For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
11 p.m.: Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova said she spoke to Republican Senator Pat Toomey and Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, over the phone about “enhancing sanctions” on Russia.
"We welcome Senators bipartisan initiative that can enhance sanction regime on Russia, introduce secondary sanctions and save lives of many Ukrainians in future," Markarova said in a statement posted on Twitter.
10:30 p.m.: In Russia, the death toll from Monday's crash of a Russian warplane into a residential area rose to 15, The Associated Press reported.
The Su-34 bomber came down in the port city of Yeysk after one of its engines caught fire during takeoff for a training mission, the Defense Ministry said.
Both crew members bailed out safely, but the plane struck a neighborhood, causing a huge blaze, officials said.
10 p.m.: Around 5 million people, from the parts of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed to have annexed, have left for Russia, a security official was quoted Wednesday as saying by Russian state news agencies, according to Agence France-Presse.
"Around 5 million residents of Donbas and southeastern regions of Ukraine have found shelter in Russia," said the secretary of Russia's National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, referring to the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
He gave no details of how they arrived in the country or within what time frame.
9:10 p.m.: Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Wednesday the capital's life would remain "normal" after President Vladimir Putin introduced measures that could see transport restricted and increased security in the city of 12.5 million, Agence France-Presse reported.
While introducing martial law in four Ukrainian regions, Putin also placed several Russian regions, including Moscow, on "increased alert."
"I need to say that at the moment, no measures that would limit the normal rhythm of life are being introduced," said Sobyanin, who has tried to keep a business-as-usual approach in the capital.
The Russian capital has been deeply affected by an exodus of Western businesses and parts of its middle class leaving the city since Putin announced a mobilization.
8:12 p.m.:
7:33 p.m.: A Russian missile strike hit a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine on Wednesday, the region's governor said, the latest in a wave of attacks on critical infrastructure ahead of winter, Reuters reported.
The latest salvo hit the coal-fired Burshtyn plant in the region of Ivano-Frankivsk that supplies electricity to three western regions and to 5 million consumers, more than 10% of Ukraine's pre-war population.
"Our region experienced missile fire today. The Burshtyn thermal power station was hit, which caused a fire," Svitlana Onyshchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk's governor, said in a video statement online.
She said no one was hurt in the strike to the area hundreds of kilometers from the front lines that has until now been relatively unscathed by the war. The same facility was hit by four missiles on Oct. 10, the governor said.
6:52 p.m.: The Moscow-installed authorities of the port city of Mariupol, which fell to Russian forces after a devastating siege earlier in the year, took down a monument to Ukrainian victims of Stalin's famine on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Kyiv calls the 1930s man-made hunger under Joseph Stalin a genocide, while Moscow has been downplaying it as an episode of famine across the Soviet Union.
"We are not taking out a memorial, we are getting rid of a symbol of the political disinformation of the population, particularly of our youth," local youth organization spokeswoman Evgenya Krotova told RIA.
"The stone will be recycled into construction material," the administration said on Telegram.
The monument was made out of two blocks of granite topped by stalks of wheat and barbed wire.
5:58 p.m.:
5:15 p.m.: India on Wednesday issued an advisory asking all its citizens to avoid traveling to Ukraine, citing the 'deteriorating security situation' in the country, Reuters reported.
"Indian citizens, including students, currently in Ukraine are advised to leave Ukraine at the earliest by available means," the Indian Embassy in Ukraine said in a statement published on Twitter.
4:27 p.m.: Kazakh officials say more than 50 international companies have relocated from Russia to Kazakhstan since Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Prime Minister Alikhan Smaiylov told reporters on October 19 that another 56 international companies that have left Russia in recent months had "expressed their willingness to settle in Kazakhstan."
President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev added that officials in the country's largest city, Almaty, should settle the relocated companies around the financial capital of the oil-rich Central Asian state.
"This will significantly help the economy of our country. Discuss this with the government and the companies," Toqaev told Almaty city officials.
After Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in late February, more than a thousand international companies stopped or suspended their operations in Russia, while 320 international companies fully left the Russian market.
3:55 p.m.: European Union governments will agree to impose new sanctions on Iranian generals and entities over the use of Iranian-made drones in Russian strikes on Ukraine, four diplomats and a French official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.
Sanctions experts from the 27 EU members agreed to list three generals and the manufacturer of the Shahed drones as well as relisting four others in a meeting on Wednesday. It will be put to national ambassadors at a meeting scheduled for the afternoon.
