September 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.

Ukrainian artillerymen fire a self-propelled cannon on the southern frontline, September 15.

Ukraine’s president said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian military is “moving forward” on the frontline, but did not go into details.

He also said that Ukraine will act to protect people living in Russia-occupied regions in Ukraine — including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donbas, Kharkiv, and Crimea — despite Russia’s recent referendums.

“This farce in the occupied territory cannot be called even an imitation of referendums, ” Zelensky added. 

Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from a Danish F-16 interceptor on September 27.

European countries on Tuesday raced to investigate unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark, infrastructure at the heart of an energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Experts and also Russia, which built the network, said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out.

Sweden’s Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline was discovered that prompted Denmark to restrict shipping in a five-nautical mile radius.

Why this matters: Both pipelines have been flashpoints in an escalating energy war between European capitals and Moscow that has pummeled major Western economies, sent gas prices soaring and sparked a hunt for alternative energy supplies.

Russia also said the leak in the Russian network was cause for concern and sabotage was one possible cause.

“No option can be ruled out right now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Neither pipeline was pumping gas to Europe at the time the leaks were found, but the incidents will scupper any remaining expectations that Europe could receive gas via Nord Stream 1 before winter.

“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” said network operator Nord Stream AG. “It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.”

Although neither were in operation, both pipelines still contained gas under pressure.

Denmark’s energy minister Dan Jorgensen said in a written comment that leaking gas had been detected in Nord Stream 2 on Monday between Russia and Denmark.

Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled company with a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, declined comment.

Russia slashed gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream 1 before suspending flows altogether in August, blaming Western sanctions for causing technical difficulties. European politicians say that was a pretext to stop supplying gas.

The new Nord Stream 2 pipeline had yet to enter commercial operations. The plan to use it to supply gas was scrapped by Germany days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

Ukraine’s President said on Tuesday that Russia’s sham referendums in four regions in eastern Ukraine were “an attempt to steal the territory of another state” and “to erase the norms of international law.”

During his address to the United Nations Security Council, Volodymyr Zelensky said people in Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine were “forced to fill out some papers while being threatened by submachine guns all for a nice TV cover.”

PREVIEWXMLFrench Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna attends a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on September 27, 2022.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Tuesday that the Russian-organized referendums in occupied Ukraine are “a sham.”

She said a new round of European sanctions against Russia would follow “in the days to come” in response to the voting.

Colonna rejected the description of the votes as “elections,” as she asked, “How do you expect people to express themselves freely under duress and in territories occupied by a foreign power? 

She called for a clear response from the international community. 

The votes hold, “no legitimacy, no value, we will not recognize them,” she said, adding that they will lead to further sanctions from France, the European Union and other international allies.

Any deliberate act to disrupt European energy infrastructure, “will lead to the strongest response possible,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday evening.

Von der Leyen, who said in a tweet that she spoke with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen about the “the sabotage action #Nordstream,” wrote that it is “paramount to now investigate the incidents, get full clarity on events & why.”

Her comments follow the discovery of three leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Danish Prime Minister said during a press statement that she sees the Nord Stream pipeline leaks as “deliberate actions.” 

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson also said Tuesday that the incident is “likely a deliberate action.”

United Nations Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said rarely had the international community collected so much evidence of war crimes and human rights violations as it had in investigating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We are gravely concerned by allegations of violations committed in parts of northeastern Ukraine, including after the recovery of over 400 bodies from improvised graves in Izium. OHCHR is working with local authorities to investigate this and other allegations of human rights violations and abuses in areas in Kharkiv region that were until recently under Russian control,” DiCarlo said in an address to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

She added that after investigations in the areas of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (mandated by the Human Rights Council) had concluded that “war crimes were committed in Ukraine. Among other findings, the commission was struck by the large number of executions and other violations carried out by Russian forces.

DiCarlo also said the commission had processed two incidents of ill treatment against Russian Federation soldiers by Ukrainian forces.

Rosemary A. DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine on September 7 in New York City.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo called Russia’s thinly-veiled rhetoric about the use of any and “all weapons systems” to “defend itself” as “unacceptable.”

“Let me reiterate the secretary-general’s appeal for all nuclear-armed states, including the Russian Federation, to recommit to the non-use and progressive elimination of nuclear weapons,” she added.

Some more context: Her comments come after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin threatened to turn to nuclear weapons amid a series of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine.

In a speech last Wednesday, he warned that “In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.”

Nord Stream AG, the pipeline operator, said Tuesday in an updated statement that following the gas leaks, it is not possible to estimate “a timeframe for restoring the gas transport infrastructure”.

The company also said that “the significant pressure drop caused by the gas leak on both lines of the gas pipeline registered yesterday leads to a strong assumption of the pipeline physical damage.”

