Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin annexes Ukrainian regions; Kyiv applies for Nato membership – as it happened

It’s nearly 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:

• Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on routine autumn conscription, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the outlet, Russia’s defense ministry “reportedly claims that the decision is ‘not in any way related’” to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

• The Russian consulate in New York was vandalized with red spray paint early Friday. Officers said they responded to an emergency call just after 1:30 am that reported paint sprayed across the facade of the consulate on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. A police spokeperson said the investigation is ongoing into the potential “bias incident” and no arrests have been made.

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Ukraine’s counteroffensive successes in the east as Kyiv’s forces appear to get closer to retaking the key town of Lyman, which Moscow captured in the spring. “We have significant results in the east of our country. There is already enough public information about this. Everyone has heard what is happening in Lyman, Donetsk region. These steps mean a lot to us,” Zelenskiy said in his public daily address.

• Russia on Friday vetoed a Western bid at the UN Security Council to condemn its annexations of Ukrainian territory. The US cosponsored a resolution with Ukraine pushed shortly after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would take over areas of Ukraine seized in the invasion following Kremlin-organized referendums. The resolution would have condemned the “illegal” referendums held in those Russian-occupied territories and call on all states not to recognize any changes to Ukraine’s borders.

• Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of organising blasts that led to numerous gas leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Europe. “Sanctions are not enough for the West. They have switched to sabotage. Unbelievable, but it is a fact!” Putin said during a televised speech at a Kremlin ceremony to annex four Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

• Congress has approved $12.3bn in aid on Friday to Ukraine as part of a stopgap spending bill that seeks to preven a chaotic government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline. The package, which was approved just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin annexed four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions, includes $3bn for arms, supplies and salaries for Ukraine’s military and authorizes president Joe Biden to direct the Pentagon to transfer $3.7bn in weapons and other hardware to Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on routine autumn conscription, the Kyiv Independent reports.

According to the outlet, Russia’s defense ministry “reportedly claims that the decision is ‘not in any way related’” to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian consulate in New York was vandalized with red spray paint early Friday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Officers said they responded to an emergency call just after 1:30 am that reported paint sprayed across the facade of the consulate on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

A police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing into the potential “bias incident” and no arrests have been made.

Rosie Morse, a retiree who lives in the neighborhood near the consulate, said the spray paint “looks like art work.”

“But the meaning is to express our feeling about Putin, and I can’t say that I don’t agree,” she told AFP.

“It’s vandalism but it is the expression of how people in New York are realizing Putin is killing people,” said another bystander, Romen Eaulin.

The bright red paint appeared hours before Russian president Vladimir Putin announced he was annexing four Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine.

Surveillance camera footage shows a hooded and masked figure spraying the building in the early am. No guards appeared to surround the building.

Friday also saw one of the worst attacks against civilians in months after shelling by Moscow forces killed at least 30 people in Ukraine’s southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Ukraine’s counteroffensive successes in the east as Kyiv’s forces appear to get closer to retaking the key town of Lyman, which Moscow captured in the spring.

“We have significant results in the east of our country. There is already enough public information about this. Everyone has heard what is happening in Lyman, Donetsk region. These steps mean a lot to us,” Zelenskiy said in his public daily address.

“We must liberate our entire land and this will be the best proof that international law and human values cannot be broken by any terrorist state, even one as insolent as Russia,” he added said.

Zelenskiy’s remarks come after Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday formally annexed four Moscow-held regions of Ukraine, following hastily organised referendums that the West has condemned as a “sham.”

“The path of our enemy is…completely clear - defeat, shame and condemnation,” Zelensky said.

On Friday, the Russian-backed leader of Donetsk said that Russian troops and their allies were holding on to Lyman with “their last strength” and that Moscow’s forces in the town were “partially surrounded,” Agence France-Presse reports.

Russia on Friday vetoed a Western bid at the UN Security Council to condemn its annexations of Ukrainian territory.

The US cosponsored a resolution with Ukraine pushed shortly after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would take over areas of Ukraine seized in the invasion following Kremlin-organized referendums.

“This is exactly what the Security Council was made to do. Defend sovereignty, protect territorial integrity, promote peace and security,” said US’s UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the beginning of the meeting, Agence France-Presse reports.

“The United Nations was built on an idea that never again would one country be allowed to take another’s territory by force,” she said.

Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, pushed back against criticisms, saying:

“Do you seriously expect Russia to consider and support such a draft? And if not, then it turns out that you are intentionally pushing us to use the right of the veto in order to then wax lyrical about the fact that Russia abuses this right,” Nebenzia said.

The resolution would have condemned the “illegal” referendums held in those Russian-occupied territories and call on all states not to recognize any changes to Ukraine’s borders.

It also would have called on Russia to withdraw troops immediately from Ukraine.

China and India abstained, along with Brazil and Gabon.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier on Friday that the US would seek a vote at the General Assembly.

“If Russia blocks the Security Council from carrying out its responsibilities, we’ll ask the UN General Assembly, where every country has a vote, to make clear that it’s unacceptable to redraw borders by force,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.

“Every country has a stake in condemning these steps,” he said.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of organising blasts that led to numerous gas leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Europe.

“Sanctions are not enough for the West. They have switched to sabotage. Unbelievable, but it is a fact!” Putin said during a televised speech at a Kremlin ceremony to annex four Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports.

“By organising explosions on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they actually started destroying European energy infrastructure,” Putin said.

“It is clear to everyone who benefits from this,” Putin added, without providing further details.

However, Russia’s Security Council chief, Nikolai Patrushev, told state TV later on Friday that Russia “does not have such data” about the alleged involvement of Western secret services in the Nord Stream blasts.

Unexplained gas leaks, preceded by two explosions, occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Monday. Both Moscow and Washington denied involvement.

Congress has approved $12.3 billion in aid on Friday to Ukraine as part of a stopgap spending bill that seeks to preven a chaotic government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline.

The package, which was approved just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin annexed four Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions, includes $3 billion for arms, supplies and salaries for Ukraine’s military and authorizes president Joe Biden to direct the Pentagon to transfer $3.7 billion in weapons and other hardware to Ukraine.

The so-called “continuing resolution” – passed by 230 votes to 201, with 10 Republicans joining the Democrats – also provides $4.5 billion for Kyiv to keep the country’s finances stable and keep the government running.

The allocation brings the total amount of US contribution to $65 billion.

“This new grant assistance is a further demonstration of US confidence in Ukraine and will support critical government operations and provide relief to Ukrainian people suffering under Russia’s brutal war,” Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

“Critically, this funding will also help bolster Ukraine’s valiant resistance to Putin’s illegal war of aggression. We call on fellow donors to not only speed up their existing disbursements to Ukraine, but also to increase their scale of assistance.”

Air alarms have sounded nearly all across Ukraine following Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories and after scores of people were killed on Friday morning after Russian forces attacked a civilian convoy near the city of Zaporizhzhia.

30 Sept 202214.11 EDT

"Putin's actions are a sign he is struggling" - Biden

Joanna Walters

US president Joe Biden described as a “sham routine” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s signing earlier today of “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.

He also said, during remarks at the White House, that “Putin’s actions are a sign he is struggling.”

Biden said the US will never recognise the annexed territories as being part of Russia.

Following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s announcement in a video address in Kyiv today that his country was formally applying for fast-track membership of the Nato alliance, Biden also said the US “is prepared to defend every inch of Nato territory. Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch.”

Biden held the event at the White House to make remarks about the devastating hurricane that has hit Florida, after earlier hitting Cuba and knocking out its electricity, and is now heading straight for South Carolina.

He started by saying: “America and its allies are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats. He’s not going to scare us or intimidate us. Putin’s actions are a sign he’s struggling, the sham referenda that he carried out and this routine he put on, the sham routine he put on this morning, showing the unity and people holding hands together, well the United States is never going to recognise this and quite frankly the world is not going to recognise it either.

“He can’t seize his neighbour’s territory and get away with it, simple as that. And we’re going to stay the course, continue to provide military equipment so that Ukraine can defend itself and its territory and its freedom.”

He didn’t take questions from the press, but instead added specifically at the end of his remarks about Hurricane Ian that he wanted to address the latest turn of events in Ukraine.

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It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Vladimir Putin has signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk – marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war. After signing the treaties, the Russian-installed heads of the four regions gathered around Putin, linking hands and joining chants of “Russia! Russia!” with the applauding audience.

