A Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk late Wednesday and at least two people were killed and seven injured, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. “Rescuers, law enforcement agencies and municipal utilities are working on site to search the rubble of the destroyed building. It’s likely people are still below it,” he wrote on messaging app Telegram. At least 44 people were killed last month when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the eastern city of Dnipro.
Fierce fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are attempting to gain ground near the Lyman strategic logistics center. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Wednesday evening. Russian forces are trying to rake in gains to mark the anniversary of their invasion on February 24, 2022, said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “There has been a significant increase in the occupier’s offensive operations on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become more difficult.”
A former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway told Portal he wanted to apologize for the fighting in Ukraine and advocated bringing perpetrators of atrocities in the conflict to justice. Andrei Medvedev, who fled across the Russian-Norwegian border on January 13, said he witnessed the killing and ill-treatment of Russian prisoners who were brought to Ukraine to fight for Wagner.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he did not think sending British warplanes to Ukraine was the right approach “for the time being”. He said it was “not a sound decision”, adding: “I’ve learned two things: never rule anything out and never rule anything out.” Meanwhile, Downing Street has continued to rule out supplying Kyiv with British jets as this not practicable given the complexity of the jets.
The UK’s statements came from its former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson urged Western leaders to “give Ukrainians the tools to finish the job,” including heavy tanks and planes. Speaking to the Atlantic Council in Washington, Johnson urged the West to “stop focusing on Putin and focus fully on Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he had “frank and productive” talks with French President Emmanuel Macron. about the “urgent operational needs of his country for self-defense”.
Spain will initially send between four and six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, El País reports. Italy is to unite France in the delivery of anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine, the FT reported. In an interview, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said that a military aid package currently being prepared by Giorgia Meloni’s government would likely include “defense weapons against Russian missile attacks”. “Italy is expected to supply the rocket launchers while France will supply the missiles,” the newspaper reported.
Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has spoken out against the delivery of his country’s fighter jets to Ukraine. Habeck, an early supporter of his government, which supports Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 tanks, said such a move would likely be a step too far for Western allies, who are balancing support for Kiev’s cause against fears of an open war to be pulled in.
The US is preparing more than $2 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine, which is expected to include longer-range missiles and other ammunition and weapons for the first time. two US officials briefed on the matter, told Portal. The Kremlin said longer-range missiles, reportedly included in the forthcoming military aid package, would escalate the conflict but would not change its course.
Norwegian academics, human rights activists, best-selling authors and a former minister have called on Oslo to step up its support for Ukraine. said the government must do more to help after earning billions in additional oil and gas revenues from Russia’s war. Norway’s oil and gas revenues have soared to record highs over the past 12 months as energy prices tripled following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Norway overtook Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the growing relationship between Russia and China poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe. Speaking at Keio University in Tokyo, the NATO chief underscored the importance of increased cooperation and more “friends” for NATO in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the war in Ukraine has shown “how security is interconnected “.
Pro-Russia forces have claimed in Russian media that the fiercely contested town of Bakhmut is almost encircled. Tass quoted Colonel Vitaly Kiselev on behalf of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic as saying: “Bakhmut has practically been ’embraced’ from three sides, an intensive crackdown on the enemy is underway. They are trying and I am sure they will succeed… to get to the area of Chasiv Yar, from where there is intense shelling going back to Soledar, Bakhmut.”
The Kinburn Peninsula, a strip of land jutting out from the southern side of the Kherson Oblast on the left bank of the Dnieper River, lies in the “grey zone”, According to Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne, neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian military has full control over the territory.
An intelligence update from the UK MoD said there had been “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dnieper in recent days. “This includes the continued shelling of the city of Kherson,” the ministry notes, adding that outside of Donbass, Kherson is the most consistently shelled city in the conflict.
The head of the Kiev tax authority is accused of fraud worth millions after a raid on one of their four houses. The State Investigative Bureau of Ukraine (SBI) said in a statement that the acting head of the regulator, whose name was not given, abused her “power and official position” along with other members of the agency.