Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

The United States warned of “catastrophic consequences” if Moscow were to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Russia’s Foreign Minister said regions holding widely-criticised referendums would get full protection if annexed by Moscow.

Ukraine receives U.S. air defence system

Referendums

• Russia launched the referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions, drawing condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognise their results.

• The Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, may debate bills incorporating the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine into Russia on Sept. 29, the state-run TASS news agency said on Saturday, citing an unnamed source.

• The votes in the provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were hastily organised after Ukraine recaptured large swathes of the northeast in a counter-offensive.

• Ukraine, Western leaders and the United Nations condemned the votes as an illegitimate precursor to illegal annexation. There are no independent observers, and much of the pre-war population has fled.

Russian mobilisation

• Russia’s two most senior lawmakers addressed complaints about Russia’s mobilisation drive, ordering regional officials to get a handle on the situation and swiftly solve the “excesses” that have stoked public anger.

• Police clashed with people opposed to the mobilisation in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, underscoring the level of discontent with President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send hundreds of thousands more men to fight in Ukraine.

• The strongly pro-Kremlin editor of Russia’s state-run RT news channel expressed anger on Saturday that enlistment officers were sending call-up papers to the wrong men.

Quotes

• “We will definitely liberate our entire country - from Kherson to the Luhansk region, from Crimea to the Donetsk region. We will not allow the occupier to go unpunished,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

• “We should not be listening to his (Putin’s) sabre-rattling and his bogus threats. Instead, what we need to do is continue to put sanctions on Russia and continue to support the Ukrainians,” British Prime Minister Liz Truss told CNN in an interview.

Fighting

• Ukraine and Russia traded accusations on Sunday of attacks on civilians in southern Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s military said early on Sunday that Russian forces had launched dozens of missile attacks and air strikes on military and civilian targets in the past 24 hours.

• Russia also used drones to attack the centre of the southern city of Odesa, Ukraine’s military said. No casualties were reported.

• Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians. Its RIA state news agency reported that Ukrainian forces bombed a hotel in the city of Kherson, killing two people. Russian forces have occupied the southern city since the early days of the invasion.

• There was no immediate response from Ukraine. * Reuters could not verify either side’s claims.

• Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces continued attacks around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, including launching eight “kamikaze drones” at the facility.