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Zelensky told European leaders that Ukraine must win to protect the EU
Volodymyr Zelensky speaks today at the first meeting of the European Political Community.
He told European heads of state that Ukraine must win so that Russia does not “advance to Warsaw or again to Prague,” according to the Agence France-Presse.
Zelensky called on Western capitals to supply his army with more weapons “to punish the aggressor.”
Key events
Summary of the day
Rachel Hall
It was a relatively quiet day for news related to the invasion of Ukraine, but there were still some important developments.
Thank you for following the blog today. We’re closing it for now, but we’ll see you again tomorrow.
Leaders of the European UnionUnited Kingdom and Turkey met on Thursday to discuss the security and energy crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a symbolic summit seen as underscoring Moscow’s isolation.
The gathering in Prague was the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron, and aimed to unite the 27 EU member states with 17 other European countries.
The meeting at the ancient Prague Castle was seen as a major show of solidarity for a continent grappling with multiple crises – from the security implications of the war in Ukraine to energy shortages and a looming recession.
“This meeting is a way of seeking a new order without Russia,” said the EU’s high representative for foreign policy and security, Josep Borrell, adding that Moscow may not always be excluded, but for now, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia “does not have a seat.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the meeting via video link, called on the leaders to turn the new political community into a “European community of peace.”
“Let today be the starting point.” The point from which Europe and the entire free world will move towards guaranteed peace for all of us. It is possible,” he said, calling on leaders to “direct all possible powers of Europe to end the war” in Ukraine.
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian’s foreign correspondent Peter Beaumont wrote a dispatch from the Kherson region, shedding light on the experiences of residents returning to their homes in newly liberated villages..
Unlike the wooded hills of Donbass, here there is a flat, wide field interspersed with rows of acacia and oak, poplar and eucalyptus trees. They provided scant cover for Russian armored vehicles that could be seen burning in the distance, sometimes several together.
Fragments of sharp shrapnel litter the road surface. Lines of Russian anti-tank mines, strung together to block access to the road, were deactivated and pulled to one side of the roadway. Everywhere like stumps in the fields are the skeletal remains of rockets that once carried cluster bombs.
One meadow is cratered every 20 meters from a dozen ammunition that flew into it. In addition, the road was badly damaged.
This was said by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi it was “obvious” that the Russian-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant belonged to Ukraine during a visit to Kiev on Thursday.
At the press conference, Grossi said:
It is obvious to us that, since it is a Ukrainian facility, it is the property of Energoatom [the Ukrainian state nuclear agency].
With the safety and security of the plant – and the technical work – we will continue to be guided by the agreements we have with Ukraine.
We are an international organization governed by international law and, as you well know, annexations are not accepted under international law.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to take over operations at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine this week.
Shelling has hit the area in recent months, with Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for attacks that have sparked fears of a nuclear disaster.
USA said President Joe Biden would not rule out meeting with Vladimir Putin during next month’s G20 summit in Asia.
“That remains to be seen,” the American leader told reporters when asked if he would use the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, as an opportunity to speak directly with Putin.
However, travel plans for both remain unconfirmed, with the White House saying that if Putin attends the G20 summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should also attend, even if Ukraine is not a member of the group.
It is unclear whether Putin will attend the summit.
Liz Truss said she considers Vladimir Putin a common enemy of Europe for threatening democracy and raising energy prices, while her French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, is a “friend”.
Truss’s comments during the Tory leadership race, when she refused to say whether Macron was “friend or foe”, were widely criticized.
She told the media in Prague, where she is attending the inaugural summit of the European Political Community and where she will meet with the French president:
I work very, very closely with President Macron and the French government and what we are talking about is how the UK and France can work more closely together to build more nuclear power stations and for both countries to have energy security in the future.
We are both very clear: the enemy is Vladimir Putin who threatened freedom and democracy in Europe with his terrible war in Ukraine and raised the prices of energy products that we all have to deal with now.
