Ukraine Counteroffensive Update for Sept 15 (European Edition): ‘Tough Battles are Ongoing’

Overview

• Ukraine liberates Andriivka
• Zelensky to meet with Biden and address UN next week
• Moscow boots two American consulate workers as personae non gratis
• WATCH: Ukrainian GUR drone strikes Russian battleship
• Russian forces suffer setbacks on the key Verbove front, Maliar reports
• President promotes “warriors’ rights” in daily address

Ukraine liberates Andriivka

Ukraine has announced the liberation of the village of Andriivka near the Russian-held city of Bakhmut.

In a post on social media on Friday morning, Ukraine's General Staff said: “The defence forces... liberated Andriivka in Donetsk region, inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment, and entrenched at the occupied frontiers.”

They also reported “partial success” near another village south of Bakhmut, Klishchiivka, but added: “Tough battles are ongoing.”

Read more on this story here.

Kremlin kicks out two US diplomats for allegedly conspiring with Sohonov

AFP reported on Thursday that Moscow was kicking out two US diplomats for allegedly conspiring with Robert Shonov, a Russian national who was employed by the US Consulate General in Vladivostok for more than 25 years. In May, Shonov was accused by Moscow of spying, a charge that the US State Department denied.

“The United States strongly condemns the reported arrest of Robert Shonov, a former employee of US Mission Russia,” the State Department posted in May on its website. “The allegations against Mr. Shonov are wholly without merit.”

According to AFP, “Shonov… was charged with passing information about the conflict in Ukraine to American diplomats... Russia’s foreign ministry said the two US diplomats – Jeff Sillin and David Bernstein – conducted ‘illegal activities by liaising with a Russian citizen, (Robert) Shonov.”

Other Topics of Interest

Zelensky Meets CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine

Zelensky said he had met Burns on multiple occasions throughout the war, but their meetings had been undisclosed.

Sillin and Bernstein have a week to leave the country under the status of persona non grata, the Foreign Ministry said.

“We completely reject the basis for this unprovoked expulsion of our diplomatic personnel,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday, calling it an “intimidation” as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky to meet with US lawmakers and President

In their first meeting since a sideline conversation at a NATO summit in Lithuania in July, US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet in the United States next week, when both men address the United Nations General Assembly.

The encounter would coincide with Zelensky’s plea to UN members who have not wholeheartedly supported Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, as members gather for a forum on sustainable development in New York City on Sept. 18 and 19.

It remains unclear whether Biden will sit down with Zelensky then and there or at the White House later, but Republican leaders said that Zelensky is expected on Capitol Hill to meet individually with US lawmakers on Thursday, Sept. 21

Biden has asked Congress to provide $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but a minority faction of conservative representatives and senators in Congress, as well as some Republican candidates for president, have expressed a measure of fatigue for aid to Ukraine in recent months.

Ukrainian Deputy PM posts video of drone attacking Russian naval ship

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development Mykhailo Fedorov posted a video on Telegram demonstrating how a naval drone from a unit of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) attacking a Russian ship:

Operations: Zaporizhzhia Region

Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar said in a post on Telegram that Russian forces suffered significant losses in the Zaporizhzhia region on Thursday, especially in the hotly contested vicinity of Verbove, which has seen some of the counteroffensive’s fiercest battles this week.

“The enemy carried out attacks in the areas of Mala Tokmachka and Verbove, Zaporizhzhia region, but these attacks resulted in significant losses for the occupiers, both in terms of manpower and equipment,” Maliar said.

Russian forces also suffered significant losses at the hands of Ukrainian defenders in the Melitopol sector, Ukrinform reported.

Zelensky describes meeting with Umerov and a new “military ombudsman”

In his nightly address, President Zelensky reported on his meeting with his new Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, and discussed the work the Ministry was doing with Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, who will be tapped as a “military ombudsman,” a new position that Umerov suggested in order to advocate for soldiers’ well-being.

Operations: Luhansk and Kharkiv regions

Citing vetted footage, the ISW reported that Russian forces continued offensive operations on the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line on Thursday and recently advanced, following Russian advances over the past two days west of Lyman Pershyi (12 km northeast of Kupyansk).

Russian sources also claimed that their invading troops made “unspecified advances” between Petropavlivka (7 km east of Kupyansk) and Synkivka (9 km northeast of Kupyansk) and continued assaults near  the Serebryanske forest area on Thursday.