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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
4:30 a.m.: European Union governments are set to reach agreement on Wednesday on proposals for new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported citing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
EU governments, grouped together as the Council, have been debating an eighth round of sanctions against Russia since last week.
“I trust that before the end of this plenary sitting, we will have reached an agreement within the Council and the adoption of the joint proposal put forward by the Commission,” Borrell told the European Parliament on Wednesday.
4 a.m.: European Union countries need to step up protection of their critical infrastructure, by conducting stress tests and using satellite surveillance to detect potential threats, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
“The acts of sabotage against Nord Stream pipelines have shown how vulnerable our energy infrastructure is. It is in the interest of all Europeans to better protect this critical infrastructure,” von der Leyen said in a speech in the European Parliament.
3:15 a.m.: French Junior Minister for European Affairs Laurence Boone said on Wednesday that Russians fleeing their country to avoid being mobilized in the Russian army would not automatically get visas to remain in France, but that their situation and any security risks would be considered, Reuters reported.
“We have limited conditions under which visas can be given. We will make sure dissident journalists, people who fight the regime, artists and students can still come here, and we will issue visas on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the security risks,” she said in an interview with franceinfo radio.
3 a.m.: The United States will on Wednesday carry a Russian to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX ship, in a voyage that carries symbolic significance amid the Ukraine war, Agence France-Presse reported.
Anna Kikina, the only female cosmonaut in service, is part of the Crew-5 mission, which also includes one Japanese and two American astronauts.
Blast-off is set for noon from the Kennedy Space Center, with the weather forecast so far promising.
Two weeks ago, an American astronaut took off on a Russian Soyuz rocket for the orbital platform.
The long-planned astronaut exchange program has been maintained despite soaring tensions between the two countries since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
2:50 a.m.:
2:30 a.m.: Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to push its ally Belarus to the top of an international diamond certification body to protect Moscow’s gems from being branded conflict diamonds following its invasion, Reuters reported.
Some members of the Kimberley Process, a coalition of governments, industry and civil society that certifies diamonds, have called for diamonds from Russia, the world’s top producer by volume, to be labeled conflict diamonds. Belarus has applied to be the KP’s vice chair in 2023 and chair in 2024, according to a September 19 letter seen by Reuters.
The KP makes decisions by consensus, so the rift over Russia risks paralyzing it.
“Russia is pushing Belarus to become chair, so that Russia’s interests can be better pursued and protected within the KP,” Ukraine’s Kimberley Process representative Vladimir Tatarintsev said in an email on Tuesday.
Belarus did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Russia has said it condemns attempts to “politicize” the KP. The KP has the power to ban diamond exports from certain countries, as it did in 2013 when rebels seized power in Central African Republic.
In its bid, Belarus said it was prepared to uphold the KP’s “unity and authority.” Belarus, which has never before been KP chair, supported Russia in quashing a proposal to discuss the invasion of Ukraine at a KP meeting in June. Jacob Thamage of Botswana, the current KP chair, to whom the bid was addressed, did not respond to a request for comment.
2 a.m.: The Ukrainian armed forces have advanced up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) beyond the Oskil river in the northeastern Kharkiv region into Russia’s defensive zone towards the town of Svatove in Luhansk region, the U.K. said on Wednesday.
“Politically, Russian leaders will highly likely be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are now approaching the borders of Luhansk Oblast, which Russia claimed to have formally annexed last Friday,” the British Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence bulletin.
The intelligence update added that it was highly likely that Ukraine could now strike the Svatove-Kremina road in Luhansk region and added that Ukraine continued to make progress is its operations in the southern front as well.
1:30 a.m.: Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States said Washington’s decision to send more military aid to Ukraine poses a threat to Moscow’s interests and increases the risk of a military clash between Russia and the West, Reuters reported.
“We perceive this as an immediate threat to the strategic interests of our country,” Antonov said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.
“The supply of military products by the U.S. and its allies not only entails protracted bloodshed and new casualties, but also increases the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Western countries.”
1:05 a.m.: A price cap for Russian oil proposed as part of the European Union’s eighth round of sanctions against Russia will not apply to pipeline shipments, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Hungary, which has been the most vocal critic of sanctions against Russia in the EU, largely relies on Russian crude shipments and Russian gas, both imported via pipelines, Reuters reported.
1 a.m.: The head of the company operating Europe’s largest nuclear plant says Ukraine is considering restarting the Russian-occupied facility to ensure its safety.
Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom shut down the plant’s last reactors last month amid fears that fighting nearby could cause a radiation disaster. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Energoatom President Petro Kotin said the company could restart two reactors within days to make sure the plant’s safety systems don’t freeze during the winter.
The power plant sits within one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia has illegally claimed as its territory. The plant’s director was seized and blindfolded by Russian forces on his way home from work Friday.
12:30 a.m.: Amazon faces fines of up to $204,000 (12 million rubles) in Russia for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal, news agencies reported on Tuesday, Reuters reported, in what would be a first penalty of this kind for the U.S. tech giant.
Russia has fined several other foreign tech firms for the same offense; part of what critics say is a wider campaign by the Kremlin to throttle the influence and reach of Western technology companies in Russia.
TASS quoted a Moscow court as saying that two cases had been drawn up against Amazon, both pertaining to a “violation of the procedure of restricting access to information” in accordance with Russian legislation.
Amazon did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
12:05 a.m.: Two women in Moscow-annexed Crimea, including Miss Crimea, were found guilty of discrediting the Russian army by singing a Ukrainian patriotic song in a video posted on social media, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting local authorities.
Olga Valeyeva, who won the Miss Crimea 2022 beauty pageant, and an unnamed friend sang the popular Ukrainian “Chervona Kalyna” song on a balcony.
A video of the women singing was posted on Instagram stories, which auto-deletes after 24 hours. Crimean police said Valeyeva was fined 40,000 rubles (about $680), while her friend was given a 10-day prison sentence.
Crimean police also posted a video of the women apologizing for singing the song, blurring their faces.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
