🔴 Top military officials vow to defend Bakhmut, Zelensky says

Ukrainian servicemen fly a drone to spot Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut, in the region of Donbas, on March 5, 2023. © Aris Messinis, AFP

Senior Ukrainian commanders and top generals supported continuing to defend the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut against Russian forces, Zelensky's office said Monday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said Monday that Bakhmut was more of symbolic than operational importance and that its capture by Russia would not necessarily mean that Moscow had regained momentum in the war. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).

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4:15am: China says Ukraine crisis driven by 'invisible hand'

The Ukraine crisis seems to be driven by an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict, China's foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday.

The "invisible hand" is "using the Ukraine crisis to serve certain geopolitical agendas", Qin said on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing, calling for dialogue to begin as soon as possible.

2:00am: Ukraine has brought back 307 children from occupied territories, says ombudsman

Ukraine has brought 307 children out of Russia-occupied territories, the country's human rights ombudsman said on Monday, including an 8-year-old boy who was recently reunited with his grandmother.

Ukraine's authorities estimate more than 16,000 children have been deported to Russia since the start of the war a year ago. Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily from Ukraine.

"At the end of February, the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights received a request to help bring back a child who was in the territory temporarily occupied by Russia," Dmytro Lubinets, the ombudsman, said on the Telegram messaging platform.

1:46am: Ukraine moves to fortify embattled Bakhmut as Russia closes in

Ukraine pledged Monday to bolster its defences in frontline Bakhmut, after reports that Kyiv was withdrawing from the city that has become a symbolic prize in the war.

But Ukrainian forces fighting to retain control of the salt-mining town told AFP its capture by Russia was inevitable and that some units had already begun to pull back.

The eastern Ukrainian city has been badly damaged during the longest and bloodiest battle since Russia invaded more than a year ago.

10:35pm: Russia's Wagner Group calls for additional ammunition

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said on Monday he needed the regular army to supply him with more ammunition, reinforcements and covering support if he was to win the months-long battle of attrition for Ukraine's Bakhmut.

The appeal from Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin came amid signs of a deepening rift between him and the defence ministry whom he has bitterly criticised for months and accused of deliberately starving his men of ammunition, an allegation it has rejected.

Prigozhin's fighters – some of them convicts – have spearheaded the assault in eastern Ukraine for months, focusing their efforts on the small city of Bakhmut, which Russia calls Artyomovsk and sees as a useful stepping stone to seize bigger cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Prigozhin, an ex-convict himself and a Putin ally, said on Friday that his units had "practically surrounded Bakhmut", where fighting has intensified in the past week after months of attritional warfare, with Russian forces attacking from three sides.

10:01pm: Ukraine generals commit to safeguarding Bakhmut

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine's top military commanders pledged to keep defending Bakhmut when asked how to deal further with the situation of the besieged city.

Zelensky said that at a meeting of top military officials he had asked the commander of the regional grouping and Ukraine's commander in chief how they proposed to proceed.

"Both generals responded not to withdraw but to strengthen (our defences)," he said in his nightly address.

"The command unanimously supported this position. There were no other positions. I told the commander in chief to find the appropriate forces to help our guys in Bakhmut."

9:35pm: Ukraine seeks US cluster bombs, legislators say

Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalise to drop the anti-armor bomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two US lawmakers.

Kyiv has urged members of Congress to press the White House to approve sending the weapons but it is by no means certain that the Biden administration will sign off on that.

Cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians.

Ukraine is seeking the MK-20, an air-delivered cluster bomb, to release its individual explosives from drones, said US Representatives Jason Crow and Adam Smith, who both serve on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

That is in addition to 155 mm artillery cluster shells that Ukraine already has requested, they added.

8:41pm: Russia bans Transparency International 

The Russian government pressed its crackdown against critical voices on Monday by branding the global anti-corruption group Transparency International as “undesirable”, effectively banning it from operating in the country.

The Russian prosecutor's office charged that while “formally acting as an organization fighting corruption around the world, it interferes in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, which poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the Russian Federation”.

Daniel Eriksson, CEO of Berlin-based Transparency International, said in a statement: “Despite these allegations, Transparency International will continue to shine a light on corruption and kleptocracy in Russia and everywhere else to promote transparency, accountability, integrity, and to hold power to account.”

7:22pm: Ukraine calls for ICC investigation into footage of alleged POW killing 

Ukraine's foreign minister on Monday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe footage circulating on social media that he said showed Russian forces killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

"Horrific video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW executed by Russian forces merely for saying 'Glory to Ukraine'. Another (piece of) proof this war is genocidal," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on social media.

Kuleba said it was "imperative" that International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan "launches an immediate ICC investigation into this heinous war crime", adding that "perpetrators must face justice".

He was referring to what appears to be amateur footage of a detained combatant standing in a shallow trench, wearing camouflage and smoking a cigarette, being shot to death with automatic weapons after saying "glory to Ukraine".

5:56pm: Ukrainian pilots training in the US, Pentagon says

Two Ukrainian pilots are in the United States to improve their flying skills, the Pentagon said Monday as Washington continues to rule out F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine despite pressure from Kyiv.

A US military official confirmed that the pilots are in Tucson, Arizona for a "familiarization event".

