Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 364

Here is the situation as it stands on Wednesday, February 22, 2023:

Diplomacy

• United States President Joe Biden has warned Moscow that the West’s support for Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion “will not waver”, and promised that the conflict in Ukraine will never be a win for Russia.
• Biden is due to meet leaders of NATO’s eastern flank after making an unannounced visit to Kyiv where he met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a highly awaited speech to Russia’s elite where he blamed the West for the conflict and announced Russia’s suspension from the New START treaty, the last major pillar of post-Cold War nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, which limits their strategic nuclear arsenals.
• China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters that the New START treaty and other instruments were important for the global security architecture and “the parties concerned should continue to negotiate with each other in finding a good solution”.
• NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he regretted Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the treaty.
• Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Putin in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources familiar with the plan. The visit is reportedly part of Chinese efforts to push for multi-party peace talks.
• Russian officials on Wednesday blamed the United States and the West for President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Moscow’s participation in the New START treaty, as Russia’s parliament was set to rubber-stamp the move.

• Russia has called a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the bombings in September of the Nord Stream pipelines after calling for a UN investigation into the incident.
• Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya has raised concern over Western countries’ lack of will to cooperate with Moscow to shed light on the pipeline’s blast, the TASS news agency has reported.
• Russia’s economy contracted by 2.1 percent last year, the federal statistics service said on Monday, shrinking less than expected despite its invasion of Ukraine last February and sanctions imposed by European nations and the United States.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made her first visit to Ukraine where she said Italy “would not waver” in its support for Ukraine after controversial remarks from a coalition partner who blamed Zelenskyy for the war.

Fighting

• In the past 24 hours, Russia launched 59 attacks from heavy rocket systems, Ukraine’s military has said.
• Bakhmut city, the focus of Russian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, came under shelling, along with 20 other settlements in the area, it said.
• A rift between Russia’s military and the Wagner private contractor company is widening as the group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin accused Russian officials of high treason after alleging they held back much-needed ammunition.
• The Russian defence ministry rejected his accusation about blocking ammunition as “absolutely untrue”.