Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories:
Britain declared that the UK’s security hinged on the outcome of the Ukraine war in an update to its foreign policy framework published on Monday. The UK will invest an extra £5bn in the armed forces over two years and increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
Britain’s Royal Navy said it was escorting a Russian frigate and tanker in waters close to the UK having shadowed the vessels through the Channel on Sunday morning.
The international criminal court intends to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people, the New York Times reported citing sources unauthorised to speak publicly. The cases are the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict, the newspaper reports.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters. Xi also plans to speak with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal. China’s president is to speak virtually with his Ukrainian counterpart, probably after a visit to Moscow next week, the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Negotiations began on Monday between UN officials and Russia’s deputy foreign minister on a possible extension to a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva said.
Moscow does not object to renewing a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports but only for a period of 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin has said.
The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine, met Russia’s president to discuss the war, according to reports.
Russian forces fired two rockets at a school in Avdiivka, according to the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriy Yermak. One local resident was killed in the attack.
Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Monday that relations between Russia and China were a major factor supporting global stability in the world today, Reuters reports, citing Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
The Italian government has said Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind a surge in migrant boats trying to cross the central Mediterranean as part of Moscow’s strategy to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine, Reuters reported. Yevgeny Prigozhin responded: “We have no idea what’s happening with the migrant crisis, we don’t concern ourselves with it.”
A senior Russian lawmaker introduced a bill to parliament on Monday to raise the age of conscription to 21-30 years from the current 18-27 years by 2026, Reuters reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has awarded the Hero of Ukraine award to Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier who was seemingly executed by machine gun fire on camera after being captured by Russian soldiers. Zelenskiy said: “Today I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier. A man whom all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be remembered for ever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’”
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has reported on Telegram that one civilian was killed and four people were injured in a rocket attack on Znob-Novhorodske, in Sumy region.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting a claim that resistance fighters have blown up a railway that Russian forces were using in occupied Kherson. The claims have not been independently verified. A video posted by the Atesh partisan group appears to show a railway track between the settlements of Abrikosivka and Radensk being blown up.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 40-year-old man was injured by a petal mine near Izyium.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that the Russia-installed authorities in occupied regions of Donetsk are claiming that almost 4,500 people have died as a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces since 17 February 2022.
One of Vladimir Putin’s top allies, the Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, said on Monday that he doubted that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a pro-Ukrainian group, and said Moscow still did not know who exactly was behind it.
Russia’s industry ministry said on Monday it was expanding its list of brands that can be imported without the trademark owner’s permission to include goods from companies such as Ikea and the US toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has offered congratulations to Pope Francis on the 10th anniversary of the latter’s election. Relations between the pope and the patriarch have been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The patriarch has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s military action, whereas Pope Francis has frequently called for peace during his regular Vatican addresses.
That’s it from me, Geneva Abdul, and the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine:
Rishi Sunak has said the UK will invest an extra £5bn in the armed forces over two years and increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
“It’s clear that the world has become more volatile. The threats to our security have increased,” Sunak told reporters in an interview beside the USS Midway museum ship as he arrived in San Diego to meet Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese to agree on the next steps in a landmark defence agreement, Aukus, with the US and Australia
Growing foothold: how Russia donates fertiliser to deepen African alliances
Malawi is at the centre of a diplomatic tussle for influence, but as a food crisis looms, farmers are happy to accept desperately needed shipments
The Russian national anthem rings out at a farm to the south of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Farmers attending the handover ceremony of 20,000 tonnes of Russian fertiliser rise to their feet, out of respect for their guests. Later, some will collect bags of the desperately needed nitrogen, phosphate and potassium (NPK).
Amid global fertiliser shortages and rising prices since 2020, aggravated by the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian chemicals company Uralchem-Uralkali last year agreed to donate 260,000 tonnes of fertiliser to African countries most at risk of food insecurity.
The first shipment, to Malawi, facilitated by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), was signed off in November to urgently avert a looming hunger crisis in the land-locked country. But despite food and fertiliser being exempt from international sanctions placed on Russia, one of the world’s largest fertiliser producers, diplomatic tensions have restricted flow, leaving thousands of tonnes sitting on ships in European docks.
The Malawi shipment, having eventually received clearance to leave a port in the Netherlands, faced further delays when it arrived in Mozambique in early January before making its way to Lilongwe on trucks. It finally arrived in Malawi in February.
