Ukraine updates: Italy's Meloni underlines support for Kyiv

Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, said Kyiv's surprise August offensive to seize territory in Russia's Kursk region was "typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians, to try and change the game."

He said the offensive — which Ukraine said has captured about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory — had brought the war home to ordinary Russians."

Funeral services were held for victims of one of the deadliest Russian airstrikes since the war in Ukraine began.

The funerals took place in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava for the victims of a Russian missile attack on a military training facility that left over 50 dead and more than 300 injured.

Hundreds of mourners, including grieving families, local residents, and officials, gathered at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the city, some 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, for the solemn ceremony. 

Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags. An air raid siren sounded during the service.

Local residents knelt in silent tribute as hearses carrying the victims passed by on their way to a military cemetery outside the city for burial. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday slammed a state premier from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) for seeming to water down the party's support for arms deliveries to Ukraine ahead of regional elections.

Baerbock said she had always relied on Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke to continue supporting Ukraine, and was dismayed to see that a preelection aid for voters, the Wahl-O-Mat, listed the regional SPD chapter's position on continued arms deliveries to Kyiv as "neutral."

The exact statement in the document was: "Brandenburg should work to ensure that Germany continues to supply arms to Ukraine." 

Two of the parties taking part in the September 22 elections, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht), actively oppose delivering weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia's war of aggression.

Baerbock criticized their attitude, saying that instead of helping Ukrainians, they stood on the side of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

The Green politician is a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. 

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has underscored her country's support for Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a business conference in the northern Italian city of Cernobbio.

"The choice of supporting Ukraine has been first and foremost a choice of national interest, and it's a choice that won't change," Meloni told the conference.

Meloni also said that the current stalemate in the Ukraine conflict, brought about partly by the decison by the Western world to support Kyiv, was a pre-condition for peace talks.

She also called for further solidarity with Ukraine amid mediation attempts by countries like China and India.

"I believe China and India have a role to play to resolve the conflict. The only thing that cannot happen is to think that the conflict can be solved by abandoning Ukraine," she said.

Zelenskyy said his talks with Meloni had focused on reconstruction, particularly of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which Russia has often targeted in its attacks.

Italy has strongly supported Ukraine as it fights against the Russian invasion. Rome has delivered weapons to Ukraine, but insisted that these must not be used to attack targets within Russia itself.

US CIA Director Bill Burns and UK MI6 chief Richard Moore warned on Saturday that ongoing Western support for Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion was essential amid growing threats to the world order.

"Staying the course (in Ukraine) is more vital than ever. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine's sovereignty and independence," they said in an op-ed in the British daily Financial Times.

They said their agencies would continue their efforts to counter a "reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe by Russian intelligence," saying that Russia was making "cynical use of technology" to spread disinformation "to drive wedges between us."

Russia has denied Western allegations that it is carrying out sabotage and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing the US and other  countries.

Authorities in the southwestern Russian border region of Voronezh have declared an emergency after a Ukrainian drone attack caused explosions in the Ostrogozhsk district.

Voronezh governor Aleksandr Gusev reported on the messaging app Telegram that several settlements in the district had been evacuated after explosions, without giving details on the cause.

Gusev said there were no casualties.

Voronezh shares a border with Ukraine's Luhansk region.

Its fuel depots and ammunition storage sites have come under frequent attacks from Ukrainian drones since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  

The Ukrainian Air Force says Russia launched 67 drones at targets in Ukraine overnight to Saturday, prompting air alerts in 11 regions including in the capital, Kyiv.

It said 58 of the drones were shot down and three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems.

Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine's parliamentary press service said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.

The aerial attacks are the latest in a weekslong series of major drone and missile assaults by Russian forces, including one on Tuesday on a military academy and hospital in the city of Poltava in which 55 people died and 328 more were wounded.

Another attack on Wednesday on the western city of Lviv, far from the front lines, killed seven people,
including a mother and her three daughters.