Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukraine’s military claimed on Tuesday that the last 24 hours were the deadliest of the war for Russian troops. It increased its tally of Russian military dead by 1,030 overnight to 133,190, the biggest increase in daily Russian military deaths since the war began last February. Russia has also said it killed large numbers of Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, claiming it had inflicted 6,500 Ukrainian casualties in the month of January. These figures could not be independently verified, but the assertion that the fighting was the deadliest so far fits descriptions from both sides of an escalating campaign of close-contact trench warfare.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands have announced they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks. In a joint statement, the defence ministers of the three countries said the shipment of older Leopard 1 tanks was part of an effort “to support Ukraine in their endeavour to withstand Russian aggression”. The delivery of Leopard 1 tanks will occur “within the coming months” and include logistical support and training, it added.
Germany’s defence ministry has said Leopard 2A6 battle tanks will be available in Ukraine by the end of March. Meanwhile, Berlin has reportedly approved the delivery of 178 Leopard 1 battle tanks to Ukraine. The head of the German arms maker Rheinmetall has also said it expects to send 20 to 25 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine this year. The news comes as Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s top national security official, Oleksiy Danilov, has said he is confident his country will eventually receive US-made F-16 fighter jets. It was “only a matter of time” before Kyiv gets the F-16s, Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, told CNN. He also suggested Ukraine may be capable of striking Russian on its own territory, beyond occupied Ukraine.
Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels. A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months.
Russia almost certainly now lacks the munitions and manoeuvre units required for successful offensives, the UK Ministry of Defence said. Its latest intelligence update stated that Moscow would continue to demand sweeping advances, but it remained unlikely that Russia could build up the forces needed to substantially affect the outcome of the war in the coming weeks.
Ukraine’s parliament has approved the appointment of Ihor Klymenko as the country’s new interior affairs minister and Vasily Malyuk as the new head of the country’s security services, known as the SBU. Klymenko, formerly the national police chief, was serving as acting interior minister after the former minister, Denys Monastyrsky, was killed last month in a helicopter crash on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Recriminations have broken out among EU officials after a possible visit to Brussels by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was leaked, raising concerns over his security. Zelenskiy was reported to be planning a trip to Brussels this Thursday to meet EU leaders in person at a summit and address the European parliament in an extraordinary session.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has warned that western arms supplies to Ukraine are effectively “dragging” Nato into the conflict, which could lead to an “unpredictable level of escalation”. In remarks during a conference call with military officials, quoted by state-owned Tass news agency, Shoigu accused the US and its allies of “trying to prolong the conflict as much as possible” by supplying Kyiv with what he described as “heavy offensive weapons”.
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The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has tweeted a photo of him and his brother, Wladimir, meeting the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, in Ukraine’s capital today.
Зустрілися в Києві з міністром оборони 🇩🇪 Борисом Пісторіусом.
— Віталій Кличко (@Vitaliy_Klychko) February 7, 2023
Німеччина продовжить підтримувати Україну - буде і озброєння, й економічна допомога, й політична підтримка. pic.twitter.com/120JnYINKA
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