Closing summary
It is 6pm in Kyiv and 7pm in Moscow. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:
Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defence minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to the UK, a government source and journalists travelling with him said on Thursday, reported Reuters. According to the source and journalists, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps on the travelling aircraft.
The EU and Nato said on Thursday an election in Russia set to see Vladimir Putin re-elected president would not be free or fair because the Kremlin has crushed all opposition. Both the EU and Nato condemned Russia’s decision to stage the vote in areas of Ukraine that are occupied by its soldiers and that Moscow claims as its own territory.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry called voting for Russia’s presidential election that is also being held in Ukraine’s occupied territories illegal and void and called on its international partners not to recognise the results. The ministry said in its statement that the electoral campaign on Russia-occupied territories showed Moscow demonstrated “continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles”.
The chairs of foreign affairs committee in 23 parliaments –from the Baltics to the US to Israel – have signed a statement rejecting the legitimacy of elections conducted by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories.
535 children have been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said today, Ukrinform reported. “Some 1,790 children have been affected in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale armed aggression. As of the morning of 14 March 2024, a total of 535 children have been killed and 1,255 sustained injuries of various degrees of severity,” the office said.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that comments on nuclear weapons that Russian president Vladimir Putin made in an interview with state media did not constitute a threat to use them, and accused the US of deliberately taking the remarks out of context. Putin said in the interview published on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the US sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict. In response to Wednesday’s comments, the White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre accused Russia of deploying “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric throughout the Ukraine conflict.
Putin said on Thursday that setting up a nuclear-powered unit in space is a priority. Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said last week that Russia and China were considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon from 2033-35.
Three pro-Ukrainian battalions made up of recruits from Russia have launched a fresh incursion into southern Russia in a cross-border raid meant to sow chaos before Putin’s widely expected re-election this weekend. The three armed groups of Russian exiled fighters, who operate in close coordination with Ukraine’s military, said they had crossed the border into the southern Kursk and Belgorod regions. Russia’s national guard said on Thursday it was fighting off attacks from the pro-Ukrainian groups.
Nato allies need to urgently step up delivery of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Thursday. Presenting Nato’s annual report at its headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg said Ukrainians were not running out of courage but they were running out of ammunition.
Stoltenberg also said that any attempt to organise Russian elections in occupied regions of Ukraine would be completely illegal. Stoltenberg and Polish president Andrzej Duda also met on Thursday at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Ukraine fired at least eight missiles at Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing two people and wounding 12, local officials said on Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Thursday that its troops killed 195 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks and four armored infantry vehicles, two days after saying it killed 234 Ukrainian troops in another border assault. The Associated Press (AP) said it was not possible to independently verify the Russian claims.
Russia has banned 227 US citizens from entering the country, including US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday. The list also includes journalists and academics among others.
EU leaders are to take a significant step towards confiscating €27bn in profit generated by Russian state assets frozen in Europe to help fund the war effort in Ukraine. Officials at the European Commission are poised to put forward what they believe is a legally robust proposal to be considered by member states, possibly before a meeting of prime ministers in Brussels next Thursday.
Ukraine’s defence ministry has thanked the EU for agreeing on €5bn for military aid to Kyiv.
Ukrainian drones attacked several oil refineries hundreds of miles from the frontline in Russian regions including Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Leningrad. The continuing attacks are part of a strategy to cause economic damage.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said this morning that overnight Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed drones, and that 22 of them were shot down. He also said that about 150 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions came under Russian artillery fire. Authorities in Kharkiv and Sumy regions said infrastructure had been targeted.
Norway will reach a military spending target set by Nato two years early as its neighbour Russia is now “more dangerous and more unpredictable,” the Norwegian prime minister said on Thursday The 2024 defence budget, initially expected to be around €8bn, will be revised upwards in the spring budget bill, Jonas Gahr Store said.
Joint chiefs chairman, Gen CQ Brown visited US weapon factories in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday as the Pentagon frames the $95bn (£74bn/$87bn) aid package hanging in the balance on Capitol Hill as not only vital to Ukraine’s survival but also critical to the US economy. Brown travelled with the lawmakers who represent those factory workforces to address concerns over billions of dollars being sent overseas when there are so many needs at home. Some of those lawmakers have either already voted against the aid or have indicated they will oppose it.
Lithuania’s counter-intelligence said on Thursday it assessed an attack in Vilnius on Tuesday on Leonid Volkov, an aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was carried out by Russian special services. “It seems this is the work of Russia’s special services,” Darius Jauniskis, head of the state security department, told reporters.
Italy on Thursday condemned the attack on Volkov, saying it proved Russia’s persecution of Moscow’s critics. “It is proof that Russia continues to persecute those who oppose the regime and this cannot but deserve our condemnation,” said foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
The Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said today that the Ukrainian army had shelled a critical infrastructure facility at the plant. According to the Russian-controlled plant, an explosive device was dropped near a fence where diesel fuel tanks are located. “Such attacks are unacceptable,” it said.
Germany’s parliament has rejected a call by the opposition for the government to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, a day after chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his refusal to supply the weapons.
Swiss president Viola Amherd will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Monday to discuss the opening of talks to update the bilateral relationship between Switzerland and the bloc. In a statement, the Swiss government said Russia’s war against Ukraine would form part of the talks.
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said on Thursday it plans to set up at least four factories in Ukraine, as it targets a record €10bn euros ($10.9bn) in sales this year. The company said the factories in Ukraine – which has been suffering from ammunition shortages as Moscow makes battlefield gains – would be for producing shells, military vehicles, gunpowder and anti-aircraft weapons.
Updated
EU and Nato say Russian election will not be 'free and fair’
The EU and Nato said on Thursday an election in Russia set to see Vladimir Putin re-elected president would not be free or fair because the Kremlin has crushed all opposition, reports AFP.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of deceased Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny, has urged on the west not to recognise the results of the presidential election, which starts on Friday.
“We know, given the track record of how votes are being prepared and organised in Russia under the current Kremlin administration and regime, how this will look like,” said EU spokesperson Peter Stano. “It’s very difficult to foresee that this would be a free, fair and democratic election where the Russian people would really have a choice.”
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg also said the ballot “in Russia will not be free and fair”.
“We know already that opposition politicians are in jail, some are killed, and many are in exile, and actually also some who tried to register as candidates have been denied that right,” he said. “There is no free and independent press in Russia.”
The three-day vote, expected to result in Putin claiming another six years in power, comes after his invasion of Ukraine has destroyed ties between Moscow and the west.
AFP said that both the EU and Nato condemned Russia’s decision to stage the vote in areas of Ukraine that are occupied by its soldiers and that Moscow claims as its own territory.
“Russia’s attempts to organise any part of an election in occupied regions of Ukraine are completely illegal, violating international law,” Stoltenberg said.
Stano said the ballot in those regions “is not being recognised and it will not be recognised by the European Union”.
Victory in the 15-17 March contest will allow Putin to stay in the Kremlin until at least 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
No genuine opposition candidate has been allowed on to the ballot. Putin officially faces off against three Kremlin-approved candidates from political parties loyal to him and his policies.
