West 'de facto' fighting Russia using Ukrainian 'hands & bodies' — Lavrov

Western powers through their support for Ukraine are "de facto" fighting against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, as Kiev claimed fresh advances on the ground.

"You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us," Lavrov told journalists at the United Nations on Saturday.

"We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn't change things."

Westerners are "de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians," Lavrov said, pointing to the billions of dollars in Western military equipment provided to Kiev since Russia attacked last year.

The US was "effectively engaged in hostilities with us, using the Ukrainians as fodder."

He also indicated the US and British intelligence support the presence of Western military advisors.

Earlier in his speech at the UN General Assembly, Lavrov denounced the United States and the West as self-interested defenders of a fading international power structure, but he didn't discuss his country's war in Ukraine.

"The US 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," he said.

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

Ukraine reports war progress in south

Officials in Kiev reported breaking through Russian defence lines in the south.

And its army said that senior Russian navy commanders had been among dozens killed or wounded in a missile attack on Moscow's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea.

Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian general leading the counteroffensive around the Zaporizhzhia area in the south, told US media that the advance was still underway. "On the left flank [near the village of Verbove], we have a breakthrough, and we continue to advance further," he told CNN in an interview released on Friday.

Progress had been "not as fast as it was expected – not like in the movies about the Second World War," he added.

But it was important, he added, "not to lose this initiative".

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive to claw back territory from Russian forces in June.

Progress has been slow, with much of the territory heavily mined.

But Kiev has, in recent weeks, reported making strategic advances in the Zaporizhzhia region.

And Tarnavskiy did not accept that Ukraine's push could be further slowed in the coming winter months.

"The weather can be a serious obstacle during advance, but considering how we move forward, mostly without vehicles, I don't think [it] will heavily influence the counteroffensive," he said.

Zelenskyy gets Sudan's backing

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was headed for home after addressing the United Nations and talks in Washington with the US Congress and President Joe Biden, who pledged the imminent arrival of US tanks to bolster Ukraine's arsenal.

He also got a pledge of more funding from Canada after addressing the parliament in Ottawa.

The Ukrainian leader took to X on Saturday to announce he had met Sudan's army chief and de facto ruler, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, during a stopover in Ireland.

"I'm grateful to Sudan for its constant support for Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity," Zelenskyy said, at a time when Kiev is seeking to counter growing Russian influence in Africa.

The two leaders talked of "common security challenges, particularly the activities of illegal armed groups financed by Russia".

Zelenskyy also said he made a brief halt in the Polish city of Lublin during the afternoon to decorate two Polish volunteers.