Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the eastern Ukrainian mining town of Soledar on Thursday, state media reported. Kyiv, however, denied that this was the case, saying heavy fighting was still ongoing. Read our live blog below to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
9:12pm: UN nuclear agency stepping up presence in Ukraine
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday said it was boosting its presence in Ukraine to help prevent a nuclear accident during the current conflict.
The UN nuclear watchdog said it would soon have a permanent presence at all five of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, including Chernobyl, the plant closed after the 1986 disaster. The agency’s chief Rafael Grossi will visit Ukraine next week to get the operation underway.
At the moment, only the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant, which is near the frontline, has a permanent IAEA presence. But under the new plan, 11 or 12 of the agency’s experts will be present in Ukraine to monitor the plants and provide technical assistance.
6:52pm: Russian proxy in east Ukraine accuses Briton of spying
Authorities in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine have accused a Briton who worked as an international conflict monitor of spying for Ukraine, a Russian news agency said on Friday.
State-owned RIA said David Orrells, who worked as a drone operator for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was suspected of handing over intelligence on the positions of Russian-backed fighters and weaponry that the Ukrainians then used to launch attacks on them.
Contacted by Reuters, Orrells said he had left Ukraine’s Luhansk region in February last year, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, and was now “perfectly safe” back in the UK. He described the allegation as “laughable” and said he did not know why it was being made now.
Before the invasion, Orrells led an OSCE team using drones to monitor a frequently violated ceasefire between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces, in a conflict that had dragged on since 2014. The OSCE ended the mission after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24 last year.
6:31pm: Unofficial reports suggest Ukraine has ‘lost at least a very large part of Soledar’ to Russia
FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports that although the control for Soledar is still being disputed – with Kyiv rejecting Moscow’s claims that it has captured it – the situation for the Ukrainian forces fighting there has become extremely difficult.
“There have been unofficial messages coming out on social media – some posted by Ukrainian members of the armed forces themselves, and some reported by journalists – suggesting that Ukrainian forces have indeed lost control of at least a very large part of Soledar, and in particular the part that is on the hill, which is the more strategically important part of the town.”
“Clearly the situation in Soledar has become very difficult for the Ukrainian forces,” he said, adding that: “Speculation in some quarters has now moved on to whether or not this means that the Russians may now be able to move further and finally have some success in their attempt to take the city of Bakhmut.”
He added that the convicts that have been enlisted to fight for the Russian mercenary group Wagner are reported to have been used as "cannon fodder" in the group's assault on Soledar.
Watch Cragg’s full report in the video below:
6:10pm: Russian army praises ‘courageous’ Wagner forces in Soledar
In an unusual recognition of the mercenary group Wagner, the Russian army on Friday praised the “courageous” troops of the private fighting force after Moscow claimed it had taken control of the Ukrainian town of Soledar.
“This combat mission was successfully implemented by the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner assault squads,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement, referring to the group’s storming of Soledar.
4:29pm: Germany’s Scholz says he will weigh each step carefully on Ukraine arms
Germany will continue to “weigh every step carefully” and consult with its allies on further weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday as he faces mounting pressure to approve German-made battle tanks for Kyiv.
Germany has given Ukraine substantial military aid since Russia invaded, including howitzers, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and the first of four IRIS-T surface-to-air missile systems. Last week, it announced it would send 40 Marder armored personnel carriers — a step that came alongside similar moves by the US and France — and as well as a Patriot air defense missile battery.
But critics, some inside Germany’s governing coalition, have long complained of Scholz’s perceived hesitancy to take the next step when it comes to weapons deliveries, and supply Ukraine with the heavier Leopard 2 battle tanks. Scholz has been wary of such pressure, insisting that Germany wouldn’t go it alone and pointing to a need to ensure that NATO doesn’t become a party to the war with Russia. “It always remains the case that we act in close consultation and weigh every step carefully,” Scholz said.
