German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, arriving in Kyiv on an unannounced visit, reiterated her support for Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union — while also urging its leaders to crack down harder on corruption.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences for the deaths of the two aid workers. In his nightly address on Sunday, Zelensky added that two other wounded volunteers — German citizen Ruben Mawick and Swedish citizen Johan Mathias — were taken to Dnipro for medical care.
Ukrainian forces recaptured a group of oil and gas drilling platforms off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said Monday. According to the agency’s Telegram channel, Ukrainian special forces used boats to retake the rigs known as the “Boika Towers,” which Russian forces had seized in 2015 and since equipped with radar and used for military purposes, notably as helipads. The Washington Post was not able to immediately verify the claim.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has departed for Russia by train, South Korean media reported Monday, ahead of an expected meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the port city of Vladivostok. According to U.S. officials, they will discuss arms shipments that could aid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The rail journey from Pyongyang to Vladivostok is estimated to take 20 hours. Kim’s slow-moving armored train — specially equipped with luxurious fittings — reportedly can reach speeds of 37 miles per hour.
Germany’s foreign minister said Ukraine must do more to battle corruption, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv. “There is still a long way to go,” Baerbock said, while reiterating her support for Ukraine’s path toward the European Union. “Just as Ukraine is standing up for us, it can also rely on us and on our understanding of E.U. enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war,” Baerbock said upon her arrival in Kyiv, according to a statement shared by Germany’s Foreign Ministry. The trip marks Baerbock’s fourth visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
A declaration adopted by world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi avoided directly criticizing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, despite a carefully worded pledge to refrain from the use of force for territorial gain. The declaration also called for the “full, timely and effective implementation” of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which seeks safe passage for fertilizer and grain from three Ukrainian ports. Moscow pulled out of the deal in July.
Russia downed two drones over the Belgorod region early Monday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov and the Defense Ministry said on Telegram. Gladkov said one drone fell on a road near a residential building but caused no casualties. The Defense Ministry said Russian forces also destroyed a Ukraine-launched drone over the Bryansk region on Sunday morning.
It’s “too early to say” whether Ukraine’s summer offensive has failed, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the BBC. He added that Kyiv has “about 30 to 45 days” left before colder, wetter weather makes it harder to fight.
Russia began offering visa-free travel to tourists from four Persian Gulf states and Malaysia last month, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said Monday, in addition to recently introduced visa-free travel to groups from China and Iran. “Foreign tourists need to visit us at least once so that they can fall in love with our country,” he said. Tourism to Russia has fallen sharply since the invasion, according to local tour operators — who reported that visitor numbers dropped from some 5.1 million in 2019 to 200,000 in 2022.
Romania and the United States are holding joint naval exercises in the Black Sea and Danube Delta starting Monday, the Romanian navy announced. Bulgaria, France, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom will also participate in the drills, which are aimed at combating explosive devices on and over the sea to ensure freedom of navigation.
South Korea pledged $2.3 billion in aid to Ukraine starting in 2025, in addition to the $300 million previously pledged for next year, Yonhap news agency reported. President Yoon Suk Yeol made the announcement Sunday at a session of the G-20 summit in India.
In time of war, Russia turns up aggression on transgender citizens: When Russian authorities took away Yan Dvorkin’s 10-year-old adopted son last spring, there was nothing he could do but shout in frustration. His crime? He is a transgender, nonbinary person, married to a man, Robyn Dixon reports. The official from child services had denounced him to prosecutors because he was open about his gender identity on social media — a crime in Russia for which he was convicted and ordered to give up the son he adopted five years ago.
Putin has framed the invasion of Ukraine as a war against “Satanists,” liberal Western values and “parent number one and parent number two.” In July, he signed a repressive law dissolving transgender people’s marriages, barring them from adopting children and preventing them from changing their gender in state documents. As the war has ground on, Russia has witnessed increasingly harsh measures against transgender people.
Kate Brady and Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.