Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russia has lost at least 130 tanks and armoured personnel carriers in a three-week battle in the town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian officials said the “epic” fight on a plain near Vuhledar produced the biggest tank battle of the war so far and a stinging setback for the Russians, the New York Times reported.
The Ukrainian military may decide to withdraw its forces from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. “Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelenskiy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
But Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, said Ukrainian forces were putting up “furious resistance” against Moscow’s attempt to seize Bakhmut. Prigozhin said he so far had seen no signs of a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.
Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces repelled what it described as a major Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. “Six Ukrainian attack drones were shot down by air defence systems. Another four Ukrainian drones were disabled by electronic warfare,” the ministry said.
Vladimir Putin has said he is preparing for a visit to Moscow by China’s president, Xi Jinping, Russian state media reported. The Russian leader said he planned to show the Chinese delegation the Moscow metro’s Bolshaya Koltsevaya line (Big Circle line) during their visit to the Russian capital.
The leaders of China and Belarus – Xi Jinping and Alexander Lukashenko – have issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and negotiations to bring about a political settlement to the conflict. The joint call amounted to an endorsement of Beijing’s peace plan issued last week that demanded respect of national sovereignty and “territorial integrity”. The 12-point paper did not say what would happen to the regions Russia has occupied since the invasion.
Finland’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved legislation allowing the country to join Nato. Finnish MPs voted 184 in favour of accepting the Nato treaties, with seven against and one abstaining, increasing the chances of it becoming a member of the transatlantic defensive alliance before its Nordic neighbour Sweden.
Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, urged lawmakers on Wednesday to ratify Finland and Sweden’s Nato entry “as soon as possible”. “It is a complex decision, with serious consequences, so careful consideration is necessary,” Novák said on Facebook. Hungary and Turkey are so far the only two Nato countries not to ratify their admission. Talks between Turkey, Sweden and Finland resume in Brussels on 9 March.
Germany will ramp up ammunition production as well as ensure it has enough replacement parts and repairs capacity in its defence industry to better support Ukraine, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said. The German leader vowed on Friday to support Ukraine “as strongly and as long as necessary”, adding that German aid to Ukraine, for financial and humanitarian support as well as weapons, had totalled more than €14bn (£12.4bn) so far.
Russia would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal if the interests of its agricultural producers were taken into account, Russia’s foreign ministry has said. The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, allows safe exports from Ukrainian ports and is up for renewal this month.
Russia brought new legal amendments to parliament on Wednesday that further strengthen the country’s censorship laws, envisaging up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces or voluntary military organisations such as the Wagner group.
A 12-year-old Russian girl has been sent to an orphanage and her father beaten up and arrested by authorities after she drew an anti-war picture in an art class, according to reports. Alexei Moskalev, a single father from the eastern Tula region, was reportedly charged with discrediting the military in December after his daughter, Masha, protested against the war at school and online.
A government official in Poland has said Russia was behind a hacking attack that blocked users’ access to the online tax filing system. “Russians are responsible for yesterday’s attack, it must be made clear. We have information that makes it very likely that this was the adversary,” the official said.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war live blog today. Thank you for following. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
Russian troops continue to advance near the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s armed forces have said in their latest update.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces posted to Facebook:
The enemy continues to advance. The assault on the city of Bakhmut continues.
Ukrainian volunteers running civilian evacuations in Donbas say they have stopped going to Bakhmut, freelance journalist Neil Hauer writes, citing a “direct threat” of Russian anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) on the remaining roads to the city.
Ukrainian volunteers running civilian evacuations in Donbas say they've stopped going to Bakhmut as there's now a direct threat of Russian ATGMs along the remaining roads into the city. Hard to see how it can hold out much longer.
— Neil Hauer (@NeilPHauer) March 1, 2023
Putin says he is preparing to meet China’s Xi in Moscow
Vladimir Putin has said he is preparing for a visit to Moscow by China’s president, Xi Jinping, Russian state media reported.
The Russian leader said he planned to show the Chinese delegation the city’s Bolshaya Koltsevaya metro line (Big Circle line) during their visit to the Russian capital.
A Russian division of China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd (CRCC) was involved in building a section of the line, state-run Tass news agency said.
Putin, speaking at the launch of services on the metro line, was quoted by Tass as saying:
We will be meeting with the president of the People’s Republic of China. If the schedule allows, we will be happy to show [the Big Circle line] to our guests as well. In any case, I think we will be able to show it to the delegation.
The BBC’s Francis Scarr shared a clip of Putin addressing metro workers during the launch today:
Absurd scenes as Putin "opens" a new metro line in Moscow via video call pic.twitter.com/UrDjr8aHSF
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) March 1, 2023
Updated
Russia loses at least 130 tanks and APCs in Vuhledar in 'biggest tank battle in Ukraine war' – report
Russia has lost at least 130 tanks and armoured personnel carriers in a three-week battle in the town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian officials said the “epic” fight on a plain near Vuhledar produced the biggest tank battle of the war so far and a stinging setback for the Russians, the New York Times reports.
