Russian drones struck civilian targets in and around Ukraine’s second-largest city and sparked a fire overnight, officials said.
The strikes targeted civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and hit the region, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.
The fire has been brought under control, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
It is still known if there were any casualties.
Meanwhile, Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of the Lviv region on the border with Poland, said anti-aircraft aircraft were active.
Welcome to our policy, as the Kremlin denies the confrontation in Ukraine and Kiev predicts more Russian attacks on the Eastern Front.
Experts say it is highly unlikely that Russia will try to end the standoff before the U. S. presidential election, which will take place in November 2024, in the hope that aid to Ukraine will decrease.
At the same time, the foreign community’s attention to the Israel-Hamas conflict may simply lead to a weakening of Ukraine, a former British army officer has suggested.
Before we continue with our usual updates and analysis, let’s stay updated with the key developments that have occurred in the last 24 hours:
And here’s the latest territorial picture in Ukraine. . .
The U. S. has imposed a new Russia-related sanctions circular, targeting the limited liability company Arctic LNG 2, among other entities and individuals, according to a statement posted on the Treasury Department’s website.
The Treasury Department has also issued four general licenses similar to Russia’s, he says.
This follows many sanctions imposed on the Russian government, Russian companies, and Russian-Americans since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
We previously reported (see 3:45 p. m. ) that China and the United States would hold negotiations on nuclear weapons next week.
The news sparked strong reactions among analysts, and is applicable in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, especially since China is likely Russia’s most vital ally.
Pavel Podvig is a physicist trained at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, and an expert in nuclear arms control.
He said the news of the negotiations is “quite important, in my opinion. “
“If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time U. S. -China relations and weapons have been discussed in combination in one sentence indicating this is happening,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“This is very news.
“I don’t think anyone expects anything like the process between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Russia, with treaties, numerical limits, and verifications (although that would be good, of course). In fact, even in the process between the U. S. and Russia, those things played a big role. A role. A largely secondary role.
“The price of guns was/is apparent evidence of a willingness to abide by safe rules.
“The exact nature of those regulations is not especially important. It doesn’t matter what works. From this point of view, consultations are even more important, especially all the failed attempts of the past to release them.
“If the U. S. and China are serious, they’ll converge on something quite tangible. “
He added that he thinks it is “good that Russia is not one of them. “
“I hope his absence will give the U. S. and China a chance to start counting beans and focus on the things that matter most to them,” he said.
“All in all, it’s smart news at a time when we can use some of it. “
By Sean Bell, Military Analyst
As the war in Ukraine continues, the world’s media attention has focused overnight on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been able to harness the strength of foreign media to draw attention to Ukraine’s plight, visiting Western countries in search of more military and monetary support.
However, lacking the oxygen of media attention, the army is now at risk of being diverted to Israel, where the United States has just diverted a shipment of 155mm artillery shells that were once destined for Ukraine.
By contrast, North Korea sent more than 1,000 ISO boxes of artillery shells to Russia last month, and while this represents only a month’s worth of materials at Russia’s rate of consumption, it appears that North Korean factories are operating at full capacity to meet Russian demand. .
At the same time, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said in an interview with The Economist that despite Ukrainian victories in counteroffensive operations last year, the war is moving “into a new stage: what in the military it calls ‘positional’ warfare of static and attrition. “
This has given rise to the hypothesis that if the war reaches a stalemate – frozen like the front lines in World War I – it is time to negotiate and reach an agreement.
However, Ukraine does not seem willing to budge, and it is highly unlikely that Russia will seek to end the standoff before the US presidential election next November, as any prospect of the US slowing down relative to Ukraine will spark renewed optimism and hope in Moscow. The army’s goals can be achieved.
Zelensky hopes that a protracted standoff between Israel and Hamas will not contribute to Ukraine’s decline in the West.
However, conflicting domestic Western priorities, the protracted clash between Israel and Hamas, and the West’s growing war fatigue provide the ideal basis for securing Ukraine’s strategic ambitions.
We told you earlier (see 9:27 a. m. post) that Vladimir Putin had signed a law to revoke Russia’s ratification of the treaty banning nuclear weapons testing.
In a similar, but potentially more positive, development, a report was also released according to which the United States and China (perhaps Russia’s best friend in life) are expected to hold nuclear arms negotiations next week.
Revealed via the Wall Street Journal, the talks will mark the first such talks between the two superpowers since the Obama administration.
While they will not involve formal arms negotiations, the newspaper reports that the talks will give U. S. officials a chance to question their Chinese counterparts about Beijing’s nuclear doctrine and the buildup of its nuclear arsenal, which has traditionally been much smaller than that of the United States and Russia. .
Tong Zhao of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, “China’s leaders are still in favor of a long-term festival with the United States.
“We hope that if this exchange can be sustained and take a stand in the future, it can open up opportunities for more substantive talks. “
For nearly 21 months of a war in which thousands of people have died, the news coming out of Ukraine has been almost relentlessly dark on a human level.
It is vital to highlight these rare instances of light, as evidenced by a photograph taken by Valentyn Ogirenko of the Reuters news firm in front of a train station in the city of Trostianets, in the Sumy region of Ukraine.
There, he captured a symbol of the Ukrainian serviceman Oleksandr as he hugged his daughter Alina, more than six months since they last saw each other.
Russia has accused Ukraine of risking a nuclear disaster, saying nine Ukrainian drones were shot down by its forces near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which has been under Russian control since early March 2022, has six Soviet-designed V-320 VVER-1000 reactors cooled and moderated with water containing uranium-235.
According to the Russian operator of the plant, four of the reactors are shut down, while two of them are in the so-called “hot shutdown” mode.
“The Kiev regime continues to launch provocations with the aim of creating a risk of crisis at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and disrupting the turnover of workers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine has not yet commented on those allegations, which will be independently verified.
The ministry said Russian air defense forces shot down nine Ukrainian drones near the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar.
The IAEA has stated that the world is pleased that so far there has been no nuclear damage at the Zaporizhzhia plant, where nuclear protection remains incredibly fragile.
As reported here, Kherson in southern Ukraine has come under heavy Russian shelling over the past 36 hours.
The local government now says the bombing killed an 81-year-old woman on the lawn of her home and a 60-year-old man.
Kherson is a strategic military region on the Dnieper River near the mouth of the Black Sea, and is a vital front line between warring countries.
Unconfirmed reports imply that attacking Ukrainian troops have gained a foothold in Kyiv’s counteroffensive on the Russian-controlled riverbank.
The two civilians were killed when Russian artillery pounded villages in the Kherson region, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Four other people were reportedly injured in the attacks, which also destroyed residential and public buildings.
This follows the death of a user in Russian shelling that caused severe damage to the capital of the same region in the Kherson region, in what Prokudin described as “an apocalyptic scene. “