UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Ukraine has long demanded permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory with missiles supplied by the West.
Volodymyr Zelensky indicated on Thursday that Russia was leading a counter-offensive in the Kursk region. He also specified that three people aboard a Red Cross vehicle had just been killed. Meanwhile, the Russian army announced that it had retaken ten localities in the Kursk region. The president took the opportunity to denounce the slowness of the West in lifting restrictions while Russia has just struck a wheat cargo ship in the Black Sea. At the same time Antony Blinken is in Poland to meet Donald Tusk. Le Figaro takes stock of the latest events related to the conflict.
Blinken vows to consider Ukraine’s military demands, Putin warns NATO
Ukraine is demanding permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory with missiles supplied by the West. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday criticized the «retard» caught up in the debates on this issue. The United States has so far refused to do so for fear of an escalation that could lead to a direct conflict with Russia, both countries being nuclear powers. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised on Wednesday in kyiv to examine “emergency” Ukraine’s military demands. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are scheduled to hold talks on the issue on Friday.
Vladimir Putin said for his part on Thursday, September 12, that if the West authorized Ukraine to strike Russian territory with longer-range missiles, this would mean that “NATO countries are at war with Russia. This would change the very nature of the conflict”according to a video posted on Telegram by a journalist from the Russian presidential pool.
Russian army launches counteroffensive in Kursk region of Russia
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia is conducting a counteroffensive in the Kursk region. He also said that three people aboard a Red Cross vehicle had just been killed. Meanwhile, the Russian army announced that it had recaptured ten localities in the Kursk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the Russian military has launched a counteroffensive in Russia’s border region of Kursk, where kyiv’s forces have seized more than 1,000 square kilometers since beginning their assault in August. “The Russians have launched counter-offensive actions”said Mr. Zelensky, while assuring that this response by Moscow’s forces “is consistent with the Ukrainian plan”without providing further details.
Missiles for Ukraine: Western green light would mean that “NATO countries are at war with Russia”
If the Westerners’ green light meant that “NATO countries are at war with Russia”
Three dead in Russian strike on ICRC vehicles
A Russian strike on vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) left three dead and two injured in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.
“Unfortunately, three people were killed in this Russian strike” in the Donetsk region, he said on Telegram. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian human rights commissioner, said for his part that it was “three Ukrainian citizens, employees of the ICRC”. Information confirmed by the Committee.
Moscow claims to have retaken ten towns from Ukrainians in Russia’s Kursk region
The Russian army said on Thursday that it had retaken ten towns seized by Ukrainians in the Russian border region of Kursk in two days, where kyiv’s forces had advanced over 1,000 square kilometres in early August. “During offensive operations, units of the Northern Troop Group liberated 10 localities in two days”the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
According to the Telegram channel Rybar, which is close to the Russian army, the fighting in the Kursk Oblast is mainly taking place around the town of Snagosti, in the western part of the region controlled by Ukraine. It was in this area that the Ukrainian army had destroyed several bridges in recent weeks, forcing the Russians to build pontoons to span a river, the Seyim.
Images have been posted on social media by Russian military bloggers over the past two days, which they claim show an attack by Russian tanks on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region and a group of Ukrainian soldiers being taken prisoner.
Zelensky denounces Western slowness in lifting restrictions on strikes in Russia
The Ukrainian president denounced on Thursday “the delay” Western powers on a possible lifting of restrictions on the use of their weapons to strike deep into Russia, following negotiations on the subject with senior American and British officials.
“We must be frank: the delay in the process of using the weapons you are talking about (…) against military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation (…) leads to Russia moving these military targets deeper” inland, he said at a news conference.
Russian missile hits wheat cargo ship in Black Sea, Zelensky says
A missile hit a cargo ship carrying wheat bound for Egypt in the Black Sea on Thursday evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.
“Russia launched a strike today against an ordinary civilian ship in the Black Sea, just after it left Ukrainian territorial waters”explained the head of state in a statement on X, adding that “Wheat and food security should never be the target of missiles.”
Antony Blinken and visit in Poland
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Polish leaders on Thursday, September 12, to seek common cause on Ukraine, at a time when the upcoming US elections and Russian attacks are raising new concerns. The head of American diplomacy arrived in Poland after a solidarity trip to kyiv alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. The two men committed to quickly examining Kiev’s requests for authorization to strike deep into Russian territory with Western missiles.
In Warsaw, Blinken will meet separately with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Duda, two bitter political rivals. While deeply divided over domestic politics, Poland, with its dark historical memories of Moscow, has been united in its support for Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. During the visit, Blinken is expected to discuss continued coordination with Poland, the main logistical gateway for Western military support to Ukraine.
He hopes that President Joe Biden’s administration can, in its final months before the U.S. election, work with allies to ensure broad and sustained support for Ukraine, which has already received billions of dollars in military and economic support from the West. Because the U.S. election on Nov. 5 could dramatically change the position of Ukraine’s main lender. In a debate Tuesday with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, Donald Trump declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win.
Japan deploys fighter jets after Russian planes flyover
Japan scrambled fighter jets on Thursday after two Russian patrol planes were detected circling the country but not violating Japanese airspace, the defense ministry said. The last time Russian military aircraft flew over Japan was in 2019, a ministry official told AFP on Friday, when bombers entered the country’s airspace.
Russian Tu-142 jets flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea to the southern region of Okinawa on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement. They then headed north over the Pacific Ocean to the northern island of Hokkaido, the statement added, also flying over an area that is the subject of a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia. “In response, we urgently mobilized the fighters of the Air Self-Defense Force”the ministry said.
Chinese and Russian navies began drills in the northern Sea of Japan earlier this week as part of a major Russian naval exercise that Russian President Vladimir Putin said was a response to the increased presence of the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific.
