Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy makes surprise visit to recaptured Izium; Russia ‘almost certainly’ using weapons from Iran

Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Live feed From 2h ago 11. 37 Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes surprise visit to recaptured Izium Izium, the recently recaptured city in Kharkiv oblast that Volodymyr Zelenskiy is visiting today, was left devastated after Russian forces withdrew following months of occupation. Like much of the rest of the recaptured parts of region, Ukrainian authorities must now take stock of the damages and get a full scope of what horrors took place under when Russian troops had control of the city of nearly 46,000.

“The view is very shocking but it is not shocking for me,” the Associated Press reported Zelenskiy saying, “because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories so the same destroyed buildings, killed people. ” When Ukrainian troops retook Bucha, they uncovered a slew of war crimes – mass graves and the bodies of civilians, many of them bearing signs of torture. Here’s a look at what the Russian troops left behind in Izium: A destroyed church is seen near the town of Izium, recently liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during a counteroffensive operation Photograph: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Reuters A destroyed bridge in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on September 13.

Ukrainian troops piled pressure on retreating Russian forces Tuesday, pressing deeper into occupied territory and sending more Kremlin troops fleeing ahead of the counteroffensive that has inflicted a stunning blow on Moscow’s military prestige. Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Administration on September 13, 2022 shows a destroyed building in Izium, Kharkiv region, retaken from the Russians this week. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Administr/AFP/Getty Images A handout photo made available by the Ukrainian presidential press service shows damaged buildings in the recently recaptured city of Izium in Kharkiv’s area, Ukraine, 13 September 2022.

The Ukrainian army pushed Russian troops from occupied territory in the northeast of the country in a counterattack. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/HANDOUT HANDOUT/EPA Ukrainian soldiers inspect an improvised Russian military hospital in a church in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022.

Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP Updated at 12. 02 BST Key events 2h ago Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes surprise visit to recaptured Izium 2h ago Summary of the day so far … 5h ago Von der Leyen: ‘Europe’s solidarity with Ukraine will remain unshakeable’ 7h ago Russia has probably used Iranian-made drones for first time, says UK 7h ago Welcome and opening summary Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature 23m ago 12. 53 One person was killed and a number more injured by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia oblast in southern Ukraine over the past two days , according to the regional state administration.

A rocket attack damaged two infrastructure facilities in the region’s centre, and shelling destroyed homes and residential buildings in the settlements of Orikhov and Gulyaipol, as well as in several villages in the Polohy district. The attacks in Zaporizhzhia come as Ukrainian intelligence warn that the Kremlin will begin targeting more and more of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – including the besieged Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which would cause catastrophic damage for the region if damaged. 49m ago 12.

27 “Earlier, when we looked up, we always looked for the blue sky. Today, when we look up, we are looking for only one thing – the flag of Ukraine ,” Ukraine’s president , Volodymyr Zelenskiy , wrote on Telegram regarding his surprise visit to the recently liberated city of Izium. Izium was one of more than 300 settlements that the Ukrainian military recaptured since 6 September.

Zelenskiy said earlier that troops have liberated about 8,000 sq km (3,100 sq miles) so far, apparently all in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv. ”Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in the de-occupied Izium,” Zelenskiy continued. “And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village.

We are moving in only one direction – forward and towards victory. ” Updated at 12. 51 BST 1h ago 12.

11 Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made a surprise visit to the recently liberated city of Izium today where he met with troops, took part in the flag raising and surveyed some of the damages. Here are some of images of his visit: This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential press-service on September 14, 2022 showing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky taking part in the state’s flag raising in the de-occupied city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP/Getty Images This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential press service on September 14, 2022 shows Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visiting the de-occupied city of Izyum, Kharkiv region.

Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP/Getty Images This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential press service on September 14, 2022 shows Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reviewing troops during his visit of the de-occupied city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP/Getty Images This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential press service on September 14, 2022 shows Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visiting the de-occupied city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. Photograph: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER/AFP/Getty Images Zelenskiy in Izium is again a sharp contrast with Putin, who hasn’t been anywhere near front, made brief visit to a military hospital once in May, and otherwise (as far as we know) has got no closer to troops than looking at them through binoculars at exercises.

(pics AP&Reuters) pic. twitter. com/X66OBTch1R — Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) September 14, 2022 Updated at 12.

20 BST 1h ago 11. 53 Kate Connolly The German paper Bild has added weight to British defence intelligence reports that Russia has likely used Iranian-made drones in Ukraine , following the downing of one of them yesterday, as announced by Kyiv. The tabloid says remains of a Shahed-136 ‘kamikaze drone’ were found in wreckage following the liberation of the town of Kupiansk, near Kharkiv.

Existence of the drone was first made public by Iran in 2021, when it described it as “very precise”. However, experts that Bild have spoken tosay there’s doubt about the drone’s efficiency, which was viewed as a prop – or part of the propaganda tool kit – of Iran’s Mullahs. Nevertheless, the discovery of the Shahed-136 remains have set alarm bells ringing among western intelligence agencies, the paper writes (adding there is evidence, from reports by Russian bloggers, that Iranian Qods Yasir drones have also been used over eastern Ukraine).

In July, the US warned that Russia was on the search for new drones to use in its campaign against Ukraine, and appeared to have found what it was looking for in Iran. The theory goes that Moscow was at pains to use the Iranian drones to replace the considerable losses of its own observation, conflict and kamikaze drones in Ukraine. However, shortly after the US warnings emerged about the existence of the drones, western intelligence services reported that the “Mullahs’ drones” had disappointed Russia’s military and was not planning to buy any more of them ‘beyond a few test examples’.

Yesterday’s discovery in Kupiansk raises the question: were the remains of one of the ‘test drones’ considered by Moscow not worthy of further use; or did western intelligence read the whole situation incorrectly and did Moscow put its faith in what Bild refers to as the ‘Iranian killer drones’ and buy stockpiles of them? Updated at 12. 44 BST 2h ago 11. 37 Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes surprise visit to recaptured Izium Izium, the recently recaptured city in Kharkiv oblast that Volodymyr Zelenskiy is visiting today, was left devastated after Russian forces withdrew following months of occupation.

Like much of the rest of the recaptured parts of region, Ukrainian authorities must now take stock of the damages and get a full scope of what horrors took place under when Russian troops had control of the city of nearly 46,000. “The view is very shocking but it is not shocking for me,” the Associated Press reported Zelenskiy saying, “because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories so the same destroyed buildings, killed people. ” When Ukrainian troops retook Bucha, they uncovered a slew of war crimes – mass graves and the bodies of civilians, many of them bearing signs of torture.

Here’s a look at what the Russian troops left behind in Izium: A destroyed church is seen near the town of Izium, recently liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during a counteroffensive operation Photograph: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Reuters A destroyed bridge in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on September 13. Ukrainian troops piled pressure on retreating Russian forces Tuesday, pressing deeper into occupied territory and sending more Kremlin troops fleeing ahead of the counteroffensive that has inflicted a stunning blow on Moscow’s military prestige. Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP This handout picture taken and released by Ukrainian Presidential Administration on September 13, 2022 shows a destroyed building in Izium, Kharkiv region, retaken from the Russians this week.

Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Administr/AFP/Getty Images A handout photo made available by the Ukrainian presidential press service shows damaged buildings in the recently recaptured city of Izium in Kharkiv’s area, Ukraine, 13 September 2022. The Ukrainian army pushed Russian troops from occupied territory in the northeast of the country in a counterattack. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/HANDOUT HANDOUT/EPA Ukrainian soldiers inspect an improvised Russian military hospital in a church in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept.

13, 2022. Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/AP Updated at 12. 02 BST 2h ago 11.

18 Volodymyr Zelenskiy is making a surprise visit today to Izium, one of the many towns recaptured by Ukrainian forces after months under Russian occupation. Zelensky in a surprise visit today to Izium, the town liberated from months of Russian occupation in recent days. It was used by Moscow as a heavily militarized garrison town buttressing its stalled campaign in the Donbas.

pic. twitter. com/1M62RC6fBn — Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 14, 2022 Zelensky in Izium today pic.

twitter. com/qwM3Trddsa — Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) September 14, 2022 Updated at 11. 20 BST 2h ago 11.

08 Summary of the day so far … Western sanctions on Russia are having a real impact and are there to stay, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen , said on Wednesday, stressing that the European Union’s solidarity with Ukraine would be “unshakeable”. “This is the time for us to show resolve, not appeasement,” she said. “We are in it for the long haul.

” Von der Leyen also sent a strong signal over European Union expansion , saying the European Union is not complete without Ukraine , Moldova , Georgia and western Balkan countries. “You are part of our family, you are the future of our union. Our union is not complete without you,” she said.

Ukraine has set its sights on freeing all territory occupied by invading Russian forces after driving them back in a speedy counteroffensive in the north-east. In an address on Tuesday evening, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) have been liberated so far, apparently all in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv. “Stabilisation measures” had been completed in about half of that territory, Zelenskiy said, “and across a liberated area of about the same size, stabilisation measures are still ongoing”.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych held out the prospects of building on the gains made over the weekend in the Kharkiv region by moving on the eastern province of Luhansk. “There is now an assault on Lyman and there could be an advance on Siversk,” Arestovych said. The pro-Russian leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic denied the claims and said in a video post that Lyman remains in their hands, saying “the situation has been stabilised.

