This blog is now closed. You can catch up on the latest Ukraine war coverage here.
Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
A senior Pentagon official has said the US did not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near term and described the frontlines of the war as a “grinding slog”. Colin Kahl, the US undersecretary of defence for policy, told a House of Representatives hearing: “I do not think that there’s anything I see that suggests the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so.”
A military drone attempted to strike a gas facility in the Moscow region, according to a senior Russian official, and photos of the wreckage suggested it was Ukrainian-made, indicating a rare attempted strike hundreds of miles behind Russian lines. The alleged attack was one of several reports of successful or attempted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes in at least four regions of Russia.
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg temporarily suspended all flights earlier today amid unconfirmed media reports of an unidentified object such as a drone being seen nearby. Some flights were diverted back to Moscow while the airport was shut for about an hour. Russia’s defence ministry later announced there had been a training exercise between air defences and civilian aviation authorities.
Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said. The fire in the Russian town of Tuapse, Krasnador, was reported at 2.30am local time and spread to an area of about 200 sq metres before it was extinguished. “The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” said Sergei Boyko, who leads the local administration.
The Russian defence ministry has stated that it foiled two attempted Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil using drones overnight. It said: “28 February, at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar territory and the Republic of Adygea.” The claims have not been independently verified.
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday, as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud. The Ukrainian president said in his nightly address: “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defence.” Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
Vladimir Putin has told Russia’s FSB security service to step up its intelligence activity and stop “sabotage groups” entering the country. In a speech to FSB officials, the Russian leader instructed the agency to strengthen its activity to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and its western allies. He also admitted that FSB members had been killed in Ukraine.
Russia is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said, but he insisted Moscow would “never compromise” on what he described as new “territorial realities”. Speaking to reporters during a regular briefing, Peskov said Moscow would not renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Putin annexed in September.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reiterated the Biden administration’s concern that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Speaking after a meeting with leaders in the Kazakh capital, Astana, Blinken warned that Beijing would face “implications and consequences” if it decided to provide such support.
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, the US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing yesterday. China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”, he added.
A hacking attack caused some Russian regional broadcasters to put out a false warning urging people to take shelter from an incoming missile attack, the emergencies ministry said. “As a result of the hacking of servers of radio stations and TV channels, in some regions of the country information about the announcement of an air alert was broadcast. This information is false and does not correspond to reality.” A similar attack caused commercial radio stations in some Russian regions to send air alarm messages on Wednesday last week.
Ukraine will become a Nato member in the “long term”, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. The Nato chief stressed that the immediate priority was Ukraine remaining an independent country in the face of the Russian invasion. He said Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance were a “top priority” and that the Nordic countries have had the “quickest accession process in Nato’s modern history”.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of the Putin, has arrived in Beijing for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Updated
Putin signs law formally suspending New Start nuclear arms treaty participation
Vladimir Putin has formally signed a law suspending Russia’s participation in New Start, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the US, state media reported.
The text of the law’s explanatory note read:
The Russian Federation suspends the treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on measures for the further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms, signed in Prague on April 8 2010.
Russian state-run Tass news agency reported that the document was published today, and the law came into force as of the moment of its official publication.
Putin announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New Start, earlier this month.
“They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and claim our nuclear facilities,” said Putin in a speech before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In this regard, I am forced to state that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty.
Updated
Finland has begun construction of a 200km fence on the Russian border, the country’s border guard has announced.
Terrain work would begin today “with forest clearance and will proceed in such a way that road construction and fence installation can be started in March”, the Finnish border guard said in a statement.
The 3km pilot project at the border crossing near Imatra is expected to be completed by the end of June, it added. Construction of a further 70km, mainly in southeastern Finland, will take place between 2023 and 2025.
The fence will be more than 3 metres tall with barbed wire at the top, and particularly sensitive areas will be equipped with night vision cameras, lights and loudspeakers.
Currently, Finland’s borders are secured primarily by light wooden fences, mainly designed to stop livestock.
Although the Finland-Russia border has “worked well” in the past, Brig Gen Jari Tolppanen told AFP in November that the war in Ukraine had changed the security situation “fundamentally” and that a border fence was “indispensable” to stop large-scale illegal entries from Russian territory.
Updated
The head of the UN’s nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, has expressed “concern” about Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, citing the facility’s “fragile” power situation, delays in staff rotations, an increased security presence onsite and nearby fighting.
In a statement, the International Atomic Energy chief said:
The sound of artillery fire near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and the temporary loss of its only remaining back-up power line have again underlined persistent nuclear safety and security risks during the military conflict in the country.
IAEA experts who have been at the plant since early January reported hearing about 20 “detonations” yesterday afternoon, “apparently in the vicinity of the plant, which is located on the frontline of an active combat area”.
Grossi added:
This is a concerning trend that shows the urgency and importance of establishing a nuclear safety and security protection zone at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, was captured by Russian forces in March 2022, soon after their invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
The Chinese satellite firm Spacety provided satellite images to the Russian mercenary Wagner group, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink, told a congressional hearing today.
Spacety was added to a US trade blacklist earlier this month for allegedly supporting the Russian military, along with another Chinese satellite company, China HEAD Aerospace Technology Co.
Spacety, which was also put under sanctions by the US treasury department in January, at the time said it had complied with international sanctions against Russia.
Updated
US does not expect significant Russian gains in the next year, says Pentagon official
A senior Pentagon official has said the US did not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near term and described the frontlines of the war as a “grinding slog”.
Colin Kahl, the US undersecretary of defence for policy, told a House of Representatives hearing today:
You may see small portions of territory change hands in the coming weeks and months. I do not think that there’s anything I see that suggests the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so.
Kahl was asked repeatedly by US lawmakers about sending the jets to Ukraine, Reuters reports. He replied:
It is a priority for the Ukrainians, but it is not one of their top three priorities.
Updated
Belarus president Lukashenko arrives in China
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has arrived in Beijing for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Updated
Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow
A military drone attempted to strike a gas facility in the Moscow region, according to a senior Russian official, and photos of the wreckage suggested it was Ukrainian-made, indicating a rare attempt to strike hundreds of miles behind Russian lines.
The alleged attack was one of several reports of successful or attempted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes in at least four regions of Russia.
The Moscow region governor, Andrei Vorobyov, on Monday confirmed a UAV crash-landed in the village of Gubastovo near the capital and was apparently aiming for a “civilian infrastructure site”.
The target was said to be a Gazprom gas compression station in the Moscow suburbs, just over 50 miles south-east of the Kremlin. Photographs of the drone posted to social media indicate it was a Ukrainian-made UJ-22.
Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.
The UAV apparently clipped trees just before its target and landed 10 metres from the outer fence of the gas compression station, a Gazprom representative confirmed to Russian media.
Ukrjet, the producer of the UJ-22, claims the drone can fly 500 miles (800km) and is armed with an interchangeable payload.
The strike was among others launched on Tuesday. If they were launched from Ukrainian territory, then it would make them some of the most ambitious since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion last February.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reiterated the Biden administration’s concern that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Speaking after a meeting with leaders in the Kazakh capital, Astana, Blinken warned that Beijing would face “implications and consequences” if it decided to provide such support.
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing yesterday. China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”, he added.
Vladimir Putin has told Russia’s FSB security service to step up its intelligence activity and stop “sabotage groups” entering the country. In a speech to FSB officials, the Russian leader instructed the agency to strengthen its activity to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and its western allies. He also admitted that FSB members had been killed in Ukraine.
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg temporarily suspended all flights earlier today amid unconfirmed media reports of an unidentified object such as a drone being seen nearby. Some flights were diverted back to Moscow while the airport was shut for about an hour. Russia’s defence ministry later announced there had been a training exercise between air defences and civilian aviation authorities.
Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said. The fire in the Russian town of Tuapse, Krasnador, was reported at 2.30am local time and spread to an area of about 200 sq metres before it was extinguished. “The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” said Sergei Boyko, who leads the local administration.
The Russian defence ministry has stated that it foiled two attempted Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil using drones overnight. It said: “28 February, at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar territory and the Republic of Adygea.” The claims have not been independently verified.
A drone that was downed in the Moscow region had probably been intended to attack civil infrastructure, according to the region’s governor. The drone was downed earlier today near a gas distribution station close to the city of Kolomna, 70 miles (110km) south-east of Moscow, the Russian state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported, citing local emergency services.
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud. The Ukrainian president said in his nightly address: “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defence.” Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
Russia is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said, but he insisted Moscow would “never compromise” on what he described as new “territorial realities”. Speaking to reporters during a regular briefing, Peskov said Moscow would not renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Vladimir Putin annexed in September.
