President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that last week the Ukrainian military carried out significant and rapid offensives against Russian troops, recapturing dozens of cities in the southern and eastern regions that Russia declared annexed.

Highlights of Wednesday, the 224th day of the Ukrainian war, LIVETEXT:

11:29The Armed Forces of Ukraine have advanced up to 20 km beyond the Oskil River in the northeast of the Kharkiv region, in the Russian defense zone, in the direction of the city of Svatove in the Luhansk region, the British Ministry of Defense reported on Wednesday, Reuters notes.

“Politically, it is very likely that Russian leaders are concerned that Ukrainian troops are now approaching the borders of the Luhansk region, which Russia claimed to have officially annexed last Friday,” the UK Ministry of Defense said.

The intelligence added that there is a strong possibility that Ukraine could now strike along the Svatove-Kremin road in Luhansk Oblast, and that Ukraine also continues to make progress in its operations on the southern front.

11:11A Russian official stationed in the Ukrainian-occupied Kherson region said on Wednesday that Russian forces in the region are regrouping for a counterattack amid Ukraine’s rapid gains in the region, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, Reuters reported.

RIA Novosti quotes Kirill Stremousov as saying that Russian troops are “regrouping to gather their forces and strike back.”

10:56 am Russian gas giant Gazprom announced on Wednesday that it will resume natural gas exports to Italy after it managed to resolve a dispute with Austrian regulators over natural gas transit, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

Ukraine: Russia lost 61,000 soldiers

10:30 in the morningThe General Staff of Ukraine claims that Russia has lost 61,000 soldiers since the beginning of the war.

10:10 Kyrylo Stremousov, one of the leaders imposed by Russia in Ukraine’s Kherson region, told the Russian news agency TASS that “the advance of the armed forces of Ukraine in the direction of Kherson has stopped,” The Guardian reports.It was not possible to independently verify the statements of the pro-Russian leader.

10:05 amUkraine is considering restarting Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, to ensure its safety just weeks after fears of a radiation disaster at the Russian-occupied facility, the president of the plant’s operator told The Associated Press on Tuesday. news.ro.

09:14Operators of two Baltic Sea gas pipelines that linked Russia and Germany until both suffered major leaks last week said they could not inspect the damaged sections because of restrictions imposed by Danish and Swedish authorities.

Ukrainians advance in three regions at once

08:50As speculation mounts ahead of Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize announcement, experts suggest the committee’s award could be a wake-up call about the war in Ukraine, AFP reports.

Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, proposed Belarusian opposition leader Svitlana Tikhanovskaya and Kremlin critic Oleksiy Navalny, saying they deserve to receive the prestigious award together.

“Both are champions of non-violent pro-democracy activities in their countries. Both Navalny and Tykhanovskaya were also very determined opponents of the war in Ukraine,” Urdal said.

08:34Ukraine’s counteroffensive is hampering Russia’s attempts to transfer additional ammunition, reserves, mobilized men and defense assets to forward positions, as Ukrainian troops advance simultaneously in three regions: Kherson, Kharkiv and Luhansk, the Institute for the Study of War notes in its latest article. analysis of the situation at the front.

08:22 A cap on the price of Russian oil proposed as part of the European Union’s eighth round of sanctions against Russia will not apply to pipeline supplies, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said late on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Hungary, the most vocal critic of sanctions against Russia in the EU, relies heavily on supplies of Russian crude oil and gas imported through pipelines.

08:04Russian troops left a key Ukrainian city so quickly they left the bodies of their comrades in the streets, providing fresh evidence on Tuesday of the latest military defeat for Moscow as it seeks to hold on to four Ukrainian regions it has illegally annexed. Associated Press.

The Russians advanced on the Kyiv region and the city of Kharkiv

07:39Washington’s decision to send more military aid to Ukraine threatens Moscow’s interests and increases the risk of a military clash between Russia and the West, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said, Reuters reports.

07:25 On Tuesday night, Russian troops attacked the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, located 80 km from the capital of Ukraine, with kamikaze drones, reports The Kyiv Independent. According to Governor Oleksiy Kuleba, one person was injured, who urged residents to stay in shelters.

Russian troops also attacked Kharkiv on Tuesday night, striking buildings, the city’s mayor said, without specifying whether there were casualties.

00:52Zelensky announces a “powerful” advance of the Ukrainian army in the south of the country

00:15 US military aid to Ukraine accelerates the possibility of “direct military confrontation” between Russia and NATO, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday.

23:25The head of the IAEA says that he will go to Kyiv and Moscow to discuss the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia plant

A brief summary of recent events:

• Ukrainian forces have captured the town of Dudchany on the west bank of the Dnipro River as part of their main offensive in the Kherson region, according to the Russian-appointed head of the region’s occupied territories administration.
• Russian military bloggers described the advance of Ukrainian tanks on tens of kilometers of territory along the western bank of the Dnieper. Kyiv maintains almost complete silence regarding the situation in Kherson.
• In the east, Ukrainian troops advanced after capturing Lyman, the main Russian stronghold in the north of Donetsk region. A pro-Russian leader in Donetsk said that forces are forming a new line of defense around the city of Kreminna.
• Russia has dismissed the commander of the Western Military District, RBC reports, after failures on the battlefield.
• Russia risks losing control of critical strategic cities to hold the city of Kherson and eventually Crimea, Western officials said, but warned that fighting along the Dnipro River “will not be an easy contest in limited territory.”
• US President Joe Biden told Zelensky that Washington would provide Kyiv with $625 million in new security assistance, including highly mobile artillery rocket launchers (HIMARS), the White House said.
• Two women from the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, including “Miss Crimea”, were found guilty of discrediting the Russian military by performing a Ukrainian patriotic song.
• The Upper Chamber of the Parliament of the Russian Federation Council ratified the accession of four regions of Ukraine.
• Russia said 200,000 reservists out of a planned 300,000 had already been called up after President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization 10 days ago.
• Russian lawyers say they have been inundated with requests for support from Russians who want help avoiding conscription.
• North Korea has become the only UN member state, apart from Russia, to recognize the results of Moscow-backed “referendums” in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which it illegally annexed.

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Tuesday’s events surrounding the Russian invasion were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro