Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Wednesday that it had intercepted three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that were approaching “targets” in the Moscow region.

The ministry said the drone was brought down with the help of electronic warfare, the ministry said, according to state news agency TASS.

“Today, an attempt by the Kiev (Russian spelling of Kiev for the Ukrainian capital) regime to carry out terrorist attacks on objects in the Moscow region with three aircraft-type drones was thwarted. All drones were suppressed by electronic warfare because as a result they lost control and crashed,” the ministry said.

It added that there had been no damage or casualties as a result of what it called an “attempted terrorist attack”.

Ukraine did not comment on the incident and said it would not attack objects inside Russia, having previously said such incidents were likely carried out by opponents of the Kremlin within the country.

— Holly Elliott

Heavy fighting continues in parts of southern Ukraine, but the MoD noted that Russia has continued to reinforce occupied territory in the Kherson region near Russian-held Crimea in recent weeks, the MoD noted.

“Russia continues to vigorously build defensive lines deep in the rear, especially on the road to occupied Crimea,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in an update on Wednesday.

“This includes a vast defense area of ​​9 kilometers long, 3.5 kilometers north of the town of Armyansk, on the narrow land bridge connecting Crimea and the Kherson region.”

The UK noted that these “elaborate defenses” underscored the Russian command’s assessment that Ukrainian forces were capable of attacking Crimea directly, adding that “Russia continues to maintain control of the peninsula as a top political priority. “

— Holly Elliott

International leaders, officials and investors will be in London on Wednesday for a two-day “Ukraine Recovery Conference” focused on raising money to rebuild Ukraine after the war.

The meeting, which will be attended virtually by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, comes after Britain pledged a new financial support package for Ukraine, including a $3 billion loan guarantee from the World Bank.

In his opening remarks at the conference, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to say that Russia is determined to destroy Ukraine’s economy as it continues to invade Ukraine.

“As we have seen in Bakhmut and Mariupol, what Russia cannot afford will seek to destroy. They want to do the same with Ukraine’s economy,” he said in pre-released comments. “The scale of the challenge is real, the war slashed Ukraine’s GDP by 29% last year, but just look at the streets of Kiev, despite the threat of attacks, people are going about their lives – and going about their business”

On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined a 50 billion euro ($54.6 billion) aid package for Ukraine over the next four years. It will come in the form of a budget reserve in the EU’s 2021-27 budget.

Andrius Tursa, Teneo’s Central and Eastern Europe advisor, commented that while the Ukraine recovery conference provided “an opportunity to advance relatively early discussions on a massive and challenging post-war reconstruction phase”, the war would continue for the foreseeable future. Ahead “As the first few weeks of Ukraine’s long-awaited offensive reaffirm expectations of slow and costly gains.”

— Holly Elliott

defense company raytheon technology (RTX) expects arms sales to rise by another $3 billion as countries look to replenish their arsenals as Russia wages war in Ukraine.

“We’re going through WoW, we’re going through ammunition at a rate none of us expected,” real-time transmission CEO Greg Hayes told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

“We’ve seen $2 billion in orders related to Ukraine replenishment. We’re expecting another $3 billion this year, but in three to four years, we’re likely to see orders multiple times that,” Hayes added road.

The United States has provided the vast majority of security assistance to Ukraine since Russia went to war.Last week, the Biden administration 40th weapon pack approved U.S. security assistance to Ukraine has been worth $325 million since Russia’s full-scale invasion last February, bringing U.S. security assistance to more than $40 billion.

—Amanda Macias

Editor’s note: This article contains graphic content depicting deaths in the Kherson region.

Waters slowly recede in the Hola Prystan region of Kherson, eastern Ukraine, following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. After the floodwaters receded, volunteers and city workers began removing bodies in the Russian-controlled Kherson region. Both Kiev and Moscow blamed each other for the dam explosion.

— Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

A Moscow court has fined the company that owns popular messaging apps Telegram and Viber for failing to remove some content that Russia considers “illegal”, especially about the war in Ukraine.

Telegram, whose operations center is in Dubai, was ordered to pay a fine of 4 million rubles ($47,525), while Japanese multinational Rakuten, which owns Viber, was fined 1 million rubles, Interfax reported.

Telegram is widely used in Russia and Ukraine by political leaders, the military, journalists, activists and ordinary citizens. It was founded in 2013 by Russian-born brothers.

Telegram was fined for failing to remove 32 channels that had posted what Moscow said was “false information” about the war in Ukraine, which it described as a “special military operation,” according to Russian state media agency TASS.

Shortly after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin announced a law banning any “defamation” of Russia’s armed forces, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.many critics of the war has been arrested and imprisoned.

— Natasha Turak

It has become increasingly clear that Ukraine could face a long and bloody uphill struggle in a counteroffensive aimed at retaking Russian-occupied territories in the south and east of the country.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has had limited success so far, with eight settlements recaptured in the past two weeks. Ukrainian officials have been the first to admit that the country’s armed forces face a “difficult duel” with Russia in the weeks and months ahead.

“We knew before we started (the counteroffensive) that it would not be a walk in the park,” Yurysak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry, told CNBC on Tuesday.

“We know the Russians have months to prepare, we know they’ve built a very, very solid line, they’ve laid millions of mines on the front lines. They’ve dug so deep that we’ve already seen It’s not an easy job,” he added.

Read more about the story here: Ukraine faces ‘difficult duel’ as Russia mounts fierce resistance to counteroffensive

— Holly Elliott