Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
“The enemy, having an advantage in the resource of human mobilisation, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an effort to deplete the units of the armed forces of Ukraine,” Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said.
“In the short term, it is important for the Kremlin to capture the key settlements in the Donetsk region, and in the future to capture (all of) the Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the summer.”
Mr Gromov said Russia had set the goal of capturing all the territory it does not control in the two regions that make up the industrial Donbas area of eastern Ukraine by summer.
The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, he told a military briefing on the eve of Friday’s anniversary of the invasion on 24 February last year.
Kyiv says Russia is suffering heavy casualties as it throws recently mobilised troops into battle, but Mr Gromov said Moscow was using better prepared soldiers from regular units in the already months-long battle for Bakhmut.
Key Points
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Russia intensifies attacks ahead of the one year anniversary of war on Friday
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War could last another year as Putin ‘running a meat grinder for an army,’ Ben Wallace says
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British Challenger tanks could reach Ukraine by ‘spring’, says Ben Wallace
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Russia reveals conditions for rejoining nuclear treaty
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US looking to release intelligence on China’s potential arms transfer to Russia – report
Russia intensifies attacks ahead of the one year anniversary of war on Friday
11:18 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said Russia had set the goal of capturing all the territory it does not control in the two regions that make up the industrial Donbas area of eastern Ukraine by summer.
The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, he told a military briefing on the eve of Friday’s anniversary of the invasion on Feb. 24 last year.
“The enemy, having an advantage in the resource of human mobilisation, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an effort to deplete the units of the armed forces of Ukraine,” Gromov said.
“In the short term, it is important for the Kremlin to capture the key settlements in the Donetsk region, and in the future to capture (all of) the Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the summer.”
Kyiv says Russia is suffering heavy casualties as it throws recently mobilised troops into battle, but Gromov said Moscow was using better prepared soldiers from regular units in the already months-long battle for Bakhmut.
Moscow agrees to give Wagner more Ukraine battle shells after row
11:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia‘s Wagner mercenary force, said on Thursday that much-needed ammunition for his troops had been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason.
Prigozhin had on Wednesday published a grisly image of dozens of men who he said had been killed because commanders including Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov had withheld ammunition to spite him. Neither man commented but the ministry rejected the charge.
In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the Defence Ministry had paid off, and that he had been told ammunition was now on its way.
“So far, it’s all on paper but, so we have been told, the principal documents have already been signed,” said Prigozhin.
“I would like to thank all those who helped us do this. You saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives of guys who are defending their homeland, gave them a chance to move on with their lives.”
The ministry, in a statement late on Tuesday, said allegations that “assault troops” fighting in Ukraine were being starved of shells were “completely untrue” and complained – without mentioning Prigozhin by name – about attempts to create splits that worked “solely to the benefit of the enemy”.
Watch: Ukrainian refugees in UK reunited with dog they had to leave behind
10:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Footage captures the moment Ukrainian refugees in the UK were reunited with a dog they had to leave behind.
‘Me and Jack Nicholson were put in a convoy to meet Putin’: Sean Penn on his Zelensky film and the future of Ukraine
10:05 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
The actor and director talks to Geoffrey Macnab about the war in Ukraine and how the US lost its way under Trump:
Sean Penn once met Vladimir Putin. Back in 2001, when he and Jack Nicholson went to the Moscow Film Festival for the Russian premiere of Penn’s film, The Pledge, the president turned up to meet them. Even then, more than 20 years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Penn had a very bad feeling about the politician he now calls a “creepy little bully”.
During their time in Russia, Penn and Nicholson were driven to the dacha (or country house) belonging to Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker and Putin cheerleader, Nikita Mikhalkov.
Sean Penn interview: ‘Me and Jack Nicholson were put in a convoy to meet Putin’
Moldova dismisses Russian report of Ukraine plot over Transdniestria
09:39 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Moldova dismissed an accusation by Russia‘s defence ministry on Thursday that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false flag operation, and called for calm.
The Russian news agency RIA said Ukraine, which borders Moldova, planned to stage an attack by purportedly Russian forces from Transdniestria as a pretext for the invasion. Russia keeps troops in the breakaway region.
The TASS news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin as saying separately that the West had instructed Moldova’s government in Chisinau to stop all interaction with Transdniestria’s Moscow-backed authorities.
