Good evening, we are closing this live blog now. You can read our full report on the UN vote here.
The UN voted by 141 to 7 with 32 abstentions to call for Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine, a sign that the international community has not wavered in its determination to condemn Russia’s actions.
In the last vote taken immediately after Russia had annexed republics in the east of Ukraine, Russia was condemned 143 to five with 35 abstentions, the bulk of these in Africa.
Applause broke out when the result was announced.
Russia had worked hard to try to end its isolation by pointing to the damage the west was caused by pouring arms into the region or by pointing to the growing hunger crisis that it blamed on western sanctions.
Ukraine foreign minister Dymotro Kuleba said:
By voting in favour of today’s UNGA resolution 141 UN member states made it clear that Russia must end its illegal aggression.
Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be restored. One year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion global support for Ukraine remains strong.
The seven countries voting against the resolution were Belarus, Mali, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.
The resolution was adopted after amendments proposed by Belarus that would have stripped much of the language were resoundingly defeated.
Foreign ministers and diplomats from more than 75 countries addressed the assembly during two days of debate, with many urging support for the resolution that upholds Ukraine’s territorial integrity, a basic principle of the UN charter that all countries must subscribe to when they join the world organisation.
China abstains as UN votes demanding Russia withdraw troops from Ukraine
China abstained as the UN passed a nonbinding resolution calling for Russia to end hostilities and withdraw from Ukraine.
It also called for a halt to fighting and for peace in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The 141-7 vote with 32 abstentions, which included China, was slightly below the highest vote for the five previous resolutions approved by the 193-member world body since Russia sent troops and tanks across the border into its smaller neighbour.
Updated
After the year-long Russian invasion of Ukraine, drone footage shows the scale of destruction in Bakhmut.
The Russian military has increased its attacks around the eastern city before the 24 February anniversary.
Drone footage shows rows of destroyed and burned out buildings, with no civilians in sight.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, clashed with Chinese diplomats on Thursday, passionately rejecting their claim that the west was adding fuel to the fire by arming Ukraine.
Baerbock said it was time for China to tell Russia to stop its aggression.
In a debate at the UN general assembly marking the anniversary of the invasion and seen as a key barometer of the state of world opinion, China intervened to present itself as above the conflict by proposing a catalogue of measures: a ceasefire, dialogue, security guarantees for Russia, protection of civilians and the upholding of territorial integrity.
The deputy Chinese envoy to the UN, Dai Bing, insisted the west was worsening the situation by arming Ukraine, saying: “Adding fuel to the fire will only exacerbate tensions”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said countries like India and South Africa, which have not joined the West in denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were likely on a trajectory away from alignment with Moscow but that process would not happen “in one fell swoop”.
“There are countries that have longstanding, decades-long relationships with Russia, with the Soviet Union before, that are challenging to break off in one fell swoop. It’s not flipping a light switch, it’s moving an aircraft carrier,” Blinken said in an interview with The Atlantic, marking the one year anniversary of the war.
India has faced pressure from the West to distance itself from Moscow after Russian invaded Ukraine. New Delhi has thus far resisted that pressure, citing its longstanding ties with Russia and its economic and oil needs, Reuters reported.
Russia has been India’s largest weapons supplier since the Soviet Union days. However, Washington in recent years has looked to woo New Delhi away from its traditional military supplier.
India is desperate to modernise its largely Soviet-era fighter jet fleet to boost its air power after concerns over Russian supply delays due to the Ukraine war.
“India for decades had Russia at the core of providing military equipment to it and its defenses, but what we’ve seen over the last few years is a trajectory away from relying on Russia and moving into partnership with us and other countries,” Blinken said.
UN prepares to vote on resolution calling for Russian withdrawal
Ukraine’s supporters urged the UN general assembly to vote for a resolution that calls for Russia to end hostilities and withdraw from its neighbour on the eve of the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion.
The draft resolution is all but certain to pass later in the day but is nonbinding, the Associated Press reported. Diplomats from Ukraine’s allies seek to win over more nations that have been ambivalent toward the war in previous votes, including China.
Foreign ministers and diplomats from more than 75 countries addressed the assembly during two days of debate, with many urging support for the resolution that upholds Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Venezuela’s deputy ambassador addressed the council on behalf of 16 countries that either voted against or abstained on almost all of five previous resolutions on Ukraine: Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Laos, Mali, Nicaragua, North Korea, St. Vincent, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
While other countries focused on Russia’s actions, deputy ambassador Joaquín Pérez Ayestarán said Wednesday that all countries without exception “must stringently comply with the United Nations Charter.”
He said the countries in his group were against what he called divisive action in the general assembly, and for “a spirit of compromise.”
In his own appeal, Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau said Ukrainians deserve “not only our compassion, but also our support and solidarity.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The EU’s top diplomats have failed to finalise the bloc’s tenth round of sanctions against Russia, which would ban the sale of more military-critical technologies. Talks are understood to be stuck on the question of rubber trade with Russia. Ambassadors are due to resume talks on Friday, the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
The UN’s general assembly is expected to vote on a motion calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The 193-member assembly is expected by a massive majority to endorse the broad resolution, but China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain.
China’s deputy UN ambassador, Dai Bing, has said “brutal facts offer ample proof that sending weapons will not bring peace”. Dai, speaking during a UN debate on a draft resolution urging Russia to leave Ukraine, said Beijing’s “top priority is to facilitate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities without delay”, adding that it was ready to “continue playing a constructive role” in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he had not seen any Chinese peace plan but he would welcome a meeting between Ukraine and China. “We would like to meet with China,” he said during a news briefing in Kyiv with the visiting Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said the alliance had seen signs that China was considering supplying arms to Russia and warned Beijing against taking any such step. Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “(direct) support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course (as) a member of the UN security council China should not in any way support violation of the U.N. charter, or international law.”
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has warned China that providing any material support to Russia’s war effort would be “a very serious concern”. “We will certainly continue to make clear to the Chinese government and to companies and banks in their jurisdictions what the rules are regarding our sanctions and the serious consequences that they would face in violating them.,” she told reporters in India.
Russian forces have stepped up attacks along the eastern frontline of the war in Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to mark the sombre first anniversary of the invasion. Amid fears that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, intends to mark the anniversary with fresh attacks on key cities, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled 90 assaults in the east and north-east in the past 24 hours. Russia has fired 5,000 missiles at Ukraine and carried out almost 3,500 airstrikes, according to Ukraine’s general staff.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. Sánchez said: “I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.”
Sánchez confirmed that Spain will send Ukraine six Leopard tanks, but would be willing to up that number to 10 if necessary. He also said Spain had offered to train Ukrainian soldiers in how to use the tanks. “We understand that Ukraine needs more [weapons] to put an end to this aggression and recover its territories,” Sánchez said. “
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as roll out hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines. In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” holiday on Thursday, Putin said Russia would “pay increased attention” to boost its nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air.
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason. In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the defence ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was able to pass UK anti-money laundering checks by submitting a utility bill in the name of his elderly mother, according to a report. Leaked emails seen by the Financial Times show that the law firm Discreet Law in 2021 requested identification documents from Prigozhin, who has been placed under sanctions and accused of human rights abuses around the world, before taking him on as a client.
The sanctions introduced by G7 nations against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine should be applied by all G20 countries, Italy’s economy minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has said. In a statement issued on the sidelines of a summit among G20 finance leaders in Bengaluru, Giorgetti said the sanctions “must be applied not only by the G7 countries but also by the G20 countries”.
Australia will send drones to Ukraine and expand sanctions against Russian government, military and media figures as part of a pledge to stand with Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. The package includes travel bans and asset freezes for a further 90 Russian individuals and 40 Russian entities, including the state-owned media outlet Sputnik.
Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry has said. The announcement comes after Sweden’s defence minister said it was open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks. The Czech government has also announced a further military aid shipment to Ukraine.
A US army official has said it could take up to two years for M1 Abrams tanks to be delivered to Ukraine. The US announced in January that it would supply Ukraine with 31 advanced M1 Abrams tanks worth $400m in a matter of months. But plans are still being drawn up on how they will be delivered, and when, the US army secretary Christine Wormuth said.
The UK’s former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned that Britain’s security could be at risk if Ukraine does not win in the face of Russian aggression. In an interview with Sky News ahead of the one-year anniversary of the war, Johnson urged the UK to “break the ice” by becoming the first country to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.
Moldova has dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false-flag operation, and called for calm. The Russian ministry said Ukraine planned to stage an attack purportedly by Russian forces from Transnistria as a pretext for the invasion, state media reported.
Ukrainian courts have brought charges against nearly 300 individuals for war crimes since Russia’s full-fledged invasion a year ago, an official has said. Ukraine’s prosecutor coordinating war crimes cases in The Hague, Myroslava Krasnoborova, said 26 individuals had been tried and convicted and a total of 276 individuals charged with war crimes.
The Kerch bridge, which connects mainland Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula, has reopened to road traffic, deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin has announced. The bridge, which has served as a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a deadly blast in October.
A Russian man who has lived in Poland for many years has been charged with spying, Polish authorities said. The suspect was detained in April on suspicion of collecting information between 2015 and April 2022 concerning the military readiness of Poland’s armed forces and of Nato, and then passing them on to the Russian intelligence service.
A series of cyber-attacks on Wednesday targeting Italian companies and public institutions, including the websites of the defence ministry and police, were “a threat, a warning” from Russia, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has said. The attacks, which were claimed by the Russian group NoName057, came after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Ukraine this week.
The White House has said Joe Biden will meet virtually on Friday with G7 leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskiy and will announce a new wave of sanctions against Russia.
The leaders of the 27 EU countries have issued a joint statement on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, vowing not to rest until Ukraine prevails, is rebuilt and “justice is done”.
Ukraine is “part of our European family” and its people have shown “resolve in defending democracy and freedom, resilience in the face of hardship and dignity when confronted with Russia’s crimes”, the statement reads.
The European Union will continue to support Ukraine in political, economic, humanitarian, financial and military terms, including through swift coordinated procurement from European industry.
We will also support Ukraine’s reconstruction, for which we will strive to use frozen and immobilised Russian assets in accordance with EU and international law. We will further increase collective pressure on Russia to end its war of aggression.
The EU and its partners have acted “swiftly and in unity” and will continue to stand firmly and in full solidarity with Ukraine and its people “for as long as it takes”, it continues.
We support President Zelenskiy’s peace formula. Together with our international partners, we will make sure that Ukraine prevails, that international law is respected, that peace and Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders are restored, that Ukraine is rebuilt, and that justice is done.
Iran will abstain from a UN general assembly vote on the draft resolution calling for Russia to unconditionally and immediately withdraw from Ukraine’s territory, my colleague Patrick Wintour writes.
Iran, despite arming Russia, is again abstaining on UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine so Russia's 4 diplomatic allies likely to remain N. Korea, Belarus, Syria and Nicaragua. V few other states abstaining have spoken to justify their vote.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) February 23, 2023
The 193-strong UN general assembly is expected by a massive majority to endorse the resolution later today, although China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain.
Ukraine’s central bank has unveiled a commemorative banknote to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
One side of the 20-hryvnia (£.0.45) note shows three soldiers raising the national flag, while the other side features an image of two hands tied with tape, an apparent allusion to the alleged war crimes that Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing.
Ukraine’s national bank governor, Andriy Pyshnyi, said during a presentation in Kyiv:
To mark the anniversary of the war, we decided to launch a commemorative banknote which will depict on a small piece of paper a year of emotions, patterns, content and iconic things.
Updated
Spain may increase number of Leopard tanks for Ukraine to 10, says PM
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has confirmed that his country will send Ukraine six Leopard tanks, but would be willing to up that number to 10 if necessary.
He also said Spain had offered to train Ukrainian soldiers in how to use the tanks.
“We understand that Ukraine needs more [weapons] to put an end to this aggression and recover its territories,” Sánchez said. “That’s why we’re stepping up our military contributions and that’s why my government announced its decision on Wednesday to send six Leopard tanks.”
Speaking on Thursday during his second visit since Russia invaded almost a year ago, he also underlined Spain’s commitment to Ukraine and to the 165,000 Ukrainian refugees it has taken in over the past 12 months.
Sánchez said that Ukraine – unlike its enemy – was “fighting for what is right and it knows what it’s fighting for”. He added:
Ukraine is fighting for its survival while your enemy is fighting for power. Its fight is not honourable; yours is a song of freedom.
Updated
A US army official has said it could take up to two years for M1 Abrams tanks to be delivered to Ukraine.
The US announced in January that it would supply Ukraine with 31 advanced M1 Abrams tanks worth $400m in a matter of months.
But plans are still being drawn up on how they will be delivered, and when, CNN quotes the US army secretary Christine Wormuth as saying.