Both sides sent tanks into the fray, “with the Russians thrusting forward in columns and the Ukrainians manoeuvring defensively, firing from a distance or from hiding places as Russian columns came into their sights”, the paper writes.
When it was over, not only had Russia failed to capture Vuhledar, but it also had made the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing columns into ambushes.
The remains of the Russian tanks, blown up on mines, hit with artillery or destroyed by anti-tank missiles, now litter farm fields all about the coal mining town, according to Ukrainian military drone footage.
Russian troops also suffered a lack of experienced tank commanders in Vuhledar, and many of the fighters consisted of newly conscripted soldiers who had not been trained in Ukraine’s tactics for ambushing columns, the paper says. Ambushes have been Ukraine’s signature tactic against Russian armoured columns since the early days of the war.
By last week, Russia had lost so many machines to sustained armoured assaults that they had changed tactics and resorted only to infantry attacks, Ukrainian commanders said.
Updated
You would never guess from the immaculate tailoring and finely turned silhouettes of the Litkovska collection shown at Paris fashion week that its production was frequently interrupted by air raid warnings that forced the 23-strong team of tailors and stylists to flee the design studio for a bomb shelter.
It remains the only Ukrainian brand on the Paris catwalks and is still designed and produced in Kyiv by Lilia Litkovska and her team.
The bombardments are just one of the logistical challenges faced by the designer and her team in Kyiv. “There are problems every day, but we find solutions every day,” said Litkovska backstage before her show.
“We are very lucky because our studio is close to a good bomb shelter,” added Olena Iakovenko, one of four team members who travelled to France with Litkovska to stage the event.
The collection, called From the War Zone with Peace, was shown at an art deco cinema against a backdrop of footage filmed inside the Kyiv studio.
Updated
An air raid alert was reported earlier in most regions of Ukraine. My colleague, Isobel Koshiw, writes that the alert has since been cancelled for Kyiv.
New Voice of Ukraine’s Euan MacDonald reported that the air raid had sounded in Kyiv before spreading to the east of the country.
Kyiv air raid alert sounds, alerts have spread to entire east. pic.twitter.com/WzYUhuov3d
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) March 1, 2023
Updated
Updated
Russian prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence a pro-democracy activist and computer science student to nine years in prison on a charge of discrediting Russia’s armed forces.
Dmitry Ivanov, who ran the “Protest at [Moscow State University]” Telegram channel, served 25 days in prison on another case but was not released when his sentence was due to end in June, Radio Free Europe reported, citing a local news story.
Ivanov spoke to the Guardian last year for a story on Russia’s anti-war activists who were refusing to leave the country, in which he said that he feared that if he left Russia, “then there will be no way back”.
He said he would probably be “welcomed abroad”, and said the police had “shown a lot of interest in me”. But he insisted that he had not done anything illegal, just “encourage others to go out and protest peacefully”.
“That is allowed by law,” he said.
I don’t think I should be afraid or run away. This is my country.
Updated
Germany to increase ammunition production to support Ukraine, says Scholz
Germany will ramp up ammunition production as well as ensure it has enough replacement parts and repairs capacity in its defence industry to better support Ukraine, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said.
Scholz, after a meeting with Latvian prime minister, Krišjānis Kariņš, said:
The now one-year lasting support of Ukraine has also brought us the knowledge that enables us to ensure that there is also a sufficient supply, with spare parts, that we have created repair capacities for the weapons used in the war, at locations outside of Ukraine.
He added:
We will ensure that the production of ammunition is advanced, both for the weapons that we have supplied ourselves and those that come from classic stocks that are available in eastern Europe.
The German leader vowed on Friday to support Ukraine “as strongly and as long as necessary”, adding that German aid to Ukraine, for financial and humanitarian support as well as weapons, had totalled more than €14bn (£12.4bn) so far.
Updated
One in two people in Switzerland support relaxing the country’s military neutrality to allow the transfer of Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine by third countries, according to a new poll.
According to a survey of nearly 28,000 people carried out last month, 50% were in favour of allowing the re-export of Swiss arms to Ukraine, while 46% were opposed and 4% were undecided, the Kyiv Post reported.
The poll also showed that 43% of respondents supported Switzerland transferring decommissioned tanks to other European nations so they could send these tanks to Ukraine.
About 49% of people said they favoured the seizure of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs with their subsequent use for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The Ukrainian military may decide to withdraw its forces from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. “Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelenskiy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
But Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, said Ukrainian forces were putting up “furious resistance” against Moscow’s attempt to seize Bakhmut. Prigozhin said he so far had seen no signs of a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.
Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces repelled what it described as a major Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. “Six Ukrainian attack drones were shot down by air defence systems. Another four Ukrainian drones were disabled by electronic warfare,” the ministry said.
The leaders of China and Belarus – Xi Jinping and Alexander Lukashenko – have issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and negotiations to bring about a political settlement to the conflict. The joint call amounted to an endorsement of Beijing’s peace plan issued last week that demanded respect of national sovereignty and “territorial integrity”. The 12-point paper did not say what would happen to the regions Russia has occupied since the invasion.
