UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was on his way to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday as Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war. Zelensky said earlier in the day that the Ukrainian military would be sending reinforcements to the besieged city of Bakhmut, belying earlier reports that Ukrainian forces might be preparing a retreat. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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1:25am: Macron and Biden spoke about the situation in Ukraine, says the Elysée Palace
French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation in Ukraine and how to restore peace in Europe with his US counterpart President Joe Biden, the Elysée Palace announced on Wednesday.
Macron and Biden also spoke about the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and in Iran, according to the Elysée.
9:07pm: Canada to continue training Ukraine combat engineers, Trudeau says
Canada is extending its mission to train Ukrainian combat engineers to October and deploying medical trainers too, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
He made the announcement during a joint news conference with visiting European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Speaking at a military base in Kingston, Ontario, Trudeau also pledged $3 million CAD for de-mining efforts in Ukraine and vowed with the EU to deliver generators to Ukraine, which has suffered repeated attacks on its power grid since the Russian invasion began a year ago.
The mission to train combat engineers had been due to conclude in the near future.
7:12pm: Russia says NYT Nord Stream report justifies call for investigation
Russia's deputy UN envoy said on Tuesday that a New York Times report on who could be responsible for the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year "only proves that our initiative on launching an international investigation under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General is very timely".
Russia plans to call a vote in the UN Security Council by the end of March on its draft resolution asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish such an inquiry, Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters.
7:08pm: Ukraine denies involvement in Nord Stream pipelines attack
A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Kyiv was "absolutely not involved" in last year's attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines and has no information about what happened.
Mykhailo Podolyak made the comments in a statement to Reuters following the release of a New York Times report citing US officials suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible.
6:33pm: Ukraine seeks to secure Black Sea shipping lanes for Africa grain deliveries
Ukraine on Tuesday appealed for international efforts to keep open Black Sea shipping lanes used to carry millions of tonnes of grain to African nations.
A Ukrainian envoy told the Least Developed Countries summit in Doha that 2.7 million tonnes of grain have been shipped since November.
The Kyiv government at that time launched its Grain from Ukraine programme, mainly for poorer African states.
Ukraine plans to send at least 60 more vessels "to the most affected by hunger and drought countries across Africa and Asia" added Maksym Subkh, Ukraine's special envoy to the Middle East and Africa.
The world's poorest nations have faced the "heaviest burden" from Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Subkh said.
Both countries are among the world's top grain exporters.
6:19PM: Pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines, US intel suggests: NYT
New intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group of likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, but the intelligence reached no firm conclusions, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
There was no evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his top lieutenants were involved, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, the newspaper reported, citing US officials.
The United States and NATO have called the September 2022 attacks on the pipelines that spewed gas into the Baltic Sea "an act of sabotage," while Moscow has blamed the West. Neither side has provided evidence.
5:30pm: Ukraine says they have identified POW shot dead in grisly video
Ukraine's military on Tuesday tentatively identified as one of its missing soldiers a man who appeared to be shot dead by Russian-speakers in a short video that circulated widely on Ukrainian social media and caused an uproar.
The country's chief prosecutor announced a criminal investigation into the killing, and human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets argued that it was a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Senior Ukrainian officials alleged, without providing further evidence, that the man was an unarmed prisoner of war killed by Russian soldiers.
The 30th Mechanized Brigade on its Facebook page named the man as Tymofii Shadura. The identification is based on preliminary information and is not final, it said.
3:30pm: Ukraine war will haunt 'generations to come', UN rights chief says
The shocking magnitude of destruction inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine will harm the rights of generations to come, UN rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday.
“The war in Ukraine has led to civilian casualties and destruction of a shocking magnitude,” Turk said in his main speech to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
“The rights of Ukrainians will be harmed for generations to come, and the war’s impact on fuel and food prices, as well as geopolitical tensions, are impacting negatively on people in every region of the world."
Turk also said the war was a “betrayal” of the promises made when the foundations of universal human rights were laid down in the aftermath of World War II.
He also accused Russian state media of bombarding people with constant pro-war messages, thereby inciting hatred.
3:24pm: Russia and Ukraine exchange soldiers in prisoner swap
Russia and Ukraine said on Tuesday they had exchanged scores of prisoners of war (POWs), the latest swap in more than a year of fighting.
Russia’s defence ministry said 90 Russian prisoners of war had returned from Ukraine in the latest exchange. Kyiv said 130 Ukrainian service personnel had been released from Russian custody.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff, said 87 of the Ukrainians had taken part in the defence of the southeastern city of Mariupol before its capture by Russia.
