TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine said it had struck a military airfield on the Russia-controlled Crimean peninsula, the latest claimed attack on the Black Sea territory Kyiv has vowed to recapture. The governor of Crimea's largest city, Sevastopol, warned another Ukrainian aerial attack could be imminent shortly after confirming the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet had been struck.

• Ukrainian forces have mounted coordinated assaults on several villages in the eastern Donetsk region and are heavily shelling the city of Bakhmut, a Russian-installed official in the region said.

• Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the prime minister's comments on no longer arming Ukraine had been taken the wrong way, amid a mounting row between the two countries.

• The Kremlin said it was unavoidable that tensions would grow between Kyiv and its European allies amid an escalating dispute between Ukraine and Poland sparked by disagreements over grain exports. 

• Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Russia has restarted a systemic campaign of aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure but that his country's air defense systems were better prepared for the onslaught than last year.

• A ship carrying wheat left a Ukrainian port and was heading to Egypt, the second such trip since Russia reimposed its Black Sea blockade in July, a minister said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, seeking to rally support for his country as it fights the Russian offensive.

• U.S. President Joe Biden said there was "no alternative" to Congress supporting fresh military aid for Ukraine to fight Russia, after Republican lawmakers threatened to block a new package. 

IN DETAIL

Poland: PM's Ukraine arms comments were misinterpreted

Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the prime minister's comments on no longer arming Ukraine had been taken the wrong way, amid a mounting row between the two countries.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had said: "We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons" – but the following day, Warsaw promised to fulfil existing arms supply deals with Ukraine.

Duda argued that "the prime minister's words were interpreted in the worst way possible... in my opinion, the prime minister meant that we won't be transferring to Ukraine the new weaponry that we're currently buying as we modernize the Polish army."

Poland has been one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters since the conflict began in February 2022 and is one of Kyiv's main weapons suppliers. 

However, there have been tensions between the countries. After complaints by furious farmers, Poland joined Hungary and Slovakia in banning imports of Ukrainian grain, which led to Kyiv filing a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization. 

In such circumstances, the possibility of withdrawing military aid exacerbated tensions that Kyiv might lose support from its immediate western neighbor – a country of 38 million, the EU's fifth-largest country by population, with whom has it has traditionally had strong ties. 

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