We've wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more on Russia's war in Ukraine here, or scroll through the posts below.
September 2, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news
By Joshua Berlinger, Thom Poole, Adrienne Vogt and Tori B. Powell, CNN
Updated 6:00 p.m. ET, September 2, 2023
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Russian attack kills at least 2 people in eastern Ukrainian town, local officials say
From CNN's Josh Pennington
A Russian attack on the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar left a married couple dead and another two people wounded on Saturday, according to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office.
The Russian army hit a high-rise residential building, killing a 43-year-old man and his 42-year-old wife, the prosecutor's office said in a statement posted to Telegram.
The couple's 19-year-old daughter and another 53-year-old resident are being treated at a medical facility after sustaining injuries from the attack, officials added.
Vuhledar, a town outside the city of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine, has long served as a "hot spot" in the conflict, with regular clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces. It is now contested territory in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Ukrainian oligarch and Zelensky supporter arrested in fraud investigation, according to state media
From CNN's Josh Pennington
A Kyiv court on Saturday ordered Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch and key supporter of President Volodymyr Zelensky, to 60 days in pre-trial detention while authorities investigate fraud charges against him, according to Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrinform.
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court ordered that Kolomoisky be held until October 31, according to Ukrinform. Kolomoisky was also given the option to post bail in excess of 500 million Ukrainian hryvnia (approximately $14 million), state media reported.
In order to post bail, he would be required not to leave the area he is staying, to appear for any interrogations and to notify authorities if he changes residences, Ukrinfrom reported. He also must surrender passports for traveling abroad, and is prohibited from contacting other witnesses or suspects involved in the investigation.
Who is Kolomoisky? Kolomoisky is a prominent Ukrainian businessman whose interests in media and banking have made him one of the country's richest men.
This is not the first time he has been accused of wrongdoing. He was sanctioned by the US State Department in March 2021 for his alleged involvement in “corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit.”
Kolomoisky was served a notice of suspicion in the ongoing case Friday.
How this connects to the war in Ukraine: While primarily occupied with fighting Russia’s invading forces, Ukraine’s government has also been cracking down on internal corruption, an issue which had been one of Zelensky’s key electoral pledges.
Tackling corruption is key for Ukraine’s ambition to join the European Union in the future. Ukraine officially became an EU candidate state last year, but Brussels has made it clear that Kyiv will need to step up its fight against corruption if it wants to become a full member.
The same goes for the NATO military alliance, with US President Joe Biden saying earlier this year that Kyiv still needs to address various governance issues, including persistent corruption, in order to join the pact.
Beyond the current conflict with Russia, Ukraine and its Western allies have said that EU and NATO membership would play key roles in protecting it against further incursions by Moscow in the long-term.
Deported Ukrainian teens say guards coerced them into acts of Russian patriotism
From CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Madalena Araujo, Olha Konovalova and Christian Edwards
The lives of Ukrainian children and teens have been utterly upended by Russia’s invasion of their country. When the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, the foremost charge against him was over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russian detention centers.
CNN spoke with Ukrainian teenagers in Kyiv who claim they had been forcibly deported to Russia before being found and brought home by family members. Their return was made possible by Save Ukraine, an organization working to return deported children to their families.
“I was there for four months. And throughout these four months, I had to sing the Russian national anthem. That was compulsory,” said Nastya Motychak, a 15-year-old girl who said she was taken from the southern Kherson region and sent to Russian-occupied Crimea. “We asked: Why aren’t we being collected? When will the buses come? Why aren’t we allowed out?”
Motychak was told by Russian guards that “the buses were too expensive.” And so she remained in the center during Christmas 2022 and into the beginning of the year – and she said she was only granted access to basic necessities if she performed acts of Russian patriotism.
“There were some secondhand clothing and hygiene products delivered for us. So when we asked for these, they said, ‘Whoever doesn’t like Russia doesn’t like me and isn’t going to get these things.’”
'If you don’t sing the Russian anthem, you’re not going to get anything,'" Motychak said she was told by an officer.
Motychak said she was able to speak to her mother on the phone once a week. Her mother contacted a volunteer working to bring detained Ukrainian children home. Together, they were able to travel to Crimea in February and bring Motychak home, along with other teens she had been detained with.
