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”.
Updated
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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A security guard spying for Russia at the British embassy in Berlin collected highly sensitive information for more than three years, including “secret” government communications with Boris Johnson, a London court has heard.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, a Briton, who has pleaded guilty to eight charges, is alleged to have collected information from as early as March 2018 until his arrest in August 2021.
He was arrested a day after meeting “Irina”, an MI5 officer posing as a member of Russia’s military intelligence service.
Alison Morgan, prosecuting, told London’s Old Bailey that a search of Smith’s home in Potsdam, Germany, after his arrest recovered a USB stick which contained several photos of embassy staff and diplomatic passports.
Smith had filmed a number of sensitive documents he found in trays including a November 2020 letter from the then trade minister, Liz Truss, and then business minister, Alok Sharma, to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, which was classified as “secret”, she said.
Smith had also sent a letter containing “highly sensitive information about the British embassy and those who worked within it” to Gen Maj Sergey Chukhrov, the Russian military attache to Berlin, in November 2020, she said.
Smith pleaded guilty in November to eight offences under the Official Secrets Act, including one charge relating to passing information to Chukhrov. He has admitted seven other charges relating to collecting information that might be useful to the Russian state.
He denies intending to cause prejudice to Britain, Morgan told the court, and says he pleaded guilty on the basis that he simply wanted to cause “inconvenience and embarrassment”. He also denies receiving any payment.
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”.
Updated
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said she expects all Nato members, including Turkey and Hungary, to ratify Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance “without further delay”.
The accession of Finland and Sweden to Nato would strengthen the alliance as a whole, Baerbock told a news conference in Helsinki with her Finnish counterpart, Pekka Haavisto.
The two Nordic countries sought Nato membership shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and have said they want to join “hand in hand”, but while most member states have given the applications the green light, Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify them.
Turkey has said it could approve Finland’s membership application ahead of Sweden’s, but Ankara wants Stockholm to take a tougher line against the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which is considered a terror group by Turkey and the EU, and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
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Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, met Polish and foreign instructors intensively training Ukrainian troops to operate German-made Leopard 2 tanks.
Duda and Błaszczak also watched Leopard 2 training at a military base and test range in Świętoszów, in south-west Poland, AP reports.
Ukrainian tank crews from units fighting in the east of the country are being trained up to 10 hours a day, including weekends, the Polish military said. Training is also being held in Germany.
Duda said he hoped the German-made tanks, which some European countries and Canada have offered Ukraine, would help Ukrainian forces “in a much efficient way to defeat the enemy”.
He said the Ukrainian trainees have come straight from the frontline.
You can see in their faces that these people have gone through terrible things, but they are determined to defend their homeland.
Germany has pledged at least 178 Leopard 1 tanks and 14 Leopard 2 tanks. Poland has pledged 14 Leopard 2s as well as more than 300 of its Soviet-era T-72 tanks and modernized PT-91 tanks.
Updated
Ukrainian official disputes Russia's claim of capturing village near Bakhmut
A Ukrainian official has disputed Russian claims that it captured the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
The claim that Russian troops have taken Krasna Hora “is not true”, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian armed forces.
He told CNN:
There are ongoing battles there. We are keeping it under our control.
Bakhmut remains the focus of Russia’s main attacks, Cherevatyi said, adding that Russian troops had the ability to fire on the routes to Bakhmut. Ukraine’s forces “are engaged in counter-battery fighting to reduce it”, he said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm 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 two-day 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 the capital 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. 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, 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. US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said geolocated footage showed Russian forces had captured at least part of the village of Krasna Hora and the Ukrainians had likely withdrawn from.
Ukrainian forces began training on Monday in operating Leopard 2 tanks in Germany, in a programme that will last until the beginning of April. German defence minister Boris Pistorius has announced that the tanks should arrive in Ukraine by the end of March.
One person has been killed overnight after Russia shelled Kherson, and damage to train infrastructure has 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 and passengers transfer 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 also “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 three-time 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 which appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner mercenary group while fighting in Ukraine, in a clip similar to that which showed the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin in November last year.
