Summary
We’re closing this blog shortly. Here is a summary of both the drone incident and other news from the war over the last 24 hours:
A Russian fighter collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.
The US state department has summoned the Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident. The White House said the drone’s downing was unique and would be raised directly by state department officials with their Russian counterparts.
The Russian ambassador to US said the incident was a ‘provocation’. Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, saying, “We view this incident as a provocation”. Antonov made the comments after being summoned to the US State Department.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission. US Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryders said Russia did not have the drone. But he declined to say whether Russia was seeking the wreckage so that its military intelligence could dissect it.
Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. The ministry said fighters from its air defence forces were raised into the air to identify the drone, which the ministry said was heading “in direction of the state border of the Russian Federation”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs have agreed to keep defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of Bakhmut was of “paramount strategic importance”. He said: “It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.”
The UN was scrambling Tuesday to ensure a Ukrainian grain exports deal aimed to ease the global food crisis can continue, but its fate remained unclear days before the 18 March expiry date. Talks between top Russian and United Nations officials in Geneva ended Monday with Moscow saying it would not oppose prolonging the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, as many had feared.
At least one person was killed and three people were injured in shelling of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region on Tuesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said six high-rise buildings were damaged, adding: “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.”
The Russian-installed “acting governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has said the position of the frontline in the region is stable, but that Russian forces are strengthening their positions in the area in anticipation of an attack. Speaking to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency, Yevgeny Balitsky said: “Now all military operations are concentrated in the area of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, therefore, it is calm in our direction for the time being.”
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said his country could supply Ukraine with MIG fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks. Warsaw’s commitment to Kyiv has been important in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.
Russian artillery ammunition shortages have probably worsened “to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. “This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action,” it said.
Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine. The prosecutor at the court will reportedly formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said 32 countries have joined a coalition supporting the creation of a special tribunal against Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes including deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians.
AFP journalists in Eastern Ukraine have reported seeing white phosphorus fired from Russian positions on an uninhabited road leading to nearby Bakhmut.
They reported hearing whistling sounds followed by explosions caused by munitions that released small, burning balls of white phosphorus that slowly fell to the ground.
The balls set fire to the vegetation on both sides of the road on a surface equivalent to the size of a football pitch. AFP was not able to confirm if the targeted site was a position held by Ukrainian forces, but a green truck with a white cross, a sign of Ukraine’s army, was parked by a path in the burned area.
The Guardian is unable to verify these reports from AFP.
Weapons containing phosphorus are incendiary arms whose use against civilians is banned, but they can be deployed against military targets under a 1980 convention signed in Geneva.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of using them on several occasions since the start of the war, including against civilians, which the Russian army has denied categorically.
Russian downing of US drone marks escalation of confrontation near war zone
The Russian defence ministry denied any contact between one of their Su-27 fighters and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone which crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday, insisting the drone went down of its own accord. But the US allegations of dangerous flying and even dumping fuel on the Reaper to disrupt it are detailed – and the Russians have a long record of aggressive behaviour.
A 2021 Rand Corporation study analysing dozens of close-shave incidents concluded it was a matter of policy, which Rand dubbed “coercive signalling”.
“Sometimes the coercive signal is something like this: the plane will come up to interrogate the target, shadow at a distance, with wings clean (no missiles) but increasingly with wings dirty (with missiles) as our bilateral relations have deteriorated, and it will leave,” Dara Massicot, one of the report’s authors, said on Twitter in the wake of the drone incident.
“Sometimes, usually after other methods were used, Russian signalling would shift to something unsafe and unprofessional to compel a change.”
The change they are trying to compel in this case is to keep US aircraft and boats away from the fringes of the Ukraine war, where Russia’s invasion remains stalled and hugely costly, and Ukrainian forces are benefiting from US intelligence support.
There have been a string of instances of close encounters since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014. Tuesday’s incident is more serious because it led to a collision and a crash landing in the sea. It was quite possibly an error. The US European Command pointed to incompetence on the part of the Russian pilot. But Massicot said that in this case “a deliberate bump cannot be ruled out yet”.
There are open military lines of communication and longstanding conflict-deescalation mechanisms in place to stop scenarios getting out of hand, but every time something like this happens, the world uses up a little bit more of its luck.
What is an MQ-9 Reaper?
The Associated Press has this handy explainer:
The MQ-9 Reaper is a large unmanned air force aircraft that is remotely operated by a two-person team. It includes a ground control station and satellite equipment and has a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan. The team includes a rated pilot who is responsible for flying the aircraft and an enlisted aircrew member who is charged with operating the sensors and guiding weapons.
Used routinely during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for surveillance and airstrikes, the Reaper can be either armed or unarmed. It can carry up to eight laser-guided missiles, including Hellfire missiles and other sophisticated munitions, and can loiter over targets for about 24 hours. It is about 36ft long, 12ft high, and weighs about 4,900 pounds (11 meters long, 4 meters high, and 2,200 kilograms). It can fly at an altitude of up to 50,000 feet (15 kilometres) and has a range of about 1,400 nautical miles (2,500 kilometres).
The Reaper, which first began operating in 2007, replaced the air force’s smaller Predator drones. Each Reaper costs about $32m.
Why was US flying a drone over the Black Sea?
Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the news for the next while.
If you’re just joining us, you may be wondering why the US was flying a drone over the Black Sea.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission.
In a statement, US air force General James Hecker, said, ““Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9”.
The statement added:
“US air forces in Europe – air forces Africa routinely fly aircraft throughout Europe over sovereign territory and throughout international airspace in coordination with applicable host nation and international laws. In order to bolster collective European defense and security, these missions support Allied, partner, and US national objectives.”
