Russian attackers and Ukrainian defenders have engaged in fierce house-to-house fighting in Bakhmut. A series of attacks by Russian soldiers in the industrial zone of the eastern Ukrainian city were repelled with the support of artillery and grenade launchers, the military leadership in Kiev said on Wednesday. Despite a personnel superiority, the Russian units had not achieved a breakthrough, it was said.

Since late summer, Russian troops have been trying to take Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Most of the city and parts of the center are already under Russian control. In the western part of the city, which formerly had 70,000 inhabitants, however, Ukrainian units continue to resist. Russia invaded Ukraine more than 13 months ago.

Zelenskyj invokes Ukrainian-Polish alliance

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, Poland and Ukraine are close allies. "Ukrainian and Polish hearts beat for freedom, for the mutual independence of our states, for our homeland Europe, our common home, and we will win!" said Zelenskyi in a speech in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Wednesday. "There is no longer any force that can overcome the Ukrainian-Polish friendship."

It was Zelenskyi's first official visit to Poland since the beginning of the Russian invasion of his country on February 24, 2022. In Warsaw, he spoke with President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, among others.

For the Poles, the visit was first and foremost an important symbolic gesture. From the first days of the war, the Poles met the war refugees with unprecedented helpfulness. Millions crossed the border, many moved further west, some went back home. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 1.6 million people from Ukraine currently have protection status in Poland.

Poland's military support for Ukraine also played an important role in Zelenskyi's visit. A few weeks ago, Duda announced that it would deliver MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. During Zelenskyj's visit, he has now become concrete: Ukraine has already delivered eight MiG-29s from Poland, four of them "in the course of the past few months", another four only "recently". In addition, six MiG-29s are currently being prepared for the handover, Duda announced.

With Poland's head of government Morawiecki, Selenskyj also signed a preliminary contract for the purchase of new Polish wheeled infantry fighting vehicles. Morawiecki had announced a few days ago that Ukraine wanted to order a hundred KTO Rosomak wheeled infantry fighting vehicles. The contract will therefore be financed with EU funds for Poland and US aid for Ukraine.

In his speech, Zelenskyi stressed that the close Polish-Ukrainian alliance is a cornerstone for freedom in Eastern Europe. "If we are free together with you, this is the guarantee that freedom will be strong in all our neighboring countries, the neighbors of the European Union - Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania and other countries of the Baltics," Zelensky said.

He added: "If we are free, this is the guarantee that freedom will also assert itself in Moldova and will not leave Georgia and necessarily come to Belarus." The Republic of Moldova is under Russian pressure. In Georgia in the South Caucasus, there had recently been protests against the government, which wanted to introduce a bullying of civil society as in Russia. Under head of state Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus is closely allied with Moscow and involved in the war of aggression against Ukraine.

UN: US and UK boycott Russian Children's Ombudsman

In protest against speeches by the Russian children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by arrest warrant, the representatives of the USA and Great Britain have left an informal meeting of the UN Security Council. When Lvova-Belova spoke during a video conference at the meeting in New York on Wednesday, the chairs of the two countries remained empty, as did those of Albania and Malta.

Russia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the body. Lvova-Belova's invitation was considered a provocation because she is considered a key figure in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from the war zone to Russia. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has therefore issued an arrest warrant against Lvova-Belova as well as against Russian President Vladimir Putin for this "abduction".

Since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Kiev has repeatedly accused Moscow of "deporting" Ukrainian children. Most recently, Kiev spoke of 19,514 affected children, including 4390 orphans. Moscow denies this and speaks of evacuations.

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet on Thursday in Beijing for talks with China's state and party leader Xi Jinping. The focus will be on the Ukraine conflict and economic relations.

In Moscow, Kremlin chief Putin and Belarusian ruler Lukashenko are continuing their talks. These are current political issues. In addition to the planned stationing of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on the border with Poland, this is likely to include a reaction to Finland's accession to NATO.