Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
World leaders, military officers and diplomats are gathering in Germany for the Munich security conference to discuss Europe’s security situation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost a year ago. About 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from almost 100 countries, including the US, Europe and China, are expected to attend the three-day conference.
The west needs to speed up its support for Ukraine as Vladimir Putin will gain a military advantage unless arms deliveries arrive soon, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in a video address to world leaders at the Munich conference. “We need to hurry up. We need speed – speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery … speed of decisions to limit Russian potential,” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelenskiy warned a possible consequence of delaying western weapons to Ukraine could be a Russian invasion of Moldova. He also said neighbouring Belarus would make a mistake of historic proportions if it joined in the Russian offensive and claimed polls showed 80% of the country did not wish to join.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, gave Zelenskiy an indirect rebuff, saying caution was better than hasty decisions and unity was better than going it alone. Scholz said Germany was the biggest supplier of weapons in continental Europe, and that the region was in uncharted territory and there was no blueprint for confronting a nuclear-armed aggressor, making it vital to avoid an unintended escalation.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Friday urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help the country carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia. There can be no peace in Ukraine until Russia is defeated, Macron said at the Munich conference, adding that Russia was doomed to “a defeat in the future”.
Vladimir Putin has been meeting the Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. The two last met in St Petersburg in December 2022. Russian troops were stationed in Belarus in February 2022 before launching their failed initial attempt to capture Kyiv at the start of Russia’s invasion, and the Belarus and Russian armed forces have been holding joint exercises in Belarus.
The first batch of Leopard-1A5 battle tanks the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany are buying for Ukraine will be delivered as soon as possible, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said. He added that the Netherlands was prepared to host a new tribunal to judge Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding that more support was needed for that to happen.
Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. Yuriy Vaskov said: “I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended.”
The US considers Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula, the under-secretary of state Victoria Nuland has said.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by the US under-secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. Zakharova said: “The American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country.”
As many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed just under a year of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said. The casualty rate “has significantly increased since September 2022 when “partial mobilisation” was imposed”, the latest British intelligence reads. Convict recruits used by Wagner may have had a casualty rate of one in every two men, it added.
Russia’s defence ministry website has posted an update confirming a new leadership appointment of its military district, state-run media is reporting. Lt Gen Andrey Mordvichev is now head of the central military district, replacing Col Gen Alexandr Lapin, who was appointed chief of staff of Russia’s ground forces last month. Mordvichev’s appointment follows other sweeping changes to Russia’s military leadership.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it has summoned the Italian ambassador, after Moscow said a number of performances by Russian artists in Italy had been cancelled. In a statement, the Russian ministry accused Italian authorities of discriminating against Russian artists, without providing further detail.
Russia’s foreign ministry also said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador over what it called “obsessive attempts” by authorities in the Netherlands to hold it responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014. In a statement, it accused the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being “politicised”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed for more funds to support Ukraine’s health sector, which has been severely damaged by the war. Ukraine needs more funds to ensure mental health, rehabilitation and community access to health services, the WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said in a briefing from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.
A British embassy security guard has been jailed for more than 13 years after a judge told him his “treachery” spying for Russia had put his former colleagues at “maximum risk”. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, copied secret documents he found in unlocked filing cabinets and on desks at the embassy, including a letter to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.n the war.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine live blog today. Thank you for following along, I’ll be back on Monday.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
Britain’s Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, said he wanted to show unity with the UK government with its stance on providing fighter jets to Ukraine.
Starmer said the topic of warplanes came up during his conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv yesterday. Speaking from Poland after his visit to Ukraine, he told BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine programme:
The government has said it should be part of the conversation, so it is not ruling it out. I think they are right about that and it needs to be in lock-step with Nato.
He said he told Zelenskiy and the UK government that “we will be united”.
I don’t want to try to politically outbid the government here because if I’ve said we will be united, I mean it.
Clearly he does want further support. It is not straightforward with the fighter aircraft because there is a lot of training involved, the logistics mean it would take a little while and I think we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that other weaponry must be provided, as we are now.
Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will urge western allies to give Ukraine the “advanced, Nato-standard capabilities” needed to banish Russian troops from its land when he addresses the Munich security conference tomorrow.
Sunak is expected to say more needs to be done to “boost Ukraine’s long-term security” and that leaders must “double down” on military support for Kyiv, PA news agency reports.
He is also expected to press for a new plan to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future against Russian aggression, and argue that Kyiv’s struggle is “about the security and sovereignty of every nation”.
Sunak’s speech to the German global security forum comes after Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the UK, Paris and Brussels last week, as he appealed to the west to send fighter planes.
To coincide with Zelenskiy’s trip, the UK government announced that Britain would extend its training mission – which has already seen 10,000 Ukrainian troops come to the UK – to cover fighter jet pilots, ensuring Ukraine can defend its skies using “Nato tactics” in the future.