President Joe Biden’s record peacetime national defence budget request of $886 billion boasts a 5.2% pay raise for troops and the largest research and development budget in history, as Russian aggression in Ukraine spurs demand for more military spending on munitions.
Biden’s request earmarks $842 billion for the Pentagon with an additional $44 billion earmarked for defence-related programs at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Energy and other agencies, bringing the national security budget to $886 billion, up from $858 billion enacted last year, according to Reuters.
Updated
Britain’s Royal Navy said on Monday that it was escorting a Russian frigate and tanker in waters close to the UK having shadowed the vessels through the Channel on Sunday morning.
The Royal Navy said in a statement:
The Royal Navy routinely responds to escort warships in our territorial waters and the adjacent sea areas to ensure compliance with maritime law and to deter malign activity. Escorting the Russian task group alongside allied partners demonstrates the commitment of the Royal Navy and the NATO alliance to maintaining maritime security which is crucial to our national interests.”
Here are the latest images from photographer Alessio Mamo in
Krasnopillia, Ukraine:
Russia says it could agree to renew Black Sea grain deal for shorter term
Moscow does not object to renewing a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports but only for a period of 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin has said.
Vershinin was speaking after holding talks with U.N. officials in Geneva, Reuters reports.
The Black Sea grain initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia’s invasion to be safely exported from three Ukrainian ports.
The deal, which was extended for 120 days in November, is up for renewal on March 18.
Vershinin said:
[Russia] does not object to another extension of the ‘Black Sea Initiative’ after its second term expiration on March 18, but only for 60 days…Our further stance will be determined upon tangible progress on normalization of our agricultural exports, not in words, but in deeds.
Updated
Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers on Monday wrapped up a four-week training in Spain on how to operate the Leopard 2A4 battle tank, of which Madrid is set to deliver six mothballed units to Kyiv this spring.
A total of 40 tank crew members and 15 mechanical specialists underwent training on their use at a military base in the northeastern city of Zaragoza, Spain’s armed forces said in a statement.
“It has been intense,” Spanish trainer Captain Contreras - who identified himself only by his rank and surname - told reporters, who were allowed access to the drills for the first time.
Contreras said the Ukrainians would be returning home “with a very acceptable knowledge” of the Leopards.
“Although the tanks were different, there were many systems that coincide and that has made things much easier. With that, together with the motivation that the personnel brought and their desire to learn, we see them very well prepared to resume combat.”
One of the Ukrainian soldiers being trained had a patch on a sleeve sporting the slogan “Freedom or Death” underneath the Ukrainian flag.
The Italian government has said Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind a surge in migrant boats trying to cross the central Mediterranean as part of Moscow’s strategy to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine, Reuters reports.
In a statement, defence minister Guido Crosetto said:
I think it is now safe to say that the exponential increase in the migratory phenomenon departing from African shores is also, to a not insignificant extent, part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner division is implementing, using its considerable weight in some African countries.
Some 20,000 people have reached Italy so far this year, compared to 6,100 in the same period of 2022, interior ministry figures show, and the migration issue is piling pressure on the rightist government.
In an expletive-laden voice message posted on his Telegram channel, Wagners boss Yevgeny Prigozhin responded:
We have no idea what’s happening with the migrant crisis, we don’t concern ourselves with it.
He then used a series of obscenities to describe Crosetto and urged him to pay attention to his own country.
Updated
Russia and China threaten to create global 'danger and disorder' says Sunak
Britain cast China as representing an “epoch-defining challenge” to the world order, in an update to its foreign policy framework published on Monday which declared that the UK’s security hinged on the outcome of the Ukraine war.
In the refresh of Britain’s blueprint for security and international policy, the government warned of China’s deepening partnership with Russia, and Moscow’s growing cooperation with Iran following the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Only first released two years ago, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain’s Integrated Review (IR) had been updated to take account of events, with the hardening of language and positioning towards Beijing and Moscow.
But the decision to still not describe China as a threat was likely to disappoint many in Sunak’s governing Conservative Party, who also believe his vow to spend an extra 5 billion pounds ($6 billion) on defence is insufficient to support Ukraine without leaving Britain vulnerable.
