September 29, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more about Russia’s war in Ukraine here, or scroll through the posts below.

Ukrainian citizens are able to enter and exit Russia without visas by using their Ukrainian documents, according to a Russian decree that took effect Friday. 

According to the decree, signed by President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian citizens can cross the Russian border by using their Ukrainian passport, a diplomatic or service passport, a sailor’s identity card or an aircraft crew member’s card. 

For children who may be traveling, a birth certificate or a passport of a legal representative with information about the child will be required.

The decree also makes it possible for Ukrainian citizens to enter and exit Russia even if their documents have expired. 

Another decree that was signed by the Russian president and took effect on Friday makes the process of obtaining Russia citizenship easier for some individuals, especially if they are citizens of former Soviet states. 

Foreigners who have signed a contract for military service in the Russian Armed Forces for a period of at least one year will also be able to obtain citizenship in a simplified manner. At the same time, the list of crimes for which the acquired citizenship may be terminated has increased. Some of the crimes include desertion, discrediting the Russian Armed Forces and calls for extremism.

On Friday, Putin also signed a decree on the beginning of the autumn conscription into the military. As part of the autumn conscription, 130,000 people will be called up for service. 

Ukraine’s occupied regions will be included for the first time in a new round of Russian conscriptions, Russia’s defense ministry announced Friday.  

Elsewhere, Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with former Wagner commander Andrey Troshev, according to a statement published by the Kremlin on Friday.

Here are the latest developments:

A voter casts a ballot at a polling station during local elections held by Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on September 8.

The British government announced on Friday new sanctions in response to Russian sham elections in occupied parts of Ukraine. 

The UK imposed asset freezes and travel bans on Russian officials involved in the recent sham elections in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, and in illegally annexed Crimea, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement. 

In addition to the specific individuals, which include the secretary of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) Natalya Budarina, sanctions were also imposed on the commission as an entity as well. 

“Russia has sought to destroy Ukrainian culture and identity in a bid to strengthen its illegitimate claim to Ukrainian territory, including by forcible issue of Russian passports, and imposition of Russian law, media, education, and currency,” the FCDO added. “These elections are another violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and of the UN Charter.”

The latest package of sanctions comes ahead of a new commemoration day in Russia that President Vladimir Putin has declared to celebrate the anniversary of his annexations, “despite Russia having no legitimate basis for any claim to Ukrainian territory,” FCDO said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday honored the victims of Nazi mass shootings in occupied Kyiv during World War II, according to his office. 

Zelensky took part in a ceremony at the National Historical Memorial Preserve Babyn Yar in Kyiv to mark the 82nd anniversary of the tragedy. 

“Babyn Yar will always be on the map of Holocaust memory,” Zelensky said in a message on social media. “No matter how many years have passed, humanity will remember the lives taken by Nazism.” 

About 100,000 people — Jews, Roma and Ukrainians — were killed in Babyn Yar during the Nazi occupation, he said.  

“Never again. For Ukraine, these words matter. And they will continue to do so,” he added. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss important strategic issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his upcoming visit to China, Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow told Russian state news agency TASS on Friday.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the dates for Putin’s visit to China have been set but have not been announced.

On September 20, during a meeting with Chinese officials, Putin said he gladly accepted Xi’s invitation to visit China in October for the Belt and Road Forum.

Some context: Russia and China recently hailed their cooperation ahead of Putin’s Beijing visit. During a meeting in Moscow on Monday, Russia and China’s top diplomats discussed strengthening their international cooperation.

The two countries would continue “well-coordinated work” at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and other summits and high level meetings, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told visiting Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in opening remarks.

Fall conscription will begin from October 1 in all parts of the Russian Federation, including in the illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, Russia’s defense ministry announced Friday.  

In some regions of the Far North, the conscription will begin on November 1 due to the climate differences, Rear Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, deputy chief of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said during a briefing.  

The departure of conscripts from collection points is scheduled to begin on October 16, he said. “The term of conscription military service, as before, will be 12 months,” Tsimlyansky said.

The conscription for military service in what Moscow claims are Russia’s the new regions is regulated by a so-called constitutional law on admission to the Russian Federation, according to state news agency TASS.  

According to the law, the autumn 2023 conscription will include the annexed territories – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – for the first time. There was no conscription for military service last year and in the spring of 2023 in these regions, according to TASS. 

While regular conscriptions will be carried out, Russia has no plans for further mobilizations, Tsimlyansky, said.

Some context: Conscriptions in Russia happen twice per year. Last fall’s conscription began a month later than usual due to bottlenecks at conscription offices amid a partial mobilization, according to TASS. 

