Summary
It is coming up to 7pm in London – 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s a summary of the latest news:
A new barrage of Russian shelling has killed at least 10 Ukrainian civilians and wounded 20 others in a day, the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing the office of Ukraine’s president. Regional officials said towns and villages in the east and in the south that are within reach of the Russian artillery suffered most. Six people died in the Donetsk region, two in Kherson, and two in the Kharkiv region, the AP quotes them as saying. A day earlier, missiles and self-propelled drones that Russian forces fired had hit deeper into Ukrainian territory, killing at least 11 people.
Ukraine’s army claims to have killed 109 Russian soldiers and wounded a further 188 in one day during fighting around the village of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk oblast. Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern operational command of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the bloody death toll was recorded on Thursday, adding “Fierce fighting is ongoing. The enemy is indeed trying to achieve an intermediate success there, but thanks to the efforts of our defenders, they are unsuccessful.”
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, the former’s prime minister has said. Mateusz Morawiecki has told CTV News “we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession.”
Belgium has announced a package of an additional €93.6m (£84.5m / $104.7m) in military aid for Ukraine. The prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said that, taking into account previous spending, it amounted to the biggest ever military aid package given to another country by Belgium. The package will include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons, machine guns, grenades and munition.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Ukraine last week, said IAEA monitors reported powerful explosions near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Thursday and renewed calls for a security zone around the plant.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster reported that ten regions of Ukraine are using emergency power outages due to a power shortage in the network after Thursday’s Russian attacks, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing.
The Kremlin said on Friday that US President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv to settle, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it. “The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his usual daily briefing. “Now we see that the current White House leader ... does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” he added.
Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Russia, will not improve ties between Washington and Moscow because the former is engaging in a “hybrid war” against the latter, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Friday. Zakharova said Tracy’s room for manoeuvre would be limited due to what she said was fierce anti-Russian bipartisan feeling in the United States.
The European Union wants swift accountability for “horrific” crimes in Ukraine, EU justice ministers have said. But the member states differ over how to bring prosecutions, seek evidence or fund war damage repairs. The bloc’s 27 justice ministers met in Stockholm, where they discussed collecting evidence as well as setting up a new international tribunal to prosecute Moscow’s aggression.
Hungary will veto any European Union sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio on Friday.
Ukrainian government officials who shirk their duties during wartime will be quickly removed, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday amid a crack down on corruption. More than a dozen officials have been removed this week after a series of scandals and graft allegations. Political analysts said Zelenskiy needs to show western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing misrule.
Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi has said. “Giving them nationality or having them adopted goes against the fundamental principles of child protection in situations of war,” Grandi said. Grandi said his agency was unable to estimate the number of children who had been given passports or put up for adoption, as access in Russia was extremely limited. Russia has said accusations Ukrainian children have been abducted are false.
A 74-year-old Spanish man arrested over a spate of letter bombs sent to institutions including the prime minister’s office and the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid in late 2022 was trying to pressure Spain to drop its support for Ukraine, an investigating magistrate said on Friday. The man was remanded in custody as he was considered a flight risk to Russia.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has met the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, during a tour of African nations to shore up support for Russia, focusing on the “dynamics of the war in Ukraine”, Eritrea’s information minister has said.
Ukraine would not rule out boycotting the Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games, its sports minister said.
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor says it has blocked the websites of the CIA and FBI, accusing the two US government agencies of spreading false information.
Ukraine is setting up drone assault companies within its armed forces that will be equipped with Starlink satellite communications, it has announced, as it presses ahead with an idea to build up an “army of drones”.
According to Reuters, the general staff said the commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi signed off on the creation of the units in a project that will involve several ministries and agencies.
“The most professional servicemen” have already been chosen to lead the companies, each of which will receive drones and ammunition, Starlink terminals and other equipment, it said on Facebook. “We are doing everything to provide soldiers with modern technologies.”
Starlink is a satellite internet system operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, and widely used both by civilians and the military in Ukraine.
It will take about six months to train Ukrainian pilots for combat in western fighter jets, such as the US’ F-16, Kyiv has said, as it steps up its campaign to secure fourth-generation warplanes.
Reuters reports that Ukraine got a huge boost this week when Germany and the US announced plans to provide heavy tanks to Kyiv, which is now hoping the west will also provide long-range missiles and fighter jets.