In a foreword to the IR, Sunak wrote:
What could not be fully foreseen in 2021 was the pace of the geopolitical change and the extent of its impact on the UK and our people…Since then, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, weaponisation of energy and food supplies and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, combined with China’s more aggressive stance in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, are threatening to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine:
ICC expected to seek first arrest warrants
The prosecutor at the international criminal court will formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, according to reports on Monday.
The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported that the prosecutor, Karim Khan, will ask pre-trial judges to approve arrest warrants on the basis of evidence collected so far. If successful, it would mark the first time ICC warrants had been issued in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is not clear if the warrants would be sealed, which would leave suspects guessing over whether they had been implicated. It is unlikely that the warrants would lead to trials as the ICC would not try the defendants in absentia, and Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, is highly unlikely to hand them over to the court, based in The Hague.
Reports of imminent arrest warrants come just over a year after Khan opened an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine. Over the past 12 months, he has made three trips to Ukraine and visited sites of alleged war crimes.
Updated
Fierce fighting is raging for control of the centre of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, forces from both sides of the conflict have said, as casualties continue to mount in the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war.
Russia ratcheted up its efforts to take Bakhmut in early February after months of intense fighting around the town, and has since inched into the small city’s suburbs. Ukraine’s forces are now fighting off attacks from the north, east, and south. Their only road out, to the west, is under Russian artillery fire.
Ukraine insists there is a strategy behind continuing the fight for Bakhmut. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Sunday that it was using the defence of Bakhmut to buy time until Ukraine is able to carry out an anticipated spring offensive. Syrskyi also said that Ukraine was using the opportunity to kill as many Russian troops as possible and wear down its reserves.
“It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counteroffensive, which is not far off,” Syrskiy said in a statement. “[Ukrainian soldiers are] inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy.”
Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Monday that relations between Russia and China were a major factor supporting global stability in the world today, Reuters reports, citing Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
“Bilateral relations between our countries have reached a new, unprecedented level and have become a major factor supporting global stability in the face of increasing geopolitical tensions in the world,” Tass reported Shoigu as saying in a telegram message to Zhang Youxia, vice-chair of China’s central military commission and a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Updated
Moldova does not currently face “imminent military danger” but is subject to “hybrid warfare generated by Russia” in a bid to “overthrow state power”, its defence minister told Agence France-Presse in an interview Monday.
Anatolie Nosatîi sat down for an interview with AFP at his office in Chișinău, after the latest in a string of anti-government protests erupted over the weekend in the small ex-Soviet nation.
“Imminent military danger against Moldova currently doesn’t exist, but there are other types of dangers that affect the country’s security – hybrid warfare,” Nosatîi told AFP.
By generating “disinformation, tensions inside our society”, Russia was attempting to “change the political order, destabilise and overthrow state power,” the 50-year-old minister said.
On Sunday, Moldovan police arrested members of a network seeking to undermine the country they suspected of being orchestrated by Moscow.
Joe Biden’s White House in the US accused Russia on Friday of seeking to destabilise Moldova in order to install a pro-Russian government. Pro-European Moldova has repeatedly accused Moscow of plotting to violently topple its government through saboteurs disguised as anti-government protesters, claims which Russia denied.
Summary
It’s 4pm in Kyiv. Here are the latest developments in the Ukraine-Russia conflict:
The international criminal court intends to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people, the New York Times reported citing sources unauthorised to speak publicly. The cases are the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict, the newspaper reports.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters. Xi also plans to speak with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal. China’s president is to speak virtually with his Ukrainian counterpart, probably after a visit to Moscow next week, the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Negotiations began on Monday between UN officials and Russia’s deputy foreign minister on a possible extension to a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva said.
The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine, met Russia’s president to discuss the war, according to reports.
Russian forces fired two rockets at a school in Avdiivka, according to the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriy Yermak. One local resident was killed in the attack.
A senior Russian lawmaker introduced a bill to parliament on Monday to raise the age of conscription to 21-30 years from the current 18-27 years by 2026, Reuters reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has awarded the Hero of Ukraine award to Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier who was seemingly executed by machine gun fire on camera after being captured by Russian soldiers. Zelenskiy said: “Today I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier. A man whom all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be remembered for ever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’”
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has reported on Telegram that one civilian was killed and four people were injured in a rocket attack on Znob-Novhorodske, in Sumy region.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting a claim that resistance fighters have blown up a railway that Russian forces were using in occupied Kherson. The claims have not been independently verified. A video posted by the Atesh partisan group appears to show a railway track between the settlements of Abrikosivka and Radensk being blown up.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 40-year-old man was injured by a petal mine near Izyium.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that the Russia-installed authorities in occupied regions of Donetsk are claiming that almost 4,500 people have died as a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces since 17 February 2022.