The US army is “looking at what’s the fastest way we can get the tanks to the Ukrainians”, she said.
It’s not going to be a matter of weeks, I will say that. None of the options that we’re exploring are weeks or two months. There are longer timelines involved. But I think there are options that are less than two years, less than a year and a half. But again we have to look at the pros and cons of each of them.
Among the options being presented to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, were building tanks “from scratch”, she said.
She added that another option would include “countries that we’ve sold tanks to previously”, which could “presumably get tanks to the Ukrainians more quickly but might disrupt relations with important allies”.
Updated
Earlier we reported that four people have been arrested in London on suspicion of criminal damage, after the campaign group Led By Donkeys painted a Ukrainian flag on the road outside the Russian embassy.
Here’s the clip:
China says sending weapons to Ukraine will not bring peace
China’s deputy UN ambassador, Dai Bing, has told the UN general assembly that one year into the Ukraine war, “brutal facts offer ample proof that sending weapons will not bring peace”.
Dai, speaking during a UN debate on a draft resolution urging Russia to leave Ukraine, said China’s position on Ukraine has been “consistent and clear”.
Beijing’s “top priority is to facilitate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities without delay”, he said, adding that it was ready to “continue playing a constructive role” in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
On the subject of nuclear war, Dai said “all parties should strictly abide by nuclear conventions”, adding:
Nuclear weapons cannot be used, nuclear war cannot be fought.
The UK’s former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned that Britain’s security could be at risk if Ukraine does not win in the face of Russian aggression.
In an interview with Sky News ahead of the one-year anniversary of the war, Johnson urged the UK to “break the ice” by becoming the first country to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.
He said:
What the Ukrainians want is F-16s. As it happens, we don’t have F-16s but we do have Typhoons. I think there’s an argument for the UK breaking the ice and giving them some Typhoons. If it’s a question of training people up to use those machines – we can do that.
The consequences of a Russian victory would be Vladimir Putin’s ability to threaten the Baltic states, and that the UK’s security would be “much more gravely in peril”.
On the subject of China, Johnson said Beijing would be making an “historic mistake” if it supplied Moscow with weapons and that he was “very concerned” to see China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, meet Vladimir Putin yesterday.
Why does China want to be contaminated by association with Putin, who has revealed himself to be this gangster and adventurer? I think it would be a big, big mistake by China.
Updated
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said Ukraine has become the centre of the European continent in a video address ahead of the first year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Many had predicted that Kyiv would fall “in a matter of days” when it was invaded by Moscow’s troops last February, but this did not account for “the moral and the physical courage” of Ukraine’s people, she said.
Europe “is with you”, she said, addressing the Ukrainian people.
We have been with you in this existential fight from the beginning. We have massively stepped up our economic, humanitarian and military support.
Because Ukraine has become the centre of our continent, the place where our values are upheld, where our freedom is defended, where the future of Europe is written.
🇪🇺🇺🇦 We are with you.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 23, 2023
We have been with you in this existential fight from the beginning.
Ukraine has become the centre of our continent.
The place where our values are upheld, where our freedom is defended, where the future of Europe is written.
Слава Україні. pic.twitter.com/SUDfSamkKZ
Updated
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, says he and the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, discussed ways to end Russian aggression based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law.
Posting to Twitter, Kuleba said he commended Guterres’ efforts to enable the Black Sea Grain Initiative which he said “will go down in history as his legacy”.
UN Secretary General @AntonioGuterres and I discussed ways to end Russian aggression based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law. I commended Secretary General’s efforts to enable the Black Sea Grain Initiative which will go down in history as his legacy. pic.twitter.com/Pbbf65GpBu
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 23, 2023
EU fails again to agree on new round of Russia sanctions
Meeting in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomats failed to finalise the bloc’s tenth round of sanctions against Russia, which would ban the sale of more military-critical technologies.
Ambassadors are due to resume talks on Friday, the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, had told Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the EU aimed to have the measures in place by 24 February.
Talks are understood to be stuck on the question of rubber trade with Russia. The latest package would ban the export of components for drones and helicopters and spare parts for vehicles, items that were found on the battlefields of Ukraine and had been missed off previous ones.
The search for consensus came as British, US and EU officials met on Thursday to share information about sanctions, amid a growing international push to curb apparent Russian attempts to dodge the restrictions with the help of its neighbours.
Following the start of western sanctions in February 2022, exports from Europe and the US to Russia fell sharply, but some trade has been rerouted to former Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Western exports to Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have increased dramatically, with smaller but noticeable increases to Kazakhstan and Georgia, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Western officials fear this trade is being sent on to Russia, which has also seen a jump in imports from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates since the war began.
Officials are now studying on a case-by-case basis how to prevent any sanctions dodging, via a mix of persuasion or threats to cut market access. Earlier this week ten EU countries called for a crackdown on Russia’s attempts to source military parts from front companies in neighbouring countries, with threats to cut off access to the EU market to companies and individuals involved in such trade.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russian forces have stepped up attacks along the eastern frontline of the war in Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to mark the sombre first anniversary of the invasion. Amid fears that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, intends to mark the anniversary with fresh attacks on key cities, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled 90 assaults in the east and north-east in the past 24 hours. Russia has fired 5,000 missiles at Ukraine and carried out almost 3,500 airstrikes, according to Ukraine’s general staff.
The UN’s general assembly is expected to vote on a motion calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The 193-member assembly is expected by a massive majority to endorse the broad resolution, but China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he had not seen any Chinese peace plan but he would welcome a meeting between Ukraine and China. “We would like to meet with China,” he said during a news briefing in Kyiv with the visiting Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said the alliance had seen signs that China was considering supplying arms to Russia and warned Beijing against taking any such step. Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “(direct) support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course (as) a member of the UN security council China should not in any way support violation of the U.N. charter, or international law.”
The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has warned China that providing any material support to Russia’s war effort would be “a very serious concern”. “We will certainly continue to make clear to the Chinese government and to companies and banks in their jurisdictions what the rules are regarding our sanctions and the serious consequences that they would face in violating them.,” she told reporters in India.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. Sánchez said: “I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.”
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as roll out hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines. In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” holiday on Thursday, Putin said Russia would “pay increased attention” to boost its nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air.
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason. In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the defence ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was able to pass UK anti-money laundering checks by submitting a utility bill in the name of his elderly mother, according to a report. Leaked emails seen by the Financial Times show that the law firm Discreet Law in 2021 requested identification documents from Prigozhin, who has been placed under sanctions and accused of human rights abuses around the world, before taking him on as a client.
