Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukrainian parliament votes to approve Rustem Umerov as new defence minister | Ukraine

Parts of a Russian drone have fallen on Romanian territory, the Romanian defence minister, Angel Tilvar, reportedly said on Wednesday.

Ukraine said on Monday that Russian drones had detonated on the territory of Nato member Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River, but Bucharest denied then its territory had been hit.

“I confirm that pieces which might be the elements of a drone were found,” Tilvar said, according to the HotNews website, which cited Romanian broadcaster Antena 3 CNN.

He added the area was not evacuated because there was nothing to suggest that the parts posed a threat, Reuters reports.

The defence and foreign ministries, along with Romania’s president, Iohannis Klaus, had all denied reports of the drones detonating on Romanian territory and said Russian attacks did not cause a direct threat to Romanian territory.

Peter Beaumont

A Russian-occupation appointed official has acknowledged that Moscow’s forces have abandoned the Ukrainian village of Robotyne, more than a week after Kyiv announced its recapture.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said in a television interview that the Russian army had withdrawn for what he called tactical reasons.

News outlet RBC quoted him as saying:

The Russian army abandoned – tactically abandoned – this settlement because staying on a bare surface when there is no way to completely dig in … doesn’t generally make sense. Therefore the Russian army moved off into the hills.

Russia has not previously acknowledged the loss of Robotyne, whose recapture was announced by Ukraine on 28 August.

In its daily update on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled two Ukrainian attacks near Robotyne.

More than 18 months after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine says it is gaining ground and has broken through Russia’s first line of fortifications in several places on the frontline, despite repeated statements from Moscow that Ukraine’s three-month-old counteroffensive has been a failure.

Robotnye lies in an area where Ukrainians have been successfully pushing into Russia’s first line of defences around the so-called Surovikin line.

Lying to the east of Verbove, which has been the focus of heavy fighting in recent weeks. In recent days, military analysts have suggested that Ukrainian troop had cleared obstacle barriers to reach dug in Russian positions on the outskirts of Verbove itself.

The fighting around Robotnye and Verbove has signalled attempts by Ukrainian forces to widen a salient that is now pushing into the Russian lines along a gradually broadening front.

However, Ukrainian forces have faced formidable obstacles including physical barriers of dragon’s teeth, minefields that are in places 500m deep, and the more effective use of Russia’s air superiority against the armoured forces trying to penetrate Moscow’s defences which Ukrainian officials have said has required infantry to dismount from carriers more than they had initially planned.

Ukrainian forces are making “incremental but methodical progress” which is “slower than expected a couple of months ago”, a western official has said, according to the Guardian’s defence editor, Dan Sabbagh.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been “much more dismounted than we envisaged” because of the need to clear mines, meaning it has had the advantage of “a lot more of the kit has been preserved”, the official said.

At the next defence minister’s meeting in mid September, the focus is likely to be about equipment support and ensuring that kit is in the best shape as possible.

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister, a lawmaker said.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram that an overwhelming majority had supported Umerov after he was put forward for the role by Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine’s biggest wartime shake-up of the defence sector so far.

Umerov is a leading member of the Crimean Tatar community who has represented his country in sensitive negotiations with Russia.

In a video address on Sunday night, Zelenskiy named Umerov as the successor to Oleksii Reznikov, who was stepping down after 22 months in the job.

His appointment is a clear signal that Kyiv is determined to expel Russia and its occupying forces from Crimea, defence ministry sources suggest. Some of Ukraine’s western allies including the US are privately sceptical about the feasibility of this ambition.

Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:

• The situation along the eastern frontline remains difficult and the main task for Ukraine’s troops is to ensure reliable defence and prevent the loss of strongholds, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Wednesday. “The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders cregions,” the ground forces cited Syrskyi as saying on the Telegram messaging app.

• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv, according to media reports on Wednesday morning. The visit, unannounced in advance, is Blinken’s first for a year to the Ukrainian capital. Blinken will be in the city for two days and is expected to announce a new package of US assistance worth over $1bn, Reuters reported. He is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

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• It comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister this week amid a number of corruption scandals over military procurement, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country. US media have frequently quoted unnamed US officials criticising the counteroffensive as too slow and poorly planned, which has irritated Ukrainian officials. An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip.

• In the hours before Blinken’s arrival, Russia launched a new wave of air attacks on Kyiv, with missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defences, Ukrainian officials claimed. Loud explosions could be heard in the capital shortly before 6am. “Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on Telegram. Officials said there had been damage to buildings by falling debris but there were no casualties.

• Following the collapse of the deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports. Ukrainian forces downed 17 Russian drones over the Odesa region overnight into Monday. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that the attacks had taken place “very, very close” to his country’s border.

• The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed a drone just before midnight on Tuesday over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that there was no destruction or casualties.

• Russian mercenary group Wagner is set to be declared a terrorist organisation by the UK, as British ministers condemned its “devastating” role across the world. Defence secretary Grant Shapps defended the time it has taken to proscribe the group, ahead of a draft order being laid in parliament on Wednesday, PA Media reports.

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• The US warned Kim Jong-un that North Korea would “pay a price” for supplying Russia with weapons to use in Ukraine, saying that arms negotiations between the two states were actively advancing. Providing weapons to Russia “is not going to reflect well on North Korea and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House.

• Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting Cubans to fight as mercenaries for Russia in its war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry has said, as Moscow seeks to increase the size of its forces. In a statement, the Cuban foreign ministry said the authorities were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network, which it said was operating within the Caribbean island nation and in Russia.

• A battlefield video circulated on social media appeared to show the destruction of a British Challenger 2 in Ukraine, which would be the first time one of the tanks has been destroyed in combat.

• More than 900 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year amid broad Russian use of the widely banned weapons, propelling global casualty figures to record levels, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

Shaun Walker

In the hours before Blinken’s arrival, Russia launched a new wave of air attacks on Kyiv, with missiles shot down by Ukrainian air defences, Ukrainian officials claimed. Loud explosions could be heard in the capital shortly before 6am.

“Another missile attack by the enemy on a peaceful city,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on Telegram. Officials said there had been damage to buildings by falling debris but there were no casualties.

In southern Ukraine, where Russia has been targeting grain export facilities in recent weeks, a three-hour drone attack killed one person and damaged agricultural and port facilities, the regional governor said.

“An employee of an agricultural enterprise, who was seriously injured, died in the hospital,” said Oleh Kiper.

Blinken visits Kyiv amid challenging Ukrainian counteroffensive

Shaun Walker

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv, according to media reports on Wednesday morning. The visit, unannounced in advance, is Blinken’s first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.

Blinken will be in the city for two days and is expected to announce a new package of US assistance worth over $1bn, Reuters reported. He is expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

It comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister this week amid a number of corruption scandals over military procurement, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country.

US media have frequently quoted unnamed US officials criticising the counteroffensive as too slow and poorly planned, which has irritated Ukrainian officials.

An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip.

“I think what’s most important is that we get a real assessment from the Ukrainians themselves,” the official said. “We want to see, hear how they intend to push forward in the coming weeks.”