Ukraine: In response to the invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine claimed that Russia had begun assembling a military strike force with its sights set on President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih. At the same time, Nato moved closer to undertaking its largest expansion in decades.
On Wednesday, the US Senate and the Italian parliament both approved the 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization's admission of Finland and Sweden (Nato).
An attack on one member is considered an attack on all members of NATO, which requires the approval of all 30 member states.
US President Joe Biden said in a statement that "this historic vote sends an important signal of the sustained, bipartisan US commitment to Nato, and to ensuring our Alliance is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow."
Finland and Sweden have received repeated warnings from Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24 to avoid them joining NATO. Last month, the 30 members of NATO ratified the accession protocol, allowing them to join the nuclear-armed alliance led by the US.
It might take up to a year for ratification.
Additionally, Ukraine denied claims made by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Russia desired a "negotiated solution" to the conflict and stated that any talks would be conditional on a cease-fire and a Russian troop withdrawal.
The agreement on grain shipments from Ukraine last month, intended to ease a global food crisis, may offer a path forward, according to Schroeder, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a figure who is increasingly mocked in Germany for his pro-Russia stance.
Schroeder was referred to as a "voice of the Russian royal court" in response, and Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak made it clear that the grain agreement would not result in further negotiations.
"Moscow has the initiative if it wants to engage in dialogue. A ceasefire and troop withdrawal should come first, followed by productive (dialogue)," Podolyak stated on Twitter.
Zelensky also reacted angrily to the idea of talks with Russia in a video address on Wednesday night.
When former leaders of important nations that uphold European values now work for Russia, a country that is at war with them, it is simply abhorrent, according to Zelensky. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Thursday that Russian forces were heavily involved in military activity on the battlefield, firing from tanks, barrel artillery, and rocket artillery in various regions of Ukraine.
That occurred as Ukrainian forces continued their counteroffensive to oust the Russians from the southern Kherson region that they had captured in the early stages of the conflict, close to the Crimean peninsula that the Kremlin had annexed.
While 53 villages in the southern region were still under Russian control, the Ukrainian presidency claimed to have "liberated" seven more of them. Additionally, Ukraine claimed that Russia had started assembling a strike group in the direction of Kryvyi Rih and might be preparing fresh offensive operations in southern Ukraine.
Zelensky was raised in the steel-producing city of Kryvyi Rih, which is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the front line in the south.
The enemy may also be planning a hostile counteroffensive with the goal of reaching the Kherson region's administrative boundary, according to the southern military command.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, reported on the Telegram app that three civilians had died and five had been injured in the previous day in Bakhmut, Maryinka, and Shevchenko.
Kyiv has ordered the mandatory evacuation of the Donetsk region, which is currently suffering the brunt of Russia's offensive, because the government doesn't think it will be able to keep it warm during the chilly winter.
The governors of the Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions reported that their areas had been shelled overnight, causing damage to homes and other civilian infrastructure.
Nikopol, a city in central Ukraine west of Zaporizhzhia, was shelled, according to Mayor Yevhen Yevtushenko.
As its forces occupied it in the early weeks of the invasion, Russia was accused of firing shells dangerously close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in March.
The largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine is allegedly being used by Moscow as a "nuclear shield" to attack Ukrainian forces, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine, however, claimed that Ukrainian forces had repeatedly attacked the plant using weapons from the West.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-installed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, said, "We are ready to show how the Russian military is guarding the plant and how Ukraine, which receives weapons from the West, uses those weapons, including drones, to attack the nuclear power plant.
In a region close to Poland that is the farthest from the conflict, Moscow claimed on Wednesday that it had also destroyed a foreign arms depot.
The attack happened when Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau was in Kiev.
The largest conflict in Europe since World War II has resulted in thousands of deaths while many towns and cities have been destroyed. Russia claims it does not target civilians. Russian forces are charged with war crimes by Ukraine and its Western allies.
To purge the nation of fascists, Putin dispatched troops into Ukraine in what he calls a "special military operation." Putin was accused by the West and the Ukraine of starting an unprovoked "imperial" land grab.
According to new information from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, nearly 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees have been compelled to relocate across Europe and another 6.3 million have been uprooted within Ukraine.
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