Updated
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have sent a letter to President Joe Biden, requesting his administration send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Modern fighter jets as requested by Kyiv should be sent “as soon as possible” as they “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year”, five House members said in a letter obtained by Politico and CNN.
The letter reads:
It is in that spirit of leadership and support that we write to respectfully request that your administration provide Ukraine with increased air superiority capability, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft requested by Kiev, or similar fourth-generation aircraft, as soon as possible.
The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations.
The letter was signed by Reps Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine; Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas; Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado; Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania; and Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin.
Updated
Facebook allowed an exiled Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the country, according to a report.
The ads featuring politician and convicted fraudster Ilan Shor were seen millions of times in Moldova, even though he and his political party were on the US sanctions list, AP reports.
Those ads, paid for by Shor’s political party, were ultimately removed by Facebook. They have helped fuel angry demonstrations against Moldova’s pro-western government, exploiting anger over inflation and rising fuel prices.
Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, accused Russia on Monday of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her tiny country’s leadership, stop it joining the EU and use it in the war against Ukraine.
Sandu’s comments came after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his country had uncovered a Russian intelligence plan “for the destruction of Moldova”, and days later the country’s government resigned.
“Destabilisation attempts are a reality and for our institutions, they represent a real challenge,” Sandu said on Thursday as she swore in a government led by a pro-western prime minister, Dorin Recean.
The ads reveal how Russia has exploited lapses in social media platforms to spread propaganda and disinformation that weaponises economic and social instability, in an attempt to undermine governments in eastern Europe.
Updated
Belarus is ready to build Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft, which “have proved to be efficient in Ukraine”, President Alexander Lukashenko told Vladimir Putin during a meeting today, state-run Belta news agency is reporting.
The Russian president is hosting his Belarusian counterpart for talks on expanding military and economic cooperation amid the fighting in Ukraine.
Lukashenko told Putin, according to Belta:
As I was informed by the government, they are ready for the production of the Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft that have proved to be efficient in Ukraine. We are even ready to produce them in Belarus if the Russian Federation provides a little bit of technological support.
He noted that Belarusian plants have made components for Russian passenger planes, adding:
The Belarusians are already producing up to a thousand component parts for the MC-21 and Sukhoi Superjet 100.
A Belarusian factory has repaired a few Soviet-built Su-25 ground attack jets in the past, but it was not clear how it could resume production of the plane that was halted long time ago.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
World leaders, military officers and diplomats are gathering in Germany for the Munich security xconference to discuss Europe’s security situation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost a year ago. About 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from almost 100 countries, including the US, Europe and China, are expected to attend the three-day conference.
The west needs to speed up its support for Ukraine as Vladimir Putin will gain a military advantage unless arms deliveries arrive soon, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in a video address to world leaders at the Munich conference. “We need to hurry up. We need speed – speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery … speed of decisions to limit Russian potential,” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelenskiy warned a possible consequence of delaying western weapons to Ukraine could be a Russian invasion of Moldova. He also said neighbouring Belarus would make a mistake of historic proportions if it joined in the Russian offensive and claimed polls showed 80% of the country did not wish to join the war.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, gave Zelenskiy an indirect rebuff, saying caution was better than hasty decisions and unity was better than going it alone. Scholz said Germany was the biggest supplier of weapons in continental Europe, and that the region was in uncharted territory and there was no blueprint for confronting a nuclear-armed aggressor, making it vital to avoid an unintended escalation.
the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Friday urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help the country carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia. There can be no peace in Ukraine until Russia is defeated, Macron said at the Munich conference, adding that Russia was doomed to “a defeat in the future”.
Vladimir Putin has been meeting the Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. The two last met in St Petersburg in December 2022. Russian troops were stationed in Belarus in February 2022 before launching their failed initial attempt to capture Kyiv at the start of Russia’s invasion, and the Belarus and Russian armed forces have been holding joint exercises in Belarus.
The first batch of Leopard-1A5 battle tanks the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany are buying for Ukraine will be delivered as soon as possible, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said. He added that the Netherlands was prepared to host a new tribunal to judge Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding that more support was needed for that to happen.
Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. Yuriy Vaskov said: “I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended.”
The US considers Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula, the under-secretary of state Victoria Nuland has said.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by the US under-secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. Zakharova said: “The American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country.”
As many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed just under a year of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said. The casualty rate “has significantly increased since September 2022 when “partial mobilisation” was imposed”, the latest British intelligence reads. Convict recruits used by Wagner may have had a casualty rate of one in every two men, it added.