Finland’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved legislation allowing the country to join Nato. Finnish MPs voted 184 in favour of accepting the Nato treaties, with seven against and one abstaining, increasing the chances of it becoming a member of the transatlantic defensive alliance before its Nordic neighbour Sweden.
Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, urged lawmakers on Wednesday to ratify Finland and Sweden’s Nato entry “as soon as possible”. “It is a complex decision, with serious consequences, so careful consideration is necessary,” Novák said on Facebook. Hungary and Turkey are so far the only two Nato countries not to ratify their admission. Talks between Turkey, Sweden and Finland are set to resume in Brussels on 9 March.
Russia would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal if the interests of its agricultural producers were taken into account, Russia’s foreign ministry has said. The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, allows safe exports from Ukrainian ports and is up for renewal this month.
An adviser to Volodymr Zelenskiy has denied that Ukraine mounts attacks within Russian territory. On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine of launching a spate of attempted drone strikes targeting infrastructure inside Russia, including near Moscow, after a fire broke out at an oil depot in Tuapse, Krasnodar, and authorities briefly closed airspace above St Petersburg. The Kremlin responded to Mykhailo Podolyak’s statement on Wednesday by saying it did not believe it.
Russia brought new law amendments to parliament on Wednesday that further strengthen the country’s censorship laws, envisaging up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces or voluntary military organisations such as the Wagner group.
A 12-year-old Russian girl has been sent to an orphanage and her father beaten up and arrested by authorities after she drew an anti-war picture in an art class, according to reports. Alexei Moskalev, a single father from the eastern Tula region, was reportedly charged with discrediting the military in December after his daughter, Masha, protested against the war at school and online.
A government official in Poland has said Russia was behind a hacking attack that blocked users’ access to the online tax filing system. “Russians are responsible for yesterday’s attack, it must be made clear. We have information that makes it very likely that this was the adversary,” the official said.
Good afternoon from London, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you today with all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
Updated
Finland’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to approve legislation allowing the country to join Nato, increasing the chances of it becoming a member of the transatlantic defensive alliance before its Nordic neighbour Sweden.
Both countries last year abandoned decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, submitting simultaneous Nato membership applications and pledging to complete the process “hand-in-hand”.
However, new entrants must be approved by all 30 existing members and while both applications still await approval from Hungary and Turkey, Sweden’s faces objections from Ankara for harbouring people it considers to be members of terrorist groups.
Finnish MPs voted 184 in favour of accepting the Nato treaties, with seven against and one abstaining, after earlier pushing for the legislation to be passed before general elections planned for early next month in order to avoid a political vacuum.
Parliamentary approval does not mean Finland will automatically join Nato once Turkey and Hungary ratify its application, but the bill must be signed into law by the president within three months, setting a deadline on how long it can wait for Sweden.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images of Ukraine we have received from the new wires.
Updated
Peter Beaumont reports for the Guardian from Kharkiv:
The Ukrainian military may decide to withdraw its forces from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, as Russia pressed its bloody, months-long offensive to capture the city.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelenskiy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and waves of Russian troops taking heavy casualties in a months-long campaign to capture it.
Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner group to try to encircle the city. The private military company known for brutal tactics is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longtime links to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin, however, said on Wednesday that he so far had seen no signs of a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. He maintained that Kyiv has in fact been reinforcing its positions there.
“The Ukrainian army is deploying additional troops and is doing what it can to retain control of the city,” Prigozhin said. “Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are offering fierce resistance, and the fighting is getting increasingly bloody by day.”
Reports from the Bakhmut area have described an increasingly difficult situation from Ukraine’s defenders, with Russian forces launching repeated offensives to the north and south of the city, and the main road into Bakhmut from the west being targeted by Russian shelling.
The heaviest fighting appeared to be concentrated in the north around the settlements of Bohdanivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Zaliznyanske, where Russian forces were continuing to advance gradually, supported by intense artillery fire.
A day earlier, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi ordered more troops be sent to Bakhmut after his trip to the frontline on 25 February where he was briefed on the situation.
Updated
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has made remarks during his visit to India at the opening ceremony of a Tolstoy-Gandhi exhibition in New Delhi. He said:
The equality of peoples and the rejection of colonialism and all other forms of oppression were the values that bonded Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi in the early 20th century, although they lived thousands of kilometres away from each other. It is becoming increasingly important now to study the rich legacy of our countries’ public figures and moral leaders.
Lavrov went on to say:
Moscow and New Delhi are consistent opponents of neo-colonial practices such as illegal unilateral sanctions, threats, blackmail and other forms of pressure on sovereign states.
We have been consistently advocating respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity of the modern world and the inalienable right of nations to independently choose their development paths.
Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began just over a year ago on 24 February 2022. In October last year the Russian Federation claimed to annex four regions of Ukraine.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Moscow would only agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which allows safe exports from Ukrainian ports, if the interests of its agricultural producers were taken into account.
“The Russian side stressed that continuing the package agreement on grain is possible only if the interests of Russian agricultural and fertiliser producers in terms of unhindered access to world markets are taken into account,” Reuters report the ministry as saying.