The Moldovan government issued a statement on the Telegram messaging app saying state authorities “do not confirm” the Russian defence ministry’s allegations.
“We call for calm and for information to be received (by the public) from official and credible sources of the Republic of Moldova,” it said. “Our institutions cooperate with foreign partners and in the case of threats to the country, the public will be promptly informed.”
Moldova’s foreign minister told Reuters on Wednesday that the tiny former Soviet republic, which also borders NATO member Romania, was prepared for a “full spectrum of threats” from Russia.
“Our institutions have planned for responses along the full spectrum of threats,” he said. “Of course we have limited means, but at the same time we are not alone in this.”
Russian fighter jet crashes in Belgorod region, near Ukraine border -governor
09:11 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
A Russian SU-25 fighter plane crashed on Thursday in Russia‘s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine but the cause of the incident was not yet known, the regional governor said.
Citing emergency services, the RIA state news agency said the pilot was still alive after ejecting himself from the plane.
In a post on the Telegram messenger app, Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the emergency services and investigators were on the scene near the town of Valyuki, and that the reason for the crash was being established.
Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine‘s Kharkiv region, has repeatedly come under fire since the beginning of Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
Sweden open to sending Leopards to Ukraine, defence minister says
08:47 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Sweden is open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine as the Nordic country prepares to present another package of aid to help the country fight off the Russian invasion, its defence minister told local news agency TT.
Sweden has delivered a string of military and civilian aid packages to Ukraine since the invasion, which Moscow calls a special military operation, began a year ago.
The latest instalment includes armoured infantry fighting vehicles, which Defence Minister Pal Jonson told the news agency would be the country’s main contribution to Ukraine in terms of equipment for ground warfare.
Sweden is also preparing to send Ukraine the advanced Archer artillery system to Ukraine, but support in the Swedish parliament has been growing to additionally contribute some of the country’s around 120 Leopard tanks.
“We are open to that and we are in close dialogue with above all Germany about it,” Jonson was quoted by TT as saying.
Russian man indicted in Poland for spying
08:22 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
A Russian citizen who has been living and conducting business activities in Poland for many years has been charged with spying for Russia between 2015 and April 2022, Polish authorities said on Thursday.
Relations between Russia and countries once in the Soviet sphere of influence have long been fraught, but the invasion of Ukraine has increased suspicion about Moscow’s intentions.
The man was detained in April on evidence that he had collected information concerning the military readiness of the Polish Armed Forces and of NATO troops that was then passed on to the Russian intelligence service.
An indictment was submitted last Friday to Gdansk District Court against the suspect, a spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdansk said in a statement.
“The suspect’s espionage activity was focused on military units located in the north-eastern part of Poland, as part of which he carried out tasks of reconnaissance of important elements of the Polish Armed Forces,” she said.
In addition, a number of corruption offences committed by the man relating to customs clearance of goods were revealed. The man faces up to 10 years in prison.
“The case…is one of several proceedings concerning activities for the intelligence services of Russia and Belarus against the Polish Armed Forces that prosecutors of the military affairs division are currently conducting,” the spokeswoman added.
War could last another year as Putin ‘running a meat grinder for an army,’ Ben Wallace says
07:38 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
The conflict in Ukraine could last another year, the Defence Secretary has suggested.
Ben Wallace, asked whether we could see the war between Ukraine and Russia still going in another 12 months, told LBC: “I think we will.
“I think Russia has shown a complete disregard, not only for the lives of the people of Ukraine, but for its own soldiers.
“We are sitting here 12 months in and 188,000, actually more now, Russian soldiers are dead or injured as a result of this catastrophic miscalculation and aggression by President Putin.
“When someone has crossed the line and thinks it is OK to do that to your own people, running effectively a meat grinder for an army, I think he is not going to stop.”
Russia possibly preparing for offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Vuhledar, UK says
07:27 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Russian forces are possibly preparing for another offensive around the town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donbas region, with the town experiencing heavy shelling, Britain said in an intelligence bulletin on Thursday.
Britain added that fighting has also continued in the eastern city of Bakhmut over the last two days.
Russian general facing pressure and criticism over fight in Donetsk’s Vuhledar – MoD
07:01 , Arpan Rai
Russian colonel general Rustam Muradov is likely facing intense pressure to improve results following harsh criticism from the Russian nationalist community after previous setbacks, the British defence ministry said today.
The Russian general is in-charge of Russia’s eastern group of forces which is likely still responsible for the military operation in Vuhledar, the ministry said in its latest intelligence.
“Over the last 48 hours, heavy fighting has continued in the Bakhmut sector where Ukrainian forces are keeping resupply routes open to the west despite Russia’s creeping encirclement over the last six weeks,” it added.
The MoD added that further south in Donetsk Oblast, the town of Vuhledar has again experienced heavy shelling.
“There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022,” the ministry noted.
However, it is unlikely that Muradov has a striking force capable of achieving a breakthrough, according to the ministry’s latest update on war.
Ukrainian forces repel nearly 90 attacks in past 24 hours – official
06:46 , Arpan Rai
Ukrainian forces have repelled nearly 90 Russian attacks over the past day, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said today in the morning update from the war’s frontlines.
These attacks have mostly been repelled in northeastern and eastern Ukraine where most of the battle is concentrated.
Ukraine repelled the attacks near Kupiansk in eastern Kharkiv oblast, located not far from Luhansk oblast, and Lyman, Bakhmut, Adviika, and Shakhtarsk in Donetsk oblast, where, according to the General Staff.
Word war: In Russia-Ukraine war, information became a weapon
06:27 , Arpan Rai
Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine is the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, and the first to see algorithms and TikTok videos deployed alongside fighter planes and tanks.
The online fight has played out on computer screens and smartphones around the globe as Russia used disinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories to justify its invasion, silence domestic opposition and sow discord among its adversaries.
Now in its second year, the war is likely to spawn even more disinformation as Russia looks to break the will of Ukraine and its allies.
Word war: In Russia-Ukraine war, information became a weapon
Ben Wallace meets Ukrainian troops training with tanks at Bovington Camp
06:19 , Arpan Rai
Why did Russia invade Ukraine?
06:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has been raging for almost a year now, the conflict continuing to record devastating casualties and force the mass displacement of millions of blameless Ukrainians.
Vladimir Putin began the war by claiming Russia’s neighbour needed to be “demilitarised and de-Nazified”, a baseless pretext on which to launch a landgrab against an independent state that happens to have a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putin’s warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.
Battle tanks from the US, Britain and Germany are now being supplied for the first time and Mr Zelensky toured London, Paris and Brussels in early February 2023 to request fighter jets be sent as well in order to counter the Russian aerial threat, a step the allies appear to have reservations about making, although Joe Biden has since visited Kyiv in a gesture of solidarity.
Much of the fighting has been concentrated around the key eastern city of Bakhmut of late, with bombardments and heavy artillery fire taking place as Russian forces ramp up a major new offensive with the one-year anniversary of the war looming.
Read more:
When did Russia invade Ukraine?
US looking to release intelligence on China’s potential arms transfer to Russia – report
05:50 , Arpan Rai
The Biden administration is considering the option of releasing intelligence it believes shows how China’s planning on whether to supply weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, US officials have said.
According to a senior official, “Until now” there “has been a certain amount of ambiguity about what practical help China might give Russia,” reported The Wall Street Journal.
The intelligence the US and its allies have now is “much less ambiguous”, the official added.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken went public with his warning after the high-level meeting with China’s senior foreign policy diplomat. He said that China is seriously exploring supplying arms to Russia.
Putin’s decision doesn’t confirm he is thinking of nuclear weapons, says Biden
05:33 , Arpan Rai
Joe Biden has said he has not read into Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to temporarily suspend participation in a nuclear arms treaty.
“It’s a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that,” Mr Biden told ABC News in an interview.
Earlier this week, Mr Putin backed away from the New START arms control treaty – a 2010 agreement that limits the number of Russian and US deployed strategic nuclear warheads – and warned that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.
Photographer says capturing Ukraine conflict helped her ‘not go crazy’
05:00 , Eleanor Noyce
A photojournalist who captured Kyiv through a series of images on the day Russia invaded Ukraine said photography helped her document her “weird” feelings and “not go crazy”.
Alina Smutko took photos on February 24 in case she saw ‘Ukrainian’ Kyiv for the last time.
Danielle Desouza reports:
Photographer says capturing Ukraine conflict helped her ‘not go crazy’
‘I’m not a hero but I’m not a wimp either’ – UK aid workers reflect on Ukraine
04:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Aid workers from the UK who have visited Ukraine have shared the lessons they have learned over the past 12 months, with one saying: “I have never seen those looks on people’s faces before and I have spent years working in hospitals.”
