Ukraine updates: Moscow downs drones, loses land in Kursk

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visiting his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu in Chisinau on Wednesday, pledged that "Germany will not slip in the support of Ukraine." 

He said the government in Berlin would continue to be "the biggest national supporter of Ukraine in Europe." He said Germany would continued to deliver equipment including air defense systems, ammunition and tanks. 

Germany is Ukraine's biggest European donor in gross terms by some margin, but other smaller European countries have done more relative to their economic clout. 

Scholz's government's budget for 2025, which only recently passed and which retains several funding gaps, only plans for half as much assistance for Ukraine as this year. 

Scholz said in Moldova that this was a result of the new G7 plan to permit Ukraine to buy military equipment of its own using a loan worth $50 billion (roughly €45 billion) sourced from the interest from Russian assets frozen in Western countries in response to Moscow's invasion. 

The German chancellor said arranging this had been "technically challenging," but that it was now "politically cleared," and he expected it to move ahead "soon and with great effort." 

"With the $50 billion together with the funds made available nationally, this will be more than what has been available to Ukraine in terms of support to date," he said.

Scholz also said that Ukraine's government had not communicated prior to its offensive in Russia's Kursk region, in which German equipment appears to have been used. He said the operation was "very secretly" prepared, "and without feedback." 

While he could not be sure, he also said it appeared possible that it was a "spacially very limited operation and also probably limited in terms of time." As a result he said he couldn't comment further.

Moldova's Sandu, meanwhile, said that Russian troops were also on her country's soil, in the breakaway region of Transnistria, and that Russian disinformation's pull remained strong in places. She said the EU accession process was "decisive for our future." 

Switzerland says it will take part in European Union security initiatives with the aim of strengthening its military and resistance to cyber attack.

The decision came as the Alpine nation's government also said it would join further EU sanctions — a 14th packet of measures — against Russia.

The Swiss Federal Council said it had decided to sign up for two projects — one aimed at facilitating cross-border military transport with the other to improve cooperation on cyber defense.

Earlier this year, Switzerland recorded an increase in cyberattacks and disinformation ahead of a summit aimed at building a pathway for peace in Ukraine.

Announcing the decision, the government said membership of the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) "Military Mobility" and "Cyber Ranges Federation" was compatible with Swiss neutrality.

Meanwhile, Russia was the only member of the UN Security Council to reject an invitation by the Swiss government to mark the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Bern on Wednesday.

Moscow, which gave no reason, has listed Switzerland as an "unfriendly country" after it backed European Union sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written to the UN Security Council, accusing Ukraine of supporting rebel groups in West Africa's Sahel region. 

All three unelected military governments enjoy support from Russia and have been severing past ties with the West and regional partners in Africa since seizing power in recent years. 

Mali had cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine earlier this month. 

This followed comments from a spokesman for Ukrainain military intelligence. He had implied after an attack in July, in which Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries were killed, that Malian rebels had been given useful information ahead of the raid. 

Mali and Niger, which followed suit days later and cut ties in solidarity with Mali, took the comments as an admission of direct Ukrainian involvement and accused the government in Kyiv of supporting international terrorism. 

The letter to the UN Security Council urges members to "take responsibility" for Ukraine's actions and to prevent "subversive acts" that threaten regional security.

Ukraine has repeatedly called the criticism from the West African military governments groundless and untrue.

The complaint is likely to be raised at the UN Security Council, but ramifications as a result of it are highly unlikely. 

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada parliament has voted to become a full member of the International Criminal Court, or ICC. 

Members of parliament on Wednesday voted overwhelming to ratify the Rome Statute, the treaty underpinning full ICC membership. 

Ukraine had already partially endorsed ICC investigations on its territory, specifically to investigate crimes taking place in the fighting in primarily eastern Ukraine that began in 2014 and ramped up in 2022 as Russia joined the conflict more overtly. 

That's why the court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials, like former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. 

