Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 365 of the invasion

Joe Biden has said Putin made a “big mistake” by suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US. Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US will not increase the risk of a nuclear war, Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said. Russia’s parliament on Wednesday approved Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend the treaty.

The Biden administration is considering releasing intelligence it believes shows that China is weighing whether to supply weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “an affront to our collective conscience” at a two-day meeting of the General Assembly. Friday’s anniversary is “a grim milestone for the people of Ukraine and for the international community”, he said in New York.

Two civilians have been killed in Russian shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to regional officials. Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, said an 81-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man were killed during shelling of the village of Novotyahinka, about 40 km (25 miles) from Kherson city. A Russian missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday morning has also left two civilians wounded, Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, has said.

Biden vowed that the US will defend “literally every inch of Nato” territory ahead of talks with Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and leaders of the Bucharest Nine (B9), a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the Nato alliance and closest to Russia.

All members of the Bucharest Nine (B9) have jointly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Polish presidential adviser said. President Biden and the B9 leaders “reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine and underscored their shared commitment to stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes” according to a White House account of Wednesday afternoon’s meeting in Warsaw.

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as China and Russia reaffirm their close bilateral relationship. Wang told Putin that Beijing will play a “constructive” role in reaching a political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, Russian state-owned Tass news agency reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, Wang met Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, where he said he expected to reach a “new consensus” on advancing the relationship between the two allies. Xi Jinping, China’s president, is expected to visit Putin in Russia in the coming months.

Vladimir Putin has praised soldiers who are “fighting heroically, courageously, bravely” to “defend the fatherland” in a speech at a rally in Moscow to mark a year of war in Ukraine. Thousands gathered at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow to attend a concert marking the “Defenders of the Fatherland” Day.

EU countries have failed to agree on a new set of sanctions against Russia meant to be in place for the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, four diplomatic sources in Brussels have told Reuters. More talks among Brussels representatives of EU member countries were due on Thursday afternoon, said the sources.

Britain has begun to “warm up” its production lines to replace weapons sent to Ukraine and increase production of artillery shells to try to help Kyiv push back Russian forces, defence minister Ben Wallace has said. In an interview with Reuters, Wallace said he believed Britain was in a good place to help Ukraine but needed to sustain the provision of weapons.

Nato must “seriously plan” for the likely future reality of a Russian-controlled Belarus, the US-based thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has warned. Putin will “very likely secure significant gains in restoring Russian suzerainty over Belarus” and use it as a launch pad to further threaten Ukraine and Nato’s eastern flank, regardless of the outcome of his invasion of Ukraine, the ISW said in its latest update on the war.

Ukraine will ask Turkey and the UN this week to start talks to roll over the Black Sea grain deal, seeking an extension of at least one year that would include the ports of Mykolaiv, a senior Ukrainian official said. oute that ships would use to sail from Mykolaiv’s ports into the Black Sea.

A group of 10 EU member states have called for stronger action to stop Russia sourcing military parts through front companies in neighbouring countries and evading western sanctions. The 10 countries, which include France, Germany, Italy and the Baltic states, write that “2023 must be the year of success in countering circumvention”, warning that public support and international legitimacy of sanctions could wane if they are deemed ineffective.

Women in Ukraine are increasingly vulnerable to sexual violence 12 months after Russia invaded the country, with reports of abuse on the rise, according to a leading humanitarian organisation in the country. Women fleeing from bombed houses and their home towns are reporting attacks occurring in the home and in communal shelters, said Marysia Zapasnik, Ukraine country director for the International Rescue Committee.