Ukraine-Russia war – live: Kyiv make advances near Bakhmut as Putin fires fresh wave of drones

Russia faces a tough fight to regain a seat in the U.N.’s premiere human rights body in Tuesday’s election in the General Assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

The 193-member assembly will be electing 15 members to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, with candidates put forward by the U.N.’s five regional groups.

Russia is competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats allotted to the East European regional group, and Moscow’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the United States on Monday of leading a campaign to prevent their return to the council.

Ukraine has made advances south of the Bakhmut region in Donetsk as they have seen “partial gains” near Andriivka, officials have reported.

The army repelled four Russian attacks near Klishchiivka, Donetsk Oblast, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said, and continued their assault operations south of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian soldiers succeeded in “inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the enemy and consolidating their positions,” the report added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he had “good news” on artillery and air defence supplies after talks with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest, but gave no details.

“My main accent today was air defence. And I’m glad that Ukraine was heard by the Romanian side,” Zelensky, who has been seeking more arms to defend Ukraine against Russia‘s invasion, told a joint press conference in the Romanian capital.

Zelensky also said everything possible should be done to prevent Russia turning part of the Black Sea or the Danube region into what he described as a maritime “dead zone”.

Russia has pulled out of a deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, and has been attacking Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River.

Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed the conflict in Israel-Palestine on Russia, claiming the country is among those “who helped” and is “behind such moves”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to neighbouring Romania on Tuesday for talks with his counterpart on regional security and strengthening bilateral ties against the backdrop of Russia‘s invasion of his country.

Mr Zelensky met with President Klaus Iohannis in the capital, Bucharest. The two are also expected to discuss security co-operation in the Black Sea region, Mr Zelensky said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

After he arrived in Romania, Mr Zelensky described the Nato and European Union member country as “a friend who came to our help on our darkest day and whose support gets stronger with time”.

“Ukraine is grateful for Romania’s support, which strengthens our state, as well as its constructive solidarity, which enables our nations to be security donors for the world, notably in food security,” Mr Zelensky said.

Vladimir Putin has given Russian lawmakers 10 days to find how best to revoke Moscow’s ratification of a critical nuclear treaty which bans Russia from testing atomic weapons shortly after he suggested the possibility of resuming such testing.

The chair of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin and other parliament heads laid out a deadline for Russian lawmakers to study the de-ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) option until 18 October, a statement from the Duma read.

Mr Volodin said revoking the ratification on testing nuclear weapons will be in Russia’s national interest as he discussed the matter with parliamentary leaders on Monday.

If revoked, Russia will signal a warning to the US that Moscow can fundamentally change the assumptions of post-Cold War nuclear planning.

Ukrainian authorities are investigating 260 criminal cases involving alleged “violations” at military recruitment offices, the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) said on Tuesday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the heads of regional recruitment centres in August after widespread allegations of criminal abuse and corruption.

The SBI said 21 indictments against 35 individuals had been sent to court, and that another 58 people had been identified as suspects.

It also said it had documented around $110,000 worth of alleged bribes and that courts had seized around $88,000 worth of property.

“Although the vast majority of…employees conscientiously perform their duties, in many regions there are cases of abusing official positions or exceeding authority,” it said in a statement.

Zelenskiy and his government are keen to show that Ukraine is fighting corruption after setting their sights on membership of the European Union.

A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed a complaint by US reporter Evan Gershkovich against the extension of his pre-trial detention, more than six months after his arrest on spying charges which he denies

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.

“The appeal complaint is left without satisfaction,” the presiding judge said after a closed hearing.

Russia’s desperate bid to rejoin the UN’s top human rights body will be tested in a General Assembly vote on Tuesday, more than a year after it was booted out for invading Ukraine.

The 193-member assembly will be electing 15 members to the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, with candidates put forward by the UN’s five regional groups.

Russia will be competing against Albania and Bulgaria to win back two seats reserved for the East European regional group. A total of 47 member states are part of the UNHRC based on geographic distribution, with the UN’s five regional groups sending names to be added to the shortlist.

Experts told The Independent that Russia will try to lure African and other friendly nations with stolen Ukrainian grain and arms in exchange for their votes.

Arpan Rai reports:

Ukrainian soldiers fighting off Russian attacks in the eastern battlefield achieved “partial success” in the past 24 hours while troops in southern Ukraine inflicted over a hundred Russian casualties, officials said as the war was close to clocking 600 days.

The troops secured partial success near Andriivka, a small Ukrainian village captured last month along with the nearby locality of Klishhiivka, said Ilia Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukraine‘s eastern group of forces.

“We are repelling constant attacks near Klishchiivka and Andriivka,” the spokesperson told national television.

“Every day we are making headway in the Bakhmut sector. We are talking about hundreds of metres at a time that we are liberating from our enemies and strengthening our positions. It is, however, too early to talk about achieving concrete goals,” he said.

You can read the full story below from Arpan Rai.