7:30pm: EU agriculture commissioner pushes for extension of Ukraine grain import ban

The EU agriculture commissioner said on Tuesday he believes the European Commission should extend a temporary ban on Ukraine imports into five neighbouring EU states as the measure helped boost exports outside the bloc.

Ukraine has become entirely dependent on alternative European Union routes, called Solidarity Lanes, for its grain exports after Russia abandoned in July a year-long deal that had allowed Ukrainian grains to be shipped safely via its Black Sea ports.

As a result, farmers in neighbouring states – Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia – have faced increased competition and bottlenecks in their own markets.

The European Commission announced “temporary preventive measures” in May that would ban sales into these five states while allowing transit to non-EU markets, mainly Africa.

“The preventive measures were effective, efficient and stabilising the markets in the five member states and also helped increase exports via Solidarity Lanes,” Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told the European Parliament.

“This is the main argument for prolongation of the preventive measures which is my strong position.”

The five countries have been pushing for an extension of the ban past its Friday expiry and Poland has repeatedly said it will unilaterally continue with the ban if the Commission does not extend it.

5:59pm: Putin hails Elon Musk as an ‘outstanding person’ and businessman

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday hailed South African-born businessman Elon Musk as an “outstanding person” and businessman whose SpaceX company had become a major player in the space transportation industry.

Putin’s public praise of Musk comes days after the US-based entrepreneur said he refused a Ukrainian request last year to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there, saying he feared complicity in a “major” act of war.

Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s far east, did not refer to the Starlink incident. But when asked about the success of Musk’s SpaceX company in launching rockets into space, he said:

“As far as private business and Elon Musk is concerned… he is undoubtedly an outstanding person. This must be recognised, and I think it is recognised all over the world.”

5:55pm: Romania builds air-raid shelters near Ukraine border

NATO member Romania announced Tuesday that it has begun building air-raid shelters for residents near the Ukraine border, after drone fragments were found there last week.

Romanian soldiers on Saturday found fragments of a drone “similar to those used by the Russian army” in the Plauru area across the border from Ukraine.

Bucharest has already beefed up measures to strengthen monitoring and airspace security following repeated Russian attacks close to its border.

Approximately 50 Romanian soldiers began building two shelters on Tuesday, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The concrete shelters are aimed at “protecting the residents” of Plauru and will be handed over to local authorities once completed, it added.

5:49pm: G7 condemns ‘sham elections’ held by Russia on Ukrainian territory

Foreign ministers from the G7 group of major industrialised countries condemned the staging of what they called “sham elections” by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories in a statement published by the British government on Tuesday.

“We … unequivocally condemn the staging of sham ‘elections’ held by Russia on sovereign Ukrainian territory in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Crimea,” the G7 statement said.

“These sham ‘elections’ will not alter our approach nor our support to Ukraine as it fights to reclaim its internationally-recognized territory.”

4:22pm: Vatican says peace envoy to Ukraine to visit Beijing this week

Pope Francis‘s peace envoy to Ukraine Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will visit Beijing this week, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The trip from Wednesday to Friday “constitutes a further step in the mission desired by the Pope to support humanitarian initiatives and the search for paths that can lead to a just peace”, the Vatican said.

Zuppi, who is head of the Italian bishops’ conference, was asked in May by the 86-year-old pope to lead a peace mission to try and stop the war.

The cardinal travelled to Kyiv in June, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky.  Three weeks later, he went to Moscow where he met the ombudswoman for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the International Court of Human Rights for the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.

In July, Zuppi met with US President Joe Biden about Vatican humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

4:06pm Denmark to donate $833 million military aid package to Ukraine

Denmark will donate a package worth 5.8 billion Danish crowns ($833 million) to Ukraine, including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, tank ammunition and anti-aircraft guns, the ministry of defence said in a statement on Tuesday.

The full amount will be distributed over three rounds – 4.3 billion this year, 1.4 billion in 2024 and 52 million in 2025, the ministry said.

“After more than a year and a half of war, we have almost exhausted our defence stocks. Therefore, we are now looking into more targeted joint procurement and international cooperation, tailored to Ukraine’s needs here and now,” foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement.

This is the twelfth and largest donation package Denmark has sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, the ministry added.

3:41pm: German foreign minister appeals to partners to boost Ukraine air defence

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would encourage its partners to deliver available air defence systems to Ukraine for this winter, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper published on Tuesday.

“We need to stretch a winter air defence shield over Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Baerbock said following her visit to Kyiv on Monday, adding that the German government planned to expand its IRIS-T support in the coming months.

2:25pm: Ukraine may take legal action over Poland’s refusal to unblock grain imports, says PM

Ukraine may take legal action after Poland unilaterally moved to extend a ban on importing its grain, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Tuesday.

“We have no intention of harming Polish farmers… But in case of violation of trade law in the interest of political populism before the elections, Ukraine will be forced to turn to WTO arbitration to obtain compensation for violation of GATT norms,” Shmygal said on social media.

2:04pm: Putin to comment on 2024 election bid by end of year

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he will only comment on whether he will run for re-election in 2024 after the ballot is officially announced later this year.

“According to the law, parliament must make a decision at the end of the year,” Putin told the audience at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Pacific port of Vladivostok. “When the elections are announced, when the date is set, then we will talk about it,” he added.

Presidential elections in Russia are officially set by parliament and held every six years. Putin has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential elections and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where political opposition has become virtually non-existent.

1:47pm: France says Kim’s visit shows Russia’s ‘isolation’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin only shows Moscow’s international isolation after the Ukraine invasion, France said on Tuesday.

“Russia is isolated to the point of being forced to turn to North Korea,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters. “This is a very strong sign of its international isolation,” she added after the United States warned the meeting could see an arms deal to support Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.

