Ukraine-Russia war – live: Kyiv is pushing Putin forces back, UK’s most senior military officer says

Ukraine’s military has “good news” in the eastern front of the battlefield where heavy fighting is underway to regain ground, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said, saying Kyiv’s forces were making gains near Bakhmut.

“We are moving forward in the Bakhmut direction. The main battles continue in the districts of Andriivka, Kurdyumivka, Klishchiivka. And we have good news there – Andriivka. The situation is very complex and changeable, we keep our fingers crossed,” the deputy defence minister said in her official Telegram channel on Thursday evening.

Initially, the minister claimed Ukrainian forces had retaken Andriivka village, which falls south of Bakhmut, but the country’s Third Assault Brigade fighting in the region said the report was “premature”.

More details on Ukraine’s advance here:

The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment on Thursday, just moments after the Treasury imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia and Russian operatives for their role in the war on Ukraine.

“Working in lockstep with the Ukrainian government, our allies and partners, international financial institutions, and the private sector, she will drive the United States’ efforts to help rebuild the Ukrainian economy,” Biden said in a statement.

“This includes mobilizing public and private investment, shaping donor priorities, and working to open export markets and businesses shut down by Russia’s brutal attacks and destruction.”

Mary Dejevsky writes: “This may have been a mistake, but I have always regarded Ursula von der Leyen as a rather low-key, matter-of-fact politician in a Merkel-esque mode. This week, she defied that image, delivering her fifth and possibly last State of the (European) Union address in untypically high-flown and futuristic terms.

“It was a wide-ranging, well-organised – and rather good – speech, but little noted, alas, in the post-EU UK. And one of her main themes – how could it not be? – was Ukraine and its place in Europe. “History,” she said, “is now calling us to work on completing our Union”, and she set herself unambiguously on the side of EU enlargement, to include Moldova and the Western Balkans, plus, of course, Ukraine.”

After visiting the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Putin decided to show Kim his armoured Aurus limousine, inviting him to take a seat inside.

Their meeting location shows that Putin is ready to share Russian rocket and space technology with Pyongyang in exchange for access to North Korea’s arms stockpiles for the war in Ukraine.

The talks between the two leaders were expected to focus on expanding military cooperation amid their intensifying confrontations with the West.

Over a sumptuous lunch of Russian “pelmeni” dumplings made with Kamchatka crab, white Amur fish soup and sturgeon, Kim on Wednesday toasted to Putin’s health, to the victory of “great Russia” and to Korean-Russian friendship, predicting victory for Moscow in its “sacred fight” with the West.

North Korea was founded in September 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union, and Moscow supported it for decades during the Cold War, though support dropped off after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

In recent years, China has been seen as the power with the most influence over Kim, but Pyongyang’s leaders have often tried to balance ties with both Moscow and Beijing.

After taking over from Boris Yeltsin in 1999, Putin visited Pyongyang in July 2000 for a meeting with Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.

At the summit on Wednesday, it was unclear just how far Putin was prepared to go in fulfilling North Korean wish lists for technology.

Amid artillery battles in Ukraine, Russia has ramped up its shell production, but a North Korean supply line could be useful.

North Korea is believed to have a large stockpile of artillery shells and rockets compatible with Soviet-era weapons, as well as a history of producing such ammunition.

Asked whether Russia could simply remove sanctions on North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained a responsible member of the U.N. Security Council.

But Peskov added that Moscow would develop its relations with North Korea in accordance with its own interests.

On Thursday, the top national security officials of the United States, South Korea and Japan discussed the Putin-Kim meeting in a call.

A White House statement said U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and counterparts Takeo Akiba of Japan and Cho Tae-yong of South Korea noted that any North Korean arms exports to Russia “would directly violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, including resolutions that Russia itself voted to adopt.”

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) said on Thursday North Korea and Russia would “pay a price” if they violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Kim is due to visit military and civilian aviation factories in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet in Vladivostok, Putin said.

Pope Francis’ Ukraine peace envoy discussed the need to resume Ukraine grain exports to feed the world’s hungry during a meeting Thursday with a Chinese official while on a mission to Beijing, the Vatican said.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi met with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, at the Chinese foreign ministry. According to a Vatican statement, the meeting focused on the war, “emphasizing the need to join efforts to foster dialogue and find paths leading to peace.”

Food security and Ukraine’s stalled grain exports were discussed “with the hope that it will soon be possible to guarantee the export of cereals, especially to the countries most at risk,” the statement said.

Last month, Russia halted a U.N.-brokered agreement to guarantee safe exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea after Russia’s invasion impeded shipments at a time of growing world hunger. Russia said it was suspending the deal until its demands to get Russian food and fertilizer to the world are met.

Ukraine’s agricultural exports, like those of Russia, are crucial for world supplies of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other foods that developing nations rely on. Since Russia’s suspension of the deal, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the River Danube and road and rail links into Europe, but those routes are more expensive and less efficient than the Black Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Kim Jong Un’s invitation to visit North Korea, stoking U.S. concerns that a revived Moscow-Pyongyang axis could bolster Russia’s military in Ukraine and provide Kim sensitive missile technology.

The invite was made during a summit in eastern Russia at which they discussed military matters, the war in Ukraine and helping North Korea’s satellite programme.

Calling each other “comrades”, the two leaders toasted their friendship on Wednesday with Russian wine after the 70-year-old Putin showed Kim, 39, around Russia’s most modern space launch facility and they held talks alongside their defence ministers.

“At the end of the reception, Kim Jong Un courteously invited Putin to visit the DPRK at a convenient time,” KCNA said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s formal name.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin “gratefully” accepted the invite and that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to Pyongyang in October. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Putin has rarely travelled abroad.

For the United States and allies, the burgeoning friendship between Kim and Putin is a concern. Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.

Both Russia and North Korea have denied those claims, but promised to deepen defence cooperation. During a visit to North Korea in July, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was shown banned ballistic missiles by Kim.

Ukraine has the initiative in the war against Vladimir Putin and is pushing Russia back, according to Britain’s most senior military officer.

Speaking at an arms fair in London. Sir Tony Radakin hit back at the idea Kyiv’s counteroffensive was struggling.

“In the north they are holding and fixing Russian forces there and in the south they are making progress between 10 and 20km,” the Guardian reported him saying.

Satellite images of a military base southeast of the Belarus capital Minsk appear to show the dismantling of tents in recent weeks, which may indicate the winding down of the base for Wagner, the Russian mercenary company behind an abortive mutiny.

On 23 August, Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and his top lieutenants were killed when a private jet he used crashed in so-far unexplained circumstances, leaving the fate of his mercenaries in doubt.

Images of the Tsel military base in Mogilev region, taken on 25 July, 25 August and 9 September and provided by Earth imaging company Planet Labs, appear to show the gradual dismantling of tents in the camp. Sharing the images, Reuters said it could not verify the nature of the changes in the camp.

In June, the Wagner group launched a brief mutiny against the army top brass in Russia, condemned as treason by President Vladimir Putin.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko invited Wagner to set up operations in his country as part of a deal that ended the mutiny.