For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit .
Ukraine and Russia exchanged bodies of soldiers. More than 30 of the bodies returned to Ukraine are those of Ukrainian soldiers who defended the Azovstal steel plant.
The United Nations is pursuing a deal that would allow grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea and unimpeded access to world markets for Russian food and fertilizers, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told U.N. correspondents, The Associated Press reported.
Guterres said that without the deal hundreds of millions of people in developing countries face the threat of an unprecedented wave of hunger, three months after Russia invaded its smaller neighbor. “Ukraine’s food production and the food and fertilizer produced by Russia must be brought into world markets, despite the war,” Guterres said, according to the AP.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “According to the results of this day, the 105th day of the full-scale war, Sievierodonetsk remains the epicenter of the confrontation in Donbas. We defend our positions, inflict significant losses on the enemy.
“This is a very fierce battle, very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war. I am grateful to everyone who defends this direction. In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” Zelenskyy said.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the consequences for the world of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are worsening, with 1.6 billion people likely to be affect, . "The war's impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe, and speeding up," the secretary-general said, presenting the U.N.'s second report into the repercussions of the conflict.
He said, according to AFP, “For people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake."
Several European heads of military cyber defense forces agreed that Russia has been far less effective than expected in employing digital combat capabilities in their offensive against Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Among cybersecurity experts we were pretty sure that there would be a cyber Pearl Harbor based on past experience of Russian behavior and capabilities," said General Karol Molenda, head of Poland's National Cyber Security Center, according to AFP.
But Ukraine was prepared and "withstood attacks from Russia," Molenda told a meeting of the International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC) held in the northern France city of Lille, AFP reported.
Japan on Wednesday criticized Russia’s announcement that it is suspending an agreement allowing Japanese to fish in waters near disputed islands, as relations between the countries deteriorate over the war in Ukraine, The fishing deal has been in place since 1998 and allows Japanese fishing boats to operate around the Russian-held Kurils, which Japan also claims and calls the Northern Territories, in exchange for payments from Japan based on catch quotas and other conditions negotiated annually.
Slovakia’s government has approved a long-term Defense Ministry plan to modernize and significantly increase the number of troops in its armed forces following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, The Associated Press reported. According to the plan announced Wednesday, the NATO member with a population of 5.5 million people should have 22,000 service members by 2035, up from 14,100 this year.
Slovakia also plans to acquire 228 various armed vehicles and will modernize its air force bases to be ready for the U.S. F-16 fighter jets whose delivery should start in 2024, with other deals to purchase new arms to follow. The government has also confirmed Slovakia’s commitment to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on the military by 2024.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Maryan Kushnir was embedded with Ukrainian troops as they ducked constant Russian artillery fire near occupied Svitlodarsk on Ukraine's eastern front in the Donetsk region. After they dodged the enemy shelling in neighboring Novoluhanske, Ukrainian defenders talked about the enemy's strategy.
Up to 100 bodies found in the ruins of high-rise buildings in the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol are being transported to morgues and landfills, a mayoral aide said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. Petro Andryushchenko described the removal of the bodies as an “endless caravan of death” in a post on the Telegram app.