This week, Kyiv opened more than 3,000 criminal cases over Russia’s alleged crimes against children in the country, including dozens of torture cases, Ukrainian prosecutors said Thursday. Russia has repeatedly denied these accusations of torture and human rights abuses.
In July, Moscow authorities claimed some 700,000 children had been brought into Russian custody since the war began. The Russian government has defended the practice, saying they are saving the children and denying that the deportations are forced. Ukraine however, claims the children were illegally deported and that a much smaller number of children have been taken – an estimated 19,500.
CNN also spoke with Ksenia Koldin, 19, who helped retrieve her 12-year-old brother from a Russian detention center. Having been separated for months, Koldin said the reunion was tough, since she could see that her brother had been “tormented.”
“Not only had there been almost a thousand kilometers between us and we didn’t see each other for nine months – we’d also grown apart because of the psychological pressure put on him,” she said.
During his detention, Koldin said her brother had been shown Russian propaganda, making him doubt his own country and reluctant to return home. Koldin said that, with the help of a volunteer, she had been able to convince her brother to leave the center and come back with her.
Watch more here:
Ukraine focuses on consolidating battlefield gains as US and Zelensky talk up the counteroffensive
From CNN's Olga Voitovych, Darya Tarasova, Andrew Carey and Andrew Millman
"Consolidation" remained the watchword for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Saturday following recent modest gains in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, while political figures in Kyiv, as well as US officials, pushed back against suggestions the Ukrainian counteroffensive is moving too slowly.
“The Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to conduct the offensive operation on (the) Melitopol axis, consolidating their positions and conducting counter-battery fire,” the military's General Staff wrote in a Saturday update on Facebook. Melitopol is located south of Zaporizhzhia city.
Ukraine has been focusing efforts around the village of Robotyne in recent weeks as it tries to move south toward occupied cities on or near the coast of the Sea of Azov.
An unofficial Telegram channel belonging to Ukraine’s 46th Brigade suggested there had been fresh limited Ukrainian gains to the southeast of Robotyne, posting: “There is an extension of the bridgehead along the enemy's defense line in the direction of Verbove. The area of control is being expanded for further actions.”
The channel also reported fighting on higher ground outside the neighboring village of Novoprokopivka.
What Russia says: Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday it had repelled four Ukrainian attacks in the area around Robotyne and Verbove. The Russian military blogging site Rybar said Russian forces had put up stiff resistance around the settlement of Verbove. It said Robotyne was now fully under Ukrainian control, though it claimed Kyiv's forces had suffered severe losses in the fighting.
CNN is unable to immediately verify the battlefield claims of either side.
Pushing back about concerns over counteroffensive: Ukraine’s current counteroffensive against Russia’s occupying forces has been underway for three months, and there have been growing concerns that it is failing to achieve expected results.
John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, addressed those concerns Friday, saying Ukrainian forces had made “notable progress” in the previous three days, achieving “some success against (the) second line of Russian defenses.”
Those comments were echoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posted on Saturday:
“No matter what anyone says, we are advancing, and that is the most important thing. We are on the move.”
In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Kyiv Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said Ukraine is “not failing” but “moving forward” in its counteroffensive.
The foreign minister added that those criticizing the speed of Ukraine’s counteroffensive should consider the soldiers fighting at the heart of it.
“You just lost two of your buddies. You were almost killed. You crawled one kilometer on your belly demining the field. You sacrificed yourself — you took the damn Russian trench in a fierce fight. And then you read someone saying, ‘Oh guys, you're too slow?'” he said.
“Our partners who are helping us, including the United States, they understand that things are moving in the right direction," he added.
Here's the latest map of control:
Ukrainian oligarch and Zelensky supporter named as a suspect in fraud investigation
From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Pauline Lockwood
Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch and key supporter of Volodymyr Zelensky's campaign for president in 2019, was officially named as a suspect in a fraud investigation, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Kolomoisky was served a notice of suspicion on Friday, a step closer to being formally charged.
The SBU and Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security said they will investigate Kolomoisky for fraud and laundering property that was criminally obtained.