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu speaks during a joint press briefing with Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in Kyiv on September 28.

France is stepping up its support to Ukraine by setting up industrial partnerships between the two countries. 

Lecornu was heading a delegation of lawmakers and business leaders from various combat industries, ranging from drones, robots linked to drones, artillery, munitions and artificial intelligence. 

The French minister met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the country’s new defense minister Rustem Umerov.

Lecornu said France would “offer innovative solutions to the Ukrainian army and increasingly be in a position to make fewer transfers, but rather direct acquisitions, sometimes under French subsidy, for the Ukrainian army.”

Speaking separately to French public radio France Info, Lecornu said that “as the war is going to last, the transfer of equipment from the French armed forces - but not only the French - has, by definition, its limits.”

The defense minister said France was “going to withdraw a lot of old equipment from the French army in favor of much newer equipment, which we’ll be able to give to Ukraine.”

“Nevertheless, if we want to last,” the minister said, “we need to be able to ‘connect’ French manufacturers directly with the Ukrainian army.”

“So these are also opportunities for French industries. I’m sorry to say it like that, but we have to recognize that too,” he told France Info.

A still from a video released by Ukraine's Security Service on September 29 shows a Ukrainian drone attack on an electric substation in Russia's Kursk region.

Ukraine’s Security Service has confirmed that it was behind the attack on an electrical substation in Russia’s Kursk region on Friday, according to sources.

The security service said the substation was struck because it provided electricity to important Russian military facilities, sources said.

The security service implied that if Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure continue, then Kyiv’s forces would respond in kind, sources added. 

Earlier, Kursk’s governor said five settlements and a hospital lost power in the southwest region bordering Ukraine following a drone strike.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also claimed earlier Friday that its air defenses had destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones over Kursk and one over the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.

No casualties have been reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and former Wagner commander Andrey Troshev, according to a statement published by the Kremlin on Friday.

Putin said that he wanted to discuss “social guarantees” for anyone who had fought to “defend the fatherland,” according to a partial transcript of the meeting. He also referenced a previous meeting with Troshev in which they had talked about the formation of volunteer combat units to fight in Ukraine.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday that Troshev “is already working with the defense ministry,” citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. 

Some context: Troshev is a retired Russian colonel and a founding member and executive director of the Wagner Group, according to sanctions documents published by the European Union and France.

In June, Putin proposed that Troshev command the private military group in the wake of the failed Wagner rebellion.

Following the failed mutiny, security experts predicted that the Kremlin would seek to further absorb the group into the Russian military. Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials said Wagner fighters had returned to to the eastern front, now working as individuals for the Russian Defense Ministry.

Oleksandr Sienkevych speaks during an interview in Brussels on May 24.

A Russian missile attack struck an infrastructure facility on the outskirts of Mykolaiv early Friday, the southern Ukrainian city’s mayor said.

“Dry grass went on fire there, the fire was extinguished,” Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said in a post on Telegram. 

Further details are being clarified, he added.

Five settlements and a hospital in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region lost power on Friday following a Ukrainian drone strike, a regional official said.

In a Telegram post, Kursk Gov. Roman Starovoit said the region, which borders Ukraine, was “attacked en masse” by Ukrainian drones.

One drone dropped explosives on an electricity substation in the Belovsky district causing a transformer to catch fire, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday its air defenses had destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones over Kursk and one over the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.

No casualties have been reported.

Ukrainian authorities are calling on ordinary Russians to oppose the forced deportation of children to Russia and help bring them home to Ukraine.

The mass deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-occupied territories over the course of the war have resulted in the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin. 

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state-run Freedom TV launched the “If You Know, Tell” campaign in partnership with the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Ukraine’s Police child protection team, according to a statement.

The campaign is part of the “Bring Kids Back UA” plan approved by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Organizers hope to bring back an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children who were forcibly removed from their families and trafficked to Russia or Russian-occupied territories following the invasion last year.

Individuals who decide to provide such information through Freedom TV’s digital platforms or dedicated Telegram channel “are guaranteed anonymity,” Freedom TV said.

Jens Stoltenberg is pictured during a joint meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine on September 28.

Ukrainian troops are “gradually gaining ground,” in their sweeping counteroffensive against tight Russian defense lines in southeast Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday.

“Today your [Ukraine’s] forces are moving forward, they face fierce fighting, but they are gradually gaining ground,” Stoltenberg said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Every meter that Ukrainian forces gains is a meter that Russia loses.”

