- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Wednesday: “It was cold and dark, but we were unbreakable (…) Ukraine conquered winter terror”. He felt that the European Union had “also won” because she “did not freeze without Russian gas”subject to sanctions. “Our partners have stood by our side in helping us”noted Mr. Kouleba.
- A missile fell on the city of Zaporizhia, killing two, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday. This region of southeastern Ukraine is regularly hit by Russian strikes. Two people died in the attack, according to city secretary Anatoly Kurtev, who said on his Telegram channel that civilians are still trapped under the rubble of a building.
- The battle continues for control of Bakhmout in the east. The Russian troops are tightening their grip on this city, cutting off three of the four routes that supply it. On Wednesday morning, the one going to Bakhmout and Chassiv Iar, a locality located just to the west, was closed to traffic by the police.
- The spokesman for the Eastern Command of the Ukrainian army, Sergei Cherevaty, denied that a Ukrainian withdrawal from Bakhmut either in progress. A possible withdrawal “will depend on the operational situation. So far, such a decision has not been taken”he told Agence France-Presse.
- Alexander Lukashenko, said on Wednesday “totally” support Chinese peace proposals for Ukraine. The Belarusian president, visiting China, is one of Moscow’s main allies. Beijing particularly urges Russians and Ukrainians to dialogue but also insists on respect for territorial integrity and opposes any recourse to nuclear weapons.
- The European Commission wants to increase ammunition production in Europe. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, recommends devoting one billion euros from the endowment of the European Peace Facility (EFF), the fund used for the purchase and supply of armaments to Ukraine, to the purchase of 155 mm shells used by the Ukrainian artillery.
- Yevgeny Prigozhin is a “war criminal”says the US Attorney General For Merrick Garland, the American Minister of Justice, the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine, is a war criminal. “I think we have more than enough elements to justify my feeling”, he said during a hearing in the Senate. Mr. Garland also said that the United States “supported” European efforts in The Hague, where a “international coordination center for the prosecution of the crime of aggression” should begin its work in the summer. “As for the creation of a special tribunal, there are concerns that we must take into account on how this could affect our own troops”he added, however.
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