"This event allows us to better help Ukrainian pilots become more effective pilots and better advise them on how to develop their own capabilities," the Pentagon official said.

"The pilots will not be flying any platforms during this event but they will be using a simulator during portions of their visit".

5:20pm: Assassination attempt on tycoon thwarted, Russia's FSB says

Russia's FSB security service said Monday it had thwarted an attempt to assassinate a controversial tycoon, blaming a Russian-founded sabotage group that last week penetrated the country's borders from Ukraine. 

"The Federal Security Service has thwarted an attempt on the life of a public figure -- chairman of the board of directors of the Tsargrad group of companies Konstantin Malofeev," the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Malofeyev is a Kremlin-linked businessman who had been indicted by the United States for sanctions violations.

Washington said last month that his seized assets would be diverted to "support the people of Ukraine".

2:49pm: Ukraine 'fulfills' EU accession requirements, PM says

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Monday that Kyiv had fulfilled all the recommendations of the European Union as his war-battered nation pushes to begin talks to join the bloc.

Ukraine, which held a pro-EU revolution in 2014, has been battling a Russian invasion for over a year. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country "deserves" to start talks to join the bloc this year.  

Shmygal said Ukraine had appointed a new head of its National Anti-Corruption Bureau, thereby completing a set of reforms required by the EU. 

"Ukraine has fulfilled all seven EU recommendations," he tweeted. "This demonstrates our determination to move on to the start of accession negotiations this year." 

1:17pm: Ukrainian generals support continuing Bakhmut defence

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the situation in besieged Bakhmut with senior commanders, and two top generals supported continuing to defend the eastern city against Russian forces, Zelensky's office said on Monday.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, "spoke in favour of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening (Ukrainian) positions in Bakhmut", it said in a statement on its website.

© France 24

11:03am: Fall of Bakhmut would not mean Russia has changed tide of war, says US Pentagon

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday that the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was more of symbolic than operational importance and that its capture by Russia would not necessarily mean that Moscow had regained momentum in its year-long war effort.

"I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value," Austin told reporters while visiting Jordan, adding that he would not predict if or when Bakhmut would be taken by Russian forces.

"The fall of Bakhmut won't necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight," Austin added.

10:34am: ‘Still some hope’ Ukraine will not have to give up Bakhmut

The small eastern city of Bakhmut is still the scene of intense fighting, but in the past few days, the Russians – who have managed to encircle the city on three fronts – have made little progress.

FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg said that although both sides are suffering from a lack of ammunition and other equipment, the Ukrainians “still have some hope” they might not have to give up Bakhmut after all.

“They don’t seem to have given any more ground to the Russians in the last couple of days,” he said.

Watch the full report in the video below:

© France 24

10:32am: Ukraine says 13 Russian drones shot down overnight

Ukraine’s air force said it has shot down 13 explosive drones launched from southern Russia overnight to Monday after air raid sirens sounded for hours in Kyiv.

The air force said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched 15 Iran-made Shahed drones from the Bryansk region northeast of Kyiv, 13 of which Ukrainian forces shot down.

Tam: he head of the city’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, said that drones had been heading for Kyiv but Ukraine’s air defence forces downed them and they did not cause injuries or hit infrastructure.

8:33am: Russia’s defence minister inspects reconstruction work in Mariupol

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Mariupol to inspect Russian reconstruction efforts of the Ukrainian port city’s infrastructure, the defence ministry said, without specifying the date of his visit.

According to the statement, Shoigu visited a medical centre, as well as a new residential area consisting of 12 apartment buildings.

Mariupol, which is located in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, was badly destroyed before it was captured by Russian forces at the end of May last year.

6:00am: Russia's air defence downs three missiles in Belgorod region 

At least one person was wounded in the southern Russian region of Belgorod on Monday after Russian forces shot down three missiles, the governor of the region bordering Ukraine said.

The falling debris had also brought down some power lines near the town of Novy Oskol but the full scope of the damage was not immediately known, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the Telegram messaging app.

"It's known about one wounded, a man with shrapnel wounds to his hand," Gladkov said.

2:20am: Russia's Wagner chief warns of frontline collapse if forced to retreat from Bakhmut

The founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said his troops now tightening their grip on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut were being deprived of ammunition, and if they were forced to retreat, the entire front would collapse.

"If Wagner retreats from Bakhmut now, the whole front will collapse," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published over the weekend. "The situation will not be sweet for all military formations protecting Russian interests."

Prigozhin on Friday said that his units had "practically surrounded Bakhmut," where fighting has intensified in the past week with Russian forces attacking from nearly all sides.

But on Sunday he complained that most of the ammunition that his forces were promised by Moscow in February had not yet been shipped.

1:28am: Scholz warns of 'consequences' if China sends arms to Russia

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says there would be “consequences” if China sent weapons to Russia for Moscow's war in Ukraine, but he's fairly optimistic that Beijing will refrain from doing so.

Scholz's comments came in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, two days after he met US President Joe Biden in Washington.

Asked by CNN if he could imagine sanctioning China if it did aid Russia, Scholz replied: “I think it would have consequences, but we are now in a stage where we are making clear that this should not happen, and I’m relatively optimistic that we will be successful with our request in this case, but we will have to look at (it) and we have to be very, very cautious.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)