live blog
Ukrainian President Zelensky meets Romanian President Iohannis. According to its own statements, Ukraine repelled numerous Russian drone attacks in the south of the country during the night. The developments in the live blog.
Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is more confident about the economy in the Eastern European country. The fund increased its growth forecast to plus two percent in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023. Next year, GDP is expected to increase by 3.2 percent.
As a result of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the country’s economy shrank by around a third last year. Initially, the IMF had also predicted a recession for 2023 – a drop in GDP of three percent.
High inflation is also expected to be on the decline. The IMF, a major international lender to Ukraine, expects inflation to slow to 17.7 percent this year and 13 percent next year. Inflation reached 26.6 percent last year.
The Russian army attacked the south of Ukraine again overnight with dozens of drones. According to the regional military administration, air defense destroyed 23 so-called kamikaze drones of the Iranian Shahed type over the Odessa region alone. No one was injured in hits on “regional logistical infrastructure objects,” the local military administration chief, Oleh Kiper, wrote on Telegram. He did not provide any further details about the targets hit.
Russian shelling was also reported from the north of Ukraine. According to local authorities, two women and a police officer were injured in a rocket strike this morning in a town near the front-line town of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region on the border with Russia, according to local authorities. Ukrainian authorities suspected the use of an S-300 missile. The information cannot be independently verified.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has arrived in Romania for a visit. Zelenskyj wrote after landing in Bucharest that he would discuss security cooperation between the two countries with his Romanian colleague Klaus Iohannis. He thanked the neighboring country for supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
The Romanian presidency said Zelensky’s visit reaffirmed Romania’s “unconditional support for Ukraine.” The agenda for the talks would include expanding ties across the border, developing economic relations and “European and Euro-Atlantic integration” of Ukraine. Zelensky also wanted to meet Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
According to British intelligence experts, a new wave of Russian recruitment for the war of aggression against Ukraine is unlikely until next year’s presidential election. This emerged from the daily intelligence report from the Ministry of Defense in London on the war in Ukraine.
Accordingly, the Kremlin will try to minimize unpopular measures until the election scheduled for March 17th. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet declared his intention to run, he will almost certainly seek re-election. The election campaign, which could begin as early as November, is likely to revolve around the narrative that Russia is a civilization that must defend itself against external enemies.
Ukrainian forces are making progress in their four-month-long counteroffensive in both the east and south of the country, military officials said on Monday.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive aims to take control of the areas around Bakhmut in order to recapture the city, which was captured by Russian forces in May after months of heavy fighting.
According to Russian reports of the fighting, Moscow’s forces repelled Ukrainian attacks near the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut and suffered heavy casualties in attacks on Ukrainian positions outside the city.
In the south, Kiev wants to advance to the Sea of Azov in order to cut off a Russian land bridge that connects the areas it occupies in the south and east. Ilia Yevlash, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east of the country, said the troops had achieved a “partial success” at Andriyevka, which they captured last month along with the nearby town of Klishivka.
Hatched: territories occupied by Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of wanting to start a war in the Middle East in addition to attacking his country. “We have data that clearly proves that Russia is interested in starting a war in the Middle East, so that a new source of pain and suffering undermines the unity of the world,” Zelensky said on X (formerly Twitter). He didn’t give any details. He also warned of the danger of a world war in his evening video message broadcast in Kiev.
According to its own statements, Ukraine repelled numerous Russian drone attacks in the south of the country during the night. Russia attacked with 36 drones. 27 of them were shot down in the Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, the Ukrainian Air Force said via Telegram.
The target of the attack was the Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts. The Kherson regional government said on Telegram that Russian forces carried out 79 attacks on Monday. Mortars, artillery and drones were used. Four people were injured and several buildings were damaged.