Here is the situation as it stands on Friday, March 10, 2023:
Fighting
- Russia launched a huge wave of missile attacks across Ukraine, killing at least six civilians, three of them in the southern city of Kherson, and cutting power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
- The Zaporizhzhia plant was now reconnected to Ukraine’s energy grid, grid operator Ukrenergo said.
- Ukraine said its air defences had shot down many drones and missiles during the pre-dawn attack.
- Ukraine’s air force says Russia fired 81 missiles, including six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles – Russian for “dagger” – as well as eight drones.
- Russia says the attacks were “retaliation” for what it called a “terrorist” attack by Ukraine in Russia’s Bryansk region last week.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attacks and said Moscow “won’t avoid responsibility”.
- Ukraine’s military says its forces have pushed back intense Russian attacks on the eastern mining town of Bakhmut, despite Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claiming it has taken full control of the town’s eastern part.
Diplomacy
- Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Russia and the United States remained in contact over the New START nuclear arms treaty despite Moscow having suspended its participation in the deal, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Ryabkov said he had no expectations for significant progress from contact between Moscow and Washington.
- The Kremlin says there are still “a lot of questions” remaining over the Black Sea grain deal and that there are no plans for a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, said extending the deal was becoming “complicated”.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he could see no sign of willingness on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.
- During a meeting with the United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant said Israel was doing its “best” to help Ukraine.
- Saudi Arabia was among the countries that helped facilitate prisoner-of-war swaps with Ukraine, Lavrov told reporters during a press conference with his Saudi counterpart.
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg launched a new attempt to get Finland and Sweden accepted as members of the world’s biggest military organisation.
- Russia said it imposed sanctions on 144 government officials, journalists, legislators and other public figures deemed “most hostile” to Moscow from the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
- Security services in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria said they prevented an alleged assassination attempt against their Russian-backed leader.
- Hackers with links to Russia and China have repeatedly attempted to break into Lithuanian government computers, Lithuania’s security services said.
- The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) said it supports a ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus competing in the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
Weapons
- Slovakia needs to decide on sending MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, while Poland has expressed willingness to collaborate, said Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic Jaroslav Nad.
- Poland has delivered the additional 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks it had promised Ukraine, defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak said.
