Zelensky hits back at Elon Musk’s ‘peace plan’; Russia says it hasn’t finalized borders yet as Ukraine retakes more annexed regions

As Russian forces lose ground to Kiev’s counter-offensive, the Kremlin said it still hadn’t crossed the borders of two of its four regions. Ukraine which President Vladimir Putin claimed last week.

krain president Volodymyr Zelensky said liberating settlements from Russian occupation is now “the trend” as its forces push further into the eastern region of Donetsk and pursue gains in the south.

His comment comes after the strategic eastern city of Lyman has been “completely evacuated,” the president said in a short video. The city is part of the regions that Putin has annexed after referendums labeled as illegal by Ukraine and its allies.

Ukrainian forces resume a counter-offensive in the southern region of Kherson and have secured positions in Zolota Balka and Khreshchenivka, the US-based Institute for the Study of War said. Ukrainian forces continued to reclaim settlements east and northeast of Lyman, taking Torske in the Donetsk region. Infrastructure in the city of Zaporizhzhya was damaged by rocket attacks on Monday morning. In the past day, Russia launched 11 rockets and 10 airstrikes and more than 65 rocket attacks, attacking some 35 Ukrainian settlements, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk draws down the ire of the president’s Ukrainians for Twitter posts calling on Ukraine to seek a negotiated solution to Russia’s invasion and cede Crimea for good.

Musk also launched a Twitter poll asking citizens of occupied territories in eastern Ukraine recently annexed by Russia — plus Crimea, which Moscow took in 2014 — to decide whether they wanted to live in Russia or Ukraine. The investigation comes as Ukraine, Europe and the US denounce President Vladimir Putin’s move to annex four regions and declare them Russian territory.

In another post, Musk called for the mock referendums held by Russia in occupied territories — which led to Putin approving their annexation — under UN scrutiny. He also said that Crimea should be formally part of Russia. On Ukraine, he said it should “remain neutral”.

Ukraine’s response was immediate. President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by posting his own poll on Twitter and asking his followers whether they preferred an Elon Musk backing Ukraine… or Russia.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, replied that there was already “a better peace plan” that included the liberation of territory, including Crimea.

Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s top diplomat in Germany, didn’t mince words.

Since the early days of the war, Musk has supplied Ukraine with Starlink dishes, a network that has proved crucial in supporting infrastructure across Ukraine as it counters disinformation from Russia.

“The Russians have escalated dramatically in the past week,” Eurasia group chairman Ian Bremmer said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power With David Westin.”

Putin’s annexation claims make it “almost impossible to sit down with the Ukrainians in the short to medium term, but it also puts Putin in a corner because he is going to lose a lot of this country.”

“The Russian didn’t even have everything under control when he annexed it,” Bremmer said. “I think this is the first time in history that you can say that.”

The US will announce a new package of security assistance for Ukraine “in the coming days”, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power With David Westin” on Monday.

“You’ll see we continue to equip them with the kind of weapons and capabilities that are well suited to the battle they’re in,” Kirby said. A $625 million package is expected to include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Reuters reported, citing sources who did not name it. The launchers are valued by the Ukrainian military.

Kirby also said in the interview that the US has so far “seen no indication” that countries will recognize Russia’s annexation claims after holding fake referendums.

Russian troops “dumped” Ihor Murashov, director general of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in the Ukraine-controlled area after detaining him, according to the country’s nuclear operator Energoatom.

According to Energoatom, Murashov was abducted by Russian troops on September 30 as he was en route from the factory seized by Russia to the nearby city of Energodar. Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was instrumental in his release, the company said.

After a break in offensive operations in the south, Ukrainian forces have launched a renewed counter-offensive in the Kherson region. According to Russian military bloggers, they had made a significant advance on Monday morning along the northern reaches of the western bank of the vast Dnipro River.

Russia’s defense ministry admitted its forces withdrew after “superior tank units were able to penetrate deep into our defences” at Zolota Balka and Oleksandrivka.

Although Putin annexed four Ukrainian provinces last week, including Kherson and Donetsk, Moscow forces do not fully control any of the areas and are being driven out of some cities they have owned for months. the possible use of nuclear weapons.

The Russian Interior Ministry has listed a journalist who received international attention for organizing an anti-war protest on the main TV news channel.

Marina Ovsyannikova has fled house arrest in Moscow with her daughter, her ex-husband said this weekend. Her lawyer said he could not confirm whether this is true or not.

Ovsyannikova was charged under an information dissemination law that discredits the Russian military, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne warned lawmakers that the war in Ukraine would last, as she defended Emmanuel Macron’s choice to continue talking to Putin.

The future “will be written around a negotiating table, not on the battlefield,” she told the National Assembly before a debate on Ukraine. These talks “should allow Ukraine to be fully heard,” she added.

“The war in Ukraine will last, but we are ready,” she said, adding that France had already sent EUR 200 million worth of equipment to Ukraine, totaling 2,500 tons.

The first shipment of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s newest plant is approaching Greece, as Europe continues to import the supercooled fuel, despite Moscow severely restricting pipeline gas flows.

Moscow is throttling gas supplies to the region after the invasion of Ukraine, but Europe continues to import Russian LNG.

Read more: LNG from new plant in Russia approaches Greece as Europe continues to import

Kiev city authorities cite a rising number of Covid cases by calling for a return to wearing masks in public places. “We recommend wearing masks in transportation, public service places and educational institutions,” a statement on Kiev’s Telegram account said. “The number of incidents in Kiev is increasing rapidly – to 2,515 cases of COVID-19 within a week, 22 people died.”

The European Union is seeking a preliminary agreement starting Monday on a new sanctions package designed to punish Russia for escalating its war in Ukraine and illegally annexing four occupied territories there.

“I am hopeful that in a few hours we can reach a unanimous agreement on the sanctions package,” Poland’s ambassador to the EU, Andrzej Sados, told reporters. “We are very close and there is determination to close a deal as soon as possible.”

Member States are eager to reach an agreement before EU leaders meet in Prague on October 7, said people familiar with the matter and asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call that Moscow will continue to consult with people living in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya to determine the boundaries of areas that Russia wants to annex.

He declined to comment on how that could happen and whether the new borders would be laid down in separate laws. “I’ve said everything I can say about that,” he said when journalists asked for clarification.

His comments fuel uncertainty surrounding Russia’s hastily organized drive to include the four regions still partially occupied by its forces in Ukraine. Putin signed documents on Friday to make them part of Russia “forever”, but the Kremlin said at the time it could not say exactly what the borders of the annexed zones were.

The flow of Ukrainian refugees across the Russian-Estonian border has risen to an average of 550 crossings in recent days, with migrants arriving hungry after queuing for days, Estonian authorities said.

“The wait for people crossing the border from Russia has sometimes been up to two days, and many have waited there without eating or drinking in the cold,” border officer Peter Maran said by email. “People are afraid of the consequences of the Russian mobilization.”

Russian diplomats are being summoned across Europe to hear of discontent over mock referendums and subsequent annexation by Moscow.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told TVN24 television that they had agreed with colleagues at the European level to “present this position at the same time, more or less on the same day, to the Russian ambassadors residing in our respective countries.”

Last week, the focus of military reports was on the list of settlements reclaimed from the Russian military as part of Ukraine’s ongoing defense operation, President Zelensky said in a video posted to Telegram late Sunday.

“This, you know, is the trend,” he said. “Recently someone held pseudo-referendums somewhere, and when the Ukrainian flag is returned, no one remembers the Russian farce with some scraps of paper and some annexations.”