By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on September 14. See below for the latest updates.
There have been further reports of blasts in Crimea overnight, with Russian authorities in the occupied peninsula closing a key bridge Thursday morning.
All traffic was suspended on the Crimean bridge, linking the Russian-occupied peninsula with the Russian mainland, for four hours this morning before it was reopened. No reason was given for the closure.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 11 Ukrainian drones over Crimea this morning, although it’s unknown whether it was connected to the bridge closure.
Following reports of blasts near the Crimean town of Yevpatoriya in the early hours of Thursday, Ukraine confirmed it had targeted the site of a Russian missile “surface-to-air” missile system.
The latest incident in Crimea follows a largescale attack on a shipyard in Sevastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, on Wednesday. Ukraine said it had seriously damaged two Russian military vessels and port infrastructure.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was asked Wednesday if Russia will win the war against Ukraine. “We have no other options,” Shoigu said.
More than 500 children have died since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian office of the prosecutor general, as posted on Telegram.
“According to the official information of juvenile prosecutors, 504 children were killed and more than 1,123 were injured of various degrees of severity,” the office reported. The figures date from Feb. 24, 2022, to Sept. 14, 2023.
Most of the children affected were in the regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv, according to the office.
The platform “Children of War” is attempting to keep track of child fatalities following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but highlights it is “impossible to establish the exact number of injured children due to active hostilities and the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine.”
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Russia’s foreign ministry has declared two U.S. embassy staff “persona non grata” for carrying out “illegal activities.”
The foreign ministry’s statement, translated by NBC, said that J. Sillin and D. Bernstein had maintained contact with Russian citizen R. Shonov, who is “accused of ‘confidential cooperation’ with a foreign state, who in return for financial compensation was given tasks aimed at harming the national security of the Russian Federation.”
CNBC is unable to independently verify the information provided by the Russian ministry.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
South Korea’s National Security Council warned Russia and North Korea that there will be consequences to any violations of UN Security Council resolutions.
“[The] South Korean government will make sure that North Korea and Russia will pay the price for any actions that threaten the national security of South Korea at the cost of violating the UN Security council’s resolutions,” the presidential office said in a statement translated by NBC News.
South Korea’s National Security Council said that “it is a very serious situation that Russia and North Korea have discussed various kinds of military cooperation.”
It urged North Korea and Russia “to abide by the obligations that prohibit military cooporation and arms deals laid out by the UN Security Council’s resolutions and various sanctions.”
Russia and North Korea deny that they have held arms negotiations, despite Western concern that Moscow is looking to Pyongyang to supply it with weaponry for use against Ukraine.
Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, said it would look to deepen military cooperation with Pyongyang, although Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged there were “limitations” to doing so.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged gifts Thursday as their summit came to an end and Putin flew back to Moscow.
Kim reportedly gave Putin a rifle while the Russian leader gave Kim, who is due to stay on in Russia for a few more days, a glove from a space suit.
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the summit, which saw Putin and Kim vow to deepen bilateral ties and “mutually beneficial cooperation,” had been “constructive” from Moscow’s point of view.
Western allies fear Russia and North Korea discussed arms and an exchange of weapons for military technology. Russia and North Korea have previously denied they are discussing arms deals but Peskov said the allies would “develop ties in all possible areas” when asked about military cooperation between the countries.
Kim is due to visit military and civilian aviation factories in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet in Vladivostok before traveling back to the economically-isolated and repressive North Korea.
Peskov said Putin “gratefully” accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea, noting that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would travel to Pyongyang in October.
— Holly Ellyatt
Ukraine has confirmed it targeted a Russian surface-to-air missile system in Crimea Thursday, following reports of blasts in the early hours.
“In the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck at the location of the enemy missile “surface-to-air” systems nearby Yevpatoriya in temporary occupied Crimea,” Ukraine’s armed forces’ strategic communications directorate said on Telegram.
Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform cited unnamed sources earlier that said the Ukrainian navy and military counterintelligence unit of Ukraine’s security service had “destroyed a Triumf air defense system in Yevpatoria, temporarily occupied Crimea, overnight into Thursday.”
The attack destroyed Russia’s Triumf air defense system worth $1.2 billion, the sources said.
News agency Interfax-Ukraine said an SBU source told it that “drones and Neptune missiles worked effectively on the target.”
“First, the SBU drones hit the ‘eyes’ of the complex – radars and antennas, and after disabling the radar stations of the Navy units, two Neptune cruise missiles hit the S300/400 Triumf launch complexes,” the SBU source said, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information in the reports.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s ambassador to the U.S Anatoly Antonov lambasted Western concern and criticism over President Vladimir Putin’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the U.S. has no right to interfere.
“The U.S. has no right to lecture us how to live,” Antonov said on Facebook in response to a media question on the visit that took place in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday.
“Russia being a responsible nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council can independently decide who to cooperate with,” he said.
Western allies have expressed consternation at the latest meeting between Putin and Kim, with the White House expressing concern that the private talks would focus on an exchange of arms and technology for military purposes. Russia and North Korea denied the allegations.
Yesterday, Putin said talks touched upon possibilities for “military cooperation” between the two countries but acknowledged there were limits to that element of the relationship. Russia is a permanent member of U.N. Security Council that has passed resolutions sanctioning North Korea for its missile testing and nuclear program.
Antonov said in comments posted on Facebook that “attempts to label the productive and mutually beneficial Russian-North Korean dialogue as a driver of instability are not only surprising but also repulsive.”
