Key developments on Sept. 10:
- Russia claims capture of Donetsk Oblast village near Vuhledar, Kyiv doesn't confirm
- Moscow claims Ukraine launched 'massive' 144-drone attack on Russia, casualties reported
- Blinken, Lammy to visit Ukraine as US confirms Iranian missile shipments to Russia
- Ukraine identifies Russian general suspected of ordering strike on Kyiv children's hospital
- China supplies Russia's war machine, receives military tech in exchange, US says
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on Sept. 10 that its forces had captured the village of Vodiane northeast of the fortified Donetsk Oblast town of Vuhledar.
The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the claim. A Ukrainian military spokesperson refused to comment.
Moscow's troops have recently ramped up their offensive near Vuhledar in southern Donetsk Oblast. The loss of Vodiane, lying just some 5 kilometers from the town, would increase the risk of Vuhledar's encirclement.
Russia's supposed capture of Vodiane was reported back on Sept. 9 by the Ukrainian crowd-sourced monitoring group DeepState.
While there are signs of stabilization near Pokrovsk, the focal point of the Russian offensive in Donetsk Oblast, the situation grows increasingly difficult near Vuhledar.
The front-line town lies around 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of occupied Donetsk and around 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the administrative border with Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The small mining town has lied close to the front line since 2014 and has been well-fortified in case of further Russian aggression. Vuhledar has withstood numerous attacks since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022 and has become a key to Ukrainian defenses in the southern part of Donetsk Oblast.
"The loss of Vuhledar would be not only a morale blow for Ukraine since this city has resisted plenty of assaults since 2022, but also a very serious development that can potentially threaten the security of the entire southwestern portion of Donetsk Oblast not yet occupied, along with the threat to Pokrovsk's southern flank," Federico Borsari, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), told the Kyiv Independent.
Martin Fornusek
Moscow claims Ukraine launched 'massive' 144-drone attack on Russia, casualties reported
Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on several Russian regions overnight on Sept. 10, including Bryansk, Moscow, Tula, Kaluga, Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol, Voronezh, as well as the Krasnodar Krai region.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that 144 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight, potentially ranking it among the largest strikes throughout the war. The highest number of drones – 72 – was reportedly downed over Bryansk Oblast, followed by Moscow Oblast (20) and Kursk Oblast (14).
Moscow Oblast Governor Andrey Vorobyov said a 46-year-old woman was killed, and three other civilians were injured in the drone attack in the town of Ramenskoye. The town is located 46 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
The Kyiv Independent cannot verify the claim, and Ukraine has not yet commented on the alleged attack.
Videos of purported explosions heard over Bryansk Oblast were posted on social media by local residents around 12:30 a.m. local time.
Later in the night, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also claimed that over a dozen drones had been shot down over Moscow Oblast en route to the capital.
Sobyanin reported that emergency services are responding to a fire on the 11th and 12th floors of a residential building in Ramenskoye. Downed debris was also found near Zhukovsky International Airport, some 36 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of central Moscow.
Over 30 international and domestic flights, initially scheduled for departure between 12:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. local time, were delayed at Vnukovo Airport because of the attack. Moscow Oblast's Domodedovo airport was shut down in the early hours of Sept. 10.
In Tula Oblast, two drones were reportedly downed, with debris falling on an energy facility. There were no injuries or supply disruptions, according to Russian state media reports.
Maria Yeryoma
Blinken, Lammy to visit Ukraine as US confirms Iranian missile shipments to Russia
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy are to visit Ukraine on a joint visit this week, the two announced on Sept. 10.
"I can confirm that Tony and I will be traveling to Kyiv this week, the first joint visit of this kind for well over a decade," Lammy said during a joint press conference with Blinken in London. The visit to Kyiv is expected to take place on Sept. 11.
Blinken confirmed during his visit to London that Russia has received shipments of Iranian ballistic missiles.
"We've warned Tehran publicly, we've warned Tehran privately, that taking this step would be a dangerous escalation," he said.
The delivery of the missiles "gives the Russians an additional capability and additional flexibility," further fuelling the war, Blinken said.
The Iranian ballistic missiles have a shorter range of around 75 miles, which means "Russia will be able to dedicate its own ballistic missiles to longer-range targets."
