Ukrainian troops have attacked Russian positions along the entire front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, while Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Germany citing the need for maintenance.
FIGHTING
* Ukrainian forces are shelling ferries used by Russia to supply its forces on the west bank of the Dnipro river, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
* Russia's defence ministry said Ukrainian forces, after trying to go on the offensive in three different directions in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, had lost over 1,200 military personnel as well as 139 tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
NUCLEAR PLANT
* An International Atomic Energy Agency convoy set off from Kyiv towards the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine early on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said.
* Russia's Defence Ministry said the radiation situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains normal.
* Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately shelling a corridor that IAEA officials would need to use to reach the plant in an effort to get them to travel via Russian-annexed Crimea instead. There was no immediate response from Moscow.
DIPLOMACY, ECONOMY
* Russia halted gas supplies via a major pipeline to Europe, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospect of recession and energy rationing in some of the region's richest countries.
* France accused Russia of using energy supply as a "weapon of war" as Gazprom (GAZP.MM) reduced deliveries to one of its main utilities. read more
* The U.S. government has assessed that Russia is preparing to stage sham referenda in areas of Ukraine under its control to claim that Ukrainian people want to join Russia, the State Department said.
* EU foreign ministers are likely to agree to suspend a visa agreement with Russia and make its citizens wait longer and pay more for visas, diplomats said, while the bloc remained split over an outright EU travel ban.
* A ship carrying wheat from Ukraine to the drought-stricken Horn of Africa has docked in Djibouti, the United Nations said.
Reuters