The sanctions introduced by G7 nations against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine should be applied by all G20 countries, Italy’s economy minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has said. In a statement issued on the sidelines of a summit among G20 finance leaders in Bengaluru, Giorgetti said the sanctions “must be applied not only by the G7 countries but also by the G20 countries”.
Australia will send drones to Ukraine and expand sanctions against Russian government, military and media figures as part of a pledge to stand with Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. The package includes travel bans and asset freezes for a further 90 Russian individuals and 40 Russian entities, including the state-owned media outlet Sputnik.
Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry has said. The announcement comes after Sweden’s defence minister said it was open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks. The Czech government has also announced a further military aid shipment to Ukraine.
A Russian fighter plane crashed on Thursday and the pilot was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. The cause of the crash was a “technical malfunction”, according to preliminary information, the Russian state-run Tass news agency cited the ministry as saying. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area and there were no reports of other damage, it said.
Moldova has dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false-flag operation, and called for calm. The Russian ministry said Ukraine planned to stage an attack purportedly by Russian forces from Transnistria as a pretext for the invasion, state media reported.
Ukrainian courts have brought charges against nearly 300 individuals for war crimes since Russia’s full-fledged invasion a year ago, an official has said. Ukraine’s prosecutor coordinating war crimes cases in The Hague, Myroslava Krasnoborova, said 26 individuals had been tried and convicted and a total of 276 individuals charged with war crimes.
The Kerch bridge, which connects mainland Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula, has reopened to road traffic, deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin has announced. The bridge, which has served as a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a deadly blast in October.
A Russian man who has lived in Poland for many years has been charged with spying, Polish authorities said. The suspect was detained in April on suspicion of collecting information between 2015 and April 2022 concerning the military readiness of Poland’s armed forces and of Nato, and then passing them on to the Russian intelligence service.
A series of cyber-attacks on Wednesday targeting Italian companies and public institutions, including the websites of the defence ministry and police, were “a threat, a warning” from Russia, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has said. The attacks, which were claimed by the Russian group NoName057, came after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Ukraine this week.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
Updated
The Kerch bridge, which connects mainland Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula, has reopened to road traffic, deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin has announced.
The bridge, which has served as a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a deadly blast in October.
The exact cause of the blast remains unclear. Russia blamed Ukraine for the explosion, but Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.
In a statement posted to Telegram, Khusnullin said:
All lanes of the Crimean bridge are fully open to car traffic 39 days ahead of schedule.
He said the reopening of the bridge was a “big gift for the Defender of the Fatherland Day” national holiday celebrated in Russia today.
He added that “work was carried out round-the-clock” by around 500 people to complete the repairs, and that other parts of the bridge were still being restored.
The EU should consider appointing a full-time commissioner to oversee the drafting and enforcing of sanctions so they can be used effectively against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told the Guardian in an interview.
He was speaking in London as he met the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to discuss the summer Nato summit in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, where the Baltic states will press for progress on Ukraine’s Nato application and for more to be done to defend the bloc’s European flank.
He said he was frustrated with the number of exemptions to sanctions, saying “sometimes we derogate so much that we can call this a hole in a ship that can sink the ship”.
He cited the derogations from sanctions provided in September for coal, cement and wood on the basis that they were linked to protecting food security.
There needs to be a clearer explanation of these derogations. In some cases there may be a link, but when we talk about cement, I am sorry, I cannot find the link with food security.
While EU officials had been appointed to check how sanctions were being implemented, Landsbergis argued, “sanctions are becoming so important to the EU single market that we may need to go further and make sanctions policy a political portfolio”.
The UN’s general assembly is meeting for a second day ahead of a vote on a motion calling for the unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
The 193-member assembly will vote on the motion, backed by Kyiv and its allies, to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s full-fledged invasion of its neighbour, which UN secretary general António Guterres denounced as an “attack on our collective conscience”.
In an address marking the start of the session yesterday, Guterres warned of a further escalation of the war, and referred to “indirect threats” of the use of nuclear weapons and “irresponsible” military actions in the vicinity of nuclear power plants.
The assembly is expected by a massive majority to endorse a broad resolution demanding Russia unconditionally and immediately withdraw from Ukraine’s territory, but China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain, underlining their alienation from what they regarded as the west’s war.
You can watch the vote and the preceding debate live here:
Unlike the UN’s security council, Russia has no veto right in the general assembly. The resolutions are not binding under international law.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the assembly has passed a series of resolutions condemning its actions. In March last year, 141 of the 193 UN member states voted in favour of a resolution calling Russia to withdraw from Ukraine “immediately”
In April, the assembly decided with a much narrower majority of 93 votes to suspend Russia’s UN human rights council membership in Geneva. In October, 143 member states condemned Russia’s “illegal annexations” of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
Updated
Anna and her husband left Russia after Putin’s mobilisation. She told Clea Skopeliti of the difficulties in Turkey and the potential dangers of moving back.
“A few months after leaving Russia, I came back to Moscow. We’re still figuring out what to do. We’re considering moving back to Russia because we can’t afford living in Turkey, since the rouble has become much weaker.
“But it’s not safe. There could be another mobilisation at any moment, and we worry my husband could be drafted because he has an engineering background.
It is so hard to make all those decisions when there are so many things you don’t know. I’m really scared of him being drafted because if they take you, there’s nothing you can do. There are two options: war or jail.”
Updated
Here are the latest images from Ukraine:
Updated
'We would like to meet with China,' says Zelenskiy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he had not seen any Chinese peace plan but he would welcome a meeting between Ukraine and China, Reuters reports.
“We would like to meet with China,” he said during a news briefing in Kyiv with the visiting Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier on Thursday, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance had seen signs that China was considering supplying arms to Russia and warned Beijing against taking any such step.
The announcement came days after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned China of consequences if it provided material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Stoltenberg told Reuters:
We haven’t seen any supplies of lethal aid from China to Russia, but we have seen signs that they are considering and may be planning for that …That’s the reason why the United States and other allies have been very clear, warning against that. And China should of course not support Russia’s illegal war.
There was no immediate comment from China, but its foreign ministry said earlier on Thursday that any potential intelligence on arms transfer by China to Russia that the US planned to release was just speculation.
Updated
The Guardian reporters Shaun Walker, Isobel Koshiw, Pjotr Sauer, Morten Risberg, Liz Cookman and Luke Harding revisited one of the grimmest chapters of Russia’s war – the ruin of Mariupol.
