Summary
It’s slightly past midnight in Kyiv. Here’s a look at the biggest developments throughout the day:
UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the UN security council on Wednesday that an exchange of 35 Russian and 36 Ukrainian prisoners was a positive development amid the “dark news” of Russian strikes on Ukraine. DiCarlo encouraged the parties to continue prisoner releases and follow international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war, Reuters reports.
A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the detention of opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who risks being jailed for 10 years for denouncing president Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine. The 39-year-old Moscow city councillor is in the dock as part of an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Russia, with most opposition activists either in jail or in exile. He faces up to 10 years behind bars, if convicted.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had faith in the “success” of its offensive in Ukraine. “The future and the success of the special operation are beyond doubt,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on a visit to Armenia, using the official Moscow term to describe Russia’s assault, Agence France-Presse reports.
European cities were urged to send spare generators to Ukraine to help the country through the winter in the face of Russia’s attacks on electricity infrastructure. Ukraine’s power grid came under bombardment again as the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, launched an appeal to get generators to Ukraine.
Dozens of Russian missiles were launched against Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with explosions heard in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Russian forces launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” Ukraine’s armed forces said. Air raid alerts were heard across all over the country.
At least seven people have been killed – including a 17-year-old girl – and 36 injured after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, according to officials. Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration, said the entire Kyiv region was without electricity after Moscow’s airstrikes targeted critical infrastructure.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, has said the entire western Ukrainian city is “without light” after Russian strikes. Sadovyi warned that there would be “interruptions” with the city’s water supply and that he was awaiting additional information from energy experts.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has said power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were switched off after Russian missile strikes across the country. In a statement, it said “due to a decrease in frequency in the energy system of Ukraine” emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.
The European parliament came under “sophisticated cyber-attacks” officials said, hours after it voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, said a pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack on the European parliament’s website.
The European parliament has declared Russia “a terrorist regime” over its brutal war on Ukraine. In a non-binding resolution approved by a large majority of MEPs, the European parliament urged the EU’s 27 member states to make the same designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the declaration.
The US has announced a new $400m (£332.5m) aid package to Ukraine which will include weapons, munitions and air defence equipment. The package also includes more than 200 generators to help Ukraine deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the UN security council on Wednesday that an exchange of 35 Russian and 36 Ukrainian prisoners was a positive development amid the “dark news” of Russian strikes on Ukraine.
DiCarlo, addressing a meeting of the council requested by Ukraine, encouraged the parties to continue prisoner releases and follow international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war, Reuters reports.
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