Western military support has been vital for Kyiv and has rapidly evolved. Before the invasion, even the idea of supplying lethal aid to Ukraine was highly controversial, but western supplies have since shattered taboo after taboo.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said F-16s may be the best option for a multi-role fighter to replace the country’s current fleet of warplanes, which are older than modern Ukraine itself. He said Kyiv was using four types of Soviet-era planes.
The pilots are saying it is not a problem to fly the F-16, they could learn it within several weeks. To fight with these planes is a very different thing, to use all types of weapons. Pilots say they could master it in about half a year.
Ukraine uses its warplanes for intercept missions and to attack Russian positions.
Germany’s €100bn (£87.7bn, $108bn) special defence fund is no longer enough to cover its needs, the country’s new defence minister Boris Pistorius has said during an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Pistorius, who took office last week after the resignation of his predecessor, said Germany would also need to raise its annual regular defence spending from the current level of around €50bn.
Germany also needs to replenish its military hardware stocks, including replacements for the 14 Leopard tanks that Berlin agreed to send to Ukraine to help repel Russia’s invasion, the new defence chief said.
Germany’s decision to suspend compulsory military service in 2011 was a mistake, he added, saying he was hesitant to place a burden upon young generations but was open to discussing a new model to strengthen the relationship between citizens and the state.
Asked whether Germany would sent fighter jets to Ukraine, the next request from Kyiv after Germany approved earlier this week the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks, Pistorius said this was “ruled out”.
Fighter aircraft are much more complex systems than main battle tanks and have a completely different range and firepower. We would be venture into dimensions that I would currently warn against.
Ukraine will need an additional $17bn (£13.7bn) in financing this year for energy repairs, de-mining and to rebuild infrastructure, Reuters quotes the country’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal as saying.
He told a government meeting five high-voltage substations in the central, southern and south-west regions were hit during Russia’s air attacks on Thursday.
The energy sector has been severely damaged following four months of Russian missile and drones attacks. Shmyhal said the government hosted a meeting with western partners this week to coordinate financial support in a transparent and efficient way.
This year, we need to finance a huge budget deficit of about $38bn. Another $17bn this year will be needed for fast reconstruction of the energy, humanitarian de-mining, rebuilding of the housing, critical and social infrastructure.
The government also said it was setting up a state agency for infrastructure recovery and development. Mustafa Nayem, a prominent former journalist who had been a deputy infrastructure minister since 2021, would head the newly-created agency.
Moscow has ordered Latvia’s envoy to leave Russia within two weeks, the former’s foreign ministry has said – following a similar decision by Riga earlier this week, Reuters reports.
The ministry said it had summoned the Latvian chargé d’affaires to protest Riga’s decision to downgrade relations with Russia. Latvia has said it acted out of solidarity with Estonia after Tallinn also ordered out Russia’s envoy. The three Baltic states, which also include Lithuania, have been among a group of Nato allies arguing strongly for more western tanks to be sent to Ukraine.
More civilians killed and wounded by Russian shelling, Ukraine says
A new barrage of Russian shelling has killed at least 10 Ukrainian civilians and wounded 20 others in a day, the Associated Press (AP) reports, citing the office of Ukraine’s president.
Regional officials said towns and villages in the east and in the south that are within reach of the Russian artillery suffered most. Six people died in the Donetsk region, two in Kherson, and two in the Kharkiv region, the AP quotes them as saying. A day earlier, missiles and self-propelled drones that Russian forces fired had hit deeper into Ukrainian territory, killing at least 11 people.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the Russian military used fiercely-burning phosphorus munitions in its shelling of the village of Zvanivka, about 12 miles (20 km) north of Bakhmut; a city that has become the focus of a gruelling standoff in recent months. The shelling also damaged apartment buildings and two schools in the nearby town of Vuhledar, Kyrylenko said.
The governor of the neighbouring Luhansk region Serhii Haidai said Ukrainian shelling hit two Russian bases in the occupied towns of Kreminna and Rubizhne, killing and wounding “dozens” of Russian soldiers. The AP said it could not independently verify his claim.
Further south, Russian troops resumed shelling the town of Nikopol, across the river Dnieper from the Russia-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, damaging apartment buildings, gas pipelines, power lines and a bakery, the AP quoted officials as saying.