1:48pm: Guterres to meet Zelensky for talks on grain shipments, 'pertinent' issues
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is traveling to Ukraine on Tuesday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, his third trip since Russia's invasion, his spokesman said.
"The secretary-general has just arrived in Poland on his way to Ukraine," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, adding that discussions will include extending a deal with Moscow that allows the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea as well as "other pertinent issues".
The 120-day deal, initially brokered in July by the United Nations and Turkey and extended in November, will be renewed on March 18 if no party objects.
Russia has signalled that obstacles to its own agricultural exports need to be removed before it agrees to let the Black Sea grain deal continue. To help convince Russia to allow Ukraine to resume Black Sea grain exports back in July, a three-year deal was also struck in which the United Nations agreed to help facilitate Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of grains and fertilisers.
12:52pm: Poland says it will send 10 more Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine this week
Poland will send 10 additional Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine this week, the Polish defence minister said on Tuesday.
"Four [tanks] are already in Ukraine, another 10 will go to Ukraine this week," Mariusz Blaszczak told a news conference.
Poland has promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in total.
11:15am: Ukraine plans reinforcement of defences in Bakhmut
Ukrainian troops will keep defending the eastern city of Bakhmut and reinforcements are on their way, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an overnight address, apparently in a bid to outlast Moscow’s assault on the city.
Ukrainian forces had been digging trenches further west and in recent days had seemed to be preparing a withdrawal to preserve their forces and fight elsewhere.
But Zelensky’s remarks suggest Kyiv has elected to stay and fight on, apparently convinced that Russia’s losses were far greater than those of the Ukrainian troops defending the city.
Ukraine's military command on Tuesday reported a record 1,600 Russians killed over the previous 24 hours. Those figures, which could not be independently confirmed, might be behind Ukraine's renewed push for the city. While the siege of Bakhmut had previously been led by Wagner units formed mainly of released convicts, Ukrainian sources believe Russia is now committing higher value troops to the fight, giving Ukraine more reason to fight on.
The battle for Bakhmut has also exposed a rift between the Russian military and Wagner mercenaries, whose boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has in recent days accused Russia of withholding ammunition from his men.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the capture of Bakhmut was key to launching a further offensive in the wider Donetsk region. “This city is an important defensive hub for Ukrainian troops in Donbas. Capturing it will allow for further offensive operations deep into the defence lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Shoigu said during a televised meeting of military officials.
6:00am: Ukraine investigates alleged Russian shooting of prisoner of war
Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation into what prosecutors said was Russia's "brutal and brazen shooting of an unarmed person" depicted in a video seen on social media, the country's top prosecutor said on Monday.
The 12-second video, which rapidly amassed shares on Twitter, shows an apparently unarmed man in a uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm standing and smoking a cigarette in a wooded area.
The man says "Slava Ukraini!" – or, "Glory to Ukraine" – before multiple shots are heard. The man slumps to the ground as bullets appear to hit his body. A voice is heard saying, "Die, Bitch" in Russian.
Ukraine's military on Tuesday said it had identified the man in the video. "According to preliminary data, the deceased is a serviceman of the 30th separate mechanised brigade – Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura," the military said on Telegram adding that Shadura had been missing since February 3 amid fighting near Bakhmut.
"The final confirmation of his identity can be established after the body is returned," it added. Kyiv said the killed soldier's remains were located in territory currently controlled by Russian forces.
4:15am: China says an 'invisible hand' is prolonging the conflict in Ukraine
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, while calling for dialogue to begin as soon as possible.
An "invisible hand" is "using the Ukraine crisis to serve certain geopolitical agendas", Qin said on the sidelines of an annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing.
Qin also said Beijing has not provided weapons to either side of the Ukraine conflict, amid loud warnings from US officials of unspecified "consequences" for China if it should send lethal aid to Russia.
In later remarks on Qin's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US was to blame for the conflict, saying Washington "does not want this war to end".
"Here we can probably disagree with our Chinese comrades. This is, of course, a joke. You know what the joke is: this is not an invisible hand, this is the hand of the United States of America, this is the hand of Washington," Peskov told reporters.
2:00am: Ukraine has retrieved 307 children from occupied territories
Ukraine has retrieved 307 children from 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.
"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.
Ukraine's authorities estimate that more than 16,000 children have been deported to Russia since the start of the war. Russia denies the accusations, insisting it has been evacuating people voluntarily from Ukraine.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
