Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, said the country’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. Speaking to French media, Reznikov warned that Russia would call on a large contingent of mobilised troops. Referring to Russia’s general mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers in September last year, he claimed that numbers at the border suggest the true size could be closer to 500,000.
In an interview on Russia’s state TV on Thursday, the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said everybody wanted the conflict in Ukraine to end, but that the west’s support for Kyiv was playing an important role in how Russia approached the campaign. Lavrov also said that Moscow had plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events arranged by western and allied countries around the world to mark the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
A Russian rocket destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk late on Wednesday and at least two people were killed and seven injured, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. “Rescuers, law enforcement and public utilities are working at the scene to go through the rubble of the destroyed building. It is likely that people are still underneath,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. At least 44 people were killed last month when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the eastern city of Dnipro.
Two more Russian missiles struck Kramatorsk on Thursday. The latest strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, said the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, but it is not clear how many. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Honcharenko, confirmed there had been a strike and urged residents to stay in bomb shelters.
Two people have been killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Wednesday, according to local officials. A 25-year-old man was killed in Kherson city and a 44-year-old woman was killed after Russian forces shelled a residential area in the village of Komyshany, the regional military administration said.
More than a dozen top EU officials, including the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Kyiv on Thursday, with promises of more military, financial and political aid. It is a symbolic trip meant to highlight support for Ukraine as the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has announced a doubling of the number of Ukrainian troops to be trained by the EU to 30,000 this year. He also promised €25m for mine clearing in areas recaptured by Ukraine.
Von der Leyen has announced an international centre for the prosecution of crimes in Ukraine will be set up at The Hague. “It will coordinate the collection of evidence, it will be embedded in the joint investigation team which is supported by our agency Eurojust,” the European Commission president said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the EU to impose more sanctions on Russia, and said he had discussed a new sanctions package with Von der Leyen. Ukraine’s president, speaking at a joint news conference in Kyiv with the Commission president, said the speed of the EU sanctions campaign against Russia had “slightly slowed down”, while Russia had been “increasing its pace of adapting to sanctions”.
Austria has declared four Russian diplomats personae non grata for behaving in a manner inconsistent with international agreements, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, without giving many specifics.
A UK Ministry of Defence update said Russia’s role as a “reliable arms exporter” was “highly likely” being undermined by its invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions. The MoD said Russia’s share of the international arms market was declining even before the war.
At least eight people have died after a fire at a dormitory for construction workers in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Russian officials said. The fire broke out in temporary accommodation for workers building the Tavrida highway, a road linking Sevastopol to the city of Simferopol, according to the Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Fierce fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are trying to gain ground near the strategic logistics hub of Lyman, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said on Wednesday evening. Russian forces are trying to make gains that they can show on the anniversary of their 24 February 2022 invasion, said Zelenskiy. “A definite increase has been noted in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become tougher.”
Shell’s annual profits have more than doubled to a record of nearly $40bn (£32.3bn) after a surge in wholesale gas prices linked to the war in Ukraine boosted its performance, as consumers struggled to pay huge energy bills.
Norway will increase the spending from its sovereign wealth fund in the coming years to fund military and civilian aid to Ukraine, the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, told parliament on Thursday.
A former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway told Reuters he wanted to apologise for fighting in Ukraine and was speaking out to bring the perpetrators of atrocities in the conflict to justice. Andrei Medvedev, who fled by crossing the Russian-Norwegian border on 13 January, says he witnessed the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners taken to Ukraine to fight for Wagner.
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said he did not think it was the right approach “for now” to send UK fighter jets to Ukraine. He said it was “not a solid decision”, adding: “I’ve learned two things: never rule anything in and never rule anything out.” Meanwhile, Downing Street has continued to rule out providing Kyiv with British jets, saying it was not practical given the complexity of the aircraft. On Wednesday, the prime minster’s spokesman said it could take years to fully train a pilot to fly a British fighter jet, adding that Britain’s focus was on “how we can help Ukraine defend their country and push back this year”.
The UK’s statements came as its former prime minister Boris Johnson called on western leaders to “give the Ukrainians the tools to finish the job”, including heavy tanks and planes. Addressing the Atlantic Council in Washington, Johnson urged the west to “stop focusing on Putin and focus entirely on Ukraine”.
