Ukraine: New attack on Crimea, Poland halts arms supply, Zelensky meets Biden

Ukraine Attacks Crimea Air Base

The Ukrainian military said Thursday it had attacked a Russian military airfield near the Crimean city of Chaki, in another attack by Kiev on the Moscow-annexed Ukrainian peninsula used as a base for an invasion of Ukraine.

“Ukrainian security forces carried out a coordinated strike on Wednesday night against the military airfield of the occupiers near the city of Chaki,” the army’s communications center said in a telegram, without giving further details.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it was a joint operation by SBU and naval forces using drones and Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles.

The strike comes a day after Crimea’s Russian-backed authorities responded to Ukrainian missile and drone attacks targeting areas around Sevastopol and its main port, announcing they had overturned a facility critical to the Russian navy.

According to Sevastopol Governor Mykhailo Rasvoje, Ukrainian forces targeted the city with missiles and two neighboring towns, Kacha and Verknessadovoy, with drones.

On September 13, a strike damaged two ships at a shipyard in Sevastopol and injured 24 people. In August, a particularly massive strike involving 42 drones targeted the peninsula, following a commando operation by Ukrainian forces.

The Ukrainian military has repeatedly targeted Russian ships sailing in the Black Sea or in Crimea and Russian ports along the coast.

Difficult times ahead for Ukraine, warns Kyiv

Ukrainian officials have warned that the country faces “difficult months”.

“Difficult months await us: Russia will continue to attack Ukrainian energy and essential installations,” Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of the presidential administration, said in Telegram.

As winter approaches, Ukrainian officials fear that Moscow will resume a strike campaign aimed at plunging citizens into cold and darkness, as it did last winter.

Russian missiles rain down on Ukrainian cities

Several towns and cities in Ukraine were hit by Russian rockets overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, killing two people in Kherson and wounding others in Kiev.

Residential areas were reportedly bombed in the southern city of Kherson, where two people, aged 29 and 41, were killed in a strike on an apartment building. Four others have been hospitalized, including one in a critical condition.

Seven people were injured in the capital Kyiv, including a 9-year-old girl, when Russian missiles landed, mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

Several people were injured in the city of Cherkasy after a Russian attack hit a hotel.

The eastern city of Kharkiv, close to the Russian border, was bombed along with the northwestern Lviv region.

Although Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians, experts told Euronews in June that there was a deliberate strategy behind its bombing campaign.

Poland stops arms supply to Ukraine

Amid a growing rift between the two countries over grain, Warsaw announced Wednesday evening that it would not send arms to Kiev.

“We will not transfer any more weapons to Ukraine,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on television.

“We are mainly focused on modernizing and rapidly arming the Polish army so that it becomes one of the most powerful ground forces in Europe,” he said.

Morawiecki noted that a military base in Rzeszow is still functioning normally with Western equipment being sent to Ukraine.

The prime minister did not elaborate on when Poland, one of Ukraine’s biggest arms suppliers, would stop supplies or whether the move was related to their clue about the grain.

With elections looming at home, Warsaw has imposed an embargo on Ukrainian grain to protect its own farmers, who have complained they cannot compete with its cheaper imports.

Speaking at the UN on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made barbed comments about Poland’s move, saying “some countries” were showing “solidarity” with Kiev by “indirectly supporting Russia”.

This, in turn, drew a sharp response from the Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, saying it was “wrong” and “unfair considering Poland’s support for Ukraine since the first days of the war.”

Zelenskyy in Washington to ensure continued US support

Ukraine’s number one will visit the White House on Thursday, knowing that some in the US are tiring of offering support.

Zelenskyy may want five things from Washington as his country’s counteroffensive continues

Read more below.

Zelenskyy rails against ‘criminal’ Russia at UN

The UN condemned Moscow’s “aggression” on Wednesday. Ukraine’s president challenged Russia during an extraordinary session of the Security Council.

He also lamented how Russia was “blocking” the UN with its veto power.

“Most countries in the world recognize the truth about this war,” Zelensky said, facing Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.

“This is Russia’s criminal and unjustified aggression against our nation aimed at capturing Ukraine’s territory and resources,” he said, wearing his usual khaki green fatigues.

He urged the UN to revoke Russia’s veto power on the Security Council, which it enjoys as one of the five permanent members along with China, France, the UK and the US.

“The right of veto in the hands of the aggressor is blocking the UN,” he said, adding that it was “impossible to stop” the war because of Russia’s veto and the support of other countries in the UN.

Contrasting attitudes to the war in Ukraine prevail in the global South, with many states abstaining from UN resolutions condemning Moscow and instead calling for peace talks.

After Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, the UN Wednesday’s speech was Zelenskyy’s first in person at the Security Council.