For more than 80 days, the Russians bombarded Mariupol, determined to take the port city even if they had to raze it to the ground first.
After Russian forces finally crushed Ukrainian resistance last May, they set about putting their stamp on Mariupol, erasing evidence of the recent atrocities and of past Ukrainian history in the city.
A year on from the invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian tells the story of Mariupol – perhaps the bloodiest and most shocking chapter of Russia’s brutal war.
Updated
Italy calls for G7 sanctions against Russia to be applied by all G20 countries
The sanctions introduced by G7 nations against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine should be applied by all G20 countries, Italy’s economy minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, said on Thursday.
In a statement issued on the sidelines of a summit among G20 finance leaders in Bengaluru, Giorgetti said the sanctions “must be applied not only by the G7 countries but also by the G20 countries”, Reuters reports.
“Otherwise Russia circumvents the sanctions system and the effects risk falling short of our expectations,” the minister added.
Updated
Australia to send drones to Ukraine and expand sanctions against Russia
Australia will send drones to Ukraine and expand sanctions against Russian government, military and media figures as part of a pledge to stand with Kyiv “for as long as it takes”.
Announcing the new support on the first anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government said the sanctions would also target “those spreading mistruths to justify this war”.
The package includes travel bans and asset freezes for a further 90 Russian individuals and 40 Russian entities, including the state-owned media outlet Sputnik.
Read more here:
Updated
US Treasury secretary warns China of ‘serious consequences’ if it helps Russia
Earlier we reported that the US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, had stepped up calls for increased financing support to Ukraine during a news conference in India.
Yellen also told journalists that talks between the US and China on economic issues would resume at “an appropriate time”, while warning Beijing that providing any material support to Moscow’s war effort would be “a very serious concern”.
On the subject of US sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, she said:
We have made clear that providing material support to Russia or assistance with any type of systemic sanctions evasion would be a very serious concern to us.
And we will certainly continue to make clear to the Chinese government and to companies and banks in their jurisdictions what the rules are regarding our sanctions and the serious consequences that they would face in violating them.
The warning came a day after China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as Beijing and Moscow reaffirmed their close bilateral relationship before the first anniversary of the start of the Ukraine war.
Updated
Ukraine has charged nearly 300 individuals with war crimes, says prosecutor
Ukrainian courts have brought charges against nearly 300 individuals for war crimes since Russia’s full-fledged invasion a year ago, an official has said.
Ukraine’s prosecutor coordinating war crimes cases in The Hague, Myroslava Krasnoborova, said 26 individuals had been tried and convicted and a total of 276 individuals charged with war crimes.
The convictions were for crimes including rape and murder, the shelling of residential buildings, cruel treatment of civilians and pillaging, she said.
More than 71,000 alleged war crimes have been registered in Ukraine since 24 February 2022, she said.
The “atrocities and destruction” caused by Russia were “colossal and endless”, she said during a briefing.
Millions of people have been forced to leave everything behind. Massive missile attacks are destroying the civilian infrastructure and many tragically lost their lives.
This damage cannot be undone, but what we can do is to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies are being assisted in war crimes investigations by dozens of countries and institutions. Russia has denied committing atrocities or targeting civilians.
Updated
Anti-war protesters in London poured yellow and blue paint on to the road outside the Russian embassy to create a giant Ukrainian flag before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-fledged invasion.
The campaign group Led By Donkeys halted traffic before spreading more than 300 litres of paint across the road, using wheelbarrows and brushes to make the 500 square metre flag.
In a statement, the group said Ukraine was “an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination”, adding:
The existence of a massive Ukrainian flag outside Putin’s embassy in London will serve to remind him of that.
The group said the non-toxic, solvent-free and fast-dry edible paint was washable and designed for road art.
Four people – three men and one woman – were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and obstructing the highway, the Metropolitan police said.
Updated
A Russian man who has lived in Poland for many years has been charged with spying, Polish authorities said.
The suspect was detained in April on suspicion of collecting information between 2015 and April 2022 concerning the military readiness of Poland’s armed forces and of Nato, and then passing them on to the Russian intelligence service.
An indictment was submitted last Friday to Gdansk district court against the suspect, a spokesperson for the Gdansk district prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
They said the Russian citizen’s “espionage activity was focused on military units located in the north-eastern part of Poland, as part of which he carried out tasks of reconnaissance of important elements of the Polish armed force”.
The case was one of “several” concerning activity for the Russian and Belarusian intelligence services against the Polish military, they added.
Updated
North Korean state media have marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by blaming Nato and calling the US’s involvement a “trail to self-destruction.”
In comments to the state-run news agency KCNA, reported by Reuters, Kim Yoo-chul, described as an international affairs critic, said the conflict in Ukraine was the “inevitable product of coercion and hegemony” by the US and its allies. He wrote:
If Ukraine had not blindly taken part in the US policy of anti-Russian confrontation, if it had abandoned the dirty demons of the United States and promoted reconciliation and unity with its neighbours, the situation would not have reached the point where it is as bad as it is now.
The current situation in Ukraine once again proves that there can be no peace in the world at any time unless the United States’ policy of force, tyranny and greedy aggression … is ended.
North Korea has forged close ties with Russia since Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has publicly supported Moscow in statements as well as at the UN, and has expressed support for Russia’s proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some images we have received of Ukrainian army volunteers receiving Challenger tank training at a military base in southern England.
Based on the UK’s basic soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the law of armed conflict.
Updated
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said a series of cyber-attacks on Wednesday targeting Italian companies and public institutions, including the websites of the defence ministry and police, were “a threat, a warning” from Russia after the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Ukraine this week.
The attacks, which caused limited damage due to strong cyber-defence systems being in place, were claimed by the Russian group NoName057, which wrote on Telegram that Italy was “Russiaphobic”, while referring to the government’s approval of a sixth military aid package for Ukraine.
Tajani made the comments to reporters on the sidelines of the UN’s emergency special session in New York marking one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meloni met Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Tuesday on her first visit to Ukraine since she came to power in October.
Meloni pledged that Italy would continue to give “military, financial and civil support”.
“Those who support Ukraine, even militarily, are those who work for peace,” she said.
Updated
Putin announces plans to deploy Sarmat nuclear missile after suspending arms treaty
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as roll out hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines.
In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” holiday on Thursday, Putin said Russia would “pay increased attention” to boost its nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air, Reuters reports.
‘As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,’ said Putin, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air.
