Ukraine’s commander-in-chief said the war with Russia was moving to a new stage of positional warfare involving static and attritional fighting, a phase he warned could benefit Moscow.
Russia has shelled more than 100 settlements within the last 24 hours, more than in any single day so far this year, Ukraine said on Wednesday.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told a prank caller posing as an African leader that there was “a lot of tiredness” over the war in Ukraine and that she had some ideas up her sleeve on how to “find a way out”.
More than 260 civilians have been killed in Ukraine after stepping on mines or other explosives during the 20-month-old war with Russia, Ukraine’s military said.
North Korea has also sent more than 10 shipments of munitions to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine, including more than 1m artillery rounds, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) was quoted as saying. North Korea is in the final stages of preparations for the launch of a spy satellite and the chances of its third attempt succeeding are high, South Korea’s intelligence agency said in a briefing on Wednesday, according to a lawmaker present.
A Russian attack on Kherson in eastern Ukraine killed one person and injured two others, the region’s governor said, with a Russian drone strike reportedly killing another civilian in Nikopol. These claims have not been independently verified.
Russia launched a score of drones and a missile in an attack that targeted military and critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s air force said, while regional officials said the Kremenchuk oil refinery was hit. On the Telegram messaging app, the air force said 18 of the 20 Russian-launched Shahed drones were destroyed before reaching their targets, as was the missile. However, a repeated target of earlier Russian attacks, the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the central region of Poltava, was struck, setting it ablaze, according to Filip Pronin, head of the region’s military administration.
US senators from both parties indicated support for funding for Ukraine, voicing doubts on Tuesday about a House Republican plan to split Joe Biden’s request for a $106bn (£87bn) aid package. The package combines funding for Israel and Ukraine, but also includes money to boost competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, as well as security along the US border with Mexico. On Monday, in the first major legislative action under the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, a standalone supplemental spending bill was unveiled for Israel only. That bill seeks to provide $14.3bn in aid to Israel by cutting Internal Revenue Service funding – and does not provide aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address on Tuesday: “The modern world is set up in such a way that it becomes accustomed to success too quickly. When the full-scale aggression began, many in the world did not think Ukraine would endure.” Zelenskiy has previously rejected criticism, mainly from western sources, that the counteroffensive against Russia was proceeding too slowly, saying the war was not akin to a Hollywood movie set. Ukraine’s military said Russian forces were gearing up for fresh attacks in different sections of the front, but there has been little movement along the approximately 1,000km (600-mile) frontline in recent months.
The Swiss government has decided not to lift its protection status for Ukrainians fleeing war before 4 March 2025, it said in a statement. “The situation in Ukraine is not expected to change in the foreseeable future,” the statement from the Federal Council said. The Swiss government also set a target for labour market integration, aiming to get 40% of people with protection status S capable of work into employment by the end of next year, Reuters reported.
Opera singers in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv hope to return to the stage more than 20 months into Russia’s war by performing in the basement of their theatre to be safe from the threat of Russian airstrikes. Ukraine’s second largest city, which banned mass public events when Russia invaded in February 2022, is regularly targeted by missiles that can hit as little as 45 seconds after they are fired from across the Russian border 30km (19 miles) away.
A senior UN official said Russian strikes were inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on the people of Ukraine and that more than 18 million Ukrainians – 40% of the population – needed humanitarian assistance. Ramesh Rajasingham, the director of coordination in the UN humanitarian office, told the UN security council on Tuesday that thousands of civilians had been killed in strikes on homes, schools, fields and markets since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The UN human rights office has formally verified 9,900 civilians killed, but “the actual number is certainly higher”, he said.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said Russia would be successful in Ukraine unless Washington’s support for Kyiv continued. “I can guarantee that without our support, Putin will be successful,” Austin said during a Senate hearing on Joe Biden’s request for $106bn to fund plans for Ukraine, Israel and American security.
Russia has reportedly imposed additional currency controls in an attempt to prop up the falling rouble, restricting western companies that sell their Russian assets from taking the proceeds in dollars and euros.