Nurse, midwife and humanitarian aid worker Wendy Warrington, 56, from Bury, Greater Manchester, and Liberty Rose, a 27-year-old nursing student who lives in Emsworth, Hampshire, have both visited Ukraine in the 12 months since the war started.
The pair spoke to the PA news agency about the “strength and resilience” required to assist in the embattled country, as well as their tips for how people can help as the conflict continues.
Danielle Desouza reports:
‘I’m not a hero but I’m not a wimp either’ – UK aid workers reflect on Ukraine
British Challenger tanks could reach Ukraine by ‘spring’, says Ben Wallace
03:34 , Arpan Rai
Defence secretary Ben Wallace has said that Ukraine could receive promised British battle tanks within a few weeks.
The Challenger 2 Tanks will arrive in Ukraine in “the spring”, he said, as he spoke to Ukrainian soldiers training to use the superior Western battle tank.
“It is hugely inspiring to come and witness Ukrainian soldiers being trained on British Challenger 2 tanks. Their resilience and determination to succeed for the liberation of their country sends a powerful message to Russia,” Mr Wallace said.
Britain has already given more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers basic training in drone warfare and has been training tank crews since late January, part of what ministers say is proof of the country’s leading role in supporting Ukraine.
Zelensky says working in a ‘very powerful manner’ with Sunak
03:18 , Arpan Rai
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he and Rishi Sunak spoke last evening over a phone call ahead of the war anniversary.
“In the evening I spoke with the prime minister of the United Kingdom. We are working in a very powerful manner together with the UK to strengthen our warriors, to bring our common victory closer, to implement our defence agreements reached during my visit to London,” he said in his nightly address.
Mr Zelensky said: “And it would be great if all our partners, like the UK, understood how the speed of defence supplies affects concrete successes on the battlefield.”
We also discussed important political issues that need to be resolved this week, he added.
The real surprise of 2023? That Putin is still standing
03:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Well, he hasn’t changed the script much. For Vladimir Putin, it was as if the past year of setbacks, debates, and humiliation for his own forces had never happened. For him, absurdly, it was the West that started the war, and is “culpable” – not Russia.
It is, apparently, the Ukrainians who are the aggressive neo-Nazis, and not the brutal nationalists in the Kremlin who sent the tanks into Ukraine a year ago and, unable to prevail on the battlefield, have spent the last 12 months terrorising civilians. Even now, with so many casualties that the Russian president has had to announce a new national agency to support the bereaved, the biggest war in Europe since 1945 is still referred to using the euphemism “special military operation”.
Despite the failure of his ‘special military operation’, the degradation of domestic living standards, and international isolation, the Russian leader hasn’t been overthrown, writes Sean O’Grady:
The real surprise of 2023? That Putin is still standing | Sean O’Grady
Ukraine’s health care on the brink after hundreds of attacks
02:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Valentyna Mozgova sweeps shattered glass and other debris from the vacant halls of the bombed-out hospital where she began her career. Living in the basement, the 55-year-old lab technician now works as its solitary guard.
Russian artillery strikes targeted Marinskaya Central District Hospital in 2017 and again in 2021. But numerous barrages over the last seven months forced the hospital’s medical staff to flee, destroying key departments such as neurology and gynecology, as well as a general medical clinic in the process.
Mozgova chose to stay. Having worked in the hospital’s laboratories since graduating from medical school in the late 1980s, she agreed to act as the hospital’s security guard for 10,000 hryvnia ($250) a month. She and her husband were soon joined in the basement shelter by five others who had lost their homes to bombing, a dog and a cat.
Mozgova picks up the broom at 8 a.m. sharp every three days to inspect the hallways, carefully avoiding the fragments of Russian Grad rockets strewn across the floors for fear of yet another explosion.
“Everything is decaying and falling apart,” she told The Associated Press. “But I’m so sick of it. I want to live my life normally, sleep in my bed, watch my TV, not jump at the sound of an explosion, go to work calmly and do my job.”
Read more:
Ukraine’s health care on the brink after hundreds of attacks
Global impact: 5 ways war in Ukraine has changed the world
01:00 , Eleanor Noyce
War has been a catastrophe for Ukraine and a crisis for the globe. The world is a more unstable and fearful place since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, 2022.