• Putin later addressed crowds in Moscow’s Red Square, where he vowed to “do everything” to “raise the level of security” in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk. Speaking at a televised patriotic pop concert, the Russian leader said people in the regions had made a choice to rejoin their “historic motherland”. “Welcome home!” he said, prompting chants of “Russia! Russia!” from the flag-waving crowd.

• The Kremlin said again on Friday that it would consider attacks against any part of the regions of Ukraine that it is about to annex – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as acts of aggression against Russia itself. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would “de jure” incorporate parts of Ukraine which are not under the control of Russian forces. Of the four regions, Luhansk and Kherson are the only territories that Russia is close to having total control over.

• Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war in Ukraine since it began with his latest actions. Russia’s move was “the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the second world war”, Stoltenberg said, adding that Nato reaffirmed its “unwavering support” for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

• In a firm rebuttal to Putin’s ceremony in Moscow, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced in a video address in Kyiv that his country was formally applying for fast-track membership of the Nato alliance. Zelenskiy accused Russia of brazenly rewriting history and redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”, adding that Ukraine would not hold any peace talks with Russia as long as Putin was president.

• Dozens of people were killed after Russian forces launched a missile attack on a civilian convoy near the city of Zaporizhzhia, hours before Putin’s signing ceremony. The attack on Friday morning hit people waiting in cars in Zaporizhzhia city to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across the frontlines.

• A large number of Russian forces in the strategic Donbas town of Lyman were reported to have been encircled in the latest setback for Putin. Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers said that Russian forces together with local “Luhansk People’s Republic” fighters were encircled in the city of Lyman. The town – a strategic railway junction – has been under Moscow’s control since May. The surrender of Russia’s garrison in Lyman would be a humiliation for the Kremlin, at a time when it is claiming that the entire Donetsk region including areas under Ukrainian government control is a part of Russia “forever”.

• In response to Putin’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, the US announced fresh Russia-related sanctions on hundreds of individuals and companies. More than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are included in the new sanctions package, including its Central Bank governor and families of National Security Council members.

• The US has not to date seen Russia take any action that suggests it is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, according to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. He reiterated that the US takes Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling “very seriously” and said the US plans for “every possible scenario, including this one”.

• The UK is also stepping up sanctions against Russia following the “illegal” annexation of four areas of Ukraine, foreign secretary James Cleverly announced. The measures will restrict Russia’s access to key British commercial and transactional services, as well as ban the export to Russia of almost 700 goods that are critical to manufacturing production, the Foreign Office said.

The Guardian’s Shaun Walker describes Vladimir Putin’s speech earlier today where he announced the annexation of four more Ukrainian regions as an “angry, rambling” address.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg notes Putin’s remark that the US had created a “precedent” by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of the second world war.

30 Sept 202213.39 EDT

Andrew Roth

A tide of Russians flowed toward Red Square as Vladimir Putin declared his annexation of Ukrainian territory that would herald a shining new era of perpetual war with Ukraine and the west.

“Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia! Together for ever!” read the banner hanging on Manezh Square by the Kremlin.

There were busloads of tough men from a factory near Moscow alighting by the statue of Karl Marx to celebrate, university teachers passing out invitations to a pop concert to their students, workers lugging armfuls of Russian flags to distribute. Some of the tricolours bore the image of Putin.

This is the Russia that Putin envisions after 22 years in power: united, simple, cynical and slavish. But real life is not a staged rally. And as Putin gathered his lackeys and satraps in the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, across the country, from the minority ethnic republics of Dagestan and Buryatia to the hinterlands of Pskov and Penza, to cosmopolitan Moscow, communities are in turmoil.

Hundreds of thousands of men are leaving their homes, some contracted and mobilised into fighting in Ukraine, and still more fleeing for the borders to dodge the draft. In both cases, they do not know when they will come home.

Tensions have not been as high as they are now in Russia for decades, according to a new poll from the state-run Public Opinion Foundation. Of those surveyed by the centre this week, 69% said they had felt “stress”, nearly double the 35% who told the pollster they felt tense before Putin announced his mobilisation.

“I feel we are going into the unknown, going into nowhere,” said Anton, a Moscow resident who had passed into Georgia after waiting more than three days on the border. He described men desperate to reach the border before Putin spoke on Friday, with fears that the annexations would set off a tit-for-tat response with the west leading to a potential border closure.

