Live blog: US displays drones from Ukraine it claims are made in Iran

Thursday, October 12, 2023

1850 GMT — US military officials displayed what they said were pieces of Iranian drones recovered in Ukraine to UN member states as evidence, according to the Pentagon, of growing ties between Iran and Russia.

The US mission to the UN said representatives from more than 40 countries attended the event, where Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials said the debris included parts of Iranian Shahed-101, Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones found in Ukraine.

Tehran has denied Western accusations that it is supplying Russia with large quantities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) , some armed, to use in its military offensive against Ukraine.

DIA officials previously showed pieces of what they said were Iranian drones recovered in Ukraine in Washington in August.

This time, they displayed the shells of two "Shahed-131s," one they said was used in Ukraine in Autumn 2022 and the other found in Iraq in 2021.

"Iran lies and we want to push back on Russian war in Ukraine," said a DIA analyst.

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1715 GMT — Pentagon's 'FrankenSAM' program cobbles together air defence weapons for Ukraine

The Pentagon calls it FrankenSAM — a project that cobbles together air defence weapons for Ukraine from an array of parts from around the world.

But now, as congressional gridlock delays funding for the war in Ukraine, the Frankenstein-like program for surface-to-air missiles has become more of a life saver and a reliable way to get working weapons to the battlefield now.

The rapid delivery of the systems comes as Ukraine tries toward off Russian airstrikes and make as many gains as possible before troops are slowed down by weather.

A senior US defence official said that the US has been able to improvise and build a new missile launcher from radars and other parts contributed by allies and partners. The system will be able to launch AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, which the US announced it will send to Ukraine in the latest aid package.

At the same time, US engineers have been able to work with Ukraine to modify a Soviet-era Buk air defence launcher so that it can fire RIM-7 missiles, which the US has in large quantities.

Both of those systems, the official said, are moving to Ukraine this fall, in an effort to meet critical air defence needs as it struggles to retake territory the Russians have seized and gain a solid battlefield footing as the muddy season hits ahead of the winter freeze.

1515 GMT — Ukraine hails 'important decision' to exclude Russian Olympic body

Ukraine hails 'important decision' to exclude Russian Olympic body.

The International Olympic Committee suspended Russia's national Olympic body with "immediate effect" for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine's membership by recognising illegally annexed territories.

1500 GMT — Russian Olympic Committee suspended by IOC over Ukraine move

The International Olympic Committee suspended Russia's national Olympic body with "immediate effect" for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine's membership.

"The Russian Olympic Committee is no longer entitled to operate as a National Olympic Committee, as defined in the Olympic Charter, and cannot receive any funding from the Olympic movement," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said after the opening day of an executive board meeting in Mumbai.

But Adams stressed nothing in Thursday's announcement had changed the IOC's position on Russian athletes wishing to compete under a neutral flag at next year's Paris Olympics.

Adams said the suspension had followed the "unilateral decision" taken by the Russian Olympic Committee on October 5 to include, as its members, the regional sports organisations which are under the authority of Ukraine's NOC, namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

That move, he added, "violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee in accordance with the Olympic Charter".

1145 GMT — Death toll from Hroza missile strike rises to 59: Ukraine

The death toll from a missile strike on the village of Hroza in northeastern Ukraine has risen to 59 after police finished identifying the victims, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a cafe in the village in the Kharkiv region last week as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier.

Moscow denies targeting civilians, a position it repeated in response to a question at a Kremlin briefing about the strike on Hroza.

"The Russians killed 59 people with a direct hit with an Iskander (missile) on the village of Hroza," Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

"All victims are local residents. They were pensioners, medics, farmers, teachers, entrepreneurs. All were civilians. Entire families of several generations died."

1130 GMT — Romania finds drone crater after Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure

Romanian authorities said they found a crater from a suspected drone that may have exploded on impact on its territory near the border with Ukraine, reviving concerns about possible spillover of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine onto a NATO member country.

The pre-dawn discovery of the crater three kilometres west of the village of Plauru, which sits across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, was made after the Romanian Defence Ministry said it detected a series of drones heading towards Ukrainian river ports.

The ministry said the drone had possibly exploded on impact but it was not immediately clear when or from where the drone was launched. An investigation was under way.

"Heinous Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure had again serious consequences on Romania’s territory," Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, adding that "new evidence of impact was found on Romania’s soil."

0930 GMT — Czech Republic, Denmark to supply tanks, fighting vehicles to Ukraine

The Czech Republic and Denmark will jointly supply heavy military equipment to Ukraine in the coming months, the Czech Defence Ministry said.

It said the supplies would be from Czech defence companies and financed from the Danish budget.

The joint plan was first announced last month.

The Czech ministry detailed that the first shipment would include nearly 50 infantry fighting vehicles and main battle tanks, 2,500 hand guns, 7,000 rifles, 500 light machine guns, 500 sniper rifles and equipment for electronic warfare and intelligence.

The supplies will include new and modernised equipment.

0303 GMT — Putin in Kyrgyzstan on first trip since ICC arrest warrant

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan, visiting abroad for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

President Putin is wanted by the court over the deportation of Ukrainian children. Its ruling requires members of the ICC, which does not include Kyrgyzstan, to make the arrest if he sets foot on their territory.

He is due to meet his Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov and to take part in a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States with his Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko and other regional leaders.

This year, he has travelled only to Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, with his last foreign trips to Belarus and Kyrgyzstan last December — a far cry from the busy international schedule he had earlier in his rule.

0510 GMT — Ukraine downs 28 Russian drones targeting Odessa port

Ukraine has said that it had destroyed 28 Russian drones overnight, while authorities in the south said strikes damaged Odessa port warehouses and private residences, wounding one person.

Ukrainian forces downed 28 "Shahed-136/131" drones out of a total of 33 launched from Russia's Belgorod region to the north and from Russia's illegally annexed peninsula of Crimea to the south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Enemy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were flying in different directions, so air defence was working in at least six regions of Ukraine," it said.

The Defence Forces of the South of Ukraine meanwhile said Russia had lobbed another volley of attack drones towards port infrastructure along the Danube river.

"Trying to bypass air defence systems, ... drones were coming from different directions, using complex trajectories," it said on Telegram.

2100 GMT — Drone debris kills two in Belgorod

Debris from a drone destroyed over the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, fell on homes, killed two people, and injured at least two others, the regional governor has said.

"The air defence system in Belgorod district shot down an aircraft-type UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] approaching the city," Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"As a result of falling debris, a private residential building caught fire," he said, adding later that the falling debris had completely destroyed one residential building, and partially damaged two others.

"Unfortunately, there are dead. The bodies of two people — a man and a woman — were recovered from the rubble by emergency services," he wrote.

Another two people, also a man and a woman, were injured in the incident, and had been brought to hospital.

The man was in a coma and had suffered significant burns, while the woman had a concussion and a fractured leg, he said, adding that doctors had assessed the woman's condition as "serious".

He warned that a child was believed to still be under the rubble, saying "the rescue operation continues ".

0200 GMT — Putin arrives in Kyrgyzstan on first trip abroad since arrest warrant

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan, Russian news agencies reported, setting foot abroad for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March.

In Kyrgyzstan, a Russian ally in Central Asia, Putin is due to meet his counterpart Sadyr Japarov and take part in a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

For our live updates from Wednesday (October 11), click here.