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 23, 2023
Putin's comments follow his suspension of a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty with the United States 2/6 pic.twitter.com/2mhVjcfxtQ
The Russian leader, who has in recent days has signalled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control, invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernised armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.
It comes after he said Russia would halt its participation in New Start, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the US.
In his address today, Putin said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year. The RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled missile has been in development for years. Russia said it had test-launched the missile in April 2022.
The US believes Russia carried out a test of the Sarmat just before President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv earlier this week and that the test failed, CNN has reported. The Russian defence ministry has not commented on that report.
In addition, Putin said Russia would continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and would start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles.
In remarks issued by the Kremlin earlier today, Putin said:
With the adoption of the Borei-A nuclear-powered submarine project ‘Emperor Alexander III’ into the navy, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the naval strategic nuclear forces will reach 100%.
Emperor Alexander III, first launched in December, is the seventh Borei-A class submarine and can each carry 16 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Putin said Russia would develop all parts of Russia’s conventional armed forces, improve training, add advanced equipment, bolster the arms industry and promote soldiers who had proven themselves in battle. He said:
A modern, efficient army and navy are a guarantee of the country’s security and sovereignty, a guarantee of its stable development and its future. Therefore, we will continue to pay priority attention to strengthening our defence capability.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog from Geneva Abdul. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
The Ukrainian comedian Vasyl Baidak sparks an unlikely and enduring friendship with retiree Iryna Terekhova when he joins a group of young people from Kyiv to rebuild her home, in a new Guardian documentary.
Terekhova, a devout Orthodox Christian, lives in a farming village in the Chernihiv region. Her house was destroyed during the Russian occupation of March 2022. She reflects on a traumatic time when she was forced to share her cellar with Russian soldiers who said they had come to liberate her, but who devastated her village.
Refusing to leave the area where she has lived most of her life, Terekhova is galvanised by the entrepreneurial spirit of the young Kyiv builders, while Baidak proves that humour is the vital ingredient to bolster their collective spirit.
“I wait for the war to end, that’s when our new year will begin. For now, 2022 still continues,” concludes Iryna.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to those now following today’s live coverage on the war in Ukraine. It’s 1pm in Kyiv.
On the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war, Vladimir Putin has threatened to strengthen Russia’s nuclear forces. His comments were released before an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday.
And Nato’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, says the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.
The UN general assembly is expected to endorse a broad resolution demanding Russia unconditionally and immediately withdraw from Ukraine’s territory by a massive majority. But China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain, underlining their alienation from what they regarded as the west’s war.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday. The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Brig Gen Oleksiy Gromov said, according to Reuters.
Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry said, according to Reuters.
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason. In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the defence ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.
A Russian fighter plane crashed and the pilot was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, on Thursday . The cause of the crash was a “technical malfunction”, according to preliminary information. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area and there were no reports of other damage.
Sweden is open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine as it prepares to present another package of aid to help Kyiv fight off the Russian invasion, the country’s defence minister said.
Moldova dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false-flag operation, and called for calm.
The US Treasury secretary stepped up calls for increased financing support to Ukraine, as the US readies an additional $10bn in economic assistance in the coming weeks. Janet Yellen said it was critical for the IMF to “move swiftly” towards a fully financed loan programme for Ukraine.
‘I think he is not going to stop’, the UK defence secretary has said of Vladimir Putin’s war. Ben Wallace said the conflict in Ukraine could last another year. PA news also reported that Wallace stressed that the war was “not a Nato conflict”.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. Sánchez said: “I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.”
The town of Vuhledar, in southern Donetsk oblast, has experienced heavy shelling again, according to the UK MoD’s latest defence intelligence update. “There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022,” the update on Thursday morning said.
The Chinese government did not consult with Kyiv when preparing its peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official said on condition of anonymity.
Vladimir Putin will use an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday to threaten to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces. Putin said that for the first time, Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles – a weapon able to carry multiple nuclear warheads – would be deployed this year.
Updated
Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
Brig Gen Oleksiy Gromov said Russia had set the goal of capturing all the territory it does not control in the two regions that make up the industrial Donbas area of eastern Ukraine by the summer, Reuters reports.
The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, he told a military briefing on the eve of Friday’s anniversary of the invasion.
Gromov said:
The enemy, having an advantage in the resource of human mobilisation, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an effort to deplete the units of the armed forces of Ukraine … In the short term, it is important for the Kremlin to capture the key settlements in the Donetsk region, and in the future to capture [all of] the Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the summer.
Updated
Finland will send three Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, Reuters cites the country’s defence ministry as saying on Thursday.
The announcement comes after Sweden’s defence minister said it was open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks.
As reported earlier, the Czech government has announced a further military aid shipment to Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:
Updated
The Czech government has approved a further military aid shipment to Ukraine and will continue to send equipment from stocks, the defence minister, Jana Černochová, said on Thursday.
Černochová did not disclose details of specific equipment being shipped, reports Reuters, but said the country had so far sent 38 tanks, 55 armoured vehicles, four aircraft and 13 self-propelled howitzers from its military reserves, alongside larger shipments from the private sector.
Updated
The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has said much-needed ammunition for his troops has been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason.
On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin published a grisly image of dozens of men who he said had been killed because commanders including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, had withheld ammunition to spite him, Reuters reports. Neither man commented but the defence ministry rejected the charge.
In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the ministry had paid off, and he had been told that ammunition was now on its way.
“So far it’s all on paper but, so we have been told, the principal documents have already been signed,” Prigozhin said.
Updated
A Russian fighter plane crashed on Thursday and the pilot was killed in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine.
The cause of the crash was a “technical malfunction”, according to preliminary information, the TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area and there were no reports of other damage, it said.
In a post on the Telegram messenger app, Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the emergency services and investigators were on the scene near the town of Valyuki, and the reason for the crash was being established.
Updated
Mikhail Afanasyev wants your letters, write Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer. The Russian journalist from Abakan in Siberia was jailed last year for writing about a small group of national guardsmen who had refused to fight in Ukraine. But Afanasyev remains defiant, while local supporters crowdfund thousands of dollars to pay off his legal fines.
“It is the duty of every person to expand the horizon of freedom by his actions, so that light pours in and overcomes the darkness,” Afanasyev wrote from pre-trial detention in a letter to his supporters this month.
“I really ask you to write to me, very much! It helps me a lot … I just want to be a journalist, faithful to my profession to the end and defend its values.”
Read more of the story here:
Updated
Sweden is open to sending some of its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine as it prepares to present another package of aid to help Kyiv fight off the Russian invasion, its defence minister told the local news agency TT.
The latest instalment Sweden has delivered to Ukraine since the invasion includes armoured infantry fighting vehicles, which the defence minister, Pal Jonson, told Reuters would be the country’s main contribution to Ukraine in terms of equipment for ground warfare.
Sweden is also preparing to send Ukraine the advanced Archer artillery system to Ukraine, and support has been growing in the Swedish parliament for additionally contributing some of the country’s around 120 Leopard tanks.
“We are open to that and we are in close dialogue with above all Germany about it,” Jonson was quoted by TT as saying.
Updated
Moldova dismisses Russia accusation of Ukraine planning to invade Transnistria
Moldova has dismissed an accusation by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday that Ukraine planned to invade the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria after staging a false-flag operation, and called for calm, Reuters reports.
Earlier we reported on Russia’s defence ministry accusing Ukraine of planning to invade Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region after a false-flag operation, citing reports from the RIA news agency.
The ministry said Ukraine planned to stage an attack purportedly by Russian forces from Transnistria as a pretext for the invasion, according to RIA.
Separately, the Tass news agency quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin as saying the west had instructed the Chisinau government to stop all interaction with the Moscow-backed Transnistrian administration.
Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, accused Moscow earlier this month of planning a coup to overthrow the government and drag Transnistria into its war.
The mainly Russian-speaking region broke away from the then Soviet Moldova in 1990. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, pro-Russia separatists fought a bloody war with the Moldovan government forces.
Updated
The US Treasury secretary has stepped up calls for increased financing support to Ukraine, as the US readies an additional $10bn in economic assistance in the coming weeks.
In remarks prepared for delivery to a news conference as G20 finance leaders gathered on the outskirts of the Indian technology hub of Bengaluru, Janet Yellen said it was critical for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to “move swiftly” towards a fully financed loan programme for Ukraine, Reuters reports.
As President Biden has said, we will stand with Ukraine in its fight – for as long as it takes. Continued, robust support for Ukraine will be a major topic of discussion during my time here in India.
Yellen added:
Our economic assistance is making Ukraine’s resistance possible by supporting the home front: funding critical public services and helping keep the government running. In the coming months, we expect to provide around $10bn in additional economic support for Ukraine.
Updated
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian founder of the Wagner mercenary group, was able to pass UK anti-money laundering checks by submitting a utility bill in the name of his elderly mother, the FT reports.
Leaked emails seen by the Financial Times show that the law firm Discreet Law in 2021 requested identification documents from Prigozhin, who has been placed under sanctions and accused of human rights abuses around the world, before taking him on as a client.
As part of anti-laundering checks, Prigozhin’s Russian lawyers forwarded the London-based law firm a copy of his passport and a gas bill in the name of his then 81-year-old mother, Violetta, for an address in St Petersburg, the FT reports.
Discreet Law’s founder, Roger Gherson, said the firm “cannot comment on confidential communications with [its] former clients”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to those now following today’s live coverage on the war in Ukraine. It’s 10am in Kyiv.
On the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war, Vladimir Putin has threatened to strengthen Russia’s nuclear forces. His comments were released before an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday.
And Nato’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, says the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.
The UN general assembly is expected to endorse a broad resolution demanding Russia unconditionally and immediately withdraw from Ukraine’s territory by a massive majority. But China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain, underlining their alienation from what they regarded as the west’s war.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
‘I think he is not going to stop’: UK defence secretary on Putin’s war. Ben Wallace has said the conflict in Ukraine could last another year. PA news also reported that Wallace stressed that the war was “not a Nato conflict”.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches. Arriving in the Ukrainian capital, Sánchez said: “I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.”
The town of Vuhledar, in southern Donetsk oblast, has experienced heavy shelling again, according to the UK MoD’s latest defence intelligence update. “There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022,” the update on Thursday morning said.
The Chinese government did not consult with Kyiv when preparing its peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official said on condition of anonymity. “China did not consult with us,” the official told reporters.
Vladimir Putin will use an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday to threaten to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces. Putin said that for the first time, Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles – a weapon able to carry multiple nuclear warheads – would be deployed this year.
Joe Biden has said Putin made a “big mistake” by suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US. The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US will not increase the risk of a nuclear war. Russia’s parliament on Wednesday approved Putin’s move to suspend the treaty.
The Biden administration is considering releasing intelligence it believes shows that China is weighing whether to supply weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “an affront to our collective conscience”, at a two-day meeting of the general assembly. Friday’s anniversary is “a grim milestone for the people of Ukraine and for the international community”, he said in New York.
Two civilians were killed in Russian shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to regional officials. Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, said an 81-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man were killed during shelling of the village of Novotyahinka, about 40km (25 miles) from Kherson city. A Russian missile strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday morning left two civilians wounded, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv region, has said.
Biden vowed that the US would defend “literally every inch of Nato” territory, ahead of talks with Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, and leaders of the Bucharest Nine (B9), a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the Nato alliance and closest to Russia.
All members of the B9 have jointly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Polish presidential adviser said. Biden and the B9 leaders “reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine and underscored their shared commitment to stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes” according to a White House account of Wednesday afternoon’s meeting in Warsaw.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as China and Russia reaffirm their close bilateral relationship. Wang told Putin that Beijing would play a “constructive” role in reaching a political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, the Russian state-owned Tass news agency reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, Wang met Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, where he said he expected to reach a “new consensus” on advancing the relationship between the two allies. Xi Jinping, China’s president, is expected to visit Putin in Russia in the coming months.
Vladimir Putin has praised soldiers who are “fighting heroically, courageously, bravely” to “defend the fatherland”, in a speech at a rally in Moscow to mark a year of war in Ukraine. Thousands gathered at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow for a concert marking Defenders of the Fatherland Day.
EU countries have failed to agree on a new set of sanctions against Russia meant to be in place for the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, four diplomatic sources in Brussels have told Reuters. More talks among Brussels representatives of EU member countries were due on Thursday afternoon, said the sources.
Updated
On Thursday 2 February, my friend Pete Reed died as he tried to evacuate civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, writes Cengiz Yar.
Based on footage we now have of the incident, his vehicle was hit by a Russian anti-tank missile. He was killed in the blast, and others in his team were severely injured. Reports suggest it was likely a double-tap strike, a technique used frequently by Russia in Syria, where an attack is made to draw in additional support and recovery operations before a second attack is made.
Pete was one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met. You should know a bit about the good he did in this world.