” However, the frontline in eastern Ukraine is approaching the borders of territory claimed by the self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) according to Andrey Marochko , a senior LPR military commander. The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces warned that Russian forces were continuing to loot as they withdrew from occupied territories. On a stretch of highway heading into Russian territory, Ukrainian officials spotted civilian vehicles with licence plates from the Kharkiv region, driven by Russian military and weighed down with looted belongings.

In the south, there were reports of Russian occupants breaking the gates of private garages and taking cars, as well as removing furniture. Russia has probably used Iranian-made uncrewed aerial vehicles in Ukraine for the first time, Britain’s defence intelligence said on Wednesday, after Kyiv reported downing one of the UAVs – a Shahed-136 – on Tuesday. The device is a “one-way attack” weapon, the MoD said, and has been used in the Middle East.

The shooting down of the drone near the frontline in Ukraine suggests that Russia is using the weapons as a tactical weapon rather than a strategic one, targeting military installations deeper into Ukrainian territory. Russian oil and gas revenues have fallen to their lowest for almost a year , despite a big rise in prices. Pope Francis , at a summit of religious leaders in Kazakhstan, has said that God does not guide religions towards war in what appears to be an implicit criticism of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill , who has backed the invasion of Ukraine.

Updated at 11. 48 BST 2h ago 10. 50 In this video explainer, Guardian correspondent Luke Harding chronicles the key historical events that led to the invasion of Ukraine , from the Euromaidan protests to the annexation of Crimea, and explains why Vladimir Putin’s belief that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” is rooted in history from a thousand years ago.

10:26 Why is Vladimir Putin so obsessed with Ukraine? Updated at 10. 57 BST 3h ago 10. 38 Reuters reports the frontline in eastern Ukraine is approaching the borders of territory claimed by the self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).

That is according to Andrey Marochko, a senior LPR military commander who has spoken to Russian news agency Tass. Updated at 10. 57 BST 3h ago 10.

33 Here is a video clip of European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen saying this morning that the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine was “unshakeable” and sanctions against Russia were “here to stay”. 01:22 Von der Leyen says EU solidarity with Ukraine ‘unshakeable’ – video 3h ago 10. 25 Pope Francis has said that God does not guide religions towards war in what appears to be an implicit criticism of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who has backed the invasion of Ukraine .

On his second day in Kazakhstan, Francis addressed the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, a meeting that brings together Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other faiths. “God is peace. He guides us always in the way of peace, never that of war,” Francis said.

“Let us commit ourselves, then, even more to insisting on the need for resolving conflicts not by the inconclusive means of power, with arms and threats, but by the only means blessed by heaven and worthy of man: encounter, dialogue and patient negotiations,” he said. Pope Francis (right) flanked by Yitzhak Yosef (second right), Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Anthony (second left) and Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gaynutdin, chairman of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation and Russia Muftis Council. Photograph: Alessandro Di Meo/EPA Reuters reports the pope, who earlier this year said Kirill could not be Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “altar boy”, told the conference: “The sacred must never be a prop for power, nor power a prop for the sacred!” Kirill was to have attended, but pulled out.

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) sent a delegation headed by its number two, Metropolitan Anthony, who later briefly met the pope. Kirill has given enthusiastic backing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Updated at 10.

37 BST 3h ago 09. 48 Sir Hugo Swire , previously a minister of state for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and who served in the Grenadier Guards during the 1980s has suggested this morning that Russian President Vladimir Putin was misguided in his thinking about how the world would react to his invasion of Ukraine , and how well prepared the Russian military was for the campaign. He told viewers of Sky News in the UK: .

css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1. 5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} I think a lot of his equipment just looks great on parades in Moscow, but actually in the field is proven to be not very effective, and the terrible logistical problems and so forth. The reaction of the world? I don’t know.

Did he really think he could go into Ukraine in a sort of Blitzkrieg operation and it would all be over in a matter of days and then the world would settle down and deal with him on a an equal level? I think we can now see the how wrong he was. 4h ago 09. 21 During her state of the union speech this morning, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen sent a strong signal over European Union expansion.

Reuters reports she said the European Union is not complete without Ukraine , Moldova, Georgia and western Balkan countries. “You are part of our family, you are the future of our union,” she told the EU’s eastern neighbours. “Our union is not complete without you.

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