German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told French and German media in an interview published late Wednesday that “for now” Russia is “no longer threatening to use nuclear weapons.” But he also said that a fair peace agreement was not possible without Russia withdrawing forces from Ukraine, and that there was no guarantee the Kremlin would not still attack other countries. President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia has “not gone crazy, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are.”
The Biden administration will meet with oil and gas executives on Thursday to discuss U.S. support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ahead of winter and following devastating missile attacks on civilian infrastructure. The meeting is part of a broader effort to explore ways to support allies, according to the Energy Department.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
4. From our correspondents
As Ukraine and Russia step up prisoner exchanges, scarred POWs tell of abuse: Among the 60 prisoners of war who arrived on Ukrainian soil on Tuesday afternoon, many were so malnourished during Russian captivity that they would be unable to digest more than 300 milliliters of chicken soup, or about 20 tablespoons, according to the director of a hospital treating them in northeast Ukraine.
They were supposed to be protected by the Geneva Conventions, which require humane treatment. But the prisoners’ physical condition — protruding shoulder blades and ribs, bandaged limbs, long scars — bore evidence of abuse from their months of imprisonment, in addition to injuries from combat, Jeff Stein and Kostiantyn Khudov report for The Washington Post in northeast Ukraine.
“Tasers, currents — they beat us with clubs; they beat us with sticks. I said goodbye to my life there more than once,” said one Ukrainian fighter.
Miriam Berger in Washington, and Natalia Abbakumova and Mary Ilyushina in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
