Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 358

Here is the situation as it stands on Thursday, February 16, 2023:

Fighting

• Russia has launched missile attacks across Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said, after Western allies pledged to ramp up military aid to the Ukrainian armed forces to support a planned counteroffensive.
• Ukrainian officials said air defences in the south downed eight Kalibr missiles fired from a ship in the Black Sea, but other missiles struck northern and western Ukraine as well as the central regions of Dnipro and Kirovohrad.
• Russia earlier said it had broken through two fortified defence lines in Ukraine’s east as it continued attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east.
• Ukrainian forces have repelled some Russian attacks but the situation remains difficult, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said on Wednesday.
• Russian forces have launched attacks on several settlements, including Paraskoviivka on the northern approaches to Bakhmut, and on Opytne and Klishchiivka villages on its southern approaches, Ukrainian military analysts said.
• Meanwhile, six Russian balloons were spotted over Kyiv and most were shot down after being engaged by air defences, the capital’s military administration said.
• Russia has lost about half of its best tanks in the year since it invaded Ukraine and is struggling to replace them, a research centre said.
• Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

Politics, economy

• The European Union’s top diplomat has urged countries to join Germany in sending tanks to Ukraine after media reports that Denmark and the Netherlands said they would not deliver Leopard 2 battle tanks.
• NATO countries are ramping up the production of artillery munitions as Ukraine is burning through shells much faster than the West can make them, the alliance said.
• Ukraine’s state arms producer said it had launched joint production of shells with a central European country in NATO, and that it plans to develop and produce other arms and military hardware with allies.
• The upper chamber of Russia’s parliament will hold an extraordinary meeting on February 22 that will focus on the adoption of laws on the integration of four regions into the Russian Federation, RIA Novosti reported, citing a senior politician.
• A Russian government commission has approved the sale of Swedish furniture maker IKEA’s three factories in Russia to two local buyers, paving the way for a deal to be struck, a government official was quoted as saying on Thursday. Al Jazeera however, could not independently confirm the veracity of the report.