Updated
Russian ambassador to the US says Moscow does not want confrontation
Reuters has more from the Russian ambassador to the US:
Antonov said his meeting at the State Department was “constructive” and the issue of possible “consequences” for Moscow over the incident was not raised, RIA reported.
“As for us, we do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations for the benefit of the Russian and American peoples,” Antonov was quoted as saying.
Russian ambassador to US says incident is a 'provocation'
Moscow views the incident involving a Russian Su-27 fighter jet and a US military drone over the Black Sea as provocation, Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, as saying on Tuesday.
“We view this incident as a provocation,” Antonov said after being summoned by the US State Department.
Today so far
A Russian fighter has collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.
The US state department has summoned the Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident. The White House said the drone’s downing was unique and would be raised directly by state department officials with their Russian counterparts.
Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. The ministry said fighters from its air defence forces were raised into the air to identify the drone, which the ministry said was heading “in direction of the state border of the Russian Federation”.
US Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryders said Russia did not have the drone. But he declined to say whether Russia was seeking the wreckage so that its military intelligence could dissect it.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs have agreed to keep defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian leader’s office has said. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of Bakhmut was of “paramount strategic importance”. He said: “It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.”
At least one person was killed and three people were injured in shelling of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, on Tuesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. The Ukrainian president said six high-rise buildings were damaged, adding: “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.”
The Russian-installed “acting governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has said the position of the frontline in the region is stable, but that Russian forces are strengthening their positions in the area in anticipation of an attack. Speaking to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency, Yevgeny Balitsky said: “Now all military operations are concentrated in the area of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, therefore, it is calm in our direction for the time being.”
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said his country could supply Ukraine with MIG fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks. Warsaw’s commitment to Kyiv has been important in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.
Russian artillery ammunition shortages have probably worsened “to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. “This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action,” it said.
Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine. The prosecutor at the court will reportedly formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said 32 countries have joined a coalition supporting the creation of a special tribunal against Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes including deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians.
Russia and Ukraine are at odds over the length of the extension of the Black Sea grain deal. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, said the deal had been extended on the previous conditions for 60 days, but Ukraine argues that the July 2022 agreement clearly states that extensions are possible for a minimum of 120 days.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the top two Republicans in polling regarding the 2024 presidential nomination, have said defending Ukraine is not a vital US interest, in remarks that will demoralise Kyiv and encourage Vladimir Putin to believe that time is on his side. Trump said the Ukraine war was not a vital US interest “but it is for Europe … that is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal.”
Lithuania’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate Russia’s Wagner mercenary group as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of “systematic, serious crimes of aggression” in Ukraine. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, thanked the Lithuanian parliament for its decision and called on others to follow suit.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the likelihood that Finland will join the Nato military alliance before Sweden has increased, though he said Swedish membership was only a matter of time. Turkey has been clear it has greater objections concerning Sweden’s accession than Finland’s, and Kristersson said that position still remained, meaning the two countries might not join together as they prefer.
Updated
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Germany remains “occupied” by the US based on the country’s response to the blasts that hit Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines last year.
“The matter is that European politicians have said themselves publicly that after World War II, Germany was never a fully sovereign state,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin saying on state Rossiya-1 TV channel.
Germany has said it believes the blasts were a deliberate act, but has declined to say who might be responsible.
As the Guardian reported last week:
German prosecutors have confirmed investigators have searched a boat that may have been used in last year’s Nord Stream gas pipeline bombings, but ministers urged caution over hasty conclusions about reports a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible.
Citing intelligence reviewed by US officials, the New York Times reported on Tuesday a saboteur group had blown up the pipelines, while Die Zeit said the attack had been carried out by five men and a woman who rented a yacht using false passports.
The report, while not suggesting Ukrainian state involvement, comes as Kyiv urges its western allies urgently to increase arms and ammunition supplies to drive back Russian forces as the war enters its second year.
Russia has blamed the US and the UK for the sabotage.
Updated
The fiancee of Dmytro Kotsiubailo, better known as “Da Vinci” has handed his personal chevron to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Kotsiubailo was one of best-known fighters, joining the army after protesting in the Maidan Revolution in 2014. By the time Russia launched an invasion, he has become the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian military.
🇺🇦The fiancee of the deceased Dmytro #DaVinci Kotsyubailo, paramedic Alina Mykhailova, handed over his personal chevron to President #Zelensky.
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) March 14, 2023
Da Vinci had been defending Ukraine since 2014 and was the first volunteer to receive the title "Hero of Ukraine" during his lifetime. pic.twitter.com/xplllbH6Z4
Kotsiubailo was killed recently in Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that has seen deadly fighting since August and remains contested. He was 27.
Zelenskiy and the Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin, attended a memorial service for him last week. The commander was made a “Hero of Ukraine” by Zelenskiy in 2022, even before Russia’s full-scale invasion, for his role resisting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Updated
The Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, has arrived at the State Department in Washington.
Antonov was summoned after a Russian fighter jet collided with a US Reaper drone, over the Black Sea. US forces called the incident an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. Antonov was summoned to “convey our strong objections,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Kira Rudik, a prominent member of the Ukrainian parliament, has just tweeted that Ukrainian soldiers have completed their training on the Leopard 2 tanks in Germany.
Ukrainian soldiers have completed their training on #Leopard 2 tanks in Germany. We are proud and motivated. We are looking forward to winning this war. pic.twitter.com/T6Ymh0g3El
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) March 14, 2023
Germany confirmed in January that it would make 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort, and give partner countries permission to re-export further battle tanks to Kyiv, overcoming misgivings about sending heavy weaponry that Ukraine sees as crucial to defeat the Russian invasion.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had come under pressure for weeks and his seeming hesitancy on the question of delivering the battle tanks wanted by the Zelenskiy government had caused growing consternation among western allies.
