Ukrainian troops on Wednesday withstood determined attacks by Russian forces trying to regain lost ground on the eastern front, military officials said, while some analysts suggested Kyiv’s forces were advancing in the southern theater. “We continue to repulse intense enemy fire near Klishchiivka and Andriivka. The enemy continues to storm these positions with the hope of recapturing the lost positions, but without success,” said Ilya Yevlash, the spokesman for the group of troops in eastern Ukraine.

Highlights of the war in Ukraine, day 581, LIVETEXT:

00:42 “Drones for Russia”: The US imposed sanctions against companies in Iran, China, Turkey and the UAE

00:23The case of hundreds of Cuban mercenaries fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine: what the Russian ambassador in Havana says

A quick summary of the latest information:

• “Fishing in Romania is experiencing its most difficult moment in the last 30 years”. According to the president of the Black Sea Fishermen’s Organization, Laurentiu Mirea, the problem is the presence of mines in the Black Sea, saying that because of them, fishermen are afraid to go outside, and even night fishing is no longer possible in these conditions.
• Negotiations with Ukraine on grain imports are underway, Poland’s agriculture minister said Wednesday, following a row between the two countries over a long-standing ban from Warsaw.
• Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, an unusually harsh critic of the war in Ukraine despite his closeness to President Vladimir Putin, now says Russia has resisted Western sanctions because it is too “attractive” to the rest of the world.
• The first visual confirmations from the front indicate that the Russians managed to destroy one of the heavy armored vehicles sent by Germany to help Ukraine. This is the Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicle.
• A video of the crash of the Il-76 transport plane of the Malian army, on which mercenaries of the Russian paramilitary group “Wagner” were on board, appeared on social networks.
• A new video of Russian Admiral Viktor Sokolov shows him interviewing a reporter about last week’s attack on Sevastopol in which he is believed to have been killed, providing the most convincing evidence yet that he is alive.
• Iran’s Shahed kamikaze drones are loaded with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kiev to its Western allies that calls for the long-range missiles to attack production centers in Russia, Iran and Syria.
• The reconstruction of Ukraine cannot wait for the end of the conflict and must begin now, said Penny Pritzker, the US special representative for the economic recovery of Ukraine, in Brussels on Wednesday.
• ​The Law on Minorities, introduced recently by the Ukrainian Parliament, still does not ensure the constitutional rights of national minorities in Ukraine and does not restore their previous rights, states the Hungarian Cultural Union of Subcarpathian Ukraine.
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Wednesday after the former speaker of the House of Commons praised a Nazi veteran during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

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• Wednesday’s events related to Russian aggression were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro