More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
May 03, 2023, 5:11 PM EDT
US Embassy in Ukraine warns of 'ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks'
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine sent an alert to Americans on Wednesday warning of an "ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks," including in Kyiv.
"In light of the recent uptick in strikes across Ukraine and inflammatory rhetoric from Moscow, the Department of State cautions U.S. citizens of an ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks, including in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast," the alert stated.
The U.S. Embassy urged U.S. citizens to follow guidance from local authorities and to observe air alarms and shelter appropriately.
May 03, 2023, 2:43 PM EDT
At least 21 killed in Kherson region shelling: Ukrainian officials
At least 21 people were killed and 48 injured by shelling in the Kherson region on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said, as the death toll continues to rise.
A railway station and market in the city of Kherson were hit in strikes, which occurred across the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, officials said.
Rubble in at a destroyed market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, after a Russian strike, May 3, 2023.
Dina Pletenchuk/AFP via Getty Images
Firefighters stand in front of the carriage of a passenger train damaged following Russian strike in the southern Ukrainian town of Kherson, May 3, 2023. Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region killed 16 people on Wednesday, local prosecutors said as authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting Friday.
Dina Pletenchuk/AFP via Getty Images
"A railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket, a gas station -- do you know what unites these places? The bloody trail that [Russia] leaves with its shells, killing civilians in Kherson and Kherson region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter.
All the victims were civilians, Zelenskyy said.
An ambulance was also damaged in the strikes, according to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.
"No military objects here. Just civilians, including children," Kostin said on Twitter.
A wounded woman sits outside a train station hit by a Russian military strike, in Kherson, Ukraine, May 3, 2023.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
At least one person was killed and three injured in the strike on the railway station, officials previously said.
May 03, 2023, 2:00 PM EDT
White House announces $300M military aid package for Ukraine
The Biden administration has announced a new $300 million military aid package for Ukraine.
The package includes additional ammunition for U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, as well as "additional howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds, and anti-armor capabilities that Ukraine is using to push back against Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression," the Department of Defense said in a statement.
This marks the Biden administration’s 37th drawdown of equipment from Defense Department inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
May 03, 2023, 9:48 AM EDT
Zelenskyy denies involvement in Kremlin attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected Russia's claim that his country was involved in the drone attack on the Kremlin early Wednesday.
Zelenskyy, who is currently in Finland, said the claim was the prelude to a "large-scale terrorist attack" from Russia.
"First of all, Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation," Zelenskyy said in a statement. "What for? This does not solve any military issue. But it gives RF grounds to justify its attacks on civilians."
Zelenskyy went on to say that various attacks in Russia could be the result of "guerrilla activities of local resistance forces."
