Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russian forces are mounting “round-the-clock” attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east of the country, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said. “The enemy’s offensive continues in the east, (with) round-the-clock attacks. The situation is tense. Yes, it is difficult for us,” Maliar posted to Telegram. The situation in Luhansk remains difficult, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said earlier on Wednesday, without mentioning any retreats in eastern Ukraine.
Russia is sending heavy equipment and mobilised troops into the Luhansk region but Ukrainian forces continue to defend the eastern Ukrainian region, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, has said. The Russian defence ministry claimed earlier its troops had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defences on the eastern front of Luhansk. It said Ukrainian troops had retreated in the face of Russian attacks, but did not say in which part of the region. Haidai said Russia’s claims that Ukrainian troops had pulled back “does not correspond to reality”.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted that his mercenary group is facing difficulties in Ukraine and will soon “decrease” in size. “The number of Wagner units will decrease, and we will also not be able to carry out the scope of tasks that we would like to,” Prigozhin said, amid growing evidence that his political influence in the Kremlin is waning.
Six aerial targets were spotted over Kyiv during an air alert in the Ukrainian capital, and most were shot down after being engaged with air defences, according to the Kyiv military administration. In a Telegram post, it said the six Russian balloons may have been carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment. It did not specify when they flew over the capital.
Ukraine’s allies have said it is unlikely they will be able to supply the number of tanks they previously promised. After a meeting in Brussels of western defence ministers, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said they would not be able reach the size of a battalion. The bad news comes just after the Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that Russia had begun a renewed offensive in the east in an attempt to take more territory before new western equipment arrives in the spring.
Nato countries are increasing the production of 155mm artillery rounds and need to ramp up that production even further to help Ukraine, Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has said. Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of defence ministers at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg said allies have not reached conclusions on a new pledge for defence spending, but it was “obvious that we need to spend more”.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said Ukraine has a “real good chance” of taking the initiative on the battlefield. Speaking after a meeting with Nato defence ministers in Brussels, Austin said that for every system that Nato will provide, it will train troops on that system. “We’re laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just the platform,” he said.
Russia’s army is estimated to have lost nearly 40% of its prewar fleet of tanks after nine months of fighting in Ukraine, according to a count by the specialist thinktank the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). That rises to as much as 50% for some of the key tanks used in combat, forcing Russia to reach into its still sizeable cold war-era stocks. Ukraine’s tank numbers are estimated to have increased because of the number it has captured and supplies of Soviet-era tanks from its western allies.
Ukraine will receive a package of support worth £200m from the UK and other European nations for military equipment, including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition, the British government has announced. Britain has agreed with the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Lithuania to send an initial package of support to Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The European Commission has called for a ban on the export of vital technology to Russia worth €11bn to further weaken the Kremlin’s war effort, cementing what EU officials have called the bloc’s toughest-ever sanctions. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was targeting industrial goods that Russia needs, such as electronic components for drones and helicopters; spare parts for trucks and jet engines; and construction equipment such as antennas or cranes that could be turned to military uses.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has welcomed Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson in Kyiv. Zelenskiy praised Sweden’s assistance, saying: “Archer is one of the best artillery pieces in the world. Sweden is a top five supplier of support to Ukraine and I thank Sweden for that support.” Kristersson did not rule out sending Jas 39 Gripen fighter jets, but cautioned that the west’s response had to be coordinated.
The Netherlands has said it has not changed its stance on the possible delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, following a report that it had rolled back on its support. The Dutch do not own any of the tanks, but lease 18 from Germany. Prime minister Mark Rutte last month said his country was willing to deliver those to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked him to remain in his current post, after a corruption scandal beset his ministry and put his role in doubt. Asked whether he expected to continue as defence minister in the months to come, Reznikov replied: “Yes, it was the decision of my president.”
A British national who was killed in Ukraine has been named by family and friends as Jonathan Shenkin. Shenkin, 45, from Glasgow, “died as a hero in an act of bravery as a paramedic”, his family wrote in a tribute on social media. He is the eighth Briton to be killed in Ukraine since the conflict began nearly a year ago.
At least 6,000 children from Ukraine have attended Russian “re-education” camps in the past year, according to a new report published in the US. Since the start of the war nearly a year ago, children as young as four months living in the occupied areas have been taken to 43 camps across Russia, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab report found. Russia has also unnecessarily expedited the adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine in what could constitute a war crime, it said.
Switzerland has said the seizing of private Russian assets would undermine the country’s constitution. In a statement, the Swiss government said “the expropriation of private assets of lawful origin without compensation is not permissible under Swiss law”.
Journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been sentenced to six years in prison in Russia for “distributing false information about the Russian army” after she posted on social media about the attack on the drama theatre in Mariupol. She has also been banned from journalism for five years.
The UN’s humanitarian aid and refugee agencies said Wednesday they are seeking $5.6bn (£4.6bn) to help millions of people in Ukraine and countries that have taken in fleeing Ukrainians since Russia’s invasion of their country nearly a year ago. The bulk of the joint appeal is for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which aims to help more than 11 million people by funnelling funds through more than 650 partner organisations.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war live blog today. I’ll be back tomorrow. Thank you.
Wagner mercenary group will ‘decrease’ as prisoner recruitment ends, says boss
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has admitted that his mercenary group is facing difficulties in Ukraine and will soon “decrease” in size, amid growing evidence that his political influence in the Kremlin is waning.
“The number of Wagner units will decrease, and we will also not be able to carry out the scope of tasks that we would like to,” Prigozhin told a group of pro-war bloggers and state journalists gathered at an army barracks in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday.
You have all heard that the recruitment of prisoners to our ranks has stopped.
Prigozhin’s comments followed a recent announcement that the mercenary group will no longer recruit prisoners to fight in the war, ending a months-long campaign in which Wagner signed up about 40,000 convicts from Russian prisons. The businessman has offered no explanation for declaring an end to the recruitment drive, but observers say the move is part of a growing backlash against him from the Russian security services.
Prigozhin, a catering magnate who last year admitted to founding the Wagner group after years of obfuscation, has assumed an increasingly prominent role in the war, while his troops are engaged in some of Russia’s most gruelling battles in eastern Ukraine.
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