The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, is up for renewal this month.
Ukraine has said it would seek a longer extension for up to year to allow better forward planning, and would also like to see the port of Mykolaiv included. Russia, however, has signalled that it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has posted on Telegram to say that “a mother and her one-year-old child were injured” during Russian shelling of Chornobaivka in Kherson region.
The claim has not been independently verified.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said he has no plans to meet either the Russian or Chinese foreign ministers during the G20 meeting in Delhi.
Blinken is expected to attend the meeting, where Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and China’s Qin Gang are also expected to be present.
Speaking during a tour of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Blinken told reporters:
No plans to see either [China or Russia’s foreign ministers] at the G20, although I suspect that we will certainly be in group sessions of one kind of another together.
Updated
China and Belarus call for ceasefire in Ukraine
The leaders of China and Belarus, Xi Jinping and Alexander Lukashenko, have issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and negotiations to bring about a political settlement to the conflict.
The joint call amounted to an endorsement of Beijing’s peace plan issued last week that demanded respect of national sovereignty and “territorial integrity”. The 12-point paper did not say what would happen to the regions Russia has occupied since the invasion.
The Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying:
The core of China’s stance is to call for peace and encourage talks ... and for the legitimate security concerns of all countries to be respected.
In reference to the US and its allies, he added:
Relevant countries should stop politicizing and using the world economy as their tool, and take measures that truly advance a cease-fire and stop to war and resolve the crisis peacefully.
Belarus “fully agrees with and supports China’s position and proposals on a political solution to the Ukraine crisis, which is of great significance to resolving the crisis”, CCTV quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Updated
Finnish parliament backs country's bid to join Nato
Finland’s parliament has overwhelmingly backed the country’s bid to join the Nato military alliance.
Approval of Nato’s treaties and Finland’s accession passed with 184 members of the 200-seat parliament voting in favour, seven against and one abstaining.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Applications must be approved by all existing members of the alliance, and support for Finland’s application is still pending from Turkey and Hungary.
Updated
A 12-year-old Russian girl has been sent to an orphanage and her father beaten up and arrested by authorities after she drew an anti-war picture in an art class, according to reports.
Alexei Moskalev, a single father from the eastern Tula region, was charged with discrediting the military in December after his daughter, Masha, protested against the war at school and online, the independent Russian media Meduza reported on Tuesday.
Masha’s teacher had instructed her class to draw pictures in support of Russia’s troops in Ukraine, Meduza reported.
Instead, Masha drew an image of a Russian flag with the words “no to war” on it and a Ukrainian flag emblazoned with the words “glory to Ukraine”. The teacher informed the school’s director who in turn called the police, Moskalev said.
Moskalev now faces up to three years in prison if his case goes to court “and the girl is sent to an orphanage”, his lawyer told the independent Russian human rights media project OVO-Info.
‼️ Masha, a 12 year old Russian girl, drew a picture in support of Ukraine. The regime’s authorities beat up Masha’s father, stole his savings, detained him and sent the girl to an orphanage. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/GC38LbeHXq
— OVD-Info English (@ovdinfo_en) March 1, 2023
Authorities interrogated Masha alone for several hours without her father or a lawyer present and was taken to an orphanage for a day. Her father was also interrogated and “brutally beaten”, OVO-Info said.
Moskalev said that “for three and a half hours, [FSB officers] told me that I’m raising my daughter incorrectly. They said they were going to take her from me and put me in jail,” Meduza reported.
5/6 The family jumped cities, but police found them today and detained Alexei. They brought him to the family’s apartment where Masha was at the time. Police showed Alexei to her, informing the girl that they’re taking her father away, locking her in the apartment.
— OVD-Info English (@ovdinfo_en) March 1, 2023
Moskalev’s lawyer told OVO-Info: “If the officers decide to be stubborn ... they might put him in prison and send his daughter to an orphanage.” The father said he had no other relatives who could look after Masha if he were sent to prison.
Updated
In a rare display of shared solidarity and agreement, Russia and Ukraine have both expressed condolences over the train collision in Greece, in which at least 40 people have been killed and more than 80 injured.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in a statement that the news had been received with “deep sadness and pain.” She said:
In these difficult moments we express our sincere condolences to the Greek people, first and foremost to the families who have lost loved ones and relatives. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also voiced his country’s distress in a Greek-language tweet:
The people of Ukraine share the pain of the families of the victims. We wish a speedy recovery to all those injured.
With the death toll expected to rise, Tuesday’s late night collision of a passenger and freight train in central Greece is being described as the country’s worst rail disaster in living memory.
Relations between Athens and Moscow – once warm between the two Christian Orthodox states – have nose-dived dramatically in the year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Before today’s message of condolence, Russia’s foreign ministry had made an array of excoriating announcements chastising the centre-right Greek government for the stance it has taken backing its Nato allies since the outbreak of the war.
Ukraine had been home to a flourishing Greek community for centuries, centred primarily around the Black Sea and the now destroyed city of Mariupol.