3:57pm: France, Germany press Africa to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine
The French and German foreign ministers on Friday called on Africa to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
“It is important to remember that there is an aggressor and an attacked and it is important that everyone tells the aggressor that he must stop,” French minister Catherine Colonna said.
“We have common interests and we have expectations of our African friends,” Colonna told a press briefing at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The call was echoed by her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock who said that peace in Europe was under attack. “We need you, we need Africa to defend peace,” she said.
3:02pm: NATO to send AWACS planes to Romania to eye Russian activity
NATO plans to deploy three surveillance planes to Romania next week to perform reconnaissance missions and to “monitor Russian military activity” within the 30-nation military alliance’s territory.
The Airborne Warning and Control System surveillance planes, or AWACS, belong to a fleet of 14 usually based in Germany. Three of the aircraft will be sent Tuesday to an airbase near Romania’s capital, Bucharest, on a mission expected to last several weeks, the 30-nation alliance said in a statement.
The planes “can detect aircraft hundreds of kilometres away, making them a key capability for NATO’s deterrence and defence posture", NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement.
12:55pm: Ukraine denies Russia controls Soledar, says 'severe' fighting ongoing
Kyiv on Friday denied that Russia was in control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, saying heavy fighting was ongoing.
"Severe fighting is going on in Soledar," said Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces. "Ukraine's armed forces have the situation under control in difficult conditions."
12:45pm: Ukraine 'still saying that the fighting is still going on'
"Ukraine is not so far admitting having lost control of Soledar; the Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said though that the night was very difficult for the Ukrainian forces defending that area but that they were holding their positions," FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reported from Romny in northeastern Ukraine.
"What changes this morning is that the Russian defence ministry, the Russian military itself is saying that Russia has taken over this small town, which had just 10,000 inhabitants before the war," Cragg continued. "A few days ago, the mercenaries from the Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin were saying that they had taken control of the city, but the official side in Moscow actually denied that, saying that the fighting was still going on. The Ukrainians are still saying that the fighting is still going on.
"But what's also new this morning is that the Institute for the Study of War, a think-tank based in Washington DC, has issued its opinion, which is that in fact it is probable that Russia has taken control of Soledar. But what the Washington-based experts are now saying is that it's not at all clear to them that this gives Russia a very big advantage in its bid to take the much bigger neighbouring city of Bakhmut."
11:35am: Russia says it has taken control of Ukraine's Soledar
Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the Ukrainian salt-mining town of Soledar on Thursday, state media reported.
It added that Russia's capture of the town would allow its troops to cut off Ukrainian forces from the nearby, much larger town of Bakhmut. FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify Russia's claim.
10:35am: Finland says it could send Ukraine a small number of tanks
Finland could donate a small number of German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if a wider group of European nations also decided to do so, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Kyiv has requested heavy military vehicles such as the Leopard 2, which would represent a significant step-up in Western support after Russia invaded Ukraine. Finland, which has applied for NATO membership, could only share a limited number of tanks as the country's arms are needed to guard its long border with Russia, the president told Finnish news agency STT.
10:12am: Russian 'stormtroopers attempting to flood' Ukrainian positions
"The situation in Soledar, it has to be said, is not particularly good," FRANCE 24's Luke Shrago reported from Mykolaiv. "We have just heard President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that the Ukrainian forces are still holding out; this is in contradiction to what we may have heard from the leader of the Wagner mercenary outfit, Yevgeny Prigozhin."
"He claimed that Russian forces were in control of the town previously. However, the Kremlin itself has held off from declaring an outright victory, so it does seem very much that the Ukrainians are still holding out as best they can," Shrago continued. "But they've been seeing ... these waves of attacks, of stormtroopers attempting to flood their positions."
8:28am: Tensions within Russian high command amid Ukraine fighting
As Russian troops wage a ferocious house-to-house fight for control of strongholds in eastern Ukraine, a parallel battle is unfolding in the top echelons of military power in Moscow, with President Vladimir Putin reshuffling his top generals while rival camps try to win his favour.
