Ukraine Russia warfare latest: Putin’s Black Sea fleet ‘struggling’ with threats as Biden pledges extra US help

Ukraine destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, most of them focusing on the areas of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk, report the Ukrainian airforce.

The waves of in a single day assaults lasted greater than three hours, the southern command of Ukraine‘s forces had said earlier.

Falling debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro caused a fire at a private firm that was quickly doused, said Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Damage to manufacturing facilities at an industrial enterprise in the city of Pavlohrad led to a fire that was also put out, he added on the Telegram messaging app.

Sixteen drones were destroyed over the southern region of Mykolaiv, its governor, Vitaliy Kim, said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The Ministry of Defence has warned Russians are struggling to take care of threats coming from Ukraine’s southern flank.

“The Naval Aviation component of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the Fleet’s operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war,” the ministry posted on X.

“Russia is attempting to use naval air power to project force over the northwestern Black Sea.”

They added: “Su-24 FENCER and FLANKER variant combat jets conduct maritime strike operations, including at least one recent air strike on the strategically located Snake Island.”

The Ukrainian counteroffensive makes advances within the south east as footage exhibits forces making progress within the northwest of Novomayorse, 18km southeast of Veylka Novosilk.

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations within the Melitopol (western Zaporizhia Oblast) and Bakhmut route to Russian counterattacks between September 13 and 30, says the Institute for the Study of War.

Defence spending will account for almost one third of Russia’s whole finances expenditure in 2024, the federal government’s draft plans present, as Moscow diverts ever extra sources in direction of prosecuting its warfare in Ukraine.

Russia additionally plans to ramp up state borrowing to assist fund what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine within the coming years and is relying on a restoration in oil and gasoline revenues to pre-invasion ranges to take action.

Spending underneath the “national defence” part of Russia’s finances will whole 10.78 trillion roubles (£90bn) subsequent yr, or 29.4 per cent of whole deliberate expenditure, in line with the finance ministry’s finances paperwork that define the federal government’s fiscal plans for 2024-2026.

In 2021, the yr earlier than Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, defence spending totalled 3.57 trillion roubles, 14.4 per cent of whole spending. In 2022, the share of defence spending rose to 17.7 per cent, knowledge on Russia’s digital finances web page confirmed earlier this yr.

“The budget’s structure shows that the main emphasis is on ensuring our victory – the army, defence capability, armed forces, fighters – everything needed for the front, everything needed for victory is in the budget,” finance minister Anton Siluanov mentioned final week.

US senator Lindsey Graham cautioned that if Donald Trump have been to cease sending help to the embattled nation of Ukraine if elected president, the top outcome can be “10 times worse than Afghanistan.”

When requested about how he would advise Mr Trump and different Republicans in Congress who’ve threatened to cease sending help to the nation, Mr Graham mentioned on Face the Nation on Sunday: “To President Trump and anybody else: if we pull the plug on Ukraine, that’s 10 times worse than Afghanistan.”

“To stop funding Ukraine is a death sentence for Taiwan,” the South Carolina Republican predicted. “Putin will keep going. You missed all of World War II if you missed how this movie ends.”

He then fired pictures at members of his personal get together: “To the Republicans who say Ukraine doesn’t matter to us: you’re wrong. Respectfully, you’re wrong. The war gets bigger, not smaller.”

“If Ukraine can beat Russia,” Mr Graham added, “China is less likely to invade Taiwan and Putin gets stopped.”

Kelly Rissman has the total story:

Vladimir Putin can be “foolish” to imagine inside political rows within the West have been an indication that assist for Ukraine is starting to crack, Grant Shapps mentioned.

The Defence Secretary prompt the potential for Donald Trump profitable the subsequent US election wouldn’t essentially outcome within the “worst case scenario” of America slicing its assist.

The Western alliance has suffered a sequence of blows in recent days, with assist for Ukraine dropped from a US stop-gap finances invoice, election success for a pro-Russian get together in Slovakia and rows between Poland and Kyiv over grain provides.

But talking on the Conservative Party convention in Manchester, Mr Shapps mentioned the Kremlin mustn’t over-interpret home political wrangles.

He mentioned: “It’s very easy to sit here, think about the single issue of Ukraine and frame everything in that context and forget about domestic politics. It’s always a mistake to think in that way.”

The 25-year-old son of Yevgeny Prigozhin is about to take over from his father and grow to be the subsequent boss of the Wagner group, Telegram channels related to the group have claimed.

Pavel Prigozhin seems to be inheriting the overwhelming majority of his father’s riches – together with the mercenary group, properties, and about £100 million – in line with {a photograph} posted on social media of what appears to be Prigozhin’s will.

He is now negotiating with the Russian nationwide guard, Rosgvardia, over having the mercenary organisation rejoin fight in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War mentioned.

My colleague Tara Cobam stories:

Ukraine’s parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for help from the West towards Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which supplies Starlink satellite tv for pc communication companies which are very important for Ukraine’s defence effort, however his statements have typically angered Kyiv for the reason that full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February final yr.

The speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musk’s jibe together with his personal submit on Twitter/X: “The case when [Elon Musk] tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in s***,” an obvious reference to SpaceX’s failed rocket launch in April.

Ukraine’s parliament, on its official web page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its personal model of the meme with an image of Musk and the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t spread Russian propaganda”.

Max Hunder has the story right here:

UK defence secretary Grant Shapps has prompt recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are “unhelpful”.

The senior Cabinet minister made the feedback at a Conservative Party convention fringe occasion in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter/X to take purpose at Mr Zelensky’s repeated requests for western assist within the battle towards Russian troops.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media consumer himself, expressed reservations in regards to the proprietor of X’s recent attitudes to the warfare. “I think it’s unhelpful, to be blunt,” he mentioned. “I can’t speak for him or his motivations. He’s a free individual, we live in a free world. He can tweet or X what he likes.”

“What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who won’t waver,” he added.