“How should we then regard the White House’s efforts to build up coalitions in Asia Pacific and expand military drills near the Korean Peninsula, with deploying U.S. strategic assets?” he said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Ukraine destroyed a Russian air defence system near the town of Yevpatoriya in annexed Crimea in an overnight drone and missile attack conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine and navy on Thursday, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.
Russia said its air defences shot down 11 attack drones overnight over Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts.
The Ukrainian source said drones blinded a Russian “Triumf” air defense system by attacking its radar and antenna. The navy then fired two Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles at the system’s launch complexes, the source said.
The Neptune anti-ship missile has been modified to attack ground targets, military analysts say.
The attack comes a day after Ukraine launched missiles at the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet, in an attack that signalled Ukraine’s growing missile capabilities.
— Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reportedly impressed with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s limousine Thursday, having been shown its interior as the leaders met yesterday.
State television footage showed Putin inviting Kim to see inside his Russian-made limousine on Wednesday after the leaders had inspected the Vostochny space rocket launch facility.
Putin gestured to Kim to get into his presidential Aurus Senat limousine parked outside the complex, walking round to the other side of the vehicle to get in. A smiling Kim was seen before the limo left the facility.
The Aurus Senat is an armored luxury vehicle, developed in Russia over the last decade. Putin was first seen in the limousine in 2018.
Kim reportedly drove to the space center in Maybach limousine, brought on board his armored train in which he traveled from Pyongyang. Kim is known to have a penchant for cars and it’s believed his collection has been smuggled into the country, given sanctions prohibiting luxury goods from being exported to North Korea.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s influence over Ukraine’s energy supply has waned dramatically as Kyiv has looked to diversify its supply during the war, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday.
In its latest intelligence update on Twitter, the ministry noted that Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator Energoatom announced last weekend that it had a successfully refuelled a reactor at its Rivne Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) using Western-produced nuclear fuel assemblies.
The announcement was significant, the U.K. said, given that all of Ukraine’s NPPs have reactors based on Soviet designs and, until February 2022 when Russia invaded, it relied on its neighbor for nuclear fuel.
“Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has accelerated plans to diversify its supply,” the ministry said, noting that “Energoatom’s success in sourcing and installing Western fuel is a major waypoint in Ukraine’s long-term decoupling from Russia, whose influence over Ukraine’s energy supply is severely diminished.”
Nuclear energy supplies approximately half of Ukraine’s electricity.
— Holly Ellyatt
Traffic was suspended for four hours across the Crimea bridge this morning, Russian news agencies reported, after an overnight drone attack.
No reason was given for the suspension and traffic has now resumed, RIA Novosti reported. The bridge, which connects the occupied peninsula with the Russian mainland, has been attacked several times during the war.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said earlier that 11 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over Crimea, although it’s unknown whether it was connected to the bridge closure. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian news out Suspilne reported that several powerful explosions were heard in Yevpatoria, home to a number of Russian military units, in Crimea.
Local residents reported that a group of attack unmanned aerial vehicles was involved and that an air defense system was likely hit in the area, according to news agency Ukrinform.
The latest incident follows what’s seen as the biggest attack on the home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war. The fleet, based in Sevastopol in Crimea, was targeted yesterday. Ukraine said it seriously damaged two Russian military vessels and port infrastructure in Sevastopol.
Ukrainian military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters that a large landing vessel and submarine had been hit in the strike, and later described the damage as “considerable” in televised comments. Russia said Ukraine had attacked the shipyard with cruise missiles and uncrewed speedboats. It downplayed the extent of the damage, however.
— Holly Ellyatt
The grain export potential from ports on the Danube has been reduced by almost 500,000 metric tons per month, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister.
Attacks on major ports in places such as Izmail and Reni have destroyed crucial routes for agricultural exports.
Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it “threatens food shortages in countries that depend on Ukrainian agricultural products.”
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that “there will be results” and “the enemy will feel them,” according to a Google-translated Telegram post on his official channel.
Zelenskyy didn’t provide any further details from the cabinet meeting.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow has “no other options” but to win the war in Ukraine, in an interview with state media outlet Russia-1, as translated by NBC.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Kim Jong Un is set to visit factories in far eastern Russia, President Vladimir Putin said, according to a translated Telegram post by Russian state media site RIA.
The factories in Komsomolsk-on-Amur produce civilian and military equipment, the report said.
The North Korean leader will also visit Vladivostok, a city known for its historical military importance. No timeline was given for the visit.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Putin and Kim have praised their countries’ longstanding alliance as they met in Russia’s Far East on Wednesday.
Putin has promoted Russia’s longstanding alliance with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in a bit of a 20th-century history lesson on Soviet-North Korean relations.
Putin noted that the Soviet Union was the first state to recognize the DPRK “as the sole legitimate authority in all of Korea” in 1948.
He also noted that the USSR had helped the DPRK during the three-year Korean War that started in 1950. Given their shared Communist ideology, Soviet forces supported the Korean People’s Army during the war.
Kim, meanwhile, has praised bilateral ties with Russia, saying the relationship with Moscow is a priority for Pyongyang. He said Russia is now defending its sovereignty and that the DPRK has always supported decisions by the Russian Federation.
Having thanked Putin for inviting him to Russia, Kim said their talks can cover a variety of issues, from the economy to cultural ties.
— Holly Ellyatt, Grigorii Chipurin
Kim and Putin talks end after two hours, leaders hail alliance stretching back to Cold War era