One of Vladimir Putin’s top allies, the Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, said on Monday that he doubted that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a pro-Ukrainian group, and said Moscow still did not know who exactly was behind it.
Russia’s industry ministry said on Monday it was expanding its list of brands that can be imported without the trademark owner’s permission to include goods from companies such as Ikea and the US toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has offered congratulations to Pope Francis on the 10th anniversary of the latter’s election. Relations between the pope and the patriarch have been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The patriarch has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s military action, whereas Pope Francis has frequently called for peace during his regular Vatican addresses.
Updated
Russian forces have fired two rockets at a school in Avdiivka, according to the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriy Yermak.
In a post on Twitter, Yermak said one local resident was killed in the attack.
The Russians fired two rockets at a school in Avdiivka.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 13, 2023
A local resident died. pic.twitter.com/3vzR5jnilX
Yesterday, Ukrainian national police reported that Russia had launched 48 attacks against civilians in Donetsk oblast over the past day. The police said 15 cities and towns, including Bakhmut, Kostyantynivka, and Avdiivka, had come under attack.
Updated
‘I hope I haven’t killed anybody’: the pacifist author fighting on Ukraine’s frontline
Vlad Beliavsky hoped to bring some peace to the world with his first book, The Pyramid Mind. If we all trained our minds properly, he thought, we could live together in harmony. At best, he imagined his book might even stop wars.
Today, he is in Kyiv, wearing military uniform and silhouetted against a neutral background. It is safer not to give details of where; he simply says he is in a military building. As his book is published, 13 years after it was conceived, Lt Beliavsky is marking a year spent fighting for the future of Ukraine.
He is a handsome, youthful 33-year-old. In other circumstances you could imagine him in a boyband or becoming the Brian Cox of psychology. But look closely and there are heavy bags beneath his eyes. His skin is pallid. He talks slowly, measuring his words with scrupulous care. At times, he seems on the verge of tears.
Updated
A dispatch from the Guardian correspondent Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Nizhyn, northern Ukraine.
Last week, I visited the grave of Oleksandr Igorevich Matsievskyi, a prisoner of war whose murder by Russian soldiers was captured in a grim clip that spread quickly across Ukraine and much of the world.
In the graphic 12-second video, Matsievskyi, unarmed, is derided by his captors, who are recording the scene. He calmly puffs on his cigarette, looks his tormentors in the face and says “glory to Ukraine”. Within an instant, multiple shots can be heard and Matsievskyi slumps dead to the ground.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday awarded him a Hero of Ukraine award, bringing an end to a dispute over his identity. Until yesterday, two families, two battalions and two different home towns had each to varying degrees claimed the man as their own, as the identity of the prisoner had not been immediately established due to the low quality of the video.
Military authorities launched an investigation to resolve the dispute and were considering exhuming the body of Matsievskyi – who was buried in his home town of Nizhyn, north-east of Kyiv. At stake was not just a posthumous medal for valour, but the pride of claiming a figure to whom mayors and cities across Ukraine are already preparing to dedicate monuments and streets.
The final verdict arrived yesterday after an investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which included communication with the family of the deceased, as well as the processing of photos and video material.
#Ukraine’s security services have concluded that the prisoner of war killed by Russian soldiers and hailed as a national hero is Oleksandr #Matsievskyi, bringing an end to the dispute over his identity. My latest. #Russia #war https://t.co/FemWxj64l8
— Lorenzo Tondo (@lorenzo_tondo) March 12, 2023
None of this will bring Matsievskyi back to life, but it will write his name into Ukrainian history, alongside the border guard on Snake Island who famously declared in the face of the enemy: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.”
But even before the military authorities resolved the dispute over his identity, after the military had initially – mistakenly - identified the prisoner with the name of another soldier, dozens of visitors had already gathered to bring flowers to Matsievskyi’s grave. I remember a young man lighting a cigarette and placing it on the edge of the tombstone as if to share a final smoke with Matsievskyi.
