Ukraine Russia war: Kyiv launches second strike on Crimea as Zelensky warned by Polish PM

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he met leading American businessmen and financiers during a visit to the United States, where investment opportunities in Ukraine were discussed.

Zelenskiy said the businessmen, who included Michael Bloomberg, Larry Fink and Bill Ackman, were prepared to make major investments in rebuilding Ukraine after its war with Russia.

“The American entrepreneurs and financiers confirmed their readiness to make large-scale investments in our country immediately after the end of the war and the receipt of security guarantees,” he posted on Telegram, along with photos of the meeting.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned Volodymyr Zelensky to never “insult Poles again” after the Ukrainian leader suggested his country was playing political theatre over a long-standing frain dispute.

The Polish leader flashed a warning at Zelensky after the Ukrainian President offered a veiled criticism of Poland at the United Nations saying the dispute was “political theatre” and that “some of our friends in Europe” have “made a thriller from the grain.”

Poland decided last week to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports, shaking Kyiv’s relationship with a neighbour that has been one of its staunchest allies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

At a rally Morawiecki hit back: “I want to tell President Zelensky never to insult Poles again, as he did recently during his speech at the UN.

“The Polish people will never allow this to happen, and defending the good name of Poland is not only my duty and honor, but also the most important task of the Polish government” he added.

Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putin’s warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.

The institute could not confirm that Ukrainian troops had followed suit at the breakthrough point near Verbove but the news is nevertheless a welcome indication that Kyiv’s counteroffensive is bearing fruit as it seeks to drive the invader from its territory.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is currently in North America seeking to shore up support from his US counterpart Joe Biden and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and has already flown out of Washington with the promise of a new $325m military aid package for his country that will include air defence systems and other weaponry to help it through what promises to be another trying winter of combat.

Pope Francis on Saturday labeled the weapons industry as being a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in Russia’s war, saying even the withholding of weapons now is going to continue their misery.

Francis appeared to refer to Poland’s recent announcement that it is no longer sending arms to Ukraine when he was asked about the war during brief remarks to reporters while returning home from Marseille, France.

Francis acknowledged he was frustrated that the Vatican’s diplomatic initiatives hadn’t borne much fruit. But he said behind the Russia-Ukraine conflict was also the weapons industry.

Norwegian police have arrested a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion that he tried to illegally cross the border back into Russia after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year, the man’s lawyer said on Saturday.

Andrei Medvedev, who escaped Russia in January via its Arctic border with Norway, has described running as Russian guards fired shots at him. He has spoken about his time fighting in Ukraine as part of the Wagner group.

Police said in a statement late on Friday that a man in his 20s had been taken into custody for attempting to illegally cross the Russian border, but did not name him. An officer with the Finnmark local police declined to give the arrested man’s identity.

Crossing the border to Russia is only allowed at designated points. But Medvedev’s arrest was due to a misunderstanding, his Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told Reuters.

“He was up there to see if he could find the place where he crossed (into Norway in January). He was stopped when he was in a taxi. He was never near the border … It was never his intention to cross the border (into Russia),” Risnes said.

At the time of his arrival in Norway, Medvedev said he was seeking asylum because he feared for his life after witnessing the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners brought to the frontline in Ukraine.

Russia’s top diplomat lashed out at the U.S. and the West on Saturday as self-interested defenders of a fading international order, but he didn’t discuss his country’s war in Ukraine in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

“The U.S. and its subordinate Western collective are continuing to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims. They’re doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centered rules,” he said.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has rubbished Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan and warned the conflict will be resolved on the battlefield if the West continues its involvement.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Mr Lavrov dismissed the West as an “empire of lies” and said the plan promoted by Kyiv was “completely not feasible”.

In a letter to Mr Lavrov last month, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres outlined four measures the UN could facilitate to improve Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports in a bid to convince Moscow to return to the Black Sea deal, which allowed Ukraine to export grain through the corridor and helped address a global food shortage.

Once rock-solid, the support that Ukraine has gotten from its biggest backers for its fight against Russia is showing cracks.

Political posturing in places like Poland and Slovakia, where a trade dispute with Ukraine has stirred tensions, and Republican reticence in the United States about Washington’s big spending to prop up Ukraine’s military have raised new uncertainties about the West’s commitment to its efforts to expel Russian invaders more than 18 months into the war.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hopes to outlast allied backing for Kyiv, will be ready to capitalize if he sees Ukraine is running low on air defense or other weapons.

Photographs show firefighters battling the blaze in the port city of Sevastopol while the Russian defence ministry confirmed one serviceman was missing in action as a result of the assault.

The attack took place less than 24 hours after Ukrainian armoured vehicles reportedly advanced over the front line – known as the Surovikin line – in western Zaporizhzhia for the first time, signalling a major breakthrough for Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the region.