A military educational institute demolished by a Russian missile strike, Poltava, Ukraine, September 3, 2024

Monday’s Coverage: 47 Injured in Another Russian Attack on Kharkiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1622 GMT:

The toll in Poltava has risen to at least 49 killed and 219 injured from Russia’s ballistic missiles strikes, reports Governor Filip Pronin.

UPDATE 1413 GMT:

The International Rescue Committee says at least six children have been seriously wounded by bombing of Sumy in northern Ukraine in recent days.

The IRC is donating medical supplies to the Regional Children’s Clinical hospital in Sumy, meeting the needs of around 4,000 patients. The hospital treats about 5,500 children per month, hosting up to 375 at a time.

Andrii Moskalenko, pharmaceutical manager at the IRC, said:

It is difficult to imagine the horror of children being woken up by explosions, with the roof shattered above their heads. There are no words strong enough to condemn bombarding and wounding children. They are bearing the heaviest burden of this war.

Our pediatric patients need medical care and critical supplies to recover from the attacks. Most importantly, though, children need an end to the hostilities targeting innocent people so they can safely sleep at night.

UPDATE 1409 GMT:

In their latest crackdown on prominent physicists, Russian authorities have sentenced Alexander Shiplyuk to 15 years in a penal colony for “treason”.

Several leading scientists have been arrested during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with at least three detained.

Shiplyuk, the director of the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, was arrested in summer 2022 and has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.

UPDATE 1405 GMT:

Ukraine First Lady Olena Zelenska has updated the toll in Russia’s missile strikes on a military educational institute and hospital in Poltava.

She confirmed the killing of 47 people and wounding of 206.

UPDATE 1358 GMT:

Two members of the supervisory board of Ukraine’s State power grid operator Ukrenergo have resigned over the dismissal of its head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.

The board voted 4-2 on Monday to terminate the contract of Kudrytskyi after he presented a report about the protection of grid facilities during Russian attacks (see 0643 GMT).

Board chairman Daniel Dobbeni and board member Peder Andreasen said in a statement, “We strongly believe that the decision on the early dismissal of the CEO of Ukrenergo is politically motivated and, based on the results of the presented report, there are no valid grounds for it.”

Kudrytsky blamed anonymous funded media campaign to discredit Ukrenergo and his leadership by people trying to gain control of the firm.

Ukraine’s Western partners had objected to the removal. The EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, expressed “grave concern” as it “could compromise our collective ability to support Ukrenergo”.

UPDATE 1342 GMT:

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi has met Ukrainian energy officials before visiting Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Grossi conferred with Energy Minister German Galushchenko; Petro Kotin, head of State nuclear power company Energoatom; and Oleh Korikov, acting head of the Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.

UPDATE 1334 GMT:

American officials say the US is close to an agreement to give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles that could strike deep inside Russia. However, Kyiv must wait several months as Washington works through technical issues ahead of any shipment.

The provision of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles is expected to be announced this autumn, said three officials, although a final decision has not been made.

UPDATE 1315 GMT:

At least 41 people have been killed and more than 180 injured in a Russian attack on a military educational institute and a hospital in Poltava in central Ukraine.

In a video address, Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “preliminary information” indicated the mass killing was by two ballistic missiles, which destroyed a building of the Institute Communications.

People were trapped under the rubble. Many were saved, more than 180 people are injured….

The Russian scum will surely pay for this strike. We continue to urge everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: Ukraine needs air defense systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage. Long-range strikes that can protect us from Russian terror are needed now, not later. Every day of delay, unfortunately, means more lost lives.

The Defense Ministry said the “time between the air-raid siren and the incoming deadly missile was so short that it caught people at the moment they were evacuating to the shelter”.

Rescuers saved 25 people at the scene, including 11 dug out from rubble.

UPDATE 1043 GMT:

Children return to school — underground — in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv on Monday, amid Russia’s ongoing missile and drone strikes.

The city was struck every day from Friday — when an attack on an apartment block and a playground left children among seven killed and 97 wounded — to Monday.

Children in an underground school in Kharkiv, Ukraine, September 2, 2024 (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters)

Children in an underground school in Kharkiv, Ukraine, September 2, 2024 (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters)

Photo: Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters

UPDATE 0707 GMT:

An image of evacuation from Pokrovsk as a Russian offensive closes on the city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine:

UPDATE 0702 GMT:

The Ukraine military says air defenses downed 27 of 35 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians also fired four missiles.

