WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Two more ships pass through Black Sea corridor, Zelenskiy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that two more ships had passed through a "temporary" Black Sea shipping corridor established since Russia withdrew from a U.N.-backed grain export deal in July.
"Two ships have successfully passed through our temporary 'grain corridor'," Zelenskiy posted on X, previously known as Twitter.
The president did not identify the vessels involved or say when they had completed their passage. Officials on Friday said two vessels had cleared the corridor -- bringing to four the number that have used it.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was "restoring true freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. Freedom requires determination."
On Friday, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said two vessels had passed through the corridor from the port of Pivdenny: one flagged in Liberia, the other in the Marshall Islands. The vessels were carrying pig iron and iron concentrate.
Russia has blockaded Ukrainian ports since it invaded its neighbour in February 2022, and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets after pulling out of the U.N.-backed deal.
In response, Ukraine announced a "humanitarian corridor" hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.
The grain agreement had allowed Ukraine, a major agricultural exporter, to ship tens of millions of metric tons of produce to other countries during Russia's invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as Ankara and the United Nations seek to revive the grain export deal.
Russia quit the deal in July after it had been in effect for a year, complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
** Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky detained in fraud case
A Ukrainian court ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering on Saturday, a striking move against one of the country's most powerful businessmen.
The detention of Kolomoisky, who is under U.S. sanctions and is a one-time supporter of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whose election he backed in 2019, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.
Defence lawyers said Kolomoisky would appeal the ruling, questioning its legality, but that he would not post bail of almost $14 million in order to secure his release, broadcaster Radio Liberty reported.
After a hearing at a district court in Kyiv late on Saturday, Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men, was shown being led away in a blue tracksuit jacket in television footage. He could not be reached for comment.
The Security Service of Ukraine announced the case against Kolomoisky on Saturday morning, publishing photographs on Telegram Messenger showing him being served documents by security officers and signing them.
"It was established that during 2013-2020, Ihor Kolomoisky legalized more than half a billion hryvnias ($14 million) by withdrawing them abroad and using the infrastructure of banks under (his) control," the agency said in a statement.
After the ruling, Zelenskiy appeared to allude obliquely to the case in his evening address, thanking law enforcement agencies for showing resolve in bringing long-running cases to justice.
"Without a doubt, there will be no more decades-long 'business as usual' for those who plundered Ukraine and put themselves above the law and any rules... The law must work," he said.
WARTIME CRACKDOWN
Kolomoisky is seen as one of the class of oligarchs who amassed huge industrial wealth after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and wielded outsize political and economic influence.
Before Russia's February 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy and his team passed legislation requiring oligarchs to register and to stay out of politics. The war has eroded the oligarchs' power as industrial assets have been destroyed in the east and south, and their television channels have been broadcasting under a centralised signal.
Before winning the presidency, Zelenskiy rose to prominence as a comedian and played the role of president on a show aired on a Kolomoisky-owned TV channel. He denies Kolomoisky has had any influence over the government.
During the war, Zelenskiy has emphasised Ukraine's crackdown on corruption as Kyiv has applied to join the European Union and hopes to secure tens of billions of dollars to help rebuild the country after a war which has no end in sight.
Kolomoisky's detention is not the first wartime move involving him.
Last November, the state took control of stakes in major strategic companies, some of which were associated with the businessman, invoking wartime laws to help the war effort.
Earlier this year, security officials searched Kolomoisky's home in connection with a separate investigation into embezzlement and tax evasion at the country's two largest oil companies partially owned by him.
Kolomoisky is a former owner of leading Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, which was nationalised in late 2016 as part of a clean-up of the banking system.
He has owned assets in the energy, banking, and other sectors, including an influential television channel.
The United States imposed sanctions on Kolomoisky in 2021 "due to his involvement in significant corruption". U.S. authorities have also alleged Kolomoisky and a business partner laundered stolen funds through the United States. Kolomoisky has denied any wrongdoing.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine’s Western backers are ‘pro-Nazi coalition’ – Medvedev
Washington and its allies in Europe and elsewhere continue to support Kiev despite it acting increasingly like the Nazis during World War II, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Saturday. Moscow should abandon hope of reconciling with the West and see it for what it is, he believes.
The leaders of Ukraine are “increasingly talking about ‘holding all Russians accountable’,” Medvedev said, adding that Kiev sees all Russian citizens as ‘Russians’ regardless of their ethnic background. In a thinly veiled reference to the Nazis’ plans for the Soviet Union, the former president said that the world had already seen similar aspirations.
Medvedev noted that Ukraine is still being supported by almost every single Western leader, as well as by the heads of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. All of them “are direct and obvious Nazi accomplices,” he stated, adding that “they should be treated as the leaders of a pro-Nazi coalition.”
The former president, who now serves as the deputy head of Russia’s National Security Council and the Military Industrial Committee, then insisted that Russia should not “lapse into sweet daydreaming” about achieving reconciliation with the West and joining what he called a “big polyamory family of non-binary genders.”
Medvedev had earlier condemned what he called open glorification of Nazism in Ukraine, pointing to an initiative calling for the establishment of the Stepan Bandera Order that would supposedly be awarded to Ukrainian servicemen. Bandera was a notorious Ukrainian nationalist leader during World War II whose organization was responsible for mass killings of Jews and Poles in Ukraine.
The petition requesting the creation of such an order in Ukraine appeared on the official website of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in May. It has since received nearly 2,300 signatures of the required 25,000.
Medvedev blasted the initiative by comparing it to Germany establishing an order of Adolf Hitler or Italy introducing an order of Bennito Mussolini. “What is there to be ashamed of?” Medvedev mockingly wrote on Telegram at the time. “Let’s just glorify all European Nazis at once. This appears to be the new European ideology,” he added.
** Battlegroup Dnepr hits UAV control center, storage site for Ukrainian forces’ weapons
Servicemen of Russia’s battlegroup Dnepr hit the control center of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Kherson area, as well as the storage site for weapons and armored combat vehicles of the Ukrainian armed forces, the head of the battlegroup’s press center Roman Kodryan told TASS.
"Fire damage was inflicted at the place of storage of weapons and armored combat vehicles and the control point of unmanned aerial vehicles of the Ukrainian armed forces," Kodryan said.
He also said that an American-made M777 howitzer was destroyed near the settlement of Ingulets.
In total, according to him, over the past day, in the course of counter-battery combat units of the battlegroup Dnepr carried out more than 50 fire missions against Ukrainian positions.
"Mortar crews and D-30 artillery pieces were destroyed in the area of the settlements of Goncharnaya, Burgunka, Verovka and Otradokamenka," Kodryan added.
Reuters/RT/Tass