🔴 Live: Ukraine shoots down 16 of 30 Russian drones in Cherkasy region

Issued on: 01/10/2023 – 11:35

3 min

11:15am: British training troops in Ukraine could be legitimate targets: Medvedev

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.

Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, and has become an increasingly hawkish and anti-Western figure in Russian politics, said such steps by the West were bringing World War Three closer.

In a post on Telegram, Medvedev first directed his ire towards recently appointed British Defence Minister Grant Shapps, who said in a newspaper interview that London wants to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries as at present.

10:34am: Five cargo vessels heading for Ukrainian Black Sea ports: MarineTraffic

Five new ships are on their way to Ukrainian sea ports using a new corridor opened to resume predominantly agricultural exports, an alternative arrangement to the Black Sea grain deal blocked by Russia, the MarineTraffic database showed on Sunday.

The MarineTraffic database showed earlier on Sunday that three cargo vessels left Ukrainian Black Sea ports after loading, the latest to sail since Kyiv set up a temporary “humanitarian corridor” after Russia quit a deal allowing safe passage for Ukraine exports.

The database identified the five vessels heading towards the ports as Olga, Ida, Forza Doria, New Legacy and Danny Boy.

9:11am: Slovak populists opposed to Ukraine aid win election

A populist party that wants to stop military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU and NATO has won Slovakia’s election, results showed on Sunday.

The Smer-SD party led by former prime minister Robert Fico scored 23.3 percent, beating the centrist Progressive Slovakia on 17 percent, with almost all votes counted.

8:15am: Ukraine shoots down 16 of 30 Russian drones

Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down 16 out of around 30 drones that Russia launched on Ukraine’s territory overnight, according to Ukrainian Air Forces.

It said on Telegram messaging app that drones were launched from the southern, southeastern and northern directions.

Authorities said the central Ukrainian Cherkasy region was under the attack.

“At night, the enemy massively attacked our Cherkasy region with attack drones. Unfortunately, there were hits on industrial infrastructure in (the city of) Uman,” Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.

“As a result, fires broke out in warehouses. In particular, where grain was stored,” he said, adding that one person was injured.

Key developments from Saturday, September 30:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday opened Kyiv’s first International Defence Industries Forum in a bid to attract more manufacturers to build arms in Ukraine.

Zelensky said Kyiv aims to develop defence production in cooperation with global industry leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the anniversary of the annexation of Ukrainian regions. In an address to mark the first anniversary of the annexation, Putin insisted that it was carried out “in full accordance with international norms”. He also claimed that residents of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions had again expressed their desire to be part of Russia in local elections earlier this month.

The West has denounced both the referendum votes carried out last year and the recent ballots as a sham. The votes were held as Russian authorities attempted to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)