It’s coming up to 8pm in Kyiv, that’s it from me, Joe Middleton, and the Ukraine-Russia war blog on Saturday.
You can find a brief summary of all the top stories and updates from the ongoing conflict here.
The biggest story of the day was the backlash that Germany is facing from allies over its reluctance to supply Leopard 2 tanks to bolster Ukraine’s fighting capacity.
RT France, the French arm of the Russian state broadcaster, will shut down after its bank accounts were frozen as part of the most recent EU sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.
The channel’s director Xenia Fedoro said in a statement on Twitter:
After five years of harassment, the authorities in power have achieved their goal: the closure of RT France.
She said 123 employees were at risk of not being paid for January and could lose their jobs because of the account freeze -- part of the latest European Union sanctions against Russia.
The French finance ministry told AFP that the assets of the chain had been frozen in compliance with the most recent EU sanctions, and not on Paris’s initiative.
A broadcast ban for Russian media was introduced by the European Union shortly after the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
An appeal by RT France was thrown out by the European Court of Justice last July.
Les fonds de RT France sont gelés à la demande de la Direction Générale du Trésor, en raison du 9eme paquet de sanctions qui ne vise pas RT France. Notre chaîne ne peut plus poursuivre son activité. Voici notre communication. pic.twitter.com/aF3JUsqkLl
— Xenia Fedorova (@xfedorova) January 21, 2023
Germany is facing a backlash from allies over its reluctance to supply Leopard 2 tanks to bolster Ukraine’s fighting capacity in the nearly year-long war with Russia, AFP reports.
On Friday, 50 countries agreed to provide Kyiv with billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware, including armoured vehicles and munitions needed to push back Russian forces.
But the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, told reporters at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany that despite heightened expectations, “we still cannot say when a decision will be taken, and what the decision will be, when it comes to the Leopard tank”.
Ukraine on Saturday denounced the “global indecision” of its allies in providing heavy-duty modern tanks, saying “today’s indecision is killing more of our people”.
Read more: Germany faces backlash over reluctance to send tanks to Ukraine
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Summary
It’s just approaching 6pm in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, as the debate and unhappiness continues over the perceived reluctance of Germany to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that caution and slow decision making over whether to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is costing lives. Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday his frustration at “global indecision” over arms supply to Ukraine.
Baltic countries have told Germany to send the tanks “now” to Ukraine after perceived heel-dragging by the government in Berlin. The Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, tweeted they are “needed to stop Russian aggression”. The same tweet was put out by his counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania.
US president Joe Biden told reporters after an event on Friday night that “Ukraine is going to get all the help they need,” in response to a question about the tanks.
Germany has said it is doing a stocktake of its current tank numbers ahead of a possible decision, this comes in the days after a military summit at the Ramstein airbase in Germany aimed at continuing and encouraging support for the Ukrainian war effort.
A tearful Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended a memorial service on Saturday to commemorate seven senior Interior Ministry officials killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy and five others were killed when their helicopter plummeted amid fog into a nursery on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv. Another seven people were killed.
Agency France Presse reports the Russian army as saying that its troops have launched an offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine. Russian forces claimed to have taken “more advantageous lines and positions” during the assault.
A 17-year-old boy has been injured by Russian shelling of Sumy oblast, Ukraine.
Russian attacks on Friday killed one person in Kharkiv, three people in Donetsk and one person in Zaporizhzhia. Four were also injured in Kherson, according to Zelenskiy’s office.
The war in Ukraine is in a state of deadlock, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. In its daily intelligence update, it said there is a possibility of Russian advances around the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donbas region, but otherwise there is little movement.
Near Kremina in north-east Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s forces have made some small gains and defended against Russian counterattacks.
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A tearful Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended a memorial service on Saturday to commemorate seven senior Interior Ministry officials killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his deputy and five other high-ranking ministry officials were killed when their French-made Super Puma helicopter plummeted amid fog into a nursery on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv.
Another seven people were killed, including one child, in the crash. Officials are still investigating its cause.
