Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Russian-occupied Enerhodar city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said on Sept. 19 that local residents report that Russian forces shelled one of the banks of the Kakhovka water reservoir and the industrial area of the city. The mayor added that the level of damages is yet to be determined.
According to the State Investigation Bureau, there was a “considerable amount” of ammunition and military equipment, including two infantry fighting vehicles, found at a Russian reserve command post near Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast. The seized ammunition and equipment were handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the agency said.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai reported that the Russian military base in Kadiivka was attacked overnight on Sept. 19. The official said that Ukraine also successfully struck Russian military equipment and troops in Novoaidarsk.
According to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov, an 11-year-old boy was wounded in Kupiansk, and a 65-year-old woman was hospitalized with injuries in the Chuhuiv district of the oblast. The official added that six civilians were blown up by mines on Sept. 19. All of them were hospitalized.
The company said three of its restaurants in Kyiv will resume delivery on Sept. 20, and seven more will follow in about a week. In October, the restaurants will resume dining in. McDonald’s shut down all of its 109 restaurants in Ukraine when Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24. In August, the company said it would gradually reopen restaurants in Kyiv and the west of Ukraine.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its intelligence update on Sept. 19 that Russia has lost approximately 55 combat jets since the start of the full-scale war. The ministry said that the uptick in losses is partially a result of the Russian Air Force attempting to provide close air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances.
Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom reported on Sept. 19 that a powerful explosion occurred near the plant located in Mykolaiv Oblast as a result of the Russian attack, damaging the premises of the plant and three power lines. No casualties were reported.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 19 that Russia had also lost 2,212 tanks, 4,720 armored fighting vehicles, 3,581 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,313 artillery systems, 312 multiple launch rocket systems, 168 air defense systems, 251 airplanes, 217 helicopters, 920 drones, and 15 boats.
According to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, the victims were from Toretsk, Yahidne, and Bohorodychne. Eight people were injured in the region on the same day, the official reported.
“The war is not going too well for Russia right now. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to maintain high states of readiness, alert,” U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after visiting a military base in Poland on Sept. 18, Reuters reports. Milley also said he was not suggesting that U.S. forces stationed in Europe were under an increased threat.
Russian forces shelled the village of Volfyne in Sumy Oblast, killing an 82-year-old man, Dmytro Zhyvytsky, the oblast governor, said on Sept. 18. According to him, the Russian military also damaged a local farm, killing about 100 pigs and a horse.
In a video address on Sept. 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects more Ukrainian cities, including those in Crimea, to be liberated following a successful counter-offensive by the Ukrainian army in Kharkiv Oblast. “Izium, Balakliia, Kupiansk – these words sound everywhere,” Zelensky said. “Mariupol, Melitopol and Kherson will also sound, but even more often and louder when we liberate them.”
Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, tweeted that Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania would temporarily restrict Russian citizens holding EU visas from entry due to security threats amid Russia's war against Ukraine. According to Raik, only some categories – family members and holders of EU residence permits – will be able to enter the countries.
Prior to Elizabeth II's funeral on Sept. 19, First Lady Olena Zelenska – along with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Ambassador to the U.K. Vadym Prystaiko – paid her respects to the Queen and met with Princess of Wales Kate Middleton in Buckingham Palace. Zelenska will attend the Queen's funeral, representing Ukraine. Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died on Sept. 8. She reigned for 70 years.
In the past 24 hours, Ukraine's Air Force has carried out 20 airstrikes, successfully hitting 15 Russian strongholds and four sites with its air defense systems. Ukraine's artillery has also hit nine Russian strongholds and seven control points.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Sept. 18 condemned "in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Russia in Izium." She reacted to the mass burial site reportedly containing around 440 graves in the liberated town in Kharkiv Oblast. According to Ukraine's officials, almost all the exhumed bodies showed signs of violent death. "These war crimes must be answered by justice," said Zourabichvili.
Ukrainian forces successfully repelled attacks near villages Vesela Dolyna and Maryinka in Donetsk Oblast, as well as near Hoptivka and Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast. In the past day, Russia has launched three missile strikes and 11 airstrikes; it has carried out more than 40 attacks from rocket launchers, damaging the infrastructure in two dozen settlements.
ZN news outlet reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) searched Ihor Kolomoisky's apartment and confiscated documents and an electronic device. ZN added that the search was part of the Ukranafta case, in which Kolomisky is alleged of seizing the state-owned company's property and funds worth almost 13 billion UAH. Kolomoisky said he had never heard about the searches. He also denies wrongdoing.
Izium Mayor Valerii Marchenko said on Sept. 18 that the exhumation works will continue for nearly two more weeks “because there are many burials” in the recently liberated city in Kharkiv Oblast. Ukraine earlier discovered a burial site with about 450 graves in Izium following the withdrawal of Russian troops from the city.
Two more vessels are currently waiting to depart, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said on Sept. 18. A total of 10 ships loaded with over 169,000 tones of agricultural products are expected to leave the ports of Odesa Oblast on Sept. 18, heading to some African, Asian, and European countries, the ministry said.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported that five Russian unmanned aerial vehicles and a Ka-52 helicopter were destroyed in different areas on Sept. 17.
Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that the doctors were trying to evacuate patients from a psychiatric hospital in Strilecha village when Russian forces began "a massive shelling” of the area. Two patients were injured, Syniehubov said. According to the governor, only 30 out of the hospital’s 600 patients were evacuated.
Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that two women were killed as a Russian tank fired at a civilian car in the village of Strilecha, which borders Russia, on Sept. 17. He added that the recent Russian shelling of Chuhuiv killed an 11-year-old child.
According to Ukraine’s General Staff, some units of the Russian lost “more than 50% of their personnel and more than 200 pieces of equipment” when retreating from Kharkiv Oblast. Russia’s 64th separate motorized rifle brigade had 90% of its troops either dead or wounded, or they refused to participate in hostilities, the General Staff said.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said in its intelligence update on Sept. 18 that Russia has increased its targeting of civilian infrastructure in the last seven days, “even where it probably perceives no immediate military effect.” As it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has “likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and the government,” the ministry said.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that the Russian attack on the city damaged civilian infrastructure including a hospital. The mayor did not provide details.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 18 that Russia had also lost 2,210 tanks, 4,718 armored fighting vehicles, 3,578 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,309 artillery systems, 312 multiple launch rocket systems, 168 air defense systems, 251 airplanes, 217 helicopters, 918 drones, and 15 boats.
Two people were killed in Bakhmut, two more in Vuhledar, and one person was killed in Heorhiivka, said Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. According to the official, 18 people were injured in Donetsk Oblast on Sept. 17.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that one of the four damaged power lines that supplied the plant with electricity had been repaired. This will help the plant to cover electricity needs for reactor cooling and “other essential safety functions," the agency said. The plant's last operating reactor was shut down on Sept. 11. Even when the reactors are no longer operating, a "secure off-site power supply from the grid and back-up power supply systems are essential for preventing a nuclear accident, " the report reads. The plant is located in the Russian-occupied town of Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
A bus with Polish-born Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and three other participants of a humanitarian mission was shelled, the Vatican News reported. All of them escaped the incident unscathed. “For the first time in my life I didn’t know where to run. Because it’s not enough to run. You have to know where to go,” Krajewski said.
Specifically, Russian troops sank nine railroad cars near the Kakhovka hydropower plant in order to build a crossing on the Dnieper, Ukraine's General Staff said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that talks with Russia due to fear of its nuclear arsenal would be the worst result, which would embolden Russia and could lead to World War III. “I can’t even understand how the world’s security and intelligence agencies and powerful minds can let Russia even think about (using nukes),” he said.
