For the first time since Russia invaded the nation, the number of border crossings from Ukraine has topped 9.5 million, the UN Refugee Agency announced on Wednesday.
In response to worries that Moscow might use its significant energy exports to resist Western criticism over its invasion of Ukraine, a key pipeline operator said on Thursday that Russia is restarting gas deliveries via the pipeline to Europe.
* The head of Germany’s energy authority stated that although political uncertainty remained regarding supplies, flows of Russian gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline may reach a pre-maintenance level of 40% capacity on Thursday. At 1200 GMT, he and the minister of the economy will make statements.
* On Wednesday, the governments of Ukraine’s western creditors encouraged bondholders to agree to Kyiv’s request for a two-year postponement of its debt obligations and threatened to stop receiving payments owed to them.
* Ukrainian forces engaged in combat in the country’s south and east claimed to have killed 111 Russian soldiers and destroyed 17 vehicles in the past day and claimed they did not observe any indications that the Russians were forming special strike groups.
* Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, is being shelled in one of its most populated regions, according to the mayor Igor Terekhov, who asked residents to stay inside their bunkers. The regional governor reported two fatalities and 19 injuries.
* The governor of the eastern Luhansk area, Serhiy Gaidai, stated on Telegram that “there is probably not a single square metre of territory left unharmed by Russian artillery.” This region was completely occupied by Russian forces earlier this month.