The helicopter went down just days after at least 45 people were killed in a Russian missile attack that partially levelled a block of flats in the south-eastern city of Dnipro.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are fending off an unrelenting Russian onslaught in the east, where Moscow has expended massive resources for incremental advances 11 months into its full-scale invasion.
“The indescribable sadness is covering the soul,” Zelenskiy wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday. “Ukraine is losing its best sons and daughters every day.”
Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, paid their respects to the victims’ relatives inside the hulking Ukrainian House cultural centre in central Kyiv. A crowd of mourners snaked outside toward Independence square.
A 17-year-old boy has been injured by Russian shelling of Sumy oblast, Ukraine.
Governor Dymtro Zhyvytskyi said 10 shells had exploded near homes in the village of Studenok.
One house, where the boy was, was destroyed. He has been taken to hospital, Zhyvytskyi said.
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Russian army launches offensive in Zaporizhzhia region
AFP reports the Russian army as saying that its troops have launched an offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine.
Russian forces claimed to have taken “more advantageous lines and positions” during the assault.
The region has been the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks. Its governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said Russian forces had launched more than 160 shelling attacks overnight.
In a Telegram post he said 21 towns and cities had been targeted. One woman was killed and two other people were injured.
#BREAKING The Russian army said Saturday that its troops had launched an offensive in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting this week intensified after several months of an almost frozen front. pic.twitter.com/ycdmiSAgdj
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 21, 2023
#UPDATE On Saturday, the Russian army that its troops had launched an offensive in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region. In its daily report, Moscow's forces said they led "offensive operations" in the region and claimed to have "taken more advantageous lines and positions". pic.twitter.com/EpnLAVrLJ8
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 21, 2023
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Maria, 22, came to the UK from Ukraine in March last year shortly after the war broke out. She and her mother travelled using the Ukraine family scheme visa to stay with her aunt.
But when her aunt was evicted they became homeless, and Maria and her mother have been living in temporary accommodation in south London for five months.
“It’s horrible actually, the corridors are so old and so dirty,” Maria says. “The council haven’t been very helpful. The room is so small and it’s hard with two adults in one room.”
Maria is hoping to find private accommodation, but it is unaffordable when living on universal credit. “You have to pay a deposit, and have a lot of savings but we don’t have that right now,” she says.
Read more: Ukrainian families vent frustration at struggle to find own homes in UK
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More details have come out about Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian forces on Friday, according to Ukraine’s Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
The deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said on Telegram that one person was killed in Kharkiv, three people in Donetsk, and one person in Zaporizhzhia. Four were also injured in Kherson.
'Indecision is killing more of our people' says Zelenskiy advisor over tank delays
An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that caution and slow decision making over whether to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine is costing lives.
Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Saturday his frustration at “global indecision” over arms supply to Ukraine.
He said: “You’ll help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war except the defeat of [Russia].
“But today’s indecision is killing more of our people. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster.”
It comes as US president Joe Biden told reporters after an event on Friday night that “Ukraine is going to get all the help they need”, in response to a question about whether he supports Poland’s in sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
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Russian attacks in the Donetsk oblast on Friday killed three civilians and injured another four, according to the region’s governor.
Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Telegram that two were killed in Bakhmut, where heavy fighting has been taking place, and another in Zhelanne, a small town on the outskirts of Donetsk city. Both are in the east of Ukraine.
Baltic countries plead with Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
Latvia has told Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks “now” to Ukraine after perceived heel-dragging by the government in Berlin.
The Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, tweeted: “We, [Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania] foreign ministers, call on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now. This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany, as the leading European power, has special responsibility in this regard.”
The same tweet was put out by his counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania.
The Baltic states border Russia and fear that if Russia is successful in Ukraine, they could turn their attention towards the three countries that once formed part of the Soviet Union.
We, 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 Foreign Ministers, call on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now. This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly. Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard.
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 21, 2023
The plea from Rinkēvičs comes a day after a military summit at the Ramstein airbase in Germany failed to get a pledge from the German government to send tanks.
On Friday they inched closer, ordering a review of Leopard 2 stocks, but the defence minister, Boris Pistorious, said: “We have to balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that, just like that,” Associated Press reported.
There has been a cautious approach from Olaf Scholz’s government since the outbreak of war, although it has gone further than in previous conflicts and changed its longstanding political culture, which has been in place since the second world war.
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Russian casualty numbers may have hit 188,000 since their invasion of Ukraine, according to US estimates, it has been reported.
The figure was allegedly revealed to the Sun newspaper at a summit in Germany aimed at encouraging support for Ukraine.
Reporters attributed the figures to “defence sources”, after the US general Mark Milley said Russia had suffered “a tremendous amount of casualties … significantly well over 100,000”.
It is thought to include both Russian forces, and the Wagner mercenary group which is working for Russia.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s own count put the figure at 120,160 with another 860 killed on Friday.
The fighting had also taken out another 15 armoured personnel vehicles and five tactical drones.
The totals have not been verified independently, and differ from Russia’s own count, which in turn is thought to underplay losses.
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Both sides massing 'significant forces' in Zaporizhzhia, says UK
The war in Ukraine is in a state of deadlock, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In its daily intelligence update, it said there is a possibility of Russian advances around the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donbas region, but otherwise there is little movement.
Russian and Wagner proxy forces have consolidated in the town of Soledar after capturing it earlier this week.
Further south in Zaporizhzhia, both sides have massed “significant forces”, with artillery exchanges and skirmishes taking place, but have avoided any large-scale offensive effort.
Near Kremina in north-east Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s forces have made some small gains and defended against Russian counter-attacks.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 21 January 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 21, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/4UqLNksneU
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/fUXFhi6VBW
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A former US Navy Seal has been killed this week in Ukraine, American officials said on Friday. They said he was not fighting in an official capacity.
Daniel W Swift, who was a 1st class petty officer, was injured in Dnipro and died of his wounds on Wednesday.
No other details were available, including whether Swift’s body has been taken out of Ukraine.
The navy said he deserted his post in San Diego, California, in March 2019. “We cannot speculate as to why the former sailor was in Ukraine,” the navy said.
At least five other Americans are known to have died fighting in Ukraine, according to state department statements and reports from individual families.
Swift joined the navy in 2005 and was assigned to a Seal unit in 2007. He voluntarily left the service in January 2014 but rejoined in 2015.
The state department declined to address Swift’s death specifically but said in a statement that it could confirm the recent death of a US citizen in Ukraine.
“We are in touch with his family and providing all possible consular assistance,” the department said.
Russia has claimed to have captured a village in eastern Ukraine as part of its intense, months-long push toward the city of Bakhmut, the Associated Press reports.
Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the village of Klishchiivka, which is located 9km south of Bakhmut, had been “liberated”.
The claim couldn’t be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
Taking Klishchiivka would be only a minor breakthrough, but the Kremlin is hungry for good news from the battlefield after months of setbacks.
Bakhmut, on the other hand, would be a bigger prize. It could allow Russia to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines in the east and threaten other Ukrainian-held cities in the surrounding Donestk region.
However, US officials have begun to nudge the Ukrainians to shift focus away from Bakhmut and focus on preparation for an offensive in the south, according to an official familiar with the views of President Joe Biden’s administration.
The official said administration officials have conveyed that they believe there is a high potential for the Russians to eventually push Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the war’s most intense fighting to date.
Administration officials believe that significant forces will be needed for an expected Ukrainian offensive in the south, but many of those forces are currently embroiled in Bakhmut.
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Ukrainians to train on Leopard 2s in Poland, says minister
Ukrainian forces will train on Leopard 2 battle tanks in Poland, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has been quoted as saying, despite allies’ failure to reach an agreement to supply the German-made vehicles to Kyiv.
Reznikov spoke to Ukrainian-language Voice of America after attending a meeting at the Ramstein US airbase in Germany, where Ukraine’s partners did not take a decision on handing over the tanks. Germany, which makes the Leopard tanks, would have to approve any transfer.
Reznikov described the training development as a breakthrough, attributing the success to efforts by Poland.