But Ukraine, like Russia, had never been a full signatory to the ICC. Becoming one is one of several necessary steps if Kyiv is to realize its ambition of eventually joining the European Union. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said on Wednesday that becoming a full ICC member would make the prosecution of Russian war criminals "even more effective." 

The process had faced delays and was somewhat controversial in Ukraine, amid fears for instance of Ukrainian troops being more likely to face prosecution, but the government argued these discussions were driven mostly by misinformation.

"This has been a long journey full of challenges, myths and fears," Kuleba wrote online. "None of them have been true. And today, we are finally there." 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will talk about the peaceful resolution of Russia's war in Ukraine on a visit to Kyiv this week.

The trip takes place more than a month after he traveled to Moscow.

Modi headed for Poland on Wednesday and is set to arrive in Kyiv on Friday.

It is the first trip to Ukraine by an Indian prime minister since diplomatic relations were established more than three decades ago.

"I look forward to the opportunity to ... share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict," Modi said ahead of his departure. "As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region."

The visit comes in the wake of Modi's July 8-9 visit to Moscow which drew criticism from Washington and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and coincided with a lethal Russian strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv. In an implicit rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time, Modi condemned the killing of innocent children. 

The short trip is seen as an effort at damage control as New Delhi seeks to perform a balancing act between Russia and the West.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk region means there can be no peace talks until Ukraine has been completely defeated.

"The casual chit-chat of self-proclaimed intermediaries on the virtuous subject of peace has ceased. Even if they cannot say it out loud, everyone recognizes the reality of the situation," Medvedev wrote on his official account on the Telegram messaging app.

"They understand that there will be NO NEGOTIATIONS UNTIL THE ENEMY IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DESTROYED!"

Medvedev, once seen as closer to the West than Putin, has since styled himself as one of the Kremlin's toughest anti-NATO hawks.

He said the "premature and unnecessary peace" previously suggested "had vague prospects and no tangible outcomes."

Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, was Russian President from 2008 to 2012 when Vladimir Putin was prime minister after two terms as president.

Kyiv's General Staff says Ukrainian forces have hit an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system based in Russia's southern Rostov region.

The attack took place overnight near the settlement of Novoshakhtinsk.

The General Staff said the consequences of the strike were still being checked.

Russian authorities say Moscow faced one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones since its full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022. 

Moscow Mayer Sergey Sobyanin said all 11 of the drones located over the Moscow region had been destroyed because such strong defenses have been built up around the Russian capital.

"This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones," Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.

"The layered defense of Moscow that was created made it possible to successfully repel all the attacks from the enemy UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]." Drone attacks on Moscow are relatively rare. The latest one is on a par with one in May 2023, when at least eight drones were destroyed over the city.

Russia's aviation watchdog said Moscow's airports Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports had limited their flights for four hours, but restarted normal operations from 0330 (GMT/UTC).

Sobyanin said that according to preliminary information, there were no injuries or damage in the aftermath of the attacks.

Another 34 drones were said to have been downed in other regions — including 23 over Bryansk and six in Belgorod, where governor Alexander Bogomaz said there had been a mass attack using drones. 

Three drones were shot down over Kaluga and two over Kursk.

Meanwhile, in the southern Russian region of Rostov, a missile was shot down. 

Ukrainian troops have kept making advances in the Kursk region in recent days, according to military analysts.

They have also conducted cross-border operations further west, seeking to strike Russian pontoon bridges over the Seim River, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Satellite imagery appears to show that Ukrainian forces have destroyed at least one such bridge. 

Russian military bloggers and the Russian Ministry of Defense both acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had taken the village of Vishnevka. Ukrainian forces were also advancing in forested areas near the town of Sudzha — the largest settlement under Kyiv's control.

In the east of Ukraine, however, Moscow's forces are bearing down on the key eastern transit hub of Pokrovsk, from which up to 600 people are fleeing each day as Russian troops arrive some 10 kilometers from the outskirts.

Russia is also pushing forward toward the eastern city of Toretsk, the loss of which would move Moscow's guns closer to a supply route for much of Ukraine's forces in the Donbas region.

rc/rm (Reuters, AP, AFP)