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Ukraine admits Russia has entered key region of Dnipropetrovsk
Ukrainian forces have acknowledged that Russia’s military has crossed into the eastern industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk and is trying to establish a foothold.
“This is the first attack of such a large scale in Dnipropetrovsk region,” Viktor Trehubov, of the Dnipro Operational-Strategic Group of Troops told the BBC, although he made clear their advance had been stopped.
Russia has claimed throughout the summer that it has entered the area, as its forces try to push deeper into Ukrainian territory from the Donetsk region.
In early June, Russian officials said an offensive had begun in Dnipropetrovsk, although the latest Ukrainian reports suggest they have barely breached the regional border.
Any Russian advance into Dnipropetrovsk would be a blow to Ukrainian morale, as a US-led diplomatic bid to bring the war to an end appears to be flagging despite President Donald Trump meeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The Ukrainian DeepState mapping project assessed on Tuesday that Russia had now occupied two villages just inside the region, Zaporizke and Novohryhorivka.
However, Ukraine’s armed forces general staff denied that was the case. The military “continue to control” Zaporizke, it said in a statement, and “active hostilities are also ongoing in the area of the village of Novohryhorivka”.
Moscow has not laid claim to Dnipropetrovsk, unlike Donetsk and Ukraine’s four other eastern regions, but it has attacked its big cities, including the regional capital Dnipro.
Before the war Dnipropetrovsk had a population of more than three million and was Ukraine’s second biggest centre of heavy industry after the Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Although Russian forces have made slow progress in capturing territory and have suffered very high casualties, they have made recent gains in Donetsk.
A small infantry group made a sudden 10km (six mile) push beyond Ukraine’s defensive lines near Dobropillia earlier this month, but latest indications suggest their advance has been halted.
Putin is reported to have told Trump he would be willing to end the war if Ukraine handed over the areas of Donetsk region it still controls, but many Ukrainians believe Russia’s leader has other plans.
Col Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of the presidential office in Kyiv, warned reporters in the US in June that the Kremlin wanted to occupy all of Ukraine east of the Dnipro river, which cuts Ukraine in half.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also warned that handing Ukrainian territory to Russia as part of a peace deal was “a trap”. “We are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here,” she told the BBC.
After meeting Putin in Alaska and then Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, Trump said last week he had begun arrangements for a summit between the two leaders.
By the end of last week hopes of a breakthrough had dimmed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the “agenda [for a summit] is not ready at all” and no meeting was planned.
He also said any discussion on future security guarantees without Russian involvement was “pointless”, even though that would be a non-starter for the West.
President Zelensky has meanwhile urged his Western allies to intensify efforts aimed at agreeing future security guarantees in the event of a deal.
He met the head of Britain’s armed forces, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, in Kyiv on Tuesday and the UK prime minister’s spokesman said the UK would be ready to put troops on the ground once hostilities had ended.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that security guarantees for Ukraine would first and foremost enable the Ukrainian army to defend their country in the long term.
Merz said Zelensky had made clear he was ready to sit down with Putin and now it was Moscow’s turn: “If the Russian president is serious about putting an end to the killing, then he’ll accept the offer.”
Ukraine meanwhile has announced that men aged 18 to 22 can travel abroad, in an easing of a law that has required all up to the age of 60 to gain authorisation.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the change also included those currently in other countries – meaning they could now return to Ukraine and leave again if they wished.
A growing number of Ukrainian parents are sending teenage boys abroad before they reach 18. “We want Ukrainians to maintain their links with Ukraine as much as possible,” Svyrydenko said. Men aged 18 to 22 are not subject to military conscription, which has a minimum age of 25 after it was lowered last year.
An estimated 5.6 million Ukrainian men currently live abroad.
[BBC]
European leaders, including in France and Germany, have announced they are working on a plan in the event the United States follows through on its threat to take over Greenland as tensions soar.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio on Wednesday that while nations want to act if the US moves to seize Greenland from an ally, Denmark, they want to do so “together with our European partners”.
“I myself was on the phone with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday. He discarded the idea that what just happened in Venezuela could happen in Greenland,” Barrot said.
On Saturday, the United States – using fighter jets, attack helicopters, and special forces – abducted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, bringing him to New York City to be tried for alleged drug trafficking.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to greenlight the abduction of Maduro led to widespread condemnation and fear that Greenland, which the president has previously said should be part of Washington’s security apparatus, could be forcibly taken.
But since then, European allies have rallied behind Greenland’s sovereignty, saying the country belongs to its people.
Johannes Koskinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Finland’s parliament, called for the issue to be raised within NATO.
“[Allies should] address whether something needs to be done and whether the United States should be brought into line in the sense that it cannot disregard jointly agreed plans in order to pursue its own power ambitions,” he said.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, requested an urgent meeting with Rubio to discuss the situation.
“We would like to add some nuance to the conversation,” Rasmussen wrote in a social media post. “The shouting match must be replaced by a more sensible dialogue. Now.”
Denmark has warned that any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop”, including NATO and 80 years of close security links.
Greenland’s government will join a meeting between Rubio and Danish officials next week following renewed US claims on the Arctic island, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.
The European Union will support Greenland and Denmark when needed and will not accept violations of international law no matter where they occur, European Council President Antonio Costa said.
“On Greenland, allow me to be clear: Greenland belongs to its people. Nothing can be decided about Denmark and about Greenland without Denmark or without Greenland,” Costa said in a speech.
“The European Union cannot accept violations of international law – whether in Cyprus, Latin America, Greenland, Ukraine, or Gaza. Europe will remain a firm and unwavering champion of international law and multilateralism.”
Greenland – the world’s largest island, with a population of 57,000 people – is located between Europe and North America. Since 2019, during Trump’s first term, the president has raised the idea of controlling Greenland, saying it would benifit US security.
So far, Trump has not ruled out using force to take the island.
Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Trump’s intention is to buy Greenland. “That’s always been the president’s intent from the very beginning.”
House US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he hasn’t heard talk of sending the military into Greenland and the US is “looking at diplomatic channels”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and his national security team have “actively discussed” the option of buying Greenland.
“He views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region. And so that’s why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like,” Leavitt told reporters.
Neither Leavitt nor Rubio ruled out the use of force. But Leavitt said, “The president’s first option, always, has been diplomacy.”
[Aljazeera]
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Landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya
The Landslide Early Warning Center of the National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] has issued landslide early warnings to the districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya for the next 24 hours commencing at 1200hrs today [08]
Accordingly
LEVEL II AMBER landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Ududumbara in the Kandy District, Wilgamuwa in the Matale District, and Nildandahinna and Walapane in the Nuwara Eliya District.
LEVEL I YELLOW landslide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Meegahakiwula, Welimada, Kandaketiya, Lunugala, Badulla, Passara, Uva Paranagama and Hali_Ela in the Badulla District, Ambanganga Korale in the Matale District, and Mathurata and Hanguranketha in the Nuwara Eliya District.
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