Several Russian infantry units returned to their bases in Dagestan and Chechnya after completing drills in Crimea, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Friday. Pro-Russian separatists accused the Ukrainian military of shelling in eastern Ukraine, while Ukraine’s military said it has recorded dozens of ceasefire violations by separatists over the past 24 hours. Read about the day's events as they unfolded on our page below.
8:30 pm Paris time: Italy hostile to EU sanctions targeting Russian energy imports
Any sanctions that may be imposed on Russia by the European Union should not include energy imports, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday.
Draghi told reporters that the European Union was studying various sanctions options if Russia pushes ahead with a feared invasion of Ukraine.
"We are discussing sanctions with the EU and in the course of these discussions we have made our position known, that they should be concentrated on narrow sectors without including energy," Draghi said at a news conference.
Italy imports 90 percent of its gas requirements, with Russia a key supplier.
8:00 pm Paris time: Rebels evacuate east Ukraine residents
Russian-backed separatists packed civilians onto buses out of breakaway regions in east Ukraine on Friday, a shock turn in a conflict the West believes Moscow plans to use as justification for all-out invasion of its neighbour.
Warning sirens blared in Donetsk after it and the other self-proclaimed "People's Republic" of Luhansk announced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people to Russia, with women, children and the elderly going first.
Hours later, a jeep exploded outside the rebel government building in the city of Donetsk, capital of the region of the same name. Reuters journalists saw the vehicle surrounded by shrapnel, a wheel tossed away by the blast. Russian media said it belonged to a militia leader.
The Ukrainian government said it was not planning any offensive or targeting civilians in any way.
Most of the several million civilians in the two rebel-held areas are Russian speakers, with many already granted citizenship by Moscow.
7:49 pm Paris time: Germany puts troops in NATO's quick reaction force on higher alert
Germany will put its troops in NATO's quick reaction force on higher alert, enabling them to deploy more quickly to protect eastern European allies in case of an escalation of tensions with Russia, the defence ministry in Berlin said on Friday.
The decision, taken in close cooperation with NATO's highest military commander and allies, is a reaction to Russia's conduct and meant to reduce the time needed to prepare for deployment in case of an activation of the NATO Response Force (NRF), the ministry said in a statement.
"The increased readiness to deploy enables NATO, in case of a further escalation by Russia, to guarantee appropriate reassurance in particular to our eastern European allies in order to protect allied territory," the statement said.
6:00 pm Paris time: UK’s foreign office advises against travel to Belarus
Britain said on Friday it was now advising against all but essential travel to Belarus.
As tensions build over Ukraine, there is also uncertainty over the Kremlin's intentions for tens of thousands of troops staging exercises in Belarus, north of Ukraine, which are due to end on Sunday. Moscow has said they would go back to Russia at some point following the drills, but has not said when.
The new UK travel alert was made by the Foreign Office.
5:50 pm Paris time: Ukraine says international community must condemn Russian provoactions in separatist-held east
Ukraine on Friday called on the international community to condemn what it said were provocations by Russia in separatist-held eastern Ukrainian areas, saying that Moscow would only escalate the situation further if it did not.
The Ukrainian government has strongly denied suggestions by Russia that it could launch an offensive in eastern Ukraine, where residents from two self-proclaimed republics received were ordered to evacuate.
"We are watching the Russian Federation launch a campaign to spread mass disinformation, increase shelling of Ukrainian positions and civilian infrastructure with weapons banned by the Minsk agreements, and escalate the security situation," the foreign ministry's spokesman said in a statement.
"Lack of a proper reaction or a neutral position will only fuel the escalation of the situation by Russia," the statement said.
2:19 pm Paris time: Separatist leader in eastern Ukraine announces evacuation of residents to Russia
A Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine announced the evacuation of the breakaway region's residents to southeast Russia on Friday amid a rise in shelling.
Announcing the move on social media, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said Russia had agreed to provide accommodation for people leaving and that women, children and the elderly should be evacuated first.