Russia’s defence ministry website has posted an update confirming a new leadership appointment of its military district, state-run media is reporting. Lt Gen Andrey Mordvichev is now head of the central military district, replacing Col Gen Alexandr Lapin, who was appointed chief of staff of Russia’s ground forces last month. Mordvichev’s appointment follows other sweeping changes to Russia’s military leadership.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it has summoned the Italian ambassador, after Moscow said a number of performances by Russian artists in Italy had been cancelled. In a statement, the Russian ministry accused Italian authorities of discriminating against Russian artists, without providing further detail.
Russia’s foreign ministry also said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador over what it called “obsessive attempts” by authorities in the Netherlands to hold it responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014. In a statement, it accused the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being “politicised”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed for more funds to support Ukraine’s health sector, which has been severely damaged by the war. Ukraine needs more funds to ensure mental health, rehabilitation and community access to health services, the WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said in a briefing from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.
A British embassy security guard has been jailed for more than 13 years after a judge told him his “treachery” spying for Russia had put his former colleagues at “maximum risk”. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, copied secret documents he found in unlocked filing cabinets and on desks at the embassy, including a letter to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Good afternoon from London. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong still here with all the latest from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Russia has introduced a free package of satellite channels for residents living in occupied Ukraine that critics say is an attempt to create a “digital ghetto”.
The package is called Russkiy Mir, or Russian World, which has become a byword for the propaganda Russia seeks to spread outside its borders, focusing on its imperial greatness and the outside enemies determined to destroy it, namely the west.
Ukrainian analysts say the move is part of Moscow’s attempts to cut off the occupied population from Ukraine and create an information “ghetto”. It is just under a year since millions of Ukrainians started living under Russian occupation.
“The most important thing that Russia is doing in the occupied territories is trying to cut off this population from the Ukrainian agenda, they are creating their own ‘digital ghetto’. They do this by blocking Ukrainian media,” Ihor Solovey, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, told Radio Svoboda.
The package, backed by the All-Russian People’s Front, includes 20 existing Russian channels as well as 10 local TV channels produced specifically for those in the occupied areas. Soon a further nine entertainment channels will be added, according to the site where residents can apply to have the package installed.
Everything from the box to installation and the subscription is free. “Watching the package of TV channels available to Russkiy Mir subscribers free of charge,” reads the site.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry revealed it had summoned the Italian ambassador after Moscow said a number of performances by Russian artists in Italy had been cancelled.
In a statement, the Russian ministry accused Italian authorities of discriminating against Russian artists, without providing further detail. It said:
Decisions by the Italian authorities unfortunately indicate a tendency to discriminate against Russian artists and restrict cultural and humanitarian exchanges.
Giorgio Starace, the Italian ambassador to Russia, was told that Moscow remained ‘open to dialogue on the topic of culture” and did “not intend to impose restrictions on cultural figures from Italy”, provided Italy observeed “the principles of equality and reciprocity”, it said.
The move comes after the Arcimboldi theatre in Milan called off a show by the prominent Russian dancer Sergei Polunin, who has several tattoos of Vladimir Putin on his chest and shoulders.
The La Scala opera house in Milan also sidelined the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev after he failed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, but stood by its decision to stage the performance of the Russian composer Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov.
Updated
Russia thinking about 'strangling' Moldova while west discusses tank supplies, says Zelenskiy
Volodymr Zelenskiy opened the three-day Munich security conference today, as the west faces urgent calls to speed up ammunition production and supplies to Kyiv in the face of mounting fears that Russia is planning a new offensive.
Zelenskiy said it was “obvious” that Ukraine would not be the last stop of Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The Russian leader would continue on to other former Soviet countries, he warned, and said that while the west was discussing tank supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin was thinking about ways to ‘strangle’ Moldova.
Russia’s foreign ministry, which earlier said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador, has also said it summoned the Italian ambassador on Friday.
Moscow said a number of performances by Russian artists in Italy had been cancelled. In a statement, Moscow’s foreign ministry accused the Italian authorities of discriminating against Russian artists, without providing further detail.
Updated
While world leaders have been meeting at the Munich security conference without any representatives from Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been meeting the Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Tass reports that ahead of the meeting, Lukashenko said he plans to touch upon issues of security and defence, and said the Kremlin press service said the agenda included “the further development of strategic partnership and alliance between the two countries”.
The two last met in St Petersburg in December 2022. Russian troops were stationed in Belarus in February 2022 before launching their failed initial attempt to capture Kyiv at the start of the Russian invasion, and the Belarus and Russian armed forces have been holding joint exercises in Belarus.
Updated
Macron urges allies to boost military support for Ukraine
French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Friday urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help the country carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia.
“We absolutely need to intensify our support and our effort to the resistance of the Ukrainian people and its army and help them to launch a counter-offensive which alone can allow credible negotiations, determined by Ukraine, its authorities and its people”, Reuters quotes him saying.
