Russia-Ukraine latest updates: Ukraine makes NATO membership bid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that his country’s military achieved “significant results” in the east and mentioned Lyman, a Russian-occupied stronghold that pro-Moscow forces are struggling to keep control of.

Lyman has been at the centre of renewed fighting since Ukraine routed Russian forces in the nearby Kharkiv region in a lightning counteroffensive this month.

“We have significant results in the east of our country … everyone has heard what is happening in Lyman,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.

“These are steps that mean a lot to us,” he added, but did not give details.

The head of the Russian-backed administration in the Donetsk region said earlier on Friday that Lyman was “semi-encircled” by the Ukrainian army and that news from the front was “alarming”.

Russia has vetoed a Western bid at the UN Security Council to condemn its annexations of Ukrainian territory, with China and India abstaining.

Western powers will now seek to pressure Russia through a vote of the General Assembly, which includes all countries, AFP reported.

The United States pushed through a resolution co-sponsored with Ukraine hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would take over areas of Ukraine seized in the invasion following Kremlin-organized referendums.

“This is exactly what the Security Council was made to do. Defend sovereignty, protect territorial integrity, promote peace and security,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said at the start of the meeting.

Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, complained that it was unprecedented to seek condemnation of a permanent member of the Security Council.

“Do you seriously expect Russia to consider and support such a draft? And if not, then it turns out that you are intentionally pushing us to use the right of the veto in order to then wax lyrical about the fact that Russia abuses this right,” Nebenzia said.

The resolution would have condemned the “illegal” referendums held in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and call on all states not to recognise any changes to Ukraine’s borders.

It also would have called on Russia to withdraw troops immediately from Ukraine, ending an invasion launched on February 24.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Friday said that the US would seek a vote at the General Assembly.

“If Russia blocks the Security Council from carrying out its responsibilities, we’ll ask the UN General Assembly, where every country has a vote, to make clear that it’s unacceptable to redraw borders by force,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.

“Every country has a stake in condemning these steps,” he said.

The US Congress has approved $12.3bn in aid to help Ukraine battle its invasion by Russia as part of a stopgap spending bill that averts a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline.

The package includes $3bn for arms, supplies and salaries for Ukraine’s military and authorises President Joe Biden to direct the Pentagon to transfer $3.7bn in weapons and other hardware to Ukraine.

The so-called “continuing resolution”, which passed by 230 votes to 201, with 10 Republicans joining the Democrats, also provides $4.5bn for Kyiv to keep the country’s finances stable and keep the government running.

The allocation, which was approved just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed four Moscow-occupied Ukrainian regions, takes the US contribution to the war effort to $65bn.

“This new grant assistance is a further demonstration of US confidence in Ukraine and will support critical government operations and provide relief to Ukrainian people suffering under Russia’s brutal war,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement.

“Critically, this funding will also help bolster Ukraine’s valiant resistance to Putin’s illegal war of aggression. We call on fellow donors to not only speed up their existing disbursements to Ukraine, but also to increase their scale of assistance.”

Ukraine is facing significant risks to energy supplies this winter as demand will grow while power generation may be disrupted by war, the director of the EU energy watchdog has warned.

Ukraine’s current power production appears to be sufficient to cover its needs after a fall in industrial activity cut consumption by 30 percent, said Artur Lorkowski, director of the Energy Community (EC) Secretariat.

“But I expect the situation may change dramatically, because once the heating season starts consumption will grow,” Lorkowski told Reuters.

He said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is currently held by Russia, was cut off from the grid, while some thermal power plants were located in combat areas.

But if the Zaporizhzhia plant remains offline for a longer time and other coal-fired power plants are down, it would mean Ukraine might need up to two billion cubic metres of extra gas.

Nearly 1.4 million Ukrainians currently do not have access either to electricity or gas, mostly in combat areas in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country, Lorkowski said.

US President Joe Biden has rejected Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, warning Russian President Vladimir Putin that the world would not recognise the move.

“The United States is never going to recognise this and quite frankly, the world isn’t going to recognise it either.

“He can’t seize his neighbour’s territory and get away with it – it’s as simple as that,” Biden told reporters, adding that Washington and its NATO allies were ready to “defend every single inch of NATO territory”.

“So, Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch,” Biden said.

Germany’s embassies in countries neighbouring Russia have seen a surge in visa enquiries from Russian citizens since the partial mobilisation for the war in Ukraine began in their home country, a source from the German foreign ministry has said on Friday.

“We can confirm a sharp increase in the number of enquiries sent to our foreign missions in the region, particularly by email and telephone,” the source told Reuters.

In some cases, people were going to the embassies in person.

Der Spiegel news magazine previously reported that German missions in Yerevan, Astana, Tbilisi, Baku and Minsk had registered thousands of requests for entry permits to Germany since President Vladimir Putin ordered the partial mobilisation on September 21.

The US has not seen any sign to date that suggest Russia is contemplating using nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, despite what he decried as “loose talk” by President Vladimir Putin about their possible use.

“We are looking very carefully to see if Russia is actually doing anything that suggests that they are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. To date, we’ve not seen them take these actions,” Blinken said at a news conference in Washington.

“But we also know that Russia is engaged in horrific, horrific brutalisation of Ukraine, and so the threats that they make, we take very seriously,” he added.

Blinken also said he would not speculate on Putin’s intent but that the US has plans for “every possible scenario, including this one”.

A decision on Ukraine’s request to join NATO must be taken by all members, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

“NATO is not party to the conflict,” Stoltenberg said, adding that “a decision on [Ukraine’s] membership has to be taken by all 30 allies by consensus.”

Stoltenberg called Russia’s announcement to annex Ukrainian territory the most serious escalation of the conflict since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February.

