🔴 Live: Zelensky to attend UN Security Council session on Ukraine

10:57am: Poland may ban more Ukrainian food products if grain row escalates, says PM

Poland could slap import bans on more Ukrainian food products, the prime minister said on Wednesday, as he warned Kyiv against escalating a row over grain imports.

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since Russia invaded the country in 2022, but the countries are now embroiled in a deepening conflict over agricultural imports since Poland, along with Hungary and Slovakia, extended a ban on grain imports from their war-torn neighbour.

“I warn the Ukrainian authorities, because if they escalate this conflict in this way, we will add more products to the ban on import into the territory of the Republic of Poland,” he told Polsat news.

A World Trade Organization spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that Ukraine had taken the first step in a trade dispute by filing a complaint to the global trade body. Kyiv previously said the complaint targeted Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

7:38am: Zelensky to attend UN Security Council session on Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will on Wednesday take part in a special session on Ukraine at the Security Council, where Russia is a permanent member wielding a veto over any binding actions.

The meeting will focus on the principles of the UN Charter, which require every country to respect others’ sovereignty and territorial integrity. It could create the unique spectacle of placing Zelensky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the same room.

Asked about the meeting during a visit to a hospital in New York that has treated Ukrainian soldiers, Zelensky said on Monday that the United Nations still provides “a place for Russian terrorists”.

For the first time in years, US President Joe Biden will be the only leader from the five powerful veto-wielding nations on the UN Security Council attending in person. Leaders from Russia, China, France and the UK have not made plans to travel to New York.

7:17am: Ukraine says 17 of 24 Russian drones destroyed overnight

Ukraine’s armed forces said Wednesday they had destroyed 17 out of 24 Russian drones launched overnight, while an oil refinery was hit, according to a regional governor.

During the night, Russia “attacked Ukraine with 24 kamikaze drones of the Shahed-136/131 type, 17 of which were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence,” the General Staff said in a daily update.

Information regarding the consequences of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks was still being clarified, it added.

6:52am: Russia hits Ukrainian Kremenchuk oil refinery in drone attack, governor says

Russia hit the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the central Poltava region of Ukraine in an overnight drone attack causing a fire, governor Dmytro Lunin said on Wednesday.

“Tonight the Russians repeatedly attacked Poltava region. Our anti-aircraft defence worked well against enemy anti-aircraft missiles,” he said on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, there is a hit at the oil refinery in Kremenchuk. A fire started. All relevant services are on site. The work of the plant is temporarily suspended.”

Lunin said that there was currently no information about casualties.

5:29am: Russian warship crew carries out firing drills at Baltic Sea, says Russia’s defence ministry

Russia’s Stoikiy corvette of the Baltic Fleet carried out firing drills at mock targets in the Baltic Sea, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The crew of the small warship conducted a series of scheduled exercises, firing at surface and air targets in a “difficult jamming environment” with the use of electronic countermeasures of a possible enemy, the ministry said.

“The sea range of the Baltic Fleet, where the exercise took place, was declared temporarily dangerous for civil shipping and aviation flights,” the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging platform.

It was not clear when the drills took place.

The Baltic Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy is headquartered in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, both NATO member states, on the Baltic Sea.

4:08am: Ukraine launches drone attacks on Belgorod, Oryol regions, says Russia’s defence ministry

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed Ukraine-launched drones over the Belgorod and Oryol regions late on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said, with local officials saying that there was no destruction or casualties.

The ministry, in posts on the Telegram messaging platform, said that two drones were destroyed over the Oryol region in Russia’s southwest and one over the Belgorod region, which border with Ukraine.

Governors of both of the regions said there was no destruction or casualties. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

3:40am: Ukraine’s first lady urges UN to help bring ‘abducted’ children home

Ukraine’s first lady urged world leaders on Tuesday to help return Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia, where she said they are being indoctrinated and deprived of their national identity.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Olena Zelenska said that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been transferred by force or deported to Russia or occupied territories. So far, only 386 have been brought back.

In Russia, “they were told that their parents don’t need them, that their country doesn’t need them, that nobody is waiting for them”, Zelenska said.

“The abducted children were told that they are no longer Ukrainian children, that they are Russian children.”

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. Another warrant was issued for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, on similar charges.

Russia denies the allegations, saying instead it has saved Ukrainian children from the horrors of the war.

Key developments from Tuesday, September 19:

US President Joe Biden appealed to world leaders to stand with Kyiv in an address to the UN General Assembly in New York. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his address to accuse Russia of carrying out “genocide” by abducting Ukrainian children and invite members of the global body to help Ukraine prepare a Global Peace Summit.

Ukraine said the International Court of Justice should impose reparations on Russia for its “war of annihilation”, arguing that international law itself was at stake. “Russia is not above the law. It must be held accountable,” Ukraine’s lead speaker Anton Korynevych told the court, sitting just a few metres from his Russian opponents in the Peace Palace in The Hague.

The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was rocked by blasts with local officials saying the Russian air attack caused a major fire at an industrial warehouse.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters and AP)