Germany had previously delivered 20 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, bringing the total amount to 24, according to the German government. Germany is also preparing to send six more Gepard vehicles.
Nothing changed with the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited it in early September, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council. "The situation would have improved only if the terrorists took their weapons and explosives and left the power plant," Danilov said. After the visit, the IAEA delegation left two representatives to continue working at the plant on a permanent basis.
The EU official said she would meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky; she pledged to work with Ukraine to guarantee access to the bloc’s single market and bring Ukraine into the EU's free-roaming network. "We will empower Ukraine to make the most of its potential. I am going to Kyiv today," she said on Sept. 14.
Over the past day, the Russians have killed five civilians in Bakhmut, wounded 12 in Toretsk, one in Avdiivka, one in Kurdiumivka and one in Kodema, said Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. According to him, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia has killed 844 civilians in Donetsk Oblast, not including Mariupol and Volnovakha.
"We're in lockstep with the Ukrainians talking to them every day," said U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Since the start of Russia's full-scale war in February, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with $15.2 billion in military aid.
Ukrainian forces successfully repelled attacks near Avdiivka, Spirne and Maiorsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff reported on Sept. 14. Russia has launched three missile strikes and 33 airstrikes in the past day.
Russia ordered the local mobile operator to cut the remaining residents off mobile internet for "security reasons," Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Sept. 14. According to him, Russian forces continue to assert that nothing "threatening" is happening in the region.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 14 that Russia had also lost 2,180 tanks, 4,665 armored fighting vehicles, 3,501 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,290 artillery systems, 311 multiple launch rocket systems, 167 air defense systems, 246 airplanes, 215 helicopters, 908 drones, and 15 boats.
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said that overnight on Sept. 14, Russian forces fired heavy artillery at the Nikopol and Marhanets communities, firing 75 shells. There were no casualties, Reznichenko said.
Russian officials and media propagandists are currently discussing the reasons for Russia’s defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its last update. Originally, the Russian Defense Ministry explained the Russian defeat in Kharkiv Oblast similarly to the “gesture of goodwill” of its withdrawal from Snake Island, or to the decision to prioritize the “liberation” of Donbas following its defeat around Kyiv. However, the ISW writes that this time, this false narrative was met with significant online criticism. The U.S. think tank also said “Kremlin sources are now working to clear Putin of any responsibility for the defeat” and are trying to put the blame on “underinformed military advisors within Putin’s circle.”
Deputy Prime Minister for European integration Olga Stefanishyna told France24 that Russian officials had reached out to Ukraine to negotiate in recent days, a move she believes is aimed at stopping the rapid Ukrainian advance. Stefanishyna said that Ukraine would only talk with Russia when it reaches its military goals.
However, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Ukraine's economy next year will largely depend on the course of Russia's war. He added that the country's GDP could fall by as much as 0.4% or grow by as much as 10% in 2023.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, access was renewed to another, third back-up power line to the Zaporizhzhia plant in the Russian-occupied city of Enerhodar. All of the plant's six reactors remain in a cold shutdown state, but they still require power to maintain necessary safety functions, the IAEA reported on Sept. 13.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of occupied Melitopol city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said that columns of Russian military hardware were detected further south in Chonhar, a village in Kherson Oblast, located at the entrance to occupied Crimea.
According to CNN, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that some Russian forces have crossed the border from Kharkiv Oblast back into Russia, as they retreated during Ukraine’s counteroffensive. But Russian forces still “do exist en masse in Ukraine,” Ryder said.
According to the Deputy Police Chief of Kharkiv Oblast Serhii Bolvinov, during the occupation of the city of Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Russians were holding at least 40 people captive at the same time. "According to witnesses, they were tortured in different ways," Bolvinov said, adding that the "easiest" torture was with an electric shock. According to Bolvinov, Russians were searching for Ukrainian war veterans and volunteers who helped the Ukrainian army.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the draft budget's expenditures on security and defense are four times bigger compared to the previous year, amounting to Hr 1.136 trillion ($30.7 billion). The deficit is set at over $3 billion per month. The draft budget is yet to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament.
According to CNN, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he spoke with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and “urged them to do everything possible to pull back from any conflict and to get back to talking about building a lasting peace between their countries.” Overnight the renewed fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan around Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to the Presidential Office, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave such an order following the liberation of over 300 settlements during the recent counteroffensives. "The operation is ongoing," the statement reads.
According to a press release by the German government, during a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 13, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Putin to reach a diplomatic solution as soon as possible based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops, and respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Scholz stressed that any further Russian annexation steps “would not go unanswered and would not be recognized under any circumstances.”
According to the oblast's governor Oleksandr Starukh, Russian forces shelled the city of Orikhiv with multiple launch rocket systems on Sept. 13, completely destroying one house. Under its rubble, rescuers found the body of an 84-year-old woman.
Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council Mykola Lukashuk reported, citing the Southern Operational Command, that Russian forces had shelled the city of Nikopol with at least 20 MLRS rockets over the past 24 hours. According to the official, three communities in the oblast also have no water supply due to the recent Russian attacks.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the sentenced woman provided Russia with information on the location of Ukrainian troops and military equipment in the city of Lysychansk, Luhansk Oblast. She also informed Russia about the consequences of its shelling and sent pictures of the inflicted damage, prosecutors said.
According to Ukraine’s General Staff, Russian soldiers stole hundreds of civilian cars, loaded with other looted goods, from Kharkiv Oblast. The military said that Russian troops continue to steal civilian cars and loot homes in the southern Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Sept. 13 that Russia targeted infrastructure in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. In the south of Ukraine, Russian forces shelled over 25 settlements, the military said.
On Sept. 13, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a phone conversation with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and discussed "future cooperation to increase Ukraine's financial stability.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen presented the first document with recommendations on international security guarantees for Ukraine on Sept. 13. According to Yermak, it envisages creating the Kyiv Security Compact, which is a “joint document on a strategic partnership that will unite Ukraine and the guarantor states.” Ukraine's guarantors are expected to include the US, the UK, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey and other countries.
“Estonia has always put people above everything," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in a reference to his Estonian counterpart Hanno Pevkur’s visit. "This is what they are doing now by supplying the Ukrainian army with the most modern mobile hospital, which will save the lives of our soldiers and civilians,” Reznikov said.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Sept. 13 that 3,800 square kilometers of Kharkiv Oblast had been liberated during Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive, online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported. "More than 150,000 of our people have been liberated from (Russian) occupation, during which they were, in fact, hostages," Maliar said.
The U.S. and its allies have been discussing Ukraine’s longer-term needs, such as air defenses, and “whether it might be appropriate” to provide Ukraine with fighter aircraft in the “medium to longer-term” perspective, the Financial Times reported, citing an anonymous senior U.S. defense official.
The city’s mayor Ivan Fedorov said that three loud explosions had been heard at around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 13 at an airfield in Russian-occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
A draft regulation on the “electricity emergency tool” seen by the Guardian contains neither a price cap on Russian gas nor a cap on all imported gas. But the EU is still “expected to levy windfall taxes on the high profits of fossil fuel companies, with a separate cap on revenues of low-carbon electricity producers," the Guardian reported. Even though it could still change, the draft reveals the European Commission’s “doubts over gaining enough support from EU member states for its preferred option of putting a cap on Russian gas,” according to the Guardian.
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