Thanks to everyone who defends their positions and fights for Ukraine 🇺🇦 today we all can live at home and sleep well.
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) March 14, 2023
📷: Yevhenii Zavhorodnii pic.twitter.com/tibcFVIldr
US Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryder has been careful to avoid giving details of the fate of the wrecked American MQ-9 Reaper drone that had to be ditched into the Black Sea by the US military after being damaged by a Russian fighter jet that was buzzing it and collided with its propeller.
“Russia does not have the drone,” Ryder told gathered journalists. He did not say whether Russia was attempting to gather up the wreckage but there is no doubt that Vladimir Putin’s military intelligence would be eager to do so and dissect it.
The unmanned aerial vehicle could have been monitoring Russian warships in the area that are part of the Black Sea fleet.
California-based General Atomics produces the Reaper for the US Air Force and it’s a large and expensive piece of hi-tech kit that can comfortably fly at an altitude of 50,000ft.
The US government also uses MQ-9 drones to monitor the US-Mexico border to identify migrants trying to cross into the US outside of official border posts.
There are reports that Russia has retrieved some drone wreckage from the Black Sea but this is unverified and unconfirmed so far.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
A Russian fighter has collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.
The US state department said it was summoning Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident. The White House said the drone’s downing was unique and would be raised directly by state department officials with their Russian counterparts.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs have agreed to keep defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian leader’s office has said. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of Bakhmut was of “paramount strategic importance”. He said: “It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.”
At least one person was killed and three people were injured in shelling of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, on Tuesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. The Ukrainian president said six high-rise buildings were damaged, adding: “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.”
The Russian-installed “acting governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has said the position of the frontline in the region is stable, but that Russian forces are strengthening their positions in the area in anticipation of an attack. Speaking to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency, Yevgeny Balitsky said: “Now all military operations are concentrated in the area of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, therefore, it is calm in our direction for the time being.”
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said his country could supply Ukraine with MIG fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks. Warsaw’s commitment to Kyiv has been important in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.
Russian artillery ammunition shortages have probably worsened “to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. “This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action,” it said.
Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine. The prosecutor at the court will reportedly formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said 32 countries have joined a coalition supporting the creation of a special tribunal against Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes including deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians.
Russia and Ukraine are at odds over the length of the extension of the Black Sea grain deal. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, said the deal had been extended on the previous conditions for 60 days, but Ukraine argues that the July 2022 agreement clearly states that extensions are possible for a minimum of 120 days.
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the top two Republicans in polling regarding the 2024 presidential nomination, have said defending Ukraine is not a vital US interest, in remarks that will demoralise Kyiv and encourage Vladimir Putin to believe that time is on his side. Trump said the Ukraine war was not a vital US interest “but it is for Europe … that is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal.”
Lithuania’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate Russia’s Wagner mercenary group as a terrorist organisation, accusing it of “systematic, serious crimes of aggression” in Ukraine. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, thanked the Lithuanian parliament for its decision and called on others to follow suit.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the likelihood that Finland will join the Nato military alliance before Sweden has increased, though he said Swedish membership was only a matter of time. Turkey has been clear it has greater objections concerning Sweden’s accession than Finland’s, and Kristersson said that position still remained, meaning the two countries might not join together as they prefer.
Updated
Russia says its fighter jets did not use weapons or touch US drone
Russia’s defence ministry in a statement said that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone.
The ministry said fighters from its air defence forces were raised into the air to identify the drone, which the ministry said was heading “in direction of the state border of the Russian Federation”.
“As a result of sharp manoeuvring around 9.30 (Moscow time), the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle went into uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface,” the ministry said, adding that its fighter jets returned safely to their base.
Updated
The collision of the Russian fighter jet with the US drone over the Black Sea will probably have caused some damage to the Russian aircraft, Brig Gen Pat Ryder has said.
He told reporters:
What we saw were fighter aircraft dumping fuel in front of this UAV and then getting so close to the aircraft that it actually damaged the propeller on the MQ-9. We assess that it likely caused some damage to the Russian aircraft as well.
Updated
Pentagon holds briefing after US drone downed over Black Sea
Brig Gen Pat Ryder of the US air force is speaking at a news conference after the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US drone over the Black Sea.
He cites a US European Command statement that said Russian aircraft conducted an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept with a US unmanned aircraft that was operating within international airspace.
He said:
At approximately 7.03am CET, one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless and unprofessional manner.
This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.
He said such kinds of US aircraft had been flying over the Black Sea region for some time, adding that it was an “important and busy international waterway”.
You can watch his news conference live here:
Updated
US summons Russian ambassador over drone incident
The US will summon the Russian ambassador over the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US drone over the Black Sea, the US state department’s spokesperson Ned Price has said.
The US ambassador to Moscow conveyed a strong message to Russia’s foreign affairs ministry, Price said, adding that US officials had briefed allies and partners over the incident.
Updated
Ukrainian officials have said a Russian missile hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday.
The rocket killed at least one person and injured three others, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The city of Kramatorsk is just over 50km away from the frontline city of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the most intense fighting anywhere in Ukraine since Russia invaded last year.
Updated
Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has arrived in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin, according to the Syrian presidency.
The trip is Assad’s first official visit outside the Middle East since last month’s devastating earthquake, according to a statement.
The statement said Assad would hold talks with Putin during his visit, alongside a large Syrian ministerial delegation.
Updated
Drone incident 'unsafe and unprofessional', says White House
Here’s more from the White House spokesperson John Kirby on the incident over the Black Sea in which a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck the propeller of a US military surveillance drone.
Joe Biden was briefed about the incident, Kirby told reporters. He added that state department officials would be “speaking directly” with their Russian counterparts and “expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept”.
Kirby said that while there have been other such intercepts, this one was noteworthy because it was “unsafe and unprofessional” and caused the downing of a US aircraft. “So it’s unique in that regard,” he said.
The incident would not deter the US from operating over the Black Sea, he said.
The Black Sea belongs to no one nation. And we’re going to continue to do what we need to do for our national security interests in that part of the world.
Updated
Nato’s top military commander, Gen Christopher Cavoli, has informed allies about an incident over the Black Sea involving a Russian fighter jet and a US military drone, according to a Nato official.
The White House spokesperson John Kirby has been speaking about a Russian fighter jet that collided with a US military drone over the Black Sea earlier today.
Kirby said it was not uncommon for there to be intercepts by Russian aircraft of US aircraft over the Black Sea, but “this one is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was”.
From Voice of America’s Patsy Widakuswara:
Clarifying this to: Apparently INTERCEPTS bw Russian aircrafts & US drones are not uncommon, per John Kirby of NSC. He reiterated the MQ-9 drone was operating in international airspace over international waters, posting threats to nobody.
— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) March 14, 2023
Updated
Russian fighter jet collides with US drone over Black Sea
A Russian Su-27 fighter jet has collided with a US military drone over the Black Sea, causing the drone to crash, according to the US military.
The American MQ-9 Reaper drone and two SU-27 Flanker jets were conducting a routine operation in international airspace when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of and dumped fuel in front of the unmanned drone, according to a US official familiar with the incident.
In a statement, Gen James Hecker, who overseas the US air force in the region, said:
Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9.
In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.
US and allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely.
Updated
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the top two Republicans in polling regarding the 2024 presidential nomination, have said defending Ukraine is not a vital US interest, in remarks that will demoralise Kyiv and encourage Vladimir Putin to believe that time is on his side.
Trump, a longstanding Putin admirer, has been consistently sceptical about US support for Ukraine, and has suggested he could broker a peace deal, involving Ukraine surrendering territory. DeSantis had previously tried to dodge questions on Ukraine, and his new comments are likely to shift sentiment in the Republican party further from support of Ukraine.
Both men answered a questionnaire from Tucker Carlson, the primetime Fox News host, who posted the responses to Twitter.
DeSantis, the governor of Florida, said the US should not “become further entangled” in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump, the former president who dominates polling, said the Ukraine war was not a vital US interest “but it is for Europe … that is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal”.
Updated
Zelenskiy and Ukrainian military ‘agree to continue defending Bakhmut’
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs have “expressed a common position” to keep defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian leader’s office has said.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of Bakhmut was of “paramount strategic importance”. “It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front,” he said.
In a statement, Zelenskiy’s office said the Ukrainian president and top government officials and military commanders had discussed the situation in Bakhmut, where Russian and Ukraine forces are taking heavy casualties.
It said:
After considering the defensive operation in the Bakhmut direction, all … expressed a common position to continue holding and defending the city of Bakhmut.
Zelenskiy and the military command also discussed the pace and scale of the supply of weapons and equipment from Ukraine’s western allies, and how to allocate them to the troops, it said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
At least one person has been killed and three people injured in the shelling of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region on Tuesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. The Ukrainian president said “six high-rise buildings were damaged”, adding: “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.”
The Russian-installed “acting governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has said the position of the frontline in the region is “stable”, but that Russian forces are strengthening their positions in the area in anticipation of an attack. Speaking to Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency, Yevgeny Balitsky said: “Now all military operations are concentrated in the area of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, therefore, it is calm in our direction for the time being.”
Ukraine’s defence ministry has claimed in its latest update that in the past 24 hours its forces have killed over 700 Russian troops. It also said that it has destroyed 10 tanks, 15 armoured combat vehicles, 16 pieces of artillery and 11 drones. The claims have not been independently verified.
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said his country could supply Ukraine with MIG fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks. Warsaw’s commitment to Kyiv has been important in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.
Russian artillery ammunition shortages have “likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. “This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action,” it added.
Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine. The prosecutor at the international criminal court (ICC) will reportedly formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said 32 countries have joined a coalition supporting the creation of a special tribunal against Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes including deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians.
Russia and Ukraine are at odds over the length of the extension of the Black Sea grain deal. Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said the deal had been extended on the previous conditions for 60 days, but Ukraine argues that the July 2022 agreement clearly states that extensions are possible for a minimum of 120 days.
Lithuania’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate Russia’s Wagner mercenary group “a terrorist organisation”, accusing it of “systematic, serious crimes of aggression” in Ukraine. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, thanked the Lithuanian parliament for its decision and called on others to follow suit.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the likelihood that Finland will join the Nato military alliance before Sweden has increased, though Swedish membership is only a matter of time. Ankara has been clear it has greater objections concerning Sweden’s accession than Finland’s, and Kristersson said Turkey’s position in that regard still remained, meaning the two countries might not join together as they prefer.
Good afternoon from London, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here with all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received from Ukraine.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has thanked the Lithuanian parliament for its decision to label the Wagner mercenary group as a terrorist organisation, and called on others to follow suit.
Thanks to the Lithuanian Seimas for passing a resolution designating the Russian "Wagner" PMC as a terrorist organization. Others should follow suit. Should call culprits culprits.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 14, 2023
The Russian-installed “acting governor” of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has told Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass that the position of the frontline in the region is “stable”, but that Russian forces are strengthening their positions in the area in anticipation of an attack.
Yevgeny Balitsky, one of the leaders of the occupied regions of Ukraine who attended the annexation ceremony in Moscow in September last year, is quoted as saying:
We have all regiments, all divisions complete. We are waiting for the enemy, because by and large we know that there is a strike group in the Zaporizhzhia region, respectively, we are strengthening our positions, waiting for the enemy to attack. Now all military operations are concentrated in the area of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, therefore, it is calm in our direction for the time being. And we are preparing for any provocative action by the enemy.
Isobel Koshiw and Lorenzo Tondo report for the Guardian today on the Ukrainian volunteers who search for Russian corpses:
The aim is to collect Russian bodies to exchange for Ukrainians, since a soldier cannot be declared dead by the state until there is a body, but the process of extracting them is extremely risky. Like much of the deoccupied areas, Krasnopillia is littered with antipersonnel mines. Russia has been using remote mining systems that scatter tiny mines from the air. There have also been several instances of Russian forces booby-trapping bodies and houses before retreating.
“The mines are dropped from rockets and so they can be anywhere. They can even be caught in trees and blow off in the wind,” said one volunteer, Artur, who was piloting a donated drone to document the bodies’ recovery.
The Ukrainian volunteer body collectors belong to a group called Black Tulip, and say they have unearthed 311 Russian soldiers in deoccupied areas since February. Comprising about 10 volunteers, they are one of several groups, as well as Ukrainian military units, who scour the deoccupied areas and frontlines looking for corpses.
Read more of Isobel Koshiw and Lorenzo Tondo’s report from Krasnopillia, which is accompanied by photographs from Alessio Mamo: The body collectors – Ukrainian volunteers search for Russian corpses
Hungary’s ruling party lawmakers want to postpone next week’s parliament session, which means a further delay in its ratification of Finland and Sweden’s Nato admission, an opposition party lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports Ágnes Vadai, of the leftist Democratic Coalition, said in a Facebook post she had received a letter from deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén informing her that the ruling party Fidesz and the Christian Democrats want to postpone the session which would have started on Monday.
Sweden and Finland applied last year for membership of the transatlantic military alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. All 30 Nato members must ratify the applications, and Hungary and Turkey are the only two to have held back their approvals.
Vladimir Putin has been addressing workers at an aviation factory, where he said the “survival of Russian statehood” was at stake in Ukraine.
Repeating his argument that the west was determined to pull Russia apart, Putin said:
For us this is not a geopolitical task, but a task of the survival of Russian statehood, creating conditions for the future development of the country and our children.
He added that the Russian economy had proved stronger than expected following western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine:
It turned out, for many of us, and even more so for western countries, that the fundamental foundations of Russia’s stability are much stronger than anyone thought.
Updated
Russian troops launched a missile attack on Odesa region using tactical aircraft, Ukraine’s operational command south said in an update earlier this afternoon.
It said the Russian missiles were downed over the sea, but the debris and blast wave damaged a kindergarten on the coastline and several private houses. No casualties have been reported, it said.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said 32 countries have joined a coalition supporting the creation of a special tribunal against Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Two more countries have joined the Coalition for the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. 32 states are now working together to hold Russia’s top political and military leadership accountable. Putin and his associates will stand trial.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 14, 2023
Ukraine, the EU and the Netherlands have publicly backed the idea of a special tribunal. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes including deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians.
Updated
Poland ‘could give Ukraine MiG fighter jets in weeks’, says PM
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said his country could supply Ukraine with MIG fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks.
Western countries that have provided Ukraine with weapons have so far declined to send fighter jets. Poland has said it would be willing to send war planes in a coalition of countries.
Warsaw’s commitment to Kyiv has been important in persuading European allies to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.
Updated
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has backed an amendment that would punish those found guilty of discrediting “volunteer” groups fighting in Ukraine, in a move that would include fighters working for the private mercenary Wagner group.
The amendment will need to be approved by the parliament’s upper house, before passing to President Vladimir Putin for final approval, Reuters reports.
Under the current legislation, “discrediting” the Russian army can be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading knowingly false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the centre of Kramatorsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
At least one person has been killed and three wounded by the attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Updated
Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine.
“We do not recognise this court; we do not recognise its jurisdiction,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday morning.
The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported on Monday that the prosecutor at the international criminal court (ICC) would formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
If successful, it would be the first time ICC warrants have been issued in relation to the invasion of Ukraine.
Reports of imminent arrest warrants come just over a year after the prosecutor Karim Khan opened an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine. Over the past 12 months, he has made three trips to the country and visited sites of alleged war crimes.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russia and Ukraine are at odds over the length of the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, with Moscow seeking to extend for 60 days, and Ukraine insisting that 120 days is the minimum permitted extension. Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said the deal had been extended on the previous conditions for 60 days, however Ukraine argues that the July 2022 agreement clearly states that extensions are possible for a minimum of 120 days, and the original agreement should be amended if parties want a shorten terms.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted to his Telegram channel to confirm that one person has been killed and three people injured in the shelling of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region on Tuesday morning. He wrote that “six high-rise buildings were damaged”, and that “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.”
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, reported that another civilian had been killed Tuesday morning as a result of Russian military action – a 55-year-old woman whose car was hit in Vovchansk.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday Russia does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague. Peskov was being asked about reports the ICC was expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals in relation to the conflict in Ukraine shortly.
Nataliya Humenyuk, head of the joint coordination press centre of the southern defence forces of Ukraine, has claimed that over the past day, Ukrainian forces destroyed eight units of equipment and killed 14 Russian soldiers on the islands of the Dnieper River delta. Suspilne reports she said on television that the Russian army had tried to deploy observation points on them in order to see what the defence forces on the north bank of the river were preparing.
