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Ukraine says Russia has started a counteroffensive in its Kursk border region

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Ukraine says Russia has started a counteroffensive in its Kursk border region
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News

Ukraine says Russia has started a counteroffensive in its Kursk border region

2024-09-13 02:58 Last Updated At:03:00

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has launched a counteroffensive in its Kursk region to dislodge Ukraine's forces who stormed across the border five weeks ago and put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since World War II, Ukraine's president said Thursday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that Moscow’s forces had recaptured 10 settlements in Kursk and listed their names but didn't describe the fighting as a counteroffensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was taking “counteroffensive actions” but that Ukrainian forces had anticipated the moves and were ready to fight.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives for an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has launched a counteroffensive in its Kursk region to dislodge Ukraine's forces who stormed across the border five weeks ago and put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since World War II, Ukraine's president said Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink as he prepares to depart the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink as he prepares to depart the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken poses for a photo with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken poses for a photo with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, second right, at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, second right, at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink attend an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink attend an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Ukraine launched its daring incursion into Kursk on Aug. 6, partly in the hope that Russia would divert its troops there from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine where a push by the Russian army is threatening to overrun a belt of key defensive strongholds.

The cross-border operation also raised Ukrainian morale after months of gloomy news from the front by exposing Russian vulnerabilities and seizing some initiative on the battlefield. It also sought to establish a buffer zone to prevent Russian attacks.

Moscow’s muddled response suggested Russia hadn’t planned for such a development and was caught by surprise. Assembling forces for a counterattack, given the long distances involved and other demands along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, was expected to take some time.

The Russian army has been hacking its way deeper into eastern Ukraine, especially Donetsk, and has battered Ukrainian territory with relentless missile and drone attacks.

A Russian missile attack Thursday killed three people and injured two others, all of them Ukrainian workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets said.

The toll was the largest among staffers at the Geneva-based humanitarian organization since a bomb blast killed three at the Aden airport in Yemen in 2020.

The key eastern Ukraine city of Pokrovsk is without a drinking water supply or natural gas for cooking and heating, authorities said, as the Russian army’s attritional slog across the Donetsk region lays waste to public infrastructure and forces civilians to flee their homes.

A water filtration station in Pokrovsk was damaged in recent fighting, and more than 300 hastily drilled water wells are the city’s last source of drinking water, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

The previous day, Russians destroyed a natural gas distribution station near Pokrovsk, Filashkin said. Some 18,000 people remain in the city, including 522 children, he said. More than 20,000 people have left in the past six weeks as Russian forces creep closer to residential areas, Filashkin said.

“Evacuation is the only … choice for civilians,” he added.

Pokrovsk is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defensive abilities and supply routes and would bring Russia closer to its stated goal of capturing the entire Donetsk region, which it partially occupies.

Russian troops backed by artillery and powerful glide bombs have turned Donetsk cities and towns such as Bakhmut and Avdiivka into bombed-out shells, though the push has cost Russia heavily in troops and armor.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday ended a Ukraine-focused European tour after hearing repeated appeals from Ukrainian officials to use Western-supplied weaponry for long-range strikes inside Russia.

President Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire U.S.-provided missiles across the border into Russia in self-defense, but has largely limited the distance they can be fired. Extending the limit could bring Russian retaliation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in turn warned that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are at war with Russia ... if this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”

Ukrainian forces have held out as long as possible in Donetsk, even when strongholds such as Chasiv Yar appeared to be in danger of imminent collapse.

Russia has fired missiles especially at the power grid, potentially dooming Ukrainians to a bitterly cold winter this year.

The United States and Britain pledged nearly $1.5 billion in additional aid to Ukraine on Wednesday during a visit to Kyiv by their top diplomats. Much of that will go to restoring the electricity supply.

“We’re again seeing Putin dust off his winter playbook, targeting Ukrainian energy and electricity systems to weaponize the cold against the Ukrainian people,” Blinken said. An overnight drone attack on Konotop, a town in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, largely knocked out the electricity supply, regional officials said.

