Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 09-16-2024

There are dozens of villages and towns within the 15-kilometer radius of evacuation.

Russia ordered the evacuation of villages close to the Ukrainian border in the Kursk region, the local governor said Monday, as Moscow ramped up efforts to regain control of land seized in Kyiv’s incursion.

The reason for the border evacuations was unclear, but came days after Moscow began what appeared to be a major counter-offensive aimed at driving Ukraine out of the border territory.

Ukraine’s efforts to destabilize Russia, including via drone strikes and the invasion of Kursk, could play a significant role in changing the outcome of the war.

Exclusive footage from Kyiv Post sources appears to show HUR special forces attacking a Russian base in Syria, near Aleppo, on Sept. 15, where Moscow was producing and testing strike UAVs.

Special forces from the Khimik group of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) attacked a Russian military base in Syria on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15, according to a Kyiv Post source in military intelligence.

The operation took place on the southeastern outskirts of Aleppo. Kyiv Post has obtained exclusive footage.

Copenhagen and Kyiv officials, worked with domestic producers and overseas suppliers to put modern artillery in the hands of Ukrainian gunners, only three months after the financing came through.

An innovate Copenhagen-run arms assistance initiative has tripled Ukrainian production of a vital howitzer, by tapping into hundreds of millions of Russian Euros sequestered in Danish banks to pay for the artillery pieces, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Sunday.

Delivery of Ukraine’s 2S22 Bohdana howitzer has jumped from six to eighteen systems a month, following purchase and delivery to Ukraine of key components, Poulsen said in comments to Ukrainian media.

After appeals from residents of the Kursk region to Russia’s President Putin asking for assistance in evacuation fell on deaf ears, a member of the State Duma wrote to the Red Cross for help.

Residents of the Sudzha district of the Kursk region posted an internet video on Aug. 8 appealing to President Vladimir Putin for help evacuating civilians caught up in the fighting after Ukrainian forces crossed into the Russian mainland two days earlier.

The residents said that Russian propaganda media announcements that Kyiv’s forces had already been “completely defeated” were simply untrue. They said their homes were being destroyed, that they had received no instructions from the local authorities, there had been no organized evacuation, and that people were saving themselves as best they could.

Kyiv Post’s Special Military Correspondent Stefan Korshak offers a personal take on the latest developments on the front line.

Loyal readers among you may recall that last week I flagged a Ukrainian government order to clear civilians out of border regions of Ukraine’s Glushkoho region (I think I referred to it as Glukhiv), as a real operational threat to Russian forces on the other side of the international frontier, in Kursk Oblast.

My argument was that even if the Ukrainians were just trying to make the Russians nervous about a potential SECOND Ukrainian push into Kursk Oblast, and the Ukrainians had no intention of backing it up with actual troops, Russian officers responsible for planning Kursk Oblast operations had no choice but to take the threat seriously.

According to the Russian claims, Ukraine is planning a “staged Russian missile attack” on a children’s institution.

Russian outlets have spread false claims that Ukraine is planning a “staged Russian missile attack” on a children’s institution, such as a kindergarten or hospital, in a “territory controlled by Kyiv.”

The Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) has dismissed these statements as outright disinformation.

Moscow has arrested at least a dozen other military officials since April, part of what analysts have called a “purge” of corrupt army leaders amid Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.

Russia has charged two more military officers with taking bribes, investigators said on Monday, the latest in a string of arrests linked to alleged corruption in the defence ministry.

Ivan Populovsky, the head of a military representative's office, and his subordinate, Grigory Zorin, allegedly received over 11 million rubles ($120,000) from two companies that supplied electrical goods and cables to the defence ministry.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

US police are investigating the background of a gunman arrested at a Florida golf course where Donald Trump was playing. The FBI has called it an apparent assassination attempt - it happened just two months after Trump survived a shooting in Pennsylvania. US media have named the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58. He tried to recruit foreign fighters to join Ukraine's war effort and had been to Kyiv. An ex-Secret Service agent tells the BBC there should be a review of the level of protection given to presidential candidates - BBC

As I told BBC Television this morning, the fallout from this assassination attempt and they suspect’s connections to the war in Ukraine could help harden opposition to Ukraine aid among the Trump base. The incident comes just as Ukraine’s allies are trying to get agreement on providing Kyiv with longer-range weapons - so in a sense the timing couldn’t be worse.

Ukrainian aerial scouts told Kyiv Post that such drones could potentially damage a helicopter, but noted challenges with battery life and speed when carrying a load.

A Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) drone has reportedly reached speeds of over 300 kph, according to footage released by the “Wild Hornets” unit, a volunteer group that builds FPV kamikaze attack drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

“The high-speed FPV drone from Wild Hornets accelerated to 325 kph, breaking our previous speed record,” the caption to the video reads.

Nowhere is the dangerous paralysis of the West felt more than in triage units and hospitals near the front lines in Ukraine. Delays in arms shipments are costing lives.

Faced with a brutal Russian invasion, Ukraine has defiantly stood and fought for more than two years, proving its resilience and determination to defend its sovereignty. However, as the war continues, it becomes increasingly clear that Ukraine cannot win this war on its own. Despite countless promises, gestures, and grand speeches by Western leaders, when it comes to providing the weapons necessary for the Ukrainian defense, the West continues to falter. The reluctance of Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles that could turn the tide of the war is the latest example of this failure.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles. His decision is rooted in a misplaced fear of escalation, one he shares with Washington and London. The US and UK have also been reluctant to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia. This chronic procrastination is not only a failure of the leadership of these great powers but also a moral failure that is costing Ukrainians their lives – innocent civilians, soldiers, and families devastated by relentless Russian bombing.