A senior EU official has called for a “Radio Free Russia” to help independent Russian media distribute content in their home country and evade heavy censorship.
Vĕra Jourová, the European Commission vice-president in charge of values and transparency, said the EU had a moral duty to support democratic ideals in Russia:
We should not give up on the Russian society … regardless of how few or how many want to hear the real news, not Kremlin propaganda.
During a speech at Estonia’s foreign ministry, Jourová called for a Radio Free Russia project to support independent Russian media that have been expelled or fled their home country.
The project did not mean establishing a new radio station, she said, but supporting journalists in the EU, so they could “produce more content and distribute it more widely without any editorial interference”. She added:
We need to create the conditions for them to work and tell the story of the EU they see and experience to their Russian audiences. It is not only a moral duty, it is in our self-interest.
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine’s army claims to have killed 109 Russian soldiers and wounded a further 188 in one day during fighting around the village of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk oblast. Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern operational command of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the bloody death toll was recorded on Thursday, adding “Fierce fighting is ongoing. The enemy is indeed trying to achieve an intermediate success there, but thanks to the efforts of our defenders, they are unsuccessful.”
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, the former’s prime minister has said. Mateusz Morawiecki has told CTV News “we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession.”
Belgium has announced a package of an additional €93.6m (£84.5m / $104.7m) in military aid for Ukraine. The prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said that, taking into account previous spending, it amounted to the biggest ever military aid package given to another country by Belgium. The package will include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons, machine guns, grenades and munition.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Ukraine last week, said IAEA monitors reported powerful explosions near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Thursday and renewed calls for a security zone around the plant.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster reported that ten regions of Ukraine are using emergency power outages due to a power shortage in the network after Thursday’s Russian attacks, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing.
The Kremlin said on Friday that US President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv to settle, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it. “The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his usual daily briefing. “Now we see that the current White House leader ... does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” he added.
Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Russia, will not improve ties between Washington and Moscow because the former is engaging in a “hybrid war” against the latter, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Friday. Zakharova said Tracy’s room for manoeuvre would be limited due to what she said was fierce anti-Russian bipartisan feeling in the United States.
The European Union wants swift accountability for “horrific” crimes in Ukraine, EU justice ministers have said. But the member states differ over how to bring prosecutions, seek evidence or fund war damage repairs. The bloc’s 27 justice ministers met in Stockholm, where they discussed collecting evidence as well as setting up a new international tribunal to prosecute Moscow’s aggression.
Hungary will veto any European Union sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio on Friday.
Ukrainian government officials who shirk their duties during wartime will be quickly removed, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday amid a crack down on corruption. More than a dozen officials have been removed this week after a series of scandals and graft allegations. Political analysts said Zelenskiy needs to show western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing misrule.
Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi has said. “Giving them nationality or having them adopted goes against the fundamental principles of child protection in situations of war,” Grandi said. Grandi said his agency was unable to estimate the number of children who had been given passports or put up for adoption, as access in Russia was extremely limited. Russia has said accusations Ukrainian children have been abducted are false.
A 74-year-old Spanish man arrested over a spate of letter bombs sent to institutions including the prime minister’s office and the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid in late 2022 was trying to pressure Spain to drop its support for Ukraine, an investigating magistrate said on Friday. The man was remanded in custody as he was considered a flight risk to Russia.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has met the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, during a tour of African nations to shore up support for Russia, focusing on the “dynamics of the war in Ukraine”, Eritrea’s information minister has said.
Ukraine would not rule out boycotting the Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games, its sports minister said.
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor says it has blocked the websites of the CIA and FBI, accusing the two US government agencies of spreading false information.
Belgium has announced a package of an additional €93.6m (£84.5m/$104.7m) in military aid for Ukraine. In a press conference the prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said that, taking into account previous spending, it amounted to the biggest ever military aid package given to another country by Belgium.
VRT, the public service broadcaster for Belgium’s Flemish community reports:
Federal defence minister Ludivine Dedonder gave details about the nature of the military aid that Belgium is giving to Ukraine. This will include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons, machine guns, grenades and munition. Some of this will come from stocks held by the Belgian army, while the rest will be bought from Belgian arms manufacturers. Dedonder would not go into specific details about the quantities of arms that will be sent.