The fighting for the salt mining town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut has highlighted a bitter rift between the Russian Defence Ministry leadership and Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire whose private military force known as the Wagner Group has played an increasingly visible role in Ukraine. Putin's shakeup of the military brass this week was seen as a bid to show that the Defence Ministry still has his support and is in charge as the troubled conflict nears the 11-month mark.
Prigozhin rushed Wednesday to declare that his mercenary force had captured Soledar, a claim rejected by Ukrainian officials. Furthermore, his statement that the prize was won exclusively by Wagner challenged the accounts from the Defence Ministry, which described action by airborne troops and other forces in the battle for Soledar.
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Prigozhin has scathingly criticised the military brass for blunders in Ukraine, saying Wagner was more efficient than regular troops. He has found a powerful ally in Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has deployed elite troops from his southern Russian region to fight in Ukraine and also assailed the military leadership and the Kremlin for being too soft and indecisive. While both have pledged loyalty to Putin, their public attacks on his top generals openly challenged the Kremlin’s monopoly on such criticism, something that Russia’s tightly controlled political system hadn’t seen before.
8:16am: France hoping to send Ukraine light combat tanks in two months' time
France is hoping to deliver 'AMX 10-RC' light combat tanks to Ukraine in two months' time, French armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement on Friday.
The statement contained a summary of a phone conversation he had on January 12 with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov in which he also reiterated France's general support for Ukraine.
6:48am: China's 2022 trade with Russia hit record $190 billion
China's trade with Russia hit a record 1.28 trillion yuan ($190 billion) last year, the government said on Friday. China's 2022 exports to and imports from Russia accounted for 3% of China's total trade, Lyu Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, told a news briefing. Shipments of Chinese goods to Russia have grown for six months in a row.
Russia more than doubled its rail exports of liquefied petroleum gas to China in 2022 as part of the Kremlin's drive to diversify its energy export sales, a Reuters analysis based on data from industry sources showed on Thursday. Meanwhile China's imports of Russian natural gas through the Power of Siberia pipeline are set to have risen by at least 50% in 2022, according to Russia's Gazprom. China's Russian crude oil imports expanded 10% on year in the first 11 months at nearly 80 million tonnes.
Russia has responded to formidable Western sanctions by deepening economic ties to non-Western countries, most notably China. The two great powers are united in opposition to US hegemony, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledging a "no limits" friendship some three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
6:33am: Zelensky promises 'everything necessary' to defend Soledar
President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east will be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Kyiv said its troops were fighting to retain control of the now-battered industrial towns in the east, which Russian mercenaries claimed to have taken this week. The United Nations Security Council was due to meet at 2000 GMT on Friday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has made capturing Bakhmut – and Soledar with it – its primary objective after nearly one year of fighting, having been forced to abandon more ambitious goals such as seizing the capital Kyiv.
6:17am: Russia says military drills with Belarus designed to deter escalation
A Russian foreign ministry official said on Friday that a flurry of joint military drills between Russia and its close ally Belarus was designed to deter "potential opponents from escalation and provocations."
Russia used Belarus as a springboard to invade Ukraine in February 2022, and the October deployment of a joint troop group to Belarus raised fears in Kyiv that Russia could be preparing to launch a new offensive from its northern neighbour this year.
6:16am: Putin ally suggests confiscating property of Russian war critics
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday suggested confiscating property and assets of Russians who discredit the country's armed forces and oppose the war in Ukraine.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma, said current measures, such as fines for those who speak out against what Moscow calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, were not strict enough.
3:24am: Ukraine says its forces hold out against Russia in battle for Soledar
Ukraine said its troops were holding out against pro-Moscow forces in the eastern salt mining town of Soledar as more than 500 civilians including children were trapped there.
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday thanked two units in Soledar that he said "are holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