Updated
Emmanuel Macron in Munich has gone on to discuss that in his view the west didn’t fully digest the consequences of the end of the cold war, and that Russia did not fully digest the end of being an empire. Macron said the west made mistakes in the way it expanded the European Union, and that after 1990 Russia had low GDP and declining demographics, and yet was the largest country in the world with huge borders, and a choice between betting its future on joining Europe, or to fall back on the dream of empire, and it had chosen the latter. He went on to say that he did not back regime change in Russia, as he did not feel that changing the leader would change the underlying culture. Macron answered the questions in English.
In questions after his speech, France’s president Emmanuel Macron has agreed with a question that asked whether he would support reform of the UN security council. He said: “We have to rebalance the global order and make it more inclusive.”
Macron said: “I’m very impressed by how much we are losing the trust of the global south.”
He said in the summer there would be a conference in Paris to discuss reform of the IMF and other bodies, and that “a new partnership between south and north is key”.
Updated
Macron: there can be no peace in Ukraine until Russia is defeated
France’s president Emmanuel Macron has said that there can be no peace in Ukraine until Russia is defeated. At the Munich security conference he said “The hour of dialogue hasn’t come yet, because Russia chose war. Russia chose to target civilian infrastructure and commit war crimes. Russia’s attack must fail.”
“Unity and determination are important to provide Ukraine with the means to go back to the negotiation table in an acceptable fashion, and to work on long term peace under conditions that the Ukrainians have decided upon,” he added.
Macron spoke about the mercenary Wagner group, saying that when he spoke to Vladimir Putin a year ago he “almost believed him” that he had nothing to do with the Wagner group, but that it is now clear with the activity in Ukraine that they act like a “mafia” tool to commit crimes.
Macron said Russia was doomed to “a defeat in the future”, with Russia’s aggression having consolidated Ukraine’s statehood as a country, driven Finland and Sweden to apply to join Nato, and put European countries more in mind of self-defence.
He appealed for Europe to spend more on defence.
He also said that Russia’s attack on Ukraine took place “in the shadow of nuclear weapons” and he appealed for a dialogue involving Nato, the UK and US about “the nuclear features of our alliance”. He complained that the US had “decided not to pursue certain contracts or agreements or treaties” but they involved the defence of French territory and they were not consulted.
He also proposed a conference on air defence in Europe with states like the UK, France and Germany and industry representations.
Macron also proposed again a solid role for the 44-nation European political community, pointing out that the wider grouping included those who had chosen to leave the European Union, and those who were in the process of applying to join the EU.
France’s president warned that authoritarian powers might target European nations with destabilisation via cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns, and that they should work together to avoid that.
Updated
Allies who can deliver battle tanks to Ukraine should do so now, Olaf Scholz of Germany said, according to a transcript of his speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Germany would facilitate this decision by providing logistics and stock replenishment and by training Ukrainian soldiers, he said. He added:
For me, that is an example of the kind of leadership people can expect from Germany.
Updated
Zelenskiy says it's 'obvious' Ukraine will not be Putin's last stop
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his opening address to the Munich Security Conference, said it was “obvious” that Ukraine would not be the last stop of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The Russian leader will continue to other former Soviet countries, Zelenskiy warned. He said that while the west was discussing tank supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin was thinking about ways to “strangle” Moldova.
Zelenskiy said:
It’s obvious that Ukraine is not going to be his last stop. He’s going to continue his movement all the way...including all the other states that at some point in time were part of the Soviet bloc.
He also said he judged the likelihood of Belarus joining the invasion of his country on Russia’s side as low.
Updated
Germany is committed to maintaining Europe’s security and Nato allies’ territory “without any ifs or buts”, Scholz says.
He says Berlin will provide an additional brigade to protect Lithuania, and by assisting Poland and Slovakia with air defence. Germany is also leading Nato’s high-readiness joint taskforce and keeps 17,000 troops on standby, he says.
Germany will increase its defence expenditure to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on a permanent basis, he says.
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz is now speaking at the Munich Security Conference, where he begins by saying that Ukraine belongs “at our side, in a free and united Europe”.
The EU stands behind Ukraine’s future membership of the bloc, Scholz says, while thousands of young Russians have paid the ultimate price for Vladimir Putin’s war with their lives.
Germany is supporting Ukraine “as comprehensively and as long as it’s necessary, he says, including providing more than €12bn to assist Kyiv last year, and taking in more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees.
Berlin is supplying state-of-the-art weaponry, ammunition and other military goods to Ukraine, and in doing so has broken with decades-long principles of German policy.
Germany will continue to strike a balance between providing the best possible support for Ukraine, and avoiding an “unintended escalation” between Nato and Russia, he says.
Updated
Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said the first batch of Leopard-1A5 battle tanks the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany are buying for Ukraine will be delivered as soon as possible.