Nord Stream said that it “immediately informed the relevant coast guards about the incident” and that “it has started mobilization of all necessary resources for a survey campaign to assess the damages in cooperation exchange with relevant local authorities.”

“The causes of the incident will be clarified as a result of the investigation,” it added.

More background: European countries on Tuesday raced to investigate unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark, infrastructure at the heart of an energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Experts and also Russia, which built the network, said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out.

Sweden’s Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline was discovered that prompted Denmark to restrict shipping in a five nautical mile radius.

Both pipelines have been flashpoints in an escalating energy war between European capitals and Moscow that has pummeled major Western economies, sent gas prices soaring and sparked a hunt for alternative energy supplies.

From left to right, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist hold a news conference about the Nord Stream gas leak in Stockholm on September 27.

The Nord Stream pipeline leaks in the Baltic Sea are “likely a deliberate action” but “not an attack against Sweden,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said in a news conference in Stockholm on Tuesday alongside Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist.

Linde said the act was “likely sabotage.”

“There is readiness to quickly make marine units available if considered necessary,” Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said.

The prime minister also assured Sweden’s defense forces were ready to adapt to the situation.

The United Nations under-secretary-general underlined in Tuesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting that the so-called secessionist referenda that just wrapped up in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine were not legal under international law and that the UN remained fully committed to the sovereignty and unity of Ukraine within its borders. 

Rosemary DiCarlo said developments including the referendums threatened to further escalate the conflict.

“As we meet, so-called referenda were just conducted by de-facto authorities in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions” she said. 

She said that the vote happening during an armed conflict that involved de facto authorities going door-to-door in cases with soldiers in tow could not be viewed as a legitimate read of the will of the people there.  

“Voting took place in polling centers. De facto authorities accompanied by soldiers also went door-to-door with ballot boxes,” DiCarlo said. 

She also said Russia was obliged under international law to respect the laws of Ukraine in their administration of the occupied territories.

Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station in Donetsk on September 27.

According to election commissions in four occupied regions of Ukraine, the referendums over the past four days have returned huge majorities in favor of joining the Russian Federation, Russian state media say.

The referendums — called at short notice by pro-Russian authorities — were widely condemned by Western governments as a “sham” and against international law. They were not observed by independent monitors. 

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said that the commissions published the results of referendums in the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on joining Russia. It did not specify whether they were the final results.

RIA Novosti claimed that “The public addressed the authorities of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions with a proposal to urgently hold referendums.”

There is no evidence of that. The referendum plans were suddenly announced a week ago by Russian-backed local administrations and immediately welcomed in Moscow. 

Ukrainian officials say that turnout has been extremely low and claimed that people had been bused in from Crimea to add to the turnout.  

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks to the media about the three gas leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 27.

Denmark sees the Nord Stream pipeline leaks as “deliberate actions,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday during a press statement, her office confirmed to CNN.

The Danish prime minister’s comments follow the discovery of three leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

“We do not see a direct military threat against Denmark,” Frederiksen added.

When asked by a reporter if she saw the incident as a declaration of war, Frederiksen replied “no,” her office said.

“It is our assessment that the leaks are not caused by accidents but by blasts,” the Danish energy minister Dan Jørgensen also said Tuesday, his office confirmed to CNN.

Jørgensen added that the damaged pipelines are at 70 to 80 meters in depth and that he expects the Nord Stream gas leaks to last “at least a week,” his office said.

A general view of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant taken on September 11.

The White House requested $35 million be included in the short-term government funding bill to assist Ukraine’s nuclear security as US officials continue to closely watch the precarious conditions around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, according to an administration official. 

The additional funds would serve to bolster the significant assistance already provided by the US National Nuclear Security Administration to Ukrainian officials in the months since Russia invaded the country, the official said. It comes as US officials and their international counterparts have been on high alert over the potential for a nuclear accident at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

The new money, which congressional Democrats included in their draft funding measure released late Monday evening, would be directed to the overall US efforts to assist with Ukraine’s nuclear preparedness, and would specifically be used to support procurement and maintenance of additional sensors, data assessment and analysis, and for to supply the Ukrainian National Guard with protective capabilities at nuclear power plants, the official said. 

The funds could also be utilized in the event Ukrainians faced the need to consolidate radiological materials. 

The facility, which has been held by Russian troops since March, has for weeks served as an increasingly hazardous flashpoint in the war. Shelling at and around the site has damaged infrastructure, cut power lines and drawn a sustained international effort to de-escalate the situation. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the shelling. 

The White House funding request came as part of the overall US effort to assist with Ukraine’s nuclear preparedness, which has grown increasingly important as a result of the events at Zaporizhzhia. It also comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken a series of dramatic steps to escalate a conflict he launched and has now found his country mired in after more than seven months.   

