Ukraine updates: Drones hit Russia's largest iron ore plant

Germany will be participating in the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. France  has also expressed its support for the alliance. 

Hebestreit said Germany will contribute hundreds of  millions to the project, without naming the exact amount. 

The Czech initiative comes as the EU struggles to meet ammo production goals. Ukraine troops are facing a shortage of ammunition on the battlefield, with Russian armed forces recently scoring victories in the east of the country. 

The Ukrainian military is hoping it will form units for counter-offensive actions later this year, a top military commander said, adding that the military was working on stabilizing the battlefield situation.

"We will stabilize the situation shortly," Oleksandr Pavliuk, appointed as ground force commander during the recent top military reshuffle, said in televised comments, "and do everything possible to prepare the troops for more active actions, and to seize the initiative."

Pavliuk added that the military aimed to withdraw units which lost their potential, then restore them in the shape of a force for counter-offensive actions this year.

His comments followed similar ones by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said that Moscow would try to organize a new offensive this spring or summer, but that his country had a battlefield plan of its own.

A highly anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive launched last summer has largely fallen flat. Since then, the frontlines have been mostly characterized by a stalemate, until Moscow captured the eastern city of Avdiivka last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a Russian strike had left an unspecified number of "dead and wounded" in Odesa as he visited the Black Sea port with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday.

"You can see who we are facing, they don't care where they strike," he told a joint press conference.

"We heard the sound of sirens and explosions that took place near us [but] did not have time to get to a shelter," Mitsotakis said. "It is a very intense experience ... It's really different to read about the war in newspapers, and to hear it with your own ears, see it with your own eyes."

Greece has heavily criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has provided Kyiv with humanitarian aid and weapons including infantry fighting vehicles, Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket launchers and ammunition.

The southern port city of Odesa has been under renewed fire ever since Russia exited an agreement protecting Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea in summer 2023.

After Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal, Ukraine put in place a protected maritime corridor to continue exports through the Black Sea by hugging the coast line, rather than traversing the open waters.

Mitsotakis said that Zelenskyy had explained "the importance of the port and what is being done to restore and strengthen the Ukrainian sea route."

Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said last week that Ukraine had exported more grain through the ports of Odesa in February than in any month since Russia invaded.

The Kremlin says the West is playing with fire by discussing the notion of sending troops to Ukraine, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron last week said he could not rule out such a possibility, although other NATO members, including the United States, said there were no such plans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by saying the West should understand that such a course of action risked provoking a nuclear war.

Macron this week urged Ukraine's allies not to be "cowards" in supporting the country to fight off the Russian invasion. He added that he "fully stood behind" his controversial remarks.

"We are surely approaching a moment for Europe in which it will be necessary not to be cowards," Macron said.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on Wednesday for election day protests against  President Vladimir Putin.

Navalnaya said the public support for Navalny  since his death was "proof that his cause lived on." 

In a YouTube video, Navalnaya said, "Looking at you, I am convinced that everything is not in vain, and this thought gives me strength." 

Navalny, in one of his public messages, had urged people to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the March 17 presidential election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.

Now after his death, Navalnaya took up her late husband's call.

"What to do next? The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin," she said. "You can ruin the ballot, you can write 'Navalny' in big letters on it. And even if you don’t see the point in voting at all, you can just come and stand at the polling station, and then turn around and go home."

Navalnaya has appeared on different high-profile political fora since Navalny’s death, including the European Parliament.

Kremlin has in the past portrayed Navalny and his supporters as lawbreakers acting to destabilize Russia.

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi has warned against any hasty restart of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in southern Ukraine.

Grossi is visiting Russia, where he is due to meet President Vladimir Putin for the first time since 2022 and to discuss the "precarious" situation at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Controlled by Russian troops since March 2022, the facility has been targeted by multiple bombings and cut off from the electricity grid on numerous occasions. Both camps accuse each other of wanting to cause a catastrophe there.

Grossi, who was in the southern Russian city of Sochi, said any restart of the Zaporizhzhia power plant "would require a certain number of serious considerations."

"This is a military combat zone. An active combat zone," he said, recalling that the plant has been shut down "for a long period" and that a number of safety assessments needed to be carried out.

The head of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, told Russian news agencies that he had discussed "the measures to be taken to guarantee the safety [of the plant] not only during shutdown but also during active operating mode" with Grossi.

Grossi, meanwhile called on Russia and Ukraine "to exercise the utmost restraint" to avoid a nuclear accident at the plant where the situation remained "extremely worrying."

A recent survey found most Germans against the decision to send Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

The survey was conducted for the German news agency DPA by an opinion research institute YouGov.  

The poll found that 58% of respondents were against sending the missiles. Of those respondents, almost a third were against any form of military support for Ukraine.

Less than 30% of respondents favored the sending of cruise missiles, which have a range of 500 kilometers, to Ukraine.

The survey of 2,169 Germans who are eligible to vote was conducted from March 1, 2024 to March 5, 2024.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine out of fear that Germany could become involved in the war if the cruise missiles hit Russian territory.

While his refusal is aligned with popular opinion, Scholz has come under increasing pressure both from colleagues in the Bundestag as well as Germany's allies.

According to YouGov surveys, opposition to delivering the Taurus missile platform has grown in recent weeks.

Russia on Wednesday dismissed the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrants for two senior Russian officers. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that ICC arrest warrants issued for two of its commanders in Ukraine had no significance for Russia, and amounted to a "provocation".

The court previously accused Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov of targeting Ukraine's power infrastructure with strikes between October 2022 and March 2023.

Kremlin officials also said they do not "recognize" the court's warrant for the arrest over the actions of the officers in the Ukraine conflict.

The ICC does not have its own police force for enforcing the arrest warrants and relies on the justice system of its 124 members to carry them out.

Russia is not a member of the ICC.

Russian officials said two Ukrainian drones hit a fuel tank at one of Russia's largest iron ore plants in the Kursk region on Wednesday morning.

Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt blamed Ukraine for the attack but said no injuries were recorded.

"Today another attack on the Kursk region was carried out by Ukraine," Starovoyt said in a video published on Telegram.

"A drone attacked a fuel and lubricants warehouse in Zheleznogorsk. There are fires in the area right now," he added.

The Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing plant is located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The company, owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, is on the international sanctions list.

It said that the fire had not impacted the facility's operations.

Kyiv made no immediate comment on the attack, but Ukrainian drones have increasingly been used to hit targets deep inside Russia. On Monday, Ukraine claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a rail bridge in Samara. 

ssa/ab (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)