Because the conflict enters its 722nd day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the scenario on Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
Preventing
- Not less than 10 individuals had been killed in Russian drone and shelling assaults throughout jap, central and northern components of Ukraine, together with three who had been at a market within the northeastern area of Kharkiv.
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A missile and drone assault on the central Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro broken an influence plant, forcing authorities to shut colleges and evacuate a hospital. Ukraine’s Air Drive mentioned it shot down 16 of 23 drones.
- The UN’s instructional, scientific and cultural organisation UNESCO mentioned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted injury estimated at about $3.5bn to the nation’s heritage and cultural websites, with some 5,000 destroyed.
Politics and diplomacy
- Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of america Home of Representatives, blocked conflict support for Ukraine, ignoring President Joe Biden’s plea that passing the invoice was important to face as much as “Russian dictator” Vladimir Putin. Johnson, who’s near presidential candidate Donald Trump, instructed reporters he had no intention even of permitting a vote on the invoice, which had been handed within the Senate.
- Russia added Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and two of the nation’s prime officers to its needed checklist over the “destruction” of Soviet-era conflict memorials and alleged hostility in direction of Russia, hours after intelligence providers within the Baltic state warned that Russia was gearing up for a conflict towards NATO within the coming decade. Kallas is considered one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned he had spoken this week of Paul Whelan, a former Marine jailed in Russia on espionage prices, as he promised sustained efforts to free Whelan in addition to journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been detained pending trial on spying prices. The boys and the US authorities have rejected the spying claims. The US labeled Whelan and Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained”.
- A Russian army enchantment court docket overturned a positive to jail left-wing educational Boris Kagarlitsky for 5 years after he criticised Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine, his lawyer mentioned.
Weapons
- World defence spending jumped by 9 p.c to a report $2.2 trillion final 12 months, the London-based assume tank the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research (IISS) mentioned in its annual report The Navy Stability, and was more likely to rise additional in 2024.
- The report mentioned Russia had misplaced some 3,000 predominant battle tanks throughout the preventing in Ukraine, or roughly as many because it had in its lively stock earlier than it started its full-scale invasion two years in the past. It’s now refitting older tanks to be used, it added.