Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy travels to US for UN summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet his Brazilian counterpart Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday, the two countries have confirmed.

The meeting will take place in New York, on the sidelines of this week's United Nations General Assembly, the office of the Brazilian presidency said. Ukraine's embassy in Brasilia has confirmed the plans.

Lula and Zelenskyy have never met in person. The Ukrainian government requested the meeting after the two leaders did not meet at the G20 summit earlier this year.

Brazil's leftist leader has repeatedly advocated for a group of neutral countries to broker peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. 

He drew criticism from Ukraine and its allies in April for claiming Western arms deliveries were only prolonging the conflict. 

Lula has since condemned Russia's invasion but has said Brazil would stay "neutral" in the conflict to be able to facilitate potential peace talks.

A Russian missile attack struck an industrial area in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, its mayor said on Monday.

"There is information about hitting an industrial zone in the city's Kholodnohirsky district," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

No casualties have been reported so far.

Kharkiv is located less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Ukraine's border with Russia and is an important infrastructure hub. Before Russia's invasion, the city had a population of over 1.4 million.

Ukrainian troops have broken through a Russian defensive line south of Bakhmut, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Monday.

"Fierce fighting continues in the area of Bakhmut," he said. "As a result of the successful actions of our troops, the enemy's defense line which runs [south] from Bakhmut to Gorlivka was broken."

After Ukrainian forces retook the small villages of Andriivka and Klishchiivka over the weekend, the localized breakthrough represents a third small success south of Bakhmut ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's United Nations address in New York this week.

General Syrskyi claimed that the Russian army's 72nd, 31st and 83rd brigades had been "destroyed and have completely lost their capacity to fight." He cautioned however that "the general situation on the eastern front remains complicated."

Speaking to DW, French political expert and former NATO director of policy planning Fabrice Pothier commented on the retaking of Andriivka and Klishchiivka, suggesting that they may be more important symbolically than tactically.

"Being on higher ground, this could give the Ukrainian forces the upper hand in putting pressure on the Russians in Bakhmut to the point where they will possibly have to withdraw from the city," he said.

"Clearly, the Ukrainians have chosen Bakhmut as a place to pin down Russian forces, and a potential retaking of Bakhmut could have a huge psychological effect, even on the Russian leadership, who themselves have made Bakhmut into the 'mother of all battles,' he continued.

"So, the symbolic value should not be understated. As for the tactical value, I'd prefer to leave that to the Ukrainians. That will be up for debate come the end of the war."

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says that Berlin will give another €400 million (roughly $430 million) of arms and aid to Ukraine.

He made the comments to German newspaper Bild a day before talks at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

"We are supplying additional ammunition," the minister said.

"In addition, we will help with armoured vehicles and mine-clearing systems," he said, adding that Berlin would also provide Ukraine with clothing and power generators.

The package will not include long-range Taurus cruise missiles, a weapon Kyiv has recently been requesting.

"A multitude of political, legal, military and technical aspects have to be clarified," he said on the topic of providing Ukraine with Taurus missiles.

Tuesday's talks will bring together 50 countries, including the United States.

Pistorius said that he would skip the talks in Ramstein as he has contracted the COVID-19.

The Moscow-installed governor of the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said that explosions at the local government headquarters were caused by a Ukrainian rocket attack.

"According to the information we have so far, there were no deaths of injuries," Pushilin said in a Telegram video, adding that civilian infrastructure in Donetsk city center had been damaged.

Russia's state news agency RIA had reported series of blasts earlier on Monday, while the Russian-installed mayor of the city of Donetsk wrote on Telegram that the downtown area had come under fire.

Donetsk is the capital of the region of the same name and was initially taken over by Russian-backed separatists in spring 2014. Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the region in a move unrecognized by the international community.

Russia has fired cruise missiles at mock targets in the Bering Sea separating its far eastern coast from Alaska, during what Moscow says was an exercise to practice protecting its Arctic shipping route.

The defense ministry said Vulcan, Granit and Onyx cruise missiles were fired over distances of hundreds of miles to strike targets simulating enemy ships. The exercise was said to have involved missiles launched from land, ship and submarine, as well as about 10,000 military personnel, plus planes and helicopters.

Meanwhile, in the same region, Reuters reported a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet was scrambled on Monday to intercept a US Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft which the Kremlin said was approaching its airspace.

Despite its continuing war on its western border with Ukraine, Russia is keen to demonstrate that it is still a power in the Arctic and Far East as well. Last year, Moscow said it would be committing almost $30 billion to the northern sea route by 2035.

The route, which runs across the top of Russia from Murmansk in the northwest to the Bering Strait in the east, has become increasingly viable in recent years as climate change has reduced sea ice.

Ahead of his United Nations address in New York, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared Russian president Vladimir Putin to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and called on the world to prevent a potential third world war.

"If Ukraine falls, what will happen in 10 years?' he said in an interview with CBS News broadcast on Sunday evening. "If the Russians reach Poland, what next? A third world war?"

Zelenskyy said that the Russian people had "elected and re-elected" Putin and produced "a second Hitler," arguing: "We cannot change Putin."