Ukraine’s defence ministry claims in its latest update that in the last 24 hours its forces have killed over 700 Russian troops. It also says that it has destroyed ten tanks, 15 armoured combat vehicles, 16 pieces of artillery and 11 drones. The claims have not been independently verified.
In its latest daily intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence asserts that “In recent weeks, Russian artillery ammunition shortages have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front. This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.”
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on Tuesday that the likelihood that Finland would join the Nato military alliance before Sweden had increased, though Swedish membership was only a matter of time.
Lithuania’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate Russia’s Wagner mercenary group “a terrorist organisation”, accusing it of “systematic, serious crimes of aggression” in Ukraine
Authorities in the Indonesian island Bali have asked the government to cancel a visa on arrival policy for Ukrainians and Russians, citing concerns that citizens of the two countries were violating local laws and regulations.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that power outages are possible today in the capital Kyiv. Citing Ukrenergo, it reports that stabilising outages are operating in some places, and that power outages are possible in Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions.
Updated
Lithuania’s parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to designate Russia’s Wagner mercenary group “a terrorist organisation”, accusing it of “systematic, serious crimes of aggression” in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Swedish PM says likelihood Finland joins Nato before Sweden has increased
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on Tuesday that the likelihood that Finland would join the Nato military alliance before Sweden had increased, though Swedish membership was only a matter of time.
Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato last year but have faced objections from Turkey which says the two countries harbour members of what it considers terrorist groups. The countries resumed talks on the process in Brussels last week.
Ankara has been clear it has greater objections concerning Sweden’s accession than Finland’s, and Kristersson said Turkey’s position in that regard still remained, meaning the two countries might not join together as they prefer.
“What we have encountered in recent weeks is that the probability of this happening at different times has increased,” Reuters reports Kristersson told a news conference in Stockholm before leaving on a visit to Germany.
“At the end of the day, it is not a matter of whether Sweden becomes a member of Nato, but when.”
Updated
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, reports that another civilian has been killed this morning as a result of Russian military action. He posted to Telegram:
The enemy continues to shell civilians and civilian infrastructure of Vovchansk. Unfortunately, people die. Today, around 10am, during the shelling of the city, an enemy projectile hit a civilian car. A 55-year-old woman who was in it died on the spot.
Updated
Russia have been invited to compete in the Central Asian Football Association (Cafa) Championship in June, amid speculation over a switch to the Asian confederation (AFC) as the country seeks a return to international competition. Russian teams have been suspended from European and Fifa competitions since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia and Ukraine at odds over length of Black Sea grain deal extension
Russia and Ukraine are at odds over the length of the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, with Moscow seeking to extend for 60 days, and Ukraine insisting that 120 days is the minimum permitted extension.
Russia’s Tass news agency earlier cited Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying the deal, which helps Ukraine export agricultural products following Russia’s invasion, had been extended on the previous conditions for 60 days.
But Reuters reports a senior Ukrainian government official told it that Ukraine will stick to the terms of an agreement, which mandates a 120-day extension. “We will follow the agreement strictly,” the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
A Russian source said separately earlier on Tuesday that the 60-day extension meant that after 60 days one of the parties may raise the issue of the deal’s termination.
Ukraine argues that the July agreement clearly states that extensions are possible for a minimum of 120 days, and the original agreement should be amended if parties want a shorten terms.
“The Russians realised that 60 days is not legally possible, so they are trying to find a way out,” the senior Ukrainian government official said.
Kyiv had previously said that it wanted to extend the deal by at least one year, and that Ukraine wanted the city of Mykolaiv’s ports included.
Turkey’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that talks over the extension of the deal are still continuing. Turkey and the UN helped broker the original arrangement last July.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday Russia does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, Reuters reports.
Citing Tass, Reuters says Peskov was being asked about reports the ICC was expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals in relation to the conflict in Ukraine shortly.
Peskov also said that Kyiv’s position means Russia’s goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by “military means”.
One person killed, three injured in shelling of Kramatorsk
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to his Telegram channel to confirm that one person has been killed and three people injured in the shelling of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region this morning. Ukraine’s president writes:
Kramatorsk. A Russian missile hit the city center. Six high-rise buildings were damaged. At least three people were injured. One person died. My condolences to the family! Rescue operations are still ongoing.
The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Destroying life and leaving nothing human. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder. It will definitely be that way.
Nataliya Humenyuk, head of the joint coordination press centre of the southern defence forces of Ukraine, has claimed that over the past day, Ukrainian forces destroyed eight units of equipment and killed 14 Russian soldiers on the islands of the Dnieper River delta.
Suspilne reports she said on television that the Russian army had tried to deploy observation points on them in order to see what the defence forces on the north bank of the river were preparing.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The air alarm has sounded in Kyiv again.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting that at least three civilians have been injured, and six high-rise buildings damaged in shelling of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region this morning. The reports cited regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Suspilne is also reporting that explosions have been heard in Kherson by its correspondents. The city sits on the north bank of the Dnieper River. Russian forces occupy the area of Kherson region which is south of the river, and it is one of the regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Authorities in the Indonesian island Bali have asked the government to cancel a visa on arrival policy for Ukrainians and Russians, citing concerns that citizens of the two countries were violating local laws and regulations.
Russians make up one of the biggest groups of foreign visitors to Indonesia, and many stayed in Bali during the pandemic and following the invasion of Ukraine.
But local people’s patience with tourists has worn thin, due to frequent reports of unlawful or disrespectful behaviour, and of foreigners working illegally while staying on tourist visas.
Bali Governor Wayan Koster said he had written to the Law and Human Rights Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister to request that they revoke the visas on arrival policy for Russian and Ukrainian citizens visiting Bali, saying there was a significant problem with citizens from the two countries breaching rules.
