Russia launched four strikes on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring five people, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
A Ukrainian minister vowed there would be further attacks on Russian warships. “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” Digital Transformation minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview with Reuters news agency. According to the British Defense Ministry, an attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet earlier this week “almost certainly” caused major damage to a landing ship and submarine at the Sevastopol naval base in occupied Crimea.
Poland, Hungary and Slovakia imposed restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports, after a European Commission block on shipments entering five bordering E.U. countries expired Friday. Limited access to Black Sea ports during the war has caused a surge in Ukrainian grain passing through neighboring countries, driving down prices and angering local producers. The European Commission said in a statement market distortions have now “disappeared,” but some leaders were not convinced. The restrictions do not apply to the transport of Ukrainian goods through the respective countries.
UNESCO added Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and Lviv to its World Heritage in Danger list Friday. The sites face the “risk of direct attack” and are “vulnerable to the shock waves caused by the bombing of the two cities,” the organization said. UNESCO’s list designates 56 sites “in danger,” including the Black Sea port city of Odessa, which was added in January.
Poland will ban Russian-registered cars from entering its territory from Sunday, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski announced Saturday according to Polish news agency PAP. The move comes a day after Finland followed its Baltic neighbors Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in imposing similar restrictions, Finnish media reported. An update to European Commission guidelines has asked member states to stop Russian citizens from bringing cars and other goods into the E.U. in an effort to prevent sanction dodging.
Russia is likely to use stockpiled air launched cruise missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure this winter, according to the British Defense Ministry’s latest intelligence update. On Saturday, the ministry wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that such missiles were “at the heart of most” of Russia’s long-range strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities last winter.
Russia denied that Ukrainian forces had recaptured Andriivka, a Russian-held village near Bakhmut. In his nightly address Friday, Zelensky said Ukraine had retaken the village in what he called it a “significant and much-needed result.” The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Ukraine was “unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops.”
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea plan to sell around 100 properties there, including an apartment belonging to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to an announcement Saturday. Volodymyr Konstantinov, the speaker of Crimea’s parliament, wrote on Telegram that eight auctions had already been concluded, generating around $8.4 million. The other sales will take place soon, he added. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
Two women were taken to the hospital after a strike on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, a regional military official said Saturday. In a message posted on Telegram on Saturday morning, Yuriy Malashko said Russia had carried out 54 strikes on the region in the past 24 hours.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne M. Tracy visited detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at the Lefortovo pretrial detention center in Moscow, where the American reporter has been held for months on espionage charges that the United States says are politically motivated. “He remains strong and is keeping up with the news,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow wrote on social media.
Tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims have gathered in central Ukraine to mark the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, which began on Friday evening. Cherkasy regional governor Ihor Taburets wrote on Telegram on Thursday morning that about 22,000 pilgrims had already arrived in Uman — a significant city for the Hasidic community. Most of the arrivals were from Israel, the United States and a number of European countries, he said, adding that security had been tightened.
Zelensky is expected to make a trip Washington next week, which would be his second since the war began last year, The Washington Post reported. The visit was coordinated with the Biden administration amid efforts to push Congress to provide $24 billion in additional aid to Ukraine and comes as tensions grow over support for Ukraine within the Republican Party and among a small number of Democrats. Zelensky is “very much abreast” of the debate in Washington, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Britain officially banned Russia’s Wagner Group and designated it a terrorist organization, making support for the group punishable by up to 14 years in jail, according to a statement from the government. The ban, which was approved Friday, comes weeks after group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin died in a plane crash and months after his short-lived mutiny.
Shuffle of Russian military chiefs preceded death of Wagner boss Prigozhin: Dismissals and disappearances of regular Russian military commanders and the death of Wagner head Prigozhin highlight how Putin lacks trust in his military leadership, analysts say. Fearing betrayal, the Russian leader has prioritized loyalty over competence, and he has tolerated infighting that has degraded his war machine, Francesca Ebel writes.
“The army has degenerated organizationally, intellectually and technically,” Pavel Luzin, an expert on the Russian military and a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation who is based in the United States, told The Post.
