The White House says it has intelligence of tension between Vladimir Putin and his generals because the Russian president feels misled by them
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby concurs, saying: “The fact that he [Putin] may not fully understand the degree to which his forces are failing in Ukraine, that’s a little discomforting”
Russian troops have accidentally shot down their own aircraft and have at times refused to obey orders, says Britain’s cyber-intelligence agency, GCHQ
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cast doubt on Russia’s claims it is de-escalating fighting in his country, calling it the precursor to “new strikes” in the eastern breakway Ukrainian region of Donbas
The Russian rouble has rebounded to around the level it was when the war in Ukraine began, raising questions about the effectiveness of unprecedented sanctions by world powers
Russia will continue to allow European countries to pay for its gas with euros and not roubles as it had previously threatened, the German government says
Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine will start again online this Friday, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said
On the ground:
Five weeks on, the invasion has sputtered to a bloody stalemate – Russia has failed to capture a single major city amid stout resistance from Ukrainian forces
After indicating it would scale back operations to foster trust between the two sides, Russian forces reportedly escalated their bombardment in some areas on Wednesday
Ukrainian officials say deadly shelling pounded Irpin, near Kyiv, and Chernihiv, while Russian troops also appeared to step up attacks in the Donbas region
The UN is looking into claims that some residents of the besieged southern port of Mariupol have been forcibly taken to Russian-controlled areas or to Russia itself
The US says that over the past 24 hours, Russia began to reposition less than a fifth of its forces around Kyiv, with troops moving to the north and some into Belarus
Russian-backed separatists blame Ukrainian forces for a missile strike that reportedly killed two people at an apartment block in the city of Donetsk early on Wednesday
This is Jude Sheerin and Bernd Debusmann in Washington DC handing over to our colleagues Ayeshea Perera and Zubaidah Abdul Jalil in Singapore.