One year on, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are dead, and countless buildings have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of troops have been killed or seriously wounded on each side. Beyond Ukraine’s borders, the invasion shattered European security, redrew nations’ relations with one another and frayed a tightly woven global economy.
Here are five ways the war has changed the world:
Global impact: 5 ways war in Ukraine has changed the world
Biden and Stoltenberg meet Nato Bucharest Nine allies in Poland
Wednesday 22 February 2023 23:50 , Eleanor Noyce
Joe Biden and Jens Stoltenberg met with Nato Bucharest Nine allies in Poland on Wednesday, 22 February.
The US president and the Secretary General of Nato held talks with the military alliance’s eastern flank to assure them that the Biden administration is highly aware of looming threats brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Bucharest Nine are Nato allies who joined the military alliance after being dominated by Moscow during the Cold War.
Mr Biden has been staying in Poland after his surprise trip to Ukraine, in which he reiterated US support for Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops in their fight against Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The meeting comes after Vladimir Putin suspended a landmark nuclear arms control treaty just days before the first anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine, amid a period of highest tension between Russia and the West in the decades since the Cold War.
Holly Patrick reports:
Biden and Stoltenberg meet Nato Bucharest Nine allies in Poland
Russia threatens ‘further countermeasures’ after suspending key nuclear arms deal
Wednesday 22 February 2023 23:20 , Eleanor Noyce
Russia has said it will consider taking “further countermeasures” against the US and its allies after it suspended its participation in a key nuclear arms deal.
President Vladimir Putin announced the country is suspending the new START treaty on Tuesday.
His deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has now said Russia will be “monitoring” the US to decide whether to launch further action.
He said: “We will, of course, be closely monitoring the further actions of the United States and its allies, including with a view to taking further countermeasures, if necessary.”
Mr Putin announced Russia will no longer comply with the agreement, which limits participating countries’ nuclear capabilities, in a lengthy state of the nation address – in which he also blamed the West for the war in Ukraine.
My colleague Kate Plummer reports:
Russia threatens ‘further countermeasures’ after suspending key nuclear arms deal
Russia’s sports exile persists 1 year after invading Ukraine
Wednesday 22 February 2023 22:50 , Eleanor Noyce
One year after the invasion of Ukraine began, Russia‘s reintegration into the world of sports threatens to create the biggest rift in the Olympic movement since the Cold War.
Russia remains excluded from many international sporting events, but that could soon change. Next year’s Paris Olympics are fast approaching and qualifying events are under way. The International Olympic Committee is working to bring athletes from Russia and ally Belarus back into competition, but not everyone agrees.
If Russian athletes are to return to competition, the sports world must resolve two key issues that became clear in the days after the invasion: How can Russian athletes return without alienating Ukrainians? And what can be done about the Russians who support the war?
As the first battles raged, the Ukrainian fencing team refused to compete against Russia at a tournament in Egypt, holding up a sign reading: “Stop Russia! Stop the war! Save Ukraine! Save Europe!”
More here:
Russia’s sports exile persists 1 year after invading Ukraine
International journalists federation suspends Russian union
Wednesday 22 February 2023 22:20 , Eleanor Noyce
The International Federation of Journalists has suspended with immediate effect the Russian Union of Journalists over its action since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its role in annexed Ukrainian territories.
The IFJ, which represents more than 600,000 media workers across the world, said the Russian union’s membership was suspended following an investigation then a vote by its global executive committee on Wednesday.
The vote was held after the union refused to reconsider its decision to set up branches in four regions annexed by Russia, the federation said.
“The Russian Union of Journalists’ actions in establishing four branches in the annexed Ukrainian territories have clearly shattered … solidarity and sown divisions among sister unions,” said IFJ President Dominique Pradalié.
Read more:
International journalists federation suspends Russian union
Matt Hancock promotes NFTs to raise money for former Ukrainian lodgers
Wednesday 22 February 2023 21:50 , Eleanor Noyce
Matt Hancock is promoting crypto art created by his former Ukrainian lodger to help raise money for refugees who have fled the war.
The NFTs, which make up a 15-piece collection called From Ukraine with Love, were made by Oleg Mischenko, whose family had been staying with the former health secretary until they moved into their own home in Suffolk last week.
They will be auctioned off on cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase, this week, with 90 per cent of the money raised going to charity Care International’s Ukraine appeal, while the remaining funds will go to Mr Mischenko’s family.
A physical sale of the art will also take place at the NFT Gallery in Mayfair and the artworks will be traded in Ethereum.
My colleague Kate Plummer has more:
Matt Hancock promotes NFTs to raise money for former Ukrainian lodgers
Russia denies plan to test new missile off South Africa
Wednesday 22 February 2023 21:20 , Eleanor Noyce
The Russian military denied Wednesday that it was planning to test its new Zircon hypersonic missiles during naval drills off the coast of South Africa this week that will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.
China‘s navy also is participating in the Indian Ocean exercises, which come at a time when Russia’s relationship with the West is at its lowest point since the Cold War, and ties between China and the United States are under serious strain.
As Russian and Chinese warships prepared in South Africa for their joint drills, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted China’s most senior foreign policy official at the Kremlin. Those meetings showed the strengthening of Russia’s relationship with China and raised concern in the West that Beijing might be ready to offer Moscow stronger support for its war in Ukraine.
Russia’s aims for the naval exercises came under scrutiny because of the involvement of the Admiral Gorshkov, a frigate which is armed with hypersonic missiles. The ship arrived in Cape Town last week emblazoned with the letters Z and V, letters also seen on Russian weapons on the front lines in Ukraine and which are used as patriotic symbols in Russia.
Read more:
Russia denies plan to test new missile off South Africa
Putin’s most baffling remarks about the West since the war in Ukraine started
Wednesday 22 February 2023 20:50 , Eleanor Noyce
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin delivered a state of the nation speech in Moscow this week marking the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine he ordered a year ago.
In the colourful two-hour speech, the Kremlin leader vowed to continue his “special military operation” in Ukraine and told listeners that it would be impossible for Russia to be defeated. Mr Putin acknowledged the difficulty of the war on Russians who had lost loved ones, but he stressed that the West and Ukrainian elites were actually behind the war and not his military orders.
Mr Putin also took an interesting detour to comment on practices in the West. Adding to his many bizarre comments about his opposers, Mr Putin said paedophilia was normal in the UK.
My colleague Thomas Kingsley dissects Putin’s most baffling remarks about the West since the war in Ukraine started:
Putin’s most baffling remarks about the West since the war in Ukraine started
Zelensky and Sunak speak ahead of first anniversary of Ukrainian invasion
Wednesday 22 February 2023 20:40 , Arpan Rai
Rishi Sunak has spoken to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the first anniversary of the invasion.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The prime minister spoke to president Zelensky this evening, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
“The prime minister updated on his visit to the Munich Security Conference, and said he had used the event to call on allies to accelerate their support to help Ukraine progress military gains in the coming weeks and months.”
“Now was the time for Ukraine to seize the opportunity to make real progress on the battlefield and further demonstrate to Putin that Ukraine would ultimately win, the leaders agreed.”
Iconic Slovenian band Laibach to perform in Ukraine amid war
Wednesday 22 February 2023 20:20 , Eleanor Noyce
Slovenia’s iconic band Laibach will hold a concert in Ukraine‘s capital next month, saying Wednesday this will make them the first foreign group to perform a full show in Kyiv since the beginning of the Russian invasion last February.
The industrial rock band will hold a “very special concert” on March 31st at the Bel Etage Music Hall in Kyiv, a statement said. The concert will be dubbed ‘Eurovision’ in reference to the pop song contest which Ukraine won in 2022 but which will be hosted by the UK in Liverpool instead of Ukraine this year because of the war.
“While the rest of Europe prepares to celebrate its idea of freedom and solidarity on 9 May in Liverpool, Laibach will be taking Eurovision back to Ukraine — where it belongs and where the only true and real vision of Europe is taking place right now,” the concert announcement said.
Laibach is Slovenia’s best known band which has won fame abroad for its totalitarian visual style, toying with populist imagery and almost martial-rhythm songs, sang in husky, deep vocals.
Read more:
Iconic Slovenian band Laibach to perform in Ukraine amid war
Ukrainian mother thanks the UK public for donations, describing them as “angels of kindness”
Wednesday 22 February 2023 19:50 , Eleanor Noyce
A Ukrainian mother forced to flee her home has thanked the UK public for donating to help those affected by the conflict, saying they are “angels of kindness”.
