Alexander Lukashenko – the Belarusian president, who has stayed in power by running a client state of Russia – said in interviews broadcast on Wednesday that Putin deploying any foreign forces in the Ukraine conflict would inevitably lead to an escalation, possibly involving Nato troops. Lukashenko claimed it was “rubbish” that North Korean troops were going to fight in Ukraine: “Knowing his character Putin would never try to persuade another country to involve its army in Russia’s special operation in Ukraine … [it] would be a step towards the escalation of the conflict if the armed forces of any country, even Belarus, were on the contact line.” That would prompt Ukraine’s allies to point to foreign involvement “so Nato troops would be deployed to Ukraine”.
Ukrainian authorities have announced the mandatory evacuation of children and their families from Borova in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, where Russian forces have been making advances. The governor of the Donetsk region earlier said all children had been removed from the frontline town of Myrnograd and just several dozen remained in the nearby transport hub of Pokrovsk - the main target of Russian advances. Authorities in the Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claimed to have annexed alongside Donetsk and two others, said two men aged 40 and 73 had been killed in a drone attack.
The Biden administration is trying to provide Ukraine with US$10bn in military aid as part of its $20bn commitment under a $50bn loan coordinated with the G7 and EU, the White House National Security Council said on Wednesday. Joe Biden, the US president, said: “We will provide $20bn in loans to Ukraine that will be paid back by the interest earned from immobilised Russian sovereign assets. Make no mistake: Russia will not prevail in this conflict … tyrants will be responsible for the damages they cause”. The US plans to disperse $10bn by December as economic aid, but needs US lawmakers’ approval for a further $10bn, the White House national security council has said on Wednesday.
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets after detecting what were probably two drones breaching its national airspace, the Romanian defence ministry said late on Wednesday. It was the third such incident in less than a week. Two signals were picked up by radar less than one hour apart flying above the south-eastern counties of Constanta and Tulcea, the latter bordering Ukraine across the Danube River. The pilots did not see either drone before losing the signals, the ministry said.