1:43pm: Sweden to consider sending fighter jets to Ukraine, state news reports

The Swedish government is considering donating Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight Russia, Swedish public radio, SR, reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

The government wants to know, among other things, how a handover would affect Sweden’s defence capabilities and how quickly Sweden could get new Gripen fighters, SR reported.

The government may formally ask the armed forces as early as Thursday to officially consider the issue, according to the report.

1:30pm: Poland refuses to lift grain embargo on Ukraine

Poland’s prime minister has said his government will not lift its embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain as scheduled on Friday because it would hurt Polish farmers.

“Poland will not allow Ukraine grain to flood us,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Regardless of the decisions of the clerks in Brussels, we will not open up our borders,” added Morawiecki, whose party is in the midst of campaigning for parliamentary elections next month. 

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, in agreement with the European Union, imposed an embargo on Ukrainian farm produce from April to prevent a glut in their home markets that would hurt their farmers, but the embargo is scheduled to expire on September 15.

11:15am: Putin says F-16 deliveries for Ukraine will ‘only prolong conflict’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Ukrainian claims that their armed forces will soon receive F-16 fighter jets from the West, adding that the aircraft would not change the course of the war.

“They are going to deliver F-16s. Will this change anything? I don’t think so. It will just prolong the conflict,” Putin said at an economic forum in Russia’s Far East.

The Russian leader claimed between 1,000 and 1,500 Russian citizens were signing voluntary contracts to join the military every day.

Over the past six or seven months, 270,000 people have signed voluntary contracts, Putin told the forum in Vladivostok. The figure was slightly lower than the 280,000 that former president Dmitry Medvedev stated earlier this month.

10:50am: Zelensky orders officials’ asset declarations to be made public

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for electronic financial declarations by officials to be available to the public “immediately”, vetoing a law that triggered an outcry across Ukraine.

Zelensky has stressed the need for transparency during the war, with several corruption scandals leading to the arrest or dismissal of public officials in recent months.

“Declarations should be open. Immediately. Not in a year. The registry should be opened now,” he said.

More than 80,000 Ukrainians last week signed a petition asking Zelensky to veto a law that would restore mandatory asset declarations for officials but keep them out of the public eye for another year.

8:45am: Train carrying North Korea’s Kim enters Russia

The train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has entered Russia ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Russian state news agency Ria Novosti reports,.

The train crossed into the Primorsky region from North Korea, the agency said, with images showing a train with dark green carriages being pulled along a track by a Russian Railways locomotive.

Kim will meet Putin later this week, according to Russian media reports. The visit is Kim’s first trip abroad in four years.

8:30am: Pro-Kremlin populist tipped to win September 30 Slovak elections

Slovak elections this month could see the EU member change course on Ukraine, with polls suggesting the next prime minister could be a Kremlin-friendly populist, AFP reports.

The Central European country was the first NATO nation to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine. But opinion surveys indicate the September 30 snap ballot will be won by the Smer-SD party, whose leader Robert Fico has made comments in line with Kremlin rhetoric.

“The war in Ukraine originated in 2014 when Ukrainian fascists were killing civilian victims of Russian nationality,” he alleged in a video, repeating inaccurate and unproven Russian claims. 

Fico has also pledged to “immediately stop all deliveries of military aid to Ukraine”, opposes Ukraine’s bid to join NATO and has condemned EU sanctions against Russia.

7:20am: Sweden to boost defence spending in line with NATO target

The Swedish government said late on Monday it wants to increase its defence budget by 28%, putting it on track to reach the military spending target 2% of gross domestic product set by the NATO alliance, which the Scandinavian country is preparing to join. 

“We are in the most serious security policy situation since the end of World War II, which requires Sweden to have a defence that is ready to protect Swedish territory,” defence minister Pal Jonson told reporters.

Unveiling a defense bill for 2024, Sweden’s centre-right coalition government said military spending would increase by a total of 27 billion kronor ($2.4 billion). Of that amount, approximately 700 million kronor ($63 million) will be spent on Sweden’s future membership of NATO.

4:06am: Moscow dismisses US warnings about North Korea’s arms sales

Russia and North Korea are not interested in statements from the United States, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told Russian news agencies, commenting on warnings from Washington that Pyongyang plans to sell arms to Russia.

“As you know, while implementing our relations with our neighbours, including North Korea, the interests of our two countries are important to us, and not warnings from Washington,” Russian agencies cited Peskov as saying. “It is the interests of our two countries that we will focus on.”

US intelligence officials have warned that Putin could focus on securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill declining reserves as he seeks to defuse Ukraine’s counteroffensive and prove Russia can grind out a long war of attrition.

1:05am: Ukraine’s Zelensky calls for renewed focus on ‘defence of the state’

President Volodymyr Zelensky and his allies urged Ukrainians on Monday to keep their focus squarely on the war effort 18 months into Russia’s invasion, an indication that authorities in Kyiv were steeling for a long campaign.

Zelensky has long called for greater focus on the war effort and pledged to intensify a crackdown on corruption as part of Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union.

The campaign prompted the dismissal of Ukraine’s defence minister last week and has also seen the detention of a business magnate who was once Zelensky’s mentor on fraud charges.

“Although today is the 565th day of this war, each and every one must be focused on the defence of the state, as in the early days,” Zelensky said in his nightly video message.

Key developments from Monday, September 11:

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday urged Berlin to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles during a surprise visit to Kyiv by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Officials in Kyiv said Ukrainian troops had regained more territory on the eastern and southern fronts in their military counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Ukraine also claimed its forces had regained control of several offshore drilling platforms close to Crimea, which Russian forces took over in 2015.

Read yesterday’s blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)