Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that the progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going “slower than we would like”, but Kyiv will not be forced to hurry: “Some people think that this is a Hollywood movie and they are waiting for the results now. This is not the case. People’s lives are at stake. “, the Ukrainian president said. On the other hand, Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has noticed a “lull” in the Ukrainian counteroffensive and that, although it still has offensive potential, Kyiv understands that it has “no chance.”

Highlights of the war in Ukraine, day 484, LIVETEXT:

01:11 EU countries will train 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers in 2023. The European Commission proposed to member states to approve an aid package worth 50 billion euros to support Ukraine until 2027.

00:31Zelensky: Russia must be completely isolated while Russia’s main export products are evil and death. “The world puts its hopes in our state. And our people will confirm these hopes. Freedom will win. Ukraine will win,” he said.

A brief summary of recent events:

• Britain, the United States and the European Union on Wednesday pledged billions of dollars and more euros to help rebuild Ukraine, as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the launch of a new program to encourage investment by powerful companies.
• The US overestimated the cost of military equipment sent to Ukraine by billions of dollars due to an “accounting error”, the US Department of Defense announced on Tuesday.
• Prigozhin accuses the military hierarchy of “concealing” Russian losses. The leader of the Wagner group on Wednesday accused the Russian military leadership of “covering up” the difficulties his army is facing in the face of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched in early June, which has so far achieved modest success.
• EU accession negotiations: Kyiv is making real progress, but not enough. In an interim assessment, the European Commission said on Wednesday that Ukraine had made progress in opening EU accession talks, but stressed that several criteria had not yet been met, diplomatic sources quoted by AFP said.
• Putin presided over a televised government meeting and said there was a “lull” in Ukraine’s counteroffensive and that Kyiv understood they had “no chance.”
• On Wednesday, Zelenskyi admitted that the offensive of Kyiv’s armed forces against the Russian occupiers is progressing “slower than we would like.”
• The ambassadors of the member countries of the European Union reached an agreement on the adoption of a new package of sanctions against Russia, the 11th since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Belarus begins “mobilization exercises”. One of Russia’s main allies has announced that its armed forces are starting a 10-day annual “mobilization exercise”.
• The main phase of the counteroffensive is still ahead, says a Ukrainian official. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that advancing against the Russian defense proved “difficult”, but that the liberation of the territory was not the only goal.
• ​Sweden has fulfilled its obligations under the agreement with Turkey regarding the northern country’s accession to NATO, and it is time for the Turkish parliament to start the ratification process, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Björstrom said on Wednesday.
• A video of the so-called “concentration and rehabilitation” center, actually a torture chamber of the FSB, where Russian soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine are kept, appeared on Russian Telegram channels.

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