This blog file is now closed. For the latest developments, please click here.
The war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022 with Russia's invasion of its neighbor, shows no sign of ending as both sides intensify attacks to gain control of contested regions.
Read our latest updates here. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.
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Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.
Here are the latest developments:
Monday, Sept. 4 (Tokyo time)
9:20 a.m. Russia launched an overnight air attack on one of Ukraine's major grain exporting ports, Ukrainian officials say, hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, were due to hold talks. Ukraine's air force urged residents of Izmail port, one of Ukraine's two major grain-exporting ports on the Danube River in the Odesa region, to seek shelter after midnight on Monday. Some Ukraine media reported the sound of blasts in the area.
5:20 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has struck a "very important agreement on training our pilots in France" in conversation with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
"Our coalition of modern fighters is getting more powerful," Zelenskyy says in his nightly video address. He does not elaborate on what the training will entail.
Sunday, Sept. 3
4:00 p.m. Some 280,000 people have signed up so far this year for professional service with Russia's military, the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, says. Visiting Russia's Far East, Medvedev said he was meeting local officials to work on efforts to beef up the armed forces. "According to the Ministry of Defense, since Jan. 1, about 280,000 people have been accepted into the ranks of the Armed Forces on a contract basis," including reservists, state news agency TASS quoted Medvedev as saying.
Saturday, Sept. 2
3:00 p.m. Russian authorities have declared newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to be a foreign agent, continuing the country's moves to suppress critics and independent reporting. Russian law allows for individuals and organizations receiving funding from abroad to be declared foreign agents, a pejorative term that potentially undermines their credibility with the Russian public. The status also requires designees to mark any publications with a disclaimer stating they are foreign agents.
8:00 a.m. The head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency says the country has deployed an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that President Vladimir Putin once said will make Russia's enemies "think twice." Agency head Yuri Borisov said Sarmat missiles have been placed on combat duty, according to Russian news agencies. The Sarmat is one of several advanced weapons whose development Putin announced in 2018. The silo-based missile, capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, is intended to replace the R-36 ICBMs that are known by the NATO reporting name of Satan.
1:30 a.m. Vladimir Putin says he expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping soon, following earlier reports that he planned to visit China in October. Russia has turned increasingly to China as its most powerful ally since alienating the West last year with its decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Friday, Sept. 1
11:40 p.m. Denmark has decided to cap the number of Russian diplomats allowed at the Copenhagen embassy to five and administrative staff to 20, forcing Moscow to cut its staffing, a Danish foreign ministry statement says. "The decision to introduce parity in the size of the two embassies means that the Russian embassy in Copenhagen must reduce its current staffing," the ministry said. The reduction must be implemented by Sept. 29, the ministry added.
2:45 a.m. Ukraine has broken through a major Russian defensive line in the south, according to Ukrainian military commanders and Western military analysts, marking a new step in its counteroffensive to take back territory.
After taking the village of Robotyne, Ukrainian forces are reported to be moving east to the village of Verbove, beyond the network of trenches, mines and tank traps that Russia had built to withstand an assault.
Analysts believe that taking the city of Tokmak, which is used by Russia as a logistical hub, is Kyiv's ultimate goal in the current push.
Thursday, Aug. 31
6:00 a.m. Russian companies made profits of 14.80 trillion rubles ($154.30 billion) in the first six months of 2023, data from the federal statistics service showed on Wednesday, down 11.4% year-on-year amid the fallout from the nation's invasion of Ukraine. The West targeted dozens of large companies and entire sectors of Russia's economy, particularly finance and energy, with sweeping sanctions after Moscow launched the war in February last year. Companies engaged in wholesale trade recorded drops in profits, as did those involved in coal mining.
4:30 a.m. White House national security spokesman John Kirby tells reporters the U.S. believes arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are "actively advancing."
Kirby adds that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had tried to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia during a trip to North Korea last month. "We remain concerned that ... the DPRK continues to consider providing military support to Russia's military forces in Ukraine," Kirby said, referring to North Korea and citing "new information" that such talks were advancing.
Overnight, North Korea conducted what it called a tactical nuclear strike drill simulating strikes on South Korea's command posts and airfields in a "warning" against the U.S. deployment of strategic bombers to the region, state media reports. South Korea and Japan say North Korea launched two missiles into the sea.
Wednesday, Aug. 30
2:30 p.m. At least two people were killed and two wounded in an attack on Kyiv on Wednesday morning, says Mayor Vitali Klitschko, on the Telegram messaging app, as debris from targets destroyed by air defenses fell on several buildings in the Ukrainian capital. The bodies of two people were found in a nonresidential building and one person was wounded by glass shards, Klitschko said. "Kyiv has not experienced such a powerful attack since spring. The enemy launched a massive, combined attack using drones and missiles," said Serhiy Popko, head of the city's military administration, on Telegram.
11:00 a.m. Ukrainian drones swept across Russia in overnight attacks that destroyed military aircraft and disrupted air traffic, Russian officials say. Attacks by unmanned aircraft were reported in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov and Ryazan regions as well as the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, Russian officials said. The most significant attack appeared to be in Pskov about 660 kilometers north of the Ukrainian frontier, near the borders with Estonia and Latvia, where Russian officials said four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged.
8:30 a.m. An alarming rise in global distrust and division coupled with efforts by countries to improve the accuracy and destructive power of nuclear weapons is "a recipe for annihilation," the United Nations chief warns. In a statement marking the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that with nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled around the world, "a legally binding prohibition on nuclear tests is a fundamental step in our quest for a world free of nuclear weapons."
2:39 a.m. The U.S. has announced a $250 million package of military assistance for Ukraine, including AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles for air defense and munitions for HIMARS mobile rocket launchers.
Also included are "155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, mine-clearing equipment, Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets, over 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition, ambulances, demolition munitions for obstacle clearing, as well as spare parts, services, training, and transportation," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says in a news release.
1:30 a.m. The chief of Russia's Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin is buried privately at a cemetery on the outskirts of St Petersburg six days after he died in a plane crash. The funeral takes place away from the glare of the media and in stark contrast to the brazen, self-publicizing style with which Prigozhin had fanned his reputation far beyond Russia for ruthlessness and ambition. Secrecy has surrounded the funeral arrangements for the Wagner mercenary boss who was killed in a plane crash on Aug. 23, two months to the day since staging a mutiny in the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule since he rose to power in 1999.
Tuesday, Aug. 29
12:49 p.m. South Korea unveils financial aid of 520 billion won ($394 million) for Ukraine next year, an eightfold increase from this year. The aid package includes 130 billion won for reconstruction, 260 billion in humanitarian aid and another 130 billion won through international organizations, according to South Korea's 2024 budget. In July, President Yoon Suk Yeol announced his country would provide a "large scale of military supplies" this year without giving details.
1:45 a.m. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia soon to discuss the now-defunct United Nations deal that had allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, a spokesperson for Turkey's ruling AK Party says.
The U.N.- and Turkey-brokered deal collapsed in mid-July, and Erdogan has been working to restore it.
1:30 a.m. Ukraine says it has captured a key southwestern settlement after more than a week of fighting.
Robotyne is in the Zaporizhzhia region and on an important road toward Tokmak, a Russian-occupied road and rail hub.
Kyiv says it believes that its forces have broken through the strongest line of Russian defense and expects that they will now start advancing faster.
12:30 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit hosted by India to be held next month, according to a press release from the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Putin told Modi in a telephone conversation today that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would go to New Delhi to represent Moscow instead in the Sept. 9-10 meeting.
Putin also declined to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa that was held earlier this month. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant on the Russian president, complicating his travel abroad.
Monday, Aug. 28
3:30 p.m. Russia's FSB security service has charged a former employee of the U.S. Consulate in the Russian Far East with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington, state news agency TASS says. The man relayed information to U.S. embassy staffers in Moscow on how Russia's conscription campaign was impacting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential elections in Russia, TASS quoted the FSB as saying.
3:00 p.m. Two people were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack on Ukraine's central Poltava region, Gov. Dmytro Lunin says. "As a result of the hostile attack, two people were killed, two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries, and the whereabouts of two more people are currently unknown," Lunin said on the Telegram messaging app. Lunin said the attack was on an industrial facility. He did not provide further details.
1:00 a.m. A Russian SU-30 military plane escorted a U.S. reconnaissance Reaper drone on Sunday over the Black Sea, RIA news agency reports, citing the Russian defense ministry. TASS news agency said the drone had not breached Russia's state border.
For earlier updates, click here.