The blasts also blew out an “incredibly high number” of windows in the city and damaged many of the town’s tram tracks, Mayor Artem Semenikhin said.

Russia launched a total of 64 Shahed drones and five missiles over eastern, central, and northern regions of Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said in its Thursday morning report.

Ukraine has expressed frustration that its Western partners won’t let it use sophisticated modern weapons they supply to hit places inside Russia where the missiles and drones are launched from. Some Western leaders fear that would trigger an escalation of the war.

But after Iran recently supplied ballistic missiles to Russia, according to the U.S., those rules of engagement could be set to change in coming days as heavier Russian bombardments could swamp Ukraine’s meager air defenses.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz said Thursday that U.S. long-range guided missiles, such as ATACMS, wouldn’t be able to reach all the locations from where Russia launches some of its assets. He added that “the supply of ATACMS is finite, and we need to be judicious about where and when they are deployed.”

In other developments, Ukrainian Military Intelligence claimed to have shot down a Russian Su-30SM jet over the Black Sea.

A post on the agency’s social media Thursday said the warplane was hit with a portable surface-to-air missile.

Also, Zelenkskyy posted photos of a ship loaded with grain that he said was struck by a Russian missile Thursday shortly after leaving Ukrainian territorial waters.

The merchant ship was taking wheat to Egypt, Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram page, adding that nobody was injured in the strike.

Ukraine last year managed to break through Russia’s Black Sea blockade and ship millions of tons of grain using a route that hugs Ukraine’s southern coast.

Tara Copp in Washington and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives for an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives for an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink as he prepares to depart the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink as he prepares to depart the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken poses for a photo with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken poses for a photo with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, second right, at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second left, meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, second right, at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink attend an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink attend an event to promote civil society engagement in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

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Senate Republicans again block legislation to guarantee women's rights to IVF

2024-09-18 04:38 Last Updated At:04:40

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have blocked for a second time this year legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, arguing that the vote is an election-year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.

The Senate vote was Democrats’ latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.”

The 51-44 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won't support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.

“They say they support IVF — here you go, vote on this,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill's lead sponsor and a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children.

The Democratic push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics.

Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Duckworth's bill and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go after the procedure next after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022.

The bill would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies and a right for doctors and insurance companies to provide it, an effort to pre-empt state efforts to limit the services. It would also require more health insurers to cover it and expand coverage for military service members and veterans.

In a statement after the vote, Harris said Republicans in Congress “have once again made clear that they will not protect access to the fertility treatments many couples need to fulfill their dream of having a child.”

Republicans argued that the federal government shouldn’t tell states what to do and that the bill was an unserious effort. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill both times.

Meanwhile, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making clear that they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for the fertility treatment.

In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later reversed by the legislature.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that Democrats are trying to create a political issue “where there isn't one.”

“Let me remind everybody that Republicans support IVF, full stop,” Thune said just before the vote.

The issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process. Ahead of its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a policy platform that supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens. The platform also encourages supporting IVF but does not explain how the party plans to do so.

Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say they are not enough.

Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said in a floor speech then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas have tried to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding for states where IVF is banned.

Cruz, who is running for reelection in Texas, said Democrats were holding the vote to “stoke baseless fears about IVF and push their broader political agenda.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, center, accompanied by Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., left, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., center-right, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, center, accompanied by Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., left, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., center-right, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, left, accompanied by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, left, accompanied by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Front row, left to right, Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., pose for a photograph after speaking about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Front row, left to right, Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., pose for a photograph after speaking about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., center, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, left, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., center, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, left, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., right, speaks about the need to protect rights to in vitro fertilization (IVF), on the Senate steps at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

FILE - The Capitol is seen from the Russell Senate Office Building as Congress returns from a district work week, in Washington, March 24, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - The Capitol is seen from the Russell Senate Office Building as Congress returns from a district work week, in Washington, March 24, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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