Updated
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian fighters putting up ‘furious resistance’ in Bakhmut, says Wagner boss
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, has said Ukrainian forces are putting up “furious resistance” against Moscow’s attempt to seize the key stronghold of Bakhmut.
In a short audio message released by his press service, he said:
The Ukrainian army is throwing extra reserves into Artyomovsk and trying to hold the town with all their strength. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army fighters are putting up furious resistance. The bloodiness of the battles is growing by the day.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of throwing waves of men into battle in Bakhmut with no regard for their lives.
Russia “takes no account of people and sends them in constant waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing”, he said in an overnight address, describing the fighting in Bakhmut as “most difficult” but its defence as essential.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces repelled what it described as a major Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
The state-run Tass news agency quoted spokesperson Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov as saying:
An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a massive attack by drones on the objects of the Crimean peninsula was prevented.
Six Ukrainian attack drones were shot down by air defence systems. Another four Ukrainian drones were disabled by electronic warfare. There were no casualties and destruction on the ground.
His claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus and Vladimir Putin’s close ally, has said he fully supports China’s international agenda and that Minsk and Beijing are pursuing the same policy.
Lukashenko, who is on a high-profile state visit to China for talks with President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, made his comments during a meeting with the chairman of the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress, Li Zhanshu.
Belarus’s state-run Belta news agency quoted him as saying:
China is a proponent of a multipolar world. We are pursuing the same policy. In general, the domestic policy of China and the domestic policy of Belarus have a lot in common. We fully support the international agenda. We stick to the same principles.
Our countries provide unwavering support to each other on key issues of the international agenda. We condemn actions aimed at escalating tensions around Taiwan.
Xi said China was willing to work with Belarus to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations at a high level, Chinese state media reported.
Beijing and Minsk should support each other in “safeguarding their own core interests, oppose interference by external forces in internal affairs, and safeguard the sovereignty and political security of the two countries”, Xi was quoted as saying.
Updated
Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists are providing their services to Ukraine for free – but at the same time, they are taking in millions in fees from Pentagon contractors who stand to benefit from the country’s war with Russia.
Following Vladimir Putin’s internationally condemned decision to invade Ukraine there was an outpouring of support to the besieged nation from seemingly every industry in America. But, arguably, one of the most crucial industries coming to Ukraine’s aid has been Washington’s powerful lobbying industry.
Russia’s invasion has led some of the lobbying industry’s biggest players to do the unthinkable – lobby for free. While the influence industry may have altruistic reasons for representing Ukraine pro-bono, some lobbying firms also have financial incentives for aiding Ukraine: they’ve made millions lobbying for arms manufacturers that could profit from the war.
Updated
Ukraine says 'no decision yet' to withdraw from Bakhmut amid relentless Russian assault
Ukrainian troops could “strategically pull back” from the key eastern stronghold of Bakhmut if needed, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, amid relentless Russian attacks on the small Ukrainian city.
Russian forces continue to make incremental gains in Bakhmut and do “not stop assaulting the city”, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said in an update this morning.
Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut and using their “best” and “most well trained and the most experienced” troops from the mercenary Wagner group, Ukraine’s economic adviser Alexander Rodnyansky told CNN on Tuesday. He said:
Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but, if need be, they will strategically pull back – because we’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.
It was up to the Ukrainian military to decide if a withdrawal was needed, he said. A military spokesperson said today that “there is no such decision now” to withdraw from the eastern city.
Rodnyansky added that the region west of Bakhmut had been fortified:
If we were to pull back, that wouldn’t necessarily mean that the Russians would be able to advance very quickly, afterward. Make no mistake, our counter-offensives will be around the corner soon.
The battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance amid a relentless Russian offensive that has sought for months to capture the city.
Several thousand civilians, including children, are still believed to be in the city, which is mostly cut off from humanitarian relief.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Donetsk regional military administration told CNN today:
About 4,500 civilians remain in Bakhmut. Including 48 children who cannot be evacuated because they live in places that are no longer accessible.
Civilians have been urged to evacuate as Russian forces continue to advance on the city. “The situation is extremely dangerous for civilians,” the spokesperson said.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Finnish MPs will vote this afternoon on speeding up the Finland’s Nato accession process. Both Finland, which has one of Europe’s longest borders with Russia, and Sweden dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join Nato in May last year in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Facing fewer diplomatic hurdles than Stockholm, Helsinki wants to move forward even before Finland’s general elections in April, as public opinion also supports membership.
