TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Kyiv's troops were "moving forward" in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, "no matter what anyone says," as Ukraine continues to bristle at Western criticism of its much-vaunted operation in the country's east. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine's air force said early on Sunday it destroyed 22 Russian drones in an overnight attack on the southern Odesa region, but two people were injured and infrastructure vital to Kyiv's grain export program had been damaged. Ukraine's southern coastal regions have come under regular attack since the collapse of a UN-brokered deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to ship its grain via the Black Sea.

• Zelenskyy said that two more ships had passed through a "temporary" Black Sea shipping corridor set up after the breakdown of the UN-backed deal. Moscow has threatened to target ships traveling along the route, which hugs the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.  

• A Ukrainian court has ordered the detention of one the country's most powerful businessmen and one-time Zelenskyy supporter Ihor Kolomoisky, ruling that he be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. The move comes amid Kyiv's wartime crackdown on corruption, part of a wider bid to make itself eligible for entry to the EU.

• The Nobel Foundation has said it would not after all invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony this year, reversing an earlier decision after widespread criticism. Ukraine welcomed the decision, calling it a "victory for humanism."

• Ukrainian shelling in Russian-controlled Donetsk killed one civilian and injured a further nine within 24 hours, according to Moscow-backed officials in the region. 

• Some 280,000 people have signed up so far this year for to serve in Russia's military, Putin ally and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on a visit to the country's Far East. The Kremlin said last year it was planning to expand Russia's combat personnel more than 30 percent to 1.5 million. 

IN DETAIL

Ukraine's Zelenskyy rebuffs counteroffensive critics

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Kyiv's troops were "moving forward" in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, rebuffing Western officials who say that Ukraine is gaining ground too slowly.

The much-vaunted counteroffensive, which is nearing the three-month mark, has retaken more than a dozen villages but no major settlements, with soldiers hampered by vast Russian minefields and defensive lines.

This week, unnamed U.S. officials publicly signaled their frustration at the slow progress of the operation and even questioned Ukrainian strategy, according to Western reports that have sparked anger in Kyiv.

"Ukrainian forces are moving forward. Despite everything, and no matter what anyone says, we are advancing, and that is the most important thing. We are on the move," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Some analysts think the West's support could begin to falter as colder and wetter weather slows progress on the battlefield later in the year. The West has poured in many billions of dollars to help the counteroffensive and Kyiv says it needs more.

Ukrainian battlefield momentum has picked up slightly in one part of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia front, where Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Friday that Kyiv's troops had broken through the first line of Russian defenses. The White House said there had been "notable success" by Ukraine in the area, although Maliar warned that Kyiv's troops had reached even more heavily fortified positions on the other side after breaking through.

Russia has already described the Ukrainian counteroffensive as a failure. Kyiv says it has been advancing slowly on purpose to minimize losses, and its advance has been greatly complicated by its lack of modern air power.

The Ukrainian leadership has made it clear it has little patience for the musings of armchair critics, far from the battlefield.

"Everyone is now an expert on how we should fight. A gentle reminder that no one understands this war better than we do," the defense ministry in Kyiv posted on X, formerly Twitter. "We need ammunitions, not advice."

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday that "to criticize the counteroffensive as slow is to spit in the face of the Ukrainian soldiers who give their lives." Speaking on the margins of an EU ministerial meeting, he said: "I suggest that all those who criticize shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate a square centimeter of territory themselves."

Criticism of the Ukrainian effort by anonymous officials was "not helpful," said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

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