Asked if Macron was a friend at the time, Truss said: “He is a friend.
A Russian official in Ukraine has suggested that President Vladimir Putin’s defense minister should consider suicide because of the embarrassment of losing the war in Ukraine, a stunning public insult to the Russian leadership.
After more than seven months of war in Ukraine, Moscow’s most basic war aims have still not been achieved, while Russian forces have suffered a series of battlefield defeats in recent months, forcing Putin to announce a partial mobilization.
In a four-minute video message, Kirill Stremousov, Russia’s deputy head of the annexed Kherson region, followed suit, publicly criticizing “generals and ministers” in Moscow for failing to understand the problems at the front.
Stremousov said:
Indeed, many say: if they were the Minister of Defense who allowed such a situation, they could shoot themselves as officers. But you know that the word “officer” is an incomprehensible word for many.
Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza an investigation is underway for treasonaccording to his lawyer.
State news agency RIA quoted lawyer Vadim Prokhorov as saying Kara-Murza was being prosecuted for treason – punishable by up to 20 years – in connection with three of his public speeches.
They included an address to the Arizona House of Representatives in which he said Vladimir Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.
Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians, but thousands have been killed in Ukraine. On Thursday, at least three people were killed when a Russian rocket destroyed an apartment block in the city of Zaporizhia.
The EU introduces new sanctions against Russia
The EU imposed a a new round of sanctions against Russia, an increase in imports and banning exports and blacklisting individuals due to Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
AFP reports:
The measures, which took effect when they were published in the bloc’s official administrative gazette, also indicated an oil price cap on Russian oil transported around the world, but only after details are worked out within the G7 group of countries.
The EU regulation states that the sanctions are a response to “Russia’s further aggression against Ukraine, the organization of illegal fake ‘referendums’ in the currently illegally occupied parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporozhye regions… the illegal annexation of that Ukrainian region… as and mobilization in the Russian Federation and its repeated threat to use weapons of mass destruction”.
Thirty individuals and seven entities were added to the EU blacklist, including singers Yulia Chicherina and Nikolai Rastorguyev, among others considered pro-war “propaganda” artists.
Other lists included the Russian election commission and its head, proxies of Russian officials in the annexed regions, and Russian military officials and companies linked to the defense sector.
The regulation also introduced a “circumvention” list to put individuals or companies that help banned Russian entities to circumvent EU sanctions.
It was the eighth package of sanctions the EU has imposed on Russia since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February.
The latest couple of sanctions packages are losing steam compared to earlier ones, as Russia’s leading trade, energy, banking, military and political sectors have already been affected.
The main measure in the latest sanctions was supposed to be an oil price cap on Russian oil transported around the world.
But the legal text published on Thursday did not specify how this would work, leaving it to future consideration by the European Commission and EU member states in consultation with the G7. The sanctions include extending the ban to all Russian cryptocurrency transactions, regardless of amount, and expanding the existing ban on Russian imports and expanding the ban on arms sales to include personal weapons.
Also, electronic components that can go into Russian weapons, such as transistors, electronic integrated circuits, controllers and aerial surveillance cameras, are prohibited for sale to Russia.
In addition, the EU prohibits service providers in several sectors from exporting to Russia, including legal advice, architecture, engineering and IT consulting.
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian’s foreign correspondent, Peter Beaumont, shared his impressions from today’s drive to Kherson, where he spotted what appeared to be remnants of a major battle, including burnt-out Russian armored vehicles and cluster munitions.
He saw a small farmhouse occupied by three different groups of Russians, which was “smash to pieces and an absolute shambles”. He heard Ukrainian artillery far in the distance.
He added:
This doesn’t look to me like a little straightening of their line and regrouping, but rather breaking it up.
We went down one of the roads towards Kherson. Looks like the remains of a big fight down there. Burnt Russian armored vehicles in a tree line. Remnants of cluster ammunition. Bad again with mines.
— petersbeaumont (@petersbeaumont1) October 6, 2022
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