3:30 p.m.: The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI announce sanctions targeting a Russian national and two of his companies for sending dual-use U.S. technology to Russia, VOA's National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin reports.
3:12 p.m.: Norway’s domestic security agency has taken charge of an investigation into drone sightings near key infrastructure sites, after the airport in the country’s second-largest city briefly closed Wednesday after locals spotted at least one drone, The Associated Press reported.
Hedvig Moe, deputy chief at PST, the intelligence agency’s acronym, said there was “an elevated intelligence threat from Russia” and that “Russia is in a pressed situation as a result of the war and is isolated by sanctions” over its war in Ukraine.
”We are in a tense security-political situation, and at the same time a complex and unclear threat picture that can change in a relatively short time,” she said.
Also, a man with dual Russian and British citizenship was jailed for two weeks on suspicion of flying drones on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, news reports said.
Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory.” Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves.
2:30 p.m.:
2:15 p.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "in an incredibly difficult position" and is resorting to brutalizing Ukrainian citizens, Reuters reported.
"I think Vladimir Putin finds himself in an incredibly difficult position and what it reflects to me is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalize individual citizens in Ukraine to try to intimidate them into capitulating," Biden told reporters at the White House.
2:00 p.m.: The FH70 155-millimeter howitzer has been used by NATO countries for over 40 years. The letters and number actually stand for Field Howitzer for the 1970s. Ukrainian forces first got their hands on them courtesy of Italy in May and received training in Estonia. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists met with a frontline FH70 crew and watched them in action against Russian forces.
1:25 p.m.: Thousands of residents were hastily leaving the Russian-occupied city of Kherson on Wednesday on ferries and buses after local Russian-backed authorities announced a mass evacuation, The Associated Press reported.
Konstantin, a city resident who asked for his last name to be withheld for security reasons, said “thousands of people have lined up in a queue expecting to leave.”
“It looks more like a panic rather than an organized evacuation -- people are buying the last remaining groceries in grocery shops and are running to the Kherson River port, where thousands of people are already waiting,” Konstantin told the AP. ”(The Russian-backed authorities) are just taking people away and are not saying where exactly.”
Konstantin described columns of military vehicles driving around the city and civilian trucks carrying archives of documents belonging to Russian-installed government to the left bank of the Dnieper River.
“Mostly it’s the pro-Russian officials, state employees, families with children and the elderly who are fleeing,” Konstantin said. “People are scared by talks of explosions, missiles and a possible blockade of the city.”
An operator of a hotline Russian-installed officials in Kherson set up said “the shelling of the city could start in the coming hours.”
Kherson’s Russian-appointed governor Vladimir Saldo said that entry to Kherson will be closed for at least seven days.
12:40 p.m.:
12:15 p.m.: The people of Ukraine and their representatives were awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize Wednesday for their resistance to Russia’s invasion and ongoing war, The Associated Press reported.
The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.
It’s the second straight year EU lawmakers used the Sakharov Prize to send a message to the Kremlin. Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny won it last year.
“This award is for those Ukrainians fighting on the ground. For those who have been forced to flee. For those who have lost relatives and friends. For all those who stand up and fight for what they believe in,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said. “I know that the brave people of Ukraine will not give up and neither will we.”
When they nominated Ukraine for the prize, MEPs praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his “bravery, endurance and devotion to his people” and highlighted the roles of Ukraine’s state emergency services.
Zelenskyy welcomed the honor in a tweet Wednesday, saying he was grateful for the award given to the Ukrainian people, and he noted that the EU’s support has been very important to Ukraine.
11:30 a.m.: Ukraine’s Air Defense Forces say Russia attacked several regions of Ukraine with missiles on Wednesday afternoon, again targeting the country’s battered power grid as winter weather approaches, The Associated Press reported.
Authorities said Ukrainian soldiers shot down four Russian cruise missiles and 10 Iranian-made drones during the attack.
Air raid sirens rang out for more than three hours in Kyiv, sending many people into the capital’s subway stations for shelter.
Russian attacks have become part of daily life in the capital. Some people kept working on their computers underground, some took chairs and blankets with them.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced that the so-called heating season — when authorities pump heat to urban buildings — will begin on Thursday, several days earlier than usual.
Klitschko said the early step was being taken so that Kyiv residents do not overload the beleaguered power supply system by turning on electric heaters and air conditioning units.
