Ukraine Latest: Zelenskiy Meets Troops; War Prisoners Exchanged

(Bloomberg) --

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited southern Ukrainian areas close to the front line, meeting troops and regional officials in a show of support outside the capital. Ukraine said it exchanged a small number of prisoners with Russia.

Ukraine said its forces repelled a Russian assault outside the key eastern city of Sievierodonetsk as fighting continues in the Donbas region. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its missiles struck Ukrainian artillery positions in the region.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to step up support for Ukraine, including weapons supplies, and urged other European Union member states to back Kyiv’s bid for eventual membership at a summit next week.

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

• Gas Rationing Gets Closer for Europe as Putin Squeezes Supplies
• Ukraine Wins Initial EU Recommendation for Membership Path
• Putin Gets Unexpected Pushback from Ally Over War in Ukraine
• Russian Cuts Force Europe to Use Gas It Was Saving for Winter
• Russia Tightens Squeeze on Gas Supply to Europe’s Biggest Buyers

(All times CET)

Ukraine Announces Exchange of Prisoners (9:43 p.m.)

Ukraine and Russia swapped five prisoners held by each side, the Ukrainian intelligence service said on its Telegram channel. All the Ukrainians returning home were civilians, including four residents of the Kyiv region who were captured early in the war, according to the report.

Ukraine Says Oil Depot Destroyed (7:57 p.m.) 

Three Russian missiles destroyed an oil storage facility in Ukraine’s Novomoskovsk district, causing a large fire and injuring 11 people, one of them seriously, according to the regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko. The area is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Donetsk.

Zelenskiy Tours Front Lines in the South (6:39 p.m.)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited southwestern regions of Ukraine near the front line for talks with local officials and to meet troops. 

In the Odesa region near the Black Sea, he discussed blockaded agricultural shipments, according to the president’s office. He viewed war-damaged buildings in the Mykolayiv region to the east earlier Saturday and held talks with the regional governor and local commanders in a video released by his press office. 

In Mykolayiv city, Zelenskiy met wounded soldiers and civilians at a hospital and presented medical staff with state awards.

Ukraine Says It’s Holding Off Attack on Key City (6:14 p.m.)

Ukrainian officials said a Russian offensive to capture Sievierodonetsk is failing, though defenders are coming under pressure in surrounding towns amid heavy fighting. Russian troops “are massively dying,” local governor Serhiy Haidai asserted on his Telegram channel.  

While bridges between Sievierodonetsk and the cross-river city of Lysychansk are destroyed, links remain so that Ukrainian forces are supplied or could evacuate if needed, he said. He said Ukraine retains full control in Lysychansk, a city that’s critical to the Ukrainian defense of the Luhansk region.

The military headquarters in Kyiv said Russian troops achieved “partial success” in Metyolkine, a village on the southeastern outskirts of Lysychansk where Haidai reported “fierce fighting.”   

In the Sumy region near the Russian border, Ukrainian troops inflicted heavy casualties near Krasnopillya. Russian missiles set off a fire at a refinery near Izyum in the Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram.

Germany Says Gas Situation is ‘Tense’ (4:05 p.m.)

Gas storage levels rose to 56.67% from 56.29% yesterday, Germany’s Federal Network Agency said on its website, calling the situation “tense.” While gas supply is stable and “guaranteed at present,” the agency said it supported calls to reduce consumption as much as possible.

India Buying More Russian Coal, Reuters Reports (3:38 p.m.)

India has been ramping up purchases of Russian coal, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter as well as data reviewed by the news agency.

Traders have been offering discounts of as much as 30%, it said. US officials have told India there is no ban on energy imports from Russia though they don’t want to see a “rapid acceleration.”

Austria Says Russia Cut Gas Supplies by Half (1:40 p.m.)

Austria is receiving about half of its usual supply of gas from Russia’s Gazprom for a third day but is still able to add to storage in preparation for the winter, according to the country’s Energy Ministry.