A hacking attack caused some Russian regional broadcasters to put out a false warning urging people to take shelter from an incoming missile attack, the emergencies ministry said. “As a result of the hacking of servers of radio stations and TV channels, in some regions of the country information about the announcement of an air alert was broadcast. This information is false and does not correspond to reality.” A similar attack caused commercial radio stations in some Russian regions to send air alarm messages on Wednesday last week.
Ukraine will become a Nato member in the “long term”, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. The Nato chief stressed that the immediate priority was Ukraine remaining an independent country in the face of the Russian invasion. He said Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance were a “top priority” and that the Nordic countries have had the “quickest accession process in Nato’s modern history”.
The loss of an A-50 Mainstay plane would be significant as it is critical to Russian air operations in “providing an air battlespace picture”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in response to earlier claims from Belarusian anti-war partisans to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft on Sunday. BYPOL, the Belarusian partisan organisation, said it had used drones to strike the Machulishchy airfield, 12km from Minsk, severely damaging a Beriev A-50 airborne early-warning and control aircraft (Awacs).
Poland will cut its oil imports from Russia to “close to zero” in February and March, the country’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said. His remarks came after Poland’s largest oil company, PKN Orlen, said Russia had unexpectedly halted supplies of oil to Poland via the northern leg of the Druzhba pipeline.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’m here to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reiterated the Biden administration’s concern that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Speaking after a meeting with leaders in the Kazakh capital, Astana, Blinken warned that Beijing would face “implications and consequences” if it decided to provide such support. He said:
We will not hesitate, for example, to target Chinese companies or individuals that violate our sanctions, or otherwise engage in supporting the Russian war effort.
He said he had raised the issue directly with the top Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi, last week “because of concern we have based on information that we have, that China is considering moving beyond the non-lethal support that some of its companies have been providing to actually lethal material support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine”.
He added:
China can’t have it both ways when it comes to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. It can’t be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand, while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started with the other hand.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that four fires have broken out in Kherson today as a result of Russian shelling. There are no casualties reported.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from the besieged frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Updated
Vladimir Putin, speaking at an expanded board meeting of Russia’s FSB service, also admitted that FSB members had been killed in Ukraine.
Putin said:
Unfortunately, there are losses in our ranks.
He was quoted by the state-run Ria Novosti news agency as saying:
The leadership of the FSB must do everything to additionally support the families of our fallen comrades. We will always remember their heroism and courage.
Putin added that “2022 was a special year for the whole country and for your service”, and said FSB units were “directly involved” in what he described as Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. He said:
I would like to thank the management and all employees of the department, especially those who acted at the forefront, in the liberated territories, in the frontline zone and, I would add, behind enemy lines. I want to thank you for this work, dear comrades.
Updated
Putin orders security agency to step up counter-intelligence against west
Vladimir Putin has told Russia’s FSB security service to step up its intelligence activity and stop “sabotage groups” entering the country.
In a speech to FSB officials, reported by Reuters, the Russian leader instructed the agency to strengthen its activity to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and its western allies.
He ordered officials to step up the protection of key Russian infrastructure, and prevent any attempts by western security services to revive what he called “terrorist cells” on Russian territory.
He said:
Western intelligence services have traditionally always been actively working in Russia, and now they have thrown additional personnel, technical and other resources against us. We need to respond accordingly.
He said the FSB had to prevent illegal weapons flows into Russia, and to strengthen security in four regions of Ukraine that he annexed last year, a move that has not been recognised by most UN countries.
Updated
Oleh Bendyk showed off a video taken in Ukraine’s eastern forests.
It shows a group of soldiers from Bendyk’s 103rd brigade sheltering in a sandy trench. Around them a battle rages. There are explosions, booms, and the rattle of small arms fire. A grad missile crashes down among the pine trees, in a large orange fireball.
“Some bastards are firing at us from over there. But we can’t see who they are because of the forest,” a soldier says. He adds:
A Grad now! Do you see how we get hit? It’s been like this since 7am. And now it’s 11am. That’s how it fucking is, folks!
Bendyk and his fellow Ukrainian soldiers have been holding off a surging Russian offensive west of Kreminna, a city that Moscow captured last year. Further along the same front, Ukrainian soldiers are doggedly defending the town of Bakhmut, once home to 70,000 people. Fighting has gone on there for months.
In his latest video address on Monday Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that the situation was “constantly becoming more difficult”. Bakhmut was “extremely tense”, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, confirmed. The “most prepared assault units” from the Wagner mercenary group were trying to break through and surround the city, he said.