Hungary’s president, Katalin Novák, urged lawmakers on Wednesday to ratify Finland and Sweden’s Nato entry “as soon as possible” as deputies started debating the motions after months of the bills being stranded in parliament. Hungary and Turkey are so far the only two Nato countries not to ratify their admission. Talks between Turkey, Sweden and Finland are set to resume in Brussels on 9 March.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to president Volodymr Zelenskiy, has denied that Ukraine mounts attacks within Russian territory. On Tuesday Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine of launching a spate of attempted drone strikes targeting infrastructure inside Russia, including near Moscow, after a fire broke out at an oil depot in Tuapse, Krasnodar and authorities briefly closed airspace above St Petersburg. The Kremlin responded to Podolyak’s statement on Wednesday by saying it did not believe it.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that two people were injured following Russian shelling in Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region, and that over the last 24 hours, five people died and seven were injured by shelling in the Kherson region, while three were killed and four injured in Donetsk region.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due in New Delhi on Wednesday alongside Russia’s Sergei Lavrov for a G20 meeting. A meeting was seen as unlikely between the two men, who have not been in the same room since a G20 meeting in Bali in July when, according to western officials, the Russian foreign minister walked out. An EU source has said the EU delegation would not support a statement at the G20 meeting in India if it did not include condemnation of the war.
On Tuesday the Biden administration pledged to support the independence of the five Central Asian nations, with Blinken saying that no country – particularly those that have traditionally been in Moscow’s orbit – can afford to ignore the threats posed by Russian aggression to not only their territory but to the international rules-based order and the global economy.
A government official in Poland said on Wednesday that Russia was behind a hacking attack that blocked users’ access to the online tax filing system.
Russia brought new law amendments to parliament on Wednesday that further strengthen the country’s censorship laws, envisaging up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces and voluntary military organisations such as the Wagner group. Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said that “any public dissemination of knowingly false information about the forces” will be punishable
The US does not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near term, a US undersecretary of defence has said. Describing the frontlines as a “grinding slog”, Colin Kahl told a House of Representatives hearing: “I do not think that there’s anything I see that suggests the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so.”
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.
Ukrainian official denies it launched drone attacks within Russian territory
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to president Volodymr Zelenskiy, has denied that Ukraine mounts attacks within Russian territory. On Twitter he said:
Ukraine doesn’t strike at the Russian Federation’s territory. Ukraine is waging a defensive war to de-occupy all its territories. This is an axiom.
Panic and disintegration processes are building up in the Russian Federation, reflected by an increase in internal attacks on infrastructure facilities by unidentified flying objects.
Reuters reports that the Kremlin responded to the statement on Wednesday by saying it did not believe it.
On Tuesday Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine of launching a spate of attempted drone strikes targeting infrastructure inside Russia, including near Moscow, after a fire broke out at an oil depot in Tuapse, Krasnodar and authorities briefly closed airspace above St Petersburg.
The governors of two Russian regions that border Ukraine’s east – Kursk and Belgorod – have repeatedly accused the Ukrainian armed forces of shelling over the border at civilian targets in the Russian Federation.
Poland says 'Russians are responsible' for cyberattack on online tax system
A Polish government official said on Wednesday that Russia was behind a hacking attack that blocked users’ access to the online tax filing system, as tensions between Warsaw and Moscow run high due to the war in Ukraine.
“Russians are responsible for yesterday’s attack, it must be made clear. We have information that makes it very likely that this was the adversary,” Reuters reports Janusz Cieszynski, a government official responsible for digitalisation, told broadcaster Polsat News.
The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately reply to an emailed request from Reuters for comment.
Cieszynski said the attack consisted of distributed denial of service which resulted in blocking access to the website, but taxpayers’ data were not leaked.
“This is an attack that blocks access to the site, but does not block security and put our data at risk.”
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the air alert in Kyiv has ended.
“This war has to be condemned,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat has told the media in India at the gathering of G20 representatives.
“I hope, I am sure that India’s diplomatic capacity will be used in order to make Russia understand that this war has to finish,” Reuters reports Borrell said.
A EU source separately said the EU delegation would not support a statement at the G20 meeting if it did not include condemnation of the war.
Kyiv is currently experiencing an air alert after, according to state broadcaster Suspilne, “an aerial object” was detected in the sky above Ukraine’s capital.
The Russian foreign ministry has published an image of Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meeting his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in India ahead of the G20 meeting. Turkey has acted as a broker between Russia and Ukraine during the war, helping to negotiate and mediate the grain export deal.
The Hungarian president, Katalin Novák, urged lawmakers on Wednesday to ratify Finland and Sweden’s Nato entry “as soon as possible” as deputies started debating the motions after months of the bills being stranded in parliament.
“It is a complex decision, with serious consequences, so careful consideration is necessary,” Novak said on Facebook.
“My position is clearcut: in the present situation, the accession of Sweden and Finland is justified. I trust the national assembly will make a wise decision as soon as possible!”
Hungary and Turkey are the two Nato members yet to ratify the entry of Sweden and Finland.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have been sent over the news wires from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne offers this round-up of overnight news on its official Telegram channel. It reports:
Russian troops shelled Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region: an apartment building was damaged, two people were injured. Over the course of the past day, Russian troops shelled the Kherson region 86 times, Kherson nine times. Five people died, seven were injured. Also, three people were killed and four were injured in Donetsk region as a result of shelling in the last day.
The claims have not been independently verified.
