Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 09-20-2024

As Zelensky makes his fifth trip to the US to discuss more military aid with the current American president and his potential successors, movement on several key issues is expected.

US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for bilateral meetings next week, officials from the administrations in Washington and Kyiv announced on Thursday. 

The trip will mark the fifth time that Zelensky has traveled to the US to meet with political leadership since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

The app, founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, has raised concerns in Kyiv over potential Russian access to sensitive data.

Ukraine imposed restrictions on the use of the Telegram messaging app by government, military, and security personnel on Friday, Sept. 20, citing serious national security risks.

The app, founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, has raised concerns in Kyiv over potential Russian access to sensitive data.

Storm Shadows may open the door for ATACMS and JASSMs in the Russo-Ukrainian War

According to Ukrainian digital media outlet Babel, anonymous sources claim that Defense Minister Umerov has dismissed the HUR deputy leaders, but the intelligence agency declined to comment.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has removed two deputy heads of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) under Kyrylo Budanov—Viktor Zaitsev and Ihor Ostapenko—placing them on leave, according to the Ukrainian digital media outlet Babel, citing its anonymous sources in security agencies.

Kyiv Post reached out to HUR for confirmation or denial of the information, but they declined to comment on the situation.

For most of the war a relatively peaceful backwater, Ukraine’s Sumy region is being targeted by the Kremlin more often. It looks as if Russia’s missiles and bombs are being aimed at civilians.

A glider bomb dropped by a strike jet from air space across the border in Russia hit a nursing home in Ukraine’s north-central Sumy region on Thursday, killing 1 resident, injuring 13, and forcing the evacuation of 147 elderly living at a care center.

The semi-guided weapon was by firepower standards in the Russo-Ukrainian War relatively small, probably with no more than 250 kilograms of high explosive. It struck the roof of the Sumy Geriatric Pensionate for Veterans of War and Labor (SGPVW), a state-run institution serving elderly unable to care for themselves fully, with limited family support, or both.

Zelensky has promised to present his so-called "victory plan" to end the fighting, which has killed thousands, to Biden in the coming days.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he hopes US President Joe Biden will support his plan to end the war with Russia, ahead of a trip to Washington.

Zelensky has promised to present his so-called "victory plan" to end the fighting, which has killed thousands, to Biden in the coming days.

Ukraine is desperate for funds as it seeks to prop up its economy and keep its electricity grid functioning this winter after ferocious bombardments by Moscow's forces.

The EU plans to lend Ukraine 35 billion euros ($39 billion), backed up by the revenues of Russian assets frozen in the bloc, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Friday.

"We are now confident that we can deliver this loan to Ukraine very quickly, a loan that is backed by the windfall profits from immobilised Russian assets," von der Leyen said, speaking alongside Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

Russian volunteers, mostly from poorer regions, make up 20% of war casualties. They are often deployed to the most dangerous front lines with promises of high salaries and social benefits.

Russian volunteers, initially civilians, who joined the armed forces after the war began, now represent the largest share of battlefield casualties since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to BBC analysis of Russian deaths.

Journalists have identified the names of 70,112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, though the actual number is believed to be much higher. Some families do not publicly disclose details of their relatives’ deaths. Additionally, the analysis does not include unverified names or the deaths in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, as BBC reported on Friday, September 20.

The preliminary investigation by Russia’s Investigative Committee accused four Russian servicemen of the kidnap and murder of the American Russell Bentley, a Russian “war correspondent.”

The Russian state news agency TASS reported on Friday that the Main Military Investigative Department of Moscow’s Investigative Committee confirmed that four Russian servicemen have been charged in connection with the kidnap, torture and murder of the American Russell Bentley in April, while he worked for the Spunik propaganda outlet in the Donbas region.

The investigation found that on April 8, Bentley, who was known as the “Donbas Cowboy,” was abducted while filming the aftermath of a Ukrainian artillery strike in Donetsk's Petrovsky District.

Vyacheslav Volodin was responding to the European Parliament's call to lift restrictions limiting Ukraine's use of long-range weapons against Russian territory.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament and a member of Putin’s Security Council, warned Western governments on Thursday, Sept. 19, that if they allow Kyiv to use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia, it could lead to a nuclear war.

Volodin was responding to a vote in the European Parliament urging EU countries to give Kyiv such approval. EU lawmakers approved the resolution with 425 votes in favor, 131 against, and 63 abstentions during a plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday.

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

Israel has carried out extensive air strikes on southern Lebanon targeting positions of the Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah. The military says its warplanes struck more than 100 rocket launchers, as well as a weapons depot. This comes as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says "we are at the start of a new phase of the war.” The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed to inflict retribution after explosions of communication devices used by the group killed more than 30 people and injured thousands. The White House has said it is concerned about a potential escalation in the Middle East. The UN Security Council will discuss the crisis later on Friday - BBC

The United Nations urged de-escalation on Friday after the Israeli military struck roughly 100 sites across southern Lebanon overnight, the latest signal that the slow-boiling, 11-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into full-scale war. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said on Friday morning that there had been “a heavy intensification in exchanges of fire” across the Israel-Lebanon border over the previous 12 hours and that it was in touch with Hezbollah and the Israel military to urge calm. - NYT

Initial reports said the parents of the 22-year-old suspect live in occupied territories in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region and he was recruited remotely by a Russian intelligence officer in Crimea.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has arrested a 22-year-old demobilized soldier in the Zaporizhzhia region suspected of spying for Russia.

The SBU’s Friday press release said the suspect came to the attention of Russian special services as his parents live in occupied territories and have been cooperating with the local occupation regime.

Fires raging in northern Ukraine are blamed for the increased radiation levels detected in the Arctic. Meanwhile Kyiv suffers the worst air quality in the world on Friday.

Norway has detected elevated radiation levels near its Arctic border with Russia, which has likely been caused by a forest fire raging near the Chornobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

The announcement came on Wednesday after “very low” levels of radioactive cesium were recorded at Svanhovd and Viksjoefjell in Norway, the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) said in a statement.

Bogged down by its all-out war on Ukraine, now dragging through a third year, Russia is visibly losing its historic role as the key power broker in both Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Even as Russia stages a series of military drills with its allies in Central Asia, Moscow's hold over a region it considers its own backyard appears to be growing increasingly tenuous.

Bogged down by its all-out war on Ukraine, now dragging through a third year, Russia is visibly losing its historic role as the key power broker in both Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• On 16 September 2024, Russian President Putin signed a decree to increase the size of the Russian military with an additional 180,000 personnel to 1.5 million in total coming into effect from December 2024. This is the third decree that has been signed by Putin to increase the size of the Russian military since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
• Russia's aspiration to expand its military is well-established.In December 2022, then-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called on the Russian forces to be enlarged to 1.5 million.Russia will likely increase the number and size of units in its ground forces to accommodate the majority of the additional 180,000 personnel. Despite the stated intent to expand its force, it is likely that this ambition will be hampered by continued heavy losses sustained in the conflict against Ukraine and recruitment challenges.

Serhii Kolyada on the manic Russian bully constantly seeing red.

Sunrise over Kyiv on Friday morning Sept. 20 was obscured by some of the worst instances of air pollution ever experienced anywhere in the world.

Kyivans woke up to a new threat to their well-being this morning – not Russia’s missiles or drones darkening their skies, but another, different airborne adversary: air pollution.

For periods during the morning of Sept. 20, Ukraine’s capital was ranked worst in the world in terms of air pollution with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 175 – ahead of such notoriously polluted cities as Cairo in Egypt, Kolkata in India, and Dhaka in Bangladesh.

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on EU countries to allow Kyiv to use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that she had arrived in Kyiv to offer support ahead of winter, as Russia keeps up its bombing campaign of Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

"My 8th visit to Kyiv comes as the heating season starts soon, and Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, along with a picture of her at a rail station.

Kadyrov said he received the vehicle from Musk, a claim that the Tesla owner called a lie on his social media platform X.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that a Tesla Cybertruck, which he says was gifted to him and later outfitted with a machine gun, was remotely disabled by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Kadyrov made this statement on his Telegram channel.

More than 60 counter-drone systems, such as sensors, drone-to-drone targeting systems and jammers were tested in real-world conditions

NATO announced on Thursday, Sept. 19, that, for the first time, Ukrainian soldiers have participated in the Alliance’s drone countermeasure exercises, held this year in the Netherlands.

More than 60 counter-drone systems and technologies, such as sensors, drone-to-drone targeting systems, jammers, and cyber interceptors, were tested in real-world conditions,” a statement from NATO read.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on August 6 in a bid to pull Moscow's forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.

Ukraine's offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted around 40,000 Russian troops away from the frontline, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on August 6 in a bid to pull Moscow's forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.

After thousands of mobile communication devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, fear and rumors of a possible repeat leave people terrified of the “bombs in their pockets.”

Fear and confusion has gripped Lebanese residents following two straight days during which thousands of electronic devices exploded, killing more than 30 people and injuring thousands more, some critically, according to media reports.

Although the booby-trapped devices were targeted against Hezbollah members, a number of civilians and children were killed and injured by the exploding gadgets. Many are now wondering if this was the end of the attack or just the beginning.

Volunteers from Bashkortostan, the “Bashkort unit,” captured a Russian BMP-3 IFV along with its crew. The Russians were said to be outraged to have been captured by ethnic minorities whom they despise

Volunteers from Bashkortostan, the pro-Ukrainian “Bashkort unit,” were seen on a video posted on Telegram, capturing the crew of a Russian BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) along with the vehicle on Thursday, Sept 19, according to Ukraine’s state project for voluntary surrender of Russians, “I Want to Live” [Ya Khochu Zhit].

This caused dissatisfaction among the Russian servicemen, as they were captured by representatives of ethnic minorities, whom they traditionally consider to be “second-class citizens.”

The Kickstarter campaign has a mere goal of $250. Each pair of hand-knitted slippers costs $39, and free shipping is promised worldwide.

A pensioner in Kyiv has started a Kickstarter campaign for her hand-knitted woolen slippers she called “The Wamers 3,” following her similarly named projects prior.

The knitted slippers, which look similar to socks, cost $39 to $45 per pair, depending on the design. The campaign has a goal of $250 and promises free shipping worldwide.