The US-made long-range ATACMS missile (Lockheed Martin)

EA on Times Radio: The World Beyond The US Election — Israel-Gaza, Ukraine, Global Climate and Health, Germany, and France

Sunday’s Coverage: Massive Russian Missile and Drone Attack Across Country

UPDATE 1657 GMT:

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has issued the latest criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin last Friday (see 1146 GMT).

Tsahkna said on the the sidelines of a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels, “It was a strategic mistake. We have had a principle agreed that we keep Putin in isolation.”

Tsahkna said the position should be maintained until Putin showed a willingness to take part in meaningful negotiations and withdraw his troops from Ukraine. However, the Russian leader had carried out some of Moscow’s most intense missile and drone attacks on Ukraine after the call with Scholz.

“It just weakened our unity and our positions,” the Foreign Minister said.

UPDATE 1642 GMT:

The European Union and UK have imposed sanctions against Iran over its support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU added the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and its director Mohammad Reza Khiabani to its sanctions list. The bloc also targeted vessels and ports used for transporting Iranian-made attack drones, missiles, and related technologies and components.

The measures prohibit any transaction with ports and locks owned, operated, or controlled by the sanctioned individuals and entities.

The UK imposed an asset freeze on Iran Air over transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, and also sanctioned IRISL over transport of Iranian military supplies. The Russian cargo ship Port Olya-3 has been cited for carrying missiles from Iran to Russia.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on Sunday, “There is no legal, logical or moral basis for such behavior. If anything, it will only compel what it ostensibly seeks to prevent.”

He warned that “such shortsightedness usually tends to boomerang”.

UPDATE 1404 GMT:

The toll has risen to 10 killed and 43 wounded, including four children, from a Russian missile strike on Odesa.

The fatalities include seven police officers and a medic.

The Ukraine Air Force said air defenses downed an Iskander-M ballistic missile but it “fell into the residential sector of the city’s Prymorskyi district”.

UPDATE 1319 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited Pokrovsk on the frontline in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.

UPDATE 1053 GMT:

At least eight people have been killed and 39 injured by a Russian attack on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

Fatalities included medics and police officers, and four children — ages from 7 to 11 — are among the wounded.

Of the injured, 34 are hospitalized and three are in critical condition.

Governor Oleh Kiper reported “damaged civil infrastructure, in particular residential buildings.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commented:

As a result of this barbaric act, innocent lives were lost, and many people were injured—lives that could have been saved if we had the capability to destroy Russian launch systems, supply chains, arsenals, and war factories at their source.

Zelensky implicitly challenged last Friday’s call between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin (see 1146 GMT):

These are not random shots — they are indicative shots. After the calls and meetings with Putin, after all the false gossip in the media about the alleged “refrain” from strikes, Russia shows what it is really interested in: only war.

And this signal should be heard in all parts of the world, from the halls where the members of the G20 meet, to all the capitals of the world.

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

Lithuania Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has joined the criticism (see 0722 GMT) of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s hour-long call with Vladimir Putin last Friday.

Landsbergis told reporters:

I’m not in principle against any calling or reach-out, but it has to come from a position of strength, not from the position of weakness, because if it does, then Russians will abuse it.

And they clearly are doing exactly that, with massive new rocket barrages against Ukraine’s civil infrastructure, against energy.

So what does it help? Why are we doing this?

UPDATE 0934 GMT:

European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell has said of permission for Ukraine to carry out long-range missile strikes inside Russia:

I’ve been saying once and again that Ukraine should be able to use the arms we provided to them, in order to not only stop the arrows but also to be able to hit the archers.

Borrell said, before a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels, “I continue believing this is what has to be done. I’m sure we will discuss once again. I hope member states will agree on that.”

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot of France, which has provided long-range SCALP missiles to Kyiv, said, “We openly said this was an option that we would consider if it was to allow to strike a target from where Russia is currently aggressing Ukrainian territory.

Russia continued to show its unease over the development. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps…to add fuel to the fire and continue to provoke further escalation of tensions.”

UPDATE 0749 GMT:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has developed a plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, say “informed sources”.

The source said Erdoğan intends present the plan at the G20 summit in Brazil on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Turkish leader will propose a “freeze” on military operations and a demilitarized zone in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, with the presence of international troops “as an additional guarantee”.