One year after the war began, the Ukrainian resistance still needs heroes and examples of soldiers to boost the morale of its troops grappling with the bloody and uncertain battle of Bakhmut.
There is one detail of Matsievskyi’s story that struck me. His brigade comrades who spoke to the soldier’s mother said the last conversation between them was on 29 December when he prophetically told her: “Mum, I will never surrender.”
Updated
The international criminal court plans to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people, the New York Times reported citing sources unauthorised to speak publicly.
The cases are the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict, the newspaper reports. The charges allege Russia deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and abducted Ukrainian children and teenagers and sent them to Russian re-education camps.
The chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, a senior English barrister, must first present his charges to a panel of pretrial judges, who will decide whether the legal standards have been met for issuing arrest warrants, or whether investigators need more evidence. It was not clear whom the court planned to charge in each case.
The news comes days after the Pentagon was accused of blocking the sharing of US intelligence with the international criminal court (ICC) about Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The Biden White House and state department have been a proponent of cooperation with the Hague-based ICC, as a means of holding Russian forces accountable for widespread war crimes, but the defence department is firmly opposed on the grounds that the precedent could eventually be turned against US soldiers.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine and elsewhere:
Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine, met with Russia’s president to discuss the war, according to reports.
In a video circulating online shared by BBC journalist Francis Scarr, Kadyrov is seen sitting across from Putin reading from prepared notes.
“In our republic everything is very good,” said Kadyrov. “That’s thanks to you, don.”
Even when addressing Putin, Ramzan Kadryrov’s speech is littered with the Chechen filler word ‘don’
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) March 13, 2023
And when he starts reading out his prepared notes (look at the size of the writing), he’s apparently encountering difficulties with Russian pronunciation pic.twitter.com/bJFMgXiyPk
Updated
The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will unveil his budget on Wednesday as the country faces the pressing issues of inflation, pay and public finances.
Here’s what PA Media says we can expect in the budget this week:
The Treasury has been under pressure for months to boost the defence budget, as the war in Ukraine continues.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised an extra £5bn for the military over two years, with an extra £1.98bn this year and £2.97bn next year for defence.
According to Sunak, the extra funding will take spending from 2% of GDP in 2020 to 2.25% in 2025.
Any indications from the chancellor about the future trajectory of defence spending beyond this will likely be eagerly received by MPs.
Updated
Talks under way for possible Black Sea grain deal extension
Negotiations began on Monday between UN officials and Russia’s deputy foreign minister on a possible extension to a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva said.
The Black Sea grain initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey last July, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia’s invasion to be safely exported from three Ukrainian ports.
The deal, which was extended for 120 days in November, is up for renewal on 18 March, Reuters reports.
Moscow has already signalled it will only agree to an extension if restrictions affecting its own exports are lifted, but many diplomats and senior officials, including Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, are optimistic that the deal will be renewed.
Russian officials say that although the country’s agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by the west, sanctions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries have created a barrier for it being able to export its own grains and fertilisers.
Updated
Russian liberals on Monday celebrated the Oscars win of Navalny, a documentary about the poisoning and imprisonment of “hero” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The film, which won best feature documentary at the Academy Awards in LA on Sunday, follows an investigation by Navalny’s team together with the Bellingcat group as they unmask FSB agents who were sent to poison Navalny in 2020. The Kremlin has always denied involvement.
Director Daniel Rohe accepted his statuette by dedicating it to Navalny and to all political prisoners around the world.
“Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition, remains in solitary confinement for what he calls – I want to make sure we get his words exactly right –‘Vladimir Putin’s unjust war of aggression in Ukraine’,” Roher said.
Updated
A senior Russian lawmaker introduced a bill to parliament on Monday to raise the age of conscription to 21-30 years from the current 18-27 years by 2026, Reuters reports.
The bill was introduced by Andrei Kartapolov, a former general who chairs the State Duma’s defence committee and represents the ruling United Russia bloc, just over a year into Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Because there are two transition years - 2024 and 2025 - when the conscription age will span 10 or 11 years instead of the usual nine, the bill would for a time increase the number of men subject to a year’s compulsory service.
President Vladimir Putin gave his backing in December to defence ministry proposals to push back the age range.
In January, Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed that Russia is set to order the mobilisation of as many as 500,000 conscripts in January in addition to the 300,000 it called up in October, in another apparent sign that Vladimir Putin has no intention of ending the war.
