WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday that the Russians continue to make little tangible progress across most of Ukraine. The official said Russian forces are still stalled outside Kyiv while continuing to bombard the capital city with missiles.
One key development, said the official, has been increased Russian naval activity in the northern Black Sea, where ships were shelling suburbs of Odesa. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. military assessments, said it’s not clear what the Russians intend to do, but the shelling could be the start of preparations to launch a ground assault on Odesa. Russia has warships and landing ships that carry troops and tanks in the Black Sea.
The official said the Russians have launched more than 980 missiles in Ukraine, and they are still flying around 200 sorties per day, although the total goes up and down. Ukrainians are still flying between five and 10 sorties a day.
The official said Ukraine continues to control Brovary and Mykolaiv, but the Russians have largely isolated Chernihiv and Mariupol. Roughly 75% of all of Russia’s battalion tactical groups – which make up their ground forces – are committed to the fight in Ukraine, the official said.
UNITED NATIONS — Six Western nations have called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine ahead of an expected vote Friday on a Russian humanitarian resolution that makes no mention of its responsibility for the war against its smaller neighbor.
“Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians. Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all,” tweeted the U.N. mission of the United Kingdom, one of the six countries asking for the meeting.
The tweet said the U.S., France, Ireland, Norway and Albania are also requesting the meeting. All six are Security Council members.
They asked for the meeting to be held on Thursday afternoon. It has not yet been officially scheduled.
Russia circulated a proposed Security Council resolution Tuesday demanding protection for civilians “in vulnerable situations” in Ukraine and safe passage for humanitarian aid and people seeking to leave the country but never mentioning the war. The draft resolution underscores the need for “the parties concerned” to agree on humanitarian pauses to rapidly evacuate “all civilians” but never identifies the parties.
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MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say Russian forces destroyed a theater in the city of Mariupol where hundreds of people were sheltering.
There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council said was an airstrike on the theater Wednesday.
The Maxar satellite imagery firm said images from Monday showed the word “children” had been written in large white letters in Russian in front of and behind the building.
The Russian defense ministry denied bombing the theater, or anywhere else in Mariupol on Wednesday.
Nowhere has suffered more than the encircled city of Mariupol, where local officials say missile strikes and shelling have killed more than 2,300 people. The southern seaport of 430,000 has been under attack for almost all of the three-week war in a siege that has left people struggling for food, water, heat and medicine.
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MADRID — The Spanish Football Association and a firefighters’ union welcomed a group of Ukrainian refugees they helped bring to Madrid from Kracow, Poland.
The group of 45 refugees, including 22 children, first stopped at a pandemic hospital on Wednesday where they were greeted warmly. They’ll be living with foster families and relatives in Spain.
Sandra Martin is providing a place to stay for Natalie Usova and her daughter at a rural hotel owned by Martin’s family in southwest Spain.
“I’m an empathetic person, and I can’t help but see myself sitting there in each of these chairs,” Martin said. “I’m glad I did this, and hopefully it will do some good, and hopefully a lot of people will get involved and help, but real help.”
Usova, a beautician from a town near Odesa, said in English: “I left my parents, I left my whole life, my quiet normal life, my house, you know all my life. I don’t know what will be here, what will wait for me and my daughter, but people here in Spain and the family that has invited us are so warm and they are so friendly and so, you know, with a big big heart.”
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to discuss a possible transfer of Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine this week when he visits Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned the S-300s by name when he spoke to U.S. lawmakers by video Wednesday, appealing for anti-air systems that would allow Ukraine to “close the skies” to Russian warplanes and missiles.
NATO members Bulgaria, Slovakia and Greece have the S-300s, which are able to fly hundreds of miles and knock out cruise missiles as well as warplanes.
Any such transfer could be a three-country swap, with the U.S. or other NATO country providing Patriots or other air defense systems to make up for any S-300s passed on to Ukraine.
Slovakia has no objections to providing its S-300s to Ukraine, Slovak Defense Ministry spokesperson Martina Koval Kakascikova told The Associated Press. “But we can’t get rid of a system that protects our airspace if we don’t have any replacement.”
The anti-air defense systems could be valuable in thwarting Russian air attacks. Ukraine already has a few S-300s, but wants more.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the U.S. would help provide long-range air defense systems to Ukraine, but gave no details. U.S. officials had no comment on any S-300 swap.
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BERLIN — A group representing dozens of European electricity grid operators says Ukraine and Moldova have been successfully synchronized with the transmission systems of continental Europe, allowing them to decouple from Russia.
Belgium-based ENTSO-E said Wednesday that the grids of Ukraine and Moldova were linked to the Continental European Power System on a trial basis following an emergency request by those countries last month.
ENTSO-E, whose 39 members operate the world’s largest interconnected electrical grid, said the move means it will be able to support the countries in maintaining the stability of the Ukrainian and Moldovan power systems.
The two countries were previously part of the Integrated Power System that also includes Russia and Belarus. This made Ukraine technically dependent on Russia’s grid operator despite there having been no electricity trade between the two countries even before the Russian military assault last month.
Experts say the switch will allow energy suppliers in continental Europe to supply electricity to the Ukrainian market.
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal as the atrocities in Ukraine mount and the president there begged the U.S. Congress for more help.
“He’s a war criminal,” the president said of Putin as he left an unrelated event. It’s the sharpest condemnation yet of Putin and Russian actions by a U.S. official since the invasion of Ukraine.
While other world leaders have used the words, the White House had been hesitant to declare Putin’s actions those of a war criminal, saying it was a legal term that required research.
But in a speech Wednesday, Biden said Russian troops had bombed hospitals and held doctors hostage. He pledged more aid to help Ukraine fight Russia.
AP
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