President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday vowed to give the Ukrainian forces defending the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar “everything necessary” to keep Russian troops at bay. The fall of the key salt-mining town of Soledar could offer Russian forces an inroad for conquering other areas of Donetsk province that remain under Ukrainian control, including Bakhmut. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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03:24am: Ukraine says its forces hold out against Russia in battle for Soledar
Ukraine said its troops were holding out against pro-Moscow forces inthe eastern salt mining town of Soledar as more than 500 civilians including children were trapped there.
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday thanked two units in Soledar that he said "are holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy." He did not give more details.
Zelenskiy said he and senior Ukrainian commanders analysed the need for reinforcements in Soledar and nearby towns in the eastern industrial area known as the Donbas and next steps for the coming days.
10:26pm: Russia does not yet control Soledar
Russia on Thursday said its forces were edging closer to capturing the Ukrainian salt-mining town of Soledar in the east, and had surrounded it. FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg said that although the Ukrainian fight to retain control of the city may be tough, Russian forces had not yet encircled it.
FRANCE 24’s Cragg added that a key development of the day was that mercenaries from the Russian private military contractor, the Wagner group, had been filmed by Russian television flying a Wagner – and not a Russian – flag in Soledar.
“I guess that shows that they control part of the town, but according to the Ukrainians – and actually also to Russian military spokespeople who are not from the Wagner group – they don’t control the whole town.”
Watch Cragg’s full report in the video below:
9:43pm: Pentagon says Russia’s troubles in Ukraine likely caused leadership shakeup
The Pentagon said on Thursday that Russia’s persistent troubles in Ukraine likely led to the latest shake-up in military leadership, and urged Moscow to end the war instead of turning to new generals to oversee the nearly year-long invasion.
Russia on Wednesday appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to oversee the military campaign in Ukraine. Only last October, Russia had put Sergey Surovikin in that position. Surovikin will now stay on as a deputy of Gerasimov.
“It likely does reflect some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion,” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a press conference.
“We’ve talked about some of those things in terms of its logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale and the ... failure to achieve the strategic objectives that they’ve set for themselves.”
8:45pm: Other countries may follow Poland’s example on Leopard tanks, Zelenskiy says
The support offered to Ukraine by Poland and Lithuania may mean that other countries will follow their example, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, after Poland’s president said Warsaw would give Kyiv Leopard tanks.
“Poland and Lithuania can strategically start steps concerning obtaining (Leopard) tanks for Ukraine,” he told Polish state-run broadcaster TVP Info. “Somebody always has to set an example... this step may help us in that other countries will follow in the footsteps of Poland and Lithuania.”
Zelenskiy spoke a day after a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda. Duda said that Poland would transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine, while Nauseda said Lithuania would supply anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition.
8:08pm: Top EU officials to visit Ukraine on February 2
More than a dozen senior EU officials will meet with members of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on February 2, a day before the EU-Ukraine summit, a European Commission spokeswoman said Thursday.
European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant told AFP that “around 15 commissioners”—out of 27 -- could visit Kyiv for the meeting, confirming a report by Politico.
The commissioners taking part are those handling portfolios relevant to Ukraine, such as “financial matters, the question of EU membership or energy”, she said, adding that the list had yet to be finalised. The visit demonstrates “the extent of our work with Ukraine” and shows the EU’s support for the country, she added.
The day after, European Council and European Commission Presidents Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss financial and military support for his country’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
6:40pm: Wagner sending in ‘wave after wave’ of mercenaries ‘to tire the Ukrainians’
Reporting from Ukraine, FRANCE 24’s Senior Correspondent Luke Shrago said that the city of Soledar “had turned into an absolute meat grinder”.
Shrago said that the Russian contract militia Wagner group, was attacking the city by sending in “wave after wave” of mercenaries “to try to tire the Ukrainians”.
He added that even though most of the mercenaries consist of ill-equipped and ill-trained Russian prisoners, and the wave attacks therefore come with an “enormous” human cost, “it is having some success”.
Watch FRANCE 24’s Luke Shrago’s full report in the video below:
5:23pm: Ukrainian forces to get ‘everything necessary’ to defend Bakhmut, Soledar
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the military units fighting to keep Russian forces at bay in the eastern towns of Bakhmut and Soledar would be supplied with all necessary weapons.
“I want to emphasise that the units defending these cities will be provided with ammunition and everything necessary, on time and without interruption,” he said in a statement following a meeting with senior military officials.
