Troops dig in around cities: Ukrainian forces began bolstering defences in key cities on Wednesday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. The military around Kyiv are resisting the Russian offensive with unspecified strikes and “holding the line”. In the northern city of Chernihiv, Russian troops are placing military equipment among residential buildings and on farms, the Ukrainian general staff said, while in the south, Russians dressed in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv. The strategic port city of Mariupol remains encircled as a humanitarian crisis escalates. A Ukrainian MP on Wednesday shared a picture of a dead child whom she said had died of dehydration in Mariupol.
Chernobyl grows quiet: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has ceased transmitting data to the UN’s atomic watchdog, the agency has said, nearly two weeks after Russian forces seized the site. The agency’s chief Rafael Grossi “indicated that remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP had been lost”, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Agency is looking into the status of safeguards monitoring systems in other locations in Ukraine and will provide further information soon,” it said.
Poles apart: The Pentagon rejected Poland’s offer to offer the US its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine in a rare public display of disharmony between Nato allies. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Warsaw’s proposal to deliver the aircraft to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a US and Nato base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine war. He said that while consultations on the offer would continue, “we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one”.
No more Big Macs: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks are among the latest global chains to pull out of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The fast-food company said it was temporarily shutting its 847 restaurants in Russia, while Starbucks said its 100 coffee shops would shut.
Zelenskyy channels Churchill: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a rousing speech to the UK Parliament in which he channelled the former wartime leader Winston Churchill. Mr Zelenskyy evoked the famous former prime minister as he made a comparison to the situation Britain faced in the Second World War. “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” the Ukrainian leader said. “We will fight in the forest, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”
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