There was no immediate comment from Russian officials or from Kyiv.
1:58 pm Paris time: Ukraine conflict would be 'catastrophic', UN chief says
It would be "catastrophic" if the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated into a war, UN chief Antonio Guterres told the opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, which Moscow is not attending this year.
"With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe," Guterres said. If that happened, "it would be catastrophic," he warned. "There is no alternative to diplomacy."
11:35 am Paris time: Ukraine has ‘no intention’ of attacking pro-Russian separatists, defence minister says
Ukraine's defence minister said Friday his armed forces do not intend to attack eastern separatists or launch an operation to reclaim the Russia-annexed peninsula of Crimea by force.
Oleksiy Reznikov told parliament that Russia has surrounded Ukraine with 149,000 troops and that more forces appeared to be on their way.
But he stressed that Ukraine would refrain from giving Russia any reason to attack its western neighbour.
"Ukraine is stepping up its defences. But we have no intention of conducting military operations against (eastern separatists) or Crimea," Reznikov said.
"Our mission is not to do any of the things the Russians are trying to provoke us into doing."
"We have to push back but keep a cool head," he said, as fears mount that Russia may use an escalation in fighting as a pretext for launching an invasion of Ukraine.
11:31 am Paris time: Shelling continues near town in eastern Ukraine where school building was hit
The thuds of exploding shells rang out on Friday near a village in eastern Ukraine where a kindergarten was hit the previous day, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
More than 20 residences were damaged by shelling attacks around the town of Stanytsia Luhanska on Thursday, including the kindergarten, where no one was seriously hurt, Vostok SOS aid organisation head Konstyantyn Reutskiy told AFP.
11:15 am Paris time: Kremlin calls fighting in eastern Ukraine ‘very concerning’, as Kyiv’s tally of Russian troop buildup nears 150,000
The Kremlin said Friday it was concerned by an uptick in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv's army and separatists backed by Moscow.
"What is happening in the Donbas is very concerning news and potentially very dangerous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, after the Ukrainian military and their Russian-backed separatist foes traded allegations of fresh ceasefire breaches.
Ukraine's defence minister said Friday that the number of Russian forces around his former Soviet republic has reached 149,000.
"We are watching the divisions of the Russian troops, which number 129,000. And put together with naval and air components, this figure reaches 149,000," Oleksiy Reznikov told parliament.
11:05 am Paris time: Putin to oversee Russian military drills including missile launches, defence ministry says
Russian President Vladimir Putin will on Saturday oversee military drills involving Russian "strategic forces", which will include ballistic and cruise missile launches, the defence ministry said.
News of the drills come as Russia announces the pullback of troops from around Ukraine, a force that had driven concerns in the West – particularly Washington – that Moscow was planning an imminent attack.
Putin will preside over "a planned exercise of strategic deterrence forces ... during which ballistic and cruise missiles will be launched," the defence ministry said Friday.
The air force, units of the southern military district, as well as the Northern and Black Sea fleets would be involved, it said.
9:57 am Paris time: Belarus’s Lukashenko arrives in Moscow for talks with Putin
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko landed in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, which Minsk said could determine how much longer Russian military forces remain in the ex-Soviet republic north of Ukraine.
Russia's joint war games in Belarus, which are meant to run until Sunday, have added to Western fears that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine, which shares borders with both countries.
Russia denies any plan to invade. Both Minsk and Moscow have said the Russian forces – Moscow's biggest deployment in Belarus since the end of the Cold War, according to NATO – will leave when the drills are over.
But Lukashenko's rhetoric has since opened up the possibility that the forces, which are part of a wider Russian buildup to the north, east and south of Ukraine, could actually stay longer.
"Whatever decision we take tomorrow, that's how it will be," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the BelTa news agency on Thursday.
"If we take a decision, we'll remove (the force) within 24 hours. If we decide a month, they'll stay for a month. The armed forces will stay as long as needed," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
He also said Moscow and Minsk had agreed Russia would leave ammunition in Belarus and that Minsk could purchase military equipment from Russia, or simply receive it as a "gift".
Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, described Lukashenko as a vassal of Moscow. "We are seeing Lukashenko surrendering Belarusian sovereignty," he wrote on Facebook.
08:01 am Paris time: Ukrainian military, pro-Russian separatists trade blame for shelling in eastern Ukraine
Pro-Russian separatists accused the Ukrainian military of shelling in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, a day after separatists and the military traded blame for shelling that struck the town of Stanytsia Luhanska, including a shell that injured three people at a kindergarten building.
FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent reports from Kyiv.
07:15 am Paris time: Ukraine’s military says it has recorded dozens of ceasefire violations by pro-Russian separatists
The Ukrainian military has recorded 60 ceasefire violations by pro-Russian separatists over the past 24 hours, it said on Friday, with one soldier injured.
Incidents of shelling across the line dividing government forces and separatists increased sharply on Thursday in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a "big provocation".
In a report, the military said separatists opened fire on more than 10 settlements, using heavy artillery, mortars and a tank.
6:02 am Paris time: Kremlin says Russian infantry units back from Crimea have arrived at bases
Several Russian mechanised infantry units have returned to their bases in the regions of Dagestan and Chechnya after completing drills in Crimea, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Friday.
Russia said this week it has started pulling back some troops from areas adjacent to Ukraine. But Kyiv and the West have disputed that, saying some units and equipment appeared to be replaced by others.
Separately, Interfax cited the ministry as saying that a train loaded with tanks of the Western military district has departed an undisclosed location to deliver them back to their base in the Nizhny Novgorod province.
5:48 am Paris time: German FM says Russia putting European peace at risk with ‘Cold War demands’
Russia is putting Europe’s security at risk with demands that hark back to the Cold War, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday, ahead of the annual Munich Security Conference set to be dominated by the Ukraine crisis.
“With an unprecedented deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine and Cold War demands, Russia is challenging fundamental principles of the European peace order,” Baerbock said in a statement.
Moscow needs to show “serious steps towards de-escalation”, she added.
Dozens of world leaders and top diplomats are descending on the southern German city of Munich from Friday for three days of talks on defence and security matters.
5:38 am Paris time: Russian-backed rebels say they were shelled again by Ukrainian military
Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine accused Kyiv government forces of shelling a village with artillery on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
Kyiv and the rebels blamed each other for escalating tensions after artillery and mortar attacks on Thursday, prompting fears that Russia, which has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukrane’s borders, could get involved.
The Kremlin said on Thursday it was “deeply concerned” with the flare-up in Ukraine and was watching the situation closely.
According to the Interfax report, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said the shelling targeted the Petrivske village in the breakaway region at 5:30 am (0330 GMT).
Kyiv and the pro-Russian separatists have been at war for eight years and the ceasefire between the sides is routinely violated, but the intensity of fighting increased notably this week.
5:14 am Paris time: G7 nations ‘ready for serious dialogue’ with Russia on Ukraine, Germany says
The Group of Seven most developed nations are prepared to have “a serious dialogue” with Russia on the Ukraine crisis, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday, on the eve of crunch talks in Munich with her G7 counterparts.
“We will use Munich to send out a message of unity: we are ready for a serious dialogue on security for all,” Baerbock said in a statement. Russia is not scheduled to attend the annual Munich Security Conference, which opens Friday and runs until Sunday.
4:17 am Paris time: Biden to speak with transatlantic leaders on Friday
The White House said Thursday evening that US President Joe Biden would speak with transatlantic leaders on Friday about Russia’s troop buildup on the border of Ukraine.
Earlier Thursday, the office of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Biden would be hosting the call with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Britain, the European Union, and NATO.
2:55 am Paris time: Blinken to meet Russia’s Lavrov late next week, US says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accepted an invitation to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week provided Russia does not invade Ukraine, the US State Department said on Thursday.
Blinken said earlier on Thursday he had sent a letter to Lavrov proposing a meeting next week in Europe.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
