Ukraine-Russia war live: Frontline ‘very, very difficult’, says Zelensky as Putin issues new conscription order

President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the “professional, brave and resilient” Ukrainian medics, who are central in helping the country “stand against Russian territory”.

He posted a handful of powerful pictures alongside the message on Monday.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is waging war to try and wipe Ukraine off the map, the country’s top tennis player has warned.

Elina Svitolina, 30, accused Russia of genocide and urged the West to help bring back roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children deported to Russian camps since Putin’s invasion in February 2022.

More than 70 camps used to forcibly “re-educate” children have been found across Russia, Belarus and occupied Crimea, according to the Ukrainian government.

Svitolina stunned the sporting world in 2023 after she beat world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the Wimbledon quarter-finals just eight months after giving birth to her daughter.

Svitolina tells Alexander Butler the West must act to get Ukraine’s stolen children back from Russia:

Russian attacks on Ukraine killed three people and injured at least 45 more over the past day, regional authorities said on Sept 30.

Two people were killed in the villages of Lysivka and Shevchenko in the Donetsk region, with three injured across the region.

One person was killed and 12 injured in the Kherson region, where Russian forces targeted 17 towns and cities including Kherson city itself.

An air strike on Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine injured at least 16 people, including two boys aged 17 and eight, while damaging residential buildings and a railway.

Ten people were injured in the northeastern Sumy region as a result of guided aerial boom and FPV drone attacks, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Vladimir Putin has ordered the conscription of 133,000 new servicemen in Russia’s autumn draft that starts today, a Kremlin decree said.

The decree seeks to carry out the draft of citizens “aged 18 to 30 years, who are not in the reserve and are subject to conscription in accordance with the Federal Law... in the amount of 133,000 people.”

The mobilisation will go on until the end of the year, the decree published yesterday in Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta read.

Vice admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky, head of Russia’s conscription office, said the terms of conscript remain the same – 12-month service in military units in Russia.

“I would like to note that conscripts will not be called up to participate in the special military operation in the new regions,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta cited Tsimlyansky as claiming.

Last month, Putin had already ordered the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen as the invasion of Ukraine enters its third winter.

The situation on the frontline against Russia is “very, very difficult,” Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.

“Reports on each of our frontline sectors, our capabilities, our future capabilities and our specific tasks: The situation is very, very difficult,” he said in his nightly video address, referring to a more than two and a half hour meeting with top commanders.

“Everything that can be done this autumn, everything that we can achieve must be achieved,” he said.

It was the second time in less than a week that Mr Zelensky referred to the need to act quickly in the coming months in terms of military action.

Russian forces have been advancing on the hilltop town of Vuhledar in the south of the Donetsk region, Ukrainian military bloggers have reported in recent days.

Lithuania has requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate their neighbours, Belarus, over alleged crimes against humanity.

The Lithuanian justice ministry said on Monday it was asking the ICC to open an investigation into alleged crimes committed by the regime of authoritarian leader and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko.

Lithuania accuses Lukashenko and Belarus of “forced deportation, persecution of persons and other cruel behaviour which is contrary to the main norms of international law”, Reuters reported.

Lukashenko’s regime has ruled Belarus since 1994 and has long been an ally of Putin. Around 300,000 Belarusians have been forced to flee the country due to the nature of the regime.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled opposition leader who is recognised by Lithuania as the legitimate leader of Belarus, said: “The crimes committed by this regime, from forced deportations to illegal arrests and torture, cannot go unpunished. Lithuania’s courage gives us hope that the world is finally holding the regime accountable for its atrocities.”

Tsikhanouskaya ran against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election and was forced to flee the country after he was declared the winner.

Western governments denounced the result as fraudulent.

Russia aims to draft 133,000 servicemen between October and January after a new decree signed by president Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Men aged 18 to 30 will be eligible for draft as part of the autumn conscription campaign, The Kyiv Independent reported.

In autumn 2023, the conscription campaign included people who lived in the annexed regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia is likely recruiting around 30,000 people per month to the war effort, the UK defense ministry said in March.

US citizen Stephen James Hubbard pleaded guilty to charges of mercenary activity in a Moscow court on Monday.

Mr Hubbard admitted to receiving money to fight for Ukraine against Russia, the RIA state news agency reported.

The 72-year-old was placed in pre-trial detention for six months last week, and faces a sentence of seven to 15 years if convicted.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Moscow said it was aware an American citizen had been detained but did not offer further comment.

Prosecutors claim he was promised $1,000 a month to fight with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit at the start of the war.

There has been no independent verification of Russia’s claims.

The Michigan native has worked as an English teacher abroad for decades, his sister Patricia Fox told Reuters.

Ms Fox denied he was a mercenary and said he had no interest in fighting war. “He is so non-military,” she told Reuters. “He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that...He’s more of a pacifist.”

Mr Hubbard moved to Ukraine in 2014 and survived on a small pension. Ms Fox last spoke with her brother in September 2021, when he split with his girlfriend and was living alone.

There are at least 10 American citizens behind bars in Russia, two months after a major prisoner swap in August.

Some parts of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” will remain secret, his office has confirmed.

The five-point victory plan was presented to president Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday (Sept 26), before he discussed it with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

The full details of the peace framework proposed in the plan has not yet been publicised, but its goal is to strengthen Ukraine’s future negotiating position and force Russia into accepting a just peace, Kyiv says.

It includes Ukraine’s invitation to join NATO, among other military and diplomatic components.

The head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak told the Ukrainian people on Sunday that the plan will be presented publicly bar some “sensitive” details, The Kyiv Independent reported.

The Russian military has captured the village of Nelipivka in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, according to Russian-owned Interfax news agency.

The news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as making the claim on Monday (Sept 30), Reuters reported.

It was not possible for Reuters to independently verify the battle report, but it comes as Russian forces continue their progress in the Donetsk region where they are focussing much of their military firepower.