Good afternoon from London, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here with all the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
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, was extended by a further 120 days in November and 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. Moscow briefly suspended the deal in October.
In an interview with the RTVI broadcaster, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said:
Without tangible results on the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum, above all on the real removal of sanctions restrictions on Russian agricultural exports ... the extension of the Ukrainian document is inappropriate.
Last week, Vershinin’s colleague, Alexander Grushko, said work to unblock Russian exports under the Black Sea grain deal was unsatisfactory, and accused the EU of failing to deliver on its promises.
Russia’s agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by western sanctions, but Moscow says blocks on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a “barrier” to it being able to export its own grains and fertilisers.
Updated
Norway’s intelligence service has said Russia is the main security threat for Norway and Europe.
“Russia today poses the biggest threat to Norwegian and European security, and the confrontation with the west will be long lasting,” said defence minister, Bjørn Arild Gram. Gram made the remark after the government received the annual threat assessments from Norway’s three security services.
Associated Press reports that the deputy head of the foreign Norwegian intelligence service Lars Nordrum said that Norway’s oil and gas installations could be targeted by Russian sabotage. “Norway is now Europe’s most important energy supplier after Russia ended its gas exports to the west,” said Nordrum.
National security authority head Sofie Nystrøm warned that “all of Europe will suffer” if Norwegian gas and oil installations were hit.
But the domestic security service assessed that it’s unlikely Russia would carry out any sabotage operation on Norwegian soil this year.
Updated
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that today Russia has launched an automated system called Oculus to detect internet content which breaches Russia’s law. Tass reports:
The system recognises images and symbols, illegal scenes and actions, analyses text in photo and video materials. Oculus automatically detects such offences as extremist themes, calls for mass illegal events, suicide, pro-drug content, LGBT propaganda and more.
In general, the creation of the system is a response to provocations and anti-Russian actions on the part of foreign resources. In 2022 alone, based on the data of the prosecutor general’s office of the Russian Federation, 102,627 online resources with fakes were removed and blocked, including those about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine.
Tass claims that usually an agent can manually check 106 images and 101 videos a day, but the Russian government agency deploying the system says it will check more than 200,000 images a day.
Russian courts have frequently imposed fines on western internet media companies over the last year for hosting what they claim is fake content about Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports on Telegram that Ukrainian forces began training today in operating Leopard 2 tanks in Germany, in a programme that will last until the beginning of April.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius has announced that the tanks should arrive in Ukraine by the end of March.
Reuters reports the foreign affairs ministry in France said on Monday it “strongly” advised its citizens against going to Belarus giving the “new offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine”.
Earlier today the US 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.
Agence France-Presse have a little more of those quotes from Jens Stoltenberg earlier about concerns over munitions production to supply Nato. [See 12.16 GMT]
The Nato secretary general said the alliance needs “to ramp up production” of ammunition as Ukraine’s rate of usage is far outstripping current capacities and draining stockpiles.
“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting allied stockpiles,” Stoltenberg told journalists.
“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defence industries under strain.”
Stoltenberg admitted that Nato was facing a “problem” as current waiting times for large-calibre ammunition have grown from 12 to 28 months.
But he insisted he was confident steps taken so far meant Nato members were “on the path that will enable us both to continue to support Ukraine, but also to replenish our own stocks”.
Russia 'may have lost entire elite brigade' near Vuhledar – report
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, has told Politico.
He said Russia had also lost about 130 units of equipment, including 36 units of tanks, in the past week.
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.
Dmytrashkivskyi, head of the united press centre of the Tavriskiy district of Ukrainian defence forces, told the news website:
The 155th brigade already had to be restaffed three times. The first time after Irpin and Bucha; the second time they were defeated near Donetsk – they recovered again. And now almost the entire brigade has already been destroyed near Vuhledar.
He added that he wished western weapons would “come more quickly, as that would give us the opportunity not only to protect ourselves and hold the attacks but also finally push them out of our territory”.