Speaking alongside President Zelenskiy, Rutte said:
As soon as the first batch (of Leopard tanks) is combat ready, it will be delivered to Ukraine, we want to do that as soon as possible.
He added that the Netherlands was prepared to host a new tribunal to judge Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding that more support was needed for that to happen.
Updated
Zelenskiy, speaking earlier today before his Munich Security Conference address, said there should be no taboo on supplying weapons to Ukraine because it needs arms to defend its sovereignty.
In a joint news conference with visiting Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, he said:
We have a common understanding with the Netherlands that there should not be any taboo on the supply and support of weapons to our army, to our Ukraine, because it supports and protects our sovereignty.
Zelenskiy stresses the importance of speeding up western arms deliveries to Ukraine, “because it is speed that lives depend on”.
While Ukraine’s allies discuss tank supplies, the Kremlin is thinking about ways to “strangle” Moldova, he says.
While the EU “dragged on” talks about enlarging the bloc, the more destructive and aggressive Russian policy is becoming, he says. He says most Europeans support EU membership for Ukraine, and that Kyiv is “already united with the European economy, logistics and energy”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is addressing via video link the opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference, an annual global gathering expected to be dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking in English, he begins by comparing Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression to David v Goliath, adding that Kyiv does not “have yet David’s sling from Israel”, perhaps alluding to his meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, yesterday.
Goliath has already started to “lose his ground” and he will “definitely fall already this year”, Zelenskiy says, urging allies to ensure that there is “no alternative to our victory”.
🔴 LIVE: #MSC2023 Opening Ceremony with #Ukraine's President @ZelenskyyUa and our Chairman @MSCheusgen https://t.co/pWIEfhJVCk
— Munich Security Conference (@MunSecConf) February 17, 2023
Russia’s foreign ministry said it has summoned the Dutch ambassador over what it called “obsessive attempts” by authorities in the Netherlands to hold it responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry accused the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being “politicised”.
It comes after investigators said they had found “strong indications” that Vladimir Putin had personally signed off on a decision to supply the missile that shot down the plane, killing all 298 people onboard.
The air raid alert that was announced across Ukraine has now ended.
Air alarms are getting cancelled less than 30 minutes after their announcement pic.twitter.com/iiKkCajcDP
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) February 17, 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed for more funds to support Ukraine’s health sector, which has been severely damaged by the war.
Ukraine needs more funds to ensure mental health, rehabilitation and community access to health services, WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said in a briefing from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.
He said he was “amazed” that Ukraine’s health system was “remarkably resilient” despite sustaining nearly 780 attacks against it in the past year, describing it as “a testament to its heroic workforce, sustained political commitment and consistent budget support for health”.
Kluge said almost 10m people may currently have a mental health condition in Ukraine, of whom about 4m may have conditions which are moderate or severe.
He said:
We are coordinating nearly 200 partners to deliver various health services right across this vast country, reaching 8.5 million people last year. We aim to reach 13.6 million people with this support this year. That’s why we have increased our appeal for 2023 to $240m – $160m for Ukraine and $80m for refugee-receiving countries.
An air alert has been declared throughout Ukraine.
New Voice of Ukraine’s Euan MacDonald writes that the alert was likely triggered by the launch of MiG-31K fighter jets.
Air raid alert, whole country: Probably MiG-31K take off detected. Ukraine expecting another big attack on or about Feb. 24 (anniversary of start of full-scale invasion). Presidential advisor Podolyak says to expect 3 waves of missiles. Before that, maybe attacks on air defenses. pic.twitter.com/d2pQWgYvuZ
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) February 17, 2023
World leaders, military officers and diplomats are gathering in Germany for the Munich Security Conference to discuss Europe’s security situation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost a year ago.
About 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from almost 100 countries, including the US, Europe and China, are expected to attend the three-day conference.
Updated
Russia appoints new military commander
Russia’s defence ministry website has posted an update confirming a new leadership appointment of its military district, state-run media is reporting.
Lt Gen Andrei Mordvichev is now head of the Central Military District, replacing Col Gen Alexander Lapin. Lapin was appointed chief of staff of Russia’s ground forces last month.
Mordvichev previously commanded the 8th combined army of Russia’s southern military district. He led troops during last year’s offensive in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the RBC news outlet reported, culminating in a months-long siege at the Azovstal steel plant and its eventual capture.
Ukrainian forces claimed back in March that they had killed Mordvichev. In response, Russian state media aired a video that showed Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, calling Mordvichev “the very best commander”.
Mordvichev’s appointment follows other sweeping changes to Russia’s military leadership. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, was appointed Russia’s overall commander for the war in Ukraine in January. Sergei Surovikin, a notorious general nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media, who was appointed as overall commander of the army in October, was made a deputy of Gerasimov.
