Here’s the latest on the war and its global impact.
Key developments
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed surprise Thursday at the United States’ break with the diplomatic silence that normally surrounds prisoner release negotiations, a day after Blinken said a “substantial proposal” was made to Moscow to free Griner and Whelan, The Post reported.
- Blinken’s announcement came hours after Griner took the stand Wednesday, telling a court in Moscow that her rights were not read to her when she was arrested in February. She also said she did not receive adequate translations when Russian authorities questioned her and required her to sign documents in Russian. Her trial on drug charges is set to resume next week.
- Ukraine has intensified efforts to bomb Russian troops occupying areas of the country’s south, Reuters reports. Russian advances have slowed almost to a standstill.
Battlefield updates
- Russia struck an area north of Kyiv early Thursday, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor. He said in a Telegram post that infrastructure in the area along the Dnieper River was hit and that information on victims was not clear. Local media reported no fatalities, citing a police official.
- Ukraine’s second-largest power plant has been captured, one of Moscow’s first significant gains in weeks. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed that Russian forces captured the Vuhlehirsk power plant.
- Ukrainian forces’ efforts to recapture Kherson, in the south, are gathering momentum, according to the British Defense Ministry. Ukraine bombed a key bridge early Wednesday for the third time in 10 days to stymie Russian troops there, its intelligence report said, and the bridge is probably unusable. The city of Kherson is virtually cut off from the rest of the occupied region, according to the report….