Ukraine’s army chief fears ‘deep’ Russian advance

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Ukraine’s army chief said he fears Russian forces could be poised to strike “deep” into Ukrainian lines in the eastern Donetsk region.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult”, as Kyiv’s forces were on the defensive across the 620-mile front lines in the east and south of Ukraine after Moscow made its first territorial gains in almost a year.
Gen Syrsky said he had visited two brigades “where the situation is gradually becoming more complicated and there is a threat of enemy units advancing deep into our battle formations.”
Ukraine is facing a shortage of both manpower and ammunition amid hold-ups to Western aid and a domestic debate over how to recruit more soldiers with the war now in its third year.
We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the war.
The operations of the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s southern Rostov region resumed after a drone attack, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The operations of the refinery were stopped after downed drones fell on the site on Wednesday, regional governor Vasily Golubev said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no casualties, he said, and the damage was being assessed.
The first deliveries of artillery ammunition under a Czech-led plan to boost supplies by buying shells outside Europe should reach Ukraine by June at the latest, a senior Czech official said on Wednesday.
“At the moment we are supplying large-calibre ammunition secured under previous orders. First deliveries from the so-called ‘Czech ammunition initiative’ can be expected in Ukraine in June at the latest,” National Security Adviser Tomas Pojar told Reuters.
Russia warned on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine could spin out of control and expand geographically due to the ill-considered actions of one or two member states from the Nato military alliance.
In a response to Reuters, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow believed the West was walking “on the edge of the abyss” and pushing the world to the edge too with its actions over Ukraine.
Zakharova also advised the West to give up on the idea of strategically defeating Russia.
A Ukrainian general who blew up the Kerch bridge with a drone boat in one of his country’s most successful strikes of the war said he felt like a hunter as he guided the vessel into its target, writes Joe Barnes, Brussels Correspondent. 
Brig Gen Ivan Lukashevych, of Ukraine’s SBU security service, controlled his unmanned explosive boat into the bridge in July, temporarily severing Crimea from mainland Russia and cutting a key military supply line.
He described the attack in detail to The Telegraph in his first interview with Western media as Ukraine is winning the war in the Black Sea with the help of new, advanced models of their home-grown naval technology.
Read the full piece here.
A Ukrainian drone attacked the headquarters of Russia’s FSB state security service in Russia’s Belgorod region on Wednesday, the Tass news agency reported.
The building was damaged in the incident but there were no casualties, it said.
Ukrainian drones struck targets in several Russian regions for the second night in row, officials said on Wednesday, again targeting energy facilities and setting at least one refinery on fire.
“The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a UAV,” Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region that borders the Moscow region to its north, said on the Telegram messaging app. “A fire broke out as a result.”
Ukraine’s army chief said Wednesday the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” and that Russian forces could be poised to strike deep into Ukrainian lines in the eastern Donetsk region.
Kyiv’s forces are on the defensive across the 620-mile front lines in the east and south after Moscow made its first territorial gains in almost a year.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said he had visited two brigades “where the situation is gradually becoming more complicated and there is a threat of enemy units advancing deep into our battle formations.”
President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Wednesday that Finland and Sweden’s entry into Nato is “a meaningless step” and that Russia will deploy troops and systems of destruction to the Finnish border following Finland’s accession to the alliance last April.
“This is an absolutely meaningless step (for Finland and Sweden) from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests,” Putin told Russia’s RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television in a wide-ranging interview.
“We didn’t have troops there (at the Finnish border), now they will be there. There were no systems of destruction there, now they will appear.”
Ukraine said Wednesday it hoped to receive the first batch of artillery shells promised by the Czech Republic soon, as its troops face critical shortages of ammunition on the battlefield.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said last week his country had raised funds to buy 300,000 artillery shells for Ukraine, lower than the 800,000 initially suggested by the Czech president.
“According to the preliminary signals we have received … the first part of the shells will be delivered in the foreseeable future,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Pope Francis issued a fresh condemnation of all wars on Wednesday, days after irking Kyiv and Western capitals for appearing to suggest that Ukraine should surrender and negotiate peace with its Russian invader.
Francis had told Swiss broadcaster RSI that Ukraine should “show the courage of the white flag” and open talks with Russia, but his deputy Cardinal Pietro Parolin clarified in a Tuesday interview that Russia should first halt its aggression.
