March 23, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach pleaded with politicians Wednesday to “keep politics and sports apart” as he defended the committee's plan to include Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Paris Games.

Bach made the comments at a political forum in Essen, Germany.

"If politics decides who can take part in a competition, then sport and athletes become tools of politics,” Bach said during a speech in German, which lasted over an hour.

According to Reuters, Bach said “Ukraine wants, and this is a direct quote, 'the total isolation of all Russians." That line was met by applause from some in attendance.

But Bach described the request as a "dilemma" and "a completely new situation."

"If we exclude athletes for political reasons, we face the decline of the international sporting system,” the IOC president said.

More background: In January, the IOC outlined a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the upcoming 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milan.

The plan would allow competitors to participate as neutral athletes, without representing their home country via flag, anthem, uniform or other identification.

The United States, Canada and most European countries have criticized the decision. Last month, the US and more than 30 other “like-minded” countries backed a proposed ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in international sports

Ukraine has not ruled out boycotting the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete, the country's sports minister said in January.

In February, the IOC reiterated its condemnation of the war in Ukraine in a statement marking the invasion's first anniversary.

The Russian Foreign Ministry again condemned Finland’s bid to join NATO, calling it “unbalanced" and "counterproductive" in comments reported by state news agency RIA Novosti Thursday.

“As for Finland's decision to join NATO, it can hardly be considered balanced,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a briefing in Moscow. She claimed the decision was taken “under the influence of an unprecedented anti-Russian media campaign” and without proper public debate.

“We understand that the United States of America and a number of its allies are behind this political campaign," she added, without providing evidence.

Zakharova said the move would only exacerbate the military and political situation in Europe. Russia has repeatedly asserted Helsinki's decision will be counterproductive, and that it has already negatively impacted Russian-Finnish relations.

Some context: Finland and Sweden announced their intention to join NATO in May 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused the Nordic countries to abandon their long-held non-aligned status.

The move was a setback for Moscow, with the war triggering the kind of NATO enlargement that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent.

Finland and Sweden’s applications were welcomed by almost all NATO leaders, but under the alliance's rules, just one member state can veto a new applicant’s membership.

Finland's bid took a major step forward when Turkey and Hungary, which had to that point been the key holdouts, agreed to start the process of ratifying Finland's membership last week.

On Thursday, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö signed legislation that approves the country’s bid to join NATO.

Sweden's parliament approved its own bid to join NATO Wednesday, but the Swedish government still awaits Turkey and Hungary's go-ahead.

CNN's Yusuf Gezer, Amy Cassidy and Jack Guy contributed to this report.

Spain is expected to send its first shipment of modern battle tanks to Ukraine by the end of next week, once officials have completed final firing tests in the field, the Spanish Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The six Leopard 2A4 tanks have been undergoing final checks at a weapons factory near Seville in southern Spain, the statement said.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles visited the factory Thursday and said four more Leopard tanks due for Ukraine will arrive there soon for inspection and testing.

The first group of Ukrainian troops to learn how to operate the Spanish tanks are wrapping up training at a military base in northern Spain, the Defense Ministry announced last week.

Some background: Robles initially told Spain's parliament last month that the country would send six Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

A day later, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a surprise visit to Kyiv on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced Spain would bump its commitment to 10 fighting vehicles.

The estimated cost of reconstruction efforts in Ukraine after Russia's invasion has reached $411 billion, according to an updated assessment by the World Bank.

This amounts to 2.6 times the country’s estimated GDP in 2022. It includes an estimated $135 billion of direct damage – mainly to the housing, transportation, energy, commerce and industry sectors, according to the bank. The majority of damage is concentrated in frontline eastern regions, including Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk. 

The updated cost estimate covers damage incurred in the one year period after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It marks an increase from the bank's $349 billion estimate in June 2022.

The reconstruction cost is a joint assessment made by Ukraine's government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations.

Slovakia has handed four of its Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets over to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Jaro Nad said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

This comes days after the country pledged 13 Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, along with Poland which pledged four.

On the question of a military advantage, Russia has been dismissive, claiming the gift of more Soviet-era MiGs to Ukraine will not alter the course of the conflict. Which might be why it is F-16s – and not MiGs – that are in fact at the top of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wish list.

MiG-29s are analog aircraft, using older flight technology. Zelensky’s sought-after F-16s are digital. MiGs can be used for short combat missions, they can deploy weaponry and shoot down Russian aircraft with good maneuverability at short range. But F-16s can fly for longer, are more versatile, possess integrated weapons systems and have dramatically better long range and radar capability, therefore providing improved early warning.

CNN's Bianca Nobilo contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has traveled to the Kherson region, where reconstruction efforts are underway after some areas were liberated from Russian control a few months ago.

Elsewhere, the death toll from a Russian drone strike on Ukraine's capital earlier this week has risen to at least nine people.

Here are the latest headlines:

If Russian President Vladimir Putin gets arrested overseas following the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant, that would mean "a declaration of war against Russia," Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday, according to state news agency TASS.

Responding to German Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann’s remark that Berlin would have to implement the ICC decision and arrest the Russian president if he arrived in Germany, Medvedev said: "Does he even realize that it would be a casus belli, a declaration of war? "

Medvedev also reiterated that the ICC’s decision would have detrimental impact on Moscow’s relations with the West.

"Our relations with the Western world are already poor; they are perhaps at their worst ever. Even when Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech, our relationship was better. And all of a sudden, they make such a move against our head of state," Medvedev said, according to TASSS.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he will discuss Russia’s war on Ukraine with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a state visit to China next week.

Sánchez said he will address three topics with Xi:

Sanchez said he would specifically address the issues of peace, on Kyiv’s terms, and Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“That means respecting the UN human rights charter, with regards to the territorial integrity which is being violated by Russia, in this case in Ukraine,” he told reporters as he arrived for a European Council meeting in Brussels. “And logically it will be Ukrainians themselves who establish the conditions for the beginning of that peace dialogue that will logically have to occur.”

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said it has no information to provide regarding the matter.

The Spanish prime minister said he was thankful for President Xi’s invitation and referred to China as “a global actor of the first order,” adding it was important to hear Beijing’s view.

Beijing has attempted to position itself as a peace broker in the conflict despite its growing relationship with Russia. Xi departed Moscow on Wednesday after pledging to deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin during a three-day state visit. Their talks failed to achieve a breakthrough on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting the front line southern region of Kherson — months after parts of it were freed from Russian occupation. 

On Wednesday, Zelensky paid a surprise visit to wounded troops at a hospital in the eastern Donetsk region near the front lines.

“I talked to the locals about their current issues and needs. We will restore and rebuild everything,” he added.

Russian forces destroyed much of the energy infrastructure in Kherson before they pulled out to the eastern bank of the Dnipro river. Months later, the two sides continue to exchange artillery strikes, from side to side, which have hindered repair work and power outages remain frequent. 

Zelensky visited one of the energy facilities in the region. 

“We considered the restoration of electricity supply in the de-occupied territories and the repair of equipment destroyed as a result of Russian shelling," he said. “We have to ensure full restoration and protection of our energy sector."