Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed his call for more long-range weapons from western allies on Thursday. Speaking to an EU summit via video link, the Ukrainian president recounted the “devastating” scenes he had witnessed close to the frontlines, where fighting has been fiercest. The EU leaders endorsed a plan – agreed by foreign ministers on Monday – to send a million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year.
Zelenskiy also visited the southern region of Kherson, where he toured local infrastructure and promised to rebuild following Russia’s invasion. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces have left the Kherson town of Nova Kakhovka, but a Russian-installed official in the region denied those claims.
The EU leaders held talks on Thursday with UN chief António Guterres, focused on global food security and sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Guterres’ participation in the EU summit came days after the renewal of a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey on the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea that is seen as crucial to overcoming a global food crisis.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would work to find 16,200 Ukrainian children deported to Russia. Calling it a reminder of “the darkest times in our history,” she said only 300 have been returned so far.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s security council, said Moscow’s relations with the west have hit an all-time low. Asked whether the threat of a nuclear conflict has eased, he said: “No, it hasn’t decreased, it has grown. Every day when they provide Ukraine with foreign weapons brings the nuclear apocalypse closer.” Medvedev also said any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin a would amount to a declaration of war against Russia.
Hungary would not arrest Putin if he entered the country, prime minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff said.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, signed legislation to make his country part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). Last year, Finland sought to join the military alliance in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and legislation incorporating Nato’s founding treaties was passed in parliament in Helsinki on 1 March.
The UN nuclear agency’s chief said that the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant “remains perilous” after a Russian missile strike this month disconnected the plant from the grid. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant needs a reliable electricity supply to operate pumps that circulate water to cool reactors and pools holding nuclear fuel.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Thursday that it had ended rescue attempts in Rzhyshchiv, Kyiv region, where it is now known that nine people died in a Russian drone attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that on Wednesday shelling in the Donetsk region killed two people and injured four others, while one person was killed and two were wounded in Kherson.
Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, said: “The aggressor does not give up hope of taking Bakhmut at any cost, despite the losses in manpower and equipment.” He added that Russia was losing “considerable strength” and that “very soon we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we once did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliia and Kupiansk”, all areas that Ukraine has previously liberated from Russian occupation.
British military intelligence said Russia had partially regained control over the approaches to the eastern Ukrainian town of Kreminna, after its troops were pushed back from the region earlier this year.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on Thursday he would discuss a peace plan for Ukraine with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, during an official visit to China next week.
Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, on Thursday spoke against any weakening of sanctions against Russia under a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, and called for the G7 to tighten its oil cap to squeeze Russia’s revenue more.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has reversed his position on Ukraine, after facing widespread criticism for calling the Russian invasion a “territorial dispute”. The likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination said his “territorial dispute” remark had been “mischaracterised”.