3:58pm: Russia denies widely reported new prisoner exchange
Russia and Ukraine have not reached a new prisoner exchange agreement during talks in Turkey, Moscow’s envoy said Thursday, saying her earlier remarks about a swap were misinterpreted.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova held rare talks in Ankara on Wednesday with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets. Turkish state media later quoted her as telling reporters that they had agreed to exchange “more than 40 prisoners” from each side.
But Moskalkova said those comments referred to the number of people the sides had already exchanged in the past. “Someone misunderstood something,” Moskalkova said, but noted Russia and Ukraine had exchanged lists of wounded soldiers in preparation for a possible future swap.
2:54pm: Russia’s new deputy commander in Ukraine inspects troops in Belarus
A delegation headed by the commander of Russia’s ground forces, Oleg Salyukov, visited Belarus on Thursday to inspect the combat readiness of a joint force stationed there, the Belarusian defence ministry said.
The visit took place a day after Salyukov was named as one of the deputy commanders of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in the latest of a series of reshuffles.
Russia and its close ally Belarus have beefed up their joint military grouping in Belarus and plan to hold joint aviation drills there from next Monday. The exercises form part of a pattern of activity that has prompted Ukraine to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin may try to use Belarus to launch a new ground invasion of Ukraine from the north.
1:47pm: Battle for Soledar takes centre stage
Although Ukraine denies that Russian forces have taken control of the town of Soledar - located 10km northeast of Bakhmut, one of Russia's main targets in the Donbas region - they do acknowledge that large numbers of Russian forces are currently stationed inside the town. Both sides agree that intense fighting is continuing in this small salt-mining town, which appears to be the main site of the war for the moment.
FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports from Kyiv.
12:32pm: Germany should not stand in way of military support for Ukraine, says vice chancellor
Germany should not stand in the way of other countries' military support for Ukraine, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said on Thursday, in reference to a Polish push to send German-built Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
"Germany should not stand in the way of other countries taking decisions to support Ukraine, independent of which decisions Germany takes," Habeck said in Berlin in response to a reporter's question on the initiative.
11:19am: Russia says Ukrainian forces continue to resist in Soledar
Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region acknowledged on Thursday that “pockets of resistance” remained in the Ukrainian town of Soledar, the TASS news agency reported.
But they said the western part of the town was now under the full control of Russian forces.
Soledar's fall, while unlikely to be a turning point in the nearly 11-month war, would be a prize for a Kremlin starved of good battlefield news in recent months. It would also offer Russian troops a springboard to conquer other areas of Donetsk province that remain under Ukrainian control, such as the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut.
10:17am: Russia building up forces in Ukraine, battle rages for Soledar
Russia is building up its forces in Ukraine but Ukrainian forces are holding out in fierce fighting for control of the eastern town of Soledar, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Thursday.
She told a news briefing that the number of Russian military units in Ukraine had risen to 280 from 250 a week earlier.
"They (the Russians) are moving over their own corpses," Malyar said of the fighting for Soledar. "Russia is driving its own people to the slaughter by the thousands, but we are holding on."
9:03am: Russia says it is interested in future talks with Ukraine's human rights commissioners, reports TASS
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said on Thursday that both Moscow and Kyiv are interested in future contacts between their rights commissioners, the TASS news agency reported.
Following a meeting this week in Turkey with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, Moskalkova said she believed Ukraine had adopted a pragmatic approach to ongoing discussions between the two sides, TASS reported.
At that meeting, the pair agreed the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides, with each releasing another 40 captured fighters.
4:50am: Ukraine response should be 'replicated', HRW urges governments
In the report, Human Rights Watch urged governments to "replicate the best of the international response in Ukraine" and "scale up the political will to address other crises".
"Amongst the fog of war and the darkness that we have seen in this war in Ukraine, there has been a shining light," the US-based NGO's acting executive director, Tirana Hassan, told AFP in London.
"That has been the international response and the commitment to international justice," she said as HRW released its annual report on rights worldwide.
2:01am: Fate of Ukraine's Soledar uncertain as Wagner claims control
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that fighting was still raging in a key eastern frontline city that a Russian mercenary group earlier said it controlled.
The fate of Soledar in eastern Ukraine was uncertain after Russian group Wagner claimed it controlled the gateway town - but the Kremlin cautioned against declaring victory prematurely.
And in his daily address, Zelensky insisted the front was "holding".
"The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend" to have achieved some successes in Soledar, Zelensky said, "but the fighting continues".
00:28am: Russia appoints new military commander in Ukraine
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov as overall commander for what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, now in its 11th month.
The change effectively demoted General Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed only in October to lead the invasion and oversaw heavy attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
