The captain of the Solong cargo ship who was arrested after crashing into an oil tanker off the English coast is a Russian national, the vessel’s owner said Wednesday, as maritime experts search for answers.

The captain of a cargo ship that collided with a U.S. tanker is a Russian national who remains in U.K. police custody.

After clinging for more than seven months to a gradually shrinking area, Ukraine has seen its position worsen sharply in the past week.

Speaking while dressed in fatigues, President Vladimir Putin says his main priority is to defeat Ukraine in the shortest time possible. It comes as a team from the United States heads to Moscow, expressing confidence that Russia will join a peace plan that is agreed to by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least nine other people, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Ukrainian operation is a bid to undermine Russia's stability, slow its advance elsewhere and improve Kyiv's negotiating position. Russia will deliver a "worthy response",