Updated
Chinese leader also planning to speak to Zelenskiy
Xi Jinping also plans to speak with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal.
China’s president is to speak virtually with his Ukrainian counterpart likely following a visit to Moscow next week the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine:
Updated
Xi Jinping 'to visit Russia' as early as next week
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters, while Moscow and Kyiv both reported intense fighting over the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has awarded the Hero of Ukraine to Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier who was seemingly executed by machine gun fire on camera after being captured by Russian soldiers. Zelenskiy said: “Today I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier. A man whom all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be remembered for ever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’”
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has reported on Telegram that one civilian was killed and four people were injured in a rocket attack on Znob-Novhorodske in Sumy region.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting a claim that resistance fighters have blown up a railway that Russian forces were using in occupied Kherson. The claims have not been independently verified. A video posted by the Atesh partisan group appears to show a railway track between the settlements of Abrikosivka and Radensk being blown up.
Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 40-year-old man has been injured by a petal mine near Izyium.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that the Russia-installed authorities in occupied regions of Donetsk are claiming that almost 4,500 people have died as a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces since 17 February 2022.
One of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies – Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev – said on Monday that he doubts that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a pro-Ukrainian group, and said that Moscow still does not know who exactly was behind it.
Russia’s industry ministry said on Monday it was expanding its list of brands that can be imported without the trademark owner’s permission to include goods from companies such as Ikea and US toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has offered congratulations to Pope Francis on the 10th anniversary of the latter’s election. Relations between the pope and the patriarch have been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The patriarch has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s military action, whereas Pope Francis has frequently called for peace during his regular Vatican addresses.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Geneva Abdul will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has reported on Telegram that one civilian was killed and four people were injured in a rocket attack on Znob-Novhorodske in Sumy region. The claims have not been independently verified.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting a claim that resistance fighters have blown up a railway that Russian forces were using in occupied Kherson. It writes:
On the left bank of the Kherson region, members of the resistance movement blew up the railway on which the echelons of the Russian army were moving.
“The army of the Russian Federation understands that they are also uneasy on the Crimean peninsula. We keep their logistical transport routes under control, including with the support of the resistance movement,” the head of the joint press centre of the defence and security forces of the South, said on air.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Kherson is one of the regions of Ukraine which Russia partially occupies and which it claimed to annex in October last year. Ukrainian forces liberated the city of Kherson from occupation after Russian forces pulled back to the south of the Dnieper River.
Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has again warned residents of the danger of mines in the region. He has posted to Telegram:
In a village a 40-year-old civilian man stepped on a “Petal” mine near a field. As a result of the explosion, he received shrapnel wounds and an injury. [He was] hospitalised in moderate condition.
Once again, I urge everyone to be as attentive and careful as possible, because the enemy left a lot of mines and other explosive objects in the de-occupied territories. Refrain from visiting forests, forest strips, rivers, fields, etc. All of these areas are potentially dangerous.
Updated
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that the Russia-installed authorities in occupied regions of Donetsk are claiming that almost 4,500 people have died as a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces since 17 February 2022.
The claims have not been independently verified.
It quotes the “joint centre for control and coordination of issues related to war crimes of Ukraine”, saying:
During the 389 days of escalation, 677 civilians, including 28 children, were killed in the territory within the borders before the start of the special military operation. In the territory liberated during the special military operation, 3,780 civilians were killed, including 106 children. In total, 4,457 [people], including 134 [children].
“Special military operation” has been Russia’s preferred term for the invasion of Ukraine which it launched on 24 February 2022. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was founded in 2014, and has been recognised as a legitimate authority by only three UN member states: Russia, Syria and North Korea.
Updated
Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency has reported that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has offered congratulations to Pope Francis on 10th anniversary of the latter’s election.
It quotes Kirill saying “during the difficult times we are experiencing, dialogue between religious leaders can bring good results”.
Relations between the pope and the patriarch have been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The patriarch has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s military action, whereas Pope Francis has frequently called for peace during his regular Vatican addresses.
Updated
Russia’s industry ministry said on Monday it was expanding its list of brands that can be imported without the trademark owner’s permission to include goods from companies such as Ikea and US toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel.
Reuters reports Moscow has been pushing a so-called “parallel imports” scheme to help domestic consumers maintain access to a host of foreign products in the face of sanctions imposed by the west over the conflict in Ukraine.
