Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy bemoans 'slower' Western supplies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash last month.

"He killed Prigozhin, at least we all have this information and not any other," Zelenskyy said in a speech, without providing further details about what information he was referring to. He added that the incident indicated that Putin was now "politically weak." 

Prigozhin died in an August 23 plane crash in Russia, exactly two months after launching a short-lived mutiny against Moscow's military. 

The Kremlin has dismissed accusations that it was responsible for the crash.

The Danish Ministry of Defense says the first batch of 10 Leopard 1 tanks promised to Kyiv by Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have landed in Ukraine.

The three countries had pledged to donate 100 of the German-made tanks back in February.

"A further 10 tanks have been delivered from the factory," the ministry said. It added that Danish troops were training Ukrainian forces on the tanks' use in Germany.

"I have no doubt that it will help them win the defense battle they are fighting right now," army commander said in the statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be among the recipients of this year's Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards.

The awards will be delivered during the United Nations' General Assembly later this month.

Other recipients include Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the chairman and chief executive of First Eastern Investment Group, Victor Chu.

The Ukrainian president is likely to attend the UN session in person, yet his attendance has yet to be confirmed. Since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, Zelenskyy's trips have mostly not been announced in advance for security reasons.

The Global Citizen Awards are given to individuals "who have contributed to driving positive change in their societies and who embody a commitment to international cooperation."

The Council of the European Union has announced sanctions against six people over serious human rights violations in Russia-annexed Crimea.

The individuals listed are accused of committing violations toward members of ethnic groups in the peninsula. They include prosecutors and judges active in courts established by Russia. 

The sanctioned individuals are connected to the prison sentence handed to a journalist who belongs to the Crimean Tatar community.

Two of them are members of Russia's FSB security service and are believed to have taken part in torturing the journalist or participated in the investigation against him.

Crimean Tatars are the Turkic-speaking native people of Crimea. Russia has historically been accused of persecuting the community.

The Romanian government has announced plans to boost security against aerial threats following a number of Russian attacks in the border area between Ukraine and Romania.

It said it would establish protective quarters and warning mechanisms in the Danube delta.

The measures were announced on Friday by the National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU). 

Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian Danube port cities of Reni, Izmail and Kiliya in recent days, near the Romanian border.

What was thought to be the remnants of a drone landed in Romania on Monday, sparking alarm among the NATO military alliance, of which Bucharest is a member.

NATO assumes the incident was unintentional on Moscow's side.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized "slower" arms supplies from Western allies, warning that they threatened the success of the counteroffensive Kyiv launched in June.

The Ukrainian president called for more "powerful and long-range" weapons, in comments published on the presidential website.

"All processes are becoming more complicated and slower — from sanctions to the provision of weapons," he said, warning that "the longer it takes, the more people suffer."

Zelenskyy also said that Russia's air superiority over the battlefield was problematic, as Ukraine continues to lobby for faster delivery of western-made aircraft like F-16s. 

"If we are not in the sky and Russia is, they stop us from the sky. They stop our counteroffensive." 

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have signed a petition demanding the government restore public access to officials' declarations of assets.

"At this time, hiding government declarations from Ukrainians means covering up total corruption in the country," the petition said.

The petition has gathered over 83,000 votes since Wednesday. Petitions need to pass a threshold of 25,000 signatures to be considered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry has seen several corruption scandals in recent months, with Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov being dismissed last week.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly vowed to fight corruption in Ukraine, which is also a major demand of Kyiv's allies, particularly the European Union.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said four people were killed and dozens injured in a new wave of Russian strikes in central, southern and eastern Ukraine.

The minister said a Russian strike on a building in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, which is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, killed a policeman.

"Rescuers of the State Emergency Service pulled out three more from under the rubble. They are in serious condition," he said.

Local officials said that at least 40 people were injured in Kryvyi Rih.

Klymenko said that three civilians were killed and four injured on a strike in the village of Odradomianka in the southern Kherson region. The minister called this attack a "war crime."

Officials said that three people were injured in a Russian strike in the northeastern Sumy region and one man was injured in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

Military analyst Frank Ledwidge said in comments for DW that Starlink is "absolutely central and critical for connectivity" for Ukraine's armed forces.

He made the remarks when discussing allegations that US billionaire and owner of SpaceX, Elon Musk, disabled the company's Starlink satellite systems to thwart a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships in the Black Sea.

SpaceX started providing Ukraine free access to the service shortly after Russia invaded the country early in 2022.

"How did Musk know that this attack was taking place?" Ledwidge asked.

