Ukraine Update…307 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Ukraine/Russia back door talks?

Poland will transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an international coalition, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Monday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv. Ukraine has repeatedly asked European countries for the battle tanks, but Germany — which manufactures them — must sign off on their re-export. German authorities have not yet indicated plans to do so, and it is unclear whether Poland has asked for that approval.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• Fighting continued in Soledar as both sides sought to control the narrative. A Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner’s founder posted a photo it said showed Wagner units inside Soledar’s salt mines, as the mercenary group claimed to control the city. Russian officials struck a more cautious tone, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claiming “positive dynamics” and “advancement” in Soledar on Wednesday and describing it as one of Russia’s “tactical successes.”
• It was “not true” that Russia had taken over the town, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command told the country’s public broadcaster, as Ukrainian military officials dismissed Wagner’s claims as propaganda. In a Wednesday update, the military reported shelling in Soledar and said it had “repelled” attacks in nearby Bakhmut.
• Zelensky praised Poland’s decision to supply Leopard tanks. “Today I can say an important word for our defense, for our common defense — of both Ukraine and the entire Europe. This word is tanks,” he said at a news conference alongside Duda and Nauseda in Lviv. “I commend this decision made by Poland, made by Andrzej Duda and the government of Poland.” Zelensky also thanked Lithuania for its promise to transfer antiaircraft systems to Ukraine to help fend off drone attacks.
• Zelensky also said Wednesday his country “must be ready” for any security issues on the northwestern border region with Belarus, a key Russian ally. “We understand that apart from powerful statements, we do not see anything powerful there,” he wrote on Telegram Wednesday after his visit to Lviv, but nevertheless urged caution. Last month, Vladimir Putin traveled to Minsk, which added to fears that the Russian president could seek to create a new front in the war through Belarus.
• Putin admitted “there is still fighting” in some Ukrainian territories that Russia claimed illegally to have annexed last year. Speaking at a government meeting Tuesday, Putin emphasized the need to invest in these regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — so residents feel their lives will be better under Russian control. He also pledged to “solve all the problems related to supplying the armed forces” and other units fighting for Russia, as well as “to implement large-scale socioeconomic programs and plans aimed at improving the well-being of people, at opening up the huge potential of Russia, at expanding our international relations.”
• Zelensky said he has decided to revoke the citizenship of four pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. One of them, Viktor Medvedchuk, led Ukraine’s most prominent Kremlin-aligned political party and was charged with treason in 2021. “If people’s deputies choose to serve not the people of Ukraine, but the murderers who came to Ukraine, our actions will be appropriate,” Zelensky said Tuesday in his nightly address.

• Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its airborne units had blocked Soledar from the north and south. “The Russian Air Force is striking enemy strongholds, and assault units are fighting in the city,” the ministry said in a briefing Wednesday.
• Analysts downplayed the strategic significance of any Russian capture of Soledar. “Russian forces have largely struggled to make significant tactical gains in the Soledar area for months,” the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, said Tuesday, adding that “the capture of Soledar would not portend an immediate encirclement of Bakhmut” because Ukraine would still have control over critical ground lines of communication.
• Russian strikes hit Kharkiv hours after Germany’s foreign minister visited on Tuesday. The regional governor, Oleh Synyehubov, said a pyrotechnics warehouse was hit, which set off some of its explosives, but no casualties were reported. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she was invited by her Ukrainian counterpart and called Kharkiv “a symbol for the madness of Russia’s aggression and for Ukrainians’ unbreakable will to live in freedom from oppression.”
• The Pentagon is planning to bring Ukrainian troops to the United States for training on the Patriot missile defense system, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The training will take place at Fort Sill, covering about 145 square miles southwest of Oklahoma City, and could begin as soon as next week. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said late Tuesday the U.S. plan showed “Washington’s de facto involvement” in the war, according to the state-run Tass news agency.

• The human rights commissioners of Ukraine and Russia have met in Turkey to discuss humanitarian aid and other issues. Both officials shared images of their meetings on their respective Telegram accounts Wednesday, while Russian state news agency Tass reported that they had agreed to a prisoner exchange of 40 individuals from each side. Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets did not mention a prisoner exchange in a Facebook post about the meeting, saying only that they had “exchanged specific offers.”
• “There will be no Third World war,” Zelensky said as he addressed the 80th Golden Globes ceremony in a recorded message late Tuesday. “Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land,” he said in a prerecorded video. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian leader has also given virtual addresses to the Cannes Film Festival and the Grammy Awards…..

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