Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Ukrainian troops have attacked Russian positions along the entire front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Germany citing the need for maintenance.

NUCLEAR PLANT, FIGHTING

* An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) convoy has set off from Kyiv towards the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s south and is expected to arrive on Thursday morning.

* The head of the Ukrainian military administration of Nikopol across the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia plant said Russian forces were shelling near the plant to try to give the IAEA the impression that Ukraine was attacking it.

* Britain, an ally of Ukraine, said Ukrainian formations in the south had pushed Russian front-line forces back some distance in places, exploiting relatively thin Russian defences.

* Ukrainian forces are shelling ferries used by Russia to supply its forces on the west bank of the Dnipro river, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.

* Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces, after trying to go on the offensive in three different directions in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, had lost over 1,200 military personnel as well as 139 tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY

* Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Europe, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing in some of the region’s richest countries.

* France’s energy minister said Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) was using an excuse to switch off gas deliveries to its French contractor but added that France had anticipated the loss of supply.

* The U.S. government has assessed that Russia is preparing to stage sham referenda in areas of Ukraine under its control to claim that Ukrainian people want to join Russia, the State Department said.

* The European Union must not appear to be at discord over eastern European demands for a visa ban on Russian tourists, the bloc’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday, urging member states to find common ground.

QUOTE

Roman Kachanov, chief of a fire station in the eastern Kharkiv, on the question running through the minds of his team as they fight fires set off by Russian bombing:

“Will they bomb again?”