Latest news from Russia and the war in Ukraine

A majority of Bulgaria’s lawmakers approved sending the country’s first military aid to Ukraine.

The National Assembly voted 175-49 with one abstention in favor of a proposal submitted by four pro-European Union parties. The government has now one month to decide what kind of weapons Bulgaria can provide without affecting its own defense capabilities.

Bulgaria previously agreed to repair Ukrainian military equipment at its factories but refused to send weapons directly due to opposition from President Rumen Radev and the country’s Moscow-friendly political parties.

Along with Hungary, Bulgaria was the only EU member country that had declined to give Ukraine weapons as it fights Russia’s invasion and war.

“More weapons mean more war,” Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Kornelia Ninova said, explaining why her party’s lawmakers voted against the proposal.

The heated debate that preceded the vote reflected the divisions in Bulgaria since Russia invaded its neighbor. Even though the country belongs to both NATO and the EU, many Bulgarians harbor strong sympathies for Russia that are rooted in a history, culture, and religion. Bulgaria also relies heavily on Russian energy supplies.

— Associated Press

The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded its inspection of three nuclear sites in Ukraine and said it found no evidence of undeclared nuclear activities or materials.

“Over the past few days, the inspectors were able to carry out all activities that the IAEA had planned to conduct and were given unfettered access to the locations,” the IAEA said in a statement. “Based on the evaluation of the results available to date and the information provided by Ukraine, the Agency did not find any indications of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at the locations.”

The inspectors also collected environmental samples, which will provide additional information on the presence, both past and present, of nuclear materials, according to the agency.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi “stressed that the IAEA remained ready to conduct further such verification activities in Ukraine to verify the absence of undeclared activities and materials and thereby deter any misuse of such materials,” according to the statement.

Following the announcement, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the results of the inspection confirmed Russia’s “status of the world’s top liar.”

Ukraine requested the inspections to dispel Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s claims that Ukraine was planning to use a “dirty bomb,” which contaminates surrounding areas with radiation, making them uninhabitable.

— Rocio Fabbro

The Russian evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from Kherson is still taking place through forced displacement tactics, according to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

“To encourage people to move, they are offered so-called ‘housing certificates’ for the purchase of housing in the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a Telegram post.

Local residents are “forcibly evicted” from their homes, as Russian plain-clothed soldiers move into vacated apartments and houses, the ministry said.

Children were removed from boarding schools in Kherson and taken to Crimea, the ministry said. Other Russian “collaborators and representatives” have also been resettled in boarding houses along the Arabat Spit, which lines the Sea of Azov on the northeastern border of Crimea.

The Russian military “is searching for vacant premises for resettlement” in occupied areas of Ukraine, the ministry said.

Human Rights Watch released a report on Sept. 1 detailing the forcible transfer of civilians from Ukraine’s Mariupol and the Kharkiv region to Russia and Russian-occupied territories. Forced displacement and transfer of civilians, as described in the report, is a violation of international humanitarian law and can be prosecuted as a war crime.

— Rocio Fabbro

The organization overseeing the export of Ukrainian agriculture products said that seven vessels will depart the besieged country, adding to the haul that has gone out since Russia agreed to rejoin a pact that secured shipping routes.

The ships leaving under the Black Sea Grain Initiative are carrying 290,102 metric tons of grain and food products.

Three vessels are destined for China, one will travel to Spain and another to Oman. One ship will arrive in Italy and another will travel to The Netherlands.

On Saturday, Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, citing retaliation for Kyiv’s “act of terrorism” against Russian warships. Moscow returned to the deal on Wednesday.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations said it was concerned about reports that North Korea is preparing to transfer weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

“Our feeling is that we do not want to see more weapons go into that theater,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, said during a daily press briefing.

Dujarric’s comments follow White House allegations that North Korea has agreed to supply Russian President Vladimir Putin with weapons.

“We don’t believe that this will change the course of the war,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a conference call.

“It’s certainly not going to change our calculus,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. and its allies will continue to supply Kyiv with more weapons.

Kirby said that the U.S. also had indications that Iran was preparing to send Russia more drones as well as surface-to-surface missiles.

Iran and Russia have sharply denied reports that Tehran supplied Moscow with a fleet of drones for use in Ukraine, and the Kremlin has repeatedly denied that it uses Iranian-made drones to target residential and other civilian areas.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine trusts Elon Musk to continue providing internet access through his SpaceX rocket company’s Starlink satellite system despite a wobble last month, but is also seeking additional providers, one of its deputy prime ministers said.

Mykhailo Fedorov, in Portugal for Europe’s largest tech conference, the Lisbon Web Summit, said Ukraine had discussed Starlink directly with Musk and was confident the Tesla and Twitter boss would not shut the service down in Ukraine.

Starlink has “worked, is working and will definitely work in Ukraine”, Federov, who runs Ukraine’s digital transformation ministry, told a news conference in response to a question about the service from Reuters. “Elon Musk publicly spoke about this and we had a conversation with him about it, so we do not see a problem in this regard,” Fedorov said.

“One of the reasons why I came to the Web Summit is also to look for new partners and continue to develop and engage with new partners,” he said.

SpaceX activated Starlink over Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February and has since provided Kyiv with thousands of terminals, allowing Ukrainians to hook up to the internet in places out of reach of the domestic telecoms system. The links are used both by civilians and by Ukraine’s military.

— Reuters

Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are likely to be frustrated that they are forced to serve in old infantry combat vehicles, according to the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence.

In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said troops often refer to such vehicles as aluminum cans, and that Russia was losing armored vehicles at a rapid rate.

“In mid-October, in the face of Ukrainian offensives, Russian armoured vehicles losses increased to over 40 a day: roughly equivalent to a battalion’s worth of equipment,” the ministry noted on Twitter.

“In recent weeks Russia…