Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited frontline military positions near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, according to a statement by his office.
During his visit, Mr Zelenskiy “heard “reports on the operational situation and the course of hostilities on the frontline”, the statement said.
He was also pictured meeting with Ukrainian servicemen, and held a moment of silence in memory of those who had fallen in the war.
Mr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying: “I am honoured to be here today, in the east of our country, in Donbas, and to award our heroes, to thank you, to shake hands. Thank you for protecting the state, sovereignty, the east of Ukraine.”
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The Russian assault on the city of Bakhmut may be losing the limited momentum it had obtained, British military intelligence said on Wednesday.
This could be happening because “some Russian MoD units have been reallocated to other sectors”, the Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.
Ukrainian forces on Tuesday had repelled Russian attempts to advance into the centre of the small eastern city of Bakhmut.
Three people were killed and another seven wounded in overnight Russian drone strikes on the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday morning.
The state emergency service said on Telegram messaging app that two dormitories and an educational facility in the city of Rzhyshchiv had been partially destroyed in an attack. It said two people had been wounded and one had been rescued but that four people probably remained under the rubble.
Reuters reports the Ukrainian military said it had shot down 16 out of 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched at Ukraine overnight by Russia.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Ukraine for a four-year financing package worth about $15.6 billion (€14.48 billion), offering funds the country needs as it continues to defend against Russia’s invasion.
The agreement, which must still be ratified by the IMF’s board, takes into consideration Ukraine’s path to accession to the European Union after the war.
The fund said its executive board was expected to discuss approval in the coming weeks.
If approved, as expected, the Ukraine programme would be the IMF’s biggest loan to a country involved in an active conflict. The fund last week changed a rule to allow new loan programmes for countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty”, without naming Ukraine.
Elsewhere, White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the US does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine, in the most direct criticism yet of China’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the war.
“I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way,” he said.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have met for a second day of talks at the Kremlin.
The Chinese and Russian leaders signed a series of documents on a “strategic co-operation” after what Mr Putin described as “successful and constructive” talks which showed that China-Russian relations were at the “highest point” in “the whole history of our two countries”.
The Chinese president’s trip to Moscow has been viewed as a major boost for his strategic partner, Mr Putin. – Agencies

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.