For Zelenskyy, Ukraine's ongoing battle against the Russian invasion was not just a fight to defend their own country, but "the values of the whole world."

"It's Ukrainians who are paying the highest price. We're truly fighting for our freedom, we are dying. We're not fiction, we're not a book. We're fighting for real against a nuclear state which is threatening to destroy the world."

Ukraine intends to sue European neighbors Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over unilateral bans they announced on Ukrainian agricultural products, after the European Union allowed block-wide restrictions to expire.

"I think [it will be] in the near future,"  Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky told Reuters.

The unilateral bans were announced on Friday, soon after the European Commission said it found no evidence of  pressure on markets in its eastern members and saw no reason to continue the restrictions. 

Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava argue that the measure was necessary to protect their local markets.

Kyiv is meanwhile concerned for a key source of revenue, which has become even more essential after Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal last July. The deal allowed Ukraine to export grains via the Black Sea amid the conflict.

The Ukrainian government has dismissed six deputy defense ministers, including regular spokeswoman Hanna Maliar.

The ministry reshuffle comes just two weeks after Rustem Umerov replaced Oleksii Reznikov as defense minister. Under Ukrainian Law, when a minister is dismissed, his or her deputy ministers are automatically dismissed, too.

The Defense Ministry had been battling with allegations of corruptions, although none were leveled at Reznikov himself. "Rebooting," said Umerov in a short Facebook post. "We started. We continue. The Ministry continues to work as usual."

Taking up his post, Umerov said his priorities would include making the ministry the main institution for the coordination of Ukraine’s defense forces, enhancing the value attached to individual soldiers, developing the country’s military industry and fighting corruption.

Maliar, 45, faced criticism last week for prematurely reporting Ukrainian military successes in the east of the country. In her final briefing on Monday morning, she provided an update on the situation in the recently regained villages of Andriivka and Klishchiivka. 

"The enemy is trying with all his might to regain lost positions," she said before her dismissal. "Therefore, our fighters hold back the enemy's attacks there and are entrenched at the achieved frontiers."

Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes on Monday at the United Nations' highest court in The Hague.

Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the Word Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations in a major show of support. 

At the start of hearings, Russia called on the court to throw out what it said was a "hopelessly flawed" case challenging Moscow's argument that its invasion of Ukraine was carried out to prevent genocide.

Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia launched its war in Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine. It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.

Hearings this week are expected to see lawyers for Russia argue that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case, while Ukraine will call on judges to press ahead to hearings on the substance of its claims.

Ukraine brought the case to the Hague-based court based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both Moscow and Kyiv have ratified. In an interim ruling in March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow has flouted as it presses ahead with its devastating attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.

Ukraine reported its troops had recaptured more territory on the eastern front and
advanced in the south in its military counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had retaken two square kilometers (0.77 square miles) of land in the past week around the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of fighting.

Kyiv's forces also recaptured two villages on the southern flank of the city, Andriivka and Klishchiivka, Maliar said. Both villages lie on higher ground and their capture could set the stage to reasserting control over the pivotal city.

Ukrainian forces are also trying to advance toward the Sea of Azov in a southern drive intended to split Russian forces. They retook 5.2 square kilometers (two square miles) in the past week, said Maliar.

Overall, Ukraine has regained more than 260 square kilometers (100 square miles) in the south during the counteroffensive, she said.

Ukraine said it downed 18 Russian drones and 17 cruise missiles attacking its territory overnight.

Russia launched 24 drones at the Ukrainian southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv overnight, Ukraine's air force said in a post on Telegram.

It added that all of the 17 missiles were destroyed over the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Khmelnytskyi regions.

Meanwhile, Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks over several parts of Crimea, outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.

Crimea has been targeted by Ukraine throughout Russia's offensive but attacks there have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un expressed his "heartfelt thanks" to President Vladimir Putin, state media said, as he headed home after nearly a week in Russia on a defense-focused trip.

Kim's tour of Russia's far east, which began Tuesday, has fanned Western fears that isolated, nuclear-armed Pyongyang could provide Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.

During the trip, North Korea's leader inspected everything from Russian space rockets to submarines. It also included a symbolic exchange of rifles with Putin.

North Korea and Russia, historic allies, are both under rafts of global sanctions —  Moscow for its Ukraine invasion, Pyongyang for its nuclear weapon tests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among the world leaders descending on New York on Monday as the United Nations prepares to kick off a high-level summit aimed at rescuing its largely ignored Sustainable Development Goals for economic growth.

The UN General Assembly in New York formally starts on Tuesday with speeches from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelenskyy, among others.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an open meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday. On the same day, Scholz, Zelenskyy and other representatives from politics and business will receive the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council think tank.

The week-long UN General Assembly is set to focus on dusting off its 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at avoiding poverty, hunger, poor education and poor health care. 

In 2015, the countries of the world set themselves these central goals for global development with the key aim of ending hunger and extreme poverty by 2030. 

However, the pandemic, the Ukraine war, and a debt crisis in poor countries are among the setbacks that have left the UN well off its target. 

dh/rc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)