The military did not mention damage or casualties. However, officials said two people suffered minor injuries in the Chernihiv region in the northern Ukraine. Falling debris started fires in industrial buildings on the outskirts of Chernihiv city.

UPDATE 0648 GMT:

Defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday.

The warrant was issued in March 2023 against Putin and Russia’s “Children’s Rights” Commission Maria Lvova-Belova over their role in the forced deportation of thousands of juveniles during the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Mongolia’s failure to arrest Putin dealt a “heavy blow” to the system of international criminal law: “Mongolia has allowed an accused criminal to evade justice, thereby sharing responsibility for the war crimes.”

The ICC said last week that all members had an “obligation” to detain those sought by the Court. The European Commission urged Mongolia on Monday to meet that obligation.

Altantuya Batdorj, executive director of Amnesty International Mongolia, warned, “Any trip to an ICC member state that does not end in arrest will encourage President Putin’s current course of action and must be seen as part of a strategic effort to undermine the ICC’s work.”

Welcoming Putin with a guard of honor, Mongolia made no official response to the calls.

Putin is expected to discuss a new gas pipeline connecting Russia and China in meetings with Mongolian officials.

UPDATE 0643 GMT:

The head of Ukraine’s State energy operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, was reportedly dismissed on Monday over his alleged failure to safeguard energy facilities from Russian attacks.

Ukrenergo’s Supervisory Board voted 4-2 to dismiss Kudrytskyi. Board member Oleksiy Brekht was appointed the interim head.

Claims of Kudrytskyi’s imminent dismissal circulated last week, with a source declaring, “Kudrytskyi is accused of improperly implementing previous decisions of the headquarters of the supreme commander-in-chief and poor protection of Ukrenergo facilities.”

Appointed in 2020, Kudrytskyi also is facing a pre-trial investigation ordered by the High Anti-Corruption Court last month.

UPDATE 0633 GMT:

A major oil refinery in Moscow has suspended operations after a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday.

The Euro+ refining unit of the Gazprom Neft facility was damaged, according to several sources. They said the plant may resume oil processing after repairs in five to six days.

Euro+ accounts for around 50% of the plant’s refining capacity, with a capacity of 6 million metric tons of oil per year through the crude distillation unit.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said drones were destroyed near the complex, but State media acknowledged damage to a building.

The Russian Defense Ministry proclaimed on Sunday that 158 drones had been intercepted in Kyiv’s largest attack amid Vladimir Putin’s 30-month invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE 0614 GMT:

Two civilians, a 8-year-old boy and his 38-year-old mother, were killed and his sister and father injured in a Russian attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine about 11 p.m. on Monday night.

The 12-year-old sister is in intensive care.

The attack came hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof visited a bunker school in the city and talked to pupils.

In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, two civilians were killed and 12 injured.

The fatalities were near the frontline in Selydove and Ukrainsk.

In the city of Dnipro, one person was killed and three injured as homes were damaged. In Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, struck for the fourth day in a row, at least 13 civilians were wounded.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Vladimir Putin has acknowledged Ukraine’s 28-day advance into the Kursk region in western Russia.

In a televised speech to schoolchildren in Siberia, Putin said, “People are experiencing and undergoing severe hardship, especially in the Kursk region.”

However, he immediately tried to diminish the seriousness of Ukraine’s incursion, the first invasion of the Soviet Union or Russia since Germany’s in 1941: “The enemy did not achieve the main task that they set themselves: to stop our offensive in the Donbas….We have not had such a pace of offensive in the Donbas for a long time.”

The statement is correct. In August, Russian invaders claimed 477 square km (184 square miles) of territory in eastern Ukraine, mainly in the Donetsk region: the biggest advance since October 2022. They are threatening Pokrovsk, moving within seven miles of the strategic town.

But Ukraine’s advance dwarfs that of the Russians: since the cross-border incursion on August 6, it has captured more than 1,100 square km (425 square miles).

Map: Institute for the Study of War

On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry declared the seizure of the village of Skuchne in Donetsk. However, it gave no details and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “In the Pokrovsk direction, no matter how difficult it is, there has been no progress for two days. This is what the Commander-in-Chief told me.”