Summary of the day
Two people have been killed and 26 injured in a Russian missile attack on the northern city of Sumy on Thursday, the regional administration said.
Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said that three people have been killed in the region.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said that two people were killed in Ukrainian drone attacks.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said that “overnight, Ukrainian air defenders shot down 33 our of 37 Russian ‘Shahed’ UAVs.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, arrived in Turkey for a meeting with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
He thanked Erdoğan “and all Turkish and Ukrainian defence companies for their partnership and for working together to bring peace closer and make it a lasting one.”
Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister, said that an initiative led by his country to buy ammunition for Ukraine has already raised “enough money to buy the first batch of 300,000 artillery shells.”
The British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said he’s in the Ukrainian capital “to raise the alarm.” He added: “What would it say, if we allow a democratic country to be taken over by a dictator like Putin? What would it say about our values of freedom and democracy?… Let’s make sure Ukraine wins this war.”
Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskiy’s office, met with a delegation headed by Li Hui, the Chinese government’s special representative for Eurasian affairs.
The US embassy in Moscow issued an alert on Thursday to citizens, telling them to avoid crowds and be aware of their surroundings given reports that extremists have “imminent plans” to target gatherings in the Russian capital.
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, told reporters on Friday that she has not heard from her jailed husband for a year and described the lack of communication as “a form of torture.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, is visiting Turkey, where he thanked the country’s “president and all Turkish and Ukrainian defense companies for their partnership and for working together to bring peace closer and make it a lasting one.”
Visit to Türkiye. Istanbul. Shipyards where corvettes are built for our Navy. I inspected the readiness and equipment of the Ivan Mazepa corvette and spoke with Ukrainian Navy personnel. I thanked them for their service. We are strengthening our country.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 8, 2024
I also inspected the… pic.twitter.com/aZmR94icRQ
-copy-29e15046.jpeg?w=600)
