Ukraine updates: Poland threatens Kyiv with more import bans

Ukraine's parliament passed an amended bill on asset declarations after a previous text passed by the chamber was vetoed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

On September 5, the Ukrainian parliament voted to restore a declaration rule that was suspended after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion as a security precaution, but — in an important loophole — to keep the disclosures closed to the public for another year. However, Zelenskyy vetoed the bill. 

"The reason [for the veto] is clear: declarations must be fully revealed. Right now. Not in a year. The register must be opened right now," Zelenskyy said at the time.

Now, after the public outcry and the presidential veto, parliament closed the loophole.

A fuel depot caught fire in the southern Russian city of Sochi and was later extinguished, with authorities saying a cause was being clarified while some accounts pointed to a drone strike.  

The fire took place near Sochi International Airport in the city's district of Adler. Authorities did not immediately give a reason for the fire, saying it was being "clarified."

However, pictures and videos published online show the moment of the explosion, preceded by the vertical impact of an unknown aerial object. In another video the common approach sound of a drone, shortly before the explosion, can be heard. 

The Russian coastal city of Sochi is located on the Black Sea just a few kilometres from the border with the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. The nearest area in Ukraine controlled by the Ukrainian government is about 500 kilometres away as the crow flies.

The Bulgarian government has agreed on a temporary halt to the import of sunflower seeds from Ukraine after protests by farmers, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said, pledging to support production by local farmers. 

Iliya Prodanov, the representative of the farmers who have been protesting since Monday, confirmed on bTV television channel on Wednesday that the agreement was reached with the government the previous evening.

The import of Ukrainian seeds are to be stopped until the two countries have agreed on corresponding import quotas. 

Bulgarian grain producers are also demanding a ban on imports of wheat, corn and rapeseed from Ukraine, as they fear unfair competition from Ukraine. 

Romanian authorities said an explosion occurred on a ship close to its Danube port of Sulina near Ukrainian border, deploying a minesweeper ship with divers to scout the area for mines.   

Members of the Romanian rescue services evacuated 12 crew members on board the Togo-registered cargo ship and brought them to shore for medical checks following the explosion, early Wednesday.

"A ship under the flag of Togo, transporting cement, reported an explosion in the engine room and asked for the ship to be evacuated," Romania's Transport Minister said in a statement.

Members of the crew told authorities that a sea mine may have been the cause of the explosion. Since the outbreak of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, Romania's military has been regularly searching for sea mines in the Black Sea and has already defused several of them.

A team from Swedish broadcaster TV4 was attacked by a Russian drone while working near the front line in south-eastern Ukraine, according to the crew members.

Reporter Johan Fredriksson and photographer Daniel Zdolsek were not harmed in the incident that took place a few kilometres from the front line on the edge of the destroyed Kakhovka dam on Tuesday, the channel reported on its website.

However, their local producer and two Ukrainian police officers escorting the journalists were slightly injured, it said. The team's car and camera equipment were completely destroyed. The action of the local police probably saved lives, the broadcaster wrote.

According to the station, the two journalists, both experienced war correspondents, are currently on a reporting trip in the southern Zaporizhzhya region. They were on their way to film the Ukrainian counteroffensive when the attack took place.

China on Tuesday pushed to increase cross-border connectivity with Russia, deeper mutual trade and investment cooperation. 

Russia's minister of economic development held "in-depth" discussions on economic cooperation with China's commerce minister Wang Wentao in Beijing on Tuesday. 

Despite Western disapproval over Russia's aggression in Ukraine,both allies vowed closer economic ties. 

Wentao said in a statement that the discussion which took place under the "strategic guidance" of the two heads of state, made the Sino-Russian relations "solid." 

China's top diplomat Wang Yi is currently in Moscow for strategic talks which have led to the confirmation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing next month. 

Ukrainian forces said they have destroyed 17 out of 24 Russian drones on Wednesday. 

Russia "attacked Ukraine with 24 kamikaze drones of the Shahed-136/131 type, 17 of which were destroyed by Ukrainian air defense," said officials during a daily update.

An oil refinery in the central Poltava region was struck during the attack, said the regional governor Dmytro Lunin. 

"A fire started. All relevant services are on site. The work of the plant is temporarily suspended," he said via Telegram. 

Sergiy Lysak, governor of the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region said that in the Nikopol region five private houses, two cars and power lines were damaged. No injuries were reported. 

Poland could slap import bans on more Ukrainian food products, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday, as he warned Kyiv against escalating a row over grain imports.

Poland has been one of Ukraine's staunchest allies since Russia invaded the country in 2022, but the countries are now embroiled in a deepening conflict over agricultural imports since Poland, along with Hungary and Slovakia, extended a ban on grain imports from their war-torn neighbor.

"I warn the Ukrainian authorities, because if they escalate this conflict in this way, we will add more products to the ban on import into the territory of the Republic of Poland," Morawiecki said.

A World Trade Organization spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that Ukraine had taken the first step in a trade dispute by filing a complaint to the global trade body.

He did not name the countries although Kyiv has previously said the complaint targeted Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

Kyiv's first lady, Olena Zelenska, urged world leaders on Tuesday to help bring back Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken by Russia. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, she said that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia where they are being indoctrinated and deprived of their national identity. 

In Russia, "they were told that their parents don't need them, that their country doesn't need them, that nobody is waiting for them," Zelenska said.

Only 386 children have been brought back so far. 

At the summit, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia's actions genocidal and asked "We are trying to get children back home but time goes by. What will happen to them?"

Russia denied the allegations and instead claimed to have saved Ukrainian children from the horrors of war. 

The International Criminal Court had previously issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. 

Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvova-Belova also faces similar charges. 

There is a growing risk of nuclear accidents at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, warned the Dmytro Orlov mayor of Enerhodar town in Ukraine. 

"The fear is growing with each passing day because there are several dangerous factors at play," said Orlov. 

"The power plant now has to be supplied from outside and since last September alone there have been six incidents where the power supply was interrupted. In the prior 40 years there was not one such incident," he warned.

He added that the dam from whose reservoir the cooling water for the nuclear plant was tapped was destroyed during the war causing a dangerous situation and multiple risks. 

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest report suggests that Russia has largely restored the supply of cooling water. 

Russia announced its capture of Europe's largest nuclear power plant in early March 2022. The reactors in the plant have been shut down since September 2022. 

Russia destroyed four Ukrainian launched drones over the Belgorod and Oryol regions on Wednesday, Moscow's defense ministry. 

Governors of both regions said that there were no casualties or destruction. 

In recent months air strikes deep into Russia and Russian-controlled territory have increased significantly. 

While Moscow holds Kyiv accountable, Ukraine seldom comments on the attacks.