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has become the biggest charity donor to the response inside Ukraine, and to the regional refugee response, raising more than £400 million since it was launched in March 2022.
The organisation said the money has gone towards supporting work in communities, tackling homelessness, trauma and emergency responses and is “testimony to the generosity of the British people”.
Among those supported is Polina, a social worker and mother of three young boys who fled Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine when she was six months pregnant, and is being housed in DEC-supported accommodation.
DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed, who recently visited the country to see the work being carried out, told the PA news agency: “There was a huge gratitude and appreciation for the support of the British public.
“Polina, for example, said ‘you are angels of kindness’ and wanted me to pass on the thanks to the British public for their support.
“But also this inspired and motivated people for themselves to support each other and also share what they have with others.”
King Charles welcomes visit from president of German Parliament, showing solidarity amidst war in Ukraine
Wednesday 22 February 2023 19:20 , Eleanor Noyce
King Charles III has held an audience with the president of the German parliament.
He is expected to become the first British monarch to address the Bundestag during a state visit to Germany later this month, having welcomed Barbel Bas to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon.
Charles and Ms Bas shook hands in the Palace’s 1844 Room, with the pair appearing in good humour, laughing as they chatted and greeted one another.
The King’s trip to Germany is expected to follow immediately after a state visit to France, which is due to be Charles’s first official journey abroad since he acceded to the throne.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the reported trips.
Katja Mast, first parliamentary secretary of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, welcomed the forthcoming visit, telling the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that German-British friendship was “extremely important to Europe and the world” post-Brexit and amid the war in Ukraine.
Ben Wallace praises “dedication and determination” of Ukrainian soldiers training on tank operation
Wednesday 22 February 2023 18:50 , Eleanor Noyce
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has praised the “dedication and determination” of Ukrainian soldiers being trained to operate British Challenger 2 tanks donated for the war against Russia.
The Secretary of State, who is a former soldier himself, met the troops training at Bovington Camp in Dorset and told them: “Britain is going to continue with you until the end.
“We are not in it for a period, we are in it until we defeat Russia in Ukraine and send them home.”
He added: “We will keep with you, and from Britain’s point of view the message to Russia is we are not giving up and we are not going away.”
Speaking to a Ukrainian commander, he said: “I think your tactics are working alongside the bravery of your soldiers and it’s really showing the Russians. Keep doing it.”
Blackouts, air raids and reporting by candlelight: The ‘new normal’ of The Kyiv Independent newsroom
Wednesday 22 February 2023 18:20 , Emily Atkinson
Olga Rudenko never thought her team of journalists would be reporting on a second year of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“In the first few months of the invasion I’d have been surprised if someone told me it would last a year or longer,” says the editor-in-chief of The Kyiv Independent.
“For a good chunk of time I believed it would end soon – just because of how horrible everything was that was happening. When you’re in the middle of all that, it’s too horrible and big to think it will happen for a long time.
“You think: ‘Surely the world will stop this’… But here we are.”
Editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko speaks to Rachel Sharp about the ‘new normal’ in the newsroom:
Blackouts, air raids, reporting by candlelight: The Kyiv Independent’s ‘new normal’
Russia says New START suspension won’t bring nuclear war closer
Wednesday 22 February 2023 17:50 , Emily Atkinson
Russia has said its decision to suspend its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US did not increase the risk of nuclear war.
President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday he was freezing Russia’s participation in the treaty during a speech in which he also repeated accusations that the West was seeking to destroy Russia.
“I do not believe that the decision to suspend the New START Treaty brings us closer to nuclear war,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Finland and Sweden are heading into Nato ‘hand-in-hand’, says Finnish president
Wednesday 22 February 2023 17:20 , Emily Atkinson
Finland and Sweden are proceeding “hand-in-hand” towards Nato membership, but the decision to ratify the applications for the two Nordic countries lies with Turkey, Finnish president Sauli Niinisto has said.
“We proceed hand in hand in terms of the things that are in our own hands,” Niinisto said, but added: “Ratification is not in our hands.”
Niinisto was speaking at a joint news conference with the Swedish and Norwegian prime ministers at the Swedish government’s summer retreat outside Stockholm.
Finland would still proceed with joining the alliance once approved, even if Sweden’s application was held up, Niinisto said.