Read the full story here:

Germany has experienced a surge in visa enquiries from Russian citizens since Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation order, according to a source from the German foreign ministry.

German embassies in countries neighbouring Russia have seen a “sharp increase” in visa enquiries, the source told Reuters.

Der Spiegel previously reported that German missions in Yerevan, Astana, Tbilisi, Baku and Minsk had registered thousands of requests for entry permits to Germany since partial mobilisation for the war in Ukraine began.

In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, more than 300 visa applications were registered from Russian citizens in the German embassy since partial mobilisation began in the middle of this week, it said.

This compares with between 10 and 20 such requests a month over the past few months, it added.

A televised pop concert is taking place on Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the Russian annexation of four regions of Ukraine.

The concert, held in the shadow of the Kremlin walls with the multicoloured spires of the 16th-century St Basil’s Cathedral as the backdrop, is taking place after President Vladimir Putin signed “accession treaties” formalising the illegal annexation.

The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Luxmoore writes that the Russian actor, Ivan Okhlobystin, apparently channelled Hitler and called for a “holy war” while on stage.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, shared a video of people singing “We won’t care about the price” at the concert.

The US has not to date seen Russia take any action that suggests it is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, according to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

But he reiterated that the US takes Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling “very seriously”.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, Blinken said:

We are looking very carefully to see if Russia is actually doing anything that suggests that they are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. To date, we’ve not seen them take these actions.

He continued:

But we also know that Russia is engaged in horrific, horrific brutalisation of Ukraine, and so the threats that they make, we take very seriously.

Blinken said he would not speculate on what was Putin’s intent but said the US plans for “every possible scenario, including this one”.

Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war in Ukraine since it began with his latest actions.

Speaking at a news conference, Stoltenberg said:

Putin has mobilised hundreds of thousands of more troops, engaged in irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling and now illegally annexed more Ukrainian territory. Together, this represents the most serious escalation since the start of the war.

Russia’s move was “the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the second world war”, Stoltenberg said, adding that an area roughly the size of Portugal had been “illegally seized by Russia at gunpoint”.

The sham referendums were engineered in Moscow and imposed on Ukraine in total violation of international law. This land grab is illegal and illegitimate.

Nato allies do not and will not recognise any of this territory as part of Russia.

Nato was not a party to the conflict but reaffirmed its “unwavering support” for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

We call on all states to reject Russia’s blatant attempts at territorial conquest These lands are Ukraine.

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Ukraine is facing significant risks to energy supplies this winter, the director of the EU energy watchdog has warned.

Ukraine’s current power production appears to be sufficient to cover its needs after a drop in industrial activity cut consumption by 30%, Artur Lorkowski, director of the Energy Community Secretariat, said.

Lorkowski told Reuters:

But I expect the situation may change dramatically, because once the heating season starts consumption will grow.

The situation concerning power generation was unclear, he added. Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is currently held by Russia, was cut off from the grid, while some thermal power plants were located in combat areas.

If the Zaporizhzhia plant remains offline for longer and other coal-fired power plants are down, Ukraine may need up to two billion bcm of extra gas, he said.

Nearly 1.4 million Ukrainians currently do not have access either to electricity or gas, mostly in war-impacted areas in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country, Lorkowski said.

A defiant Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced that Ukraine is officially applying for membership of Nato, hours after Vladimir Putin said in a Kremlin ceremony that he was annexing four Ukrainian provinces.

In a speech filmed outside his presidential office in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he was taking this “decisive step” in order to protect “the entire community” of Ukrainians. He promised the application would happen in an “expedited manner”.

“De facto, we have already made our way to Nato. De facto, we have already proven compatibility with alliance standards. They are real for Ukraine – real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction,” he said.

We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. This is the alliance. De facto. Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure.

The president signed the application form, as did the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, and the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.

The alliance is unlikely to accept Ukraine’s imminent Nato entry while it is in a state of war. As a Nato member, fellow members would be compelled to actively defend it against Russia – a commitment that goes well beyond the supply of weapons.

Zelenskiy acknowledged this soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion. “It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of Nato, we understand this,” he said in March. “For years we heard about the apparently open door, but have already also heard that we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged.”

Read the full story by Luke Harding and Isobel Koshiw: