Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said he does not think it is the right approach “for now” to send UK fighter jets to Ukraine. He said it was “not a solid decision”, adding: “I’ve learned two things: never rule anything in and never rule anything out.” Meanwhile, Downing Street has continued to rule out providing Kyiv with British jets, saying it was not practical given the complexity of the jets.
The UK’s statements came as its former prime minister Boris Johnson called on western leaders to “give the Ukrainians the tools to finish the job”, including heavy tanks and planes. Addressing the Atlantic Council in Washington, Johnson urged the west to “stop focusing on Putin and focus entirely on Ukraine”.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he had a “frank and productive” conversation with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, regarding his country’s “urgent operational needs for self-defence”.
Spain will initially send between four and six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, El País is reporting. Italy is to join forces with France in supplying air defences to Ukraine, the FT reported. In an interview, Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said a package of military aid now being prepared by Giorgia Meloni’s government would probably include “weapons of defence against Russian missile attack”. “Italy is expected to provide the missile launchers, while France would supply the rockets,” the paper reports.
Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, has spoken out against his country delivering fighter jets to Ukraine. Habeck, an early supporter of his government supporting Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 tanks, said such a move would probably be a step too far for western allies weighing up support for Kyiv’s cause against fears of being drawn into an outright war.
The US is readying more than $2bn worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters. The Kremlin said longer-range rockets reportedly included in the upcoming package of military aid would escalate the conflict but not change its course.
Norwegian academics, rights campaigners, bestselling authors and a former minister have urged Oslo to increase its support for Ukraine, saying the government must do more to help after earning billions in extra oil and gas revenue from Russia’s war. The Scandinavian country’s oil and gas revenues have soared to record levels over the past 12 months as energy prices have tripled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Norway has replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said Russia and China’s growing relationship poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe. In a speech to Keio University in Tokyo, the Nato chief underlined the importance of stronger cooperation and more “friends” for Nato in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the war in Ukraine had demonstrated “how security is interconnected”.
Pro-Russia forces have claimed in Russian media that the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut is nearly encircled. Tass quoted Col Vitaly Kiselev, on behalf of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, saying: “Bakhmut has practically been ‘embraced’ from three sides, an intensive knocking out of the enemy is under way. They are trying, and I am sure that they will succeed … to go to the Chasiv Yar area, from where intensive shelling is going on back to Soledar, Bakhmut.”
The Kinburn peninsula, a strip of land that protrudes from the southern side of Kherson oblast on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is in the “grey zone”, with neither Ukrainian or Russian military fully in control of the territory, according to Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.
The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update says that recent days have seen “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dnieper River. “This has included continued shelling of Kherson city,” the ministry notes, adding that outside the Donbas, Kherson is the city most consistently shelled in the conflict.
The woman leading the Kyiv tax authority has been accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud after a raid on one of her four homes. Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation (SBI) said in a statement that the acting head of the inspectorate, who has not been named, had abused her “power and official position” along with other members of the authority.
The development came as Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s campaign against state corruption in Ukraine continues before a meeting on Friday in Kyiv with senior EU officials to discuss potential accession to the bloc. The crackdown continued on Wednesday with a raid on the house of Igor Kolomoisky, a former political ally of Ukraine’s president, and the former interior minister Arsen Avakov.
Russia has claimed it wants to preserve the New Start treaty, describing the treaty as “very important”. The US accused Moscow on Tuesday of violating the treaty – the last remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries – which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy. Washington has been keen to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he would be willing to consider serving as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine if asked by both warring countries and the US. Netanyahu said he was asked to be a mediator shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year but he declined because he was Israel’s opposition leader at the time, not the prime minister.
The prominent Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia to eight years in jail by a Moscow court after it found him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army. Investigators opened a case against Nevzorov last year for posts on social media in which he accused Russia’s armed forces of deliberately shelling a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an assertion Moscow said was false.
Belarus’s armed forces are now in autonomous control of Russian-supplied, nuclear-capable Iskander mobile guided missile systems after completing training in Russia as well as exercises in Belarus, its defence ministry has said. The commander of Belarusian rocket and artillery forces, Ruslan Chekhov, praised the missiles for their “simplicity of use, reliability, manoeuvrability and firepower”.
Latvia will not send its athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics if competitors from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part while the invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, a spokesperson for the country’s Olympic committee said. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the 2024 Games if athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part. Neither Lithuania’s nor Estonia’s national Olympic committees are considering boycotts, their chairs said on Tuesday.
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Norway urged to step up Ukraine support after profiting from war
Norwegian academics, rights campaigners, bestselling authors and a former minister have urged Oslo to increase its support for Ukraine, saying the government must do more to help after earning billions in extra oil and gas revenue from Russia’s war.
In a letter published in the VG tabloid, signatories including the former foreign minister Knut Vollebæk, the anthropologist Erika Fatland and Henrik Urdal of the Oslo Peace Research Institute said Norway was the only country in Europe to be profiting from the war.
The wealthy Scandinavian country’s oil and gas revenues have soared to record levels over the past 12 months as energy prices tripled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Norway replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.
Compared with original estimates, Oslo’s state budget projected an additional €180bn (£160bn) in oil and gas income for 2022 and 2023, the signatories wrote, adding that the government’s public pledges of support for Ukraine over the same period amounted to just €1.27bn.
Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, has dismissed any suggestion that the country is profiteering from the war. “It’s a notion I flatly refuse,” Støre told AFP on Tuesday, adding that a major “multi-year support package” would be announced in the coming days.
The letter acknowledged that more humanitarian and military support would be coming and said the value of arms supplies in particular was hard to calculate, but said:
Either way, Norway can afford to contribute more to Ukraine than we are doing. Far more.
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Sending British fighter jets to Ukraine not right approach ‘for now’, says defence sec
Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said the UK has not made a “solid decision” not to send its fighter jets to Ukraine, but does not think it is the right approach “for now”.
Downing Street has appeared to rule out sending jets to Ukraine, saying it was not practical because “these are sophisticated pieces of equipment”.
Asked why Britain would not send jets to Ukraine, Wallace said:
I’ve been involved with this for a pretty long time. And I’ve learned two things: never rule anything in and never rule anything out.
He said this was “not a solid decision”, adding:
For now, I don’t think that’s the right approach … What’s going to move on this conflict this year is going to be the ability for Ukrainians to deploy western armour against Russia.
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Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he had a “frank and productive” conversation with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, regarding his country’s “urgent operational needs for self-defence”.
France stands with Ukraine, Reznikov posted to Twitter, as he thanked Macron and the country for its “leadership and unwavering support”.
Had the honor to meet with the 🇫🇷President @EmmanuelMacron . A very frank&productive conversation took place regarding #UAarmy urgent operational needs for self-defense from the rus aggressor.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) February 1, 2023
🇫🇷 is with us!Thank you to 🇫🇷President & people for their leadership&unwavering support
UK rules out sending British fighter jets to Ukraine again
As Boris Johnson piles pressure on western leaders to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, Downing Street has continued to rule out providing Kyiv with British jets.
Johnson’s trip to Washington this week to bolster support for Ukraine was “in his own capacity and not on behalf of the UK government”, a No 10 spokesperson said.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, is “pleased” his predecessor is “continuing his staunch support of the United Kingdom’s efforts to help Ukraine secure a lasting peace”, they added.
Asked about Johnson’s call for jets, the official said:
It’s currently not practical to send UK jets, we will continue to work closely with the Ukrainians to understand their needs and how allies can further support them.
Given the complexity of UK fighter jets and the length of time required to train them, we do not currently think it is practical to do so.
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Boris Johnson says it’s up to Ukrainians to define what victory is, but it’s his own “instinct” that Kyiv should be “taking back their entire country”.
Putin needs to be “punished” for his “decision to change borders by force” in 2014, he says, referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
He says Ukraine should begin the process of induction to the Nato military alliance and the EU when the war ends.
Asked what Ukraine needs to win the war, Johnson replies that he’s been told by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Kyiv needs longer-range missile systems, armoured cars and planes.
The UK prime minister’s spokesperson said yesterday that supplying western jets was not practical. “These are sophisticated pieces of equipment,” they said. “We do not think it is practical to send those jets into Ukraine.”
Johnson says:
I don’t think it would take the Ukrainians very long to work out how to use F-16 or Typhoons.
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Boris Johnson: Stop focusing on Putin and give Ukrainians the planes
The former UK prime minister Boris Johnson is addressing the Atlantic Council to discuss western unity and support for Ukraine.
Johnson called on western leaders to “give the Ukrainians the tools to finish the job”. He said:
Give them the deep fire and artillery systems. Give them the tanks. Give them the planes. Because they have a plan. They know what they need to do.
He asks “what is the point” of having Challenger 2 tanks patrolling “the beautiful villages of Wiltshire” when Ukrainians could be using them to bring this war to an end.
He says:
Every time we’ve been asked to intensify our support, we’ve be met with the same argument that we risk an escalation by Putin. How can we seriously worry about provoking him when we have seen what he will do, without the slightest provocation?
Vladimir Putin “isn’t mad, he isn’t ill”, Johnson says. “He simply made a historic miscalculation.” He urges the world to avoid being drawn into the Russian leader’s “personal psychodrama”. He says:
We need to stop focusing on Putin and focus entirely on Ukraine because they are fighting for all of us. They’re fighting for our values, and they have reminded us that those values of freedom and democracy are worth fighting for. So there are no conceivable grounds for delay.
You can watch his speech here:
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Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has said his country needs to quickly order new Leopard tanks to replace those going to Ukraine, adding that he does not care where the money comes from.
Speaking while on a visit to a tank battalion in the western town of Augustdorf that was chosen to supply 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Pistorius said:
For me, the crucial fact is that we have to order new tanks, not in a year but swiftly so that production can begin.
He added:
Where the money will come from? Let me casually put it like this: frankly, I don’t care. It is essential that we can provide them [the tanks] quickly.
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Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 6.30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said Russia and China’s growing relationship poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe. In a speech to Keio University in Tokyo, the Nato chief underlined the importance of stronger cooperation and more “friends” for Nato in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the war in Ukraine had demonstrated “how security is interconnected”.
Pro-Russia forces have claimed in Russian media that the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut is nearly encircled. Tass quoted Col Vitaly Kiselev, on behalf of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, saying: “Bakhmut has practically been ‘embraced’ from three sides, an intensive knocking out of the enemy is under way. They are trying, and I am sure that they will succeed … to go to the Chasiv Yar area, from where intensive shelling is going on back to Soledar, Bakhmut.”
The Kinburn peninsula, a strip of land that protrudes from the southern side of Kherson oblast on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is in the “grey zone”, with neither Ukrainian or Russian military fully in control of the territory, according to Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.
The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update says that recent days have seen “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dnieper River. “This has included continued shelling of Kherson city,” the ministry notes, adding that outside the Donbas, Kherson is the city most consistently shelled in the conflict.
The woman leading the Kyiv tax authority has been accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud after a raid on one of her four homes. Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation (SBI) said in a statement that the acting head of the inspectorate, who has not been named, had abused her “power and official position” along with other members of the authority.
The development came as Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s campaign against state corruption in Ukraine continues before a meeting on Friday in Kyiv with senior EU officials to discuss potential accession to the bloc. The crackdown continued on Wednesday with a raid on the house of Igor Kolomoisky, a former political ally of Ukraine’s president, and the former interior minister Arsen Avakov.
Russia has claimed it wants to preserve the New Start treaty, describing the treaty as “very important”. The US accused Moscow on Tuesday of violating the treaty – the last remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries – which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy. Washington has been keen to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Spain will initially send between four and six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, El País is reporting. Italy is to join forces with France in supplying air defences to Ukraine, the FT reported. In an interview, Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said a package of military aid now being prepared by Giorgia Meloni’s government would probably include “weapons of defence against Russian missile attack”. “Italy is expected to provide the missile launchers, while France would supply the rockets,” the paper writes.
Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, has spoken out against his country delivering fighter jets to Ukraine. Habeck, an early supporter of his government supporting Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 tanks, said such a move would probably be a step too far for western allies weighing up support for Kyiv’s cause against fears of being drawn into an outright war.
The US is readying more than $2bn worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters. The Kremlin said longer-range rockets reportedly included in the upcoming package of military aid would escalate the conflict but not change its course.
The UK’s former prime minister Boris Johnson has called on western leaders to supply fighter jets to Ukraine “as fast as possible”. A Downing Street spokesperson said on Tuesday that supplying western jets was not practical. “These are sophisticated pieces of equipment,” they said. But Johnson, who is in Washington for talks with US lawmakers to bolster support for Ukraine, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should be given all the equipment he needs.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he would be willing to consider serving as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine if asked by both warring countries and the US. Netanyahu said he was asked to be a mediator shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year but he declined because he was Israel’s opposition leader at the time, not the prime minister.
The prominent Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia to eight years in jail by a Moscow court after it found him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army. Investigators opened a case against Nevzorov last year for posts on social media in which he accused Russia’s armed forces of deliberately shelling a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an assertion Moscow said was false.
Belarus’s armed forces are now in autonomous control of Russian-supplied, nuclear-capable Iskander mobile guided missile systems after completing training in Russia as well as exercises in Belarus, its defence ministry has said. The commander of Belarusian rocket and artillery forces, Ruslan Chekhov, praised the missiles for their “simplicity of use, reliability, manoeuvrability and firepower”.
Latvia will not send its athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics if competitors from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part while the invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, a spokesperson for the country’s Olympic committee said. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the 2024 Games if athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part. Neither Lithuania’s nor Estonia’s national Olympic committees are considering boycotts, their chairs said on Tuesday.
The Polish ruling party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, and opposition party member Radek Sikorski have settled a long-running dispute, with Kaczyński agreeing to pay 50,000 złotys (£9,400/$11,500) in a donation to support Ukraine’s army over comments he made about Sikorski in 2016 regarding the 2010 plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, that killed Kaczynski’s twin brother, the then president Lech Kaczyński, and 95 others.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you with all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
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Head of Kyiv tax authority accused of multimillion-dollar fraud
The woman leading the Kyiv tax authority has been accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud after a raid on one of her four homes, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s campaign against state corruption in Ukraine continues.
The development came as Ukraine’s president prepares for a meeting on Friday with senior EU officials to discuss potential accession to the bloc of 27 member states.
Ukraine’s state bureau of investigation (SBI) said the acting head of the inspectorate, who has not been named, had abused her “power and official position” along with other members of the authority.
Investigators claimed the woman’s lifestyle did not fit her declared income as head of the capital’s main tax office. She is said to own three flats in the city with a total value of $1m (£811,640), a house near Kyiv worth about $200,000, and two cars together worth about $150,000.
Her driver was found to have a $100,000 car registered in his name, although the man’s “income in recent years was no more than $8,000”, the SBI claimed.
During a raid on the woman’s home, investigators found $158,000, 530,000 Ukrainian hrynvia (£11,647), and €2,200 (£1,944) in cash and an array of expensive jewellery, designer-branded clothing and gold watches. The SBI published photos of what it described as the haul.
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A US citizen has been detained and fined by a Russian court for walking a cow on Moscow’s Red Square that she said she bought to save from slaughter, according to reports by Russian state media.
Alicia Day, 34, was fined 20,000 roubles (£231) for obstructing pedestrians in an unauthorised protest and sentenced to 13 days of “administrative arrest” on a separate charge of disobeying police orders, Russian state media reported.
The state-run Tass news agency quoted her as saying:
I bought the calf so that it wouldn’t be eaten. I decided to take him to such a beautiful place and show him the country.
Video posted by Russian state media and shared by Meduza’s Kevin Rothrock showed Day in court:
Here’s an unusual one: a Moscow court has sentenced U.S. citizen Alicia Day to 13 days in jail for disobeying the police. The animal rights activist apparently bought a cow through the Avito marketplace and then decided to show it Red Square. Um, okay. https://t.co/oAWXjQ0KO1 pic.twitter.com/5mDEByFd9u
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) February 1, 2023
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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told a government meeting on Wednesday that shelling of Russian regions from Ukraine must not be permitted, and this was the task of the defence ministry, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Vladimir Rogov, chair of the We Are Together with Russia organisation that operates within the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, has echoed the comments on his Telegram channel, saying “On my own behalf, I would add that this problem is especially acute for residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of the Russian Federation.”
Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in 2022, despite not being fully in control of the territory, following referendums widely derided internationally as sham votes.
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Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency is reporting that the Novozybkov oil pumping station of the Druzhba oil pipeline in the Bryansk region of Russia came under fire from Ukraine. It quotes a spokesperson from Transneft, which operates the pipeline, saying:
As a result of a shell hit on the territory of the station, there were no victims, the damage is being repaired by the repair team. The Druzhba oil pipeline is operating normally.
The Bryansk region borders Ukraine, and is to the north of the Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The Druzhba oil pipeline runs from Russia into Belarus, and splits into branches that go on to serve different destinations in Europe.
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Austria’s president, Alexander Van der Bellen, has spoken to journalists during his visit to Kyiv. Die Presse in Austria reports that the president said:
We want to send a signal: we stand by Ukraine. We won’t leave you alone. Ukraine is exposed to a war of aggression that is second to none. This is comparable to the colonial wars of the 19th century.
Van der Bellen went on to say that Ukraine had been given a choice by Russia of either becoming a province ruled from Moscow or to have everything destroyed, but instead Ukrainians had shown how strong their will to resist was.
He added that his message to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was Austria is helping in Ukraine and will continue to help.
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The Polish ruling party leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, and opposition party member Radek Sikorski have settled a long-running dispute with Kaczyński agreeing to pay 50,000 zlotys (£9,400 / $11,500) in a donation to support Ukraine’s army.
Kaczyński had been ordered to pay Sikorski more than 700,000 zlotys (£131,500 / $162,000) in a defamation case over comments he made about Sikorski in 2016 regarding the 2010 plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, that killed Kaczynski’s twin brother, thenpresident Lech Kaczyński, and 95 others. Sikorski was foreign minister at the time of the disaster and is now a member of the Europeanparliament and an outspoken government critic.
Associated Press report that Kaczyński said the court’s penalty was so high that he would have to sell his house to pay it, and Sikorski replied by saying he believed “that the penalties for defamation should be severe but not ruinous”.
The two agreed the smaller sum should be donated to Ukraine, and Sikorski said he accepted that form of apology, adding: “I’m glad we found a patriotic solution.”
Kaczyński said in a statement: “Today Ukraine is fighting for its independence and freedom, but also for our security. We support it and we will support it. Since the payment to support the fund for the Ukrainian armed forces closes my controversial dispute with Sikorski, I do so with satisfaction.”
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Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that law enforcement forces have discovered the body of a man in Myrne, a village that is in Mykolaiv region, against the border with Kherson. It reports:
In the de-occupied village of Myrne, Mykolaiv region, law enforcement officers discovered the body of a dead person. A 37-year-old man died on 16 March, 2022, during the shelling of the village by Russian troops. The body was found on 31 January, 2023, during the survey of the settlement and the collection of information about war crimes by the army of the Russian Federation.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Belarus’s armed forces are now in autonomous control of Russian-supplied nuclear-capable Iskander mobile guided missile systems after completing training in Russia as well as exercises in Belarus, its defence ministry has said.
The Iskander missiles are capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 500 km (310 miles), according to the ministry.
The commander of Belarusian rocket and artillery forces, Ruslan Chekhov, praised the missiles for their “simplicity of use, reliability, manoeuvrability and firepower” in comments posted on Military TV’s Telegram channel and reported by Reuters.
On Tuesday, Minsk’s defence ministry said a week-long joint military training with Russia had started on the country’s territory, amid concern that Moscow is pressuring its closest ally to join the war in Ukraine.
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has said he will not join the war, but his territory was used as a launchpad for the failed push for Kyiv last year, and Ukrainian authorities say it is still used as a base for drone and missile attacks.
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How would F-16 fighter jets aid Ukraine against Russia?
What is the F-16?
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight fighter aircraft that was initially designed as long ago as the 1970s. It first went into service in 1979, and was used heavily by the US airforce in both Iraq wars and in Afghanistan.
Originally built by the US in a consortium with Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, the jet, which can travel twice the speed of sound, became one of the most popular military aircraft of all time and remains widely in use. Lockheed Martin, the US manufacturer, says there are more than 3,000 F-16s in service in 25 countries.
Today, however, it has been superseded by the F-35, but is it still being manufactured for sale by Lockheed in South Carolina. That’s because it is cheaper – costing in the tens of millions – and because the US does not always give export permission for the more modern jet.
Why does Ukraine want them?
Ukraine had a small air force of Soviet-standard jets at the start of the war, amounting around 120 combat capable aircraft according to the IISS thinktank. That number has dwindled as the war has gone on, although, remarkably, given the numbers of Russian aircraft and air defences, experts say Ukraine retains a limited air capability. But as time goes on, its air force will need to be replenished.
A curious feature of the Ukraine war has been its relatively limited use of air power. Russia’s anti-aircraft defences are considered effective, while Moscow has been very reluctant to risks its own air force beyond the front line, as it too wants to minimise losses. Former US Air Force general Philip Breedlove has described the air situation as one of “mutual denial”.
Nevertheless, Kyiv is planning an offensive in the spring, while at the same time preparing to resist Moscow’s own efforts to break the current military deadlock. Despite the risk, its hope is that squadrons of fast jets could be used to support a breakthrough, or least help blunt a mass Russian attack.
What’s the west’s current thinking?
Ukraine first has to persuade the west to give it some F-16s, but on Monday Joe Biden, the US president, said no, at least for now. That make the prospects for a rapid supply of fighter jets unlikely, but minds have changed before over other munitions, such as tanks, and it is not clear the topic has been properly debated within the US system.
Nevertheless, the White House position is critical. The US has control over the jets re-export, and no nation will to be want to be out of step with Washington, given concerns about any possible Russian retaliation.
One of the countries most sympathetic to helping Ukraine obtain F-16s, Poland, stressed on Monday it would only act in concert with Nato allies. Britain and Germany have also ruled out sending fighter jets in the past days.
However, France, which makes its own combat jets, appears to have a more open mind. President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday their supply was not taboo as long it could not be deemed escalatory and they were not used to target “Russian soil”. With Ukraine continuing to lobby, the issue is unlikely to go away.
Latvia will not send its athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics if competitors from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part while the invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, a spokesperson for the country’s Olympic committee said.
They told Reuters:
If we need to make a decision now, of course we will not go to such competition. But the Paris Games are a year and half away. We will see what happens in Ukraine. We hope Ukrainian people will win this war, and we will be in a new situation.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said last week that it was continuing to work on a pathway which would enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals.
Ukraine has threatened to boycott the 2024 Games if athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to take part. Neither Lithuania’s nor Estonia’s national Olympic committees are considering boycotts, their chairs have said.
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The enemy on the other side of the woods can be heard when the wind blows towards the deep Ukrainian trenches. Russian voices carry in the freezing cold air as do the growls of the tanks and the buzz of the kamikaze and reconnaissance drones.
But that is not all that comes over the pine trees to break the disarming silence in this barren part of the Ukrainian defence in Sumy, a north-eastern region that shares a 560km (350 miles) border with Russia.
“After January 7, the shelling became intense. For the last 10 days, the shelling has been happening almost every day,” says Lt Col Roman Tkach, 51. In what form have the attacks come? “The Russians fire from barrel artillery, mortar fire, the Grad rocket salvo fire system. Aviation is used. They shoot unguided air missiles from helicopters and drop bombs from airplanes,” says Tkach.
Two days ago they dropped a big bomb from a plane that took out a house. They seem to have endless missiles.
Tkach is talking from a warren of trenches and machine gun posts in a position in south-east Sumy, 1,500 metres from the official Russian-Ukrainian border. His words are punctuated, now and again, by the gentle crump of the sound of artillery shelling somewhere further along the defensive line.
“It is only small now,” he says reassuringly. The Russians have been throwing everything over here, the soldiers say. Similar testimony can be heard from Ukrainian soldiers dug in across the region, where a quiet new year gave way to a noisy, dangerous and bewildering January.
On Sunday alone, four apartment blocks and 28 houses were hit by shells in the city of Sumy, as well a hotel, an administrative building, a church, a gym, three shops, a cafe, a kindergarten and a post office. A total of 88 strikes were recorded in one day. Yet, it was nothing out of the ordinary for the past month.
A band of Russian saboteurs was caught last week trying to cross over the border for purposes unknown. They fled under fire. Two weeks ago, an assault helicopter fired seven rockets at targets just 800 metres from this position. “And rockets from a Grad system hit that hill over there,” says Artem Volynko, 25 a senior lieutenant in the state border guard, pointing to an entirely unpopulated and unremarkable elevation. But, why? “That’s in a Ukrainian national park – maybe they wanted it to burn?”
It’s a theory, if perhaps not one of the stronger ones.
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Russia and China ‘coming closer’ poses threat to Europe, says Stoltenberg
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned that Russia and China’s growing relationship poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe.
In a speech to Keio University in Tokyo, the Nato chief underlined the importance of stronger cooperation and more “friends” for Nato in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the war in Ukraine has demonstrated “how security is interconnected”.
China is increasingly investing in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles without providing transparency or engaging in meaningful dialogue on arms control for atomic weapons, he said.
Meanwhile, Beijing continues to escalate coercion of its neighbours and threats against Taiwan, the self-ruled island it claims as its own territory.
Stoltenberg said:
The fact that Russia and China are coming closer and the significant investments by China and new advanced military capabilities just underlines that China poses a threat, poses a challenge also to Nato allies. Security is not regional but global.
China is increasingly working with Russia and both countries are leading an “authoritarian pushback” against the rules-based, open and democratic international order, he continued.
He insisted that Nato does not regard Beijing as an adversary or seek confrontation, and that the alliance will continue to engage with China in areas of common interest, such as climate change.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said Beijing was “a force for regional and global peace and stability” and criticised Nato for labelling China a threat and for expanding its military ties to Asia.
Mao said:
Nato has constantly sought to reach beyond its traditional defence zone and scope, strengthen military and security ties with Asia Pacific countries and played up China’s threats. I would like to stress that the Asia-Pacific is not a battlefield for the geopolitical contest and does not welcome the cold war mentality and bloc confrontation.
Updated
The UK’s former prime minister Boris Johnson has called on western leaders to supply fighter jets to Ukraine “as fast as possible”.
Ukraine’s western allies appear to have retreated from supplying F-16 and other western fighter jets to Ukraine in recent days, with the UK and US quashing Kyiv’s hopes it could obtain the jets soon after the west agreed to send it tanks.
A Downing Street spokesperson said yesterday that supplying western jets was not practical. These are sophisticated pieces of equipment,” they said. “We do not think it is practical to send those jets into Ukraine.”
But Johnson, who is in Washington for talks with US lawmakers to bolster support for Ukraine, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should be given all the equipment he needs.
Speaking to Fox News, Johnson said:
All I will say is that every time we have said it will be a mistake to give such and such an item of weaponry, we end up doing it and it ends up being the right thing for Ukraine.
I remember being told it was the wrong idea to give them the anti-tank shoulder-launched missiles. Actually, they were indispensable and the United States – under (former US president) Donald Trump – gave them the Javelins as well. They were indispensable in the battles to repel the Russian tanks.
He said he remembered “having arguments about the multiple-launch rocket systems, the MLRS” but that they proved “invaluable” to the Ukrainians.
He added:
All I’m saying is save time, save money, save lives. Give the Ukrainians what they need as fast as possible.
Updated
Russia has claimed it wants to preserve the New Start treaty, after the US accused Moscow of violating the last remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries.
The treaty came into force in 2011 and was extended in 2021 for five more years. It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
Washington has been keen to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, the US state department said Russia had violated the treaty by refusing to allow inspection activities on its territory.
Speaking to reporters today, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was necessary to preserve at least some “hints” of continued dialogue with Washington, “no matter how sad the situation is at the present time”.
The continuation of the New Start treaty was “very important”, he said, describing it as the only one that remained “at least hypothetically viable”.
Moscow in August suspended cooperation with inspections under the treaty, blaming travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February last year, but said it was still committed to complying with the provisions of the treaty.
A state department spokesperson said in emailed comments on Tuesday:
Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control.
The spokesperson added that Russia had a “clear path” for returning to compliance by allowing inspection activities, and that Washington remains ready to work with Russia to fully implement the treaty.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in remarks on Tuesday night that his administration was planning to introduce changes as part of attempts to proceed with unusually rapid and complex negotiations to secure European Union membership, Reuters reports. Ukraine is holding “summit” talks with EU officials on Friday.
“What is very important is that we are preparing new reforms in Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said. “These are reforms which in many aspects will change the social, legal and political realities by making them more humane, more transparent and more effective.”
The media has been reporting in Ukraine that two high profile anti-corruption raids have been carried out on Wednesday morning, targeting oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and former interior minister Arsen Avakov.
El País is reporting that Spain will initially send between four and six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The FT is today reporting that Italy is to join forces with France in supplying air defences to Ukraine.
The US is readying more than $2bn worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that longer-range rockets reportedly included in an upcoming package of military aid from the US to Ukraine would escalate the conflict but not change its course. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters that there were no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks with US President Joe Biden.
Senior adviser to Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Wednesday talks were already under way on securing longer-range missiles and attack aircraft from foreign partners to help repel Russian forces.
Germany’s vice-chancellor Robert Habeck has spoken out against his country delivering fighter jets to Ukraine, saying such a move would “probably” be a step too far for western allies weighing up support for Kyiv’s cause against fears of being drawn into an outright war.
Pro-Russian forces have claimed in Russian media that Bakhmut is nearly encircled. Tass quoted Col Vitaly Kiselev on behalf of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic saying “Bakhmut has practically been ‘embraced’ from three sides, an intensive knocking out of the enemy is underway. They are trying, and I am sure that they will succeed … to go to the Chasiv Yar area, from where intensive shelling is going on back to Soledar, Bakhmut.”
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that the Kinburn Peninsula, a strip of land that protrudes from the southern side of Kherson oblast on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is in the “grey zone”, with neither Ukrainian or Russian military fully in control of the territory.
The British Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update says that recent days have seen “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dniepr River. “This has included continued shelling of Kherson city,” the ministry notes – adding that, outside the Donbas, Kherson is the city most consistently shelled in the conflict. “Russia’s precise rationale for expending its strained ammunition stocks here is unclear. However, commanders are likely partially aiming to degrade civilian morale and to deter any Ukrainian counterattacks across the river,” the ministry adds.
Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen and the Green party’s vice president of the German Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, visited Kyiv on Wednesday. Van der Bellen travelled to Bucha to pay respects at the mass grave discovered there after Russian forces retreated from occupying the city in the Kyiv region in the early stages of the war.
Ukraine should be able to join Nato as soon as the war is over, new Czech president-elect Petr Pavel said on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s grain harvest may decrease again in 2023 to 49.5m tonnes from around 51m tonnes expected in 2022, deputy economy minister Denys Kudyn said Wednesday.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here directly to continue our live coverage.
Updated
Ukraine’s grain harvest may decrease again in 2023 to 49.5m tonnes from around 51m tonnes expected in 2022, the Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted deputy economy minister Denys Kudyn as saying today.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that longer-range rockets reportedly included in an upcoming package of military aid from the US to Ukraine would escalate the conflict but not change its course.
Reuters report Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters that there were no plans for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to hold talks with his US counterpart, Joe Biden.
Updated
The media has been reporting in Ukraine that two high profile anti-corruption raids have been carried out this morning, targeting oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and former interior minister Arsen Avakov.
State broadcaster Suspilne reported:
The house of businessman Kolomoisky is being searched, a source in the SBU told Sospilne. Earlier, a number of media stated that the investigation concerns the companies “Ukrtatnafta” and “Ukrnafta”. It is about the waste of oil products worth 40bn hryvnias and the evasion of customs payments. We are trying to get details and comment from Kolomoisky.
Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men, has previously been indicted by the US and had his Ukrainian citizenship revoked last year by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Avakov was minister of the interior from 2014 to 2021. He said in a statement to Suspilne that the searches related to the case of the helicopter crash in Brovary, and that searches were conducted at several addresses. The broadcaster quoted him saying:
We looked at six-year-old Airbus helicopter contracts. Of course, nothing was found. Contracts were approved by the government and parliament. They behaved correctly.
A senior adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday talks were under way on securing longer-range missiles and attack aircraft from foreign partners to help repel Russian forces.
“Each war stage requires certain weapons. Amassing RF’s (Russia’s) reserves in the occupied territories require specifics from (Ukraine) & partners,” Reuters reports political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
“So: 1. There is already a tank coalition (logistics, training, supply). 2. There are already talks on longer-range missiles & attack aircraft supply.”
Updated
Supplying fighter jets to Ukraine probably a step too far, says Germany
Philip Oltermann reports for the Guardian from Berlin:
Germany’s vice-chancellor has spoken out against his country delivering fighter jets to Ukraine, saying such a move would “probably” be a step too far for western allies weighing up support for Kyiv’s cause against fears of being drawn into an outright war.
Robert Habeck, deputy to chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s minister for economic affairs, was an early supporter of his government supporting Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, and defended the decision in a talk show on Tuesday night.
However, he said, “there is a difference between battle tanks and fighter jets”, echoing Scholz’s caution about making promises regarding such equipment.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, meanwhile, said that there had been no official demand from Kyiv to Berlin to provide fighter jets from Germany, despite some voices in Kyiv calling for warplanes. “We didn’t put any request to Germany about fighter jets yet,” Makeiev said.
Updated
Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen has arrived in Kyiv for a visit today.
As part of his visit he has been taken to Bucha, where Ukraine discovered a mass grave after Russian forces were expelled early in the war.
Updated
Prominent Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia to eight years in jail by a Moscow court on Wednesday after it found him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army.
Reuters reports investigators opened a case against Nevzorov last year for posts on social media in which he accused Russia’s armed forces of deliberately shelling a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, an assertion Moscow said was false.
The court said in a statement that he would serve his term in a penal colony if he ever returned to Russia, and was banned from managing internet content for four years.
Nevzorov, who runs a YouTube channel with close to 2 million subscribers, called the investigation against him ridiculous and left the country with his wife in March last year. He now has Ukrainian citizenship.
Ukraine should be able to join Nato as soon as the war is over, new Czech president-elect Petr Pavel has told the BBC.
The retired Nato general said in an interview that Ukraine would be “morally and practically ready” to become part of the alliance once the conflict had ended.
Pavel also supported the west supplying Ukraine with arms, saying “I am proud of my country being one of the first to provide Ukraine with significant military help. Probably very few people could imagine that Western countries would be willing to provide Ukraine with modern main battle tanks or long-range artillery or anti-aircraft systems.”
However he observed that in the face of Russia’s resources “we see it’s still not enough.”
“We have no alternative,” Pavel said. “If we leave Ukraine without assistance, they would most probably lose this war. And if they lose - we all lose.”
The BBC’s James Waterhouse points out why Ukraine will continue to lobby the west for the supply of fighter jets. The replies it is currently getting were all given previously for weapons and supplies that eventually the west said yes to.
Sure enough, Ukraine looks to level up from tanks to fighter jets.
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) February 1, 2023
It's asking for 200.
🇩🇪& 🇺🇸 say "no"
🇬🇧 says "not practical"
🇫🇷 says "don't rule it out"
All responses Kyiv has had before with artillery...armoured vehicles...missiles...tanks
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the news wires from Kharkiv region in Ukraine.
Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who is vice president of Germany’s Bundestag, representing the Green Party, has arrived in Kyiv. She says:
Ukrainians defend their country and our common freedom. I admire their courage. In the next few days I would like to get an idea of the reconstruction, the humanitarian situation and the difficulty of everyday life here.
Kiew. Hier bin ich heute mit dem Nachtzug angekommen. Die Ukrainer*innen verteidigen ihr Land & unsere gemeinsame Freiheit. Ich bewundere ihren Mut. In den nächsten Tagen möchte ich mir ein Bild vom Wiederaufbau, der humanitären Lage & dem schwierigen Lebensalltag vor Ort machen. pic.twitter.com/AnD3JyCM8a
— Katrin Göring-Eckardt (@GoeringEckardt) February 1, 2023
In its daily news bulletin on the situation in the war, Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that the Kinburn Peninsula, a strip of land that protrudes from the southern side of Kherson oblast on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is in the “grey zone”, with neither Ukrainian or Russian military fully in control of the territory.
Elsewhere in its daily operational report, the broadcaster has posted to Telegram to state:
A 60-year-old man was injured as a result of the morning shelling of Kupyansk in Kharkiv oblast. At night, Russian troops shelled the Ochakiv community of the Mykolaiv oblast. No shelling was recorded in Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
Yesterday, the Russian army shelled the Kherson region 42 times, eight of them in Kherson. One person died, another was injured. In Donetsk region, four people were killed and six others were injured as a result of shelling by the Russian army.
Defence forces repelled Russian attacks in the areas of eight settlements in Donetsk region, the general staff reported. Also, Ukrainian aviation carried out nine strikes on the areas of the Russian Federation forces.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, one of the occupied regions of the Donbas which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, has given a situational update on Telegram, claiming that in the last 24 hours “Russians killed four residents of Donetsk region and wounded another six”. He reported widespread shelling across communities in the region of Bakhmut.
At the same time, the so-called authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have reported that an elderly woman was killed while visiting a church in Nikolskoe in Donetsk, near occupied Mariupol, as a result of action by Ukrainian forces.
Neither sets of claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Col Vitaly Kiselev, who it terms a military expert from the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), has said that pro-Russian forces have surrounded the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut on three sides.
It quotes him saying “Bakhmut has practically been ‘embraced’ from three sides, an intensive knocking out of the enemy is underway.”
The report goes on say that he claimed pro-Russian forces are attempting to advance on Chasiv Yar, quoting him saying “They are trying, and I am sure that they will succeed … to go to the Chasiv Yar area, from where intensive shelling is going on back to Soledar, Bakhmut.”
The claims have not been independently verified. The LPR, which was self-proclaimed in 2014, is only recognised as any sort of legitimate authority by three UN members states – Russia, Syria and North Korea – and is one of the regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Updated
Authorities in Sumy, a region in north-eastern Ukraine that borders Russia, report that last night “Russian troops dropped explosive devices on the territory of the Krasnopillia community”, which is close to the border.
Updated
Spain to initially send four to six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine – reports
Also being reported elsewhere this morning is the suggestion that Spain will initially send between four and six Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Miguel Gonzalez’s lead article for the El País website this morning states:
Between four and six Leopard 2A4. That is the number of tanks that Spain plans to supply to Ukraine, according to government sources. The final figure will depend on the state of the 53 tanks stored for a decade at the Logistic Support Group number 41 in Zaragoza, whose urgent rehabilitation is being negotiated by the ministry of defence with the military industry; and the contribution made by other countries.
Italy to join forces with France in supplying air defences to Ukraine – reports
The FT is today reporting that Italy is to join forces with France in supplying air defences to Ukraine. In an article published on Wednesday, it reported:
Italy is poised to join forces with France and provide a state-of-the-art missile defence system to Ukraine, as the country’s rightwing prime minister Giorgia Meloni seeks to affirm her solid support for Kyiv. In an interview, defence minister Guido Crosetto said Rome was committed to fulfilling Ukraine’s requests for weapons to shore up its defences.
Crosetto said that an upcoming package of Italian military aid, now being prepared by Meloni’s government, was “probably” going to include “weapons of defence against Russian missile attack”. He declined to offer specifics. But he did say that any decision on the air defences would be taken in conjunction with Paris.
Although the details have not been confirmed, Italy is expected to provide the missile launchers, while France would supply the rockets. France’s defence ministry announced this week that the two countries late last year ordered 700 Aster missiles which are used by this system.
“Italy will meet requests that have been made by Ukraine within the limits of its possibilities and the means that it has,” Crosetto said. “We will give everything we can give without jeopardising Italian defence. Ukraine and our allies will be happy about it.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London.
Updated
The British Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update says that recent days have seen “some of the most intense shelling of the conflict” along the Dniepr River.
“This has included continued shelling of Kherson city,” the ministry notes – adding that, outside the Donbas, Kherson is the city most consistently shelled in the conflict.
