Day 575 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• A deputy commander of the Russian Northern Fleet is among the peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh
• Ukraine has agreed with Poland and Slovakia on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products
• Kyiv hit Saky airport in Crimea with drones and Neptunes, Russian losses are substantial
• Poland will no longer give weapons to Ukraine
• Intensive Russian missile attack in Ukraine
• Edi Rama at the UN: "You stop the war and Zelensky won't talk"

A deputy commander of the Russian Northern Fleet is among the peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh

The deputy commander of the submarine forces of the Northern Fleet for military and political affairs, Ivan Kovgan, was one of those killed in the shelling in the predominantly Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, Russian media and Telegram channels reported.

The news was also confirmed by the Saint-Petersburg club of submarine sailors, Kommersant writes.

A shooting on a car happened in which Russians were involved and killed yesterday, hours after the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic announced it was surrendering after 24 hours of shelling from Azerbaijan.

Negotiations were scheduled for today between representatives of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani side in the city of Yevlakh, 100 km northeast of the enclave's main city, Stepanakert.

They finished in about two hours and their results are yet to be announced. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that shelling was heard in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Karabakh Interior Ministry announced that the Azerbaijani military was violating the ceasefire agreement and continuing shelling of Stepanakert. The Ministry of Defense in Baku denied that information.

Today, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to apologize for the deaths of Russian peacekeepers stationed there since the end of the war in 2020. From the Kremlin's perspective, Azerbaijan's "military operation" in Nagorno-Karabakh this week is an internal matter of the country.

Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed Armenians on the occasion of the country's independence day and told them - without mentioning Nagorno-Karabakh - that Armenia must remain "conflict-free" for the sake of its independence. Pashinyan is under pressure to resign, with the opposition arguing that it was because of him that Yerevan failed to protect Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan.

Ukraine has agreed with Poland and Slovakia on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products

Ukraine reached an agreement with Poland and Slovakia in the dispute over the import of Ukrainian agricultural products into the two European countries. Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary announced that they are extending the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain after the European Commission did not renew restrictions previously agreed with EU countries, including Bulgaria.

Slovakia and Ukraine have agreed to establish a grain trade licensing system that will allow the ban on imports of four groups of Ukrainian goods into Slovakia to be lifted. Slovakia's Ministry of Agriculture did not provide details on how the licensing system would be developed. And Ukraine has agreed in response to suspend the complaint against Slovakia in the WTO.

In a first attempt to break the ice between themselves, the agriculture ministers of Ukraine and Poland have agreed to work towards a solution to the dispute surrounding the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain. After Warsaw announced that it would extend the ban, contrary to the decision of the European Commission, Ukraine filed a case against Poland at the World Trade Organization. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal also threatened Hungary with retaliatory measures, which also continued the ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine.

The bitter dispute between Poland and Ukraine also affected their relations on the issue of military aid. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has threatened that his country will no longer provide weapons to neighboring Ukraine. Military aid is the focus of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's talks later today at the White House. After Russia's biggest air attack on Ukraine in weeks, Zelensky again called on the West for more air defense systems.

Kyiv hit Saky airport in Crimea with drones and Neptunes, Russian losses are substantial

On the night of September 21, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Navy carried out a large-scale fire attack on the Saky military airfield in the Crimean peninsula occupied by the Russian invaders.

According to UNIAN and SBU sources, there were at least 12 combat aircraft (Su-24 and Su-30) and Pantsir MANPADS at the airport. There was also a training base for Mohajer drone operators. It is these drones that the Russians use to coordinate their own airstrikes and also for missile attacks.

"The strikes of the Security Service and the Naval Forces hit the target and caused serious damage to the equipment of the occupiers. To strike the enemy, unmanned aircraft were used, which hit the Russian air defense and then fired Neptune missiles. It is interesting that even the Russian channels on Telegram confirm the serious damage and losses - they write about at least 30 dead soldiers", says the source of the agency.

Meanwhile, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel published a video of the attack on Saky. And the SBU promised not to stop attacks on Russian forces in the Ukrainian peninsula.

This is not the first time Saky Airport has been the epicenter of large-scale attacks. On August 9, there was a series of explosions in the temporarily occupied Crimea. It was from this air base that enemy planes took off to bomb Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

Poland will no longer give weapons to Ukraine

Currently, Poland does not supply arms to Ukraine. This was stated by the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. His statement comes amid rising tensions over Ukrainian grain.

"Ukraine is defending itself against Russia's brutal attack, and I understand this situation, but as I said, we will defend our country. We will no longer transfer weapons to Ukraine, because now we are arming Poland," he said in an interview with the Polsat TV channel.

