Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy eyes high-level talks on US trip

Russia is trying to knock out Ukraine's energy infrastructure before winter to leave the country in "darkness and cold," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. He added that Kyiv's Western allies needed to step up in providing air defense for Ukraine.

"The winter is coming, and following Russia attacks against energy targets, Ukraine energy production capacity has been reduced by two-thirds," Josep Borrell told reporters at a press conference in New York.

Borrell spoke after European Union foreign ministers, and earlier G7 ministers, met with Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, to discuss how to help Ukraine in the coming weeks.

"We have to support Ukraine not only providing military capacity, but electricity production capacity. Otherwise, this country will be facing a very hard time in winter," Borrell said.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine's energy system has been targeted, resulting in rolling blackouts and limited power in some regions for hours each day. These attacks have intensified in recent weeks ahead of the upcoming winter.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Germanyfor its support since the Russian invasion started.

"We are deeply grateful to Germany for its support," Zelenskyy said after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. 

"Together, we have saved thousands of lives, and we can certainly contribute even more to strengthening the security of the entire European continent."

Meanwhile, Scholz repeated Germany's stance on not providing Ukraine with long-range weapons.

Former prisoners in Russia who have their sentence shortened or pardoned to fight in Ukraine return home and commit crimes including rape and murder, a UN-backed human rights expert said Monday.

Mariana Katzarova, who is observing Russia under a mandate from the UN-backed Human Rights Council, said the former prisoners' return home results in more domestic violence. 

"Many of them who return — and this is an emerging trend — have been perpetrating new violent crimes to begin with against women, against girls, against children, including sexual violence and killings," she said in Geneva.

Three people were killed by Ukrainian shelling in a Russian border village, the local governor said Monday. One of the three casualties is a child.

"The village came under shelling by the Ukrainianarmed forces. Two adults and a teenager were killed by the enemy strike," Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel.

The Belgorod region is adjacent to the Kursk area, where Ukrainian forces pierced Russia’swestern border last month. 

Ukraine did not target civilians during its offensive into Russia's Kursk region, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Russia had earlier announced that dozens of civilians had been killed and hundreds more had been injured during the offensive, which was the largest foreign attack on Russian soil since World War II.

"Given Russia's long history of false numbers and propaganda, there is simply no way of verifying their claims. If Russia wants to show the real situation on the ground it can grant such access to the UN and ICRC," a spokesperson for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told the Reuters news agency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with a number of world leaders on Monday as part of his five-day trip to the United States.

The leaders were in New York City for the United Nations Summit of the Future.

Earlier, on Sunday, Zelenskyy visited an ammunition plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to thank workers for producing one of the most critically needed supplies in Ukraine's fight to push back Russian forces.

"I began my visit to the United States by expressing my gratitude to all the employees at the plant," the Ukrainian president said on social media.

"It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail."

Later in the week, Zelenskyy is set to present his "victory plan" to US President Joe Biden as well as presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Russia launched a fresh wave of strikes on Ukraine overnight.

In the southeastern city of Kherson, a 61-year-old woman was killed, and seven others were wounded, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Meanwhile, in nearby Zaporizhzhia , 16 people were wounded in overnight air strikes, police said.

Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said 13 high-rise buildings were damaged as well as educational institutions and private houses.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched at least two guided missiles and four drones as part of the strikes overnight

But it said the two missiles and one drone "did not reach their targets due to the active anti-aircraft missile defense of the Defense Forces of Ukraine."

At least 31 civilians have been killed during Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region up until September 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry also said some 131,000 civilians had left the most dangerous areas of the region.

Ukraine's August 6 incursion into Kursk was the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since World War II.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the prospect of talks with Russia on Sunday, but Moscow was quick to shut down the possibility.

Zelenskyy is in the United States where he will eventually present his "victory plan" to the White House.

"This will be the start and foundation for talking in any format with Russia. In any format, with any of its representatives, because there will be a plan and something to show," Zelenskyy told Ukrainian media.

Zelenskyy also hopes to have Russia at the table at follow-up talks for the Swiss-organized "peace summit" back in June. 

However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected such a suggestion.

"This process itself has nothing to do with a settlement," she said in a statement on Telegram. "It is another manifestation of fraud by the Anglo-Saxons and their Ukrainian puppets."

zc/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)