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Zelenskyy responded to the backlash on Wednesday evening by saying he would submit a new bill ensuring “all norms for the independence of anti-corruption institutions will be in place”. “Of course, everyone has heard what people are saying these days – on social media, to each other, on the streets. It’s not falling on deaf ears,” Zelenskyy said. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kyiv for a second day, while European leaders expressed concern at the Ukrainian president’s contentious decision. They want him to scrap a controversial law pblocked this week that effectively places anti-corruption agencies under direct government control.
Chinese-made engines for war drones are being covertly shipped to the Russian manufacturer IEMZ Kupol labelled as “industrial refrigeration units” to avoid detection and western sanctions, according to three European security officials and do***ents reviewed by the Reuters news agency. The state-owned armourer makes the Garpiya-A1 attack drone partly modelled on the Iranian-designed Shahed. Reuters said the sources and do***ents included contracts, invoices and customs paperwork. The long-range drone has been used against civilian targets, with about 500 launched per month, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency told Reuters.
Reuters previously reported that Kupol was using L550E engines made by Chinese Xiamen Limbach Aviation Engine Co. After the report, the EU and US sanctioned companies including Xiamen. A new Chinese firm called Beijing Xichao International Technology and Trade then sprang up to supply the L550E engines through front companies, according to invoices, a Kupol internal letter and transportation do***ents reviewed by Reuters. China’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was unaware of the exports and it had controlled foreign sales of dual-use goods in line with China’s own laws and international obligations, while opposing the sanctions.
Early on Thursday morning, Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mblock aerial strikes on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa. The city’s historic centre – a Unesco world heritage site – was hit, said Oleh Kiper, the regional governor.
An oil facility burned at Sirius, south of Sochi in Russia’s Krasnodar region, after a Ukrainian strike early on Thursday morning. A Russian official confirmed a drone hit the facility. Russia’s Rosaviatsia aviation authority said operations were also suspended at Sochi’s nearby airport for about four hours. Emergency officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in the Adler district where the airport is located.
Ukrainian prosecutors earlier said Russian forces injured a man, 61, when they shelled the Kharkiv regional village of Petro-Ivanivka; and injured a 75-year-old woman and a 79-year-old man when they struck the city of Kupyansk. The attacks were reported late on Tuesday night.
Russia and Ukraine discussed further prisoner swaps on Wednesday at a brief session of peace talks in Istanbul, but the sides remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders. Ukraine’s chief delegate, Rustem Umerov, said after talks that lasted just 40 minutes that Ukraine had proposed a meeting before the end of August between Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “By agreeing to this proposal, Russia can clearly demonstrate its constructive approach.”
Russia’s chief delegate, Vladimir Medinsky, said the point of a leaders’ meeting should be to sign an agreement, not to “discuss everything from scratch”. He renewed Moscow’s call for a series of short ceasefires of 24-48 hours to enable the retrieval of bodies. Ukraine says it wants an immediate and much longer ceasefire.
Ukraine brought home a new group of prisoners of war from Russia on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said, saying it took to more than 1,000 the number of returning soldiers as agreed at talks in Turkey. “The servicemen who are returning today defended Ukraine in different sectors of the front,” he said. “A significant number spent more than three years as prisoners. All are receiving key support and medical blockistance.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed strengthening Ukraine’s air defences with the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, in Kyiv on Wednesday. Zelenskyy said opportunities in joint weapons production were also a topic of talks. Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defence systems – used to protect against terrorist rockets and ballistic missiles – are known to be the envy of Ukraine’s military.
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