“We will start with this and then we will move further,” Voice of America quoted him as saying.
Reznikov, echoing earlier comments by Ukrainian officials, said he hoped Germany will reach a decision on the tanks.
“I see this in an optimistic way,” he added. “Because the first step has been taken – we will start training missions on the Leopard 2.”
Earlier Reznikov had tweeted his gratitude to the German government and people for their military aid and hospitality.
Next to a photograph of himself with the new German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, he wrote: “We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued.”
Congratulated 🇩🇪 DefMin Boris Pistorius @BMVg_Bundeswehr on the appointment to his new position.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) January 20, 2023
We had a frank discussion on Leopards 2. To be continued.
I also thanked the 🇩🇪 Government and the 🇩🇪 people for their military assistance to 🇺🇦 and hospitality at #Ramstein 8 pic.twitter.com/pOnWhHuGos
Welcome
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Our top story this morning: Ukrainian forces will train on Leopard 2 battle tanks in Poland, according to Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, despite allies’ failure to reach an agreement to supply the German-made vehicles to Kyiv. Reznikov described the training development as a breakthrough, attributing the success to efforts by Warsaw. More on that shortly.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Russia claimed to have captured of a village in eastern Ukraine as part of its months-long push towards the city of Bakhmut. Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Klishchiivka, 9km south of Bakhmut, had been “liberated”. The claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment. Russian proxy forces in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic earlier said they had taken control of Klishchiivka.
US officials have begun to nudge the Ukrainians to shift focus away from Bakhmut and focus on preparation for an offensive in the south. Joe Biden’s administration reportedly believes there is a high potential for the Russians to eventually push Ukrainian forces out of the hotly contested city, which has seen some of the war’s most intense fighting to date. Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, is also reportedly alarmed by the losses the Ukrainian army is taking in Bakhmut.
Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said he did not believe it was realistic to expect Ukraine to push Russian troops out of its internationally recognised territory in 2023. “From a military standpoint, I still maintain that from this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine,” he said at a press conference at the Ramstein US air force base in Germany.
Germany has declined to take a decision on whether to give Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at a special international summit held at Ramstein. It had been hoped in Europe and the US that Germany would at least allow Leopards owned by countries such as Poland and Finland to be re-exported, but despite days of pleading, Berlin’s newly appointed defence minister said no final decision had been taken.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pleaded with Germany and western allies to send their battle tanks to Kyiv at the opening of the meeting in Ramstein. Urgent action was necessary, the Ukrainian leader said, because “Russia is concentrating its forces, last forces, trying to convince everyone that hatred can be stronger than the world”.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the group of Kyiv-supporting defence ministers were focused on “making sure that Ukraine has the capability that it needs to be successful right now”. Speaking after the Ramstein airbase meeting, Austin described Germany as a “reliable ally”.
The Kremlin said supplying additional tanks to Kyiv would not “fundamentally change anything”. Russia’s relationship with the US was at its “lowest point historically”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said, with “no hope” of bilateral relations improving “in the foreseeable future”.
A former US navy Seal has been killed in Ukraine, American officials said on Friday. Daniel W Swift, a 1st class petty officer who deserted his post in San Diego in March 2019, was injured in Dnipro and died of his wounds on Wednesday. Officials said he was not fighting in an official capacity. The navy said it “cannot speculate as to why the former sailor was in Ukraine”.
EU countries are reportedly working on a 10th round of Russia-related sanctions. The next package of sanctions “will be somewhere around” the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, one senior diplomat told Reuters. EU officials are also seeking approval from the ministers for a seventh tranche of military aid for Ukraine worth €500m.
The US will impose additional sanctions against the Wagner Group, the White House national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, has said. The US treasury department plans to designate Wagner as a significant transnational criminal organisation, which would freeze any assets the group has in the US and prohibit Americans from providing Wagner with funds, goods or services.
Italian authorities are on the hunt for a Russian oligarch after two of his luxury yachts that were seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port in Sardinia. The yachts, belonging to Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a mineral fertiliser company, went missing from the Sardinian port of Olbia within weeks of each other last summer.
