WORLD BRIEFING: September 21, 2023
Russian missiles and artillery pounded cities across Ukraine early Thursday, sparking fires, killing at least three people and trapping others under the rubble of destroyed buildings, authorities said, as Poland said it would stop providing weapons to its ally amid a trade dispute. The early-morning wave of missile strikes on what’s known as the International Day of Peace was Russia’s largest in over a month, and came as world leaders meet at United Nations General Assembly in New York. In a speech there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Russia as “a terrorist state.” Zelenskyy was to meet Thursday with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington with an additional $24 billion aid package hanging in the balance - AP
India has stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens amid an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. India said the temporary move was due to "security threats" disrupting work at its missions in Canada. Tensions flared this week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said India may have been behind the 18 June killing. But Mr Trudeau said on Thursday he was not looking to provoke India with the allegation. India has angrily rejected the allegation, calling it "absurd” - BBC
Ukrainian energy provider Ukrenrego said for the overnight strikes hit power infrastructure for the first time in six months, triggering blackouts in several regions and as Ukraine is preparng for winter.
Poland, which has been a major supporter of Ukraine, said it would stop transferring weapons to its neighbor as it works to modernize its own military, but denied the decision was linked to a simmering dispute over a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports. Polish officials, who are trying to win parliamentary elections next month with help from farmers’ votes, are expressing dismay over some of Ukraine’s latest moves, including a World Trade Organization complaint over bans on Ukrainian grain from Poland and two other EU countries - AP
Republican leaders in the US Congress are now weighing cutting Ukraine assistance from their long-term spending bill to fund the Pentagon in order to win over hardline holdouts and unlock the gridlock on the House floor, two sources told CNN. While cutting Ukraine assistance might win over hardliners, it’s unclear if the GOP’s moderates, appropriators and defense hawks, who are already furious with the party’s right flank, would go along with that change — especially on the same Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. A bloc of hardliners tanked a procedural vote on the defense bill today, in part because of opposition to the bill’s $300 million in Ukraine funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance initiative. That initiative, however, is the same aid that has been funded since 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told US senators Thursday that if US money for the war dries up, it would have a cascading effect and eventually lead European countries to do the same. Zelensky warned Russia would win if the US walked away. “You give money, we give lives,” he said in his message to senators, according to attendees - CNN
The cargo ship Resilient Africa arrived off Turkey's Bosphorus Strait on September 21, the first vessel loaded with grain from Ukraine to sail in and out of the Black Sea using a temporary corridor - RFE/RL