The Russian army and Wagner have been making incremental gains in the area. In January they took the nearby town of Soledar. So far they have been unable to capture the ruined centre of Bakhmut, despite multiple attempts.
About half of Donetsk oblast in the Donbas region remains under Kyiv’s control, a year after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia’s president has ordered his military to seize all of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces by the end of March. A decisive Russian offensive has yet to happen.
“That was an ordinary day,” Bendyk said of the hellish forest video, shot in late January.
Some days are a lot worse, when our guys get injured or killed. The Russians have a lot of artillery. They go quadrant by quadrant. We need more counter-battery fire.
Poland will cut its oil imports from Russia to “close to zero” n February and March, the country’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said.
Morawiecki said:
At the beginning of this year imports from Russia decreased to 10% ... and February-March, from information I get from Orlen, it will be 0%, so a number close to zero.
His remarks came after Poland’s largest oil company, PKN Orlen, said Russia had unexpectedly halted supplies of oil to Poland via the northern leg of the Druzhba pipeline.
Updated
Ukraine “has always been Europe, Ukraine will always be Europe,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted on Twitter.
The Ukrainian president said it was a year ago, on the fifth day of Russia’s invasion of his country, that Kyiv applied to join the EU.
This year “is the time to decide on the launch of membership negotiations”, he said. He added:
It’s Ukraine that has brought the EU together like never before. It’s Ukraine that’s defending European values for generations to come. It’s Ukraine where Europe becomes whole, free, and at peace.
Together in struggle, together in victory.
🇺🇦 has always been Europe, 🇺🇦 will always be Europe. We've already guaranteed it. A year ago, on the 5th day of the full-scale war, 🇺🇦 applied to join the European Union and secured the candidate status. This year is the time to decide on the launch of membership negotiations.1/2
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 28, 2023
Updated
Nato chief says Ukraine will become member in the 'long term'
Ukraine will become a Nato member in the “long term”, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said.
The Nato chief stressed that the immediate priority was Ukraine remaining an independent country in the face of the Russian invasion.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, in Helsinki, Stoltenberg said:
Nato allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective.
He said Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance were a “top priority” and that the Nordic countries have had the “quickest accession process in Nato’s modern history”.
Stoltenberg’s remarks came a day after Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said talks with Helsinki and Stockholm over their Nato membership bids would resume on 9 March.
The US and other Nato member countries are hoping Finland and Sweden will become members at a Nato summit due to held on 11 July in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.
Updated
German-made Leopard tanks have been spotted near the besieged town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, according to an adviser to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Speaking to state broadcaster Russia 1, Yan Gagin said:
There have been claims that Leopards have appeared near Artemovsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut].
He added that there was “no need to sensationalise” the presence of the Leopard tanks near the frontline. He said:
Given the muddy weather now, it will make it difficult for heavy vehicles like the Leopard to move. [It] is the same armoured target as all the others.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wager group, on Sunday said there was information that Leopard tanks had arrived at Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut, but that there had not yet been “encounters” with the tanks on the battlefield.
Updated
A drone that was downed in the Moscow region had probably been intended to attack civil infrastructure, according to the region’s governor.
The drone was downed earlier today near a gas distribution station close to the city of Kolomna, 110km (70 miles) south-east of Moscow, the Russian state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported, citing local emergency services.
There was no damage to any infrastructure and no casualties, the governor said.
Russia’s defence ministry earlier said it had foiled two attempted Ukrainian drone attacks on two southern Russian regions overnight.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Here are some images we have received from the news wires of Antony Blinken’s visit to Kazakhstan to meet top diplomats from all five former Soviet republics after the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US secretary of state is meeting the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Astana today before travelling on to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Blinken will stress the US “commitment to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of central Asian countries”, the state department said in a statement that mirrored the wording it has been using to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Updated
Russia will ‘never compromise’ on annexed Ukrainian regions, says Kremlin
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said that Russia is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, but insisted Moscow would “never compromise” on what he described as new “territorial realities”.
Speaking to reporters during a regular briefing, Peskov said Moscow would not renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Vladimir Putin annexed in September.
The Russian president signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s annexation of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions after Kremlin-orchestrated fake referendums that Ukraine and the west consider illegal.
Peskov said:
There are certain realities that have already become an internal factor. I mean the new territories. The constitution of the Russian Federation exists, and cannot be ignored. Russia will never be able to compromise on this. These are important realities.
He said Moscow was open to talks if Kyiv accepted its control over those regions. Russian forces do not fully control any of the four regions.
Peskov added:
With a favourable state of affairs and the appropriate attitude from the Ukrainians, this can be resolved at the negotiating table. But the main thing is to achieve our goals.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the Russia-Ukraine war live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg temporarily suspended all flights on Tuesday amid unconfirmed media reports of an unidentified object such as a drone being seen nearby. Some flights were diverted back to Moscow while the airport was shut for about an hour. Russia’s ministry of defence later announced there had been a training exercise between air defences and civilian aviation authorities.
Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday. The fire in the Russian town of Tuapse, Krasnador, was reported at 2.30am local time and spread to an area of about 200 sq metres before it was extinguished. “The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” said Sergei Boyko, who leads the local administration.
The Russian ministry of defence has stated that it foiled two attempted Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil using drones overnight. It said: “28 February, at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar territory and the Republic of Adygea.”
A hacking attack caused some Russian regional broadcasters to put out a false warning on Tuesday urging people to take shelter from an incoming missile attack, the emergencies ministry said. “As a result of the hacking of servers of radio stations and TV channels, in some regions of the country information about the announcement of an air alert was broadcast. This information is false and does not correspond to reality.” A similar attack caused commercial radio stations in some Russian regions to send air alarm messages on Wednesday last week.
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud. “In the Bakhmut sector, the situation is constantly becoming more difficult,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address. “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defence.” Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
The loss of an A-50 Mainstay would be significant as it is critical to Russian air operations for “providing an air battlespace picture”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in response to earlier claims from Belarusian anti-war partisans to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft on Sunday.
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing on Monday. China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”, he added.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Tuesday pledged support for Kazakhstan’s independence on a trip to boost influence in central Asia.
The airline carrier Wizz Air has announced it will suspend flights to Moldova’s capital, Chișinău, from 14 March because of concerns about the safety of its airspace. In a statement, the company said it had taken the “difficult but responsible” decision to suspend flights because of the “high, but not imminent” risk in Moldova’s airspace.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back with you later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you shortly to continue our live coverage.
Updated
Russia says it foiled two attempted attacks by drones overnight
The Russian ministry of defence has stated that it foiled two attempted Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil using drones overnight. It said:
28 February, at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar territory and the Republic of Adygea.
The UAVs were suppressed by the electronic warfare units of the Russian Federation armed forces. Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight path. One UAV fell in a field, another UAV, deviating from the trajectory, did not harm the attacked civilian infrastructure facility.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Russia claims St Petersburg airspace briefly closed due to ‘air defence exercise’
Russian news sources including Tass are carrying a statement from the Russian ministry of defence which claims that the closure of airspace around St Petersburg this morning was part of a training exercise. Tass quotes a ministry statement saying:
On 28 February, the duty forces of the western zone of responsibility for air defence conducted a training session on interaction with civilian air traffic control authorities. During the training, the duty air defence forces worked out the issues of detecting, intercepting and identifying the alleged target of the intruder, as well as interacting with emergency services and law enforcement agencies in the event of an emergency situation.
Unverified media reports in Russia had earlier claimed that the closure was due to an unidentified object being spotted near the airport.
Updated
Oleksiy Sorokin of the Kyiv Independent points out how far away the oil depot in Tuapse is from Ukraine’s territory. [See 8.48 GMT]
The oil depot that caught fire in Tuapse, Russia, is 690km southeast from closest Ukraine-controlled territory.
— Oleksiy Sorokin (@mrsorokaa) February 28, 2023
Russians say it was attacked by drones.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted to the Telegram messaging app to celebrate the anniversary of Ukraine applying to become a member of the European Union. He writes:
A year ago, on the fifth day of the full-scale war, we applied for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. We obtained the candidacy. This year is the time to decide on the launch of membership negotiations.
It is with Ukraine that the majestic project of a peaceful, free and united Europe will be complete. We are together in the struggle, and therefore we will be together in victory. Long live Europe. Long live freedom.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was kept fully informed about a temporary airspace ban over the city of St Petersburg on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, but it declined to comment further on what caused the hour-long disruption to flights, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Wikimedia Foundation was fined 2m roubles (£22k) in Russia on Tuesday over what authorities said was its failure to remove “fake information” about Russia’s actions in Ukraine from the Wikipedia website, Reuters reports.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has posted on Telegram to say that one person was killed and a private residential building was destroyed by shelling this morning in Kherson.
Updated
A hacking attack caused some Russian regional broadcasters to put out a false warning on Tuesday urging people to take shelter from an incoming missile attack, the emergencies ministry has said.
“As a result of the hacking of servers of radio stations and TV channels, in some regions of the country information about the announcement of an air alert was broadcast,” Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement. “This information is false and does not correspond to reality.”
Among the regions where the fake messages were broadcast was Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move not widely internationally recognised.
On regional TV an image was shown with a symbol of a man running for cover from incoming missiles and a message reading “Everybody to the shelter, now,” according to images posted on social media.
A similar attack caused commercial radio stations in some Russian regions to send air alarm messages last Wednesday.
Updated
Tass reports that flights at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg have been resumed. Flights were stopped after an unknown object was reportedly spotted flying near it.
Russia suspends flights and closes airspace around St Petersburg
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg has temporarily suspended all flights on Tuesday, the city government has said, amid unconfirmed Russian media reports of an unidentified object, such as a drone, above the city.
Reuters reports that the government of Russia’s second city said on its official Telegram channel that it had halted all flights at the airport until noon local time (9am GMT). It did not provide a reason for the suspension.
The state-run Tass news agency said airspace within a 200km (124-mile) radius of Pulkovo had been closed until 1.20pm local time (10.20 GMT), citing an unnamed source.
An unconfirmed media report from online Russian news outlet Baza said an unidentified object had been spotted in the sky and that fighter jets had been dispatched to investigate.
Updated
Overnight fire extinguished at southern Russian oil depot after drone spotted – reports
Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia overnight after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday.
The fire in the Russian town of Tuapse was reported at 2.30am local time (23.30pm Monday GMT) and spread to an area of about 200 sq metres before it was extinguished, Reuters notes a local official said.
“The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” said Sergei Boyko, who leads the local administration.
Tuapse lies on Russia’s southern coast, about 240 km (149 miles) south-east of the Crimean peninsula.
Moscow has reported sporadic incidents at oil and gas infrastructure in regions near Ukraine since the war started a year ago. Russian officials have often blamed Kyiv for sending drones into Russian territory.
Tass reports that the airspace within a radius of 200km (124 miles) of St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport is closed until 10.20am GMT (1.20pm local time).
Updated
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg has now temporarily suspended all flights on Tuesday, the city government said on its Telegram channel. Reuters reports that it did not provide a reason. The stoppage will last until 9am GMT (noon local time).
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There are also unconfirmed reports on social media that a fire broke out overnight at the oil refinery in Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar region. Tuapse sits near the coast of the Black Sea, south of Crimea and north of Sochi. The unconfirmed speculation is that it was struck by a drone attack. Images purportedly from the scene show a pillar of smoke rising into the air, and a fire on the grounds of the refinery.
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Reuters is reporting that a number of Russian domestic flights to St Petersburg were turned back to their departure points on Tuesday, according to the Flight Radar flight-tracking website.
At least five flights en route from the capital, Moscow, to St Petersburg had been turned back towards Moscow as of 8am GMT (11am local time), after initially circling in the air, flight paths on Flight Radar showed.
It was not immediately clear why, though Reuters said that an unconfirmed media report from online Russian news outlet Baza claimed an unidentified object had been spotted in the sky and that fighter jets had been dispatched to investigate.
Updated
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne has offered this round-up of overnight events on its Telegram channel, writing:
At night, Russian troops shelled Sviatohirsk in Donetsk region – they hit a part of the state emergency service. A rescuer was killed and four others were injured. Also at night, the Russian army shelled Zelenivka near Kherson, no people were injured.
Over the past 24 hours, one person was killed and nine others were injured in the shelling by the Russian army in Donetsk region. Three people were injured in the Kherson region.
Russian troops continue to advance in five directions. In the last day, defence forces repelled more than 60 attacks, as well as destroyed 12 drones and struck four areas where the Russian army was concentrated.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The regional government in Sumy, in Ukraine’s north-east, recorded 36 strikes on its territory in overnight Russian shelling, according to reports from Ukraine’s state broadcaster, Suspilne.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Tuesday pledged support for Kazakhstan’s independence on a trip to boost influence in central Asia, which has been rattled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“As you know well, the US strongly supports Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, its independence, its territorial integrity,” Blinken said as he met his Kazakh counterpart.
