Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 352 of the invasion

Russia has launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and is trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna, the governor for the Luhansk region has said. Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV on Thursday that Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said. “So far they haven’t had any success. Our defenders have been able to hold them back completely.” The Institute for the Study of War confirmed a “marked increase” in operations in the area over the past week in its latest report.

A series of Russian drone and missile attacks struck targets in the south and east of Ukraine, according to officials and local residents who reported hearing loud explosions. Air raid sirens sounded in much of the country late on Thursday night. Serhiy Lysak, the military administrator in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said Shahed drones were detected on their way to the area.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy claims Ukraine has intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova. Speaking to European Union leaders in Brussels, Zelenskiy warned that his services had intercepted a document which “shows who, when and how was going to break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova”, adding that he had immediately warned Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu. Zelenskiy’s claim could not be independently verified.

Zelenskiy urged European leaders to speed up weapons delivery and open EU membership talks with Ukraine this year, in a highly symbolic visit to Brussels on Thursday, in which he said Russia was trying to annihilate “the Ukrainian-European way of life”. Zelenskiy addressed the European parliament on Thursday morning, proclaiming Ukraine “will join the European Union” and thanking the bloc’s members for their support during Russia’s invasion.

Zelenskiy claimed that several European Union leaders said they were ready to provide Kyiv with aircraft, but gave no further details about the pledges. There was no immediate confirmation from any European countries. “Europe will be with us until our victory. I’ve heard it from a number of European leaders … about the readiness to give us the necessary weapons and support, including the aircraft,” he told a news conference on Thursday. “I have a number of bilaterals now, we are going to raise the issue of the fighter jets and other aircraft.”

Downing Street said it was looking at a “whole suite of options” to assist Ukraine when asked again about sending warplanes. Asked about the Ukrainian president suggesting some European leaders were ready to provide fighter jets to Kyiv, a spokesperson for the prime minister said the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, was seeing “whether we can provide fighter jets in the future”.

The UK government said it would not send fighter jets to Ukraine if there was risk to British safety. When asked about some western allies’ concerns that supplying jets could risk dragging Nato into the conflict, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “Firstly, we haven’t made a decision in terms of UK provision of jets – we are training currently.”

The European Union must continue to provide maximum support to Ukraine, the European Council president, Charles Michel, said on Thursday. “We understand that the coming weeks and months will be of decisive importance,” he said. “Artillery, munitions, defence systems … you have told us exactly what you need and what you need now.”

Europe announced new sanctions against Russia which will include new export bans worth more than €10bn ($10.7bn), targeting Vladimir Putin’s propagandists, said the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. The UK and US imposed sanctions on seven Russian nationals over their links to the development and deployment of ransomware, as part of a government crackdown on cyber criminals.

Russian nuclear energy firm Rosatom says it is ready to continue work on creating a safety zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after officials from the company met the UN nuclear watchdog chief.

A quarter of Ukrainians are at risk of developing a severe mental health condition as the country grapples with the year-long Russian invasion, a special adviser to the World Health Organization said.