Russian forces are closer to seizing the last bag of resistance in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Sievierodonetsk and its neighboring city, Lysychansk, continue to suffer heavy Russian bombing. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Wednesday that Russian forces were moving towards Lysychansk, targeting police, state security and prosecutors’ buildings.
Spectacular images have emerged from Russia of what appears to be a drone flying into an oil refinery and causing an explosion in what could be an attack within Russia’s borders. The video shared on social media showed that the unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region, in what would be a shameful breach of Russia’s air defense systems.
A Russian missile attack has left at least one person dead in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, according to its mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. The attack caused several fires and damaged several buildings, including a school, Senkevych said. Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said seven missiles had hit Mykolaiv.
According to the mayor of the region, residents and workers of a nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a city in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, are being abducted by Russian occupiers. “The whereabouts of a stranger. The rest are in very difficult condition: they are being tortured with electric shock, physically and morally harassed, “said Mayor Dmytro Orlov.
A TV tower in the city of Donetsk, controlled by Ukrainian separatists, has been badly damaged by the bombing and the broadcast has been interrupted, the local Donetsk news agency reported. The Petrovskiy TV center is still standing, but some of its equipment has been damaged, while some equipment has been moved, the agency said.
British intelligence predicts that Russia’s momentum will slow in the coming months. “Our defense intelligence service believes, however, that in the coming months, Russia could reach a point where there is no longer any forward momentum because it has exhausted its resources,” he told reporters. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Leaders at the next G7 summit in Germany will announce new measures aimed at putting pressure on Russia, as well as new commitments to strengthen European security, a senior US official has said. “We will launch a specific set of proposals to increase pressure on Russia,” the official said. The G7 is also likely to discuss the fate of a Russian turbine blocked in Canada and accused of reducing gas supplies to Germany, Canada’s natural resources minister said.
The Kremlin said EU sanctions that led Lithuania to block the transit of some goods to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad were “absolutely unacceptable”. Moscow was working on retaliatory measures in response to EU “illegal sanctions,” he said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow’s response to Lithuania’s ban would not be exclusively diplomatic, but practical.
Ukraine has downplayed the possibility of reaching an agreement with Russia that would allow blocked grain shipments to begin sailing across the Black Sea. Consultations are ongoing, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Moscow and Ankara had agreed to continue talks on safe ship departures and grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
The head of the Finnish armed forces said his country was ready for a Russian attack and would offer tough resistance in the event of a. The Finns are motivated to fight and the country has created a significant arsenal, said General Timo Kivinen, adding: “The most important line of defense is between the ears.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for the strengthening of ties with countries in the Brics group of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – following Western sanctions in Ukraine. Putin said talks were continuing on “opening Indian store chains in Russia, increasing the share of Chinese cars” in the Russian market.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Iran on Wednesday. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov’s visit was aimed at “expanding cooperation with the Eurasian region and the Caucasus.”
Europe must prepare immediately for Russia to close all gas exports to the region this winter, according to the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. He called on governments to work to reduce demand and keep nuclear power plants open.
According to Reporters Without Borders, a Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier accompanying him were “cold-executed” when they were killed in the first weeks of the invasion of Russia. Maks Levin and Oleksiy Chernyshov were searching Russia’s occupied forests to find the photographer’s missing drone, the agency said, citing the findings of an investigation into their deaths.