LIVE – War in Ukraine: According to Zelensky, army “firmly” holds bridge over occupied bank of Dnieper

In its daily statement, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the army had captured the village of Popeda, not far from the destroyed town of Mariinka, near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military did not immediately confirm the loss of Popeta, saying it was fighting “in the area”.

Russia already said on Tuesday it would retake the village of Kringi (south) on the occupied banks of the Dnieper, where Kiev's army struggled to build a bridge in October, one of its only advances since its summer resistance defeat. attack The Ukrainian military, for its part, denied it had lost control of Kringi.

Denmark says it has signed a ten-year bilateral security agreement with Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi says the Ukrainian army “firmly” holds the bridge on the occupied banks of the Dnieper.

Poland will include crossing points with Ukraine on its list of “critical infrastructure” to avoid disruptions that could affect the delivery of military and humanitarian aid, the head of the Polish government announced Thursday. “Border crossings with Ukraine, some roads and railways will be added to the list of critical infrastructure to ensure 100% guarantee that military (…), humanitarian and medical aid will arrive in Ukraine without delay,” he said. Tusk told reporters.

According to the Polish Prime Minister, a meeting between the Polish and Ukrainian governments will take place on March 28.

The United Kingdom on Thursday gave its public support to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as head of NATO.

“Rutte is well-respected within the coalition, he has strong security and defense credentials, and he will ensure the coalition remains strong and ready to provide security and deterrence,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.

Russia's war in Ukraine has “taken an appalling human toll”, causing immense suffering for millions of civilians, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday.

“Russia's large-scale military offensive against Ukraine, about to enter its third year, continues to perpetrate serious and widespread human rights violations. It is destroying human lives and livelihoods,” he said in a statement.

Russia's military said on Thursday it had captured the village of Popeda in eastern Ukraine, days after capturing the town of Avdiyvka, in the face of an arms shortage in the Ukrainian army.

“Units of the Southern Army liberated the village of Bobeda,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, not far from the destroyed town of Maringa, although the front remained unchanged for years.

Russia accused Ukraine's Security Services (SBU) on Thursday of carrying out deadly attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine using North Korean-made missiles.

“We are talking about Hwasong-11 (KN-23/24) type (…) ballistic missiles, and according to our investigation, Russian troops launched 20 (of these) North Korean weapons over Ukraine,” he said. The SBU indicated in a press release that the strikes killed “at least 24 civilians” and injured more than a hundred.

A Kremlin spokesman deemed US President Joe Biden's statements “shameful” when he called Vladimir Putin a “madman” during a meeting with Democratic Party donors.

“This (…) is a huge shame for America. If the president of such a country uses such a dictionary, it is shameful,” Dmitry Peskov, a journalist for Russian public television, said in a video broadcast on Thursday. .

• Russian website Mediazona and the BBC's Russian service said a joint investigation released on Wednesday identified some 45,000 Russian soldiers killed since the invasion of Ukraine began two years ago. The figure is calculated based on freely accessible sources such as death notices, press releases from local authorities, obituaries published in the media or social networks. The media insists that the real number is surely much higher. The BBC Russian Service reports that it could be twice as high. According to this source, “two-thirds of the dead had no connection with the military before the invasion.” So they are conscripted soldiers, volunteers, fighters of private military companies or prisoners of war who joined the units in exchange for amnesty.

• The Russian Security Services (FSB) on Wednesday accused the British Council, a British educational and cultural agency, of collecting military intelligence from Ukrainian refugees. In a statement, the FSB confirmed that the British Council in Great Britain was gathering information “through organizations under its control” about Kherson, a Ukrainian region partially occupied by Russian forces. “Cases have been established of this foreign organization using Ukrainian refugees living in the United Kingdom to obtain military and political intelligence through contacts in the Kherson region,” the FSB alleges.

• A spokesman for the Ukrainian military organization strongly denied the New York Times' report that “several hundred” Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner in Avdiivka when Russian forces captured the city. “Intentionally or accidentally, the New York Times spread Russian propaganda,” Dimitro Likovi said.

• Ahead of Sweden's entry into NATO, the Swedish Intelligence Service (Säpo) warned on Wednesday of a regional threat from Russian intelligence, particularly in the Arctic. Sweden ended two centuries of non-alignment by applying to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The merger must take effect on Monday, subject to a final hurdle vote by the Hungarian parliament. Russia, like China, is “carrying out security-threatening activities in Sweden's far north,” writes Säpo in its annual threat assessment report.

• Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crazy bastard” during a meeting with Democratic donors in San Francisco (California) on Wednesday, during which he also lashed out at his rival, Donald Trump. “The existential threat is climate change. There's that crazy bastard Putin and others, you always have to worry about nuclear war, but the existential threat to humanity is climate change,” the 81-year-old Democratic presidential candidate said. The second time was during a brief speech attended by a small group of journalists.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to events in Ukraine.