UKRAINE UPDATES: ZELENSKYY TRAVELS TO US FOR UN SUMMIT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among the world leaders descending on New York on Monday.

The UN General Assembly in New York formally starts on Tuesday with speeches from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Scholz and Zelenskyy, among others.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an open meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday.

On the sameday, Scholz, Zelenskyy and other representatives from politics and business will receive the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council think tank.

Here are the headlines concerning Russia's war on Ukraine on Monday, September 18:

Ukraine to sue Poland, Hungary, Slovakia on produce bans

Ukraine intends to sue European neighbors Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over unilateral bans they announced on Ukrainian agricultural products, after the European Union allowed block-wide restrictions to expire.

"I think [it will be] in the near future," Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky told Reuters.

The unilateral bans were announced on Friday, soon after the European Commission said it found no evidence of pressure on markets in its eastern members and saw no reason to continue the restrictions.

Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava argue that the measure was necessary to protect their local markets.

Kyiv is meanwhile concerned for a key source of revenue, which has become even more essential after Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal last July. The deal allowed Ukraine to export grains via the Black Sea amid the conflict.

Ukraine dismisses six deputy defense ministers, including Maliar

The Ukrainian government has dismissed six deputy defense ministers, including regular spokeswoman Hanna Maliar.

The ministry reshuffle comes just two weeks after Rustem Umerov replaced Oleksii Reznikov as defense minister. Under Ukrainian Law, when a minister is dismissed, his or her deputy ministers are automatically dismissed, too.

The defense ministry had been battling with allegations of corruptions, although none were leveled at Reznikov himself. "Rebooting," said Umerov in a short Facebook post. We started. We continue. The Ministry continues to work as usual.”

Taking up his post, Umerov said his priorities would include making the ministry the main institution for the coordination of Ukraine’s defense forces, enhancing the value attached to individual soldiers, developing the country’s military industry and fighting corruption.

Maliar, 45, faced criticism last week for prematurely reporting Ukrainian military successes in the east of the country. In her final briefing on Monday morning, she provided an update on the situation in the recently regained villages of Andriivka and Klishchiivka.

"The enemy is trying with all his might to regain lost positions," she said before her dismissal. "Therefore, our fighters hold back the enemy's attacks there and are entrenched at the achieved frontiers."

Ukraine, Russia clash at top UN court

Ukraine's legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes on Monday at the United Nations' highest court in The Hague.

Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the Word Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations in a major show of support.

At the start of hearings, Russia called on the court to throw out what it said was a "hopelessly flawed" case challenging Moscow's argument that its invasion of Ukraine was carried out to prevent genocide.

Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine. It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.

Hearings this week are expected to see lawyers for Russia argue that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case, while Ukraine will call on judges to press ahead to hearings on the substance of its claims.

Ukraine brought the case to the Hague-based court based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both Moscow and Kyiv have ratified. In an interim ruling in March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow has flouted as it presses ahead with its devastating attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.

Ukraine retakes more territory in counteroffensive

Ukraine reported its troops had recaptured more territory on the eastern front and

advanced in the south in its military counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had retaken two square kilometers (0.77 square miles) of land in the past week around the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May after months of fighting.

Kyiv's forces also recaptured two villages on the southern flank of the city, Andriivka and Klishchiivka, Maliar said. Both villages lie on higher ground and their capture could set the stage to reasserting control over the pivotal city.

Ukrainian forces are also trying to advance toward the Sea of Azov in a southern drive intended to split Russian forces. They retook 5.2 square kilometers (two square miles) in the past week, said Maliar.

Overall, Ukraine has regained more than 260 square kilometers (100 square miles) in the south during the counteroffensive, she said.

Ukraine repels Russian air attack

Ukraine said it downed 18 Russian drones and 17 cruise missiles attacking its territory overnight.

Russia launched 24 drones at the Ukrainian southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv overnight, Ukraine's air force said in a post on Telegram.

It added that all of the 17 missiles were destroyed over the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Khmelnytskyi regions.

Meanwhile, Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks over several parts of Crimea, outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.

Crimea has been targeted by Ukraine throughout Russia's offensive but attacks there have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

North Korean leader ends Russia trip with 'heartfelt thanks' to Putin

North Korea's Kim Jong Un expressed his "heartfelt thanks" to President Vladimir Putin, state media said, as he headed home after nearly a week in Russia on a defense-focused trip.

Kim's tour of Russia's far east, which began Tuesday, has fanned Western fears that isolated, nuclear-armed Pyongyang could provide Moscow with weapons for its war in Ukraine.

During the trip, North Korea's leader inspected everything from Russian space rockets to submarines. It also included a symbolic exchange of rifles with Putin.

North Korea and Russia, historic allies, are both under rafts of global sanctions — Moscow for its Ukraine invasion, Pyongyang for its nuclear weapon tests.

Zelenskyy travels to New York for UN General Assembly

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among the world leaders descending on New York on Monday as the United Nations prepares to kick off a high-level summit aimed at rescuing its largely ignored Sustainable Development Goals for economic growth.

The UN General Assembly in New York formally starts on Tuesday with speeches from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelenskyy, among others.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an open meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday. On the same day, Scholz, Zelenskyy and other representatives from politics and business will receive the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council think tank.

The week-long UN General Assembly is set to focus on dusting off its 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at avoiding poverty, hunger, poor education and poor health care.

In 2015, the countries of the world set themselves these central goals for global development with the key aim of ending hunger and extreme poverty by 2030.

However, the pandemic, the Ukraine war, and a debt crisis in poor countries are among the setbacks that have left the UN well off its target.

dh/rc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

2023-09-18T07:58:17Z dg43tfdfdgfd