Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature On Sunday night, Ukrainian President Zelensky thanked his forces for capturing two settlements in the south and a third, along with additional territory, in the east, citing “good reports” from his military commanders and intelligence chief. Reuters reports: Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, earlier released an image of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over a village he said was in the southern region that is the main focus of the counterattack. “Vysokopilia. Kherson area. Ukraine. Today,” Tymoshenko wrote on Facebook above a photo of three soldiers on rooftops, one of whom pinned a Ukrainian flag to a post. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive last week targeting the south, particularly the Kherson region, which Russia captured early in the conflict. Following heavy shelling by Ukrainian forces against clusters of Russian troops in the area, the Russians have banned the movement of residents, barring them from crossing the Dnipro River, Ukraine’s general staff said on Monday. Russia has launched 25 missile strikes and more than 22 airstrikes against military and civilian targets in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the statement added, maintaining its focus on full control of the Donetsk region.
The euro falls to a new 20-year low
The prospect of higher gas prices raises the specter of a recession in Europe this winter, and that’s bad news for the euro, which has fallen to a 20-year low against the US dollar this morning. The single currency fell 0.7% in early trade on Monday, settling below 99C at US$0.9880 – its lowest point in more than 20 years. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO DECADES BELOW 99 CENTS OF THE EURO — IGSquawk (@IGSquawk) September 5, 2022 The pound is also being weighed down by the bleak economic outlook across Europe and has lost 0.6% to $1.145. Liz Truss is likely to take office in the UK on Tuesday and has pledged to act in her first week in office to tackle the crisis caused by rising energy bills. Full report here:
The UK Ministry of Defense says the Donbass remains Russia’s main focus
The UK Ministry of Defense says in its morning briefing that despite the Russian military’s efforts to contain the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south, it is focused on capturing the Donbass region. Russia’s main “axes of advance remain at Avdiivka near the city of Donetsk and, 60 kilometers north, around Bakhmut,” the Foreign Ministry said in a tweet on Monday morning, “… but its forces are still advancing only about 1 kilometer per week to Bahamut. “ “The political objective of the Donbass operation almost certainly remains to secure the entire Donetsk Oblast, which would allow the Kremlin to announce the ‘liberation’ of Donbass. Russian forces are likely to have repeatedly missed deadlines to achieve this goal. “Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russian forces now have orders to complete this mission by September 15, 2022. The force is highly unlikely to achieve this, which will further complicate Russia’s plans to hold referendums in the occupied territories that join in the Russian Federation”.
The attack is making progress, Zelenskiy claims
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night speech on Sunday that progress was being made to “liberate all our lands, all our people” after the counter-offensive against Russians in the south began. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine, our intelligence services, special services are already taking the necessary measures for this,” Zelensky said in a speech posted on Facebook. “These steps are heard. And everyone can see that the conquerors have already begun to leave Crimea. This is the right choice for everyone.” Smoke rises on the front line near Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images He also thanked the “warriors of the 63rd battalion of the 103rd territorial defense brigade” who liberated a settlement in the Donetsk region. The “54th brigade in the Lysychansk-Siversk direction also made good strides, advanced and regained some heights,” while the “42nd separate motorized infantry battalion – thanks to its heroic actions, two settlements in the south of our country were liberated.” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted an image of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over a village he said was in southern Ukraine. “Vysokopilia. Kherson area. Ukraine. Today,” Tymoshenko wrote.
The Kremlin blames Europe for closing the pipeline
The Kremlin blamed European politicians for shutting down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, one of the main natural gas routes, saying their economic sanctions on Russia prevented Gazprom from maintaining the pipeline, Reuters reports. Russian energy company Gazprom shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Photo: Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images “If the Europeans make a completely irrational decision to refuse to repair their equipment, or rather, equipment that belongs to Gazprom but is contractually obliged to repair, that is not Gazprom’s fault,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview of on Russia’s state television, according to the Interfax news agency. “It is the fault of these politicians who made decisions on sanctions.”
Pressure on natural gas prices
Natural gas prices are expected to rise sharply in Europe on Monday morning after Russia’s Gazprom announced it was shutting down the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline until further notice, citing maintenance issues. Prices have soared since the invasion of Ukraine led to Western sanctions on Russia, with the Kremlin responding by cutting gas exports to Europe. Prices had started to fall last week amid some optimism that Europe could get through the coming winter months without disrupting supplies to households and industry. However, the Nord Stream shutdown has refocused markets on the problem and looks certain to push prices up again. See the state of the UK gas market on Monday morning – prices in pence per heat: UK gas prices in pence per heat Photo: Reuters Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be with you in the next hour or so. It’s just after 8am in Ukraine and the main developments you need to know are here:
European gas prices are expected to soar to record highs this week after Russia shut down a key pipeline to Europe. Many commentators warned that European prices would rise further when markets open on Monday after Moscow scrapped a Saturday deadline to restart flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, saying it had discovered a fault during maintenance. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government planned to completely cut off natural gas deliveries in December, promising measures to lower prices and link social benefits to inflation. “Russia is no longer a reliable energy partner,” Solz told a news conference in Berlin. Liz Truss, who is likely to be confirmed as the UK’s new prime minister on Tuesday, will be under pressure to follow suit by helping people with their energy bills. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy has warned Europe to expect a tough winter after the pipeline is shut down. “Russia is preparing a decisive energy blow to all Europeans this winter,” he said in his afternoon speech on Sunday. The pipeline outage pushed the pound 0.37% lower on Monday morning to $1.147 amid concerns about the economy’s ability to withstand higher gas prices. The euro is also down 0.3% and looks likely to test its recent 20-year low of $0.99005 as traders priced in more of the risk of a European recession. Ukraine has made progress in its recent counteroffensive with its forces seizing two settlements in the south, a third in the east, as well as additional territory in the east of the country, Zelensky claimed during his speech on Sunday afternoon. “The flags of Ukraine are returning to where they should be on the right,” he added. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, posted an image of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over a village he said was in southern Ukraine. “Vysokopilia. Kherson area. Ukraine. Today,” Tymoshenko wrote. Russia said the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine controlled by its troops was calm on Sunday after UN inspectors said on Saturday it had again lost external power. The last remaining main external power line was cut, although a backup line continued to supply electricity to the grid, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement. Only one of its six reactors remained operational, he said. Thousands of people gathered in Prague on Sunday to protest rising energy bills and demand an end to sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine. Some 70,000 far-right and far-left figures gathered at a “Czech Republic First” rally to demand a new deal with Moscow on gas supplies and an end to arms shipments to Ukraine on Sunday. A Russian journalist faces 24 years in prison for treason. Ivan Safronov, a former military correspondent for Kommersant and Vedomosti, is facing a “record” sentence on treason charges prosecuted with secret evidence behind closed doors. A Russian judge is expected to hand down a verdict on Monday in one of the most significant prosecutions against a Russian journalist in decades. The Russian state should be tried for historical crimes committed by the Soviet Union, Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa said ahead of the premiere of his new documentary, The Trial of Kiev, in Venice. Speaking at a press conference, Loznitsa said there must be repentance for past mistakes. “History repeats itself when we don’t learn from history, when we don’t study it and…