The defence minister went on to say that armoured jeeps and lorries will also be given to the Ukrainians. All of the vehicles that will be sent to Ukraine are all in working order and in a good state of repair or will soon undergo a full service.
Updated
A 74-year-old Spanish man arrested over a spate of letter bombs sent to institutions including the prime minister’s office and the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid in late 2022 was trying to pressure Spain to drop its support for Ukraine, an investigating magistrate said on Friday.
Pompeyo Gonzalez Pascual is under formal investigation over two possible aggravated terrorism charges and four terrorism charges, the magistrate said during his first court hearing. Reuters reports he was ordered to be detained pending any formal charges and further hearings.
The suspect used Russian messaging apps such as VK and the Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service Protonmail, which could indicate a risk of him fleeing to Russia, the magistrate added.
The evidence suggests Gonzalez acted alone, the judge wrote. He said the suspect’s alleged actions showed his intent to give the impression they were carried out by people with ties with Russia as retribution for Spain’s and the United States’ support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country.
“There is no indication that the person under investigation belongs to or collaborates with any terrorist gang or organised group,” the statement said.
Updated
Ukraine’s ruling party has kicked out a lawmaker as reports he travelled to Thailand during the war spark a public outcry.
Mykola Tyshchenko was expelled from Servant of the People’s voting bloc after an announcement appeared briefly on the website of the Ukrainian embassy in Thailand saying he would meet members of the diaspora at a hotel there, according to the party’s spokesperson Yulia Paliychuk.
Tyshchenko said on Facebook he had been on a business trip in Asia with approval of party leaders, “acting exclusively in the interests of Ukraine”. Parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said he had approved no such trip.
According to Reuters, the winter visit to south-east Asia came amid a crackdown by the president Volodymyr Zelenskiy aimed at projecting an image of greater accountability for officials.
More than a dozen senior officials were fired or resigned this week – including a deputy prosecutor who had come under fire in the press for a holiday in Spain – in the biggest shakeup of the Kyiv leadership since the war began.
Zelenskiy has announced a ban this week on private trips abroad by officials. Most Ukrainian men aged 18-60 have already been barred from leaving the country under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February last year.
Updated
Ukraine claims to have killed 109 Russians in eastern Donetsk battle
Ukraine’s army claims to have killed 109 Russian soldiers and wounded a further 188 in one day during fighting around the village of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk oblast.
Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern operational command of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the bloody death toll was recorded on Thursday.
Fierce fighting is ongoing. The enemy is indeed trying to achieve an intermediate success there, but thanks to the efforts of our defenders, they are unsuccessful.
The information could not be independently verified. Russia has said its forces have made significant advances in the region in the last six days but UK military intelligence poured doubt on the claims in a briefing on Friday. It was suggested the Russians may have “conducted local, probing attacks” but added that it was “highly unlikely that Russia has actually achieved any substantive advances”. No evidence was provided for the UK military intelligence statement.
Updated
Kyiv to receive more tanks from Warsaw
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, the former’s prime minister has said.
Warsaw, which has positioned itself as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, has pressed hard for Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and to allow other countries to do so as well; a demand to which Berlin agreed on Wednesday. Now, Mateusz Morawiecki has told CTV News:
Poland sent 250 tanks as the first country half a year ago or even more than that. Right now, we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession.
Updated
Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Russia, will not improve ties between Washington and Moscow because the former is engaging in a “hybrid war” against the latter, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said.
Reuters reports the ambassador’s appointment comes as relations between Russia and the US are at historical lows because of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Zakharova said Tracy’s room for manoeuvre would be limited due to what she said was fierce anti-Russian bipartisan feeling in the United States.
She said she thought it would be progress if US-Russia relations did not sour even further, but said Moscow did not believe it would be possible to prevent a further deterioration.
Last week, the Kremlin dismissed the idea that Washington and Moscow could turn their relationship around halfway through the US president Joe Biden’s term in office, adding that there was “no hope” for improvement in the foreseeable future.
Updated
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor says it has blocked the websites of the CIA and FBI, accusing the two US government agencies of spreading false information, the state-run Tass news agency reports.
In a statement carried by Russian news agencies and relayed by Reuters, it said:
Roskomnadzor has restricted access to a number of resources belonging to state structures of hostile countries for disseminating material aimed at destabilising the social and political situation in Russia.
Tass quotes Roskomnadzor as saying the two US websites have published inaccurate material and information that had discredited the Russian armed forces. There was no immediate comment from Washington or from the US embassy in Moscow.
Reuters noted that the reports were produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of the military operations in Ukraine. Russia has made it a criminal offence to discredit its armed forces, a crime punishable by up to five years in jail, while knowingly distributing “false information” about the military carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year, Roskomnadzor has blocked a host of independent media outlets, some foreign news websites and social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Updated
The European Union wants swift accountability for “horrific” crimes in Ukraine, EU justice ministers have said. But the member states differ over the methods in a debate about how to bring prosecutions, seek evidence or fund war damage repairs, Reuters reports.
The bloc’s 27 justice ministers met in Stockholm ahead of the 24 February anniversary of Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine – a former Soviet republic and Moscow satellite that has sought to join the EU and Nato in recent years.
Kyiv reports heavy fighting in the east of the country on Friday, capping a week when the west promised to provide Ukraine with modern battlefield tanks for the first time to help it fight back against Moscow. Reuters quotes Ireland’s Simon Harris as saying:
There absolutely will have to be accountability for horrific international crimes and the brutality of what we’re seeing in Ukraine ... the clear and apparent war crimes.
The ministers discussed collecting evidence as well as setting up a new international tribunal to prosecute Moscow’s aggression. Gunnar Strommer, Sweden’s justice minister, said:
Nobody doing this kind of war crimes shall go free. It’s very, very important that we will find a way to hold responsible people accountable. The question is, how can we deal with this in a practical and efficient way.
As the 27 EU countries debated the options, the Slovak minister spoke against starting a new body to carry out prosecutions, something his Belgian colleague Vincent van Quickenborne specifically called for. The latter was quoted as saying:
These acts of aggression should be condemned not only by European countries or by the United States, but by a large majority of countries ... in Africa, Latin America and other places.
The European Union hopes South Africa will use its good relations with Russia to convince it to stop the war in Ukraine, Reuters quotes the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as saying.
Speaking alongside South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, in the capital Pretoria, he told reporters:
The EU isn’t asking South Africa to choose sides, just asking countries across the world to stand with the UN charter.
The EU considers South Africa an important partner in the rules-based international order, he added. Pandor said:
It is not just South Africa and other African countries that must play a role at seeking peace.
Updated
The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has repeatedly sought to make clear that Nato must not become party to the war in Ukraine, says a ministry spokesperson, in response to uproar over a comment she made earlier in the week about fighting against Russia.
At an event in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Baerbock said in English: “We are fighting a war against Russia, and not against each other.” Now, Reuters quotes the German ministry as saying:
Russian propaganda continually takes statements, sentences, stances, positions of the government, our partners and uses them to serve their purposes.
Updated
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has met the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, during a tour of African nations to shore up support for Russia, focusing on the “dynamics of the war in Ukraine”, Eritrea’s information minister has said.
Lavrov has been on a week-long charm offensive on the continent, starting in South Africa, which is planning joint military drills with Russia and China, and finishing off with a surprise trip to the reclusive Horn of Africa nation of Eritrea.
South Africa is one of Russia’s most important allies on a continent divided over the invasion and western attempts to isolate Moscow because of its military actions.
Eritrea is one of the few African countries that voted against a UN resolution condemning Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine; although many abstained. hee Russian state news agency Tass quotes Lavrov as saying:
We are thankful to Eritrean friends for their consistent support of Russian initiatives in the UN.
He said Asmara had taken a “principled and balanced position on issues regarding the events in Ukraine and around it”, TASS reports, adding that he also invited his Eritrean counterpart, Osman Saleh, to visit Moscow soon.
The talks in Eritrea also explored ways of enhancing ties in energy, mining, information technology, education and health, the information minister Yemane Meskel says.
Both sides will conduct a joint study to establish the logistical and transit opportunities presented by the Red Sea port of Massawa and its airport, Tass reports, quoting Lavrov as saying:
I would like to mention the possibility of using the logistical potential of the Massawa port and the city’s airport. The airport of Massawa looks interesting from the point of view of its transit possibilities.
Lavrov’s visit to Africa coincides with others by senior US officials, who are crisscrossing the continent to shore up ties with its allies there.
Speaking when he met Lavrov’s delegation on Thursday, the foreign minister Osman blamed the crisis in Ukraine on what he described as the United States’ “reckless policy of hegemony and containment” over several decades, Reuters reports.
