Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with Hamas Political Bureau head Ismail Haniyeh, Moscow, September 12, 2022

Monday’s Coverage: Ukrainian Counter-Offensive Making Limited Gains in South and East

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1601 GMT:

Russia has failed in its bid to rejoin the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council.

Russia only received 83 votes in the 193-member General Assembly, while Bulgaria had 160 and Albania 123.

Moscow’s membership on the Council was revoked in April 2022, weeks after the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

UPDATE 1409 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reports “good news” on artillery and air defense supplies after talks with Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest: “My main accent today was air defense. And I’m glad that Ukraine was heard by the Romanian side.”

Zelenskiy said all possible steps should be taken to prevent Russia turning the Black Sea or the Danube River region into a maritime “dead zone”.

He reiterated, “Violence should not be allowed to spread over the Middle East. Russia, or anyone else, should not be permitted to incite conflict.”

UPDATE 1404 GMT:

Ukraine authorities have detained two senior Defense Ministry officials on suspicion of embezzlement of $7 million for the purchase of bulletproof vests.

The State Bureau of Investigation said the officials ordered “low-quality body armor” from abroad: “This led not only to the loss of 250 million hryvnia of budget funds, but also to the undermining of the country’s defense capability and a threat to the lives and health of army personnel.”

UPDATE 1355 GMT:

Investigators and “Finnish Government sources” say the Baltic Connector underwater gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia may have been sabotaged.

Authorities have located the point of damage. A communications cable between the two countries has also been damaged.

The Russian survey vessel Sibiryakov was observed conducting “underwater activities” in the area in June, August, and September.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the bloc is sharing information over the damage with Finland, and will support the organization’s two members.

The government is holding a press conference at 5:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT).

UPDATE 1205 GMT:

Ukraine National Police head Ivan Vyhovsky says his staff have documented 96,500 war crimes committed by Russian forces, with “materials on rocket attacks, crimes committed by the Russian military in deoccupied territories – violence, torture, rape”.

He explained:

The crimes committed by the Russian Federation, in particular the shelling of our critical infrastructure, are genocide of the Ukrainian nation. We are moving towards documenting all these facts in order to recognize the crimes of the Russian Federation as genocide in the international court.

UPDATE 0831 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in neighboring Romania for talks with senior officials.

The visit to Bucharest is Zelenskiy’s first during Russia’s invasion.

UPDATE 0656 GMT:

The Ukrainian Air Force says it downed 27 of 36 Iranian-made attack drones launched by Russia overnight on the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine.

UPDATE 0614 GMT:

Finland has announced an additional €92 million ($97.2 million) in aid to Ukraine and Moldova.

The assistance for Kyiv is for strengthening of basic public services, repair of critical infrastructure, promotion of policy reforms, and preparations for reconstruction and recovery.

Finland’s Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio said:

This additional funding demonstrates Finland’s unwavering support for Ukraine in line with the government’s program. We must ensure that critical services are functioning despite the war. We will also support the improvement of food security in the countries affected by the Russian invasion.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Commenting on the attack by Gaza’s Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has linked the assault to Vladimir Putin’s 19 1/2-month invasion of Ukraine.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy referred to his meeting with the heads of Ukraine’s intelligence and diplomatic services on Monday:

Russia is interested in fomenting war in the Middle East so that a new source of pain and suffering would weaken global unity, add to the splits and contradictions, and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe.

We see Russian propagandists gloating. We see Moscow’s Iranian friends quite openly lending a shoulder to those who attacked Israel.

And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives. Local aggressions sparked the world wars of the past.

Speaking by video on Sunday to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Copenhagen, Zelenskiy called for unity to ensure that international rule of law deals with terrorism, citing both Russia’s invasion and the Hamas attack:

blockquote>Do not rape women. Do not kill. Do not consider children as trophies. Do not fill villages and towns with blood. Do not shoot civilians in cars….

The same evil, and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine.

Our unity must and can stop the evil. Let everyone who sponsors terror feel the power of our wrath. And let everyone who needs help defending themselves against terror feel the power of our solidarity.

The Kremlin hosted a Hamas delegation in Moscow last year. However, there is no evidence that Russia leaders were involved in the planning of Saturday’s assault, which has killed at least 900 people in Israel — most of them civilians — so far. Israel has responded with intensive bombing of Gaza, with civilians making up a large proportion of almost 700 fatalities.

See also EA on International Media: Hamas Attacks Israel — and What Happens Next

How and Why Iran Regime Enabled Hamas Attacks on Israel

The Kremlin’s public line has been blame of the “West” for the conditions leading up to the weekend’s killings, and — with the head of the Arab League visiting Moscow — the pose that it can broker an end to the violence.

Vladimir Putin’s acolyte, the Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Monday, “Our units are ready to act as a peacekeeping force to restore order and counter any troublemakers.”

Some Russian State propagandists have revelled in Hamas’s deadly attacks. Igor Molotov, a special editor at State broadcaster RT, wrote in a Belarusian outlet:

The victory of Palestine in the occupied territories is a victory for Moscow and Minsk….

Today we are all Palestinians.

Today we all win.