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September 7, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news
By Chris Lau, Sophie Tanno, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Matt Meyer, Maureen Chowdhury and Elise Hammond, CNN
Updated 12:03 a.m. ET, September 8, 2023
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Ukraine claims small gains in South as Kyiv seeks Black Sea grain deal without Russian participation
From CNN staff
Ukraine has submitted an official proposal to Turkey to operate a "grain corridor" in the Black Sea without Russia's participation, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said Thursday.
Bodnar noted in an interview with Ukrainian media that cargo vessels are already sailing through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey without restrictions.
Four vessels have passed through a temporary corridor since Ukraine's Naval Forces announced new temporary routes for civilian vessels moving to or from the Black Sea on August 10. This came after the United Nations-brokered grain deal broke down on July 16.
Also, UK insurance firm Lloyd's of London is in discussion with the United Nations to provide coverage for shipments if a new Black Sea grain corridor agreement can be reached, CEO John Neal told Reuters.
Here are the other developments:
- Ukraine claims further marginal gains in the south: Accounts from the front lines in southern Ukraine suggest further incremental gains for Ukrainian forces amid constant artillery, mortar and rocket fire from both sides. Geolocated videos show a wasteland of shell holes, abandoned trenches and wrecked military hardware in the area between Robotyne, Verbove and Novoprokopivka — a triangle of villages that hold the key for Ukrainians to getting closer to Tokmak, an important hub for Russian defenses.
- Russia intercepts 2 drones over the Bryansk region, local official says: Russian air defense systems intercepted two drones over the country's southwestern region of Bryansk on Thursday. One of the drones, which was aimed at an "industrial facility" in the city of Bryansk, "was suppressed by the electronic warfare," the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said in a post on Telegram.
- 20 Russian embassy staff arrive in North Korea: It comes amid US reports that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un may meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia to discuss an arms deal. These staffers are the first to join the embassy since the height of the Covid pandemic. The post said in the past year, the embassy was staffed by 18 people. “It was very difficult for us, but we made it!”
- Pentagon pushes back against Russian claims of depleted uranium munition health risks: The US Defense Department is pushing back against Russian claims that the depleted uranium rounds that the US announced it would send Ukraine would cause an increase in cancer and other diseases. A spokesperson said that the munitions are “standard-issue” antitank rounds used with the Abrams tanks that the US is sending to Ukraine.
Ukraine says it has started exporting grain through Croatian seaports
From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Mariya Knight
Ukraine has already started shipping grain through Croatian seaports, a top official said on Thursday.
Ukraine has been exploring alternative shipping routes after Russia pulled out of a deal in July that allowed Ukrainian ships to navigate safe passage through the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosphorus Strait in order to reach global markets.
"After all, Russia continues to launch missile strikes on the grain infrastructure on the Black Sea coast, which significantly limits the possibilities of domestic grain exports," Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said during the Three Seas Initiative summit in Bucharest.
"Ukrainian grain has already been exported through Croatian ports. Thank you for this opportunity. Although this trade route is niche, it is already popular," Svyrydenko added.
Earlier this month, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian port facilities on the Danube River used for food exports.
"We are ready to develop it, expanding the possibilities of the transport corridor. We believe that this logistics route will play an important role in bilateral trade between our countries even after the war," according to Svyridenko.
Svyrydenko did not give further details on how much grain had already been shipped through Croatian seaports.
Ukraine submits official proposal to Turkey to open grain corridor in Black Sea without Russia
From CNN's Mariya Knight and Yulia Kesaieva
Ukraine has submitted an official proposal to Turkey to operate a "grain corridor" in the Black Sea without Russia's participation, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said Thursday.
Bodnar noted in an interview with Ukrainian media that cargo vessels are already sailing through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey without restrictions.
Four vessels have passed through a temporary corridor since Ukraine's Naval Forces announced new temporary routes for civilian vessels moving to or from the Black Sea on August 10. This came after the United Nations-brokered grain deal broke down on July 16.
Bodnar said that Ukraine expects Ankara and Kyiv to communicate on the issue in the coming days or “within the framework of the UN General Assembly, in order to understand how to move forward.”
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia will be ready to consider reviving the grain deal “as soon as all the agreements on lifting restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented.”
Bodnar called lifting restrictions against Russia "absolutely wrong path" and said that the international community “shouldn’t give into Russian blackmail.”
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said Thursday that the UN “continues to engage at all levels to make sure that both Ukrainian exports of food and fertilizer and Russian Federation exports of food and fertilizer can go out.”
Russia intercepts 2 drones over the Bryansk region, local official says
From CNN's Mariya Knight and Mohammed Tawfeeq
Russian air defense systems intercepted two drones over the country's southwestern region of Bryansk on Thursday.
One of the drones, which was aimed at an "industrial facility" in the city of Bryansk, "was suppressed by the electronic warfare," the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said in a post on Telegram.
However, the drone hit an administrative building during the fall and caused a fire, he said. There were no casualties and the fire was extinguished, Bogomaz said.
