Despite claiming that it would “drastically reduce military activity” around Kyiv and Chernihiv on Tuesday, Russian shelling and sporadic small arms fire continued around Kyiv on Wednesday, according to CNN teams on the ground.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also said that the Russian army continues to conduct a full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine on Wednesday, while Ukrainian forces continue to conduct a defense operation in the eastern, southeastern and northeastern directions.
The US Department of Defense said they’ve seen around 20% of Russia’s forces that had been moving against Kyiv “repositioning,” with some heading to Belarus, over the last 24 hours.
In the northern city of Chernihiv, Ukrainians also experienced continued attacks; the mayor of Chernihiv dismissed Moscow’s claim of a scale-back in operations, following what he describes as a “colossal attack”.
In Mariupol, a Red Cross warehouse was hit by at least two military strikes, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies confirm. There is no information yet regarding potential casualties or the extent of the damage.
Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine conflict:
- Russian attacks with cluster munitions “may amount to war crimes,” UN says: As of Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has received credible allegations that Russian armed forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas at least 24 times. Russia’s indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and “may amount to war crimes,” UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. She said her investigators are looking into the 24 cluster munitions attacks. To date, they have verified 77 incidents in which medical facilities were damaged to various degrees, including 50 hospitals, 7 psycho-neurological facilities and 20 other medical facilities.
- Pentagon: Putin hasn’t been “fully informed” by his Ministry of Defense “at every turn” of Ukraine invasion: Russian President Vladimir Putin has “not been fully informed by his Ministry of Defense at every turn” throughout the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Kirby did not offer any details that led to this assessment. Kirby said the US does not have “access to every bit of information that” Putin has been given or “every conversation that he’s had,” but he said he concurs with the “basic finding” of press reporting that Putin has not been fully informed by his Defense Ministry of the situation in Ukraine.
- No breakthrough in Russia-Ukraine talks, French foreign minister tells CNN: There has been no breakthrough in talks between Russia and Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told CNN on Wednesday. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Le Drian said there was “nothing new” and “no breakthrough” in what has been discussed at negotiations in Istanbul.He added that “the issues are still the same” and that Russian President Putin “still wishes to impose his diktat on Ukraine.” The French foreign minister said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “wants some security guarantees to be given to his country and at the moment there is nothing like that in the discussion.”
- UN Refugee Agency unable to communicate with some of its employees in Mariupol: The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is unable to communicate with some of its employees in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the organization’s High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said Wednesday. “Some managed to get out. Some are inside and we can’t communicate with them at this point. Those are my colleagues,” he said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson from Lviv. Grandi called for “firm commitments” that there will be no fighting in order to operate evacuation corridors, adding that it’s “very complex and it needs those reassurances, otherwise we cannot do it.”
- Pentagon: First 6 of “around 30” new shipments of security assistance getting into Ukraine: The US Defense Department said the first six of “around 30 or so” total shipments of the latest round of US security assistance to Ukraine have been moved into the region. “Material is getting into the region every single day, including over the last 24 hours,” said Pentagon press secretary Kirby. He said the US is prioritizing “the kinds of material that we know the Ukrainians need the most,” including anti-armor and anti-air systems, and that the Switchblade drones promised to Ukraine will begin shipping in “relatively soon.”
- About 1,000 Wagner group fighters are now in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Pentagon spokesperson says: About 1,000 people associated with the Wagner group, a paramilitary group sponsored by Russia, are now in the Donbas region of Ukraine, Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday. The US has seen Russia become “much more active” in the Donbas region “in the last few days,” Kirby added. “We think that the Wagner group now has about 1,000 people dedicated to the Donbas. … We have seen them prioritize airstrikes in the Donbas area,” he said. Wagner contractors have been fighting in the Donbas “over the last eight years, so this is an area where the Wagner group is experienced,” Kirby added.
