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NATO member Poland touted its state-of-the-art fighter jets and other weaponry at its largest military parade since the Cold War — a display of strength, as fighting continues next door between Russia and Ukraine. “The defense of our eastern border, the border of the European Union and of NATO is today a key element of Poland’s state interest,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the event.
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
The main target of the overnight strikes was “port and grain infrastructure,” said Odessa’s regional governor, Oleh Kiper. The attacks took place near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure said Wednesday that a container ship sailing under the Hong Kong flag that is carrying food, among other items, successfully left the Odessa port using what he described as a new “temporary” shipping corridor in the Black Sea.
Duda announced a record defense budget and said Poland “will not be provoked” during his military parade speech Tuesday, as the country brandished foreign-made war planes and tanks before a crowd of thousands. The Polish military has increased by about 78,000 troops over the past eight years, he said. The parade was meant to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, when Polish troops beat Bolshevik forces that were trying to advance on Europe.
A former high-ranking FBI official accused of secretly working on behalf of a Russian oligarch pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday. The former official, Charles McGonigal, is accused of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and of laundering money while working to the benefit of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, whom he was tasked with investigating.
The United States, Sweden and Germany pledged additional aid to Ukraine this week. During a visit to Kyiv, Germany’s finance minister said that his country plans to pledge about $5.4 billion in military aid each year until 2027. Sweden offered a support package worth $314 million, and the Biden administration pledged an additional $200 million in assistance.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to strengthen bonds with Moscow in a letter he wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the state-run media outlet Korean Central News Agency. In the letter, Kim said the two countries could continue to “smash the imperialists’ arbitrary practices and hegemony,” KCNA reported.
The United States said Russia would be violating U.N. resolutions if it reaches an arms deal with North Korea, after the two countries’ leaders called for greater cooperation. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters: “Any kind of security cooperation or arms deal between North Korea and Russia would certainly violate a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
The Killers apologized after lead singer Brandon Flowers invited a Russian fan onto the stage as a drummer during a concert in Georgia and called the audience “brothers and sisters,” prompting some audience members to boo and walk out of the show. Many in the crowd were furious at Flowers’ implication that Russians are brothers to Georgia, a nation Moscow invaded in 2008. The Killers’s apology, which said it was “never our intention to offend anyone,” also prompted criticism over its failure to mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The concert venue in Shekvetili, a town on the Black Sea coast, also apologized in a Facebook post and said it did not share the band’s position, calling Russia “the occupier.”
Ukraine will spend about $32 million strengthening defense lines in its northeast, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday. Most of that money will be directed to the Kharkiv region, but some of it will also go to the region of Chernihiv, he said. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram the country’s road to victory will be “long and difficult,” she added, “we prepare for a marathon, not a sprint.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited front-line teams in Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, filming his nightly address from a moving train. He visited Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, the day before.
Russian attacks on the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk killed at least three people this week, the region’s mayor said, while a barrage of cruise missiles that damaged dozens of homes in the Lviv region left 19 injured, including a 10-year-old child.
Gruesome and frequent mine injuries are haunting doctors in Ukraine: Confronted with bodies ripped to pieces and limbs mangled beyond recognition, Ukrainian doctors working in the Zaporizhzhia region are left with no choice but to live through the mental anguish of amputation after amputation, Eve Sampson reports.
Heavily mined Russian defenses have slowed Ukraine’s attack to a bloody, painstaking crawl, and hard-won gains come at the cost of mine blast injuries. “The mines are just everywhere,” Ukrainian military surgeon Dmytro Mialkovskyi told The Washington Post from a hospital in Zaporizhzhia.
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