Ukraine live briefing: Putin formalizes annexation claims as Kyiv advances in the south and east

Despite the moves, Ukrainian forces were making a “fast and powerful advance” in the country’s south and liberating “dozens of settlements” from Russian control, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Outside Ukraine, the conflict’s economic impact continued to reverberate. In Vienna, the OPEC Plus group of oil-producing nations, which includes Russia and Saudi Arabia, announced it would slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day. It was a stinging rebuke to President Biden that could push up gas prices, worsen the risk of a global recession and bolster Russia’s war in Ukraine.