Ukraine-Russia war live: Zelensky says Putin ‘afraid’ as Moscow’s Satan II fails

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the US Capitol on Thursday to meet with Democratic and Republican lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office said on Tuesday.

Brazil and China have proposed a six-point plan for talks to begin between Russia and Ukraine to end their conflict, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said.

Lula, who has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone about the proposal, did not give any details in a speech at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

Ukrainian troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat as they drove Russian forces out of a huge processing plant in the town of Vovchansk in Ukraine‘s northeast that had been occupied for four months, officials have said.

The plant, a partly steel structure with some 30 buildings, had been a Russian stronghold in the Kharkiv border region since May when Russia sought to further stretch Ukraine‘s weary forces by launching a fresh push in the area.

Taking back the plant was likely intended to demonstrate that Ukraine is not giving up the fight despite being outmanned and outgunned by the Russian army. 

A statement from Ukrainian Military Intelligence said its units recaptured the Vovchansk plant after fierce fighting “in densely built-up conditions.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on allies to help Ukraine “stop the terror” after Russian troops hit a residential building in Ukraine‘s northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing at least three people.

“There is much discussion now at the UN General Assembly about collective efforts for security and the future. But we just need to stop the terror. To have security. To have a future,” Zelenskiy said on X during his visit to the US.

Russia has hit a high-rise apartment block in Ukraine‘s northeastern city of Kharkiv during an attack with guided bombs, killing at least three people and injuring 15 more, the regional governor said. 

Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that Russia attacked at least four districts in the afternoon.

State repression has worsened in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, a UN expert has said, warning of arbitrary imprisonment and risks for more than 1,000 political prisoners.

“The country is now governed by a State-sponsored system of fear and punishment, including the use of torture, with absolute impunity,” UN Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council,

The Bulgarian former Amnesty International investigator said in a report on Russia’s rights record that oppression had intensified since the February 2022 Ukraine war began, with the number of political prisoners up to more than 1,300.

Many were jailed on fabricated charges, she said, noting a priest’s seven-year sentence for a prayer against the war.

“They risk anything from death, like (opposition leader Alexei) Navalny, or really their health being completely taken away from them,” she said on Monday ahead of her speech, noting greater use of torture and solitary confinement.