Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 202

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 202nd day, we take a look at the main developments.

A police sapper sorts unexploded mine shells and weapons after return from the village of Udy, recently liberated by Ukrainian
A police sapper sorts unexploded mine shells and weapons in the town of Zolochiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]

Here is the situation as it stands on Tuesday, September 13.

Fighting

  • Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems as Ukrainian troops move to consolidate control over a large swath of northeastern territory seized back from Russia.

  • Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had retaken 6,000 square km (2,400 square miles) of Russian-held territory since the beginning of the month.

  • Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv, and many of the withdrawing Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, a senior United States military official said.

  • Vitaly Ganchev, the Russian-installed head of Moscow’s occupation administration in what remained of Russian-held territory in the Kharkiv region, acknowledged that Ukraine’s troops had broken through to the frontier.

  • Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had recaptured more than 20 towns and villages in the past day.

  • At least 1,000 people have been killed in the last six months in fighting in the city of Izyum but the real figure is probably much higher, an official said, two days after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the major supply hub.

  • The United Kingdom’s defence ministry said Russia had probably ordered the withdrawal of its troops from the entire occupied Kharkiv region west of the Oskil river.

  • Faced with one of its worst defeats in nearly seven months of war, the Kremlin insisted it would achieve its military goals and Putin maintained an air of business as usual.

Diplomacy, trade

  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was still early days in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against the Russian military, but Ukrainian forces have made “significant progress” with Western support.

  • The International Monetary Fund’s executive board reviewed a plan on Monday that would help Ukraine and other countries hit hard by Russia’s war, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency.

  • The Kremlin said it saw no prospect of peace talks and that what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine would achieve its goals.

Nuclear plant

  • Ukraine and Russia are interested in the United Nations atomic watchdog’s proposal that a protection zone be created around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said, describing it as a ceasefire.

Source: News Agencies