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• Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelenskyy told his new Defense Minister Rustem Umerov he must cut red tape and rebuild the trust of the public after a series of corruption allegations. Other priorities for the incoming minister include developing international cooperation and guiding Ukraine towards NATO membership. READ MORE BELOW

• The U.S. Pentagon has announced the supply of depleted uranium anti-tank shells as part of a military aid package worth around $175 million. The announcement came as the U.S. Secretary of State visited Kyiv on Wednesday. 

• The Kremlin says Washington will have to answer for the "very sad" consequences of its decision to provide depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said NATO's heavy use of such ammunition in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s caused a jump in cancer and other diseases.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has praised Ukraine's strength in fighting Russian forces as he toured an underground bunker in the Kyiv region. 

• Two alleged Ukrainian drones caused damage near a military headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. It was one of the sites seized by the Wagner group in the failed June coup attempt. Russian air defenses say the drones were shot down. 

• A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail has damaged port infrastructure during a three-hour attack.  

• Vehicles and an apartment block have been damaged in a drone attack in the Moscow region 

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told lawmakers in the European parliament that Ukraine is making progress with its June counteroffensive. "The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground … they have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward," he said. 

• Russia described a U.S. plan to send funds seized by Russian business people under sanction and send them to Ukraine as illegal. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any such actions would be contested. It comes after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Washington was transferring $5.4 million in "assets seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, to support Ukrainian military veterans."

• Ukraine has begun exporting grain via Croatia, according to senior officials. It comes as Kyiv seeks alternatives to Black Sea ports, blocked since the Russian takeover. Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain export deal in mid-July.

• Ukraine's human rights commissioner has called for the world to bring more pressure to bear on Russia to help bring home thousands of children who Kyiv says have been illegally taken to Russia. Dmytro Lubinets made the comments after several children were reunited with their parents in western Ukraine at the weekend, after traveling from Russian-held areas. 

IN DETAIL 

Ukraine's new defense minister gets to work

Cut red tape and restore the trust of the Ukrainian people. That was the message from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to incoming Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as he was introduced to senior military and defense officials.  

"Most importantly, we need more trust. Trust in the decisions that are being made, trust in the procurement that is carried out, trust in the supplies," Zelenskyy said. 

The President sacked Umerov's predecessor Oleksii Reznikov last week following allegations of corruption leveled at the Defense Ministry by Ukrainian media. Reznikov himself had not faced any allegations of wrong-doing. 

Zelenskyy added that other priorities for the incoming minister would be developing international cooperation and guiding Ukraine towards NATO membership. The Ukrainian leader said if changes were needed that would benefit the country's troops, they should be made straight away. "We need a new philosophy of attitude towards Ukrainian soldiers: people are not disposable," he said. 

Umerov said fighting corruption would be one of his priorities alongside making the ministry the main institution for the coordination of defence forces and enhancing the value attached to individual soldiers.  

Military analysts said the shake-up would not have a big impact on Ukraine's war effort.

Who is Rustem Umerov?

The 41-year-old former government official has spent the past year heading up Ukraine's State Property Fund. Umerov came into politics in 2019 when he ran for parliament with the reformist 'Holos' party, which he later left to become a government official.  

A Muslim, he is a Crimean Tatar, the indigenous Turkic population of the Crimean peninsula who were forcibly deported to Central Asia during World War Two. 

Umerov was born in exile In Uzbekistan. In the 1980s while still very young, he moved to Crimea with his family when some of the community were allowed to return.   

He's been an active member of the ethnic community, serving as a delegate in the Crimean Tatar Congress. He also served as co-chair of the Crimea Platform, an international diplomatic initiative focused on negotiating with Russia following its 2014 takeover of the peninsula.  

A full-scale Ukrainian assault to retake Crimea is some way off, according to military analysts, but they say Umerov's appointment is a signal that Ukraine is serious about reclaiming Crimea as part of its overall endgame strategy.

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