The mechanism allows Russian companies to buy goods from any company outside Russia, including from the country of the goods’ origin, provided they were bought legally.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s expanded list includes luxury brands, such as Lancome, Giorgio Armani and Yves Saint Laurent, and brands including Wahl, Zanussi, and Nintendo. Brands of motor oils and agricultural equipment makers were also added.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine, showing damage to buildings in Kharkiv.
One of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies said on Monday that he doubts that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a pro-Ukrainian group, and said that Moscow still does not know who exactly was behind it, Reuters reports, citing Interfax.
Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev also said that Ukraine had gained nothing from the destruction of the pipelines.
Reuters has a quick snap to say that sources have told the news agency that China’s Xi Jinping, recently handed an unprecedented third term in office, plans to visit Moscow as soon as next week. It would send a strong signal that China was doubling down on its relationship with Russia at a time when some elements in the west have been expressing concern that China might start to supply arms to aid Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting that according to the local authority, the settlement of Shalyhyne in Sumy oblast, close to the border with Russia, has been shelled this morning.
Ukraine became the third biggest importer of arms in 2022, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
According to the analysis, Ukraine was the 14th biggest importer in 2018-2022, with the top five at the time including India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China.
As of 2022 it had become the third, next to Qatar and India.
Alone Ukraine accounted for 2% of global arms imports in the five year period between 2018 and 2022.
At the same time Russia’s arms exports fell as weapons and equipment was diverted to support its invasion of Ukraine.
Pieter D Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI arms transfers programme, said many of the weapons systems western countries have been reluctant to sell Ukraine were being sold elsewhere.
Due to concerns about how the supply of combat aircraft and long-range missiles could further escalate the war in Ukraine, Nato states declined Ukraine’s requests for them in 2022.
At the same time, they supplied such arms to other states involved in conflict, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia.
For more on this story, read the full report by Daniel Boffey.
Updated
President Volodomyr Zelenskiy has awarded the Hero of Ukraine to Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier who was apparently shown being executed by machine gun fire on camera after being captured by Russian soldiers.
In his late night address on Sunday, Zelenskiy Zelenskiy said Matsievskyi will be “remembered forever”.
Today I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a soldier. A man whom all Ukrainians will know. A man who will be remembered for ever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’
For more on this story, read the full report.
Updated
Documentary film 'Navalny' wins Oscar
A documentary film about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has won at the Oscars.
“Navalny”, which follows the poisoning and detention of opposition leader, won best feature documentary overnight.
The daughter of Russian political prisoner Alexei Navalny, Dasha Navalnaya, said it was difficult to be attending the #Oscars to bring attention to the documentary about her father’s imprisonment, but he wanted her there. https://t.co/ej9hzfFXyC pic.twitter.com/HCI6BiyFkq
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2023
The award was accepted by Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s wife and his daughter, Dasha Navalnaya who used the moment to deliver a personal message.
My husband is prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy. Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong my love.
Speaking to the Associated Press before the ceremony, his daughter said she was attending to bring attention to her father’s imprisonment.
It’s crazy. But it’s my life. And I’m fighting for freedom of speech and I’m fighting to get Alexei out – my dad - and I’m fighting for democracy in Russia.
Ukrainian forces repelled 102 attacks in the last day according to the latest update from the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
In its latest update, it said Russian forces have continued offensive operations in the regions of Lymansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdiivskyi, Marinskyi and Shakhtarskyi directions.
It said Russian forces had launched three missile strikes, including on civilian infrastructure in Solvyansk, eight airstrikes and 49 rocket attacks.
Around Kupyans and Lymansk, Russian forces have continued attempting to break through Ukrainian defences with assaults in several areas and artillery shelling.
The update also claimed Russian forces “continue to plunder temporarily captured territories”.
Recently, in Energodar, the occupiers began to remove from the educational and training center of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant educational equipment, which was used to improve the qualifications of personnel.
A Russian military blogger claims there is a high desetion rate among Spetsnaz forces.
In a report cited by the Institute for Study of War, it was claimed no Septsnaz unit is at its full complement and that some commanders have fled their units despite receiving generous salaries for the past decade.
The ISW noted it could not independently confirm these reports and suggested that “it appears unlikely that most commanders have fled these elite units”.
