Russian president says four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia will be put under martial law.
1-Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in the four
provinces of Ukraine where Russia controls territory. The law gives
far-reaching emergency powers to the Russian-installed heads of Luhansk,
Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, which Russia recently proclaimed
as annexed after sham referendums. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo
Podolyak described the announcement as the “pseudo-legalization of looting of
Ukrainians’ property”.
2-Putin has also ordered an “economic mobilisation” in
six provinces that border Ukraine, plus Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia
illegally annexed in 2014. He said he was granting additional authority to the
leaders of all Russian provinces to maintain public order and increase
production in support of Moscow’s war. The law also limits the freedom to move
in and out of the eight provinces.
3-Russian officials have warned of a Ukrainian assault
on the key southern city of Kherson. The head of the occupying administration
in Kherson spoke of plans to move up to 60,000 people across the Dnieper River
and into Russia as Moscow attempted to cling to the city before a Ukrainian
counteroffensive. The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine announced on
Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from Kherson, describing the
military situation as “tense”.
4-The head of the Kherson regional military
administration told people not to comply with the evacuation request. Residents
are under pressure to leave. A number have reported receiving mass text
messages warning the city would be shelled and informing them that buses would
be leaving from the port from 7am. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to the
Ukrainian president, described Russian announcements as “a propaganda show”.
5-Several Russian missiles have been shot down over
Kyiv on Wednesday afternoon, its mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, said. Loud
explosions were reported in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. Greek
diplomats have confirmed that the country’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias,
who is visiting Ukraine, was forced to seek refuge in a bomb shelter in Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces shot down 13 “kamikaze” drones over Mykoliav overnight,
according to the region’s governor, Vitaliy Kim.
6-Russia’s strikes on critical energy infrastructure
in Ukraine are “acts of pure terror” that amount to war crimes, the head of the
European Commission has said. Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks to the European
parliament on Wednesday came after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were
left without power or water as a result of Russian strikes, part of what
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an expanding Russian campaign to drive the
nation into the cold and dark and make peace talks impossible.
7-Ukrainian officials are working to create mobile
power points after Russia launched new strikes against the country’s energy
infrastructure, President Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy held a “strategic meeting”
with senior officials today to discuss measures to “eliminate the consequences
in the event of a breakdown of the energy system of Ukraine”, he said on
Telegram.
8-Kyiv has recently introduced a news blackout in the
south of the country, leading to speculations that it was preparing a new major
offensive on Kherson. “When the Ukrainians have a news blackout it means
something is going on. They have always done this before when there is a big
offensive push on,” Michael Clarke, a former director general of the Royal
United Services Institute, told Sky News.
9-The cost to Ukraine of downing the “kamikaze” drones
being fired at its cities vastly exceeds the sums paid by Russia in sourcing
and launching the cheap Iranian-made technology, analysis suggests. The total
cost to Russia of the failed drone attacks unleashed on Ukraine in recent weeks
is estimated by military analysts to be between $11.66m (£10.36m) and $17.9m
(£15.9m). The estimated cost to Ukraine to bring down the drones stands at more
than $28.14m (£25m).
10-The EU plans to impose sanctions on three senior
Iranian military commanders and the company that develops drones believed to
have been used in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. The draft sanctions list, seen
by the Guardian, is expected to be agreed within days, indicating EU ministers
do not believe Iran’s denials that it has supplied Russia with the low-flying
lethal weapons.
11-Israel’s defence minister has reiterated that the
country will not sell weapons to Ukraine, despite a request from Kyiv for air
defence supplies in the face of Russia’s growing use of Iranian-made drones.
Israel has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine but has refrained from sending
military materiel.
12-The White House is taking “every step possible” to
avoid a direct encounter between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin at the
G20 summit in Indonesia next month, according to reports. US officials are also
reportedly taking measures to avoid even a hallway run-in or photo meeting
between the two leaders.
Putin will face “severe consequences” if he uses
nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, Downing Street has said. Britain’s
defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has been in Washington for talks with his US
counterpart amid reports the Russian leader could detonate a nuclear warhead
over the Black Sea.