The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have taken control of the Ukrainian village of Khromove, close to Bakhmout, where fighting is raging in the east of the country. A claim announced in a press release in which Moscow also uses the village’s Russian name, Artiomovskoye. Follow the latest information on the conflict.
17:51
Concerns about Ukrainian nuclear energy
The dangers surrounding Ukrainian nuclear power plants are increasing due to their proximity to fighting and power outages, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi feared on Wednesday.
“There are a lot of dangers that are multiplying and that will remain until the end of the conflict,” he warned on the sidelines of a visit to the planned site for the final storage of radioactive waste in Bure (Meuse) in eastern France. “Military operations have increased, and in our permanent expert mission that we have in Zaporizhzhia and also in other Ukrainian power plants, we are seeing an increase in attacks around the power plants,” he noted. “This is a big concern for us,” the manager concludes.
5:50 p.m
CHECKS IN POLAND
Poland announced on Wednesday “enhanced controls” for Ukrainian trucks returning to Ukraine, in a bid to calm the anger of Polish truck drivers protesting against “unfair competition” from their Ukrainian counterparts.
“These are comprehensive inspections aimed at checking compliance with all regulations applicable to Ukrainian transport companies,” said Polish Infrastructure Minister Alvin Gajadhur after a meeting with Polish truck drivers.
4:40 p.m
FROM PRISON FOR WAGNER VETERAN
A court in Karaganda, central Kazakhstan, on Wednesday sentenced a man who fought for the Russian paramilitary group Wagner in Ukraine to nearly seven years in prison. The person was found guilty of “mercenary acts” in an armed conflict “aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order” or “violating the territorial integrity of a state.”
The defendant, from a village in the Karaganda region, responded in March to an ad on a Russian social network asking him to join the Wagner group and promising a “good financial reward” for doing so. He then went to Russia and completed military training, the court reports. In late April, he was deployed to the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and “took part in military operations aimed at undermining the constitutional order and violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” the organization adds. During these battles he was wounded in battle and discharged.
However, Kazakhstan, an ally of Russia, like other Central Asian countries remains concerned about its sovereignty in the face of Russian ambitions.
16:34
RUSSIAN ATTACKS IN DONETSK
Russian forces have increased their attacks in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian army spokesman said on Wednesday. “The enemy has redoubled its artillery fire and air strikes. He has also increased infantry attacks on the ground and is using armored vehicles,” Oleksandr Shtupun said in a Guardian commentary.
Both camps want to make up ground before winter weather threatens to make progress more difficult.
2:49 p.m
Blockade on the Polish border
EU Transport Commissioner Adina Valean on Wednesday denounced the “lack of involvement” of the Polish authorities in finding a solution to the blockade of the border with Ukraine by Polish truck drivers, deeming the situation “totally unacceptable”.
Polish truck drivers protesting against “unfair competition” from Ukrainian truck drivers have been organizing blockades at the border between the two countries since the beginning of the month, leading to long queues for heavy goods vehicles.
“Although I support people’s right to protest, the entire EU, not to mention Ukraine, a country currently at war, cannot be held hostage by the blockade of our external borders,” the Romanian commissioner said during a press conference in Brussels.
13:39
“We must continue to support Ukraine”
The United States and its allies will continue to support Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized on Wednesday from NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“The answer is clear: we must continue to support Ukraine and we will,” he told a news conference.
13:36
RUSSIA REQUESTS THE CAPTURE OF A VILLAGE NEAR BAKHMOUT
Russia says it has seized control of Artiomovskoye, a village near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. “With the support of aviation and artillery, Russian units “liberated the town of Artyomovskoye,” the Defense Ministry states in a press release, using the Russian name of the town of Khromove.
11:07
UKRAINE “DON’T GIVE UP”
Ukraine will “not give in” for itself and for the security of the entire Atlantic Alliance, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO on Wednesday.
“We have to keep fighting, Ukraine will not give in,” he told the press at the alliance headquarters in Brussels before a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council. “Our strategic goal,” a Ukraine within its 1991 borders, including Crimea annexed by Moscow in 2014, “remains unchanged,” he added. Not only Ukraine’s security is at stake, but also “the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic region,” he emphasized.
Dmytro Kuleba also reminded that Ukraine is not asking the Americans or Europeans on the battlefield for involvement, but for their help in defeating Russia.
