Ukraine war briefing: Arctic attack extends Kyiv’s strike reach into Russian gas heartland
‘Guess who?’ says Fire Point, Ukrainian maker of long-range weaponry; drone alert in Moldova as Zelenskyy waited to fly out. What we know on day 1,660
Ukraine’s special forces said they attacked two crucial natural gas plants in the Arctic about 3,000km (1,800 miles) from the Russian-Ukrainian border. Both lie in the heartland of Russian gas production: Novy Urengoy is Russia’s unofficial gas capital, located in the Yamal-Nenets region in north-western Siberia. The other plant is in the Purovsky district of Yamal-Nenets. A Ukrainian statement described the two plants as “crucial for the gas condensate industry … Previously, this was considered an absolutely safe area away from the front for the aggressor.”
Fire Point, a Ukrainian company that makes deep-strike weapons including the Flamingo cruise missile, posted: “Guess who just travelled over 3,300km and successfully hit the target?” Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, praised the strikes for their effect on the Russian economy. The Russian regional governor confirmed the attack and said the damage was being assessed. About 80% of all natural gas in Russia is extracted in the Yamalo-Nenets region, according to the Interfax news agency.
Ukrainian forces also targeted Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region. The attack hit the Russian naval base, including a terminal used to load oil, military port facilities, and warships carrying cruise missiles, Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova played down reports that a plane carrying Volodymyr Zelenskyy was almost hit by a drone as it flew to Oslo. In fact, Zelenskyy’s departure for Norway was delayed when authorities closed Moldovan airspace due to a drone alert, a Moldovan government spokesperson said. The president’s plane was cleared for take-off from Moldova on Tuesday once it was established that the drone had come down. In all, three departures and four arrivals were delayed. Norway’s prime minister was among those who thought Zelenskyy’s plane had been attacked.
The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, denounced the drone intrusions as a “serious threat to people’s lives” and condemned an earlier Russian drone attack on a border crossing with Ukraine that killed two people. Three other people were injured in the strike on the Starokozache border crossing with Moldova. One person was killed and at least four people injured when a Russian drone struck an apartment building in Kyiv, while more strikes were reported in Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr. A Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 20, four of them seriously, said the regional governor.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared “there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes”. He added: “A response is needed – Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences. The aggression must be stopped here and now, before it spreads any further.” He called for “effective” sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine, saying “the partners who can help know exactly what is needed every day”.
A Ukrainian couple got married anyway after a Russian air raid on the eve of their wedding wrecked their Kyiv apartment. Before going to bed, Liudmyla Ryzhak had hung on the bedroom door her dress, white skirt and her soldier fiance Leonid’s traditionally patterned shirt. As they slept a Russian strike hit a warehouse across the street from their building. They fled with Liudmyla’s six-year-old daughter and two guinea pigs to a bomb shelter – but soon returned to dig their wedding clothes out of the rubble of their ruined apartment. In the morning, amid more air raids, they forged ahead with the ceremony – only possible after Leonid had been able to make it back from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. “If God gave me a continuation of life, then why should I put it off?” the bride said. “At least for now, I have the right to be happy. Both him and me.” – Associated Press
Russia’s arms production poses a future threat that goes beyond the war in Ukraine, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, warned on Wednesday. “Moscow uses large parts of its budget … to fill its inventories for future conflicts, not to deploy weapons to the frontline in Ukraine,” he told the German parliament. “On average, only 80 of the 150 short and medium-range missiles that Russia can produce per month are being deployed to Ukraine.”
In the UK, a man has been charged after allegedly assisting Russian spy services in planning a sabotage operation, Raphael Boyd writes. Joshua Cammidge, 31, was arrested in Swindon on Friday 4 September. Scotland Yard said it relates to alleged contact with a representative of the GRU Volunteer Corps, a group controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency that has been accused of engaging in acts of sabotage against Britain and its allies. Cammidge would appear at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday, police said.
Moscow wants peace talks to take place in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, said a Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov. Ushakov also said the US should halt aid to Kyiv if the fighting is to stop. Moscow has been indignant throughout the war about Ukraine being able to defend itself with military aid from its allies. Another Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, cited a “confirmed political will” for the talks and suggested prisoner exchanges between the US and Russia might be part of the picture. Peskov was responding to a comment by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, about a possible roadmap to restart talks. There have been no talks between Russia and Ukraine since February.