The sad fact is that Ukraine is both a pretext and victim of this policy.
There was no mention of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where Eritrean troops fought alongside their Ethiopian federal counterparts against rebellious Tigrayan forces. A deal to end the fighting was signed last November but Eritrea was not party to the truce. Eritrean troops have started to leave some parts of Tigray, witnesses said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine’s state broadcaster reported that 10 regions of Ukraine are using emergency power due to a power shortage in the network after Thursday’s Russian attacks, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing.
Ukrainian civilians had raced for cover on Thursday as Russia fired a barrage of missiles and drones across the country, killing at least 11 people, a day after Kyiv won pledges of battlefield tanks to combat Moscow’s invasion from western countries.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Ukraine last week, said IAEA monitors reported powerful explosions near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Thursday and renewed calls for a security zone around the plant.
The Kremlin said on Friday that US President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv to settle, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it. “The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his usual daily briefing. “Now we see that the current White House leader ... does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” he added.
Ukrainian government officials who shirk their duties during wartime will be quickly removed, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday amid a crack down on corruption. More than a dozen officials have been removed this week after a series of scandals and graft allegations. Political analysts said Zelenskiy needs to show western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing misrule.
Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi has said. “Giving them nationality or having them adopted goes against the fundamental principles of child protection in situations of war,” Grandi said. “This is something that is happening in Russia and must not happen,” he added. Grandi said his agency was unable to estimate the number of children who had been given passports or put up for adoption, as access in Russia was extremely limited. Russia has said accusations Ukrainian children have been abducted are false.
Tass is reporting that the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are to be ordered to use Moscow time instead of Kyiv time.
Hungary will veto any European Union sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio on Friday. Ukraine has called on the 27-nation EU to include Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom in sanctions but Hungary, which has a Russian-built nuclear plant it plans to expand with Rosatom, has blocked that. Reuters reports that Orbán reiterated in an interview that sanctions on nuclear energy “must obviously be vetoed”. “We will not allow the plan to include nuclear energy into the sanctions be implemented,” the Hungarian premier said. “This is out of the question.”
Ukraine would not rule out boycotting the Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games, its sports minister said. Plans by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to look at ways for those athletes to return to international competition would be opposed, the minister, Vadim Guttsait, said on social media late on Thursday. “Our position is unchanged: as long as there is a war in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be in international competitions,” Guttsait wrote on his Facebook page.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. Kevin Rawlinson will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk said on Friday it “hurts a lot” to see Russian flags at the Australian Open despite the ban on them and was surprised by the lapse in security that allowed spectators to display the flags in and around Melbourne Park.
Novak Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, said earlier on Friday he would not attend his son’s semi-final against Tommy Paul after a video emerged showing him posing at Melbourne Park with fans holding Russian flags.
“It hurts a lot because there were specific rules, they were printed out outside that this is not allowed to bring flags,” Reuters reports Kostyuk told reporters after bowing out of the women’s doubles competition with Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
“It’s not impossible, but you’re not allowed to bring out the flags and so on. It really hurts that they were there for quite some time.
“They were there on the court, in the stands as well and I just don’t understand as well. It really hurts and I don’t understand how this can be possible.”
Updated
UN refugee chief: Russia violating principles of child protection in Ukraine
Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) chief told Reuters in an interview.
Speaking at the UNHCR offices in Kyiv following a six-day tour of the country, Filippo Grandi said Ukraine’s president had asked his agency to “do more” to help children from occupied regions to whom this was happening.
“Giving them nationality or having them adopted goes against the fundamental principles of child protection in situations of war,” Grandi said. “This is something that is happening in Russia and must not happen,” he added.
Grandi said his agency was unable to estimate the number of children who had been given passports or put up for adoption, as access in Russia was extremely limited.
“We are seeking access all the time, and access has been rather rare, sporadic and not unfettered, if you see what I mean.”
Russia has said accusations Ukrainian children have been abducted are false. “We categorically reject unfounded allegations that the Russian authorities are kidnapping children,” Russian diplomat at the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said in July.
Tass is reporting that the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are to be ordered to use Moscow time instead of Kyiv time. It writes:
According to the official Telegram channel of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation “Step-by-step synchronisation of Russian legislation continues after the admission of four new entities to it. In the near future, the Dontesk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions will become part of the second time zone, where Moscow time operates,” the message says. The relevant bill has already been submitted to the government of the Russian Federation.
