For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.

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5:23 a.m.: Reuters reported that the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Russia on Thursday for discussions on the creation of a security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing Russia’s envoy to the international institutions in Vienna.

The plant, in Russian-occupied territory, has come under repeated shelling attacks that each side has blamed on the other, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.

Reuters also reported that the Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin had no plans to hold talks with Grossi during his trip to Russia.

5 a.m.:

4:22 a.m: UNICEF reports that of around 7 million Ukrainian children, 1.2 million are currently displaced because of the war. 1,300 of these children have passed through a special Kyiv rehabilitation center in a former hotel in the outskirts of the city. During their two-week stay, children are supported by psychologists and staff members as they process the horrors of a war that has often claimed their loved ones.

The Associated Press visited the center as it celebrated St. Nicholas Day, which is marked by many Ukrainians as the start of the Christmas season. When the children were asked what they want for Christmas, their answers: “A generator,” “a power bank,” “a house.”

4:01 a.m.:

3:40 a.m.: Reuters published a new report examining the state of Russia’s telecoms industry once telecoms giants Nokia and Ericsson pull out of the country by December 31.

Senior telecoms executives told Reuters reporters that Russian citizens will most likely experience “slower downloads and uploads, more dropped calls, calls that won’t connect and longer outages as operators lose the ability to upgrade or patch software, and battle over dwindling spare parts inventories.”

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2:51 a.m.: According to Reuters, Belarus issued a ruling on Wednesday temporarily restricting access to parts of the southeastern Gomel region that borders Ukraine and Russia.

The government said on its website it would “temporarily restrict entry, temporary stay and movement in the border zone within the Loevsky, Braginsky and Khoiniki districts of the Gomel region.”

Russian forces used Belarus as a launch pad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in February, and there has been growing Russian and Belarusian military activity in recent months.

The government did not indicate how long the restriction would last but said that it did not apply officials, and workers and residents of those areas.

Belarus began staging what it called anti-sabotage drills in the Gomel region on October 11. Russian servicemen arrived in Belarus four days later to join a regional grouping that the neighbors have set up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus on Monday, his first trip to the country since 2019, raising fears in Kyiv that he intends to pressure Russia’s fellow former Soviet ally to open a new invasion front against Ukraine.

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1:40 a.m.: On Zelenskyy’s visit, a senior administration official told reporters that “President Putin badly miscalculated the beginning of this conflict when he presumed that the Ukrainian people would yield and that NATO would be disunited. He was wrong on both those counts. He remains wrong about our staying power. And that’s what this visit will demonstrate.”

1:01 a.m.: The White House has confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington D.C. today and address a joint session of Congress. According to a statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, President Biden will also “announce a significant new package of security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. The visit will underscore the United States’ steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, including through the provision of economic, humanitarian, and military assistance.”

12:35 a.m.: Ukrainians shivering under bombs, frost and power outages will soon get more help from a fund that funnels money to volunteers, community groups and civil society organizations, a United Nations humanitarian leader said Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Denise Brown, humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said the work being undertaken was “impressive,” but resources were being exhausted 10 months into the war. The Ukraine Humanitarian Fund was releasing an additional $20 million to support 300 groups who had been “working around the clock to support millions of people,” she added.

The funds’ release comes at a time when U.N. humanitarian projects face record funding gaps, with global needs from Ukraine to the drought-stricken Horn of Africa far outpacing pledges which are themselves at record highs.

The new release brings funds allocated in Ukraine by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to $252 million. More than $55 million has gone to projects supporting hospitals, displacement centers and other facilities that host generators and winter supplies.

12:03 a.m.: Sweden’s Supreme Court decision to block the extradition of Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes is a “very negative” development, Reuters reported Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, as Stockholm seeks Ankara’s approval for it to join NATO.

Mevlut Cavusoglu was speaking at a news conference in Ankara. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan last month singled out Kenes as a person Ankara wants extradited from Sweden as a condition for Ankara’s approval for Stockholm to join NATO.

Ankara says Kenes is a member of an organization that it accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said it was bound to act in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“We cannot speculate on what possible impact this will have on the NATO accession,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in an emailed comment. “Sweden’s government has to follow Swedish and international law when it comes to questions of extradition, which is also made clear in the trilateral agreement.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.