Erdoğan will say that the fate of Russian-occupied territories should be set aside to focus on securing a sustainable ceasefire. Discussions of Ukraine’s accession to NATO will be postponed for at least 10 years. But Kyiv will receive Western weapons for its protection.

Turkish officials acknowledged that Ukraine will have a hard time accepting the plan, but insisted it is the most realistic approach.

They said Erdoğan hopes to persuade Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend peace talks in Istanbul because the Turkish leader has “received intelligence that Ukraine could lose much more territory in the next few months if fighting continues”.

UPDATE 0731 GMT:

Four civilians were killed and 10 wounded by Russian attacks across the Kherson region in southern Ukraine over the past day.

The Russians fired on 19 settlements, including Kherson city. Two multi-story buildings and 53 private houses were damaged.

UPDATE 0722 GMT:

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen urged Western leaders to refrain from additional phone calls to Vladimir Putin, following German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s conversation with the Russian leader last Friday.

“The most important thing is that we understand we must not engage in another race for attention from the Kremlin right now,” Valtonen told German broadcaster ARD. “It won’t help if the leaders of European states make coordinated or uncoordinated phone calls with Putin.”

While Scholz condemned Moscow’s invasion and urged Putin to withdraw troops, the discussion sparked concern that it would prop up the Russian leader’s demands.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky noted on Saturday:

This is exactly what Putin has long sought. It is critical for him to weaken his isolation, as well as Russia’s isolation, and to hold mere talks that will lead nowhere. He has been doing this for decades.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha followed up on Sunday, after Russia’s massive missile and drone attack across Ukraine: “This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”

UPDATE 0653 GMT:

At least 11 civilians were killed and 89 injured by a Russian missile strike on a 9-story residential building in Sumy city in northern Ukraine.

The attack was at around 9:30 p.m. Among those slain were a 9-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. Eleven children were wounded.

Three hours later, a Russian missile struck energy infrastructure, leaving parts of Sumy without power.

“Sunday evening for the city of Sumy became hell, a tragedy that Russia brought to our land,” said Volodymyr Artyukh, the head of the Sumy military administration.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky responded:

Putin drowns the world in his rhetoric, but his only true message is written in destruction and death, delivered through every missile and drone Russia sends….

What is still missing — and desperately needed — is the principled reaction of the world to this evil.

Earlier in the day, Russia carried out one of the largest aerial assaults of its invasion, firing 120 missiles and 90 attack drones. At least seven people were killed and 17 wounded.

The Russians targeted energy infrastructure, causing power outages and forcing emergency shutdowns.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Biden Administration has lifted the months-long ban on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles inside Russia.

Administration officials, briefing media outlets on Sunday, said the ATACMS missiles may be deployed against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region of western Russia.

Ukraine captured around 100 settlements and 1,300 square km (500 square miles) of Kursk in a surprise cross-border incursion from August 6. Despite Russia’s counter-offensives, Kyiv still controls about half of the captured territory.

The ATACMS have a range of 300 km (190 miles). They were delivered to Ukraine from April, but the Administration refused to allow their use anywhere inside Russia. It also vetoed Kyiv’s strikes with UK-made Storm Shadows and French-made SCALPs.

The Administration officials indicated the change in policy was because of North Korean troops deploying in Kursk to prop up Russian forces.

US, Ukrainian, and South Korean intelligence estimated that around 11,000 North Koreans are in Kursk.

President Joe Biden was also influenceed, they said, by concerns that the Russians would be able to overwhelm Ukrainian troops in Kursk if the US did not step up support.

The officials said that President Joe Biden could authorize Ukraine to use the weapons on other Russian regions. They did not say if the ban has been lifted on the Storm Shadows and SCALPs.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted:

One of its key elements is providing our army with long-range capabilities. There’s been much said in the media today that we have received approval to take relative actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. These things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.

Russia showed concern through Vladimir Dzhabarov, a senior member of the legislature’s Federation Council, “This is a very big step towards the start of World War III.”

Andrei Klishas, another senior member, blustered, “The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning.”

Donald Trump Jr., son of the incoming US President, ranted: