Closing summary
Ukraine has withdrawn from the villages of Severne and Stepove near the eastern town of Avdiika, recently captured by Russian forces, military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy said.
Two police officers were killed and four were injured by Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said. Klymenko wrote on Telegram that an investigative team was deliberately fired upon while documenting damage caused by an earlier Russian strike.
Several European countries have said they are not considering sending ground troops to Ukraine after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday he refused to rule out sending soldiers to the country. Britain, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy and Hungary all ruled out the move on Tuesday, as did Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said that the military alliance has no plans to send combat troops into Ukraine. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, did however, say that European leaders now appeared willing to procure weapons from third countries outside Europe as a way of speeding up military aid to Ukraine.
France’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said nothing was off the table in western efforts to prevent a Russian victory in Ukraine. “No dynamic can be ruled out. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he said, noting that there was “no consensus” on any “official” deployment of ground troops.
The Kremlin has suggested that conflict between Russia and the US-led Nato military alliance would become inevitable if European members of Nato sent troops to fight in Ukraine. “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from Nato countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Macron’s remarks. Asked by reporters what the risks of a direct Russia-Nato conflict would be if Nato members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said: “In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict).”
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter jet on the eastern front, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said.
One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners, Oleg Orlov, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for denouncing the war in Ukraine.
North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia since July to support Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, South Korean media reported on Tuesday. South Korea’s defence minister, Shin Won-sik, said the containers might carry more than 3 million 152mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122mm rounds.
US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said it was urgent for G7 countries to jointly seize profits from frozen Russian assets and redirect them to Ukraine, AFP reports.
Calls have been mounting in the US and Europe to set up a fund for Ukraine using billions of dollars in bank accounts, investments and other assets frozen by the west over Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
“It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilised assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen told journalists in São Paulo, Brazil, where she will attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Yellen continued:
There is a strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward. This would be a decisive response to Russia’s unprecedented threat to global stability.
It would make clear that Russia cannot win by prolonging the war and would incentivise it to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.
There are comments from Ukraine about the withdrawal of its troops from the villages of Sievierne and Stepove near the eastern town of Avdiika (see earlier post at 13.09 for more details).
“Our forces withdrew from the small villages of Sievierne and Stepove … heavy battles for Sievierne went on yesterday in the evening and night,” military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy said. He said that Russia had taken significant losses in that fight.
Ukraine is pulling back to positions level with the rest of the frontline, which Lykhoviy said had terrain more suitable for defence.
The spokesperson said both villages had a total population of fewer than 100 people before the invasion, Reuters reports.
Updated
Supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia does not include sending European or Nato troops there, the office of Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said on Tuesday, in response to French suggestions that no option should be ruled out.
The statement read:
Since the Russian aggression two years ago, there has been full unity among all allies in the support for Kyiv. This support does not include the presence of troops from European or Nato states on Ukrainian territory.
Other European countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Britain, also said they had no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine.
Updated
A business associate of the oligarch Roman Abramovich has failed in his latest attempt to overturn sanctions which were imposed on him after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a case widely seen as a crucial legal test for the post-Brexit UK sanctions regime.
Eugene Shvidler, who served on the board of companies owned by Abramovich, was sanctioned by the UK government in March 2022 as part of measures to target Russia-linked oligarchs and officials after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Shvidler challenged and lost a case against his sanctions at the high court last year.
He had claimed that the measures had caused disproportionate hardship and discriminated against him as a Russian-born person, and that he was not closely associated enough to Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea football club, to justify being placed under sanctions, but the high court ruled in favour of the Foreign Office.
You can read the full story by my colleague, Jane Croft, here:
Two police officers killed by Russian shelling in northern Ukraine - interior minister
Two police officers were killed and four were injured by Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Tuesday.
Klymenko wrote on Telegram that an investigative team was deliberately fired upon while documenting damage caused by an earlier Russian strike.
“The bodies of two police officers were recovered from under the rubble. We express our condolences to the families of the dead,” he wrote.
Updated
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Tuesday he couldn’t exclude widening a national ban on imports of Ukrainian grains to other products if the EU does not act.
“We are discussing that it would be possible to extend the embargo to other products if the EU does not find a more effective way to protect the Polish and European markets,” Tusk said in Prague.
Polish farmers have been protesting against imports at the Ukrainian border including dumping grain destined for other markets from a freight train a week ago. They want to extend the ban to other goods including fruit, eggs and meat.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Saudi Arabia on a working visit on Tuesday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a statement posted on the Ukrainian president’s Telegram account.
The Ukrainian president said that the primary topics of discussion would be Kyiv’s Peace Formula framework for ending Russia’s full-scale invasion, as well as the return of captives and deported people.
Updated
Ukraine withdraws from two villages near Avdiivka, military says
Ukraine has withdrawn from the villages of Severne and Stepove near the eastern town of Avdiika, recently captured by Russian forces, military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy has said.
Russia’s defence ministry said earlier on Tuesday its forces had made further progress in eastern Ukraine by taking control of the village of Severne.
In a statement, the ministry said its forces had “occupied more advantageous lines and positions” and struck concentrations of Ukrainian manpower and equipment near three other settlements. These battlefield claims have not yet been independently verified.
The capture of Avdiivka after months of fighting was Russia’s most significant gain since it seized the ruined city of Bakhmut last May.
Updated
French opposition politicians have criticised Emmanuel Macron’s comments that western troops on the ground in Ukraine should not be ruled out in future as part of the fight against the Russian invasion.
Macron said on Monday night: “There is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail.”
The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said Macron’s comments were “totally counter-productive” and had only served to divide the EU.
Earlier, Faure had written on X: “Supporting the Ukrainian resistance: Yes. Entering into war with Russia and dragging in a whole continent: Madness”. He demanded a meeting of all French political party leaders with Macron, as well as a debate in parliament.
Marine Le Pen, whose far-right National Rally party is the largest single opposition party in the lower house of parliament, wrote on X: “Emmanuel Macron is playing at being a war chief but its our children’s lives he’s talking about with such lack of concern. This is about war or peace in our country …”
Jordan Bardella, the president of Le Pen’s party, said Macron was losing his cool daily. “France’s role is to embody a path of balance. Waving the spectre of engaging our troops against a nuclear power is as serious as it is reckless,” he wrote on X.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the leftwing party, La France Insoumise.,wrote on X that sending troops to Ukraine “would make us belligerents”. He said: “War against Russia would be madness. This belligerent verbal escalation by a nuclear power against another major nuclear power is already an irresponsible act.” Mélenchon wrote that parliament must be convened “and say no. No war!”
Eric Ciotti, head of the right’s Les Républicains, wrote on X that Macron’s comments “fraught with terrible consequences” were made “without the slightest parliamentary debate”. He added: “Has this position really been thought out?”
The government has formally appointed Viktor Pavlushchyk as the new head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), Taras Melnychuk, the government’s representative in the parliament, said.
Authorities also approved the appointment of Oleksandr Kharlov as the first deputy head of the Odesa oblast state administration, Oleksandr Kokhan as a deputy head of the Rivne oblast state administration, Oleksandr Tereshchenko as a deputy head of the Rivne oblast state administration for digital development and transformation, and Andrii Danyk as the acting head of the state emergency service.
Pavlushchyk was chosen to lead one of Ukraine’s key anti-corruption agencies last week, with anti-corruption activists criticising the selection process but praising the eventual choice.
NACP’s new chief has a legal degree from the Security Service of Ukraine’s (SBU) national academy and a business administration degree from Kyiv national university.
From 2008 to 2015, Pavlushchyk was an employee of the SBU. He became a National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) detective in 2015 and headed a unit that investigated cases against judges and prosecutors.
Specifically, he was involved in investigating corruption cases against controversial prosecutor general’s office investigator Dmytro Sus, discredited judge Pavlo Vovk, ex-supreme court head Vsevolod Knyazev, and judges of the Kyiv court of appeal.
Vadym Valko, an expert at the anti-corruption action centre, a Kyiv-based watchdog, told the Kyiv Independent that, according to his sources, Pavlushchyk had been an effective employee, and “it would be difficult” for the authorities to influence his work through pressure.
Summary of the day so far...
Several European countries have said they are not considering sending ground troops to Ukraine after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday he refused to rule out sending soldiers to the country. Britain, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary all ruled out the move on Tuesday, as did Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said that the military alliance has no plans to send combat troops into Ukraine. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, did however, say that European leaders now appeared willing to procure weapons from third countries outside Europe as a way of speeding up military aid to Ukraine.
France’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said nothing was off the table in western efforts to prevent a Russian victory in Ukraine. “No dynamic can be ruled out. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he said, noting that there was “no consensus” on any “official” deployment of ground troops.
The Kremlin has suggested that conflict between Russia and the US-led Nato military alliance would become inevitable if European members of Nato sent troops to fight in Ukraine. “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from Nato countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Macron’s remarks. Asked by reporters what the risks of a direct Russia-Nato conflict would be if Nato members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said: “In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict).”
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter jet on the eastern front, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said.
One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners, Oleg Orlov, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for denouncing the war in Ukraine.
North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia since July to support Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, South Korean media reported on Tuesday. South Korea’s defence minister, Shin Won-sik, said the containers might carry more than 3 million 152mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122mm rounds.
Updated
Britain has no plans for a large-scale deployment of troops to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said on Tuesday, in response to Emmanuel Macron’s comments about European nations sending troops to Ukraine.
“Beyond the small number of personnel we do have in country supporting the armed forces of Ukraine, we haven’t got any plans for large-scale deployment,” the spokesperson told reporters, adding that large numbers of Ukrainian troops were being trained in Britain and London was supporting Kyiv with equipment and supplies.
Jens Stoltenberg says no plans for Nato troops on the ground in Ukraine
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told The Associated Press that the military alliance has no plans to send combat troops into Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said that “Nato allies are providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. We have done that since 2014 and stepped up after the full-scale invasion. But there are no plans for Nato combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”
Ahead of a trip to Paris on Monday, where top officials from over 20 countries discussed options to increase help for Ukraine, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, said that some are weighing whether to strike bilateral deals to send troops to Ukraine to help it fend off the full-scale Russian invasion.
Fico said that his government is not planning to propose to send Slovak soldiers, but did not provide details about what countries might be considering such deals, or what the troops would do in Ukraine.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine, though he said no consensus existed on the step.
Hungary and Germany not sending ground troops to Ukraine
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has ruled out suggestions that European countries and Nato alliance members would send ground troops to Ukraine, a day after Emmanuel Macron had left open the prospect of doing so (see earlier post at 08.37 for more details).
He said:
Once again, in a very good debate, it was discussed that what was agreed from the outset among ourselves and with each other also applies to the future, namely that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or Nato states.
Scholz did, however, say that European leaders now appeared willing to procure weapons from third countries outside Europe as a way of speeding up military aid to Ukraine.
Hungary is not willing to send weapons or troops to Ukraine and this stance is “rock solid,” the country’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We hear and see the news about last night’s meeting in Paris. Hungary’s stance is clear and rock-solid: we are not willing to send either weapons or troops to Ukraine,” Szijjarto said.
Sweden’s prime minister has also ruled out sending troops to Ukraine, for now, as did the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic.
Updated
Alexei Navalny’s spokesperson said that his allies had been unable to find a venue in Russia where people could pay their respects to the opposition leader who died in prison this month.
In a post on X, Kira Yarmysh said:
Since yesterday we have been looking for a place where we can organise a farewell event for Alexey.
We have called most of the private and public funeral agencies, commercial venues and funeral halls. Some of them say the place is fully booked. Some refuse when we mention the surname “Navalny”.
In one place, we were told that the funeral agencies were forbidden to work with us. After a day of searching, we still haven’t found the farewell hall.
The Russian authorities claim Navalny, Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, fell unconscious and died after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony. Russia later said Navalny died of natural causes.
Yulia Navalnaya, 47, accused the Russian authorities of murdering her husband, hiding his body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent novichok to disappear from it.
Updated
Ukraine downs Russian Su-34 fighter jet - air force commander
Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter jet on the eastern front, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk has said.
He wrote on Telegram:
Yesterday, Russian pilots managed to evade our missiles, but this will not always be the case.
The destruction of the jet is the latest in a recent uptick of downed Russian planes.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, said in mid-January that his air force had destroyed an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an Il-22 control centre plane.
Ukraine’s intelligence agencies also said that month that they were behind an attack on an Su-24 jet, parked at an airbase outside the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. It was burned down. A teenager was later arrested.
In December, Russia’s own air defences shot down a Russian Su-25 jet. Earlier the same month Ukraine destroyed an Su-24M bomber.
Oleg Orlov: Russian human rights campaigner sentenced to jail for denouncing war
One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners, Oleg Orlov, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for denouncing the war in Ukraine.
Orlov, who is 70, has served for more than two decades as one of the leaders of the Memorial human rights organisation, which won a share of the Nobel peace prize in 2022 a year after being banned in Russia.
He was accused by the Russian prosecutors of “discrediting” the Russian army in an opinion piece in French media in which he wrote that Russian troops were committing “mass murder” in Ukraine and that his country had “slipped back into totalitarianism”.
Orlov has been an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine and, back home, the war on dissent.
In his closing speech to the court, Orlov maintained that he had committed no crime and regretted nothing, instead castigating the “totalitarian” and “fascist” Russian state.
Speaking to the judge and the prosecutor, Orlov said: “Isn’t it scary to watch what our country, which you probably also love, is turning into? Isn’t it scary that in this absurdity, in this dystopia, maybe not only you and your children will have to live, but also, God forbid, your grandchildren?”
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s Russian affairs correspondent, Pjotr Sauer, here:
A senior Ukrainian official has welcomed talk of the possibility of European nations sending troops to Ukraine, though several countries have already said they are not considering doing so.
Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility on Monday of European nations sending troops to Ukraine, but cautioned that there was no consensus.
“This shows, firstly, an absolute awareness of the risks posed to Europe by a militaristic, aggressive Russia,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a written comment on Macron’s statement.
“The opening of a discussion on the possibility of direct support of Ukraine by armed forces should be seen as a desire to set the right accents, to highlight the risks more clearly,” Podolyak added.
He said it was important at this stage to accelerate the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine.
Updated
Here is what Czech prime minister Petr Fiala and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk said when asked whether or not they were considering sending troops to Ukraine.
“I am convinced that we should develop the paths of support that we embarked on after Russia’s aggression,” Fiala told a news conference alongside Tusk as they met in Prague on Tuesday.
“I believe we do not need to open some other methods or ways,” Fiala said, noting the current focus was on military aid as well as humanitarian and economic support.
Tusk added:
Poland does not plan to send its troops to the territory of Ukraine. I think that we should not speculate today whether there will be circumstances that could change this position.
Kremlin warns of conflict with Nato if alliance troops fight in Ukraine
The Kremlin has suggested that conflict between Russia and the US-led Nato military alliance would become inevitable if European members of Nato sent troops to fight in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic have distanced themselves from Emmanuel Macron saying on Monday that there was “no consensus” on sending western troops to Ukraine but “nothing should be excluded” (see post at 10am).
“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from Nato countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Macron’s remarks.
Asked by reporters what the risks of a direct Russia-Nato conflict would be if Nato members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said:
“In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict).”
French officials have become worried there has been no single galvanising western force responding to Vladimir Putin putting his economy on such an effective war footing, and insufficiently clear practical responses had emerged from the west.
Ukrainian forces report shortages of weapons and ammunition, as a grinding stalemate gives way to Russian gains.
Updated
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine for now – saying it is “not relevant at all right now” – putting a clear marker down between himself and Emmanuel Macron.
Kristersson, who on Monday hailed a “historic day” as Sweden’s Nato membership was finally approved by Hungary, clearing the historically neutral country’s path to the western military alliance, said while he respects “France’s will to help Ukraine,” Sweden was following its own path.
His comments, on Tuesday morning, came after the French president initiated the first open discussion of nations collectively considering sending troops to Ukraine.
He said on Monday: “There is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail.”
But asked about the possibility of Swedish involvement, Kristersson said the question of Sweden sending troops to Ukraine “is not relevant at all right now”.
He told Swedish broadcaster SVT: “Right now we are fully occupied with sending advanced materials to from Sweden to Ukraine in many different ways, like many other countries are. So that is a whole other thing.
“There are not any requests from Ukraine’s side either for that. That question is not relevant.
“However, you could say that different countries have different traditions of engaging themselves in other countries. And France’s tradition is not the Swedish tradition. So I have respect for France’s will to help Ukraine. We are now helping Ukraine in a different way with a lot of advanced material.”
Asked whether he could exclude Sweden from sending troops if the request came, he conceded: “We live in very special times now, so a general exclusion of things …”
But, he added: “It is not relevant at all right now. There is no discussion like that ongoing in Sweden. We are participating by sending resources, materials and money to Ukraine and that is appreciated very much.”
Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic say they are not considering sending troops to Ukraine
Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic have said they are not considering sending troops to Ukraine, after being asked about comments made by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, not ruling out the option for European nations.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said this morning he will not be sending troops to Ukraine, saying it is not a relevant question for Nato at the moment.
He told Swedish broadcaster SVT: “Right now we are fully occupied with sending advanced materials to from Sweden to Ukraine in many different ways, like many other countries are. So that is a whole other thing.
“There are not any requests from Ukraine’s side either for that. That question is not relevant.
The comments come a day after Hungary’s parliament approved Sweden’s Nato accession nearly two years after the historically neutral country applied to join the western military alliance.
On Tuesday morning, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, said he is not considering sending any troops to Ukraine, with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, saying the same about Poland.
Speaking at a meeting of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris on Monday, Macron said “there is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail.”
Updated
Leonid Volkov, a close ally of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said that a protest called for 17 March, the final day of Russia’s presidential election, would be Navalny’s “last testament”.
Navalny, 47, died in jail on 16 February at 2.17pm local time, said his official spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, citing a message from Navalny’s mother and challenging Russia’s official explanation that Navalny died after a fall at the Arctic penal colony where he was being held.
Navalny’s team and Navalnaya say he was killed by the Russian authorities. The Kremlin denies all involvement in Navalny’s death.
In a post on social media on 1 February, Navalny urged Russians to register a protest against Putin by all turning out to vote at the same time, at noon.
Russian attacks against Ukraine injured nine people over the past day, regional authorities reported early on Tuesday morning, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Civilian casualties were reported in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
French PM: We will do 'whatever it takes' to help Ukraine win war and rule nothing out
France’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said on Tuesday that nothing was off the table in western efforts to prevent a Russian victory in Ukraine.
Speaking a day after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said that sending western ground troops was not excluded, Attal said that “you can’t rule anything out in a war”.
He told the RTL broadcaster that there was “no consensus” on any “official” deployment of ground troops.
“But no dynamic can be ruled out. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he said.
After initial successes in pushing back the Russian army, Ukraine has suffered setbacks on eastern battlefields, with its generals complaining of shortages of arms and soldiers.
The EU promised last year to send Ukraine 1m artillery shells before the end of March 2024, but then said it would only be able to deliver just over 50% of that amount.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has suggested that the EU had not been able to meet even its reduced target. Kyiv has blamed the deficit in shells for its failure to hold positions, let alone make advances.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that its forces were preventing Ukrainian forces from crossing from the right bank of the Dnipro river, near the village of Krynky in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said last week that Russian forces had taken control Krynky.
North Korea has sent 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia - South Korea
North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia since July to support Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.
South Korea’s defence minister, Shin Won-sik, said the containers might carry more than 3 million 152mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122mm rounds.
“It could possibly be a mix of the two, and you can say that at least several million shells have been sent,” Shin said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Hundreds of North Korean munitions factories are running at about 30% of their capacity due to a lack of raw materials and electricity, but those producing artillery shells for Russia were operating “at full swing,” he said.
Russia and North Korea have been moving closer since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meeting Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far east in September.
US and South Korean officials say that Russia, long a pre-eminent military power, has become so desperate to replenish its arsenal that it has turned to North Korean and Iranian imports.
The US state department, in a fact sheet released on Friday, said that North Korea has delivered more than 10,000 containers of munitions or related materials to Russia since September.
In exchange, North Korea has received 9,000 containers mostly containing food supplies, which Shin said has helped stabilise prices there.
Updated
Macron refuses to rule out putting troops on ground in Ukraine
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday he refused to rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine, but said no consensus existed on the step, at a meeting of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris.
Protecting France’s strategic ambiguity he said “there is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail.”
It is the first time there has been such open discussion of nation states collectively looking at providing troops to support the depleted Ukrainian military manpower.
Macron also announced that a new coalition will work to supply Ukraine with “medium- and long-range missiles and bombs”.
France and other allies of Ukraine will “create a coalition for deep strikes and therefore medium- and long-range missiles and bombs,” Macron was quoted as saying at a press conference.
Monday’s crisis meeting in support of Ukraine was attended by heads of European states, including Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and top government officials such as the UK’s foreign secretary and former prime minister, David Cameron.
You can read more on the story in this piece by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour:
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Here are the latest developments:
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has not ruled out sending ground troops to Ukraine. He said: “There is no consensus to officially back any ground troops. That said, nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail.” Macron spoke after he led a meeting of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris on Monday to ramp up the European response to Russian military advances inside Ukraine. It is the first time there has been such open discussion of Ukraine’s allies providing troops. Macron said past shibboleths against sending long-range missiles and planes to Ukraine had been cast aside. “People used to say give them just sleeping bags and helmets … We must do whatever we can to obtain our objective.”
Macron was clear a consensus existed that Russia would seek to attack other countries in a few years. He said Russia “must not and cannot win this war” and that Europe’s own security was at stake. “We are in the process of ensuring our collective security, for today and tomorrow.”
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has reiterated his reluctance to send Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of Germany becoming directly involved in the war if Taurus is used to hit targets deep within Russia. “This is a very long-range weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of targeting and supporting targeting cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz said. France and Britain have supplied Kyiv with Scalp/Storm Shadow missiles that go about 250km (155 miles). Taurus can reach targets up to 500km away.
Russia has made confirmed advances near Kreminna, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka while continuing to fight for positions along the entire frontline, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The thinktank also assessed that Russia holds the initiative on the battlefield generally, and for as long as that remains the case its troops can undertake offensives at a time and place of their choosing.
Ukraine has received less than a third of the one million artillery shells the European Union promised to deliver by now, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. The Netherlands will contribute €100m to a Czech initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine from countries around the world, the Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, said on Monday.
Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, will be to blame if US aid for Ukraine is blocked and Russia advances on the battlefield, Poland’s foreign minister has said. Radoslaw Sikorski urged Johnson to allow a vote on US$95bn funding bill containing US$60bn in security aid for Ukraine that has already passed the Senate in a 70-30 bipartisan vote.
Russia claims its troops have captured the Ukrainian village of Lastochkyne, about five kilometres north-west of Avdiivka. On Monday, Ukraine’s military said it had retreated from the village, in eastern Ukraine, to help it better contain Russian troops’ attempts to advance westwards.
Hungary’s parliament has approved Sweden joining Nato after months of delay. The formerly neutral country joining is a direct result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, hailed the news, calling it a historic day and said Sweden was ready to take up its responsibility in the alliance.
Updated
