Kyiv, Ukraine – Adviser to the Cabinet of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops have changed tactics in the battle for Severodonetsk.
Alexei Arestovich said on Wednesday that Russian troops had withdrawn from the city and were now hitting it with artillery and air strikes.
As a result, he says, the city center is deserted.
In his daily online interview, Arestovic said: “They retreated, our troops retreated, so the artillery hit an empty space. They hit hard without much success. “
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– AP Exclusive: Ukraine extracts bodies from the siege of the steel plant
– The leader of Ukraine says that Russia is trying to capture a key southeastern city
– US general says US, allies will continue to send “significant” aid to Ukraine
– UN: Climate shocks and the war in Ukraine are fueling many global food crises
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
NEW YORK – Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said Russia is reluctant to negotiate an end to the war because it still feels strong.
Zelensky told US corporate leaders on Wednesday that “it is simply not possible now for Russia to join the talks, because Russia can still feel its strength.”
Speaking via video link through an interpreter, he added: “We need to weaken Russia and the world needs to do it.”
Zelensky said Ukraine was playing its role on the battlefield and called for even tougher sanctions to weaken Russia economically. He told business leaders: “We must completely exclude Russia from the global financial system.
He also said that Ukraine was ready to negotiate with Russia to end the war, but “not at the expense of our independence.”
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UNITED NATIONS – A UN report says the war in Ukraine is increasing the suffering of millions of people by escalating food and energy prices amid the evils of the growing financial crisis, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
A report by the UN Global Crisis Response Group released on Wednesday said the war “exacerbates a global cost-of-living crisis unprecedented by at least a generation” and undermines the UN’s goal of ending global poverty by 2030. d.
The group was appointed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to assess the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Guterres says the report clearly shows that “the impact of the war on food security, energy and finance is systematic, severe and accelerating.”
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UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is pursuing a deal that will allow grain exports from Ukraine across the Black Sea and unimpeded access to world markets for Russian food and fertilizers.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told UN correspondents on Wednesday that without the agreement, hundreds of millions of people in developing countries face the threat of an unprecedented wave of famine, three months after Russia invaded its smaller neighbor.
Guterres said: “Food production in Ukraine and food and fertilizers produced by Russia must be introduced to world markets, despite the war.
Senior officials have worked closely with contacts in Moscow, Kyiv, Ankara, Brussels and Washington over the past 10 days, Guterres said. He said he did not want to jeopardize the chances of success by revealing details.
“This is one of those times when quiet diplomacy is needed and the well-being of millions of people around the world may depend on it,” he said.
Rebecca Greenspan, secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said “the discussions have been constructive.”
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Kyiv, Ukraine – US businessman and philanthropist Howard Buffett says he wants to help rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure, remove anti-personnel mines and improve school nutrition.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with Buffett in Kyiv on Wednesday. Zelenski said on social media that a project under discussion would restore the water distribution system in the Black Sea city of Odessa. Another would support Ukrainians who have been displaced from their homes.
Buffett, the son of billionaire Warren Buffett, serves on several corporate boards and is active in many foundations and charities. In 2017, he was also sworn in as interim sheriff of Macon County, Illinois. Buffett recalled the role as a gift to the president on Wednesday.
“You’re the top lawyer here in Ukraine, so I’m giving you my old sheriff’s badge from when I was sheriff,” Buffett said. “This is for you. So no one can question, you’re number one, you’re always number one. “
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Workers are removing bodies from the ruins of high-rise buildings in the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and transporting them to an “endless caravan of death”, an aide to the mayor said on Wednesday.
Petro Andryushchenko said in the Telegram application that during a search of about two-fifths of the buildings, they found 50 to 100 bodies in each. They take the bodies to morgues and dumps.
Ukrainian authorities estimate that at least 21,000 civilians have been killed and hundreds of buildings destroyed during Russia’s week-long siege of Mariupol. There have been reports of mass graves containing thousands of bodies.
Russia took full control of Mariupol last month.
The city suffered some of the worst suffering of the war and became a global symbol of disobedience after hundreds of Ukrainian fighters remained in the steel plant for months despite relentless bombing.
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WASHINGTON – Heavily affected by sanctions following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian economy will shrink by 15% this year and another 3% in 2023, wiping out 15 years of economic gains, according to the Institute of International Finance, a global banking organization. group.
The stability of the ruble – the Russian currency – has partially protected its economy from the full impact of sanctions. The ruble is backed by strong sales of oil and natural gas and Russia’s central bank, which has raised interest rates and imposed capital controls to keep money from fleeing the country.
President Vladimir Putin said this week that unemployment and inflation are falling, backing his frequent claims that Russia is succeeding despite Western sanctions.
However, the financial institution says the sanctions, in part by encouraging foreign companies to abandon Russia, “unravel its economy, erasing more than a decade of economic growth and some of the most significant effects are still being felt”.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – The head of Ukraine’s grain group has rejected Turkey’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Russia to allow Ukraine’s grain exports to resume, saying Ankara has no authority to act as a guarantor.
The head of the Ukrainian Grains Union, Sergei Ivashchenko, said on Wednesday that “Turkey does not have enough power in the Black Sea to ensure the security of cargo and Ukrainian ports.”
The frank comment followed talks between Turkey and Russia, in which they discussed the creation of a safe maritime corridor in the Black Sea for Ukraine for grain exports amid the escalating global food crisis. Russia says Ukrainian ports must be demined to allow safe shipping, and insists on its right to check arriving ships to make sure they are not importing weapons into Ukraine.
Ivashchenko said Ukraine would prefer NATO ships to enter the Black Sea and serve as guarantors. He also said the Russians had planted sea mines in the area and it would take three to four months to remove them.
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – The Slovak government has approved a long-term plan by the Ministry of Defense to modernize and significantly increase the number of troops in its armed forces following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
According to a plan announced Wednesday, the 5.5-million-strong NATO member should have 22,000 troops by 2035, up from 14,100 this year.
Slovakia also plans to acquire 228 different armed vehicles and will upgrade its air bases to be ready for US F-16 fighter jets, whose delivery is due to begin in 2024, followed by other deals to buy new weapons.
The government also reaffirmed Slovakia’s commitment to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on the army by 2024.
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ISTANBUL – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says the UN plan for a grain corridor to transport Ukrainian agricultural products is “feasible”.
Speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday after the talks, Cavusoglu said the plan required talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
There was no Ukrainian representative at the Ankara meeting. But Kyiv has expressed fears that if it removes mines from its Black Sea ports, Russia will be better able to attack its southern coast.
Cavusoglu also said Moscow’s request for its participation in the UN plan to ease international sanctions against it was “quite legitimate”.
“If the whole world needs products to be exported from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, then a method must be established,” he said, adding that he hoped “technical preparations” would be made as soon as possible. ”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and Russia’s blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, threatening global food supplies.
Approximately 22 million tons of grain are in silos in Ukraine. Russia is also a major exporter of food and fertilizers.
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ROME – Italy is urging Russia to release grain from Ukrainian silos to alleviate the global food crisis, saying the ongoing blockade of Ukrainian ports “sentences millions of children, women and men away from the battlefield.”
Speaking at a conference in Rome on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Mayo also warned that food insecurity is growing in …
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