“Recall that earlier all four regions lived according to Kyiv time, UTC + 2 (one hour less than in Moscow) and UTC + 3 in the summer. Currently, Moscow time de facto operates in the new regions, and the new bill fixes this.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Friday that US President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv to settle, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it.
“The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his usual daily briefing.
“Now we see that the current White House leader ... does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” Reuters reports he added.
Here are some images of people ice fishing in Ukraine’s occupied region of Luhansk, which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne has reported on the latest energy situation. It writes on its official Telegram channel:
Currently, ten regions of Ukraine are already using emergency power outages due to a power shortage in the network after yesterday’s Russian shelling, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing.
Ukraine would not rule out boycotting the Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games, its sports minister said.
Plans by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to look at ways for those athletes to return to international competition would be opposed, the minister, Vadim Guttsait, said on social media late on Thursday, Reuters reports.
“Our position is unchanged: as long as there is a war in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be in international competitions,” Guttsait wrote on his Facebook page.
“Work is currently underway on further possible steps and first steps to continue sanctions and prevent Russians and Belarusians from international competitions,” he said.
“If we are not heard, I do not rule out the possibility that we will boycott and refuse participation in the Olympics.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted a message to his official Telegram channel on Holocaust Memorial day. 27 January marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the message, Ukraine’s president writes:
Today, as always, Ukraine honors the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust.
We know and remember that indifference kills along with hatred. Indifference and hatred are always capable of creating evil together only.
That is why it is so important that everyone who values life should show determination when it comes to saving those whom hatred seeks to destroy.
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.
Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union’s European external action service, has defended German and US provisions of military equipment to Ukraine, and criticised Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for waging a war on Nato and the west.
Associated Press report that Sannino, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo as part of an Asia-Pacific tour, said Putin had “moved from a concept of special operation to a concept now of a war against Nato and the west.”
He said German and US tank provisions are meant to help Ukrainians defend themselves in the war, rather than making them attackers.
“I think that this latest development in terms of armed supply is just an evolution of the situation and of the way Russia started moving the war into a different stage,” Sannino said. He added that Russia is making “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians and cities and no longer military targets.
The EU is not moving the war into a different stage but is “just giving the possibility of saving lives and allowing the Ukrainians to defend from these barbaric attacks,” Sannino said.
Updated
Hungary will veto EU sanctions on Russian on nuclear energy
Hungary will veto any European Union sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio on Friday.
Ukraine has called on the 27-nation EU to include Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom in sanctions but Hungary, which has a Russian-built nuclear plant it plans to expand with Rosatom, has blocked that.
Reuters reports that Orbán reiterated in an interview that sanctions on nuclear energy “must obviously be vetoed”.
“We will not allow the plan to include nuclear energy into the sanctions be implemented,” the Hungarian premier said. “This is out of the question.”
Updated
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the night passed in Sumy region without any shelling.
The UK’s ministry of defence has published its latest intelligence briefing on how it sees the situation in Ukraine. It casts doubt on recent Russian claims of military advances in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, writing:
Over the last six days, Russian online commentators have claimed Russian forces have made significant advances, breaking through Ukrainian defences in two areas: in Zaporizhzhia Oblast near Orikiv, and 100km to the east, in Donetsk Oblast, near Vuhledar.
Russian units have probably conducted local, probing attacks near Orikiv and Vuhledar, but it is highly unlikely that Russia has actually achieved any substantive advances.
There is a realistic possibility that Russian military sources are deliberately spreading misinformation in an effort to imply that the Russian operation is sustaining momentum.
The claim is presented on social media without any supporting evidence being published.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 27 January 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 27, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/wRBODowWGd
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/LdZbHoKpBo
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. I will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Oleskandr Musiyenko, head of the Military and Strategic Research Centre of Ukraine, says Russia is sending in more reinforcements to block Ukrainian advances.
“They are mostly sending infantry and artillery forces into battle, made up mainly of conscripts. But they do not have the level of artillery and tank support they had on Feb. 24,” Musiyenko said in an interview with Ukrainian television.
“They have fewer resources. They are relying on the numerical superiority of their troops.”
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese on Friday reiterated Australian support for Ukraine and criticised supporters of Russia’s invasion after a video emerged showing Novak Djokovic’s father posing at the Australian Open with fans holding Russian flags, Reuters reports.
Police questioned four fans seen with “inappropriate flags and symbols” after a quarter-final match on Wednesday between Russia’s Andrey Rublev and favourite Djokovic, organisers Tennis Australia said.
“I will make this point, that Australia stands with the people of Ukraine. That is Australia’s position and Australia is unequivocal in our support for the rule of international law,” Albanese told a news conference after a reporter asked if Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, should be deported after he was seen posing for pictures with fans holding Russian flags.
“We do not want to see any support given to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that is having a devastating impact on the people of Ukraine.”
Albanese did not respond directly to the question about whether Srdjan Djokovic should be deported.
Djokovic’s father could not be reached for comment by Reuters.
An adviser to president Zelenskiy has issued a warning to fellow Ukrainian officials which appears to be related to the ongoing drive to stamp out corruption.
More than a dozen Ukrainian officials have been removed this week after a series of scandals and graft allegations. Political analysts said Zelenskiy needs to show western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing misrule.
“Everyone should understand their level of responsibility to the country and nation during the war. Whoever forgets about it receives a quick reaction,” said Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskiy’s office.
“This will happen to everyone who allows themselves to forget (their duties), regardless of names and offices,” Yermak wrote on Twitter.
Among the most high-profile cases was that of a deputy defence minister who resigned following a report, which he denied, that his ministry paid inflated prices to feed troops.
A presidential adviser who had been called out by local media for driving flashy cars also quit, as did a senior prosecutor who Ukrainian media reported had gone on holiday to Marbella in Spain, flouting martial law.
Explosions heard near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station during Thursday’s strikes, says UN nuclear agency
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Ukraine last week, said IAEA monitors reported powerful explosions near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Thursday and renewed calls for a security zone around the plant.
But Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom, the company operating Russia’s nuclear plants, said the comments were unfounded and called it a “provocation”.
Russia has in the past reacted to Ukrainian successes with massed airstrikes that left millions without light, heat or water.
On Thursday, it appeared to follow that pattern. Prime minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia’s attacks targeted energy plants.
“I held an urgent meeting today about the energy situation – about the shortages that are occurring and repair work after the terrorists’ strikes. Repair teams are working in those sites,” Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
The Kremlin said it saw the promised delivery of western tanks as evidence of growing “direct involvement” of the United States and Europe in the 11-month-old war, something both deny.
Zelenskiy calls for further sanctions and more weapons after latest strikes
In his nightly address following Thursday’s deadly missile strikes across, Zelenskiy called for further sanctions on Russia and for allies to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
Ukrainian civilians raced for cover on Thursday as Russia fired a barrage of missiles and drones across the country, killing at least 11 people, a day after Kyiv won pledges of battlefield tanks to combat Moscow’s invasion from western countries.
Zelenskiy said:
This Russian aggression can and should be stopped only with adequate weapons. The terrorist state will not understand anything else. Weapons on the battlefield. Weapons that protect our skies.
New sanctions against Russia, i.e. political and economic weapons. And legal weapons - we need to work even harder to establish a tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for further sanctions on Russia and more weapons for Ukraine, after Russian strikes on Thursday left 11 dead and 11 wounded.
We’ll have more from Zelenskiy’s latest address shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
Ukrainian civilians raced for cover on Thursday as Russia fired a barrage of missiles and drones across the country, killing at least 11 people, a day after Kyiv won pledges of battlefield tanks to combat Moscow’s invasion from western countries.
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych criticised the International Olympic Committee on Thursday for considering allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competitions.
Russia’s finance ministry has proposed scrapping liquidity restrictions for spending on “anti-crisis” investments from its national wealth fund (NWF), citing the need to support key sectors amid challenging geopolitical conditions.
The UK hopes the Challenger 2 tanks it is supplying to Ukraine will arrive in the country at the end of March, defence department minister Alex Chalk said on Thursday.
Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation” on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.
The Ukrainian central bank’s foreign currency reserves will stand at about $30bn at the end of January, Yuri Heletiy, the deputy governor told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The arrest of a high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence agent accused of spying for Russia has highlighted the urgent need for a cleanout of the country’s key security service, a former deputy head of the agency has said.