More on this: The $35 million only represents a small piece of the $12.3 billion in assistance to Ukraine included the stopgap funding bill, the bulk of which is directed toward military and economic assistance. 

But it does mark the latest tranche of assistance on an issue of palpable concern since the opening days of the Russian invasion. Ukraine has four operating nuclear power plant sites with a total of 15 reactors.  

Lawmakers have until Sept. 30 to pass the bill and avoid a government shutdown.

The US agency that would receive the new funds has been involved for months in providing real-time assistance in monitoring radiation levels amid shelling and combat in and around Ukraine’s power plants, including Zaporizhzhia and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The NNSA, which technically operates within the US Energy Department, has also worked to model the potential consequences of damage to nuclear facilities.

Witnesses in Kharkiv report several loud explosions close to the center of the Ukrainian city. 

The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Synehubov, said on Telegram: “The occupants struck at Kharkiv,” without giving further details.

Mayor Ihor Terekov said there had been three explosions which had knocked out electrical power in Ukraine’s second-largest city.

“Shaking” was recorded twice on Monday in the Baltic Sea, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The time and location of both events “match the time and location for the gas leakages on Nord Stream 1 and 2,” the agency said.

“The first event registered 2.3 on the Richter scale, the second 2.1 on the Richter scale,” it added.

GEUS said the signals recorded “do not resemble signals from earthquakes” but “resemble the signals typically recorded from blasts.”

GEUS recorded the signals on its two seismographic stations, that of Bornholm and the station on Stevns.

It said Swedish and German stations had also recorded the signals.

According to its webpage, GEUS is responsible for monitoring and locating earthquakes and other seismological events in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe islands.

More context: The cause of the leaks has not been confirmed yet as European authorities continue investigating the incident.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Swedish Maritime Authority told CNN that three leaks have been identified in pipelines for Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 near Bornholm, warning vessels to maintain a distance of 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the leaks and issuing a warning for aircraft, with a safety altitude of 1,000 meters.

In September, Russia halted deliveries of gas to Europe through Nord Stream 1 indefinitely, saying it was due to an oil leak at one of its compressor stations.  

As CNN has previously reported, US officials have expressed concern that Russia’s weaponization of oil and gas, leading to skyrocketing costs and even potential blackouts across Europe this winter, could successfully force fissures in what up until now has been a largely united European front opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Livvy Doherty, Sharon Braithwaite and Robert North contributed reporting to this post.

Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod said that these are “critical hours” after he held talks with his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde on the gas leakage in Baltic Sea near both countries.

The talks follow the discovery of three leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

Earlier on Tuesday, Swedish seismologists said they detected two underwater explosions in area close to Nord Stream pipelines on Monday. The cause of the incident is still not known as investigations continue. Initial reports – which are not officially confirmed yet– indicate that this could have been a deliberate act, according to some Western officials. 

Linde said that it is “essential to closely coordinate and handle the situation”.

The Swedish government and agencies are “closely monitoring the developments,” she tweeted.

See the tweets:

The Ukrainian military has released video showing that its forces have made further incremental gains east of the river Oskil in Kharkiv — which had been the limit of their recent successful offensive.

One of the short clips of video released Tuesday showed a Ukrainian soldier raising the national flag in Kupyansk Vuzlovyi, a suburb south of the city of Kupyansk — which was captured earlier this month.

Other clips show Ukrainian troops entering villages further south, close to where Kharkiv and Donetsk regions meet. Those villages are Koroviy Yar and Ridkodub.

Their capture indicates that Ukrainian forces are moving slowly to consolidate gains made in the first two weeks of September, with the aim of cutting off pro-Russian units still defending their positions around the town of Lyman.

Nord Stream headquarters in Zug, Switzerland on March 1.

Initial information about Nord Stream pipeline leaks “indicates acts of sabotage,” Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland said on Tuesday.

He did not provide any further information on the matter. His comments were published on the Norwegian government website.

Remember: The cause of the leaks has not been confirmed yet as European authorities continue investigating the incident.

Aasland added that today the Norwegian government has decided to heighten the emergency preparedness in relation to infrastructure, onshore and offshore installations on the Norwegian continental shelf. 

“There has been close contact between the Norwegian Government, the Police, the Norwegian Armed Forces and the operators on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. On this basis, the Government has decided to enact measures to heighten emergency preparedness in relation to infrastructure, onshore and offshore installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Some of the background are reports of increased drone activity. An investigation is ongoing,” he said.

The US Defense Department confirmed that Russia is now using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine both for attacks and for reconnaissance. 

Ryder would not comment on the effectiveness of the drones, but said the US believes reports of Ukrainians shooting down some of the drones are “credible.”

Ukrainian officials have said there have been five attacks from these drones in Odesa in recent days.