“Because the two countries are at war, they don’t feel comfortable in their own country. So they come to Bali,” Koster said, according to a report by Tempo.
Local people in Bali have taken to social media over recent years to complain about tourist behaviour – this includes instances where social media influencers violated Covid rules for online pranks during the pandemic, a model who posed naked at a sacred tree and a man who allegedly hit a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol.
More than 77,500 Russians arrived in Indonesia between September 2022 and January 2023 following the relaxation of Covid restrictions, according to Reuters. About 8,800 Ukrainian visitors arrived between September 2022 and January 2023.
Koster said it is possible that other countries may also have visa on arrival entitlement revoked. The Law and Human Rights Ministry is yet to respond.
Ukraine’s defence ministry claims in its latest update that in the last 24 hours its forces have killed over 700 Russian troops. It also says that it has destroyed ten tanks, 15 armoured combat vehicles, 16 pieces of artillery and 11 drones. The claims have not been independently verified.
"Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 14, 2023
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Total combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to March 14, 2023: pic.twitter.com/bLaIp5h9f8
In its latest daily briefing of how it assesses the situation in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has asserted that “defence manufacturing capacity is a key vulnerability” in Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. It writes:
In recent weeks, Russian artillery ammunition shortages have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front. This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 14 March 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 14, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/Z5SI6SOzPY
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/1vOoyWCYYD
There is little respite in the air alarms in Ukraine so far this morning. Donetsk region declared an all clear a few minutes ago, and then just three minutes later declared a new air alert. Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv all also have active air alerts at the moment.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Britain’s refresh of its defence and foreign policy may mark the moment when the UK sobers up about its place in a world that it now describes as “defined by danger, disorder and division”, and increasingly tilting to authoritarianism.
Gone is the optimistic Global Britain bombast of the Boris Johnson era, set out in the original integrated review only two years ago. That version championed the UK as “a beacon of democratic sovereignty” and one of the most influential countries in the world, and hailed its ability to draw on its post-Brexit status to “do things differently, economically and politically”.
By contrast, the reworked review is a vision of a colder, darker and more hostile world where the interests of the west do not necessarily triumph. There is no shortage of patriotism, but warnings and forebodings fill every page:
What has changed is that our collective security now is intrinsically linked to the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine.
But the scale of these intensifying threats has only led to a modest increase in defence spending of £5bn over two years, mainly related to the Aukus nuclear submarine deal. There has been, however, a re-evaluation of the importance of alliances and partnerships to the UK. The emphasis now is less on the benefits of Britain going it alone, and more on the necessity for democracies to “out cooperate” the autocracies.
For more on how the UK is reconsidering its position in the world, read Guardian diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour’s, full analysis:
Updated
Partisan group Atesh claims to have killed the deputy head of the military administration of Nova Kakhovka just after midnight on Monday.
In a post to the group’s telegram, it claims to have detonated a bomb killing the official as he approached his car outside a cafe on Pobedy Avenue and that no civilians were injured.
The claims have not been verified.
Atesh is a partisan group operating in parts of occupied Ukraine, made up of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and Russians since September 2022.
It has previously claimed credit for a number of significant attacks on Russian personnel in occupied Ukraine, including a February 10 car bomb attack in the area of Nova Kakhovka which killed two Russian soldiers and injured two others.
The prosecutor at the international criminal court will formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, according to reports on Monday.
The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported that the prosecutor, Karim Khan, would ask pre-trial judges to approve arrest warrants on the basis of evidence collected so far. If successful, it would be the first time ICC warrants have been issued in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is not clear whether the warrants would be sealed, which would leave suspects guessing over whether they had been implicated. It is unlikely that the warrants would lead to trials as the ICC would not try the defendants in absentia, and Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, is highly unlikely to hand them over to the court, based in The Hague.
For more on this story read the full report:
In September 2022 The New York Times published an article that contained recordings from wiretaps of Russia troops where they spoke about looting, killing civilians and criticised their commanders.
Independent Russian media outlet, Mediazone, tracked down 13 Russian soldiers whose calls were published by the NYT for a recently published longread,
One soldier, referred to as Sergei, who was quoted in the NYT story as describing the invasion of Ukraine as a “criminal war” told Mediazone that even after a year he had not changed his mind. He was the only soldier that agreed to speak to the reporters or who did not insist they supported the war.
During their calls quoted in the New York Times, Sergei told his girlfriend about looting by other soldiers and of the murder of three civilians. Adding further context to the Mediazone reporters, Sergei said:
The conversation is incomplete. Personally, I didn’t kill anyone from a machine gun, I personally didn’t take civilians prisoner, it was our guards who did it. The situation was as follows: in front of my eyes, three prisoners were taken and taken away. We were told that they were taken away and would hardly be released. Peaceful or not, I can’t say for sure, everything was too far away. I saw them already naked.
Sergei also described to the Mediazone reporters how he found a field of bodies in a forest near where he was serving. When asked why he did not refuse to obey orders if he considered the war illegal, he said he did not know:
We were intimidated by prison. I just wanted to endure it all and come home alive. Of course, I could ask the lawyer everything, but there was no time for that, we didn’t sleep much, and in general it was more important for me to talk with my relatives. In general, I didn’t even think about it somehow
A Russian soldier who had reportedly been hiding for about six months in abandoned buildings after the liberation of the Kharkiv region has been arrested by Ukrainian police.
The soldier, a 42-year-old serviceman from the 27th Russian Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, was taken into custody on Monday as regional police officers patrolled villages in the Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi area.
