Ukraine war latest: Putin blitzes city near border, killing seven - with Poland activating air defences (2024)

Poland wants to ramp up its production of 155mm artillery rounds in the hope of ensuring sufficient supplies if Russia attacked NATO, a senior official has told Reuters.

Some NATO officials say the Kremlin might be ready militarily to attack NATO countries in five to eight years' time, once it has rebuilt its forces after the war in Ukraine.

Moscow has regularly dismissed Western suggestions that it might consider an attack on NATO.

"Our ambition... is to have the ability to fill up Polish warehouses in parallel to achieving a full, independent capacity to produce ammunition in Poland, within five to eight years," Maciej Idzik, board member of the state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), said.

Demand for 155mm artillery rounds has soared in the wake of
the invasion of Ukraine. Allies' supplies for their own defence have been run down as they have rushed shells to Kyiv.

The European Union is seeking to expand the bloc's ammunition production capacity to two million shells annually by the end of 2025 by allocating€500m (£421m) in funding to increase shell supplies to Ukraine and replenish EU stockpiles.

We brought you news earlier about a father who lost his wife and three daughters in the overnight strike in Lviv.

New footage shows EvgenyBazylevych being comforted by emergency workers after losing his wife and three daughters, who were aged seven, 18 and 21.

The eldest daughter, Yaryna, was a programme manager at the European Youth Forum, a platform of the continent's youth organisations, her colleagues wrote on Facebook.

"We will neither forget nor forgive" the attack, they said in the post.

Lviv's mayor said Evgeny was in a critical condition after the strike.

Ukrainian authorities have since updated the number of people injured in the attack to 53.

The Swiss government has said it will notlift its protection status for Ukrainian refugees fleeingRussia's invasion before 4 March 2026, as the situation intheir country is not expected to change in the foreseeablefuture.

Switzerland granted Ukrainian refugees protection status"S," which grants temporary protection to those in need as longas they are exposed to serious general danger, in March 2022.

Russian airstrikes hit energy facilities and critical infrastructure in nine Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

Energy facilities in the western region of Lviv, Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast, Donetsk in the east, east-central Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv in the south were attacked, the energy ministry said on Telegram.

The ministry did not provide additional details on the scale of recent damage to the energy grid.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has cut power at a nuclear output afterRussian attacks damaged the country's electricity transmission system, nuclear firm Energoatom said today.

It said output was reduced after "hostile shelling of infrastructure" and "significant fluctuations in the parameters of the grid".

Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been subjected to increased Russian missile and drone attacks in recent months.

Officials have said the country has lost about half of its generating capacity and now relies mainly on energy generated by three nuclear power plants.

A fourth plant, and Europe's biggest, Zaporizhzhia NPP, was occupied by Russia at the beginning of the war and is currently not in operation.

It comes as Russia said it was taking measures to protect its nuclear power plants' security to thwart possible military attacks.

Energy minister Sergei Tsivilev said that Russian nuclear power plants are vulnerable to such attacks, while Russia is also protecting Europe from the consequences of such attacks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he wanted to "express his gratitude to Ireland" after signing a co-operation deal with the Irish prime minister Simon Harris in Kyiv.

Mr Harris announced earlier that Ireland would provide a€43m (£36m) funding package for Ukraine (see 8.56am post).

The deal includes work on demining Ukraine, which Mr Zelenskyy said will save Ukrainians and improve the resilience of Europe.

He added that the deal also includes work on cyber security.

The taoiseach also expressed Ireland's full support for the Ukrainian bid for EU membership while also discussing continued humanitarian assistance.

Following the bilateral meeting, Mr Zelenskyy told a press conference that he thanked Ireland for its support of work on returning abducted Ukrainian children to the country.

"Ireland's participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine will be a substantial support for our people and our countries and our European way of life.

"I thank the people of Ireland, I know that after the beginning of the invasion of Russia of our land, you've accepted and really have warmly welcomed more than 100,000 citizens of Ukraine."

Mr Zelenskyy said he also "really valued" that Mr Harris' trip came amid severe attacks on Ukraine.

"We value that while Ireland is military neutral, Ireland does not stay neutral morally.

"We are grateful to you, Mr Taoiseach, and to the people of Ireland for very specific and clear and principled support and a position countering Russian terror."

Mr Harris, who earlier laid a wreath to honour Ukraine's war dead at Maidan Square, told reporters: "The people of Ireland stand with the people of Ukraine."

Three people have been killed and five were injured in Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk on Wednesday, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the region, said.

The city was hit by Ukrainian artillery fire, Mr Pushilin added.

One more person was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in another district of the city.

An update on our last post about the mass reshuffle in Ukraine's cabinet.

The parliament accepted the resignations of a deputy prime minister, thestrategic industries minister and two other ministers, lawmakers said.

The session was over for the day and the resignation of theforeign minister, the highest-profile casualty so far of the reshuffle, had not been considered.

Mr Zelenskyy said earlier than Ukraine needs "new energy, and that includes in diplomacy" while commenting on the reshuffle.

He also added that he couldn't announce any replacements yet because he didn't know whether the candidates would accept his invitation to join the government.

Ukraine's parliament has startedvoting on major ministerial dismissals announced yesterday.

The parliament failed to sack the head of the state propertyfund, Vitaliy Koval, in the first vote, lawmakers said.

It comes as the country's foreign minister, DmytroKuleba, resigned earlier this morning (see 6.56am post) - the highest-profile casualty sofar of a major government reshuffle ordered by PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mr Kuleba, 43, did not give a reason for stepping down.

Mr Zelenskyy indicated last week that a reshuffle was imminent, in what has been cast as the start of a government "reset" ahead of the cold autumn and winter seasons.

Residents in Lviv are waking up to significant destruction after an overnight attack on the western city.

One woman has described how she was forced to leave the shelter she was hiding in because "everything was on fire". She also struggled to find another shelter because "smoke [was] covering everything".

Another man said Russia was trying to "destroy and intimidate us" by hitting residential areas.

Watch the full video below...

Vladimir Putin has returned from his controversial trip to Mongolia and is visiting the eastern city of Vladivostok today.

He met the Chinese vice president Han Zheng at the Eastern Economic Forum before speaking with Russian Pacific fleet commander Admiral Viktor Liina, at the naval base of the Russian Pacific Fleet's Primorye Flotilla.

Ukraine had called for Mongolia to arrest Putinon an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from Moscow's invasion in 2022.

Instead, Mr Putin received a warm welcome from the nation - a member of the International Criminal Court, which issued the warrant in March 2023.