Yevgeny Nikiforov is chief of the Western Military District, Rustam Muradov is chief of the Eastern Military District and Sergey Kuzovlev is chief of the Southern Military District, the Russian defence ministry confirmed.
Updated
Here’s the full story on the sentencing of David Smith, the British man who admitted to spying for Russia while working as a security guard at the British embassy in Germany.
UK embassy guard who spied for Russia jailed for 13 years
A British embassy security guard caught spying for Russia has been sentenced to 13 years and two months by a London court.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley in Scotland, gathered secret documents and passed them on to Russian authorities while working as a security guard at the embassy in Berlin. He was caught after an undercover operation in 2021 and has admitted to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act.
Smith pleaded guilty in November to eight offences under the Official Secrets Act, including one charge relating to passing information to Gen Maj Sergey Chukhrov, the Russian military attaché to Berlin, in November 2020.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over the Russia-Ukraine war live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, will be the opening speaker on Friday at the three-day Munich security conference as the west faces urgent calls to speed up ammunition production and supplies to Kyiv in the face of mounting fears that Russia is planning a new offensive. The conference is expected to be attended by more than 100 world leaders, and diplomats, including the US vice-president Kamala Harris, and the event will be seen as a key test of the west’s resolve to fight out a grinding, prolonged, expensive war.
Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. Yuriy Vaskov said “I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended.”
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the energy grid is working without consumption restrictions today across all of Ukraine, with the exception of Odesa, where “due to damaged infrastructure there are still restrictions” and “power outage schedules are applied.”
Finland’s parliament will vote on 28 February to approve the necessary legislation that will allow the country to eventually become a member of Nato, Reuters reports the Finnish parliament’s head of foreign affairs committee said on Friday.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said that the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. Zakharova said “[The US] supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence, simply participate directly in the planning of military operations, train Ukrainian armed formations. Now the American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country.”
Nuland had told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington the US considers that Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula.
Facebook allowed exiled Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the pro-western government, even though he and his political party were on US sanctions lists.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you shortly.
Ahead of the Munich security conference, Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has reiterated Kyiv’s position that Russia must withdraw from Ukraine as a pre-condition for peace talks.
Reuters reports Podolyak tweeted: “For decriminalization of global politics and real global security, the war must end with Ukraine’s victory. Negotiations can begin when Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine. Other options only give Russia time to regroup forces and resume hostilities at any moment.”
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Finland’s parliament will vote on 28 February to approve the necessary legislation that will allow the country to eventually become a member of Nato, Reuters reports the Finnish parliament’s head of foreign affairs committee said on Friday.
Turkey and Hungary are yet to approve the bids by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said that the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. [See 8.43 GMT]
Tass reports that in her weekly press briefing, Zakharova said:
Once again, we have to state the involvement of the US in the conflict in Ukraine. They supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence, simply participate directly in the planning of military operations, train Ukrainian armed formations.
Now the American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kyiv regime to further escalate, simply to transfer the war to the territory of our country. Like this, direct strikes. This is what we warned about before, and what we were because of forced to launch a special military operation. Now they, US officials, are talking about it openly.
Nuland had said that the US supported Ukraine striking at targets in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 in a move which is not widely recognised by the international community.
Zakharova said “Crimea is reliably protected”, according to the Tass report.
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Ukrainian official: Negotiations to extend Black Sea grain export deal will begin next week
Negotiations will start in a week on extending a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia after its invasion, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.
“Negotiations on extending the grain corridor will begin in a week and then we will understand the positions of all parties,” Ukrainian deputy infrastructure minister Yuriy Vaskov said during a grain conference in Kyiv organised by the ProAgro agriculture consultancy.
“I think common sense will prevail and the corridor will be extended,” he said.
Reuters reports he said that pressure was being exerted on Russia not only to extend the corridor but also to improve the way it works. “We see that the enemy is starting to put forward new conditions. We understand that it will be difficult – as it was in November,” Vaskov said.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports.
The agreement was extended by a further 120 days in November and is up for renewal again in March, but Russia has signalled that it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal and has asked for sanctions affecting its agricultural exports to be lifted.
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The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports from Munich:
The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, will be the opening speaker on Friday at the three-day Munich security conference as the west faces urgent calls to speed up ammunition production and supplies to Kyiv in the face of mounting fears that Russia is planning a new offensive.
The conference is expected to be attended by more than 100 world leaders, and diplomats, including the US vice-president Kamala Harris, and the event will be seen as a key test of the west’s resolve to fight out a grinding, prolonged, expensive war. Few are expected to hold out hope of early peace negotiations.
The MSC has had a tradition going back decades of inviting senior leaders from states hostile, or ambivalent, towards the west, but this year has taken the unusual decision to exclude any representatives from Iran or Russia. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has responded to his exclusion by setting a Moscow foreign policy goal of ending the diplomatic monopoly of the west.
The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, however, will be speaking at the conference and his speech will be watched closely to see how far he is willing to go both in distancing himself from Russia’s invasion and in seeking out a post-Covid new trading relationship with the west. He is expected to meet the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is likely to urge him to do more to criticise the invasion of Ukrainian sovereign territory. A planned trip by Blinken to Beijing was cancelled over the Chinese spy balloon controversy.
Read more here: Zelenskiy to open Munich summit amid fears of new Russian offensive
In Russia, Tass is reporting some reaction to those comments by US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland about Crimea. She said the US supported Ukrainian strikes on Crimea as legitimate military targets, and that Crimea should be demilitarised at least as part of any solution to the war. [See 8.43 GMT]
Tass quotes Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on international affairs saying:
Each such statement serves as a pretext for escalation not only in Ukraine, but also around it. An increasing number of states are forced to determine their position in relation to what is actually happening in the centre of Europe. Nevertheless, the more provocative statements are heard, and Nuland’s statement is pure provocation, the further we are from resolving the conflict.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the energy grid is working without consumption restrictions today across all of Ukraine, with the exception of Odesa, where “due to damaged infrastructure there are still restrictions” and “power outage schedules are applied.”
The United States considers that Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, should be demilitarised at a minimum and Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula, under secretary of state Victoria Nuland has said.
“No matter what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea in terms of where they choose to fight etcetera, Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is at a minimum, at a minimum, demilitarised,” Nuland told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Asked about the dangers of escalation in the Ukraine war, Reuters reports Nuland said Russia had a host of military installations crucial for the conflict. “Those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them and we are supporting that,” Nuland said.
Reuters has a quick snap that a Ukrainian official has said negotiations on extending the Black Sea corridor grain export deal will begin next week.
More details soon …
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on Telegram that two people were killed in the Beryslav district of Kherson in the last 24 hours. Citing Volodymyr Litvinov, head of the Beryslav district administration, it reported:
During the day, the Russian army shelled four communities of the Beryslav district. Residents’ residential buildings and outbuildings were damaged. Two people were killed in the village of Zmiivka, and one was injured in Tyahynka.
Facebook allowed an exiled Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the pro-western government, even though he and his political party were on US sanctions lists, Associated Press reports.
The ads featuring exiled opposition politician Ilan Shor were ultimately removed by Facebook but not before they were seen millions of times in Moldova.
Seeking to exploit anger over inflation and rising fuel prices, the paid posts from Shor’s political party targeted the government of pro-western president, Maia Sandu, who earlier this week detailed what she said was a Russian plot to topple her government using external saboteurs.
“Destabilisation attempts are a reality and for our institutions, they represent a real challenge,” Sandu said Thursday as she swore in a new government led by pro-western prime minister, Dorin Recean, her former defence and security adviser.
The ads reveal how Russia and its allies have exploited lapses by social media platforms – like Facebook, many of them operated by US companies – to spread propaganda and disinformation that weaponises economic and social insecurity in an attempt to undermine governments in eastern Europe.
Moldova borders Ukraine, and the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria is sandwiched between the two.
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China’s President Xi Jinping will deliver a peace speech on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Italy’s foreign minister said on Friday, citing top diplomat Wang Yi.
Wang Yi “told me that Xi will make a peace speech on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine” on 24 February, Reuters reports minister Antonio Tajani told Italian radio RAI, the day after he met the top Chinese diplomat in Rome.
The UK Ministry of Defence says that as many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed just under a year of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that the casualty rate “has significantly increased since September 2022 when ‘partial mobilisation’ was imposed”.
Convict recruits used by Wagner may have has a casualty rate of one in every two men.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 17 February 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 17, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/79EeudgP5j
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/XHzsXcaPNB
Wagner chief blames 'bureaucracy' for slowing military gains
The head of Russia’s mercenary outfit Wagner said on Thursday it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for slowing military gains.
Russia has been trying to encircle and capture the battered industrial city ahead of 24 February, the first anniversary of what it terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“I think it’s [going to be in] March or in April,” Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in one of several messages posted online.
“To take Bakhmut you have to cut all supply routes. It’s a significant task,” he said, adding: “Progress is not going as fast as we would like.
“Bakhmut would have been taken before the New Year, if not for our monstrous military bureaucracy.”
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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address on Thursday that his priority at the moment is to hold off Russian attacks and get ready for an eventual Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“Holding the situation at the front and preparing for any enemy steps of escalation – that is the priority for the near future,” he said.
Nato alliance officials this week discussed the need for more military hardware for Kyiv, and Britain and Poland agreed after their leaders met on Thursday that support should be stepped up.
US officials have advised Ukraine to hold off with any counter-offensive until the latest supply of US weaponry is in place and training has been provided.
