‘They Can Visit Each Other, Dig Potatoes, Work in the Garden’ – Ukraine at War Update for Sept. 19

A military spokesperson on Wednesday told AFP that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have “stopped” Russia’s defensive moves to regain AFU-held territory in the Kursk region, despite Moscow's repeated claims that its defense of the southwestern Russian region continues to be successful.

Last week, the Kremlin insisted that it had regained several villages from Ukrainian forces in the region. Kyiv’s military administrator in Kursk said that those advances have now been halted.

“They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” the military administration’s spokesperson Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky told AFP. “The situation was stabilized and today everything is under control. They are not successful,” he said.

An unnamed Ukrainian official later played down the claim to the French news service. “The Russian operation in the Kursk region is still ongoing, so it is too early to say that it has failed completely,” the official said, speaking anonymously.

Still, Dmytrashkivsky continued that there were “several thousand” Russian civilians still living in areas under AFU control. He claimed that Kremlin strikes in its Kursk region have killed 23 Russian civilians, adding that “they are dying along with the Ukrainian soldiers.”

The remaining inhabitants, he said, are not allowed to leave, but insisted they can “move around” the area, unhindered by Ukrainian forces.

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“They can visit each other, eat there, unite somewhere, dig potatoes, work in the garden”, Dmytrashkivsky said. “The Sumy regional administration allocates funds for bread [for those Russian inhabitants] every week. The AFU provides water, the administration gives food packages,” he said. “Nothing is working there: no shops, no pharmacy, nothing,” he added.

On that topic, the Kremlin has said only that about 130,000 Russian citizens have evacuated the Kursk region.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s evening address on Wednesday focused on his latest peace plan, which he refers to as a “victory plan,” which he will officially present to US President Joe Biden at this month’s UN General Assembly. The US Ambassador to the UN said Tuesday that the White House has already reviewed the plan this week and given it the thumbs-up.

Zelensky said he is planning another international peace summit in November to discuss these goals. His administration held a similar summit in Switzerland in June but produced few tangible results as Russia was not invited and Chinese delegates did not attend.

Following the AFU's successful counteroffensive into Kursk, Zelensky said Moscow would be invited this time.

Ukrainian regions working on independent agreements with several US states

One of Zelensky’s top staffers, Viktor Mykyta, has been tasked with “strengthening cooperation between Ukrainian regions and US states,” government news service Ukrinform reported on Wednesday, citing a press release from the president’s office.

“We have a task from President Volodymyr Zelensky to introduce a single, comprehensive communication mechanism between the regions of Ukraine and the regions of other countries, including the US states. We have to systematically work on establishing effective interaction,” Mykyta said as quoted.

He reported that nine regions of Ukraine are negotiating with various representatives at the state level.

It may seem an unusual initiative in wartime insofar as US states cannot independently contribute military aid or craft their own foreign policies. But certainly, they can drum up humanitarian assistance. Fostering economic ties between a state’s businesses and foreign entities is commonplace.

A meeting on Wednesday between Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, and the heads of regional military administrations resulted in an agreement to create a platform for direct contacts between the heads of regional military administrations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ukraine’s Embassy in Washington.

Ukrinform reported that “the cooperation will include cultural, educational, healthcare, social and humanitarian spheres. There will be a separate mechanism for interaction between universities, hospitals, cultural institutions, sports schools and rehabilitation centers.”

So far, the initiative has resulted in four such partnerships, including signed agreements between the Kyiv region and the US states of Washington and Utah, the Zhytomyr region and Indiana, and the Chernihiv region and Minnesota.

The political affiliations of those respective governors are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. The governor of Minnesota, for example, is Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, and the governor of Indiana, Republican Eric Holcomb, last week became the first sitting governor to visit Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

An agreement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which happens to be a battleground state in this election year, a big producer of artillery shells, and the birthplace of President Joe Biden) is reportedly in the works.

Pennsylvania also has the third-largest population of Ukrainian-Americans among all US states after New York and California. It is famously the setting of the 1978 film “The Deer Hunter,” which centers on Ukrainian- and Russian-American friends around Pittsburgh during the Vietnam War.

In Slovakia, Ukraine’s foreign minister was tasked with signing a bilateral security agreement with pro-Kremlin Fico

On his first foreign visit since taking over as Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, proposed the goal of signing a bilateral security agreement with Slovakian Prime Minister, Robert Fico, when they meet in Bratislava on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Zelensky’s suggestion.

It could be a fairly tall order for Ukraine’s top diplomat to achieve on his first mission. Fico won his country’s latest elections on an anti-Ukrainian platform, and, alongside his neighbor and counterpart, Viktor Orban of Hungary, has railed against the EU’s policy of member states contributing military aid to Kyiv.

Sybiha said that he had discussed the Ukrainian peace formula with top officials in Bratislava and asked for their collaboration.

“I also proposed to the Slovak side that they join the G7’s Vilnius declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine and sign a bilateral security agreement,” Sybiha added, noting that Kyiv has signed 26 such agreements.

He also urged Slovakia to support Ukraine’s EU and NATO membership.

“Ukraine in the EU is in the joint interest of Kyiv and Bratislava,” Sybiha said at a press conference on Wednesday held with Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár. “It will lead to a lasting peace and strong security. We are counting on Bratislava’s support.”

Blanár stated at the same press conference that, in his estimation, Ukraine’s NATO membership would “create more conflicts.”