Ukraine-Russia war: Kyiv outraged by UN chief’s ‘trip to meet Putin’

United Arab Emirates is ready to support efforts to find peace in Ukraine, president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday.

The two met for informal talks on Sunday that went on until midnight at his residence outside Moscow.

“We continue to make efforts to mediate the exchange of prisoners,” Sheikh Mohammed told Putin in the Kremlin, through a translator. “And I assure you that we will continue to work in this direction. We are ready to make any efforts to resolve crises and in the interests of peace, in the interests of both sides.”

The Russian president has previously praised both Sheikh Mohammed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their mediation efforts over Ukraine.

A senior Russian air force commander who is believed to have been behind an attack on a Ukrainian shopping centre has been killed, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.

Col Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, was beaten to death with a hammer in an unspecified location inside Russia, the intelligence body said.

Photos published by the agency showed a man with a head injury lying on ground. The agency said it was Golenkov, though this could not be independently verified.

“A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation. His head was smashed with a hammer,” the post said. The Tupolev Tu-22M3 jet is a modernised version of a Soviet-era long-range strategic bomber.

Ukraine said Golenkov was behind one of the most lethal airstrikes on Ukraine, one which targeted a shopping centre with rocket.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the 2 1/2-year war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he will work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal.

Unveiled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week, Kyiv’s so-called “victory plan” hopes to compel Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine through negotiations.

The proposal is being considered by Ukraine’s Western partners, whose help is vital for Kyiv to resist its bigger neighbor. A key element would be a formal invitation into NATO, which Western backers have been reluctant to consider until after the war ends.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has criticised the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres for what it said was his acceptance of an invitation from Vladimir Putin to the Russia-hosted Brics summit this week.

The UN has neither confirmed nor denied whether Mr Guterres will be attending the summit in Kazan,

“The UN secretary general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland,” the ministry said. “He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation,” the ministry said.

Putin hosts a summit of Brics nations in the central Russian city of Kazan from Tuesday, aimed at showcasing the clout of non-Western countries. Leaders attending include Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

According to Russian officials, Mr Guterres had told minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN general assembly last month that he intended to go to Kazan.

It is not clear if the UN chief is visiting Kazan. “Announcements on his future travels will be later on down the line,” said deputy UN spokesperson Farham Haq.

The US “will get Ukraine what it needs” to fight its war with Russia and “to fight for its survival and security”, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in his Kyiv visit.

Speaking at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, the Pentagon chief noted that the US has delivered more than $58bn in security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, making it Kyiv’s main backer.

Mr Austin said “there is no silver bullet. No single capability will turn the tide. No one system will end Putin’s assault.” He added: “Make no mistake. The United States does not seek war with Russia.”

“What matters is the way that Ukraine fights back,” Mr Austin told the assembled diplomatic and military personnel at the academy. “What matters is the combined effects of your military capabilities. And what matters is staying focused on what works.”

However, he gave no indication of whether Washington would endorse the key planks of Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-point “victory plan”.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced $400 million in new arms for Ukraine on Monday during a visit to Kyiv, in a show of solidarity just two weeks before a U.S. presidential election that is casting uncertainty over the future of Western support.

Austin’s trip, his fourth and likely final visit as President Joe Biden’s Pentagon chief, focused on U.S. efforts to help Kyiv shore up its defences as Russian forces slowly but steadily gain ground in eastern Ukraine.

Austin cast Ukraine’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2-1/2-year-old invasion as critical to the West’s own security, saying failure to continue supporting Kyiv would result in “Putin’s shadow” falling over all Europe.

“We should all understand that Putin’s assault is a warning. It is a sneak preview of a world built by tyrants and thugs, a chaotic, violent world carved into spheres of influence,” he said in a speech.

As Austin stepped off the train in Kyiv after an overnight journey from Poland, Ukrainian officials reported new Russian attacks overnight on the capital that damaged residential buildings and injured at least one civilian.

A Ukrainian drone attack damaged two distilleries in Russia’s Tula region south of Moscow, its governor said this morning.

“According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” Tula governor Dmitry Miliayev said. “Emergency services specialists are working at the scene. The situation is under control.”

The Russian officials did not disclose the scale of the attack and the damage to the distilleries in the town of Yefremov and the village of Luzhkovskyi.

Another drone attack in Bryansk region this morning also damaged a boiler house and a non-residential building in Russia’s west. There were no injuries as a result of the attack, Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

He added that Russian air defence units destroyed at least six Ukrainian drones over the territory of the region.

Alexei Navalny’s memoir Patriot compiled from his prison diaries is set to be published tomorrow.

The Russian opposition leader’s memoir has been edited by his widow Yulia Navalnaya and will be released in 22 languages, including Russian.

Navalny, the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin until his death earlier this year, wrote that he expected to die in prison. “I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life – either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime,” he wrote in a diary entry in March 2022. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he said.

His widow has said she “wants his voice to be heard loudly even after his death”. Navalny died under unknown circumstances inside a Russian prison facility on 16 February 2024.

Putin’s forces have not “managed to gain a foothold” in the war-town city of Chasiv Yar despite claims of Russian advances.

Anastasia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson of the operational tactical group Luhansk, told the Kyiv Independent: “I do not confirm the fact that Russian troops have managed to gain a foothold in the canal … or anywhere in the direction of Chasiv Yar.

“The overall strategic position of the city remains under the control of Ukraine.”

It comes after the crowd-sourced war-monitoring website DeepState reported on October 17 that Russian forces had made advances.

Bobovnikova explained that groups of Russian soldiers had occasionally crossed the canal and carried out assaults on Ukrainian positions, adding: “However, such manoeuvres are accompanied by significant losses for the Russians. Ukrainian forces quickly repel such attacks, pushing Russian units back.”

The UK is using profits on frozen Russian assets to loan £2.26 billion to Ukraine to aid with its fight against Russia’s invasion, it has been announced.

The funds represent the UK’s share of a $50 billion (£38.39 billion) loan package agreed upon by the G7 nations, financed through interest generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets.

The money could be used to fund air defence, artillery or other military equipment and comes on top of the UK’s existing £3 billion-a-year support for Ukraine.

Announcing the package, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Our support for Ukraine and her men and women in their fight for freedom from Putin’s aggression is unwavering and will remain so for as long as it takes.

“This new money is in Britain’s national interest because the front line of our defence – the defence of our democracy and shared values – is in the Ukrainian trenches. A safe and secure Ukraine is a safe and secure United Kingdom.”