After he was searched, it turned out that the man, who is from the Moscow region, was a serviceman of the 27th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation. The detainee claimed he had been hiding since the liberation of the Kupiansk district by Ukraine’s armed forces.
The man, dressed in civilian clothes, was apparently separated from his unit as they fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last September. It is still unclear how he had managed to hide for the six months since the Russian retreat.
For more on this story, read the full report below.
Ukrainian forces have sustained significant losses since the start of the war as western officials have questioned the wisdom of holding Bakhmut since January, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Speaking to serving members of the military and unnamed officials in western governments in the US and Europe, The Washing Post reports that Ukraine may have suffered as many as 120,000 killed and wounded during the conflict, compared to 200,000 on the Russian side – though it claims Ukraine keeps its casualty reports secret, even from its staunchest allies.
The report suggests western training programs aren’t preparing soldiers fast enough and many of the junior offices who have received training over the last nine months have already been killed in action.
It also claims Ukrainian security services closed down a telegram group that informed members about where authorities were distributing draft summonses.
The Washington Post report closes with figures describing the aid promised by western governments but cites named and unnamed sources who wonder whether it will be too little, too late.
Ukrainian defence forces repelled more than 100 attacks along the frontline, according to the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
In its latest update, it claimed Russian forces launched five rocket strikes against civil infrastructure in Sumy and Donetsk that resulted in deaths and injuries among civilians. The Russian airforce carried out 35 airstrikes and 76 rocket salvo attacks.
Though it says the operational environment “has not changed significantly”, near Kupyansk and Lyman, Russian forces are mounting attacks against Ukrainian defences.
Ukrainian forces carried out 10 airstrikes on Russian forces, and hit five concentration areas with artillery, along with three ammunition warehouses and four communications systems.
Russian forces have made “marginal” gains in several parts of Ukraine according to the latest analysis by the Institute for The Study of War (ISW).
Northeast of Kupyansk, Russian forces appeared to advance 17km and 7km east of Siversk.
However the ISW says Russian forces have not been able to complete a turning movement around Bakhmut despite further advances in the area.
Military bloggers associated with the Wagner Group have speculated the organisation is attempting to extend its flank west of Bakhmut to the Siversky Donetsk-Donbas water canal to create an “artificial operational encirclement”.
These same commentators have also been growing concerned about a build up of Ukrainian troops and equipment that may signal a counterattack to break Wagner’s blockade of the city, and a broader offensive among the entire front line.
2/ Russian forces have made marginal territorial gains northeast of #Kupyansk as of March 13. Geolocated footage posted on March 13 shows that Russian forces advanced south of Hryanykivka (17km northeast of Kupyansk). pic.twitter.com/ZvQcwSWrqF
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 14, 2023
Fierce fighting is raging for control of the centre of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, forces from both sides of the conflict have said, as casualties continue to mount in the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war.
Russia ratcheted up its efforts to take Bakhmut in early February after months of intense fighting around the town, and has since inched into the small city’s suburbs. Ukraine’s forces are now fighting off attacks from the north, east and south. Their only road out, to the west, is under Russian artillery fire.
Ukraine insists there is a strategy behind continuing the fight for Bakhmut. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Sunday that it was using the defence of Bakhmut to buy time until Ukraine is able to carry out an anticipated spring offensive. Syrskyi also said Ukraine was using the opportunity to kill as many Russian troops as possible and wear down its reserves.
It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counteroffensive, which is not far off. [Ukrainian soldiers are] inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy.
For more on this story, read the full report.
Russia to extend critical grain agreement for 60 days
Russian has suggested renewing a crucial deal to allow the safe export of gain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for half the term of the previous agreement, Reuters reports.
The proposal was first brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey last July. Without this grain, a number of countries would experience a critical food shortage.
In November the deal was extended for 120 days but is now expected to be renewed on Saturday for 60 days after Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin met with UN Officials in Geneva, citing restrictions on Russian agricultural exporters.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that Russia’s stance went against the agreement, but did not reject Moscow’s 60-day proposal.
[The grain] agreement involves at least 120 days of extension, therefore Russia’s position to extend the deal only for 60 days contradicts the document signed by Turkey and the UN.
We’re waiting for the official position of the UN and Turkey as the guarantors of the initiative.
Opening Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, according to sources speaking to the Reuters news agency. The visit comes after senior Chinese officials flagged that China’s values its relationship to Russia in the face of western hostility.
Xi also plans to speak with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal. China’s president is to speak virtually with his Ukrainian counterpart, probably after a visit to Moscow next week, the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Institute for The Study of War (ISW) says Russian forces have made “marginal” gains in some parts of Ukraine. Crucially the ISW says Russian forces have not been able to complete an encircling operation in the area around Bakhmut despite small advances overnight.
Meanwhile, Serbian economy minister Rade Basta called for sanctions to be imposed against Russia. Basta said Serbia, which has traditionally had a close relationship with Russia, had paid a “high price” for having delayed.
In other developments:
The Italian government has said Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind a surge in migrant boats trying to cross the central Mediterranean, as part of Moscow’s strategy to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine, Reuters reported. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to the claims, saying, “We have no idea what’s happening with the migrant crisis, we don’t concern ourselves with it.”
The international criminal court intends to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people. The cases are the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict, the newspaper reports.
Moscow says a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be extended only for a period of 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin has said.
Britain has declared that the UK’s security hinges on the outcome of the Ukraine war in an update to its foreign policy framework published on Monday. The UK will invest an extra £5bn in the armed forces over two years and increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
Britain’s Royal Navy said it was escorting a Russian frigate and tanker in waters close to the UK having shadowed the vessels through the Channel on Sunday morning.
President Zelenskiy said his government will spend $13.5bn on defence, including military salaries and drones this year.
Updated