U.K., France, and Germany announced further sanctions on Iran in response to the news, describing the shipments as "a direct threat to European security."
During the joint press conference, Blinken was asked about the restrictions Washington and London have given Kyiv regarding long-range strikes on military targets inside Russia with weapons supplied by the U.S. and U.K.
One of the purposes of the trip to Kyiv is "to hear directly from the Ukrainian leadership, including President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, about exactly how the Ukrainians see their needs at this moment," Blinken replied.
"We'll both be reporting back to the prime minister, to President Biden, and I fully anticipate this is something they'll take up when they meet on Friday," Blinken said.
Blinken emphasized that the U.S. and U.K. are "going to look and listen" to what Kyiv needs, and consider "what the objectives are that our Ukrainian partners have in the weeks and months ahead, and how we can best support them."
"We will take that back, we will both inform our bosses, the prime minister and the president, and again, I fully expect that will be a part of their conversation on Friday."
Elsa Court
Ukraine identifies Russian general suspected of ordering strike on Kyiv children's hospital
Ukrainian authorities on Sept. 10 announced war crime charges in absentia against Russian Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash over a deadly strike against the Ohkmadyt children's hospital in Kyiv two months ago.
Russian forces hit Ukraine's largest children's medical center on July 8, killing two adults and injuring at least 34 people, including nine children. Footage showed that the building suffered a direct hit by a Russian missile rather than being damaged by fallen debris.
Kobylash, who at the time served as Russia's long-range aviation commander, ordered the missile strike that hit the hospital, according to an investigation published by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General's Office.
The general already faces other charges connected to the full-scale war in Ukraine, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest for attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
"The investigation established that it was him (Kobylash), who, on July 8, 2024... gave the order to a unit under his command to carry out a strike from the Tu-95MS bomber plane with a cruise missile Kh-101 against the Okhmadyt hospital's premises," Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said on Sept. 10 while speaking at the site of the attack.
Kobylash gave the order at around 9:15 a.m., while the hospital was struck at 10:45 a.m., the SBU clarified.
"As part of the investigation, the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office... talked to 112 victims and 50 eyewitnesses, conducted explosive, forensic, and other examinations, and analyzed video surveillance footage," SBU Deputy Head Serhii Naumiuk said.
The missile, fired from a plane of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, kept maneuvering and changing its flight path, indicating an intention to bypass Ukrainian air defenses and hit the medical facility, the SBU said.
The SBU charged Kobylash last January over "massive rocket attacks on residential buildings, hospitals, and critical infrastructure facilities in various regions of Ukraine."
In March 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Kobylash and Russian Admiral Viktor Sokolov for ordering strikes against the Ukrainian electricity infrastructure during the winter of 2022-2023, which led to extensive blackouts across the country.
Elsa Court
China supplies Russia's war machine, receives military tech in exchange, US says
China is supplying Russia with materials that directly boost Russia's war machine, and in return is receiving military technology support from Russia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told journalists on Sept. 10.
China has positioned itself as neutral in the ongoing war but has deepened economic ties with Russia and become Moscow's leading source of dual-use goods, feeding the Russian defense industry.
China is making a "very substantial effort" to help "sustain, build, and diversify various elements of the Russian war machine," Campbell said, as quoted by Politico.
According to the U.S., Beijing and Moscow are making significant efforts to "both hide and protect certain elements of this worrisome collaboration."
The latest materials China has supplied Russia "are not dual-use capabilities," Campbell said. "These are basically being applied directly to the Russian war machine."
The U.S. is also concerned by a "number of military arenas" where Russia appears to be providing China with greater support, such as submarine operations, aeronautical design, and missile capabilities, Campbell said.
A growing collaboration between China and Russia in terms of strengthening military technologies could pose a danger to India, Australia, Japan, and South Korea, as well as the U.S., Campbell said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also singled out China during a press conference with his British counterpart David Lammy on Sept. 10, following the news that Russia had received shipments of Iranian ballistic missiles.
"Anyone who is providing assistance to Russia, whether it is direct assistance like Iran or North Korea, whether it is assistance to their defense industrial base, like China, is perpetuating the war," Blinken said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in July that alliance members agree that China is a "decisive enabler" of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing described the statement as "provocative" and claimed to have never provided lethal weapons.
Elsa Court