“Sometimes we just say those words and they actually have no meaning. And of course, in this particular time, they have even more resonance than usual,” Blinken said, referring to Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
Blinken said the US was “determined to make even stronger” its relationship with Kazakhstan.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London from my colleague Samantha Lock in Sydney. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Updated
The loss of an A-50 Mainstay would be significant as it is critical to Russian air operations for “providing an air battlespace picture”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in response to earlier claims from Belarusian anti-war partisans to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft on Sunday.
BYPOL, the Belarusian partisan organisation, said it had used drones to strike the Machulishchy airfield 12km from Minsk, severely damaging a Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft (Awacs).
Attribution and damage has not been officially corroborated. However, the loss of an A-50 Mainstay would be significant as it is critical to Russian air operations for providing an air battlespace picture,” the latest British intelligence report reads.
This will likely leave 6 operational A-50s in service, further constraining Russian air operations.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 28 February 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 28, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence: https://t.co/v3cDaShXOA
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Sa5TUFHvxF
Updated
The commander of Ukrainian ground forces, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, says the situation around the besieged town of Bakhmut is “extremely tense”.
Despite significant losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defences of our troops and surround the city,” Syrskyi was quoted as saying on the Ukraine’s media military centre Telegram messaging platform on Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence has brushed aside claims that China is considering furnishing arms to Russia, telling US media that he saw no “signs that such things are even being discussed”.
Senior US officials voiced concerns that they were “confident” China was considering providing lethal equipment to Moscow.
But when asked about the possibility in an interview with Voice of America published on Monday, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said:
I do not share this opinion …
As of now, I do not think that China will agree to the transfer of weapons to Russia. I do not see any signs that such things are even being discussed.”
Earlier this month, US secretary of state Antony Blinken aired Washington’s concerns about potential arms shipments in a tense meeting with his Chinese counterpart, and the director of the CIA said on Sunday that he believed Beijing was still weighing the possibility.
Asked specifically about the US assessment, Budanov said: “I am the head of intelligence and I rely, with all due respect, not on the opinions of individual people, but only on facts. I do not see such facts.”
China has more sophisticated technology and resources at its disposal to possibly provide to Russian forces in Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing on Monday.
Price noted the impact of the provision of Iranian-produced drones, or UAVs, has had in Ukraine in targeting civilian sites and energy infrastructure but warned the consequences of Chinese involvement could be “potentially dire and tragic”.
According to a transcript of the press briefing published by the US department of state, Price said:
Now, of course the PRC has at its disposal technology and resources that Iran doesn’t have, and so one could imagine the implications of the provision of significant amounts of lethal assistance. It’s for that reason that we don’t want to see it happen. We’re continuing to warn very clearly about the consequences that would befall Beijing should it proceed down this path.
Ultimately, Beijing is going to have to make its own sovereign decision. Our goal is to see to it that Beijing makes informed decisions … there would be costs and there would be consequences if the PRC were to go down this route.”
China has been ‘anything but an honest broker’ to bring peace, US says
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing on Monday.
Although China has “attempted to maintain this veneer of neutrality” it has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”, Price told reporters.
According to a transcript of the press briefing published by the US department of state, Price said:
The PRC has told the world that, essentially, it is not taking a position, but rather it has tried to portray itself as an honest broker.
In word and in deed, however, the PRC has been anything but an honest broker.
Leaving aside the question of lethal assistance – which we don’t believe the PRC has provided yet, but we do believe it is considering – leaving that aside, the PRC has already provided important forms of assistance to Russia, including in the context of its aggression against Ukraine. It’s provided Russia with diplomatic support, with political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support, including by parroting Russia’s dangerous propaganda, dangerous lies, and disinformation on the world stage.”
Price added that he hopes China “begins to use its influence in a constructive way”.
There are countries around the world that, if they sought to bring this war to an end, would have a significant amount of leverage with the Russian Federation, with other key countries.
The PRC certainly falls within that category. But to date, at least, despite the PRC’s protests to the contrary, we have seen them very clearly take a side in this war.”
Price continued:
So if China were serious about seeking to bring an end to this war, it would have influence, it would have leverage over the government in Moscow that we would hope it would use in a constructive way. It does give us pause, concern, that … the PRC has engaged with Russia, including with high-level visits, Wang Yi’s visit to Moscow just within recent days, even while the PRC is not engaged symmetrically with Ukraine.”
Updated
As the battles continue to rage across eastern Ukraine, here are some of the latest images to be sent over our newswires today.
Updated
Russian forces attempt to close ring around Bakhmut
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud and Russian forces attempt to close ring around the eastern Ukrainian town.
Zelenskiy said in his Monday night address:
Bakhmut direction – the situation is getting more and more difficult. The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, to gain a foothold and ensure defence.”
Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
“The number of enemy personnel is increasing,” Ukraine’s general staff said, adding that six nearby Donetsk settlements came under Russian shelling.
Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence, said Russia is “increasing the intensity of its assaults” using “tactics of exhaustion and total destruction”.
In a Telegram post late on Monday night, she said:
To put it briefly and simply: the situation at the front is complicated. The enemy army is increasing the intensity of its assaults.
The most difficult situation remains in the Bakhmut direction.
During offensive operations, the enemy uses tactics of exhaustion and total destruction.
At the same time, the enemy is suffering significant losses, losing from 600 to 1,000 people daily.”
In the Donetsk region, suddenly warmer weather has softened the frozen ground, turning battlefields into mud. The spring thaw can turn roads into rivers and fields into impenetrable bogs.
“Both sides stay in their positions, because as you see, spring means mud. Thus, it is impossible to move forward,” one Ukrainian commander told Reuters.
Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut, forcing Ukraine to pull out its garrison. That would give Moscow its first major prize in more than half a year after Russia intensified its attacks on several locations along the front in the east.
The fierce fighting for the industrial city has been the longest-running battle of Russia’s year-long invasion.
Moscow’s troops have made clear, if slow, progress north and south of Bakhmut, attempting to cut off Ukrainian forces inside the ruined city, which once held around 75,000 people.
“Vicious battles are going on there. The command is doing everything it can to stop the enemy from advancing through our territory,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told Ukrainian television.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and this will be the last time I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold.
The military situation around Bakhmut, the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine, is becoming “increasingly difficult”, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Russian forces appear to be making more strident attempts to close ring around the eastern Ukrainian town as Ukraine’s eastern military command describes “vicious battles” to stop Russian troops from advancing further through the territory.
US officials say China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.
US department of state spokesperson Ned Price made the comments during a news briefing on Monday, claiming China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”.
It’s 7.30am in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The military situation is becoming increasingly difficult around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as many of Ukraine’s battlefields turn to mud. “In the Bakhmut sector, the situation is constantly becoming more difficult,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions for fortification and defence.” Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the town – the focal point of Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine – also shooting down four Himars missiles and five drones launched by Ukrainian forces.
Belarusian anti-war partisans claim to have severely damaged a Russian military aircraft in what an opposition leader has called the “most successful diversion” since the beginning of the war. BYPOL, the Belarusian partisan organisation, said it had used drones to strike the Machulishchy airfield 12km from Minsk, severely damaging a Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft (Awacs).
China has “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and has been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing on Monday. China has provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support,” he added.
Russia has given a lukewarm response to a Chinese peace plan to end the war in Ukraine but said it was paying “a great deal of attention” to the detail. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said any initiatives that might bring peace closer were worthy of attention and Beijing’s voice should be heard, but the nuances of the proposal are important and, for now, he didn’t see any signs suggesting a peaceful resolution could be achieved. “Any attempt to formulate theses for reaching a peaceful settlement of the problem is welcome, but, of course, the nuances are important,” Peskov told the Izvestia daily.
Russia will not resume participation in the Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US until Washington listens to Moscow’s position, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published on Tuesday. Russian president Vladimir Putin last week announced Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the latest Start treaty, after accusing the west of being directly involved in attempts to strike its strategic airbases. Peskov told the daily Izvestia in an interview that the “attitude of the collective west”, led by the US needs to change towards Moscow. “The security of one country cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of another,” Peskov said.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, is due to visit Beijing on Tuesday for a meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping, in a high-profile trip symbolising the widening gulf between the US and China over the war in Ukraine. Xi’s meeting with Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, is seen internationally as a sign of where Beijing’s sympathies lie.
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, met with Zelenskiy and other key Ukrainian government officials in a surprise visit to Ukraine to reaffirm Washington’s support for Kyiv on Monday. Following talks with prime minister Denys Shmyhal, Yellen said that the US has provided nearly $50bn in security, economic and humanitarian assistance, and announced another multibillion-dollar package to boost the country’s economy.
Poland has announced a joint initiative with the European Commission to trace Ukrainian children who have been abducted and taken to Russia during the ongoing war in Ukraine. The aim of the scheme is to track down the missing children and to “ensure those responsible are brought to justice”, Poland’s EU affairs minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk said. “We need to return the abducted children to Ukraine and punish Russia for its crimes,” Shmyhal said.