11:15 a.m.:
11:05 a.m.: Israel offered on Wednesday to help Ukrainians develop air attack alerts for civilians, signaling a softening of a policy of non-military intervention in the war after Kyiv appealed for ways to counteract Iranian-made drones being used by Russia, Reuters reported.
Ukraine's ambassador, however, asked for systems that would shoot down the drones instead, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel was firm on not supplying Kyiv with weapons.
Though it has condemned the Russian invasion, Israel has limited its Ukraine assistance to humanitarian relief, citing a desire for continued cooperation with Moscow over war-ravaged neighbor Syria and to ensure the well-being of Russia's Jews.
On Tuesday, Ukraine stepped up appeals for Israeli help after reporting multiple Russian strikes using Iranian Shahed-136 'kamikaze' drones.
10:40 a.m.: The routine torture by Russian forces and their affiliates of detainees during their half-year occupation of the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum was part of a "policy and plan," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Wednesday.
10:25 a.m.: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has hinted at Tehran’s hand in supplying Russia with bomb-carrying suicide drones that Moscow’s forces are deploying in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Speaking to students in Tehran on Wednesday, Khamenei touched on Iran’s drone program.
“On building advanced missile and drone equipment, (our enemies) had said they are photoshopped when their photos were published,” Khamenei said. “Now they say that Iranian drones are very dangerous and ask, 'why do you sell them?'”
Iran has denied supplying Russia with drones, even though the ones now used on the battlefield have been identified by Ukraine and Western nations as Shahed-136 drones, a triangle-shaped drone previously attributed to Iran.
The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard previously hinted that Tehran had sold weapons to world powers as well.
10:10 a.m.: European Union governments have provisionally agreed to impose sanctions on eight people and entities over the use of Iranian-made drones in Russian strikes on Ukraine, three diplomats said, according to Reuters.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.
Sanctions experts from the 27 EU members agreed to the list in a meeting on Wednesday. It will be put to national ambassadors at a meeting scheduled for the afternoon.
EU governments have until Thursday morning to decide whether to approve the sanctions, the goal being to agree the package before leaders convene in Brussels for a summit starting later in the day.
9:50 a.m.:
9:20 a.m.: The Russian military claims it has defeated a Ukrainian attempt to seize control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, The Associated Press reported.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that Ukrainian forces early Wednesday used 37 boats in an attempted landing to take over the plant located on the left bank of the Dnieper River.
He said that Russian forces thwarted the attack and destroyed the landing party.
Konashenkov’s claim couldn’t be independently confirmed. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe’s largest nuclear facility, was seized by Russian forces early during the conflict. It has seen relentless shelling in areas close to the plant, triggering fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe.
9:10 a.m.:
9:00 a.m.: President Vladimir Putin introduced martial law on Wednesday in four Ukrainian regions he says are part of Russia as some residents of the Russian-held city of Kherson left by boat after Moscow warned of a looming assault, Reuters reported.
The images of people fleeing Kherson were broadcast by Russian state TV which portrayed the exodus - from the right bank of the River Dnipro to its left bank - as an attempt to clear the city of civilians before it became a combat zone.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, accused Russia of laying on a propaganda show in Kherson. “The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation,” Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Eight months after being invaded, Ukraine is prosecuting major counter-offensives in the east and south to try to take as much territory as it can before winter after routing Russian forces in some areas.
Kherson is the biggest population center Moscow has seized and held since it began its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24. The city is on territory which President Vladimir Putin says is now formally incorporated into Russia, a move Ukraine and the West do not recognize.
8:50 a.m.: Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak poured scorn on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law in the four regions of Ukraine that Moscow annexed. “This does not change anything for Ukraine,” Podolyak said on Twitter Wednesday.
8:40 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree on Wednesday restricting movement in and out of eight regions adjoining Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The measures apply to the southern regions of Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov, which are all near Ukraine, and the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
8:30 a.m.:
8:15 a.m.: Tiny amounts of gas briefly appeared in the Russian Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Wednesday, website data showed, weeks after it was ruptured in the Baltic Sea by what investigating teams said was suspected sabotage caused by explosions, Reuters reported.
Gas flows were at 102 kilowatt-hours per hour (kwh/h) between 0700-0800 CET (0500-0600 GMT) on Oct. 19 from zero, and at 119 an hour later, the data showed. The data subsequently showed that the flows dropped back to zero starting from 0900 CET.
Before the stoppage in late August, Nord Stream 1 carried some 14,000,000 kilowatt hours per hour of Russian gas.