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Last year’s gathering took place days before the war began. As Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, western leaders in Munich urged President Vladimir Putin not to invade and warned of dire consequences if he did.
This year, leaders will grapple with the consequences of Putin’s decision to ignore their pleas and unleash the most devastating war in Europe since the second world war that has killed countless thousands and forced millions to flee.
Russian leaders will be notable by their absence at the conference, which runs until Sunday, but senior Ukrainian officials are expected to address it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address his priority was to hold off Russian attacks and get ready for an eventual Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“Holding the situation at the front and preparing for any enemy steps of escalation - that is the priority for the near future,” he said.
Nato alliance officials this week discussed the need for more military hardware for Kyiv, and Britain and Poland agreed after their leaders met on Thursday that support should be stepped up.
US officials have advised Ukraine to hold off with any counter-offensive until the latest supply of US weaponry is in place and training has been provided.
The Ukraine military’s general staff, in a Thursday evening report, said Russia had also shelled more than two dozen eastern and southern settlements.
There was no word from Russia on the missile strikes or shelling, and Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.
World leaders meet in Munich for security conference
Senior politicians and military leaders from around the world are meeting today in Germany, with Ukrainian officials expected to address the security conference.
Bolstered by tens of thousands of reservists, Russia has intensified ground attacks across southern and eastern Ukraine, and, as the first anniversary of its 24 February invasion nears, a major new Russian offensive appears to be taking shape.
Russia rained missiles across Ukraine on Thursday and struck its largest oil refinery. Of at least 36 missiles that Russia fired about 16 were shot down, the air force said, a lower rate than normal.
Ukraine said the barrage included missiles that its air defences cannot shoot down, which will only add urgency to its appeals for more western military support.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and US vice-president Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the Munich Security Conference.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next while.
Senior politicians and military leaders from around the world will meet today in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, with Ukrainian officials expected to address gathering.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and US vice-president Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the meeting.
In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:
Russia fired Grad rockets and barrel artillery at a residential district in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Thursday, killing three men and two women and wounding nine more, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said. Blurred images of the victims were shared on Telegram by the office of the prosecutor, who said the attack was being investigated as a war crime. “Criminal proceedings have been initiated.”
Russia launched a total of 36 air- and sea-based cruise missiles, guided air-to-surface missiles and anti-ship missiles at Ukraine overnight into Thursday, according to Ukrainian officials. At least 16 missiles were shot down by Ukrainian forces, the air force said. Among them, air defences in the south downed eight Kalibr missiles fired from a ship in the Black Sea, the officials said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out giving up any Ukrainian territory in a potential peace deal with Russia. In an interview with the BBC, Ukraine’s leader said conceding land would mean Russia could “keep coming back”. Zelenskiy said a predicted spring offensive had already begun but he believed his country’s forces could keep resisting Russia’s advance until they were able to launch a counter-offensive.
Bakhmut will fall within a couple of months, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has predicted. In an interview with a pro-war military blogger, Yevgeny Prigozhin forecast Bakhmut would be seized in March or April, depending on how many soldiers Ukraine commits to its defence and how well his own troops are supplied.
Russia’s overnight bombardment did not have a major impact on power, Ukraine’s energy minister said. German Galushchenko said Ukraine was meeting consumer demand for the fifth successive day. The national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, said it saw no need to introduce emergency power outages to conserve supplies.
Critical infrastructure was damaged in Russian strikes on the Lviv region in Ukraine’s west, the regional state administration’s head, Maksym Kozytskyi, reported on Telegram, adding there were no casualties.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had returned 101 prisoners of war to Russia following talks, state-run media reported. Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said 100 troops and one civilian had been returned to Ukraine. Nearly all had been defending the southern city of Mariupol before it fell to Russian forces, he said.
Russia has “definitely changed tactics” by using decoy missiles without explosive warheads and deploying balloons to fool Ukraine’s air defences, according to a senior Ukrainian official. The goal of the decoy missiles was to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defence systems by offering too many targets, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told Associated Press.
Russian sortie rates have increased over the past week following several weeks of quieter activity, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has reported. Air activity is “now roughly in line with the average daily rate seen since summer 2022”, its latest intelligence update reads.
Russia “continues to introduce large numbers of troops” on to the battlefield in Ukraine, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said. Those troops were “ill-equipped and ill-trained” and, as a result, Russian forces were “incurring a lot of casualties and we expect that that will continue”, he told reporters in Estonia.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to achieve their military aims, according to Gen Mark Milley, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff. In an interview with the Financial Times, Milley said he believed the war would end at the negotiating table. The Pentagon was re-examining its weapons stockpiles and may need to boost military spending after seeing how quickly ammunition has been used during the war in Ukraine, he added.
Belarus will fight alongside ally Russia if another country launches an attack against it, President Alexander Lukashenko has said, adding that he planned to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday.
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