We won’t be covering the Ukraine war live today, but here’s a summary of the main developments over the past 24 hours.
Massive explosion in Ukraine drone attack
Ukrainian security sources said the drone strike destroyed a Russian arsenal storing missiles, bombs and ammunition.
Unconfirmed images and videos posted on social media showed a huge fireball rising into the night sky and exploding across the lake.
A NASA satellite detected heat from a location in the Tver region, and a monitoring station recorded what sensors deemed a small earthquake.
Regional governor Igor Rudenya said in a Telegram message that firefighters were trying to put out the blaze in the town of Toropets, but did not say what was burning.
Authorities also reported power outages in the Zapadnodvinsky district of Tver.
No information on casualties has been released and Moscow has yet to comment.
Jailed journalist declares hunger strike
Maria Ponomarenko, a Siberian journalist serving a six-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, has declared a hunger strike.
The 46-year-old was detained less than two months after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine after accusing the Russian air force of bombing a theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
She was convicted in February last year of spreading false information about the Russian military.
Kiev investigates allegations of Russian execution of soldiers
Ukrainian prosecutors announced yesterday that they had opened an investigation into suspected Russian execution of a Ukrainian soldier found dead with a sword inside his body.
In the latest in a series of criminal investigations launched during Russia’s war with Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office said it was looking into social media posts that showed images of what appeared to be executions.
Sumi’s Attack
Russia fired missiles at energy infrastructure in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, hours after carrying out an overnight drone strike on the area.
Sumy Oblast Governor Volodymyr Artyukh, citing an initial assessment, said Russia used at least four missiles in the latest attack on the energy facility.
Kursk
Russia said yesterday it had repelled five new attempts by Ukrainian forces to cross the border into the Kursk region.
This came after a Ukrainian border breach last month.
Russian forces take control of Ulayinsk in eastern Ukraine
Russian state news agency RIA reported that Russian forces captured the city of Ukrayinsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Tuesday.
He added that Russian troops had raised their national flag at a mine vent on the city’s outskirts.
Sky News was unable to verify the battlefield report.
Secretary of State Blinken explains Ukraine’s plan to pressure Russia to end the war
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said yesterday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been briefed on Ukraine’s plans to pressure Russia to end the war during his visit to Kiev last week.
Volodymyr Zelensky first spoke about a “victory plan” last month and said he wanted to discuss it with Joe Biden.
“Ultimately, I think we should let President Zelensky, the architect of this plan, tell us the details,” Miller said.
Russian and North Korean ministers meet
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, yesterday.
The two sides exchanged views on how to develop bilateral relations “in line with the current level of comprehensive strategic partnership” between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Ukrainian boxing champion released after detention in Poland
Oleksandr Usyk was detained by law enforcement officials at Krakow airport in Poland and later released.
It was not immediately clear why the 37-year-old man was detained.
But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said in a statement that he considered the arrest “disproportionate and unacceptable as it concerns our champions” and that his ministry would contact the Polish one.
“There was a misunderstanding which was quickly resolved. I would like to thank everyone for their concern,” Usyk said in an Instagram post.