If you need a background recap on why Sweden and Finland decided to apply for Nato membership, then this video with our Europe correspondent Jon Henley has all you need to know.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that two people triggered explosive devices left behind by Russian occupiers in the Kherson region. It reports on its Telegram channel for the region that “a resident of Blahodatne was disassembling an explosive device found at home. The man died in the ambulance”. Additionally, it said a man was hospitalised after his tractor hit a mine.
Separately Suspilne also reports that the Kherson community was shelled 20 times by Russian forces in the last 24 hours, resulting in two deaths and one person being injured.
Authorities in Chernihiv, a region in northern Ukraine that borders Belarus and Russia, have warned residents that between noon and 4pm today near the village of Shestovytsya, “explosive devices will be detonated”.
Updated
Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, has posted to Telegram to say two people were injured in Chuhuiv as a result of Russian shelling. He wrote:
According to the information of the regional centre of emergency medical assistance, a 52-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy were injured as a result of the morning shelling of Chuhuiv. The man was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds. The boy has minor injuries, was treated at the scene and did not require hospitalisation.
The claim has not been independently verified.
Updated
The Russia-Ukraine conflict will be an important point of discussion when the foreign ministers from around the world meet during Thursday’s G20 gathering in New Delhi, India’s foreign secretary said.
India’s top diplomat, Vinay Kwatra, told the media on Wednesday that it was equally important to focus on the impact of the Ukraine conflict on the world and challenges it poses to developing countries, Reuters reports.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
Today is officially the first day of spring in Ukraine. Politico journalist Nika Melkozerova has marked the day with a moving three-word sentence:
We suvived winter.
— Nika Melkozerova (@NikaMelkozerova) March 1, 2023
Other journalists are posting photographs of the sunrise, as one aspect of the war – the cold, which Putin has ruthlessly weaponised by destroying energy infrastructure – is going to get easier.
Ukraine’s first day of spring.
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) March 1, 2023
“We have passed the most difficult period,” claims the Prime Minister. “We have withstood the Russian energy terror”
The question is whether 🇷🇺 will continue with its missile strikes? People have suffered, but also adapted. pic.twitter.com/P32sTDoVVx
🇺🇦 Доброго ранку!
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 1, 2023
First day of spring in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/sT4bPYcV5V
Russia aims to strengthen censorship laws
Russia brought new law amendments to parliament on Wednesday that further strengthen the country’s censorship laws, envisaging up to 15 years in jail for discrediting the armed forces and voluntary military organisations such as the Wagner group.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said that “any public dissemination of knowingly false information about the forces” will be punishable, according to the amendments to the criminal code, Reuters reports.
“As well as public actions aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, volunteer formations, organizations and persons who are facilitated in the implementation of tasks assigned to the … Armed Forces,” would be punishable, Volodin wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.
“This initiative will protect everyone who today is risking their lives to ensures the security of the country and our citizens … The punishment for violators will be severe.”
The punishment envisages fines of up to ₽5m (about $66,580), correctional or forced labour up to five years, as well as imprisonment up to 15 years.
Updated
Blinken and Lavrov arrive in India for G20 meeting
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due in New Delhi on Wednesday alongside Russia’s Sergei Lavrov for a G20 meeting, AFP reports, with Ukraine and tensions with China set to overshadow attempts by host India to forge unity among the world’s top economies.
A meeting was seen as unlikely between the two men, who have not been in the same room since a G20 meeting in Bali in July when, according to western officials, the Russian foreign minister walked out.
They last met individually in January 2022, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. The two men have spoken by phone since but about other issues and not the war.
Lavrov arrived late Tuesday in India – which has not condemned the war – and will use his G20 attendance to criticise the west, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
Western countries want to “take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands,” the ministry’s English-language statement said.
“The destructive policy of the US and its allies has already put the world on the brink of a disaster, provoked a rollback in socioeconomic development and seriously aggravated the situation of the poorest countries,” it added.
Updated
Nikopol attacked eight times overnight – Ukrainian official
Russia has launched heavy artillery on Nikopol overnight, targeting four villages, the head of Dnipropetrovsk regional council, Mykola Lukashuk, said on Telegram.
“The Russian army attacked the Nikopol district eight times. Four communities came under enemy fire from heavy artillery: Nikopolska, Marganetska, Myrivska, and Chervonogrigorivska. Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Lukashuk wrote.
A gas line, electricity grid and “transport enterprise” were among the targets.
Updated
Blinken warns central Asia against ignoring Russian aggression
The Biden administration on Tuesday pledged to support the independence of the five Central Asian nations, in what the AP calls a not-so-subtle warning to the former Soviet states that Russia’s value as a partner has been badly compromised by its year-old war against Ukraine.
In Kazakhstan for meetings with top Central Asian diplomats, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said no country, particularly those that have traditionally been in Moscow’s orbit, can afford to ignore the threats posed by Russian aggression to not only their territory but to the international rules-based order and the global economy. In all of his discussions, Blinken stressed the importance of respect for “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.”
The Central Asian states have hewed to a studied position of neutrality on Ukraine, neither supporting Russia’s invasion nor US and western condemnations of the war.
