🔴 Live: Russia should not count on EU’s Ukraine ‘fatigue’, says French FM

1:43pm: German military exports to Ukraine surge fourfold in 2023

German exports of military equipment to Ukraine grew more than fourfold so far this year, making Kyiv the main recipient of German arms, the economy ministry said on Monday.

Ukraine accounted for €3.3 billion out of Germany’s total value of authorised military exports of €8.76 billion in the first nine months of the year.

By contrast, for the same period last year, €775 million worth of equipment had been approved for Ukraine.

Germany has repeatedly promised to support Ukraine for as long as necessary following the Russian invasion in February 2022, which prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to speak of a turning point in Germany’s attitude towards defence.

1:27pm: German FM Baerbock urges ‘winter projection plan’ for Ukraine

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday called for the creation of a strategy to insulate Ukraine from the fallout of a campaign of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid this winter.

“Ukraine needs a winter protection plan of air defence, generators and a strengthening of the energy supply. We saw last winter the brutal way in which the Russian president wages this war, with targeted attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants,” she told reporters in Kyiv.

12:31pm: Russia says fatigue over Ukraine war will grow

The Kremlin said on Monday it believed that fatigue with the Ukraine war would grow in the United States and Europe, but that Washington would continue to be directly involved in the conflict.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting on a US Congress decision to pass a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid for Kyiv.

Peskov said Russia forecast that war fatigue in the West would lead to what he called a fragmentation of opinion on the Ukraine conflict.

12:22pm: Ukraine grain exports have dropped 25.8% so far in 2023/24, ministry says

Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to 6.68 million metric tons so far in the 2023/24 July-June season from 8.99 million tons in the same period of 2022/23, agriculture ministry data showed on Monday.

Only 7,000 tons of grain were exported on the first day of October 2023 compared with 297,000 tons a year ago. The ministry gave no explanation for the fall.

Traders and agricultural unions have said that Ukrainian Black Sea ports being blocked and Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River are the main reasons for lower exports.

Ukraine can export limited volumes through small river ports on the Danube and via its western land border with the European Union.

11:15am: Russia says US position on Ukraine not changing after funding bill

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Monday said a stopgap funding bill passed by the US Congress that omitted aid to Ukraine would change nothing, describing Washington’s decision as a “show for the public”, the RIA news agency reported.

Ryabkov also said that US-produced missiles previously covered by the now defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty could appear in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Washington withdrew from the treaty in 2019. Russia has since said it will not deploy such weapons provided that Washington does not.

10:47am: Russia should not count on EU’s Ukraine ‘fatigue’, French FM says

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Monday a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv was a signal to Moscow of the bloc’s determination to support Ukraine over the long term.

“It is a demonstration of our resolute and lasting support for Ukraine, until it can win. It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come,” she told reporters in Kyiv.

10:13am: Ukraine says US support for Kyiv is not weakening

Ukraine’s top diplomat said on Monday Washington’s support for Kyiv was not weakening, and played down the significance of a stopgap funding bill passed by US Congress that omitted aid to Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv was in talks with Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, and that the drama around the stopgap bill that averted a government shutdown on Saturday was an “incident” rather than something systemic.

“We don’t feel that the US support has been shattered … because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine,” he said. “It’s about the stability and predictability of the world and therefore I believe we will be able to find necessary solutions.”

 “We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress – Republicans and Democrats. And against the background of the potential shutdown, the decision was taken as it was. But we are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not (get) repeat(ed) again under any circumstances,” he said.

9:41am: Ukraine says respects ‘choice of Slovak people’ after populists win vote

Ukraine said Monday it respected the “choice of the Slovak people”, as populists opposed to military aid for Kyiv won a parliamentary election in the neighbouring EU member country.

“We respect the choice of the Slovak people,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “But it is too early to say how the election result will affect Slovakia’s position,” he said, adding that Kyiv can “draw the first conclusions” only after a coalition has been formed in Slovakia.

9:06am: EU convenes ‘historic meeting’ of all foreign ministers in Kyiv, Borrell says

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday announced that all of the bloc’s foreign ministers were for the first time meeting beyond its borders, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

“We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU. We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people,” Borrell said in a statement on social media.

00:22am: Biden presses Republicans on Ukraine, says ‘brinkmanship has to end’

US President Joe Biden on Sunday pressed congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship that nearly led to a government shutdown.

Biden spoke after Congress passed a stopgap bill on Saturday that extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a shutdown that would have left most of the federal government’s more than 4 million employees without a paycheck and cut a wide range of services.

The bill, which passed with broad Democratic and Republican support, sparked hardline Republican Matt Gaetz to pledge to oust the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.

The bill, which lasts through Nov. 17, did not include aid for Kyiv. The United States has been a major supporter of Ukraine after Russia invaded it last year, and Biden has sought to rally the world, as well as his own country, to maintain that support.

Key developments from Sunday, October 1:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s troops on the country’s Territorial Defence Forces Day for their “courage and strength”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down 16 out of around 30 drones that Russia launched on Ukraine’s Cherkasy region overnight, Ukrainian Air Forces said on Sunday.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday suggested that British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces, as would German factories producing Taurus missiles should they supply Kyiv.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Ukraine needed more military aid and he promised ongoing EU support.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)