Ukrainian forces claim to have killed over a thousand Russian solders in the past few days as they continue to defend the besieged city of Bakhmut.
In his evening address on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than a thousand soldiers had been killed and 1,500 wounded in the fighting.
In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia’s irreversible loss, right there, near Bakhmut.
A shallow river running through the centre of town now marks the frontline in the conflict, according to British intelligence.
Information on the frontline is mixed with Ukrainian forces having claim to have repelled Russian attacks across the city .
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has said the fighting in Bakhmut is “tough, very tough” and claimed “the closer we are to the centre of the city, the harder the fight”.
But in one update from a frontline commander on Sunday rejected these claims saying Prigozhin has claimed to have “captured it so many times that no one is interested anymore.”
Wagner forces sent to die in Bakhmut: ISW
The conflict between Russian Ministry of Defence and Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin has likely reached a climax as thousands of fighters have died fighting in Bakhmut.
According to the Institute for Study of War (ISW) analysis, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) is “currently prioritizing eliminating Wagner on the battlefields in Bakhmut” which it concludes is slowing its advance in the area.
It said the conflict began when Prigozhin ran a “relentless defamation” campaign against senior figures in the Russian military, including Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Now that the group has failed to show progress it is believed Russian MoD officials are “seizing the opportunity to deliberately expend both elite and convict Wagner forces in Bakhmut in an effort to weaken Prigozhin and derail his ambitions for greater influence in the Kremlin.”
The ISW believes Russian President Vladimir Putin likely became “alarmed” by Prigozhin’s political ambitions in October last year.
Putin likely stopped the Russian MoD from directly attacking Prigozhin but instead created conditions in which the Russian military leadership could reassume more authority. Such conditions likely threatened Prigozhin, who began to intensify his criticism of the Russian MoD and further deepened the conflict between Wagner forces and military leadership.
Here are today's control-of-terrain maps of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar & @criticalthreats.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 12, 2023
Interactive map: https://t.co/hwgxTnUAIZ
Archive of time-lapse maps: https://t.co/IT6FiqwOwm pic.twitter.com/h1IaQVxESD
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
The Institute For The Study of War (ISW) says the tense relationship between the Russian Ministry of Defence and Yevgeny Prigozhin, financier of the Wagner group, has “likely reached its climax” as the battle for Bakhmut unfolds.
According to the ISW analysis, senior figures within the Russian Defence ministry are using the battle to churn through Wagner fighters and blunt Prigozhin’s “ambitions for greater influence in the Kremlin”.
The analysis comes as the grinding fight over Bakhmut continues with Russian forces failing to advance over the weekend. Both Ukraine and Russia claimed to have killed hundreds of troops on both sides in the fighting.
In other developments:
Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili has told Ukraine’s political leadership to stay out of Georgian politics. The criticism comes after Ukrainian political leaders expressed their support for protesters in Tbilisi. Garibashvili described the comments as a “direct intervention” in domestic politics and told his Ukrainian counterparts to “take care of yourself and your country, and we will take care of our country”.
Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko has arrived in Iran for an official visit to meet local leaders and discuss “trade and economic cooperation”.
Russian forces continued offensive operations near Bakhmut but have not completed a turning movement, envelopment, or encirclement around the cit according to the Institute for Study of War.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, mayor of the Belgorod oblast in Russia, says the city’s air defence system shot down four missiles. Gladkov said one person had been injured and houses had been damaged by rocket debris. He did not say who he thought had fired the missiles but in the past he has accused Ukrainian forces on the other side of the nearby border of similar attacks.
There are reports of partisan attacks on a railway track in Russian-occupied part of Kherson region according to the Ukrainian military’s National Resistance Center. A video posted by the Atesh partisan group appears to show a railway track between the settlements of Abrikosivka and Radensk being blown up.
Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, has shared a video on his Telegram channel showing what appears to be an attack on the town of Vuhledar in Donetsk region using incendiary munitions.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, claimed 221 pro-Moscow troops had been killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut. Russia’s defence ministry said that as many as 210 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the broader Donetsk part of the frontline.
Ukraine’s military said it repelled more than 92 Russian assaults in five areas over the past day, according to the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.
The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said he believed a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea would be extended from its 18 March deadline. Russia’s foreign ministry said Russian representatives had not yet taken part in negotiations on extending the deal.