Nord Stream's operator did not immediately respond to a request for comment and no explanation was immediately available.
7:55 a.m.:
7:40 a.m.: A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia of organizing a "propaganda show" in occupied Kherson after Russian-installed officials said they were preparing to defend the city from imminent Ukrainian attack and urged civilians to flee.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, also accused Russia of trying to scare Kherson residents with what he described as fake newsletters about Ukrainian shelling of the city in southern Ukraine.
"The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Propaganda will not work."
7:10 a.m.: A Ukrainian presidential adviser told Russia on Wednesday that "reality can hurt" after a Russian-appointed official said the Ukrainian army was poised to try to retake the occupied city of Kherson and urged residents to evacuate, Reuters reported.
Kherson is the biggest population center seized by Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine and is on territory which President Vladimir Putin says is now formally incorporated into Russia, a move Ukraine and the West do not recognize.
"Less than a month has passed since the pompous announcement of Kherson annexation and solemn concert on the Red Square, as the self-proclaimed ‘city administration’... ceremoniously evacuates in anticipation of Ukrainian justice. Reality can hurt if you live in a fictional fantasy world," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
6:50 a.m.: Ukraine said Wednesday its military had shot down more than 220 Iranian-made drones in a little more than one month, following this week's attacks that used "kamikaze drones."
"Since the first downing of an Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drone on the territory of Ukraine on September 13, the ... Air Force and other components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have destroyed 223 UAVs of this type," Agence France-Presse reported citing a statement by the military.
6:30 a.m.:
6:00 a.m.: Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday that Ukraine's state nuclear operator Energoatom said 'about 50' Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant staff are in Russian detention.
5:30 a.m.: Ukraine has removed its ambassador to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, according to a decree published on the presidential website, after remarks he made about Russia spurred condemnation from Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported.
Russia's foreign ministry had urged Kazakhstan to expel Petro Vrublevsky after he gave an interview in which he made comments about "killing" Russians.
He later apologized for the remarks.
Astana had said it communicated the "unacceptability" of Vrublevsky's statement to Kyiv and an agreement had been reached for his recall. The decree published by Ukraine's presidency on Tuesday evening did not specify why the ambassador was relieved of his duties and did not appoint a replacement.
In early October, Kazakhstan's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador in the ex-Soviet country for a "serious talk" following Moscow's demand to expel the country's Ukraine envoy.
Ties between Russia and Kazakhstan have been strained since the launch of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with the Central Asian country seeking to balance ties with the West and ally Moscow. Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has publicly disagreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
He also assured the safety of thousands of Russians fleeing to Kazakhstan after the announcement of Moscow's military call-up in September.
5:00 a.m.: The Russian-installed leader of the annexed Ukrainian region of Kherson said on Wednesday that authorities plan to evacuate around 50-60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Reuters reported.
Speaking on an online broadcast of "Soloviev Live," Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said authorities were moving civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro in order to "keep people safe" and allow the military to "act resolutely."
"I drove through the regional center this morning. On the exterior, there was nothing to suggest there was a lot of pressure," Saldo said.
"But when I arrived at the river port, I saw that the boats were waiting and are already loaded with people ready to go to the left bank of the Dnipro," he said, adding that the situation "is getting tense."
He said an estimated 10,000 people a day would be moved over the next six days, and that some regions in Russia were being prepared to accept people.
More than 5,000 people have already left Kherson in the last two days, Saldo told state television.
Russian forces in the Kherson region have been driven back by 20-30 kilometers (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-kilometers-long Dnipro River that traverses through Ukraine.
4:30 a.m.: Russian telecoms-to-healthcare conglomerate Sistema agreed a $256-million deal for a stake in Melon Fashion Group Reuters reported Wednesday, months after the retail outlet scrapped plans for an initial public offering, or IPO, due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Based in St. Petersburg on a site that housed a sewing factory in Soviet times, Melon owns four mainly women's fashion brands — Zarina, Befree, Love Republic and Sela — and had 846 stores across Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Belarus at the end of 2021.
Plans for an IPO sometime this year were shelved after Russia launched what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
In a statement, Sistema said it would acquire 47.7% of Melon from Swedish investment group Eastnine and East Capital Holding and some private investors for a total of $256 million (15.8 billion roubles).
For Eastnine, the sale represents a rare successful exit for a Western firm offloading its Russian assets. It will secure around $189 million (193 million euros) for its 36% stake, Eastnine said in a statement.
