Ukraine called on its allies to speed up military aid as NATO defense ministers met for a second straight day on Wednesday and Russia bombed the eastern front in what appeared to be preparations for a new offensive.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 357, LIVETEXT:

06:37 Russia has placed some of its nuclear assets on submarines and ships of the Northern Fleet, according to a report published by Norwegian intelligence.

06:02 On Tuesday, Zelensky said the situation was “extremely difficult” in the east, where Russian forces had gained ground in recent weeks, particularly near Bakhmut.

01:40Zelensky: Speed ​​is very important. Speed ​​in everything – in decision-making, their implementation, in delivery, in training / We are preparing an offensive.

01:05The Netherlands and Denmark will not supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

A brief summary of recent events:

• Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Russia is in a hurry to get as much as possible with its latest offensive before Ukraine builds up its forces with the help of its allies.
• Russian troops launched mortar and artillery fire on more than 20 towns and villages of Bakhmut, including the town itself, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said late Tuesday. They also launched rocket attacks on the industrial cities of Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk in Donetsk region.
• Over the past three days, the “Wagner” fighter group has made a further small advance in the area of ​​the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the British Ministry of Defense reported.
• A meeting of NATO defense ministers took place in Brussels, at which the head of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, called on Western countries to intensify supplies to Ukraine.
• Stoltenberg stated that “we see no signs that President Putin is preparing for peace. We see the opposite, he is preparing for another war, for new offensives and new attacks”.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine is expected to launch its own offensive in the spring, and Kyiv’s allies are working to provide it with the means to succeed.
• The US military is considering sending Ukraine thousands of confiscated weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition that were intended for Iran-backed militants in Yemen, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern town of Bakhmut, suggesting they may be planning to withdraw from the area, giving Russia a major symbolic boost ahead of the war’s one-year anniversary, The Guardian reports. Guardian.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin’s press service confirmed that the Su-24 plane recently shot down by Ukrainians is the same plane from which Wagner’s leader challenged Zelensky to an aerial duel a few days ago.
• Russian forces currently do not have the ability to threaten a new attack on Kyiv, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said on Tuesday. He added that Russia lost “strategically, operationally and tactically” in Ukraine and that it is “paying a huge price on the battlefield.”
• Russia has moved thousands of Ukrainian children – at least 6,000 – to areas of Ukraine under its control, as well as to its own territory.
• A new video posted on social media shows a strike by Ukrainian forces that caused a spectacular explosion on the front line, although it is unclear exactly what the Ukrainians hit.
• Volodymyr Marakov, a former Russian militia general who was responsible for suppressing protests in the country, has been found dead in an apparent suicide after being fired from his post by President Vladimir Putin.
• One of the marines who was part of the elite brigade that the Ukrainian Armed Forces say they destroyed at Vugledar has described what is happening on the battlefield as Vladimir Putin boasts on state television that the Russian military is “fighting heroically”.
• A video released by Reuters shows a batch of Bradley fighting vehicles, dubbed “tank killers,” arriving in Germany, where the Ukrainian military is training to use them on the battlefield.

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• Tuesday’s military events were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro