Missile hits Odesa as Zelenskiy visits with Greek PM; Britain ready to loan frozen Russian assets to Ukraine – what we know on day 743
The Ukrainian military will stabilise the battlefield situation shortly and aims to form units for counter-offensive actions later this year, according to Lt Gen Oleksandr Pavliuk, commander of ground forces. He said work was under way to withdraw military units and restore their combat potential. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has previously said Russia will try to mount a new offensive this spring or summer, but Kyiv has a battlefield plan of its own.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy told national television on Wednesday that Russian forces were unable to gain new ground near Avdiivka. The Russians were instead focusing on an area to the south, near the village of Novomykhailivka. Maksym Zhorin, a Ukrainian commander in the area, also said Russian forces were having difficulty making headway. Their latest target was the village of Orlivka. “They are constantly attempting to advance and make progress wherever possible. Despite significant losses, they persist in launching assaults, both day and night.”
A deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa appeared to land near Volodymyr Zelenskiy and visiting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who described the moment of the bombardment as “intense”. The attack on port infrastructure on Wednesday killed five people and left an unspecified number of wounded, according to Ukraine’s navy. Greece will continue standing by the side of Ukraine, Mitsotakis said.
Britain is prepared to loan Ukraine all frozen Russian central bank assets in the UK on the basis that Russia will be forced to pay reparations to Ukraine at the end of the war, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said. He said the assets would be used as surety for the payment of the reparations.
Ukraine stepped up its attacks behind Russian lines with the apparent car bomb killing of a Russian election official in the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk; and two drones struck the Mikhailovsky GOK iron ore refinery in Russia’s Kursk region, where an industrial fuel tank exploded. Ukrainian military intelligence was responsible for the iron plant attack, a source told Reuters.
Germany is participating in a Czech Republic initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine with a three-digit million euro contribution, a spokesperson for the German government said on Wednesday.
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said he would discuss the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday, and talks with other Russian authorities had been “tense”, Russian news agencies reported.
On a visit to Washington, Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, are due to hand over final Nato accession documents to US representatives in the coming days. It is Sweden’s last step in a two-year process to join the military alliance.
A reporter for the independent Russian news outlet RusNews has been sentenced to seven years in prison for articles he wrote about alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, his publication said. Roman Ivanov was convicted of publishing “fake news” about the Russian army under wartime censorship laws.
