Marianna Budanova, the wife of Ukraine’s intelligence head, Kyrylo Budanov, was poisoned and received treatment in hospital, a Ukrainian military intelligence official confirmed. She fell ill reportedly after eating food laced with “heavy metals”.
Russian shells struck homes on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least five, Ukrainian officials said. A five-storey building was hit in the southern town of Nikopol, said the Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Serhiy Lysak.
Tornadoes were forecast for the Black Sea region after a storm that killed at least 14 people and left more than 2 million people without electricity in Russia and Ukraine including occupied Crimea.
The Institute for the Study of War said the storm forced Russia to return all of its naval vessels and missile carriers to their bases, and suggested that the threat of mines drifting in the Black Sea would increase because the storm dispersed minefields.
There were also reports that the storm damaged railways in coastal areas, which could have an impact on the Russian military’s logistics capabilities in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine, the ISW said. The damage affected “the tempo of military operations along the frontline in Ukraine” but had not stopped them entirely.
In an intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had made small advances on the northern axis of a pincer movement as part of an attempt to surround Avdiivka. “Although Avdiivka has become a salient or bulge in the Ukrainian frontline, Ukraine remains in control of a corridor of territory approximately 7km wide, through which it continues to supply the town.”
The US Senate will begin considering legislation that includes aid for Israel and Ukraine as soon as next week, the leader of the Democratic majority, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday, adding that an aid bill is needed even if there is no agreement with Republicans, who demand linked funding for US border security.
Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania said their foreign ministers would boycott a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in North Macedonia on Thursday and Friday because the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, intends to take part.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged members of the alliance to “stay the course” in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion. “It’s our obligation to ensure that we provide Ukraine with the weapons they need,” Stoltenberg said after arriving for a gathering of foreign ministers from Nato countries at its headquarters in Brussels.
The EU has agreed to more than quadruple its spending on training Ukrainian soldiers, investing close to an extra €200m (£173m), AFP reported.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said military and financial support for Ukraine is of “existential importance” to Europe. In a speech to parliament, he was quoted by AFP as saying: “We will continue with this support as long as it is necessary. This support is of existential importance. For Ukraine … but also for us in Europe. None of us want to imagine what even more serious consequences it would have for us if Putin won this war.”