Importers in neighboring Germany, Italy and Slovakia have signaled cuts of similar magnitude as energy markets become a conflict point between Russia and Europe.

Zelenskiy Visits Southern Frontline Region (1:04 p.m.)

The Ukrainian president viewed war-damaged buildings in the Mykolayiv region close to the front line and held talks with the regional governor and local commanders in a video released by his press office. 

Zelenskiy also met with wounded soldiers and civilians at a hospital in the city of Mykolayiv and presented medical staff with state awards, according to a statement from his office.

Russia Says Missiles Struck Ukrainian Artillery (1:00 p.m.)  

Russian forces firing air-launched missiles hit 12 positions of Ukrainian units equipped with US M777 howitzers and Grad multiple-launch rocket systems in the Donetsk region, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.  

Russian aviation carried out 62 strikes in the past day on Ukrainian positions and ammunition stores, including in the Kharkiv region and near the Luhansk regional city of Lysychansk, he said.

Ukraine Reports Donetsk Region Battles (11:42 a.m.)

Russian troops are attempting to advance toward Slovyansk in the Donetsk region and fighting goes on for control of Sievierodonetsk, the Ukrainian Military Staff said in a statement. In the northern Kharkiv region, Russian troops are focused on defense to try to deter Ukraine’s advance toward the state border, it said. 

Russian missiles hit the Kremenchuk oil refinery, which was already put out of action by strikes in April, as well as local thermal power plants, the head of Ukraine’s Poltava region, Dmytro Lunin, said on his Telegram channel.

Almost a third of Ukraine’s territory requires de-mining, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said in a website statement, and the government is in talks with partners including the UK, France and Italy to obtain equipment and expertise. 

Scholz Pledges More Help to Ukraine (11:30 a.m.)

“We will continue to provide financial resources. We will help with reconstruction,” Scholz said in a video message. “We will continue to supply weapons, which are urgently needed for the defense of Ukraine’s independence.”

The chancellor, who visited Kyiv Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, said Ukrainians fighting for freedom and democracy in their country “want to know that this leads to Europe.” He urged other EU states to back candidate status for Ukraine at next week’s EU leaders’ summit.

German Police Pursue Alleged Russia War Crimes (11:30 a.m.)

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police has several hundred leads on alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported, citing an interview withe agency head Holger Muench. Investigations are underway not only into perpetrators of war crimes, but also into those responsible for them at the military and government level, he said.

“This is the most difficult part of our investigations,” Muench told the newspaper. “Our clear goal is to identify those responsible for atrocities, to prove their deeds through our investigations and to bring them to justice.”

Russia Seeks to Advance in Donbas, UK Says (8:40 a.m.)

Russian forces have likely renewed efforts to push south of Izyum in the past 48 hours with the goal of moving deeper into Ukraine’s Donetsk region and enveloping Sievierodonetsk from the north, the UK’s Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

While Russian and separatist officials have claimed to be attempting to set up humanitarian corridors to let civilians leave Sievierodonetsk, Moscow has a history of using such corridors “as a mechanism to manipulate the battlespace and impose the forced transfer of populations,” according to the assessment. Ukrainians are likely to be suspicious of a corridor that would take them deeper into Russian-occupied territory, the ministry said.

A separatist representative of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic said there’s no agreement on opening a humanitarian corridor at the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, alleging Ukrainian forces had refused to guarantee a cease-fire, Russia’s state-run Tass news service reported. 

Gas Rationing Gets Closer for Europe (7:00 a.m.)

Throughout the entire Cold War and in the decades since, Russia was a stable supplier of gas to Europe. That changed this week.

Prices surged after Russia slashed gas supplies, adding pressure to the region’s economy that could strain European solidarity -- all victories for the Kremlin that came as EU leaders underlined support for Ukraine during high-profile trips to the country.

If Russia completely shuts its main link, the region could run out of supplies by January, according consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. 

Read more: Gas Rationing Gets Closer for Europe as Putin Squeezes Supplies

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