• NATO has no evidence that China is giving weapons to Moscow, but it does have proof that Putin has asked for them.

Almost 13 months after the start of the war in Ukraine, drone attacks have starred in the conflict last night.

Three people were killed in a Russian drone strike that hit a vocational high school in the Kiev region, the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations (DSNS) announced on Wednesday. "Three people died, two people are injured and one was rescued. Four people are probably under the rubble," the DSNS said in a first assessment released on Telegram.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 16 of the 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched into Ukraine overnight by Russia.

For its part, the Russian Navy repelled this morning a drone attack on Sevastopol, in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014 and the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, said the governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev. In total, three drones have been destroyed, he said, while claiming that the drones "tried to penetrate the bay," but that Russian sailors shot at them.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has leftMoscow after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to promote Beijing's peace proposal for Ukraine, which Western nations have completely ruled out.

Update narration

9:48

IMF to lend $15.600 billion to Ukraine

Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to a $15.600 billion loan to bolster the government's finances, severely constrained by the Russian invasion, and garner more support by assuring allies that Ukraine will impose strong economic policies.

The program "will help mobilize financing from Ukraine's international partners, maintain macroeconomic stability and ensure the course of post-war reconstruction after Ukraine's victory in the war against the aggressor," the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The loan program will last four years. The first 12 to 18 months will focus on helping Ukraine close its huge budget deficit and ease pressure on financial spending through money printed on the central bank, the IMF said in a statement on Tuesday.

The rest of the program will focus on supporting Ukraine's bid for membership in the European Union and postwar reconstruction, AP reports.

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9:32

Zelensky: 'A night of Russian terrorism'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that the success of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield is the only way to achieve peace, minutes after the death of at least three Ukrainian civilians in a new Russian drone attack was known.

"More than 20 Iranian killer drones, more missiles and numerous bombings in a single night of Russian terrorism against Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on his Twitter account. "Every time someone hears the word peace in Moscow they order a criminal attack like this," he added.

"The successes of Ukrainian forces on land, sea and air bring us truly closer to peace," the president said, adding that "full compliance with the sanctions regime against Russia" must be the way to "restore the power of the UN Charter" and return the world to "stability."

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9:18

UK believes Russia is losing momentum on Bajmut

British military intelligence said Wednesday that there was a possibility that the Russian assault on the city of Bakhmut was losing the limited momentum it had gained.

This could be happening because "some Russian units have been reassigned to other sectors," the Defense Ministry tweeted in a regular bulletin.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attempts to advance toward the center of the small eastern town of Bakhmut.

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8:57

Delivery of depleted uranium weapons to Kiev will lead to a "global catastrophe"

London's eventual shipment of depleted uranium projectiles to Ukraine will lead to a "global catastrophe," Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Wednesday. "This decision will bring about a global catastrophe, which in the first place, will affect European countries," Volodin wrote on Telegram.

"If that happens, there will be no turning back. Washington and its satellites (London, Brussels, Warsaw etc.) are doing everything possible to turn the 'war to the last Ukrainian' into a war 'to the last European'," he added.

Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that Russia will react to the shipment of depleted uranium projectiles to Ukraine. "I would like to stress in this regard, that if this happens, Russia will be forced to react, in view of the fact that the West will have started using weapons with nuclear components," he warned.

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8:20

Details about the attack in Kiev

"The units of the Public Emergency Service, the National Police and the other competent emergency services are working at the scene. The victims receive the necessary assistance," the Kiev City Military Administration explains about the drone strike.

"The information is being clarified," reads the official note, which also says that a civilian infrastructure would have been damaged in the attack, which would have caused a fire controlled by firefighters "at 5.50" in the morning, local time (3.50 GMT).

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7:56

Three dead in Kiev

Three people were killed and seven others wounded in overnight Russian drone strikes in the Kiev region, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday morning.

The Kiev regional military administration reported on its Telegram channel that a "civilian target" had been damaged and that rescue teams were still working at the scene.

The Ukrainian military had earlier announced that it had shot down 16 of the 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched at Ukraine overnight by Russia.

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7:43

Ukraine intercepts 16 Iranian drones launched by Russia

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 16 of the 21 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones that Russia launched in the early hours of Wednesday against Kiev and the Zhytomyr and Khmelnytsky regions, west of the capital.

The result of the attack was published by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the balance sheet that it releases daily on its Facebook account.

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7:39

Xi Jinping leaves Russia

The president of China, Xi Jinping, has left Russia after two days of state visit during which he held long meetings with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to whom he presented his peace plan to end the war in Ukraine and with whom he closed important political and economic agreements.

According to the official TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies, Xi was dismissed by the honor guard before taking off his plane from the Russian capital's Vnukovo-2 airport.

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7.00

The Russian navy "repels" a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol

The Russian navy "repelled" a drone strike on the Moscow-annexed port of Sevastopoon the Crimean peninsula on Wednesday, the head of the Kremlin-backed city government said.

"The Black Sea Fleet repelled a drone attack on Sevastopol," Mikhail Razvokhayev said on Telegram. "In total, three objects were destroyed," he specified.

According to the head of this city, the sailors fired on the devices with "small arms" and "the air defense also intervened." Razvokhayev said there were no casualties or damage to the boats, though the blasts blew out some windows in nearby buildings. "The situation is under control," he said.

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  • Vladimir Putin
  • Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Ukraine
  • Russia
  • War Ukraine Russia