Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, says “the reality is that we are seeing the start already” of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference ahead of a two-day meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Stoltenberg said Nato plans to increase its targets for ammunition stockpiles and that he expected the issue of the possible supplying of aircraft to Ukraine to be discussed at the meeting.
Russia may have lost an entire brigade of the elite 155th naval infantry while storming the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, according to a report. A “large number” of Russian forces, including the command staff, were “destroyed” near the cities of Vuhledar and Mariinka in Donetsk, a Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, said. Russian forces were also losing 150-300 marines a day near Vuhledar, he said. He estimated the brigade to have comprised about 5,000 soldiers in all, whose members had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, has said Moscow will achieve its goals in Ukraine by the end of the year. In an interview broadcast on Russian state television, Kadyrov said Russia had the forces to take Kyiv and that it needed to capture Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and its main port, Odesa. Kadyrov’s forces have played a prominent role fighting in Ukraine, and he has formed an informal alliance with the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and other nationalist hardliners who back the war.
Russia has claimed its troops have advanced 2km (1.24 miles) to the west in four days along the frontline in Ukraine. The Russian state-owned news agency Interfax carried a report on Monday citing a statement from the commander of the central military district saying: “Russian servicemen broke the enemy’s resistance and advanced several kilometres deeper into its echeloned defence. In four days the front moved 2 kilometres to the west. The enemy is very actively mining the territories that he leaves. It becomes problematic for both equipment and personnel to advance.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner group, said the mercenary force had taken the village of Krasna Hora, on the northern edge of the embattled city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. He published a short video apparently showing Wagner fighters next to the entrance sign to the village. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US thinktank, said geolocated footage showed Russian forces had captured at least part of the village of Krasna Hora and Ukrainians had probably withdrawn.
A Ukrainian official disputed Russian claims that it had captured Krasna Hora. The claim “is not true”, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian armed forces. “There are ongoing battles there. We are keeping it under our control,” he said.
Ukrainian forces began training on Monday in operating Leopard 2 tanks in Germany, in a programme that will last until the beginning of April. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has announced that the tanks should arrive in Ukraine by the end of March.
One person was killed overnight after Russia shelled Kherson, and damage to train infrastructure prevented trains from Kyiv and Lviv reaching the city today. Five areas of Kherson were shelled overnight, and trains were forced to terminate at Mykolaiv, with passengers transferring by bus to reach Kherson, after tracks were damaged.
Russia has said it would be “inappropriate” to extend the Black Sea grain deal unless sanctions affecting its agricultural exports are lifted. The UN-brokered deal, which allows Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilisers to be exported through the Black Sea, is up for renewal again next month. Russia has signalled that it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal, since in its view it was being implemented unfairly because of sanctions on Russian agricultural exports.
Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, has accused Russia of planning to use foreign saboteurs to overthrow her country’s government, prevent it from joining the EU and use it in the war against Ukraine. Sandu’s comments on Monday came after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said last week that his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services “for the destruction of Moldova” – claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials.
Norway’s intelligence service has said Russia is the main security threat for Norway and Europe. The deputy head of the foreign Norwegian intelligence service, Lars Nordrum, said Norway’s oil and gas installations could be targeted by Russian sabotage. It comes after the Norwegian government received the annual threat assessments from Norway’s three security services.
The US has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies. France has “strongly” advised its citizens against going to Belarus given the “new offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine”.
Ukraine has accused Silvio Berlusconi of “kissing Putin’s bloody hands” after Italy’s former prime minister blamed Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion of the country. In comments that unleashed a wave of criticism, Berlusconi said if the Ukrainian president had “stopped attacking the two autonomous republics of the Donbas” then “this would not have happened”.
Russian arms supplies to India have been worth $13bn in the past five years, and India has placed orders with Russia for weapons and military equipment exceeding $10bn, according to Russian state media. India is the world’s biggest buyer of Russian arms, accounting for about 20% of Moscow’s current order book. India has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its prime minister, Narendra Modi, has called for dialogue and diplomacy to solve the conflict.
An unverified video is being circulated on social media that appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner group while fighting in Ukraine. The clip is similar to one that showed the killing of another Wagner fighter, Yevgeny Nuzhin, in November last year.
A security guard spying for Russia at the British embassy in Berlin collected highly sensitive information for more than three years, a London court has heard. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, was arrested in August 2021 a day after meeting “Irina”, an MI5 officer posing as a member of Russia’s military intelligence service. The prosecution has argued that Smith, who had expressed “anti-west and anti-Nato views”, as well as his support for Vladimir Putin, had a “clear intention to cause prejudice to the UK”.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, for a new defence package and discussed “further cooperation” in a phone call, Zelenskiy said.
He said Norway’s new defence package for Kyiv “will strengthen us on land, in the sky and at sea”.
Had a phone call with 🇳🇴 PM @jonasgahrstore. Thanked for the new defense package that will strengthen us on land, in the sky & at sea. I’m also grateful for a significant 5-year aid package being prepared for approval in 🇳🇴. We discussed further cooperation. Victorious together!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 13, 2023
Støre proposed last week that his country should provide about 75bn crowns (£6.1bn) in aid to Ukraine over five years.
In 2023, half the assistance would fund military needs while the rest would cover humanitarian aid, although this split could change in coming years, he said.
Norway has earned billions in extra oil and gas revenue from Russia’s war as energy prices have tripled sincethe invasion of Ukraine and Norway has replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.
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