“Many young people, many young people go to die (in war). Let’s pray to the Lord to give us the grace to overcome this madness of war, which is always a defeat,” the Pope said during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.
At least three people were killed in overnight Russian drone and bomb attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions, local officials said on Wednesday.
Russians dropped a bomb on Myrnohrad town in Donetsk region, killing two and injuring five people, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Sumy regional military administration said a Russian drone hit an apartment block overnight.
One body was pulled out from under the rubble in Sumy as rescuers continued working at the site, emergency services said on Telegram. Eight people were injured, and more may stay under the collapsed building constructions.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its troops had fought off an attempted Ukrainian cross-border incursion, without making clear whether it was referring to a new attack or an incident on Tuesday.
The ministry said in a statement that the attempted incursion had targeted the Belgorod and Kursk regions, just as it did on Tuesday.
Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Wednesday said the security of the European Union cannot hinge on the outcome of the election in the United States. 
Russian volunteer forces fighting alongside Kyiv on Wednesday urged civilians to flee Belgorod and Kursk, threatening large-scale attacks on military targets in the Russian border cities.
“We call on the local authorities to preserve human lives and begin evacuating the cities of Kursk and Belgorod,” three groups comprised mainly of Russian citizens said in a joint statement, one day after claiming to have captured a village in Russia’s Kursk region.
Polish farmers protesting at the Dorohusk border crossing with Ukraine will let all trucks stuck there pass through as a gesture of goodwill, a protest leader told state news agency PAP on Wednesday. 
The operations of the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s southern Rostov region were stopped on Wednesday after downed drones fell on its territory, regional governor Vasily Golubev said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no casualties, he said, and the damage was being assessed.
Poland’s capital Warsaw will spend 117 million zloty (£23 million) in the next two to three years on bomb shelters and other security measures, with war in neighbouring Ukraine in its third year, the city’s mayor said on Wednesday.
While Nato member Poland has reassured citizens that its place in the alliance ensures their safety from Russian attack, the invasion across its border has prompted preparations for potential strikes.
“On our own initiative we undertook an inventory of places for sheltering,” Rafal Trzaskowski told a news conference.
Underground car parks and metro stations were among around 7 million square metres of space in Warsaw that could serve as shelters, he said.
Ukraine’s agricultural maritime exports are seen falling 20 per cent in March versus February, Spike Brokers said on Wednesday.
“The pace of maritime exports is slowing down in March compared to February. According to current trends, total exports in March may be up to 20% lower than in February,” the brokerage, which tracks and publishes export statistics, said.
Ukraine’s SBU security service carried out drone attacks on three Russian oil refineries in Ryazan, Kstovo and Kirishi overnight as part of a strategy to reduce Russia’s economic potential, a Ukrainian source told Reuters on Wednesday.
“Judging by the videos online, the consequences were fairly significant,” the source said.
Ukrainian defence forces, the source added, also conducted overnight drone attacks on a Russian airbase in Buturlinovka and a military airfield in Voronezh region.
The leaders of France, Germany and Poland will hold emergency talks on Ukraine in Berlin on Friday, the Polish prime minister announced.
“On Friday… I will be in Berlin with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to talk about this situation,” Donald Tusk told state broadcaster TVP late on Tuesday after meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
A fire at an oil refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region has been extinguished, regional governor Pavel Malkov said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.
Mr Malkov had said earlier that a drone attack – one of several on Russian refineries in the past two days – had caused the fire to break out.
President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Wednesday that North Korea has its own “nuclear umbrella” and Pyongyang has not asked Moscow for any help.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has its own nuclear umbrella,” Putin told Russia’s RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television in a wide-ranging interview.
“They didn’t ask us for anything.”
President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the war.
Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election, which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.
Read the full piece here.
At least two people were killed in overnight Russian drone and bomb attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions, local officials said on Wednesday.
Russians dropped a bomb on Myrnohrad town in Donetsk region, killing two and injuring five people, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram messaging app.
The Sumy regional military administration said there were casualties as a result of a Russian drone hitting an apartment block overnight.
The administration said 30 apartments of a five-storey residential building were damaged, 15 of them largely destroyed.