Thank you for joining us for today’s coverage of the war in Ukraine.
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Summary
It is just past 7am in Ukraine. Here is a comprehensive rundown of what we know so far:
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Russia has given Mariupol a fresh ultimatum to surrender for 2pm today. In a statement issued early on Wednesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its forces opened a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal plant “for the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen” to “voluntarily lay down their arms” as well as to evacuate civilians.
- A commander for the Ukrainian marines fighting in Mariupol said his forces were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours” and appealed for extraction in video message published to his Facebook account early on Wednesday morning. We are probably facing our last days, if not hours. The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the intensity of fire by Russian troops towards Kharkiv, the Donbas and in Dnipro has “increased significantly”, one day after the Kremlin launched its long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine. Russian officials said a total of 1,260 military targets were hit by rockets and artillery along the 300-mile frontline in the Donbas and Kharkiv regions.
- Zelenskiy said the situation in the besieged city of Mariupol is “as severe as possible”. “The Russian army is blocking any efforts to organise humanitarian corridors and save our people,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “The fate of at least tens of thousands of Mariupol residents who were previously relocated to Russian-controlled territory is unknown.”
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Russian forces have seized Kreminna in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the city, the regional governor said. Kreminna, a city of more than 18,000 people about 350 miles (560km) south-east of Kyiv, appears to be the first city captured in a Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.
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Russia has increased its offensive in the Donbas but its progress has been hampered by “environmental, logistical and technical challenges”, the UK said. “Russia’s inability to stamp out resistance in Mariupol and their indiscriminate attacks, which have harmed the resident civilian populace, are indicative of their continued failure to achieve their aims as quickly as they would like,” the UK Ministry of Defence said late on Tuesday.
- Russia has deployed up to 20,000 mercenaries from Syria, Libya and elsewhere in Ukraine’s Donbas region, according to a European official. The official said mercenaries are being sent into battle with no heavy equipment or armoured vehicles.
- Dozens of young Ethiopian men gathered at the Russian embassy in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday following rumours of soldiers being recruited to fight in the war in Ukraine, multiple reports suggest. Photos circulating on social media purport to show the lone line of hopeful recruits.
- In his nightly address, Zelenskiy claimed if Ukraine had access to all the weapons it needs, “and which are comparable to the weapons used by the Russian Federation, we would have already ended this war. It is unfair that Ukraine is still forced to ask for what its partners have been storing somewhere for years.”
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US president, Joe Biden, will announce another military aid package for Ukraine roughly the same size as the $800m one the US president announced last week, which would bring to more than $3bn the total US aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Biden told reporters he is unsure if he will go to Kyiv.
- The UK plans to equip Kyiv with anti-ship missiles and armoured missile launchers - including by mounting British Brimstone rockets to vehicles.
- Germany has also said it will work with private military equipment makers to help Ukraine meet its weapons requirements after exhausting the weapons it can provide itself. “We intend to pay for these deliveries,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a news conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
- Russia is expelling 31 Dutch, Belgian and Austrian diplomats as Moscow faces increased international isolation. It comes after the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria announced the expulsion of some Russian diplomats.
- Canada said it will impose targeted sanctions on 14 individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.
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China has criticised western actions in Ukraine, saying the provision of offensive weapons “will only prolong and escalate the conflict” and some sanctions are “tantamount to weaponising economic interdependence” in remarks made at the latest UN security council briefing.
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Western nations are preparing to stage coordinated walk-outs and other diplomatic snubs to protest at Wednesday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington, their officials said.
- Direct communications between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been restored, according to a statement issued late Tuesday from IAEA’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
- Russian businessman, Oleg Tinkov, spoke out against the “crazy” war in Ukraine and described supporters of Moscow’s military actions as “morons”. In an Instagram post, Tinkov, who has been sanctioned by the UK government, said “90% of Russians are against” the war.
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