? Live: Zelensky discusses ‘functioning’ of Black Sea grain corridor with Macron

6:36pm: Ukraine expects boom in drone production, defence minister says

Ukraine intends to increase drone production as early as this autumn, the Ukrainian defence minister was quoted as saying on Sunday, as the country conducts more frequent drone attacks on Russian territory.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory have picked up in recent weeks, with dozens of drones striking Russia at once on some days, reaching as far as the western city of Pskov, 400 miles (600 km) from Ukraine.

Kyiv has used both aerial drones to attack airfields and aquatic drones to attack ships and the bridge to Crimea.

“I think this autumn there will be a boom in the production of various Ukrainian drones: flying, floating, crawling, etc., and this will continue to grow in volume,” Oleksii Reznikov told the state-run Ukrinform news agency.

He said one reason for the growth of production was that authorities had reduced various regulations and laws. “So we rewrote regulations… and simplified the processes. And I believe that we also succeeded in that and gave us the opportunity for such a booster. Especially for drone manufacturers who started production from garages,” he said.

5:00pm: Russians and Belarusians will not take part in Asian Games, announces International Olympic Committee

Russian and Belarusian athletes will not compete at the Asian Games in China this month after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) concluded that the plan was “not feasible”.

Both countries have been excluded from many sports events since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though individual athletes have been allowed to compete under certain restrictions.

The IOC said earlier this year that a pathway for their athletes’ participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics, albeit as neutral athletes, should be explored.

At a meeting in Bangkok in July, the General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia voted to allow a maximum of 500 competitors from Russia and Belarus to compete, to allow them to gain qualification standards for the Olympics.

However, this ruling changed on Sunday. “The concept of the participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports at the Asian Games 2023 was explored as discussed at the Olympic Summit in December 2022, but was not feasible due to technical reasons,” said an IOC spokesperson.

The Asian Games begin in Hangzhou on September 23 and run until October 8.

3:41pm: Zelensky discussed ‘functioning of grain corridor’ with Macron

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke Sunday, discussing the “functioning” of a sea corridor set up by Kyiv for the safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal.

“We also discussed ways to ensure the functioning of the grain corridor and enhance the security of the Odesa region,” Zelensky said on social media after the phone call with Macron.

Ukraine this week said four more ships had gone through its temporary maritime corridor in the Black Sea, which it had set up last month to ensure safe navigation.

Zelensky also thanked Macron for France’s “crucial military aid” to Kyiv and said the pair had “discussed the next packages”.

The phone call came on the eve of a summit in Russia between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wants to revive the grain deal, and as Moscow’s forces hit Ukraine’s Odesa region with drones.

Erdogan is due to meet Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday, amid hopes for the revival of the deal.

1:15pm: Romania condemns ‘unjustified’ Russian attacks on Danube port

Romania‘s defence ministry has strongly condemned the repeated Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube infrastructure close to its border, following the latest overnight drone strikes in the southern Odesa region.

Romania, a NATO member, “reiterates in the strongest terms that these attacks against civilian targets and infrastructure in Ukraine are unjustified and in deep contradiction with the rules of international humanitarian law”, the ministry said.

“At no time did the means of attack used by the Russian Federation generate any direct military threat to the national territory or territorial waters of Romania,” the ministry added in a statement.

12:20pm: Senior Ukrainian general claims Kyiv’s forces have breached Russian lines in the south

Kyiv’s army has made an important breakthrough by breaching Russian lines in southern Ukraine, a key general told British media this weekend, saying he now expected faster progress in the Zaporizhzhia area.

General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, leading the southern counteroffensive, spoke several days after Kyiv declared a strategic victory by recapturing the southern village of Robotyne.

“We are now between the first and second defensive lines,” Tarnavskiy told the Guardian newspaper.

“In the centre of the offensive, we are now completing the destruction of enemy units that provide cover for the retreat of Russian troops behind their second defensive line.”

The interview comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed criticism of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has made slower gains than Kyiv’s allies had hoped for.

10:10am: Russia signs some 280,000 people for contract military service this year

Some 280,000 people have signed up so far this year for professional service with Russia’s military, according to former president Dmitry Medvedev, the current deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

Visiting Russia’s Far East, Medvedev said he was meeting local officials to work on efforts to beef up the armed forces.

“According to the ministry of defence, since January 1, about 280,000 people have been accepted into the ranks of the armed forces on a contract basis,” including reservists, state news agency TASS quoted Medvedev as saying.

Last year Russia announced a plan to expand its combat personnel more than 30 percent to 1.5 million, an ambitious task made harder by its heavy but undisclosed casualties in the invasion of Ukraine.

8:05am: Ukrainian tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky detained in fraud case

A Ukrainian court has ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, in a striking move against one of the country’s most powerful businessmen.

The detention of Kolomoisky, who is under US sanctions and is a one-time supporter of President Volodymyr Zelensky, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.

Defence lawyers said Kolomoisky would appeal the ruling, questioning its legality, but that he would not post bail of almost $14 million in order to secure his release, broadcaster Radio Liberty reported.

7:15am: Ukraine says fire quickly extinguished at Danube port facility

Ukraine’s military said a fire that resulted from the early morning drone attack was quickly extinguished. There was no detail on which port facility was hit.

The Danube has become Ukraine’s main route for exporting grain since the collapse of a UN-brokered deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to ship its grain via the Black Sea.

Last month, the first civilian cargo ship sailing through the Black Sea from Ukraine arrived in Istanbul in defiance of the Russian blockade.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that two more vessels had passed through the country’s “temporary Black Sea grain corridor”.

FRANCE 24’s Kyiv correspondent Astrig Agopian has the details.

5:15am: Two injured in Russian drone attack on Danube port infrastructure

An attack by 25 drones launched by Russia in the early hours of Sunday hit and damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, Ukrainian military officials said.

Ukraine’s South Military Command said on social media that at least two civilians were injured in the attack on what it said was the “civil infrastructure of the Danube”.

Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down 22 of the Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Air Force said, adding that the attack lasted three and a half hours.

Key developments from Saturday, September 2:

The Nobel Foundation said on Saturday that it was reversing its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, after the move sparked an angry backlash.

The news came as Russia said its forces had destroyed Ukrainian naval drones that were attempting to target the strategic Crimea bridge linking mainland Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv’s troops were “moving forward” in their counteroffensive, rebuffing Western officials who argued that Ukrainian forces were gaining ground too slowly.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)