Poland’s foreign minister has called on NATO to increase its defense preparedness and said his government wants to be at the center of decision-making in the European Union, seeking to reestablish the country as a reliable international partner as the war in Ukraine rages across the border.

Russia has used strategic bombers, cruise missiles and killer drones in a barrage of attacks across Ukraine.

Russian forces pounded targets across Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons in the west and intensifying an offensive in the east, as the European Union moved Wednesday to further punish Moscow for the war with a proposed ban on oil imports.

Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine is bringing a whole set of new problems to the global auto industry, just as it was starting to recover from the pandemic and computer chip shortages.

Last week, this group of friends were making dinner plans. This week, they’re spending their nights sleeping in a makeshift bomb shelter in their basement.

Dr. Viktoria Mahnych, wearing face mask against coronavirus, checks on a COVID-19 patient with a stethoscope at at his home in Iltsi village, Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Ukraine is struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has inundated its overburdened medical system, as Dr. Viktoria Mahnych goes door to door providing much needed help to patients. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)VERKHOVYNA – Riding a horse-drawn cart, Dr. Viktoria Mahnych trots along country roads to attend to her patients in several villages nestled in the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine. Starting Friday, Ukraine imposed a broad lockdown aimed at containing a surge in infections, but many medical workers say that the move came too late. She doesn't wear full personal protective equipment while visiting coronavirus patients, fearing she'll spook locals.