At the same time, he noted that Poland does not intend to hinder the work of the logistics center near Rzeszów, through which military support is delivered to Ukraine.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has actively supported Kyiv. The country took in millions of Ukrainian refugees and provided a lot of military equipment and weapons.

In total, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has sent more than 240 tanks and almost 100 armored vehicles to Ukraine. In addition, in July 2023, the media reported that Warsaw had secretly transferred about a dozen Mi-24 helicopters to Kyi.

In May 2023, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced the transfer of 10 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine. Earlier, Polish President Andrzej Duda said Warsaw would provide Kyiv with all available MiG-29s

Intensive Russian missile attack in Ukraine

Intensive Russian missile attack in Ukraine - there are reports of explosions in the cities of Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Rivne. There are reports of a series of explosions in the Lviv region.

More photos from #Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/Tn8AwouaGb

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 21, 2023

Firefighters and emergency crews are working in at least two districts of Kyiv to deal with the aftermath of the overnight strikes. So far, there are no reports of casualties.

Photo of a hotel in #Cherkassy where a #Russian missile arrived at night. pic.twitter.com/ILEDkUozKA

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 21, 2023

Surface-to-air missiles were probably fired at Ukraine, the General Staff reports.

According to Moscow, 22 drones were destroyed last night - 19 in the waters of the Black Sea and in the Crimea region, and one each in the Belgorod, Kursk and Oryol regions. There is no information about casualties or material damage.

Edi Rama at the UN: "You stop the war and Zelensky won't talk"

"There is a solution - you stop the war and President Zelensky will not speak before the UN Security Council."

Thus, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who presided over the meeting, countered the Russian ambassador's objections that priority was given to Zelensky's speech before the Council, right after the opening words of UN Secretary General António Guterres. Albania is temporary President of the Council.

Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya demanded to know why the floor was given priority to the Ukrainian president before the permanent representatives of the Security Council spoke. With a long objection, he tried to interrupt Zelensky's speech.

Presiding Edi Rama, known for his sharp tongue, immediately reacted.

After Russia voiced its opposition to Zelensky speaking at the United Nations Security Council, Albania’s President Edi Rama told the Russians that there is any easy solution to issue:

“Get out of Ukraine and Zelensky won’t have to take the floor” pic.twitter.com/luH4wUga4n

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 20, 2023

"I want to assure our Russian colleagues that this is not a special operation of the Albanian presidency (a reference to the Kremlin's talk of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a 'special military operation')," he replied.

After that he pointed out that Zelensky had already spoken several times before the representatives of the permanent members of the Council at its previous meetings (5 in total) and that there was no violation of the practices and procedures of the Council. Nebenzya himself agreed that there were "precedents" who started talking, such as the situation in Somalia, but in Ukraine, it was "different".

The sharp exchange of lines between the two did not end there, however, and the tone continued to escalate.

According to Nebenzya, Rama was pushing NATO's agenda and vision because Albania is part of the Alliance, instead of fulfilling his duties as President of the Security Council. Here the Albanian Prime Minister countered him:

"You stop the war and Zelensky won't talk".

This infuriated the Russian representative even more, who urged Rama "to not give political assessments while he is the chairman of the Council".

"You turned to me in my capacity as Albanian Prime Minister - if you don't want me to answer you, don't provoke me".

This is not the first time Vasily Nebenzya has entered into verbal clashes with representatives of Albania at the UN.

This also happened last year during a meeting of the UN Security Council, when the Russian ambassador to the world organization compared the invasion of Ukraine to the war between Kosovo and Serbia, accusing the West of double standards.

"The most vocal critics of the referendum in Donbas are at the forefront of support for the independence of Kosovo. They announced that the territory has the right to leave the Serbian state if there is a real threat to the rights of the Kosovo Albanians," Nebenzya said at the time. And he added that it is not right to pressure Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia when it has historical relations with this country.

Albanian ambassador to the UN, Ferit Hoxha, reacted immediately, saying that no parallel could be drawn with the referendums now taking place in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and Kosovo, which is "an independent state recognized by half the countries of the UN".

"Nothing could be more artificial and forced than the comparison of international efforts to end the conflict, to protect civilians and to establish a peace process, to find a lasting solution, as was the case in Kosovo, with pure and unprovoked aggression and the referendums in Ukraine," he added.

"We cannot compare the incomparable, and Russia cannot divert attention from its war in Ukraine by trying to deceive people," he responded.

Novinite is still the only Bulgarian media that publishes a summary of events and highlights related to the conflict, every single day. Our coverage began on day one - 24.02.2022 and will not stop until the war has concluded. Despite the pressure, our independent media will continue to provide its readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Thank you for your support! #stayinformed

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