“Putin has mobilised hundreds of thousands of more troops, engaged in irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling and now illegally annexed more Ukrainian territory. Together, this represents the most serious escalation since the start of the war,” Stoltenberg told a news conference.

He said NATO reaffirmed its “unwavering support” for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and would not be deterred by Putin from supporting the country in defending itself against Russia.

President Putin has told hundreds of people in Red Square that Russia will be victorious in its war on Ukraine, after announcing the annexation of four regions from the neighbouring country.

“We have become stronger because we are together. We have the truth. And the truth means power. It means victory. Victory will be ours,” he said.

Addressing crowds in central Moscow after he signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s annexation of the occupied regions in Ukraine, Putin said it was an “historic day”, and “a day of truth and justice”.

Also, Putin pledged to “do everything” to “raise the level of security” in the Kherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Donetsk – the regions that the Russian president formally annexed earlier this afternoon.

“We will do everything to restore the economy and restore infrastructure, build schools, new institutions, hospitals [in those regions],” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the formal annexation of four regions of Ukraine in a speech on Friday.

During a 37-minute long speech, Putin spoke about the break up of the Soviet Union, Western “colonial policy”, nuclear weapons, and his view of Western morals.

Read more here.

Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, has confirmed that Kyiv submitted a formal application to join the NATO military alliance.

Shmyhal tweeted a photo of him, President Zelenskyy and the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, with a signed copy of a “fast-track” NATO membership application.

Today, with @ZelenskyyUa & @r_stefanchuk we signed an application for Ukraine’s membership in #NATO under the accelerated procedure. 🇺🇦 is defending democracy, the principles of freedom and the entire civilized world. #Ukraine has proven that we are a worthy and reliable ally. pic.twitter.com/XdI43Grrhh

— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) September 30, 2022

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the city of Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine’s partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, says local residents completely reject Moscow’s annexation move.

“Anyone you speak to on this side is rejecting it [the annexation], calling it ‘illegal’,” Abdel-Hamid said.

“There’s also the issue about how many people actually voted [in the annexation referendum],” she added.

“I can tell you we had witnessed hundreds of people escaping those [occupied] regions, who said specifically that they left because they didn’t want to take part in the referendum and didn’t want to get a Russian passport, or when it came young-men, to be mobilised and put in a position where they are fighting Ukrainians … on the other side of the divide.”

“What people worry about now, which hasn’t been very clear from Putin, is what the borders are when it comes to a region like Zaporizhia, which Russia only holds partially. In Kherson, there is the same issue.”

The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries have condemned Russia’s proclaimed annexation of four Ukrainian regions as a “new low point” in the war and promised to take further action against Moscow.

“We will never recognise these purported annexations, nor the sham ‘referenda’ conducted at gunpoint,” a joint statement issued by the top diplomats of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the EU said.

“We will impose further economic costs on Russia, and on individuals and entities – inside and outside of Russia – that provide political or economic support to these violations of international law,” it added.

Sweden’s government has added its voice to growing Western condemnation of Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

“It’s nothing but a complete farce,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told a news conference on Friday. “We condemn the illegal annexation in the strongest terms.”

The US “condemns Russia’s fraudulent attempt … to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory”, President Joe Biden has said.

“Russia is violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere,” Biden said in a statement, adding Moscow’s actions had “no legitimacy”.

“The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders,” he said.

Biden also called on “all members of the international community to reject Russia’s illegal attempts at annexation and to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes”.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has said its forces will continue “liberating” territory occupied by Russian troops and that “nothing changes” despite Russia’s formal annexation of four regions in the country’s south and east.

“By attempting to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Putin tries to grab territories he doesn’t even physically control on the ground,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

“Nothing changes for Ukraine: we continue liberating our land and our people, restoring our territorial integrity.”

By attempting to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Putin tries to grab territories he doesn’t even physically control on the ground. Nothing changes for Ukraine: we continue liberating our land and our people, restoring our territorial integrity.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) September 30, 2022

A survey has found nearly half of Russians questioned said they felt fearful or anxious after hearing the Kremlin was drafting hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

In the poll released by the independent Levada Centre on Thursday, 47 percent of respondents said they were anxious and scared following President Vladimir Putin’s announcement. Another 13 percent said they felt anger, while 23 percent expressed pride in Russia.

Read more here.

The United Kingdom’s foreign secretary says he has summoned Russia’s ambassador to the country in response to Moscow’s formal annexation of vast swaths of Ukrainian territory.

“I have summoned the Russian Ambassador, Andrey Kelin, to protest in the strongest terms against Putin’s announcement of the illegal annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory,” James Cleverly tweeted.

I have summoned the Russian Ambassador, Andrey Kelin, to protest in the strongest terms against Putin’s announcement of the illegal annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.

— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) September 30, 2022

The United States has rolled out new sanctions on more than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the governor of its Central Bank and relatives of National Security Council members, in response to Moscow’s annexation move.

The Treasury Department named hundreds of members of Russia’s legislature, leaders of the country’s financial and military infrastructure and suppliers for sanctions designations. The Commerce Department added 57 companies to its list of export control violators, and the State Department added more than 900 people to its visa restriction list.

“We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tweeted.

“The Treasury Department and US government are taking sweeping action today to further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war,” she added.

We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine. The U.S. is taking sweeping action today to further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war. https://t.co/m5MYw7uhqq

— Secretary Janet Yellen (@SecYellen) September 30, 2022

The United Kingdom has imposed new sanctions on Russia in response to its formal annexation of swaths of Ukrainian territory, including measures directly targeting the governor of its Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said the UK had also imposed new services and goods export bans, targeted at “vulnerable sectors of the Russian economy”.