The Finnish president also said he would sign a Nato membership application bill when it is agreed by Finnish lawmakers, with a vote scheduled for 28 February
Once the parliaments of Nato’s 30 member states have ratified the application, Finland would become a member, even if Sweden’s accession was delayed.
“If Turkey and Hungary ratify Finland, we will be, as we have requested, members of Nato,” he said.
Eastern European countries ‘jointly condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine’
Wednesday 22 February 2023 16:50 , Emily Atkinson
All members of the Bucharest Nine, the nations on Nato’s eastern flank that joined the alliance after being dominated by Moscow during the Cold War, have jointly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Polish presidential adviser said.
“All allies agreed that they would support each other in the event of a threat,” Marcin Przydacz, an adviser to Polish president Andrzej Duda told reporters.
“The next point of the declaration was the condemnation of the brutal, bloody war against Ukraine, which is being waged by Russia. All members of the Bucharest Nine signed these words.”
EU countries ‘fail to agree new Russia sanctions’
Wednesday 22 February 2023 16:20 , Emily Atkinson
The EU has failed to reach a consensus on a new set of sanctions against Russia meant to be in place for the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, four diplomatic sources in the bloc’s hub Brussels said.
“There are several issues outstanding, including on rubber and reporting obligations of Russian assets in Europe,” one source told Reuters.
More talks among Brussels representatives of EU member countries were due on Thursday afternoon, said the sources.
The proposed package includes trade curbs worth more than 10 billion euros, according to the bloc’s chief executive.
Russia says it is studying Xi’s global security initiative
Wednesday 22 February 2023 15:50 , Emily Atkinson
Russia has said it is studying a newly released paper on Beijing’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s flagship security proposal.
“The positions of the two countries on the most pressing international issues coincide or are close, which the Russian and Chinese leadership has repeatedly spoken about,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharkova said in a briefing.
“The same can be said for the global security initiative,” she added.
China on Tuesday released the GSI paper, which aims to uphold the principle of “indivisible security”, a concept endorsed by Moscow.
G7 ‘to discuss Ukraine aid programme’ on Thursday
Wednesday 22 February 2023 15:20 , Emily Atkinson
The main topic at the G7 finance ministers’ meeting hosted by Japan tomorrow will be financial support to Ukraine, according to German finance ministry sources.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva will give an update on the planned aid programme at the meeting, which the sources said has been discussed intensely.
The IMF aims to adopt a new aid programme for Ukraine by the end of March.
The G7 finance ministers are expected to issue a joint statement after their talks.
Watch Live: United Nations mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine
Wednesday 22 February 2023 14:59 , Emily Atkinson
World journalism body suspends Russia’s membership over Ukraine
Wednesday 22 February 2023 14:48 , Emily Atkinson
The International Federation of Journalists sayd it has suspended the membership of Russia’s main journalism trade union after it established branches in occupied regions of Ukraine.
“The IFJ is an organization built on international solidarity, on principles of cooperation between member unions and respect for the rights of all journalists.
“The Russian Union of Journalists’ actions in establishing four branches in the annexed Ukrainian territories have clearly shattered this solidarity and sown divisions among sister unions,” IFJ president Dominique Pradalie said in a statement.
The head of the Union of Russian Journalists told state news agency TASS that the move violated the IFJ’s charter and would hurt the world body financially because it would no longer receive substantial membership fees from Russia.
Russian lawmakers endorse suspension of nuclear pact with US
Wednesday 22 February 2023 14:30 , Eleanor Noyce
The lower house of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday quickly endorsed President Vladimir Putin‘s move to suspend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, with officials and lawmakers casting it as an eleventh-hour warning to Washington amid the tensions over Ukraine.
Putin declared that Moscow was suspending its participation in the 2010 New START treaty in his state-of-the-nation address Tuesday, saying that Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites under the pact while Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.
The Russian president emphasized that Moscow was not withdrawing from the pact altogether, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and keep notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.
Read more:
Russian lawmakers endorse suspension of nuclear pact with US
Spain plans to send six German tanks to Ukraine
Wednesday 22 February 2023 14:10 , Eleanor Noyce
Spain is to send six German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Defence minister Margarita Robles has announced.
Ms Robles confirmed that the battle tanks would be ready by late March or early April, adding that more may be sent in the future.
Elsewhere, the UK has sent 14 Challenger 2 tanks. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the Government to send more.