Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Friday in Ukraine, striking several cities including the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s air force command said it had shot down 61 out of 70 cruise missiles and five Iranian-made drones. The attacks appeared to be an attempt to penetrate Ukraine’s air defences and to intimidate its allies.
Two Russian cruise missiles have entered the airspace of Moldova and Romania, Ukraine has said. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said the Kalibr rockets crossed into Moldova at 10.18am local time on Friday. They then flew into Romania at 10.33am at the intersection of the state border, before recrossing into western Ukraine, he said.
Moldova confirmed at least one missile had overflown its airspace and summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident. This is not the first time Russia has sent its missiles into Moldova, with the conflict in danger of spilling out across the region. On Friday, Moldova’s pro-EU government resigned, adding to the sense of crisis.
Romania’s foreign ministry categorically denied the report. It said the Russian cruise missiles came to within 22 miles (35km) of the country’s north-eastern border but did not violate its territory. Two MiG-21 aircraft on a training flight were diverted to monitor the area, it said.
The US has “no indication” of a direct military threat by Russia to Moldova or Romania at this time, US state department spokesperson Vedant Patel has said. “We maintain close contact and communication with our Moldovan partners and Romanian allies,” Patel added.
Russia has launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and is trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna, the governor for the Luhansk region said on Thursday. Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said.
Russian forces likely lost “at least 30” armoured vehicles in a single, failed attack near the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar earlier this week, British intelligence said on Friday, sparking renewed anger among prominent Russian pro-war telegram channels over Moscow’s military blunders. The Ukrainian ministry of defence released a video on Twitter that appeared to show several Russian armoured vehicles and tanks scattered across the battlefield near Vuhledar.
Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and other cities around breakfast time on Friday. There were five booms in the Ukrainian capital, as air defence batteries shot down enemy missiles. A trail of white vapour could be seen above tower blocks and the railway station area. It was the first attack on Kyiv for two weeks.
“Russian forces have likely made tactical gains in two key sectors” since 7 February, the UK’s ministry of defence has said in its latest intelligence update. “On the northern outskirts of the Donbas town of Bakhmut, Wagner Group forces have pushed 2-3km further west, controlling countryside near the M-03 main route into the town. Russian forces increasingly dominate the northern approaches to Bakhmut,” the report says.
Slovakia can begin the process of talks on delivering MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, prime minister Eduard Heger has said. The talks will be internal and also with the European Commission, because Slovakia could have the delivery reimbursed, he added. His defence minister, Jaroslav Naď, has said his country no longer needed the jets and it could either sell them or give them to Ukraine. No decision had yet been taken, he added.
Ukraine has officially asked the Netherlands for F-16 fighter jets, its air force has said. The Dutch defence minister, Kajsa Ollongren, confirmed the request, saying: “We need to discuss the availability of the F-16 with the Americans and other allies ... And we have to look seriously at the consequences – it can’t just happen overnight. We have to be honest about that.”
Any decision to supply fighter jets to Ukraine must come from Nato, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said. He said “some countries” at an EU summit in Brussels did not agree with his proposals about deliveries of ammunition to Kyiv. Morawiecki added that Poland was “not excluding” closing further border crossings with Belarus, citing “growing tensions with Belarus and they are being instrumentalised by the Russians and the Kremlin”.
Switzerland said on Friday it has rejected a request from Madrid to allow Spain to re-export Swiss-made anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine. Spain made the request in January to allow it to send two 35mm anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine. Switzerland’s War Materials Act does not allow the export of war materials if the destination country is involved in an internal or international armed conflict.
A group of 35 countries will demand that Russian and Belarusian athletes are banned from the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to Lithuania’s sports minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently moved away from having an outright ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus and is investigating ways they can qualify for the Olympics under a neutral flag.
A Russian former governor has been sentenced to 22 years in a maximum security prison for double murder. Sergei Furgal, who was governor of the far-eastern Khabarovsk region, has denied the charges of attempted murder and ordering contract killings of business rivals. His detention in 2020 sparked massive anti-Kremlin protests in the Khabarovsk region, and his supporters say the charges were politically motivated, to punish him for taking too independent a line from Moscow.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the former Russian state TV editor who interrupted a live news broadcast to protest against the start of the Ukraine war, has described her “chaotic” escape from house arrest in Moscow and how she fled across Europe to seek asylum in France.
Slovakia can begin the process of talks on delivering MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, prime minister Eduard Heger has said.
Reuters has cited Heger as saying:
The Ukrainian president asked me to deliver the MiGs. Now, because this official request has come, the process of negotiations can be started.
The talks will be internal and also with the European Commission, because Slovakia could have the delivery reimbursed, he added.
His defence minister, Jaroslav Naď, has said his country no longer needed the jets and it could either sell them or give them to Ukraine. No decision had yet been taken, he added.
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