Ukraine president to meet King Charles and address parliament, as Sunak reveals training for Ukrainian jet pilots
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will make his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion, with Rishi Sunak promising additional military support.
The UK prime minister announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots, paving the way for them to fly sophisticated Nato-standard jets, a request from Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Ukraine claims last 24 hours deadliest of war for Russian troops; Zelenskiy warns ‘rumours’ undermine unity as new ministers take office
Continue reading...Footage thought to show Wagner group fighters beating commander with what appear to be shovels
Warning: video contains footage that some viewers may find distressing
Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, and then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels.
A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months. Four soldiers from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group carry their colleague through a landscape of ruined houses, holding his arms and legs.
Continue reading...António Guterres warns in speech to general assembly that ‘chances of escalation and bloodshed are growing’
The head of the United Nations, António Guterres, has warned that further escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict could mean the world is heading towards a “wider war”.
The secretary general laid out his priorities for the year in a gloomy speech to the UN general assembly that focused on Russia’s invasion, the climate crisis and extreme poverty.
Continue reading...‘Battles for the region are heating up’ as Russian forces are located in Donetsk
Russian forces are attempting to tie down Ukrainian forces with fighting in the eastern Donbas region as Moscow assembles additional troops there for an expected offensive in the coming weeks, perhaps targeting the Luhansk region, Ukraine has said.
Weeks of intense fighting continued to rage around the city of Bakhmut and the nearby towns of Soledar and Vuhledar, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
Continue reading...Donetsk governor says Russian forces throwing new troops at frontline; António Guterres says ‘prospects for peace keep diminishing’. This live blog is now closed
Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, has proposed his country should provide some 75bn Norwegian kroner (£6.1 bn) in aid to Ukraine over five years.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting opposition leaders, Støre said:
We aim to secure a unified agreement on this in parliament.
Continue reading...Head of president’s parliamentary bloc seems to confirm reshuffle of Oleksii Reznikov as Russians close in on Bakhmut
Ukraine’s defence minister, under pressure from a corruption scandal, is to be reshuffled into another government job as Russian forces close in on Bakhmut amid heavy fighting, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced.
The position of Oleksii Reznikov, one of Ukraine’s better-known figures internationally, has been under threat after it emerged the defence ministry paid twice or three times the supermarket price of food to supply troops on the frontline.
Continue reading...Naftali Bennett says Putin also dropped vow to seek disarmament of Ukraine and Zelenskiy agreed to give up on joining Nato
The former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has said in an interview that Vladimir Putin told him he would not try to kill Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a promise made during a trip to Moscow shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Speaking on a podcast with the Israeli journalist Hanoch Daum, published on Sunday, Bennett said he received assurance from Putin that the Ukrainian president’s life was not at risk during a secretive visit to the Russian capital last March aimed at mediation during the war’s early days.
Continue reading...Oleksii Reznikov insists Kyiv has the ability to hold back Russian forces if new push comes for anniversary of start of invasion
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians.
“Today, I signed the relevant documents to take another step to protect and cleanse our state from those on the side of the aggressor,” Zelenskiy said during his nightly video address on Saturday.
Continue reading...Arming Ukraine is swiftest path to peace, says UK foreign secretary; Ukraine warns of renewed Russian offensive this month
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, the British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said, writing in the Times of Malta before a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island.
Ukraine will not use longer-range weapons pledged by the United States to hit Russian territory and will only target Russian units in occupied Ukrainian territory, said Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov.
Ukraine expects a possible major Russian offensive this month, but Kyiv has the reserves to hold back Moscow’s forces even though not all the west’s latest military supplies will have arrived in time, Reznikov said.
Germany’s prosecutor general, Peter Frank, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper his office had collected “hundreds” of pieces of evidence showing war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine.
The former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said Vladimir Putin made him a promise he would not try to kill Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a trip to Moscow shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
The head of Russia’s private Wagner militia said fierce fighting was continuing in the northern parts of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the focus of Russian forces’ attention for weeks. Yevgeniy Prigozhin rejected reports in the Russian media that Ukrainian troops were abandoning Bakhmut, saying: “Fierce battles are going on in the northern quarters for every street, every house, every stairwell.”
The situation on the frontlines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday.
The embattled eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut has become “increasingly isolated”, according to the latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence. “Over the last week, Russia has continued to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the Donbas town of Bakhmut,” the MoD wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces remained in control of the village of Bilohorivka, the Luhansk region governor, Serhiy Haidai, said, adding that the situation there was tense but under control.