Environmentalists say it may take more than a year to restore the Desna's fauna, as the river is now devoid of fish and other living creatures.

Ukraine's army caught Russian troops off guard when it attacked the region of Kursk on August 6, advancing for miles into Russian territory and seizing dozens of towns and villages.

Ukraine on Monday said it had asked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to verify the situation in areas of Russia's Kursk region seized by Kyiv.

Ukraine's army caught Russian troops off guard when it attacked the region of Kursk on August 6, advancing for miles into Russian territory and seizing dozens of towns and villages.

An informal Kyiv Post street poll found that Ukrainians resoundingly resent US restrictions on the use of long-range missiles against targets in Russia.

Everyday Ukrainians are frustrated by the ban on their country’s use of long-range US weapons against targets deeper in Russia, and not optimistic about policy change, according to a street survey by Kyiv Post in Lviv on Sunday morning.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met US President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday as Ukraine’s allies continue to discuss whether to give a go-ahead to Kyiv, but no announcement following the meeting. 

This incident occurred nine weeks after an earlier attempt on the Republican presidential nominee’s life. The former president stated that he was unharmed.

Donald Trump was the target of what the FBI described as “an apparent assassination attempt” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, Sept. 15.

This incident occurred nine weeks after another attempt on the Republican presidential nominee’s life. The former president stated that he was unharmed, and authorities have detained a suspect.

Earlier, a guided Russian bomb struck a residential building in Kharkiv, the latest of a series of attacks on the northeastern city, starting a blaze which firefighters extinguished.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday once again urged Western allies to permit Kyiv to strike military targets deep inside Russia, especially air bases, after a deadly attack on Kharkiv.

"Only a systemic solution makes it possible to oppose this terror: the long-range solution to destroy Russian military aviation where it is based," Zelensky said in his daily address.

We are heading towards a G-Ego world in which global egos with power, or influence, which extend beyond their state threaten to fill the global leadership void.

In a really seminal piece/idea Ian Bremner from Eurasia described the evolution, or perhaps descent, of global leadership to a “G-zero” world. Bremner describes a scenario where the unipolar world dominated by the US, and which followed the collapse of the USSR in 1991 is gradually eroded over the next thirty years or so by US missteps.

Perhaps this reflected US arrogance and its failure to prudently use its newfound powers, which were eventually wasted/fritted away in failed military interventions in the Middle East, Afghanistan et al. But Bremner describes a world (G-zero) where the demise of the US created a vacuum in global state leadership/governance - a void which some would argue others like China, Russia, et al are now trying to step into to recreate a new multipolar world. Those states would already argue that we are already in that multipolar world, and the US needs to just smell the coffee and accept its own demise.

Almost $6 billion in US military aid for Ukraine is at risk as there is a Sept. 30 deadline on the current Pentagon authorization to send stockpiled weapons to Kyiv.

Defense News, a military issues website, citing US Department of Defense (DoD) officials, reported that about $5.8 billion in currently approved presidential drawdown authority (PDA) will expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend the authorization.

PDA is the mechanism whereby the Pentagon can allocate weapons, equipment and materiel from DoD stockpiles for relatively rapid transfer of supplies to Ukraine with the funding used for replacement items.

As Bratislava seems about to withdraw from the purchase of 12 US Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters, Kyiv is trying to secure the transfer of the aircraft to Ukraine.

Ukraine has been seeking to update its fleet of aging Soviet-era attack helicopters for a long time. The need has become more pressing since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, both because of the fleet’s inferior performance and the increasing difficulty sourcing parts to repair and maintain them, many of which are of Russian origin.

After a projected $600 million sale of 12 Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters to Pakistan through its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program in 2017 fell through, Washingtonoffered the aircraft to Slovakia, along with AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles at a discounted price of around $340 million in March 2023.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russia reportedly aims to achieve a decisive victory in Ukraine by 2026 before likely medium- to long-term economic and force generation constraints begin to significantly degrade Russia's ability to sustain its war effort in Ukraine.
• Russia will likely face growing challenges in the production and procurement of the materiel that Russian operations in Ukraine require, and the Kremlin will likely become increasingly reliant on foreign partners to meet its materiel needs.
• Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Oleksandr Kamyshin stated on September 15 that Ukraine has started domestic serial production of 155mm artillery shells.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) promptly responded to ultranationalists' outcry surrounding the controversial deaths of two drone operators in Ukraine, highlighting how Russian authorities continue to be highly attentive to backlash from the ultranationalist community.
• Russian ultranationalist milbloggers praised the Russian MoD's response to the drone operators' deaths but expressed concern about the MoD's ability to solve the systemic issues that led to the deaths.
• Chechen Akhmat Spetsnaz Commander Apty Alaudinov aggravated Kremlin efforts to conduct prisoner of war (POW) exchanges for soldiers who defended against the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast while balancing his attempts to appeal to both the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and hardline facets of Chechen society.
• Ukrainian forces reportedly advanced in Glushkovsky Raion, Kursk Oblast, and Russian forces reportedly recently recaptured territory in the area as of September 15. Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations throughout their salient in Kursk Oblast, and Russian forces recently advanced in the salient.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Svatove, Siversk, and Donetsk City.
• Russian authorities continue to strengthen coercive mechanisms to support ongoing crypto-mobilization efforts in order to avoid conducting a wider mobilization.