“Russia’s precise rationale for expending its strained ammunition stocks here is unclear. However, commanders are likely partially aiming to degrade civilian morale and to deter any Ukrainian counterattacks accross the river,” the ministry adds.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 1 February 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 1, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/b85G1tkLax
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/IkFbNiLOIe
Updated
Ukraine hopes to secure widespread international support for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Paris Olympics in 2024 due to Moscow’s invasion, the sports minister said on Tuesday.
Vadym Huttsait, 51, a former Olympic fencing champion, told Reuters the idea of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals was unacceptable.
“It is impossible for us at a time when the full-scale war is going on, when our athletes, our soldiers are defending our homeland,” he said in his Kyiv office, beside a wall with portraits of athletes killed in the war.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee said it was open to including Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals at the Games and opened a door to them competing in qualifiers, prompting an international campaign by Kyiv to keep them out.
Moscow said on Tuesday it would welcome any IOC moves to allow its athletes to compete in the Olympics. But hours later the IOC said it was standing by sanctions imposed against the countries over Russia’s invasion.
Updated
US preparing $2.2bn package
The US is readying a $2.2bn package of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time, and other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
Updated
Netanyahu open to mediator role ‘if asked’
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he would be willing to consider serving as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine if asked by both warring countries and the US.
“If asked by all relevant parties, I’ll certainly consider it, but I’m not pushing myself in,” Netanyahu told CNN in an interview. He added it would have to be the “right time and the right circumstances.”
Israel’s close ally the US would also need to ask because “you can’t have too many cooks in the kitchen”, he said.
Netanyahu said he was asked to be a mediator shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year but he declined because he was Israel’s opposition leader at the time, not the prime minister. “I have a rule: one prime minister at a time,” he said.
Netanyahu would not say who asked him to serve in the role but he said the request was “unofficial”.
Ukraine asked Netanyahu’s predecessor, Naftali Bennett, to act as a mediator and Bennett met in March with Russian president Vladimir Putin and also spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy but he was unable to broker a peace deal.
Updated
Zelenskiy signals ‘reforms’ ahead of EU summit in Kyiv
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said remarks on Tuesday night that his administration was planning to introduce changes as part of attempts to proceed with unusually rapid and complex negotiations to secure European Union membership, Reuters reports. Ukraine is holding “summit” talks with EU officials on Friday.
“What is very important is that we are preparing new reforms in Ukraine,” he said. “These are reforms which in many aspects will change the social, legal and political realities by making them more humane, more transparent and more effective.”
Zelenskiy’s latest dismissals included one deputy minister accused of taking a bribe and a second implicated in allegations that officials paid inflated prices for food for soldiers.
Welcome and Summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next while.
Our top stories this morning: Volodymyr Zelenskiy said remarks on Tuesday night that his administration was planning to introduce changes as part of attempts to proceed with unusually rapid and complex negotiations to secure European Union membership. Ukraine is holding “summit” talks with EU officials on Friday.
And Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he would be willing to consider serving as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine if asked by both warring countries and the United States.
Here are the other key recent developments:
The US is readying more than $2bn worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Zelenskiy said he was not finished shuffling the ranks of senior officials and that anyone failing to perform according to strict standards faced dismissal.
Some western allies appear to have cooled on the idea of supplying F-16 and other fighter jets to Ukraine over the past 24 hours. Joe Biden, the US president, when asked at the White House late on Monday if his country would provide F-16s, answered simply “no”, although he emphasised on Tuesday morning he would remain in discussions with Ukraine about its weapons requests.
The UK also said supplying western jets was not practical. “These are sophisticated pieces of equipment,” a Downing St spokesperson said. “We do not think it is practical to send those jets into Ukraine.” They added that prime minister Rishi Sunak supported accelerating support for Ukraine after completing a review that a “prolonged stalemate” in the conflict would benefit Russia.
Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser suggested on Monday that Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with the F-16 fighters. Andriy Yermak said Ukraine had received “positive signals” from Warsaw, although Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies.
Ukraine has said it will continue lobbying, arguing that the west had repeatedly said no to supplying weapons such as tanks before relenting over time. Oleksii Reznikov, the defence minister, said on a visit to Paris: “All types of assistance at the beginning went through the no stage. This means no as of today.”
Reznikov’s French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, reiterated there was “no taboo” on the supply of jets, echoing similar remarks made by Emmanuel Macron on Monday evening. France also said it would donate 12 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine after the summit between the two ministers. Lecornu said the pair discussed training Ukrainian pilots to fly French fighter jets but that no decision had yet been taken.
Ukraine expects to receive 120-140 tanks in a “first wave” of deliveries from a coalition of 12 countries, the foreign minister has said. Dmytro Kuleba added that the first tranche would include the German Leopard 2, the British Challenger 2 and the US M1 Abrams tanks, and that Ukraine was also “really counting” on supplies of French Leclerc tanks being agreed. The number of heavy tanks publicly pledged to Ukraine appears to be well short of the 321 that Vadym Omelchenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to France, stated last week.
Russian forces are preparing for a renewed attack on Ukraine imminently, most likely in the coming months, according to analysts. Citing western, Ukrainian and Russian sources, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War said Moscow was “preparing for an imminent offensive”, pointing to remarks by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said there were “no signs” that Vladimir Putin was “preparing for peace”.
Russian troops have probably developed “probing attacks” around the towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar into a more “concerted” assault, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update. “Russian commanders are likely aiming to develop a new axis of advance into Ukrainian-held Donetsk oblast, and to divert Ukrainian forces from the heavily contested Bakhmut sector. There is a realistic possibility that Russia will continue to make local gains in the sector.”
Military casualties on both sides in the war have totalled about 200,000, a western official has said, with a similar number killed and wounded on either side. A higher proportion of Russians had been killed, the official added, because they have been on the offensive, meaning that “they’ve suffered more fatalities than the Ukrainians on balance”.