11:06
OSCE
Russia accused the West on Wednesday of trying to obstruct its participation in a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is being boycotted by Ukraine and the Baltic countries, to denounce the presence of the leader of Russian diplomacy.
“We see attempts by part of the West to do everything to prevent the normal participation of our country in this meeting,” Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a press conference.
She accused these Western countries, without naming them, of “endangering the existence” of the OSCE, whose chief diplomats will meet in Skopje on Thursday and Friday for their annual meeting.
10:27
A “LOYALITY AGREEMENT”
The Russian Interior Ministry is working to require foreigners traveling to Russia to sign a “loyalty agreement” that would ban them from criticizing the Kremlin’s policies, as dissident voices have been suppressed since the offensive in Ukraine.
The state news agency TASS said on Wednesday that it had access to a corresponding draft law from the ministry. According to this document consulted by TASS, a foreign citizen who signs this agreement does not have the right to “discredit Russia’s foreign and domestic policy in any way” during his stay.
It is also forbidden to “abuse the right to freedom of information, including by disseminating information with the intention of demeaning or denying important moral values enshrined in the Constitution.” These “values” that cannot be criticized concern in particular “the idea of marriage as a union between a man and a woman” (enshrined in the constitution since 2020).
08:57
CHARLES MICHEL WANTS TO ACCELERATE SUPPORT FOR Kiev
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, was asked on France Inter this morning about the failure of the counteroffensive in Ukraine: “In the days after the start of the war, many thought that Ukraine would collapse. However, we see that Ukraine is resisting. I think it is unfair to talk about Ukraine’s military failure. On the one hand, in recent weeks the troops have crossed this river, the Dnipro, which represents an extremely strategic element. On the other hand, Ukraine has thanks to our support managed to regain control of its territorial waters in the Black Sea, which is very important for the reopening of safe export channels.
“We need nuance on this topic, an objective analysis. Without our support we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today. The question is therefore not how to reduce support, but how to accelerate and strengthen it in order to defend our political project and our values’.
08:32
NIGHT ATTACKS IN UKRAINE
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that it had shot down 21 drones in night air strikes by Russia.
“In total, 21 Shahed-136/131 drones and three Kh-59 missiles were involved in the attacks,” it said on social media, claiming to have shot down all of the drones and two of the missiles.
07:45
POISONING
Marianna Budanova, the wife of the head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (GUR), was allegedly poisoned with heavy metals. “That is the main hypothesis,” assured a GUR spokesman.
07:44
FINLAND
Finland will close its last open border crossing with Russia overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, accusing Moscow of staging a “hybrid attack” by sending undocumented migrants to the border.
According to Finnish authorities, almost 1,000 undocumented asylum seekers, particularly from Somalia, Iraq and Yemen, have reported to the 1,340-kilometer eastern border between the two countries since the beginning of August.
07:26
NATO
NATO tried on Tuesday to persuade it to continue its engagement in Ukraine in a difficult context dominated by the status quo on the battlefield and procrastination by the United States.
“I am confident” about continued US military support for Ukraine, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the start of a ministerial meeting in Brussels.
However, aid from Washington has been blocked in Congress for weeks because elected Republicans are unwilling to contribute more to the war effort in Ukraine. The United States has already paid Kiev $40 billion in military aid and these elected officials believe the rest can wait, while Israel, which is fighting Hamas, also needs help.
07:25
LIVE
Welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to events in Ukraine.
Two women and a seven-year-old girl were killed on Tuesday in a bomb attack on the town in the Sumy region on the border with Russia in northeastern Ukraine, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
The bodies of the two women and two injured men were recovered from the rubble of damaged houses in the town of Seredyna-Bouda, the prosecutor’s office said on its Facebook page.
The girl and her stepfather were in their car at the time of the strike and were both injured, prosecutors added. “The girl later succumbed to her injuries in the hospital,” said the same source.
According to preliminary information, the bomb attack was carried out using a multiple rocket launcher system at around 12:30 p.m. local time (10:30 GMT), the public prosecutor’s office said. “At least five houses were destroyed,” he continued, posting photos of buildings with destroyed walls or roofs.
Ukraine accuses Russia of regularly bombing its border towns since Moscow began invading the neighboring country in February 2022, large areas in the east and south of which are occupied by Moscow’s troops.
The editorial team of TF1info