Musk claimed that he did not disable communications but was instead asked by Ukrainian authorities to enable satellites over Crimea, a request he refused.

Ledwidge said Starlink did not seem to provide coverage over Crimea at the time.

He said Ukraine could only use satellite communications in its defense, as radio or phone communications would be destroyed or jammed.

"Starlink is by far the most efficient communications satellite system," he said. "It's cheaper, faster, more efficient, it cuts higher latency … than any other competing system.

"The one problem of course is: are you devolving a key part of your defense to […] the discretion of a company, an oligarch's company," he asked. "That's a difficult question for a lot of defense analysts now."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has condemned "sham elections" being held in Russian-occupied territories of southern and eastern Ukraine.

The ministry said the polls were "worthless" and lacked legal validity.

Russian-installed authorities in occupied regions began elections on Friday and are set to conclude them on Sunday.

Moscow claimed to have annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September 2022. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed her understanding for Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory in comments published on Friday.

"This brutal Russian war of aggression is being waged not only with tanks and soliders in Ukraine, but also with merciless attacks from Russa," she told German papers belonging to the Funke Mediengruppe group and also France's Ouest France daily.

She said that Ukraine has "a right to self-defense, a right to defend itself from attacks as best it can."

She went on to say that Ukraine's air defense can only protect cities like Kharkiv to a limited extent or not at all, as they are too close to Russia.

When asked on whether she approves of Ukraine's counteroffensive striking Russian territory, Baerbock said: "It's not Ukraine that is attacking Russia, it's Russia that has entered Ukrainian territories with its tanks, soldiers and missiles."

"The right to self-defense is enshrined in the UN Charter," she said. "These are the guidelines for our actions and the basis for our military support."

She spoke in favor of Germany supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles, saying that Kyiv's desire to obtain longer-range weapons is "more than understandable."

Ukraine's air force shot down 16 Russian drones last night in the southwestern Odesa region, Ukrainian officials say.

In total, 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones were launched by Russa, the officials said.

"During the night the Russian terrorists attacked the Odesa region for the fifth time this week," Governor Oleh Kiper said.

Kiper said a non-residential building had been damaged by debris. He reported no casualties.

This is the fifth attack on Odesa reported by Ukrainian authorities this week.

Meanwhile, regional officials said Russia attacked the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and northeastern Sumy with missiles, wounding several people.

Ukrainian emergency services said two people had been injured in the Sumy region.

World leaders have begun arriving in the Indian capital of New Delhi, ahead of a G20 summit this weekend.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is expected to be a major topic during the talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the event.  

President of the European Council Charles Michel said, "Russia must stop attacking Ukrainian cities." He decried the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports as "scandalous."

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, meanwhile, gave her take on how the war has impacted the global economy.

"The most important thing we could do for global growth is for Russia to end its brutal war on Ukraine," Yellen said.

She noted that the war elevated food and energy prices while saying "significant progress" was made on helping countries struggling with debt partly due to the invasion. 

"International debt and providing relief to countries that are overindebted partly because of the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine, but also the high interest rate environment, I believe we're beginning to make significant progress there. So I do see the G20 as a very effective forum," she said.  

Cuban authorities said they had arrested 17 people on charges related to membership in a ring of human traffickers that allegedly lured young Cuban men to serve in the Russian military waging the war in Ukraine.

"As a result of the investigations, 17 people have been arrested so far, among them the internal organizer of these activities," Cesar Rodriguez, a colonel with Cuba's Interior Ministry, said late Thursday.

Rodriguez did not name any of those accused of participating in the trafficking ring but said the group's leader relied on two people residing on the island to recruit Cubans to fight for hire in Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

Cuba has said it has no part in the war in Ukraine and rejects using its citizens as mercenaries.

Ukrainian troops continued offensive operations near Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and made further gains on both sectors of the front, US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Friday.

"Ukraine is making tactical gains and successfully attriting defending Russian forces, and ISW continues to assess its counteroffensive may achieve operational successes in 2023," the analysts said, adding that subsequent series of Russian defensive positions still pose serious challenges.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly address on Thursday singled out military units in the east and south for their actions against Russian troops and other officials reported some breakthroughs in a counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-occupied territory.

The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces also described a "partial success" near the eastern city of Bakhmut, long a focal point of fighting. And it said Ukrainian troops were making gradual progress in their southward advance to the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine began its counteroffensive in June and has focused on retaking Bakhmut, seized by Russian troops in May, and capturing clusters of villages in the south. They face Russian troops that are well-dug in and have benefited from extensive mine-laying operations.

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