Zelenskiy has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians. He would not list the names but said they had dual Russian citizenship.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Putin “has not made any threats against me or Germany” in his telephone conversations with the Russian president, Bild am Sonntag reported. The former British prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking to the BBC for a documentary broadcast last week, said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that would “only take a minute”. The Kremlin said Johnson was lying.
Price caps on Russian oil probably hit Moscow’s revenues from oil and gas exports by nearly 30% in January, or about $8bn (£7bn), compared with a year before, the International Energy Agency (IEA) chief, Fatih Birol, said on Sunday.
The European Union took another big step toward cutting its energy ties with Russia. In a move that took effect from Sunday, the 27-country bloc banned Russian refined oil products such as diesel fuel and joined the US and other allies in imposing a price cap on sales to non-western countries.
Continue reading...Announcement from Ukrainian president’s office follows Russian statement on 63 of its own soldiers
The head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, has said that Ukraine has got 116 soldiers back as part of a prisoner of war swap.
Earlier on Saturday, Russia said it had got 63 PoWs back in an exchange.
Continue reading...New $2.2bn US military aid package for Ukraine includes bomb that will double strike range; Zelenskiy vows to hold Bakhmut as long as possible
Continue reading...Package of 29 older tanks could be sent to help fight Russia as soon as refurbishments done, reports say
Germany has approved the export of older Leopard 1 battle tanks, which would add to the raft of fighting vehicles Berlin promised last week it would send to Ukraine.
A spokesperson said on Friday that Olaf Scholz’s government had granted an export licence for the German-made tanks first produced in the 1960s and replaced within Germany’s own military by Leopard 2 tanks in 2003. Further details would be provided in the coming days and weeks, they said.
Continue reading...New US $2.175bn military aid also includes precision-guided rockets and HAWK air defence firing units. This live blog is now closed
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, has posted to Telegram, responding to the Ukrainian president’s comments about the slowing down of western sanctions on Russia.
She quotes the media saying “Zelenskiy complained that the pace of sanctions in Europe has slowed down, and Russia has become faster to adapt to restrictions” and goes on to write:
Western Europe, falling into recession, having long lost the habit of survival, is sinking, with Ukraine tied to its feet.
At night, the Russian military attacked the Barvinkove community in the Kharkiv region. A private house was destroyed and a 70-year-old man was rescued from the rubble. Two men died.
Also at night, the Russian army shelled Kherson. They hit one of the shopping centres, a fire started there. People were not injured. Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region also came under fire. There are no dead or injured.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy urges west to supply long-range weapons; EU offers support to Ukraine in Kyiv meeting but no promises on membership
Continue reading...Konstantin Yefremov escaped Russia after serving three months as a lieutenant in Zaporizhzhia oblast
A senior Russian lieutenant who fled after serving in Ukraine has described how his country’s troops tortured prisoners of war and threatened some with rape.
Konstantin Yefremov left Russia in December after spending three months in the parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia oblast that were occupied in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...EU to train an extra 15,000 soldiers and prepare new sanctions against Russia
The EU has pledged to double a military aid programme for Ukraine by training an extra 15,000 soldiers as part of a blizzard of announcements aimed at showing that it will “stand by Ukraine for the long-haul”.
Speaking at the start of a two-day trip to Kyiv, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, reiterated that the EU aimed to have a tenth package of sanctions against Russia in place by 24 February, the first anniversary of the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading...With western tanks yet to arrive, invaders may be in a better position in early spring than Ukrainian defenders
A fresh Russian assault around the southern Donbas town of Vuhledar, which began towards the end of January, demonstrates that Moscow’s forces are becoming more capable before a critical – and increasingly uncertain – spring period.
Russian forces have not yet made significant gains across the open fields of the region, where the Ukrainians have been dug in for months. But in parallel with the seemingly never-ending Wagner Group-led assault on Bakhmut, 70 miles to the north-east, it shows the invaders trying to push forward at a second point.
Continue reading...Mateusz Morawiecki would supply F-16 fighters if decision were taken with Nato allies. This live blog is closed
The Ministry of Defence says Russia’s role as a “reliable arms exporter” is “highly likely” being undermined by its invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions.
In the latest intelligence update published on Thursday morning, the MoD said prior to the invasion Russia’s share of the international arms market was declining.
Continue reading...Sunak government under pressure after gas prices fuel ‘outrageous’ doubling of profits at Anglo-Dutch group
The government is under pressure to rethink its windfall tax on energy companies after Shell reported one of the largest profits in UK corporate history, with the surge in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing the oil company’s annual takings to $40bn (£32bn).
Opposition parties and trade unions described Shell’s bonanza, the biggest in its 115 year history, as “outrageous” and accused Rishi Sunak of letting fossil fuel companies “off the hook”.
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