WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's Zelenskiy: Our partners have eased up on sanctions on Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that his country's allies had eased sanctions on Russia and called for a renewed drive to impose further punitive measures on Moscow.
"At this time, we see too long a pause by our partners in terms of sanctions," he said in his nightly video address. "And very active Russian attempts to evade sanctions."
Zelenskiy said keeping the pressure on Moscow should focus on Russia's energy sector, its access to microelectronics and its financial sector.
"There are three priorities: further sanctions against Russia's energy sector, real restrictions on the supplies going to the terrorists of chips and microelectronics in general and continued blocking of Russia's financial sector," he said.
"The world's sanctions offensive must resume."
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko had earlier said Ukraine rejected any suggestion of easing sanctions against Russia as part of efforts to restore the U.N.-backed agreement to ship grain through the Black Sea.
"Easing part of the sanctions regime against Russia in exchange for the resumption of the grain agreement would be a victory for Russian food blackmail and an invitation to Moscow for new waves of blackmail," Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.
** Four killed, scores wounded in Russian air strikes on Ukraine
Four people were killed and scores wounded on Friday in Russian air strikes on Ukraine, including a deadly attack in which a missile slammed into a police building in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown.
In the latest wave of aerial attacks since Russia's invasion last year, two women and a 46-year-old man were killed in the village of Odradakamianka in the southern region of Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The fourth death was in a missile strike that reduced a police administration building to rubble in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, where Zelenskiy was born.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko initially said a police officer had been killed but officials later said the victim was a private security guard.
Klymenko said 54 people were also wounded in the attack, which officials said damaged administrative buildings, 17 high-rise blocks, four private houses and a religious building.
"There is a lot of work - the enemy has caused a lot of trouble in the city," regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
He posted photos on the Telegram messaging app showing rescuers sifting through the rubble, other workers bringing in materials to start repairs and volunteers distributing tea and biscuits to residents. A large fire was extinguished.
Russia also carried out its fifth drone attack of this week on the southern region of Odesa, which is home to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and Danube River that are used to export grain and other agricultural products.
AERIAL CAMPAIGN
Russia has carried out regular air strikes on cities and towns across Ukraine since the start of its invasion, including multiple attacks on the national power grid last winter that at times left millions of people without electricity.
Moscow has also intensified attacks on port infrastructure since mid-July, when it quit a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.
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Ukraine, which is gradually making progress in a three-month-old counteroffensive in the south and east, is a major global grain producer and says the attacks on its ports are intended to stop it exporting its grain.
Officials said air defences shot down 16 of the 20 drones fired by Russia overnight - the Southern military command said 14 drones had been brought down over Odesa region and two more over the southern region of Mykolaiv.
Kiper reported damage to a non-residential building in the Odesa region that was hit by falling debris from a drone, but no casualties.
Regional officials said Russia had also attacked the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia and the northeastern region of Sumy with missiles, wounding several people.
Ukraine's emergency services said three people had been hurt in the Sumy region and posted a video showing rescuers pulling an injured woman out of a large crater caused by the explosion.
Russia did not immediately comment on the latest attacks but denies deliberately attacking civilians.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian counteroffensive to fold in 6-7 weeks, US administration thinks
The Biden administration thinks that Ukraine’s counteroffensive will stop in about 6-7 weeks, the Economist said citing its source.
According to the article, "there are private disagreements over how much progress can be made in that time." One viewpoint is that "Ukraine’s army, having thrown in most of its reserves prior to breaking the second line [of Russia’s defenses - TASS], and taking heavy casualties attempting to breach it, is unlikely to get far." "If you look at the battlefield in five years’ time, it could look broadly similar," the article quoted a senior American intelligence official as saying.
That said, the Economist is also citing the opinion of Trent Maul, director of analysis for America’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), who is not as pessimistic. According to his assessment, the Ukrainian army purportedly has a "realistic possibility," about 40-50%, "of breaking the remaining Russian lines by the end of the year." However, he cautions that limited ammunition and worsening weather will make this "very difficult," admitting that "American and Ukrainian officials failed to appreciate the depth of Russia’s defenses and how difficult it would be for Ukraine to ‘smash through’ them with armor."
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian armed forces had been making unsuccessful attempts at a counteroffensive since June 4. According to the military agency, over three months, Ukraine has lost more than 66,000 troops and about 7,600 units of various armaments, failing to achieve any success at all in any area. On September 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed.
** Russian forces repel five Ukrainian attacks in Zaporozhye area
Russian forces repelled five Ukrainian attacks in the Zaporozhye area over the past day, taking out about 40 enemy troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily bulletin of the special military operation.
Here are the details of this and other combat actions that happened over the past day, according to the bulletin.
Zaporozhye area
The five Ukrainian attacks that were repulsed in the Zaporozhye area came from Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade near the settlement of Verbovoye. The Ukrainians lost "roughly 40 soldiers, a tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, two US-made M777 artillery systems, a UK-made FH-70 howitzer and Msta-B, D-20 and D-30 howitzers, an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, a Grad multiple launch rocket system and a Bukovel-AD radar station."
Reuters/Tass