Kolomoisky has not yet publicly commented on the allegations and CNN was not immediately able to reach him for comment.
The pre-trial investigation will focus on Kolomoisky’s alleged role in laundering more than $130 million by moving funds overseas, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office. The office said Kolomoisky purportedly conducted the transfers using banks under his control between 2013 and 2020.
More on Kolomoisky: Ihor Kolomoisky is a prominent Ukrainian businessman whose interests in media and banking have made him one of the country's richest men.
This is not the first time Kolomoisky has been accused of wrongdoing. He was sanctioned by the US State Department in March 2021 for his alleged involvement in “corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit.”
While primarily occupied with fighting Russia’s invading forces, Ukraine’s government has also been cracking down on internal corruption, an issue which had been one of Zelensky’s key electoral pledges.
Russia is "trying to silence" Nobel winner Muratov, peace prize committee chair says
From CNN’s Eve Brennan in London
Russia is “trying to silence” Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov, committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said in a statement on Saturday, after Russia added Muratov to its register of “foreign agents” on Friday.
Under a law expanded in December 2022, Russia requires all individuals or organizations receiving either funding or support from abroad to be classified as “foreign agents.”
“Mr. Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his efforts to promote freedom of speech and freedom of information, and independent journalism. It is sad that Russian authorities are now trying to silence him,” said Reiss-Andersen, adding that the “accusations against him are politically motivated.”
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee continues to stand behind the important work carried out by Novaja Gazeta and Mr. Muratov,” she added.
More about Muratov: The editor of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta made headlines last year when he announced plans to auction his Nobel Peace Prize medal to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.
During an interview with CNN last year, he said that his news team was “forced” to stop operating due to “military censorship.”
He said half the country’s population opposes the war in Ukraine. Muratov said it was “impossible to look at” photos from scenes of death and destruction from Mariupol, Melitopol, Bucha and other Ukrainian communities, adding that: “This will become a huge case study of what dictatorship means.”
For the past 20 years, Russian people have been subjected to “total propaganda,” he said, the effect of which was “the same as radiation.”
“This propaganda has won a victory, but not over everyone,” he added.
Kyiv’s weapons industry is enabling it to project power beyond the front lines and into Russian territory
From CNN's Tim Lister
In the early hours of August 29, swarms of Ukrainian drones flew across seven Russian regions. Many were intercepted; some were not.
Several reached a Russian airbase in Pskov, some 600 kilometers (about 373 miles) from the Ukrainian border, destroying two Russian military transport aircraft and damaging two more.
It was the most dramatic evidence yet of a new dimension to the 18-month conflict: Ukraine’s growing appetite to take the war to Russian territory.
Aerial and marine drones, mysterious new missiles and sabotage groups are all part of the toolkit. Russian airfields, air defenses and shipping are among the targets.
These attacks far from the current front lines are evidence of an evolving Ukrainian capability to project power.
That projection very deliberately does not rely upon Western hardware but local adaptations, in terms of both technology and tactics.
Read more about Kyiv's attempts to make its own armaments.
Zelensky says Ukraine's counteroffensive is pushing forward despite “what anyone says”
From CNN’s Dan Wright and Niamh Kennedy in London
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv's counteroffensive is "moving forward," after making some small gains in its campaign to recapture territory seized by Russia.
"Ukrainian forces are moving forward. Despite everything and no matter what anyone says, we are advancing, and that is the most important thing. We are on the move," Zelenksy said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
More context: It's unclear exactly who Zelensky is referring to, but the counteroffensive, which began earlier this year, is yet to make a significant breakthrough. Last month, Western officials described "sobering" updates on its progress. But this week, Kyiv's forces described breaching the first line of Russian defenses in the south.
Zelensky's statement echoes what Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Friday. Kuleba said Ukraine's partners, including the United States, “understand that things are moving in the right direction” and there is no “slow down” in progress.
He added that those criticizing the pace of the counteroffensive should pay greater consideration to the soldiers leading it.
“How does it feel when you come back from your mission and you take back your phone, you open it, and you start reading all the smart people saying how slow you are and that you're not doing well enough?” Kuleba said.
