War against Ukraine: this is the situation

Russian invasion - War against Ukraine: this is the situation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has once again urged the start of accession negotiations in a phone call with Italy's head of government Giorgia Meloni ahead of the EU summit.

"I assume that the EU heads of state and government will recognize Ukraine 's efforts and take this historic step," Selensky wrote on his Telegram channel. Ukraine has done its part of the work. He believed that the EU would demonstrate unity and strength, the Ukrainian president said, expressing optimism that he would receive an invitation to start talks.

Resistance to EU accession negotiations

Accession negotiations for Ukraine are one of the major topics at the two-day EU summit starting today. In view of the ongoing Russian aggression, the prospect of EU accession is extremely important for Kiev. However, there is still resistance to EU accession negotiations within the Union. The Hungarian head of government Viktor Orban has made it clear several times in recent weeks that he does not believe that any decisions should be made on EU accession negotiations with Ukraine at present - for example, because the country attacked by Russia has not yet fulfilled all the reform requirements.

Selensky wrote early this morning on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that he had also spoken to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the new Polish head of government, Donald Tusk, on the phone. With Michel, he discussed the "expected results for Ukraine" at the summit, which must demonstrate the EU's unwavering support and unity.

"Both are necessary to strengthen Ukraine's resilience against Russian aggression and on the path to EU membership." He said he had spoken with Tusk about the upcoming decisions at the summit, which would bring the entire European community together. "I heard words of sincere support. We are stronger when we are together," Selensky wrote.

Military bloggers report capture of Marjinka

The Ukrainian military denied the capture of the town of Marjinka in the Donetsk region claimed by Russian military bloggers. "Information and provocations continue to be spread about the alleged complete capture of the city. The defense continues," wrote the Ukrainian commander responsible for this section of the front, Olexandr Tarnavskyi, on his Telegram channel. According to him, the Russian occupiers continued their attempts to storm the city. The information cannot be verified independently.

Alongside Avdiivka, the heavily destroyed Mariinka is one of the focal points of the Russian offensive in the Donbass region. In the two towns upstream of the industrial metropolis of Donetsk, they are deploying heavy technology and also the air force. Donetsk has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. According to Tarnawskyj, 19 air strikes were carried out on Marjinka and Avdiivka within two days.

The first Russian military blogs such as Operazija Z had already reported on the alleged capture of Mariinka on Tuesday. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not officially report the capture and instead spoke of successful Russian attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Mariinka area.

Part of the telephone network restored

After more than 30 hours of total outage, Ukraine's largest mobile phone provider Kyivstar apparently brought the first subscribers back online. This mainly affects the capital Kiev and other major cities, as Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the telephone network would be gradually restored from 6 p.m. (5 p.m. CET). Short messages and mobile internet should be possible again over the next 24 hours. The day before, Kyivstar's network was completely down following an unprecedented hacker attack. The provider claims to have a good 24 million subscribers. An act of Russian sabotage is suspected.

Kadyrov predicts end of war

The Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov predicted the end of the war for next summer. "Around June or July. If I had the power to decide, we would be finished in three months," Kadyrov said in a livestream on Wednesday, according to media reports.

He expressed optimism that Russia would achieve its war aims. He explained the delay by saying that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had given the military the task of destroying the Ukrainian "cities as little as possible." Russia has been waging a brutal war of aggression against its neighboring country for more than 21 months, regularly attacking cities.

What will be important today

A two-day summit of the European Union begins in Brussels, from which Kiev hopes to get the green light for the start of EU accession negotiations. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Russian President Putin will once again present his views on the war he has ordered in Ukraine at his annual press conference and public address.