One dead and six injured in Russian shelling of Kherson
Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson overnight killed at least one person and injured six, including two children, the regional governor said on Monday.
Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched 71 attacks in the past 24 hours that were “aimed at the residential districts” as well as shops and medical infrastructure, among other establishments.
Twenty of the air and land attacks targeted the city of Kherson, the region’s administrative district, the governor added. Authorities put out a fire caused by shelling early on Monday, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Kyiv drove Russian forces out of part of the Kherson region last November after several months of occupation, but Russian troops have continued shelling the regional capital and areas around it from across the Dnipro River.
Key events
In case you missed it earlier, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said there are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, rowing back from comments by his defence minister who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.
To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.
The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other western countries.
Hours after that interview was published, Sunak said there were no immediate plans to send British troops to Ukraine.
“What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine,” Sunak told reporters at the start of the Conservative party’s annual conference in Manchester.
“But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict.”
It seems likely that Moscow will launch a second missile campaign this winter, designed to cripple Ukraine’s energy grid again, the Guardian’s Luke Harding writes from Hostomel.
Last Wednesday Ukrenergo, the state-owned electricity transmission system operator, said “enemy shelling” damaged a thermal power plant. More strikes are expected, after a summer in which Russia targeted Ukraine’s grain export facilities.
This time round, however, engineers are optimistic. “In 2022 we had to improvise. Now we are better prepared,” said Oleksandr Danyliuk, an engineer with Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, DTEK.
Serhii Buriak, the head of the region’s electricity grid, said: “We have a lot of experience from last winter.
“In the past an attack would knock out power for an entire area. Now we can switch quickly from one electricity source to another.”
Read the full story here:
Here are some recent images documenting efforts to demine the Ukrainian countryside.
One dead and six injured in Russian shelling of Kherson
Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson overnight killed at least one person and injured six, including two children, the regional governor said on Monday.
Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched 71 attacks in the past 24 hours that were “aimed at the residential districts” as well as shops and medical infrastructure, among other establishments.
Twenty of the air and land attacks targeted the city of Kherson, the region’s administrative district, the governor added. Authorities put out a fire caused by shelling early on Monday, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Kyiv drove Russian forces out of part of the Kherson region last November after several months of occupation, but Russian troops have continued shelling the regional capital and areas around it from across the Dnipro River.
Naval air power key to Russia in Black Sea – MoD
Russia is increasingly using combat jets to assert power over the western Black Sea, the UK Ministry of Defence has warned in its latest intelligence briefing.
The MoD said more of its fleet activities were relocating to Novorossiysk in Russia “in the face of threats” to its Black Sea headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea.
“In recent weeks, the naval aviation component of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the fleet’s operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war,” the MoD tweeted.
“Russia is attempting to use naval air power to project force over the north-western Black Sea.”
‘No British soldiers’ to be sent to fight in Ukraine, Sunak assures
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said there are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine following comments by his defence minister, who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.
Rowing back on comments made by Grant Shapps, the prime minister said “there are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict”.
Hours earlier, the Sunday Telegraph published an interview with Shapps, where the recently appointed defence minister said:
Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country’ – not just training, but also we’re seeing BAE [the UK defence firm], for example, move into manufacturing in country, for example. I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing. So I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country.
However, speaking to reporters at the start of the Conservative party’s annual conference in Manchester, Sunak said:
What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine. But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now.
Biden: US support for Ukraine cannot be interrupted
Joe Biden has called on congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”.
A stopgap bill that extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a shutdown did not include any aid for Kyiv.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow America’s support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” the US president said. “I fully expect the speaker to keep his commitment to secure the passage and support needed to help Ukraine as they defend themselves against aggression and brutality.”
Asked if he could trust the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, to honour deals, Biden said: “We just made one about Ukraine, so we’ll find out”, referring to Republican promises of passing a separate bill on the issue.
Biden urged Congress to negotiate an aid package as soon as possible.
“The vast majority of both parties – Democrats and Republicans, Senate and House – support helping Ukraine and the brutal aggression that is being thrust upon them by Russia,” Biden said. “Stop playing games, get this done.”
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I’m Mark Gerts and here’s a look at the latest developments.
Joe Biden has called on congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”.
A stopgap bill that extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a shutdown did not include any provisions for Kyiv.
More on that soon. In other news:
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Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said there are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, rowing back from comments made by his defence minister, Grant Shapps, who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.
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Slovakia’s populist likely new prime minister, Robert Fico, who campaigned on a pledge to end military aid to Ukraine, has said his position “has not changed” after his party’s clear election win made him favourite to lead the country again. “People in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine,” the Smer leader said.
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Ukraine marked Defenders Day, honouring veterans and remembering soldiers killed in Russia’s invasion. “Tough times have made us strong. And the strong bring the times of victory closer. Step by step. Today, tomorrow, every day, every minute,” the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a brief address on Telegram.
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Two purported Ukrainian drones struck Russian territory on Sunday, with social media footage showing one hitting a helicopter base in Sochi and another an aircraft factory in Smolensk. Possibly related to these attacks, Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan called today for “a nuclear ultimatum” after a drone fell right in front of her family home in Adler, about 38km from Sochi.
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Russian documents indicating a surge in military spending in 2024 suggest Moscow is preparing for “multiple further years of fighting in Ukraine”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said papers apparently leaked from Russia’s finance ministry suggested the country’s defence spending was likely to rise to about 30% of total public expenditure in 2024.