At the end of 2021, it valued its shares at $120 million (122 million euros), and in March warned the conflict in Ukraine would see that drop.
Several Western companies and investors have sold their Russian operations for token sums as part of an exodus of Western companies. Sistema President Tagir Sitdekov said Melon Fashion Group "is growing fast and demonstrating operational excellence," and said Sistema had the right experience to continue developing the company.
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, Sistema and Eastnine said in separate statements. It is subject to regulatory approvals by Russia's competition authorities and will require the greenlight of a Kremlin commission established earlier this year to govern the disposal of Russian assets by Western firms.
4:00 a.m.: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday Russia's missile and drone attacks on power stations and other infrastructure in Ukraine are "acts of pure terror" that amount to war crimes, Reuters reported.
"Yesterday we saw again Russia's targeted attacks against civilian infrastructure. This is marking another chapter in an already very cruel war. The international order is very clear. These are war crimes," von der Leyen said in a speech to lawmakers in the European Parliament.
"Targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure with the clear aim to cut off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with the winter coming, these are acts of pure terror and we have to call it as such."
3:30 a.m.: Belarus said on Wednesday that it had begun summoning citizens to check their eligibility for military service but that it was not planning mobilization, Reuters reported.
"The military registration and enlistment activities are strictly routine and are expected to be completed by the end of this year," the defense ministry said.
3:25 a.m.: A scheme used in Spain and Portugal to cap the price of gas used to generate electricity is worth considering for implementation across the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
"It really merits to be considered at EU level. There are still questions to be answered but I want to leave no stone unturned," von der Leyen told a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
3 a.m.:
2:30 a.m.: Patriotic messages stating the fact that "Bakhmut is Ukraine" are scrawled on monuments all around this frontline city. But not everybody agrees that it should be so, Agence France-Presse reported.
Bakhmut is located in eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region, where Russia-backed rebels started a conflict in 2014 and loyalties are often very divided.
Social media groups created by local residents in Bakhmut, which had 70,000 residents before the war, contain posts that criticize the Ukrainian army's actions but stop short of actively supporting Russia.
2:00 a.m.:
1:20 a.m.: The United States, Britain and France have asked for the U.N. Security Council to discuss the issue of Russia using Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine.
Diplomats said Tuesday the request included asking for a U.N. official to brief the council during a closed-door meeting Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials have said drones used in waves of attacks during the past week, including on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, were Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones that Russia used to carry explosives and crash into their targets.
Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia, and Russian officials have denied using them.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters Tuesday he expects more drone attacks against "many cities in Ukraine."
Pevkur said Ukraine has managed to shoot down about half of attacking drones, but that it still needs more help. Ukrainian officials have in recent days repeated their calls for allies to provide more air defense aid.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that in the past week alone, more than 100 self- Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas.
12:30 a.m.: Vladimir Putin's grip on power in Russia remains firm despite military setbacks in Ukraine, a botched mobilization, and political infighting, eight well-informed sources said, but some said that could change fast if total defeat beckoned, Reuters reported.
Most of them said the Russian president was in one of the tightest spots in his more than two decades in power over Ukraine, where his invading forces have been pushed back in places by a Western-armed Kyiv.
But the sources, including current and former Western diplomats and government officials, said no imminent threat was apparent from his inner circle, military or intelligence services.
"For the moment, Putin is hanging in there," said Anthony Brenton, a former British ambassador to Russia.
12:15 a.m.: Poland is set to sign a framework agreement for the purchase of 288 K239 Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers from South Korea, the Polish defense ministry said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Under the deal set to be signed 18 of the rocket launchers will be delivered in 2023 and mounted on Polish Jelcz vehicles.
The ministry said in a statement that the system can carry ballistic missiles with a range of 290 kilometers as well as guided missiles with an 80-kilometer range.
Poland has massively stepped up its weapons purchases since Russia invaded Ukraine, as well as sending military aid to Kyiv and taking in millions of Ukrainian refugees.
12:05 a.m.: U.S. F-16 warplanes intercepted two Russian bombers in international airspace near the U.S. state of Alaska on Tuesday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Tu-95 bombers were intercepted after "entering and operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone," NORAD said in a statement.
The Air Defense Identification Zone, or the ADIZ, is a perimeter in which air traffic is monitored beyond the border of national airspace to provide additional reaction time in case of hostile actions.
Interceptions of Russian aircraft in the area — which is close to the country's far eastern border — are relatively frequent.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