NATO has donated billions of dollars-worth of weapons to Ukraine but it has so far stopped short of granting the country accession to the alliance, despite repeated requests from Kyiv.

Stoltenberg said Thursday NATO has framework contracts in place for more than $2.5 billion worth of “key ammunition” for Ukraine, including more than $1.5 billion of firm orders.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Poland on Thursday denied its aircraft had violated Belarus’ airspace, in response to an accusation from Minsk’s defense ministry.

Tensions have risen in recent months between NATO member Poland and Belarus, a key Russian ally, with Warsaw deploying more troops at the two countries’ shared border amid an increasingly volatile security landscape in Europe.

Belarus’ defense ministry claimed earlier Thursday that Polish aircraft “repeatedly violated the state border” between the countries in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Belarusian forces recorded the aircraft encroaching about a mile inside Belarus’ territory, it claimed.

In its response, Poland said any information provided by Belarus “must always be approached with caution and prudence, as it has often been an element of provocation and disinformed the public.”

Emergency units carry out rescue tasks following Russian army shelling against the Ukrainian region of Kherson on September 28.

At least three women were killed in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday following shelling from Russian artillery, according to Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President’s Office.

Russian forces attacked a residential area, where the victims were standing on the street, the Kherson region prosecutor’s office said. Two children were evacuated from the scene, it added.

Russian attacks are an almost daily occurrence in Kherson, which lies near the southern frontline. At least six people died following shelling of the region on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich stands inside a defendants' cage before a hearing in Moscow on September 19.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich remains “defiant” six months after he was detained in Russia on spying charges, which he and the Journal strenuously deny, his mother told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Thursday night.

Gershkovich’s parents have been able to go to Russia twice. They saw him in June and were able to talk to him, though Cooper noted he was essentially in a glass box.

“Being there, it was like having him back,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, said. “Just the physical presence and his voice made you very happy.”

Gershkovich was arrested in March during a reporting trip. The FSB, Russia’s main security service, accused him of trying to obtain state secrets — a charge Gershkovich and his employer have extensively denied.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Gershkovich’s parents left the Soviet Union to come to the United States. Evan’s initial reporting trips in the country didn’t worry the two of them.

“He came to Russia in 2017. Things were a lot different at the time,” Milman said.

The family keeps in touch with Gershkovich through letters, which are up to 10 pages long and include printed pictures. His sister, Danielle Gershkovich, says they can hear his voice through his writing — fitting, Cooper noted, as he’s a print journalist.

Read more about Gershkovich’s detention in Russia.

An IAEA team visits the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on June 15.

Ukraine has been elected to serve on the board of governors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Thursday. 

The 11 newly elected countries to the 35-member board are Algeria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Indonesia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Spain and Ukraine, the statement said. 

The IAEA has repeatedly raised concerns as to the safety of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce. Shelling around the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the board position would give Kyiv “real opportunities” to influence decisions “that are binding for all IAEA members and the entire international community.”

Ukraine would work to implement the first point of its 10-point peace formula, which is “nuclear and radiation security,” and Kyiv is focused on ensuring the “complete liberation” of the Zaporizhzhia plant from Russian forces, he added.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also praised the decision in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A “small number” of Ukrainian pilots have started language training in preparation for training on F-16 fighter jets, according to a spokesperson for the US Air Force.

The language training is taking place at the Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.  

More on the training: Language training is a critical step for the Ukrainian Air Force as they learn to fly, operate and maintain the jet, since the F-16’s instrumentation is in English, as are all the manuals and information pertaining to it.

The language training does not yet include Ukrainian maintenance personnel, who will learn how to sustain the complex system. The total number of Ukrainians who will come for maintenance training will be “upwards of 200,” the spokesperson said.

The language center at Lackland Air Force Base “is considering multiple options for training maintainers,” the spokesperson added.

Anton Siluanov attends the 26th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russia on June 15.

Moscow is set to boost its military spending, with the Kremlin citing what it described as an ongoing “hybrid war” the government claims is being waged against Russia.

The Russian finance ministry’s draft budget for 2024 indicates a 68% surge in defense expenditures compared to 2023, with a new allocation of up to 10.77 trillion rubles ($111.04 billion) for “national defense.”

Asked about the priorities of Russia’s budget for 2024 at a financial forum in Moscow on Thursday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov highlighted its primary focus on military spending.

“The structure of the budget shows that the main emphasis is on ensuring our victory — the army, defense capabilities, armed forces, fighters — everything necessary for the front, everything necessary for victory is in the budget,” Siluanov said.

Remember: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the United States and other allies providing Ukraine with assistance of being “directly at war” with Russia.