Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow’s assault on Bakhmut may be losing momentum, says UK | Russia

Three people were killed and another seven wounded in overnight Russian drone strikes on the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday morning.

The Kyiv regional military administration reported on its Telegram channel that a “civilian object” had been damaged and that rescuers were still working at the scene.

Reuters reports the Ukrainian military said it had shot down 16 out of 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched at Ukraine overnight by Russia.

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A Brink, tweeted in reaction to the attack:

After all the talk in Moscow yesterday, more Russian missiles and more drone attacks on civilians overnight make it perfectly clear how much interest President Putin has in a just peace or an end to the war he started.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, also reported that Kurakhove in Donetsk was shelled four times yesterday. It reports no casualties, but that eight private residences were damaged in total.

British military intelligence said on Wednesday there is a possibility that the Russian assault on the town of Bakhmut is losing the limited momentum it had obtained.

This could be happening because “some Russian MoD units have been reallocated to other sectors”, the Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin. Ukrainian forces on Tuesday had repelled Russian attempts to advance into the centre of the small eastern city of Bakhmut.

The Russian navy “repelled” a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea early on Wednesday, the Kremlin-backed governor of the city said.

“The Black Sea Fleet repelled a surface drone attack on Sevastopol,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-backed head of Sevastopol, wrote on Telegram.

“They tried to penetrate our bay, our sailors fired at them from small arms. Air defence was also working.”

On that note: Xi Jinping has just left Moscow following his two-day summit with Vladimir Putin, AFP reports, citing Russian media.

Xi’s plane left Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after being seen off by a guard of honour who played the Russian and Chinese national anthems, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

On Tuesday, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the US does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine.

Speaking in response to Putin welcoming China’s proposals for peace in Ukraine, Kirby offered the most direct criticism yet of China’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the war.

“I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way,” he said.

He noted that China has refrained from criticising the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has continued to buy Russian oil even as the west piles sanctions on Moscow’s energy industry to starve the Kremlin of money to pay for the war.

China, Kirby added, also “keeps parroting the Russian propaganda”.

Kyiv has previously said that any talks would be contingent on the complete restoration of Ukraine’s territory.

Xi, who seeks to play the role of global peacemaker, on Tuesday repeated China’s position that it supported peace talks and said that Beijing has always taken an “objective” and “impartial” view of the conflict. He added that he and Putin have “established close relations and built strategic communication”.

Xi’s statements, which carefully repeated Beijing’s previous position on the war, suggested that the talks provided no major breakthrough in the peace efforts.

Still, Xi’s trip to Moscow, his first state visit since the invasion, has been viewed as a major boost for Putin and provides Moscow with an opportunity to emphasise that it has not been isolated by the global community.

You can read our full story from by colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Helen Davidson here:

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it had reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine for a four-year financing package worth about $15.6 billion, offering funds the country needs as it continues to defend against Russia’s invasion.

The agreement, which must still be ratified by the IMF’s board, takes into consideration Ukraine’s path to accession to the European Union after the war. The fund said its executive board was expected to discuss approval in the coming weeks.

“The overarching goals of the authorities’ program are to sustain economic and financial stability in circumstances of exceptionally high uncertainty, restore debt sustainability, and support Ukraine’s recovery on the path toward EU accession in the post-war period,” IMF official Gavin Gray said in a statement announcing the agreement.

If approved, as expected, the Ukraine program would be the IMF’s biggest loan to a country involved in an active conflict.

The fund last week changed a rule to allow new loan programs for countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty”, without naming Ukraine.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan. I’ll be bringing you the latest as it happens.

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it had reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine for a four-year financing package worth about $15.6 billion, offering funds the country needs as it continues to defend against Russia’s invasion. If ratified by the IMF board, as expected, the Ukraine program would be the IMF’s biggest loan to a country involved in an active conflict.

And White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the US does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine, in the most direct criticism yet of China’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the war.

“I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way,” he said.

We’ll have more on these two stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have met for a second day of talks at the Kremlin. The Chinese and Russian leaders signed a series of documents on a “strategic cooperation” after what Putin described as “successful and constructive” talks which showed that China-Russian relations were at the “highest point” in “the whole history of our two countries”. The Chinese president’s trip to Moscow has been viewed as a major boost for his strategic partner, Putin.

• Xi said China had an “impartial position” on the conflict in Ukraine and that it supported peace and dialogue, Russian state media reported. Xi said talks with his Russian counterpart had been “open and friendly”. Putin, speaking at the joint news conference, said Beijing’s proposal to end the Ukraine conflict could be the basis for a peaceful settlement – when the west is ready for it. Xi has invited Putin to visit China this year.

• Japan’s Fumio Kishida met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv during a rare, unannounced visit by the Japanese leader. Kishida toured the town of Bucha, where civilians were killed by Russian forces. Kishida visited a church in the town outside Kyiv on Tuesday and said he was “outraged by the cruelty” as he paid his respects to the victims of Russian atrocities against civilians.

• Two Russian strategic bomber planes flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday in a statement released as Kishida’s Ukraine visit started.

• Putin has condemned a UK proposal to send ammunition that contains depleted uranium for use in Ukraine. If the UK supplies ammunition with depleted uranium to Ukraine, Russia will be forced to react, the Russian leader warned at his news conference with President Xi. A junior British defence minister said on Monday that the UK could supply “armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium” to Ukraine.

• Zelenskiy said Kyiv had suggested to China that it join a Ukrainian peace formula to end Russia’s war in his country. Zelenskiy, speaking during a joint press conference in Kyiv with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said Ukraine was still waiting for an answer from Beijing. He also said he would join an upcoming G7 summit in Japan via video link.

• Ukraine is holding its defence of the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut as Russian forces attempted to advance to the city centre, a Ukrainian general has said. There was intense fighting along the eastern frontline, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said.

• Fifteen children have been returned from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv and Kherson, as well as their mothers and children’s legal guardians, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said. A total of 308 children have been returned to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, he added, citing the country’s national information bureau.