Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for more long-range weapons from the western allies on Thursday. At an EU summit via video link, the Ukrainian president recounted the “devastating” scenes he witnessed near the front lines, where fighting was fiercest. EU leaders approved a plan agreed by foreign ministers on Monday to send 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year.
Zelenskyy also visited the southern Kherson region, where he toured the local infrastructure and promised to rebuild after the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s military general staff said Russian forces had evacuated the Kherson town of Nova Kakhovka, but a Russian-installed official in the region denied those claims.
EU leaders held talks with UN chief António Guterres on Thursday that focused on global food security and sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Guterres’ attendance at the EU summit comes days after the renewal of a UN-Turkey-negotiated deal on the safe export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, seen as crucial to overcoming a global food crisis.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU will work to locate 16,200 Ukrainian children who have been deported to Russia. She called it a reminder of “the darkest times in our history” and said only 300 have been returned so far.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Moscow’s relations with the West are at an all-time low. When asked if the threat of nuclear conflict has decreased, he said: “No, it has not decreased, it has increased. Every day they supply Ukraine with foreign arms brings the nuclear apocalypse closer.” Medvedev also said any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin would amount to a declaration of war on Russia.
Hungary would not arrest Putin if he entered the country This was announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö has signed legislation to admit his country to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Last year Finland tried to join the military alliance in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and on March 1 a law containing NATO’s founding treaties was passed in Parliament in Helsinki.
UN nuclear agency head said situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia power plant ‘remains dangerous’ after a Russian missile attack this month took the plant offline. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant requires a reliable power supply to run pumps that circulate water to cool reactors and fuel pools.
Ukraine’s State Ambulance Service announced on Thursday that it had ended rescue attempts in Rzhyshchiv, in the Kyiv region. where it is now known that nine people were killed in a Russian drone attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that two people were killed and four others wounded in shelling in the Donetsk region on Wednesday. while in Kherson one person was killed and two injured.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, said: “The attacker does not give up hope of taking Bakhmut at any cost, despite the loss of manpower and equipment.” He added that Russia was losing “considerable strength” and that “we will seize this opportunity very soon, as we once did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupyansk,” all areas that Ukraine had previously been protected from liberated from Russian occupation.
British military intelligence said Russia has partially regained control of the approaches to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kreminna. after his troops were pushed back from the region earlier this year.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Thursday he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping about a peace plan for Ukraine. during an official visit to China next week.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas spoke out on Thursday against easing sanctions against Russia as part of a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and called on the G7 to tighten its oil cap to further squeeze Russia’s revenues.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has revised his position on Ukraine, after facing widespread criticism for calling the Russian invasion a “territorial dispute”. The likely Republican presidential nominee said his comment on the “territorial dispute” was “mischaracterized.”