The European Union is “prepared for a long war” in Ukraine and will support Kyiv against Russia’s aggression for “as long as it takes”, said Sweden’s foreign minister Tobias Billstrom, whose country holds the EU’s presidency. He also said the EU would continue working on more sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.    •    Russian forces are trying ‘without success’ to capture Soledar, a Ukrainian official said. “The enemy has again replaced its units after sustaining losses, has increased the number of Wagner (Russian mercenaries),” Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram.

• The German government said they are not aware of any requests from its allies to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. The statement from a government spokesperson on Wednesday comes after Germany’s foreign minister visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Tuesday. The spokesperson said Germany was coordinating closely with the United States, France, Britain and elsewhere on military support for Ukraine.
• The Russian president said the situation in Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed was “difficult in places”. Vladimir Putin, speaking at a televised meeting with officials, also said Russia had all the resources it needed to improve life in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow unilaterally claimed to have annexed in September.
• Ukraine must “be ready” at its border with Russian ally Belarus even though it sees only “powerful statements” coming from its neighbour, Zelenskiy said on Wednesday. Kyiv has warned that Russia may try to use Belarus to launch a new ground invasion of Ukraine from the north.
• Nato and the EU are launching a task force to bolster the protection of critical infrastructure in response to last year’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and Russia’s “weaponising of energy”, leaders said on Wednesday. The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the task force would initially come up with proposals on transport, energy, digital and space infrastructure.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stripped four political figures of their Ukrainian citizenship on Tuesday, including the pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was transferred to Russia last year in a prisoner swap deal.
• Russian strikes hit eastern Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv late on Tuesday, the regional governor said, only hours after a surprise visit by the German foreign minister with her Ukrainian counterpart.
• The Russian mercenary Wagner Group has claimed control of the salt-mining town Soledar, a town in eastern Ukraine, despite Ukrainian officials reporting that their soldiers are still resisting the attack.
• Russia and Ukraine have agreed on an exchange of 40 prisoners of war, according to the Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova who met with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in Turkey.