Ukraine says it retook Black Sea platforms, areas near Bakhmut
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military said Monday that it recaptured strategic gas and oil drilling platforms from Russia in the Black Sea and claimed gains in occupied areas near Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine left in ruins after the war’s longest and deadliest fighting.
The recapture of the Boyko Towers platforms provides an energy source and takes back an asset that Russia seized in 2015 and used to launch helicopters, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said.
“Russia has been deprived of the ability to fully control the waters of the Black Sea, and this makes Ukraine many steps closer to regaining Crimea,” the Main Intelligence Directorate said.
The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t make any immediate comment on the Ukrainian claim, but it has previously reported that Russian warplanes destroyed several Ukrainian speedboats in the area.
Russian military bloggers posted that the platforms had been uninhabited for more than a year, and a Ukrainian operation to briefly land troops there last month wasn’t followed by a lasting military presence and came at a heavy cost for Ukraine, a claim that couldn’t be verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to bring back Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine’s reported battlefront gains, which could not be independently confirmed, came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on a train headed for Russia for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting announced by the two leaders’ countries could include discussions of North Korea providing arms to restock Russia’s dwindling arsenal.
In fighting, Ukrainian forces liberated part of the Donetsk province town of Optyne and advanced on the towns of Klishchiivka and Andriivka south of Bakhmut, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said.
Combat has persisted on the outskirts of Bakhmut since Ukrainian troops pulled out of the city in May. Ukraine is trying to gain the high ground in Klishchiivka, to establish artillery control over Bakhmut.
In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, Ukraine’s primary counteroffensive forces were inching closer to overcoming Russian fortifications and dense minefields to take Tokmak, a critical logistics hub for Russian forces, Malyar said.
Russian forces also attacked the Dnipropetrovsk province city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s birthplace, with drones overnight, Ukrainian authorities said.
Cave researcher rescued:
Rescuers pulled an American researcher out of a Turkish cave early Tuesday, more than a week after he became seriously ill more than 3,000 feet below its entrance, the Speleological Federation of Turkey said.
Teams from across Europe had rushed to Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to aid Mark Dickey, a 40-yearold experienced caver who became seriously ill on Sept. 2 with stomach bleeding. He was on an expedition to map the cave, which is the country’s third deepest.
Dickey was too frail to climb out himself, so rescuers carried him with the help of a stretcher, making frequent stops at temporary
camps set up along the way.
“Mark Dickey is out of the Morca cave,” said a statement by the speleological federation. “He is fine and is being tended to by an emergency medical worker in the encampment above.”
Trump team seeks recusal:
Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday asked the federal judge presiding over his election subversion case in Washington to recuse herself, saying her public statements about the former president and his connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol call into question whether she can be fair.
The recusal motion from Trump’s lawyers takes aim at U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a former assistant public defender who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama and has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of Jan. 6 defendants. The request is a long shot given the high threshold for recusal and because
the decision on whether to recuse belongs to Chutkan, who is unlikely to see cause to step aside from the case.
Even so, the request that she give up the highstakes trial marks the latest flashpoint in already delicate relations between the defense team and the judge, who has repeatedly cautioned the lawyers against inflammatory public comments from Trump but has nonetheless been lambasted on social media by him. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team signaled its own concern about his comments, writing last week that Trump’s daily statements — he has derided her as “highly partisan” — could taint a potential jury pool.
Chutkan last month scheduled the trial for March 4, 2024, over objections of defense lawyers who said that would not give them enough time to prepare. The case in Washington, charging Trump in a four-count indictment with plotting to overturn the
results of the 2024 election, is one of four criminal cases confronting the former president as he seeks reelection to the White House.
The president of Chile issued a fervent defense of democracy Monday — the 50th anniversary of the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ushered in a brutal military dictatorship for almost two decades. The problems of democracy must be addressed through more democracy, President Gabriel Boric said.
“A coup d’etat or the violation of the human rights of those who think differently is never justifiable,” he said.
But many people in Chile believe the 1973 coup was justified, polls show.
Coup anniversary:
Gun ban shunned: The sheriff in New Mexico’s largest metro area has vowed not to enforce an emergency order by the governor to temporarily suspend the right to carry firearms in public in
and around Albuquerque.
Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said Monday the order is unconstitutional, won’t curb gun violence and could put deputies in danger of political violence. Reaction has been swift after Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the order Friday.
Some GOP lawmakers proposed starting impeachment proceedings, while a gun rights group has filed a federal lawsuit seeking an immediate court order to block it from taking effect.
The operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said Monday that it has safely completed the first release of treated radioactive water from the plant into the sea and will inspect and clean the facility before starting the second round in a few weeks.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant began the discharge into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24.