Ukraine updates: UN body warns Russia on power grid strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on September 26 to discuss his victory plan for the war against Russia, the White House reported.

He also plans to meet with Donald Trump, according to the Ukrainian presidency, although the former president's team has not yet confirmed the meeting.

"The president and vice president will emphasize their unshakeable commitment to stand with Ukraine until it prevails in this war," Biden’s Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement.

Before his meetings in Washington, Zelenskyy will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He is also scheduled to meet with US arms manufacturers and energy companies, the presidency said.

Germany is planning a new military aid package for Ukrainevalued at €397 million ($442.64 million), according to a letter sent from the German Ministry of Finance to the Bundestag (Germany's lower house of parliament) and seen by various news agencies.

"In view of the continuously deteriorating military situation in Ukraine, there is a serious risk that Ukraine, without significantly increased material support, could be defeated in its defense campaign," the letter read.

The package includes ammunition for anti-aircraft tanks, combat vehicles, drones, and spare parts for previously delivered systems.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pushed for the release of these funds after warning of Ukraine's urgent need for more ammunition and spare parts.

These measures were the result of secret negotiations between the Ministries of Finance and Defense in response to growing demands for military support to Ukraine.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for the lifting of restrictions that prevent Ukraine from using Western-supplied weapons in striking legitimate military targets in Russia.

The resolution was adopted with 425 votes in favor, 131 against and 63 abstentions. 

MEPs also expressed concern over the decrease in military aid from EU countries. They called on member states to meet their March 2023 commitment to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine. They also urged the acceleration of weapons' delivery, including Taurus missiles.

Representatives called as well for tougher sanctions against Russia, Belarus, and their allies, including Iran and North Korea.

The resolution also supports the confiscation of Russian state assets to compensate Ukraine for the damage caused by the war.

Germany's government says it will funnel almost €400 million ($445 million) in extra military aid to Ukraine this year, according to news agency reports.

The money is needed to "fulfil the German government's support commitments to the Ukrainian armed forces," a letter from the Finance Ministry to the parliamentary Budget Committee was reported as saying.

Advances by Russian forces in Ukraine have led to "heavy material losses" on the battlefield, the AFP and DPA news agencies cited the letter as saying. 

It added that there was a "serious risk... that Ukraine will succumb in its defense struggle without a significant increase in support."

The letter urged that funds be made available to provide drones and air defense equipment, among other items, "without delay" so as to "have an impact on the battlefield in Ukraine during the remainder of 2024."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that she planned to travel to Kyiv on Friday. 

Von der Leyen was speaking at a joint press conference with the International Energy Agency, discussing contingencies to help Ukraine meet electricity production shortfalls during the coming winter. 

"I will be traveling to Kyiv to discuss these matters in person with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy tomorrow in our efforts to help Ukraine," she said. 

Von der Leyen said that €160 million (roughly $180 million) in proceeds from frozen Russian assets would be allocated to meeting Ukraine's humanitarian needs over the winter. 

She also said a fuel power plant in Lithuania was being dismantled and would be rebuilt in Ukraine. 

"We aim to restore 3.5 gigawatts of capacity, which is 15% of Ukraine's needs," she said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday that the coming winter would provide the "sternest test yet" for Ukraine's battered energy infrastructure. 

"Ukraine's energy system has made it through the past two winters," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at a press conference releasing a new report. "But this winter will be, by far, its sternest test yet."

The IEA report said that in 2022 and 2023, "about half of Ukraine's power generation capacity was either occupied by Russian forces, destroyed or damaged, and approximately half of the large network substations were damaged by missiles and drones." 

It said that, given Ukraine's power generation capacity had fallen by two-thirds since Russia's full-scale invasion, there was a "yawning gap between available electricity supply and peak demand."  

The international body called on European countries to expedite the delivery of equipment and parts to repair or rebuild damaged facilities and called for improved measures to protect them from aerial attacks. 

"Strains that are bearable during the summer months may become unbearable when temperatures start to fall and supplies of heat and water falter," the report warned. It estimated a possible peak power demand in winter in Ukraine of approaching 19 gigawatts and noted how the country regularly failed to meet peak summer demand of 12 gigawatts this year. 

It estimated the cost of necessary repairs and upgrades to Ukraine's power generation facilities at around $30 billion (roughly €27 billion). 

The IEA also called on the EU to increase its electricity and gas export capabilities to Ukraine. 

Russia's airstrikes targeting Ukraine's electricity infrastructure likely violate international law, a UN monitoring body in Ukraine said on Thursday, with winter fast approaching in the region. 

During its two-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion, Russia has fired hundreds of projectiles and drones at Ukrainian electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities. Russia has launched concentrated waves of attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of each winter, with massive strikes on electricity production and transmission facilities in October 2022. 

Ukrainian cities have frequently been left without power, in extreme cases for days or weeks on end, and various electricity-saving measures are often used around the country. Emergency power generation solutions like diesel generators are also common on city streets. 

The UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) focused its report on nine waves of attacks between March and August this year. 

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine's civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law," it said. 

HRMMU said it had visited seven power plants either damaged or destroyed by attacks, as well as 28 affected communities. 

Ukraine has called the targeting of its power grid a war crime, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers connected to the bombing of civilian power infrastructure. 

Russia, meanwhile, argues that power infrastructure is a legitimate military target and has dismissed the charges against its officials. 

The HRMMU said the attacks did not just risk compromising electricity supply, but could have knock-on effects for water supply, sewage and sanitation, heating and hot water provision, public health, education and the wider economy. 

The report cited experts as saying that Ukrainians should anticipate typical power outages of between four and 18 hours per day this winter. 

Ukraine's national grid operator, Ukrenergo, reported a temporary overnight power cut in the northeastern Sumy region early on Thursday following a Russian attack on energy infrastructure.  

Russian forces have retaken two villages near the border to Ukraine in Russia's Kursk region, a Russian commander has said.

Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the southern part of the western Russian region, which lies on the border to northern Ukraine, on August 6, gaining a meaningful sliver of territory. 

Russia recently launched a counteroffensive, trying to push back into the area Ukraine took control of from the western side, moving east.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Chechnya's Akhmat special forces and deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's military-political department, said Russian troops had retaken Niolayevo-Dar'ino and Dar'ino, a pair of neighboring villages on the Ukrainian border.

"Our entire front has moved forward," Alaudinov said.

His claim would also suggest that Russian forces had safely crossed the small river lying just to the west of those settlements.

The advance would provide Russia with a better platform to try to push further east, first towards the town of Sverdlikovo, which Ukrainian forces have been using as a logistical center, and then potentially on toward the larger settlement of Sudzha.

A Ukrainian military spokesman had told the AFP news agency a day earlier that the Russian counteroffensive in Kursk had been "stopped." Another official, however, later said that it was too early to make this claim and that Russian attempts to advance were still ongoing. 

Ukraine's air force said early on Thursday that it had shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles launched by Russia during overnight attacks.

It said that air defenses were activated in nine regions across the country.

The regional governor of the Kharkiv Oblast, Oleh Syniehubov, said that six people were wounded in a Russian attack on the eastern town of Kupyansk, close to the front lines.

He said on Telegram that civilian infrastructure, a school and a kindergarten, and 10 apartment buildings were damaged in the city of Kharkiv. 

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, said that the air force had shot down one missile over that territory and that nobody was hurt. 

Ihor Taburets, governor of the Cherkasy region, reported damage to an educational facility there.

msh/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)