Updated
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 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.
Speaking to reporters at a briefing today, Sandu said:
The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostage.
The purposes of the plot were to “overthrow the constitutional order, to change the legitimate power from Chișinău to an illegitimate one”, she said, “which would put our country at the disposal of Russia, in order to stop the European integration process.”
She said the plan involved citizens of Russia, Montenegro, Belarus and Serbia entering Moldova to try to spark protests in an attempt to “change the legitimate government to an illegal government controlled by the Russian Federation”.
The Moldovan leader, whose country borders Ukraine, has repeatedly expressed concern about Moscow’s intentions towards the former Soviet republic and about the presence of Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region.
She defiantly vowed:
The Kremlin’s attempts to bring violence to our country will not succeed. Our main goal is the security of citizens and the state. Our goal is peace and public order in the country.
Updated
Here’s a bit more from the Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg’s news conference just now, ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of defence ministers in Brussels.
Stoltenberg said he expected the issue of the possible supplying of aircraft to Ukraine to be discussed at the two-day meeting.
He said:
There is now a discussion going on also on the question of aircrafts and I expect that also to be addressed tomorrow at the meeting in Brussels.
Nato countries supplying fighter jets to Ukraine would not make Nato part of the conflict, he stressed.
Updated
Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, has announced that he is visiting Minsk today with the aim of keeping “channels of communication open”.
In a Facebook post, Szijjártó wrote:
Obviously many will attack me for this visit, but our stance is clear: channels of communication must be kept open. If we had not done this, I would not be able to convey the message of a call for peace.”
Szijjártó’s visit to Belarus’s capital comes as a group of 35 countries, including the US, Germany and Australia, have demanded that Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian state-run Belta news agency has reported that the country will host three drills of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-dominated alliance of former Soviet states.
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Ukraine accuses Italy's Silvio Berlusconi of 'kissing Putin's bloody hands'
Ukraine has accused Silvio Berlusconi of “kissing Putin’s bloody hands” after Italy’s three-time former prime minister blamed Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion of the country.
In comments that unleashed a wave of criticism, Berlusconi said that if he was leading the Italian government now, he would not seek a meeting with Zelenskiy, arguing that if the Ukrainian president had “stopped attacking the two autonomous republics of the Donbas” then “this would not have happened”.
“We are witnessing the devastation of his country and the slaughter of its soldiers and civilians,” said Berlusconi, who during his time as prime minister nurtured close relations with Vladimir Putin. “I judge this gentleman’s behaviour very, very negatively.”
Berlusconi, whose Forza Italia party is part of a coalition led by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, urged the US to step in with funds to rebuild Ukraine on condition that Zelenskiy orders an immediate ceasefire.
Meloni’s office swiftly released a statement after Berlusconi’s comments reiterating her government’s firm support for Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, told La Repubblica that Berlusconi’s words were “damaging to Italy”. “Berlusconi is a VIP agitator who acts within the framework of Russian propaganda, he trades Italy’s reputation for his friendship with Putin,” he said, adding:
Throw off the mask and say publicly that you are in favour of the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, wrote on Facebook: “Berlusconi’s senseless accusations against Zelenskiy are an attempt to kiss Putin’s hands, bloodied up to the elbows.”
Updated
Stoltenberg says there is “no sign whatsoever” that Vladimir Putin is preparing for peace, and that the Russian leader still wants to control Ukraine.
He declines to speculate on what Moscow plans to do to mark the anniversary of its invasion on 24 February, but says “more important is that they are sending more troops, more weapons, more capabilities” to fight in Ukraine.
He adds that Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, will join the Nato meeting on Tuesday, and together they will “address Ukraine’s urgent needs”.
Updated
Stoltenberg: We are seeing start of Russian offensive already
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, says “the reality is that we are seeing the start already” of a new Russian offensive in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin is sending “thousands and thousands more troops”, accepting “a very high rate of casualties” and taking “big losses” but putting pressure on the Ukrainians, he says.
“What Russia lacks in quality, they try to compensate in quantity,” he says, which he says highlights how urgent it is for the west to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
The faster Kyiv can be supplied with weapons, ammunition and spare parts, fuel, the more lives can be saved, he says.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has been speaking at a news conference ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of defence ministers in Brussels.
“Nato stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he says, adding that Vladimir Putin is “not preparing for peace. He is launching new offensives.”
Allies are in “a race of logistics” with Russia, Stoltenberg says.
Key capabilities like ammunition and spare parts must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative on the battlefield. Speed will save lives.
He says Nato plans to increase its targets for ammunition stockpiles, which are being depleted by the war in Ukraine.
You can watch the press conference live here:
🔴 LIVE SOON (13:00 CET)
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) February 13, 2023
🎙️ Pre-ministerial press conference ahead of #NATO #DefMin
📍@NATO HQ, Brussels https://t.co/ATUbHixddM
Updated
The chorus at Budapest’s grand opera house sang fortissimo, over crashing, triumphant orchestral chords:
We have defended our fatherland with blood! Glory to the army! Russia’s glory will never fade!
The words were not about the war in Ukraine, but from the opera War and Peace, based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, and adapted by the composer Sergei Prokofiev in the 1940s, with the Soviet defeat of the Nazis fresh in the mind.
The Hungarian State Opera, which presented a new production of the opera last week, has been at pains to note that the scheduling and staging of the opera were planned long before Vladimir Putin took the decision to invade Ukraine.
But the bombastic music and patriotic Russian-language libretto have an unnerving resonance as the first anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches, especially when performed on a stage just a three-hour drive from Ukraine’s border.
Budapest, however, has emerged as the friendliest European Union capital towards Russia since the war broke out last year.
Here, there are no Ukrainian flags flying from government buildings like in other central European capitals. Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has blocked the supply or transit of weapons to Ukraine through Hungary, and repeatedly called for peace talks.
Russia 'will 100% take Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa' by end of the year, says Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov
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 the capital Kyiv and that it needed to capture Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and its main port, Odesa.
He said:
I believe that, by the end of the year, we will 100% complete the task set for us today.
Kadyrov, the powerful head of the mainly Muslim southern Russian region of Chechnya, has often described himself as Vladimir Putin’s “footsoldier”.
His 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.
He went on to say in his interview with state TV that it would be “wrong” to negotiate with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
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, Reuters is reporting.
India has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its prime ministe, Narendra Modi, has called for dialogue and diplomacy to solve the conflict.
India, China and some south-east Asian countries have maintained their interest in buying Russian arms, Russian state-owned news agencies reported, citing Dmitry Shugayev, the head of Russia’s federal service for military-technical cooperation.
Interfax agency quoted Shugayev as saying:
Despite the unprecedented pressure on India from western countries led by the United States in connection with Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, it continues to be one of Russia’s main partners in the field of military-technical cooperation.
Annual arms exports were about $14bn to $15bn, and the order book has remained steady at around $50bn, Interfax reported.
The agency also quoted another Russian military official as saying that Moscow was currently producing S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems for India and intended to complete the deliveries on time.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
One person has been killed overnight after Russia shelled Kherson, and damage to train infrastructure has 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 and passengers transfer by bus to reach Kherson after tracks were damaged.
Russia claims its troops have advanced 2km (1.24 miles) to the west in four days along the frontline in Ukraine. 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, 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. US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said geolocated footage showed Russian forces had captured at least part of the village of Krasna Hora and the Ukrainians had likely withdrawn from.
An unverified video is being circulated on social media which appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner mercenary group while fighting in Ukraine, in a clip similar to that which showed the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin in November last year.
Ukraine was meeting consumers’ energy needs on Monday after carrying out repairs to the national power network after the latest wave of Russian airstrikes, energy minister German Galushchenko said.
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.
Politico has reported that a tenth package of EU sanctions against Russia will include action against four Russian banks including Russia’s largest private bank Alfa bank, a ban on Russian nationals serving on boards of critical infrastructure companies in the EU, new sanctions against 130 listed entities and people, and import and export bans aimed at the construction industry.
China has confirmed that its top diplomat, Wang Yi, will be visiting Russia this month.
Russian defence personnel are building a water pipeline system to connect Russia’s Rostov region Ukraine with the eastern Donbas region inside Ukraine, Russian state-owned media reported late on Sunday.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has cast doubt on whether Poland will be able to supply Ukraine with fighters jets. Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Duda said sending F-16 planes would be a “very serious decision” that was “not easy to take”.
Samantha de Bendern, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, writes for the Guardian today about the role of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the notorious Wagner group, asking if he is a Kremlin-sanctioned bogeyman or a real threat to the president:
When Prigozhin began recruiting for soldiers in Russian prisons in the late summer of 2022, offering them a pardon in exchange for six months’ service in Ukraine, Russian lawmakers were unable to explain on what legal basis he was operating.
Many assume that the Kremlin allows Prigozhin to operate in a legal shadowland so that it can wash its hands of Wagner’s actions should they become too extreme. An unofficial army offers the regular army an opportunity to deny responsibility for excessive losses in men or territory, or in an instance where it faces allegations of war crimes in the field. This implies a parallel army, ready to accept its role as a subordinate or scapegoat.
Prigozhin, however, has shown signs that he won’t accept a purely subordinate role. He openly criticises and challenges state officials, including top generals. And the ministry of defence and Wagner have openly contradicted each other in claiming responsibility for recent Russian gains in Donbas.
Read more here: Samantha de Bendern – Putin has unleashed private armies on Ukraine, and a man who could become a dangerous rival
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has published its latest map showing where it believes the current frontline and contested areas in Ukraine are.
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 13, 2023
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 13 February 2023.
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/smR0gmEQD7
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6crJWHNLbx
Politico this morning reports that “EU ambassadors were briefed in small groups over the weekend by Ursula von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Björn Seibert, about the plans for the tenth sanctions package against Russia.”
It reports, having spoken to officials, that the package will include:
New financial sanctions against four Russian banks including Russia’s largest private bank Alfa bank.
A ban on Russian nationals serving on boards of critical infrastructure companies in the EU.
New sanctions against 130 listed entities and people.
Additional trade bans on imports into the EU of Russian rubber, asphalt and bitumen and on exports into Russia of EU goods including heavy machinery used for construction.
Updated
Ukraine was meeting consumers’ energy needs on Monday after carrying out repairs to the national power network after the latest wave of Russian airstrikes, energy minister German Galushchenko said.
Galushchenko said emergency repairs had been completed rapidly after Russian attacks on Friday that struck energy facilities across the country.
“And today, on the first business day of the week, despite a significant increase in consumption, Ukraine’s power system continues to meet the electricity needs of consumers,” Galushchenko said in a statement.
Reuters reports the national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, said additional power units had been put into operation at several thermal power plants after the repair work.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence, in its latest intelligence briefing, suggests that Russia has bolstered its defences in the Zaporizhzhia region. It writes:
As of 7 February 2023, open source imagery indicated Russia had likely further bolstered defensive fortifications in central Zaporizhzhia oblast, southern Ukraine, particularly near the town of Tarasivka. Despite the current operational focus on central Donbas, Russia remains concerned about guarding the extremities of its extended frontline. This is demonstrated by continued construction of defensive fortifications in Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk oblasts and deployments of personnel. Russia’s frontline in Ukraine amounts to approximately 1,288km (800 miles).
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 13 February 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 13, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/ixYOQYQdXc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/mmbgKuxUpo
One person killed overnight in Kherson as shelling damages train infrastructure
One person has been killed overnight after Russia shelled Kherson, and damage to train infrastructure has prevented trains from Kyiv and Lviv reaching the city today, according to reports from Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.
It said that five areas of Kherson were shelled overnight, and that trains from the north and west of Ukraine would be forced to terminate at Mykolaiv, and passengers transfer by bus to reach Kherson after tracks were damaged.
Ukrainian forces in the region told the broadcaster that the defences control the situation and have prevented Russian troops from intensifying their attacks on the right-bank of the Dniepr River. Russia had occupied the city of Kherson, one of the regions it claims to have annexed, but was forced to pull back to the left-bank of the river and only occupies a southern portion of Kherson.
Ukraine’s forces claim that it aviators have destroyed Russian craft trying to cross the river and land on the north bank.
Regional authorities said residential buildings and farm buildings were also damaged in a Russian attack on Beryslav in the Kherson region, and that two people were killed when a mine exploded near the village of Novoraisk.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that Russian shelling has damaged railway tracks in the Kherson region. It states that trains from Kyiv and Lviv to Kherson will instead terminate at Mykolaiv, and pasengers will be transferred by bus to their destination.
Reuters reports that an unverified video is being circulated on social media which appears to show the murder with a sledgehammer of a former Russian mercenary who fled the Wagner mercenary group while fighting in Ukraine, in a clip similar to that which showed the killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin in November last year.
In the video published by the Grey Zone Telegram channel, which is linked to Wagner, a man identifies himself as Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44. In the clip the agency reports that facing the camera in a seated position, Yakushchenko appears to recite his name and year of birth.
“I was in the streets of the city of Dnipro where I got hit on the head and lost consciousness, I woke up in this room and was told I would be tried,” he said. He then appears to be killed by an unidentified figure wearing camouflage clothing.
Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has posted to Telegram to say that the night passed peacefully in his region, and that 84 people who had evacuated from the east of Ukraine arrived in Lviv yesterday via train, with a further eight arriving via bus.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports via its Telegram channel that one person has been killed overnight in the Kherson region after Russian forces shelled it five times. The claim has not been independently verified.
Reuters has a quick snap to say that China has confirmed that its top diplomat, Wang Yi, will be visiting Russia this month.
China has remained relatively mute over events in Ukraine, neither offering explicit support for Russia’s invasion, nor explicitly condemning it. In October 2022 China issued a call for de-escalation, saying “all countries deserve respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity” and that “support should be given to all efforts that are conducive to peacefully resolving the crisis”.
Updated
Agence France-Presse has spoken to Mark Cancian, a senior security programme adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about the situation in Bakhmut. The battle for the city, now in its seventh month, has been long, bloody and futile.
“It’s a classic first world war problem,” Cancian said.
When Moscow’s first attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces failed, Russia “kept attacking”, he said.
And even if they do succeed, he added, “it will mean nothing operationally and strategically”.
“It has a lot of symbolism, so if they captured Bakhmut, they’d make it sound like it was important, but it wouldn’t be.”
But, he conceded, Ukraine’s options are limited.
“If that’s where the Russians are attacking, the Ukrainians don’t have a choice but to defend.”
US tells citizens to leave Russia immediately
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.
In a statement, the US embassy in Moscow said:
US citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately.
Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions.”
Do not travel to Russia,” the embassy said.
The US has repeatedly warned its citizens to leave Russia. The last such public warning was in September after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation.
“Russian security services have arrested US citizens on spurious charges, singled out US citizens in Russia for detention and harassment, denied them fair and transparent treatment, and convicted them in secret trials or without presenting credible evidence,” the embassy said.
“Russian authorities arbitrarily enforce local laws against US citizen religious workers and have opened questionable criminal investigations against US citizens engaged in religious activity.”
Russia building 200km water pipeline to Donbas - reports
Russian defence personnel are building a water pipeline system to connect Russia’s Rostov region Ukraine with the eastern Donbas region inside Ukraine, Russian state-owned media reported late on Sunday.
Moscow last year claimed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which make up the broader Donbas region in Ukraine, as “republics” of Russia, in a move condemned as illegal by most members of the UN.
The project, to be completed in the next few months, will reportedly have the capacity to carry 300,000 cubic meters of water per day and will include two 200km (124-mile) lines, according to the defence ministry and as reported by Tass.
Interfax reported the ministry as saying:
More than 2,600 specialists of the military construction complex of the Russian ministry of defence and over 1,000 pieces of equipment around the clock are involved in the construction of a new large water conduit that will connect the Rostov region and Donbas.”
The structure would pass through the territory of the Rostov region in Russia and into the Donetsk region to the Severskiy Donets-Donbas Canal, which extends from the Donets River near the village of Raihorodok to the city of Donetsk.
It was hoped to be completed by spring, according to ministry source.
The water situation in the Donbas region, which has few resources, has been critical. The region depends on large-scale pipelines that have been damaged by nearly a year of fighting and require electricity that is often interrupted.
Russian front moves 2km west in four days - reports
Russia claims its troops have advanced 2km (1.24 miles) to the west in four days along the frontline in Ukraine.
Russian state-owned news agency Interfax carried a report on Monday citing a statement from the commander of the central military district:
The 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.”
There were no details which part of the large frontline, encompassing several Ukrainian regions in the south and east, had moved.
The Guardian was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports.
Some of the fiercest fighting in recent months has taken place in the Donetsk region in south-eastern Ukraine.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Saturday that Ukraine’s troops held the frontline in Donetsk and in some areas had managed to regain previously lost positions.
Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have repelled Russian attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
The latest report published by Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces as of 6am Monday morning reads:
Over the past 24 hours, units of the defence forces of Ukraine have repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of Hryanikyvka settlements of the Kharkiv Oblast; Kreminna and Bilogorivka in Luhansk Oblast; Viymka, Fedorivka, Vasyukivka, Bakhmut, Ivanivske and Klishchiivka in the Donetsk Oblast and Zaliznychne in Zaporizhzhia.”
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold.
Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have repelled Russian attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia while Russia claims its troops have advanced 2km (1.24 miles) to the west in four days along the frontline in Ukraine.
State media cited Russia’s defence ministry as announcing the “active offensive of the troops of the central military district” but gave no details as to which part of the frontline, encompassing several Ukrainian regions in the country’s south and east, has moved.
Meanwhile, Russian personnel were building a water pipeline system that would connect the country’s Rostov region bordering Ukraine with the eastern Donbas region inside Ukraine, Russian state-owned media agencies have reported.
The project, to be completed in the next few months, will reportedly have the capacity to carry 300,000 cubic metres of water per day and will include two 200km lines, according to the Russian defence ministry.
If you have just joined us, here are all the most immediate developments:
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 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 Guardian could not independently verify that the village had been taken.
US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said geolocated footage showed Russian forces had captured at least part of the village of Krasna Hora and the Ukrainians had likely withdrawn from.
Ukraine’s defences were holding along the frontline in Donetsk, with the fiercest battles raging for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Saturday. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Russia was carrying out 50 attacks a day in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Russian forces are likely to have had their highest rate of casualties over the past two weeks since the first week of the invasion of Ukraine, according to a defence intelligence update from the UK ministry of defence. “Lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front” are among the factors that led to the sudden spike in Russia’s casualties, according to the report. “The mean average for the last seven days was 824 casualties a day, over four times the rate reported over June-July 2022.”
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has cast doubt on whether Poland will be able to supply Ukraine with fighters jets. Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Duda said sending F-16 planes would be a “very serious decision” that was “not easy to take”.
Iran smuggled drones into Russia using boats and the state airline, the Guardian has learned. At least 18 of the new types of advanced long-range armed drones were delivered to Russia’s navy after its officers and technicians visited Tehran in November, where they were shown a range of Iran’s technologies.
A former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has again blamed Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the war with Russia again. “I would never have gone talking to Zelenskiy because we are witnessing the devastation of his country and the slaughter of its soldiers and civilians,” Berlusconi said. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, responded by underlining her government’s “firm support” for Ukraine.
The head of the International Olympic Committee has rejected Zelenskiy’s call to ban Russian athletes from the 2024 Paris games. Speaking at the World Ski Championships in France, Thomas Bach said that while he shared the “grief and human suffering” of Ukrainian athletes, national governments should not decide who takes part in international sporting events.
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