“Ever since being the first nation to recognise Kazakhstan in December of 1991, the United States has been firmly committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Kazakhstan and countries across the region,” Blinken said after meeting in Astana with the foreign ministers of the so-called C5+1 group, made up of the US and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Finland MPs to vote on Nato bid
Finnish MPs will vote this afternoon on speeding up the Finland’s Nato accession process.
Both Finland, which has one of Europe’s longest borders with Russia, and Sweden dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join Nato in May last year in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
But facing fewer diplomatic hurdles than Stockholm, Helsinki wants to move forward even before Finland’s general elections in April, as public opinion also supports membership.
Finland and Sweden have the backing of all but two of Nato’s 30 members, the holdouts being Hungary and Turkey.
Passing a bill means that Finland can act swiftly even if the ratifications come in before a new government has been formed.
“The time is now to ratify and to fully welcome Finland and Sweden as members,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday during a visit to Finland. The legislation is expected to pass easily, after the initial membership bid in May was supported by 188 of the 200 members in parliament.
While passing the bill does not mean that Finland will automatically join Nato after ratification by Turkey and Hungary, it puts in place a deadline for how long it can wait for its neighbour.
The government’s chancellor of justice, Tuomas Poysti, said that after the bill is approved by the parliament, the president can wait a maximum of three months to sign it.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, told reporters last week that he intended to sign the law as soon as it is approved by parliament but that it could wait until up to the April elections for “practical reasons”.
Updated
Air raid alarm sounds in Mykolaiv region
An air raid warning was issued for the Mykolaiv region a few minutes ago, the regional governor, Vitaly Kim, said on Telegram. It is shortly before 8am in Ukraine.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments for the next while.
Our top story this morning: Finnish MPs are scheduled to vote on speeding up the country’s Nato bid on Wednesday afternoon.
Both Finland, which has one of Europe’s longest borders with Russia, and Sweden dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join Nato in May last year in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
And on a visit to Kazakhstan, US National secretary of state Antony Blinken has warned the leaders of central asian nations against relying on Russia.
“In our discussions today, I reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Kazakhstan, like all nations, to freely determine its future, especially as we mark one year since Russia lost its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a failed attempt to deny its people that very freedom,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:
The US does not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near term, a US undersecretary of defence has said. Describing the frontlines as a “grinding slog”, Colin Kahl told a House of Representatives hearing: “I do not think that there’s anything I see that suggests the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so.”
A military drone targeted a gas facility in the Moscow region, according to a senior Russian official, and photos of the wreckage suggested it was Ukrainian-made, indicating a rare attempted strike hundreds of miles behind Russian lines. The alleged attack was one of several reports of successful or attempted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes in at least four regions of Russia.
Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg temporarily suspended all flights amid reports of an unidentified object such as a drone being seen nearby. Some flights were diverted back to Moscow while the airport was shut for about an hour. Russia’s defence ministry later announced there had been a training exercise between air defences and civilian aviation authorities.
The Russian defence ministry said it stopped two attempted Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil using drones. It said: “28 February, at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack civilian infrastructure in the Krasnodar territory and the Republic of Adygea.” The claims were not independently verified.
Emergency services put out a fire at an oil depot in southern Russia after a drone was spotted flying overhead, the RIA news agency said. The fire in the Russian town of Tuapse, Krasnador, was reported at 2.30am local time and spread to an area of about 200 sq m before it was extinguished. “The oil tanks were not affected. There was no spill of oil products. No injuries,” said Sergei Boyko, who leads the local administration.
A hacking attack caused some Russian regional broadcasters to put out a false warning urging people to take shelter from an incoming missile attack, the emergencies ministry said. “As a result of the hacking of servers of radio stations and TV channels, in some regions of the country information about the announcement of an air alert was broadcast. This information is false and does not correspond to reality.” A similar attack caused commercial radio stations in some Russian regions to send air alarm messages on Wednesday last week.
Vladimir Putin has told the FSB security service to step up its intelligence activity and stop “sabotage groups” getting into Russia. In a speech to FSB officials, Putin instructed the agency to strengthen its activity to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and its western allies. He also admitted that FSB members had been killed in Ukraine.
The intensity of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut continued to increase, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of Putin, arrived in Beijing for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
China had “very clearly” taken Russia’s side and had been “anything but an honest broker” in efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, the US department of state spokesperson Ned Price said at a news briefing. China had provided Russia with “diplomatic support, political support, with economic support, with rhetorical support”, he added.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reiterated the Biden administration’s concern that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Speaking after a meeting with leaders in the Kazakh capital, Astana, Blinken warned that Beijing would face “implications and consequences” if it decided to provide such support.
Ukraine will become a Nato member in the “long term”, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. The Nato chief stressed that the immediate priority was Ukraine remaining an independent country in the face of the Russian invasion. He said Finland and Sweden joining was a “top priority” and that the Nordic countries have had the “quickest accession process in Nato’s modern history”.
Russia is open to negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said, but he insisted Moscow would “never compromise” on what he described as new “territorial realities”. Speaking to reporters during a regular briefing, Peskov said Moscow would not renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Putin annexed in September.