Another drone was shot down by Russian air defense forces while approaching a district in the Bryansk region.
That attack didn’t leave any casualties or damage, the governor said, adding that "operational and emergency services are on site."
Bryansk neighbors northern Ukraine and eastern Belarus, Moscow’s close ally that helped facilitate Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. The area has been previously targeted by Ukrainian forces.
Top US diplomat visits school where occupying Russian soldiers imprisoned and tortured Ukrainians
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw first-hand one of the sites of atrocities committed by occupying Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
The top US diplomat visited a school in Yahidne, about two hours north of Kyiv, where Russian soldiers imprisoned Ukrainian residents, tortured them and let multiple die.
Valeriy Polhui, a survivor of the imprisonment, described how 127 people had been held in the dank small room in the basement for nearly a month. Ten people died in this room, he told Blinken, and we were forced to take bodies out "above the heads of children."
Polhui said that if a person died before noon, the Russians "allowed the body to be removed from the premises."
"If a person died in the afternoon, the evening, they wouldn't let the body out," he said.
Everybody but the elderly were forced to stand or to sit, but could not lay down because the room was so cramped, he described. The youngest child imprisoned there was a month and a half old, Polhui said.
The Ukrainian prisoners would plead with the Russians to let the children get air, "and kids started to faint," the Russians "would answer — 'what did you want? this is a war.' Even when they would beg that somebody was on the brink of death, "they would say, 'OK, let him or her die.'"
"At the beginning, it was very cold inside here," but as the rooms filled with Ukrainian detainees, "there was not enough air to breathe," Polhui said. "The first ones were the elderly — they started to lose their minds. And then they died," he described.
When the Russians eventually allowed mothers to bring their children outside for air, "the kids wouldn't even open their eyes because they so got used to the dark," he described.
"This is just one building in one village in one community in Ukraine and this is a story that we’ve seen again and again and again," Blinken said after seeing the school.
New US and UK sanctions target alleged Russian "cybercriminals" who backed Ukraine invasion
From CNN's Radina Gigova and Jessie Gretene
The United States and Britain have sanctioned an additional 11 "cybercriminals" accused of being members of the Russia-based cybercrime group Trickbot.
The sanctioned individuals include "key actors involved in management and procurement for the Trickbot group, which has ties to Russian intelligence services and has targeted the US Government and US companies, including hospitals," the US Treasury Department said in a statement Thursday.
The group was also "one of the first to offer support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, maintaining links and receiving tasking from the Russian Intelligence Services," it added.
The sanctions targeted individuals — including administrators, managers, developers and coders — who have assisted the Trickbot group in its operations, the Treasury said.
In addition to focusing on entities in the US, the gang also targeted hospitals, schools, local authorities and businesses in the UK, Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement Thursday.
Today's announcement comes in a line of joint UK-US sanctions against ransomware actors in February this year. The total number of group members sanctioned is now 18, according to the UK government.
"We are preparing more global pressure on Russia," Zelensky says
From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is determined this month "to achieve several very specific results in our work with partners," including new weaponry, although he didn't offer specific details.
"Our diplomatic efforts to unite even more countries to restore peace on our entire land. We are preparing more global pressure on Russia," he said in his nightly address.
Zelensky also said "security" was the main topic of his phone calls with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.
Pentagon pushes back against Russian claims of depleted uranium munition health risks
From CNN's Michael Conte
The United States Defense Department is pushing back against Russian claims that the depleted uranium rounds that the US announced it would send Ukraine would cause an increase in cancer and other diseases.
“The CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has stated that there is no evidence that depleted uranium rounds cause cancer, the World Health Organization reports that there has been no increase of leukemia or other cancers that have been established following any exposure to uranium, or DU, and even the IAEA has stated unequivocally that there is no proven link between DU exposure and increases in cancers or significant health or environmental impacts,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday.
Singh said that the munitions are “standard-issue” antitank rounds used with the Abrams tanks that the US is sending to Ukraine.
The new US military assistance package was announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while he was in Kyiv on Wednesday. The depleted uranium munitions were part of the aid for the first time, a US official told CNN.
The munitions are mildly radioactive because they are made from dense metal, a byproduct from fuel production for nuclear power plants. They can be fired from the US-made Abrams tanks that are expected to arrive in Ukraine this fall.
“Many militaries across the world use depleted uranium in their tanks,” Singh said. “We feel that these will be the most effective rounds to counter Russian tanks.”
Singh said she would let the Ukrainians announce when the rounds have arrived.
Why is it controversial?: The International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog – has said that depleted uranium is “considerably less radioactive than natural uranium,” but urged caution when handling.
While depleted uranium does not significantly contribute to the background radiation that soldiers and civilians encounter, it can pose a danger if it enters the body. When depleted uranium munitions strike a tank’s armor, it can ignite and produce uranium dusts or aerosol particles, which, if inhaled, can enter the bloodstream and may cause kidney damage.
CNN's Christian Edwards and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.