zelensky said. “Now Russia can only be a beggar. She begs something from Iran, tries to squeeze something out of Western countries, invents various fairy tales about Ukraine, intimidates, deceives.”
Zelensky warned that the coming winter “will be the hardest in history.”
“We have no right to relax. We still need to go the way to the Ukrainian victory. This is a difficult path,” the president said.
ZAGREB, Croatia – Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Iran is “making a big mistake” by supplying Russia with drones that target infrastructure in Ukraine.
“We’ve been trying for a while to get a nuclear deal with Iran to make the world safer, and now they’re going to help the Russians and make the world less safe,” Pelosi said in Zagreb, Croatia.
The United States and key Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine. Iran denies supplying Russia with explosive-laden missiles, but distinctive triangle-shaped drones have been spotted.
“First of all, we have to be able to counter drones,” Pelosi said at a joint press conference with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. “This is a dangerous technology and it must be stopped.”
Pelosi arrived in Croatia to participate in an international forum on supporting Ukraine’s independence in the face of Russian aggression.
MOSCOW — A senior Russian official says authorities have taken steps to increase weapons production amid fighting in Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council under President Vladimir Putin, said he visited the country’s main tank plant in Nizhny Tagil in the Ural Mountains on Monday to discuss ways to increase production.
Medvedev noted that foreign observers had predicted that Russia would soon run out of its weapons stockpile, adding that such predictions would not come true.
He said that “the production of weapons and equipment — from tanks and guns to high-precision missiles and drones — is multiplying.”
“You just wait,” he said.
MOSCOW — The Russian military says it discussed with its British counterparts the alleged threat to Ukraine to use a dirty bomb.
According to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday, the Chief of the General Staff of Russia, General Valery Gerasimov, discussed “the situation related to the possible use of a dirty bomb by Ukraine” with the Chief of the General Staff of Great Britain, Admiral Tony Radakin.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu first made this statement over the weekend during a telephone conversation with his colleagues from the US, Great Britain, France and Turkey.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that Shaigu expressed concern over “possible Ukrainian provocations using a ‘dirty bomb,'” a device that uses explosives to disperse radioactive waste. It does not have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but it can expose large areas to radioactive contamination.
The US, UK and France responded in a joint statement that “our countries have made it clear that we all reject Russia’s patently false accusations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its territory.”
Nicosia, Cyprus — Hungary’s foreign minister says his counterparts elsewhere in the European Union are caught up in the “rhetoric of war” that is pushing back the prospect of peace in war-torn Ukraine.
Peter Sijarta says his country is calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials as soon as possible. Europe’s security, economy and energy supply will increasingly suffer the longer the war drags on, he said on Monday.
Szijharto said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart that EU sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had “failed”, fueling inflation and causing “extremely high energy costs” in Hungary due to gas cuts.
The head of the Hungarian diplomat called on the EU to start looking for new sources of energy and to use the recently discovered gas fields off Cyprus, building “new pipelines, new routes to make sure that the gas that is here can be available to the European market.”
MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has prepared its forces for Ukraine’s possible use of a “dirty” bomb in a false flag attack it blames on Russia. This statement was strongly rejected by the US and its allies.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces of the Russian troops, said on Monday that Russian military equipment is already prepared to work in conditions of radiation contamination.
Kirillov charged that Ukraine has a large stockpile of radioactive waste stored at its nuclear power plants and waste repositories, as well as the necessary expertise to build a dirty bomb.
Speaking at a briefing, Kirillov said a dirty bomb explosion could send deadly radiation up to 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) away.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov supported the military’s claims, saying on Monday that “the information was verified through the appropriate channels.”
“This is not an unfounded suspicion, we have serious reasons to believe that such things may be planned,” he said at a press conference on Monday.
Ukraine dismissed Moscow’s claims as an attempt to divert attention from its own plans to detonate a dirty bomb, while its Western allies also dismissed the Russian claims as “obviously false”.
MOSCOW — Russian authorities said Ukrainian troops fired missiles at a large hydroelectric plant in southern Kherson Oblast.
Russian news agencies published a statement from the regional emergency services, which said on Monday that the Ukrainian military fired 19 missiles at the Kakhovsky plant and scored three hits.
There is no immediate information about the victims, the damage is still being assessed.
According to the head of the administration of the Kherson region Uladzimir Rohau, the Kakhovsky plant was not seriously damaged and continues to work.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of plotting to blow up the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam to flood the mostly flat area as Ukrainian forces continue their offensive on Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the conflict.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s top diplomat is calling on the U.N. nuclear body to immediately send an inspection team to the country to counter Moscow’s claims that Kyiv is preparing a “provocation” with the use of a dirty bomb.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitriy Kuleba said on Monday that he made such a request during a conversation with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi.
Kuleba said that Grossi agreed to send a team of inspectors, adding that “unlike Russia, Ukraine has always been and remains transparent. We have nothing to hide.”
In a telephone conversation with his colleagues from the USA, Great Britain, France and Turkey, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Ukraine is preparing a provocation using a dirty bomb, a device that uses explosives to disperse radioactive materials.
The United States, Britain and France said in a joint statement that they “reject Russia’s patently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its territory.”
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says rebuilding Ukraine will be a “generational challenge” that no country, donor or international organization can tackle alone.
Scholz spoke at a German-Ukrainian business forum on Monday, a day before he and the head of the European Union’s executive commission will hold a meeting of experts to help mobilize international support for Ukraine’s recovery.
The chancellor drew attention to the decision of the EU in June to make Ukraine a candidate for joining the bloc. He said that “this decision also sends a signal to private investors: everyone who invests in the reconstruction of Ukraine today is investing in a future EU member state that will be part of our legal community and our single market.”
Scholz said that it is important not just to repair damaged power plants and networks, but to make them more efficient — ultimately, this will allow to expand the export of Ukrainian electricity to the EU and gradually move to climate neutrality.
He stressed the need for greater transparency and an “even more determined fight against corruption” as Ukraine eventually seeks to join the EU.
The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denis Shmyhal, said at the forum that recovery will be a promising process. He added that “in the process of transformation, incredible opportunities will open up for European companies – in energy, in agriculture, in the military sector, in IT and all other (spheres).”
MOSCOW — The Kremlin is standing by its accusation that Ukraine may be preparing to detonate a so-called dirty bomb that disperses radioactive material, although Ukraine, the United States, Britain and France have rejected Moscow’s claim.
This was stated by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a telephone conversation with his colleagues from the USA, Great Britain, France and Turkey.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that Shaigu expressed concern over “possible Ukrainian provocations using a ‘dirty bomb,'” a device that uses explosives to disperse radioactive materials.
Such a device does not have the destructive effect of a nuclear explosion, but it can expose large areas to radioactive contamination.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin have not publicly offered any concrete information to back up their claim.
But during a conversation with reporters on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Shaigu’s warning reflected a real threat.
“Their distrust of the information that was presented by the Russian side does not mean that there is no threat of using such a dirty bomb,” said Peskov. “Such a threat exists, and the Minister of Defense conveyed information about it to his interlocutors. It’s up to them to believe it or not.”
The Western allies said they rejected Russia’s “clearly false accusations” and warned they would “review any attempt to use these allegations as a pretext for escalation”.
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