I met him in the spring of 2016 over some drinks in Iraq, where I worked as a photographer. He was loud, a bit goofy, and trying to do some good. What good? He hadn’t quite figured that out yet.
Read more by Cengiz Yar here:
Updated
Spanish PM Sanchez arrives in Kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches.
Arriving in the Ukrainian capital, Sánchez said:
I’m back in Ukraine a year after the start of the war. We will stay by Ukraine’s side until peace returns to Europe.
Sánchez, who last visited Ukraine in April, is understood to have travelled to Ukraine at Zelenskiy’s invitation.
Vuelvo a Kyiv un año después del inicio de la guerra.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 23, 2023
Estaremos al lado de Ucrania y de su gente hasta que la paz regrese a Europa.
Сьогодні повертаюся до Києва.
Ми будемо з Україною та її народом, поки до Європи не повернеться мир. pic.twitter.com/9ekUL9Lmfl
Updated
'I think he is not going to stop': UK defence secretary on Putin's war
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said the conflict in Ukraine could last another year, PA news reports.
When asked whether he could see the war continuing for another 12 months, Wallace told LBC:
I think we will. I think Russia has shown a complete disregard, not only for the lives of the people of Ukraine but for its own soldiers. We are sitting here 12 months in and 188,000, actually more now, Russian soldiers are dead or injured as a result of this catastrophic miscalculation and aggression by President Putin.
Wallace added:
When someone has crossed the line and thinks it is OK to do that to your own people, running effectively a meat grinder for an army, I think he is not going to stop.
He told LBC that planes currently held by Nato countries could be given to Ukraine, and he stressed that the war was “not a Nato conflict”, according to PA news.
Wallace said:
There is already talk, I think, of an eastern European country supplying MiG-29s … We’re not going to see Nato, we’re going to see countries that are members of Nato potentially put in air force equipment or MiG-29.
Updated
Russian general probably under intense pressure to take Vuhledar, says UK
The town of Vuhledar, in southern Donetsk oblast, has experienced heavy shelling again, according to the MoD’s latest defence intelligence update.
“There is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort in this area despite costly failed attacks in early February and late 2022,” the update on Thursday morning said.
Colonel General Rustam Muradov, commander of Russia’s Eastern Group of forces, is likely to be under intense pressure to improve results in Vuhledar after harsh criticism from the Russian nationalist community, according to the MoD.
“However, it is unlikely that Muradov has a striking force capable of achieving a breakthrough,” it said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 February 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 23, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence: https://t.co/wfwm9P2xXK
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/kJnDtbypjV
Updated
Ukraine’s boxing federation has joined a growing boycott of the amateur world championships over the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian boxers, who have been allowed to compete with national flags and anthems.
The FBU vice-president, Oleg Ilchenko, told the public broadcaster Suspline on Wednesday that its boxers would not compete in this year’s men’s and women’s championships, which will be held in New Delhi and Tashkent respectively.
Both competitions are organised by the International Boxing Association, led by a Russian, Umar Kremlev. The United States, Ireland and Britain are among nine other federations that have boycotted the women’s event, while several have also pulled out of the men’s tournament.
Updated
Russia accuses Ukraine of planning to invade Transnistria, Moldova
Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine on Thursday of planning to invade Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region after a false-flag operation, the RIA news agency reported.
The ministry said Ukraine planned to stage an attack purportedly by Russian forces from Transnistria as a pretext for the invasion, according to RIA.
Separately, the Tass news agency quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin as saying the west had instructed the Chisinau government to stop all interaction with the Moscow-backed Transnistrian administration.
Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, accused Moscow earlier this month of planning a coup to overthrow the government and drag Transnistria into its war.
The mainly Russian-speaking region broke away from the then Soviet Moldova in 1990. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, pro-Russia separatists fought a bloody war with the Moldovan government forces.
Updated
The 193-strong UN general assembly is expected by a massive majority on Thursday to endorse a broad resolution demanding that Russia unconditionally and immediately withdraws from Ukraine’s territory, but China, South Africa, India and many countries in the global south are likely to continue to abstain, underlining their alienation from what they regard as the west’s war.
The resolution has been the subject of weeks of negotiations and has required Ukraine’s allies in the G7 to persuade Kyiv not to press for very specific wider demands and risk seeing some of the countries that have previously voted for Ukraine’s sovereignty peeling off.
The last time the UN general assembly voted on the issue, 143 countries backed Ukraine and only five supported Russia. Ukraine has been warned that the number may slip to 135 in Thursday’s vote, marking the first anniversary of the war’s start, but Ukraine and its allies have been involved in last-minute high-level lobbying of countries such as Pakistan and India.
Updated
Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi shared “key elements of the Chinese peace plan” during their meeting in Germany earlier this week.
“We are looking forward to receiving the text because this is not something that you can, you know, make your conclusions on just after hearing,” he added.
Speaking at the UN general assembly on Wednesday, Kuleba told reporters that Ukraine was open to a conversation on the matter.
“We are ready to talk with those who have ideas, other ideas which can help us achieve this goal,” he said.
But the Ukrainian official warned on Wednesday that no peace plan should cross the “red lines” outlined by Kyiv.
“The red lines are the principles of the UN charter, including respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the official said.
“There will be no bargaining with any Ukrainian territories. The president [Volodymyr Zelenskiy] has already clearly said that.”
Updated
China did not consult with Kyiv over peace plan
The Chinese government did not consult with Kyiv when preparing its peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official said on condition of anonymity.
“China did not consult with us,” the official told reporters, including AFP.
Beijing has promised to publish its proposed “political solution” to Ukraine conflict this week, in time for the first anniversary of Russia’s 24 February invasion of its neighbour.
Nato chief sees ‘signs’ China may provide support to Russia
Nato’s chief said on Wednesday that the military alliance had seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, also told the Associated Press in an interview that the alliance, while not a party to the war, would support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
Asked whether Nato had any indication that China might be ready to provide arms or other support to Russia’s war, Stoltenberg said: “We have seen some signs that they may be planning for that and of course Nato allies, the United States, have been warning against it because this is something that should not happen. China should not support Russia’s illegal war.”
Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “[direct] support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course [as] a member of the UN security council China should not in any way support violation of the UN charter, or international law.”
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin hosted the Chinese Communist party’s most senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi, raising concern in the west that Beijing might be ready to offer Moscow stronger support in the almost year-old war.
Updated
Putin threatens to strengthen nuclear forces
Vladimir Putin will use an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday to threaten to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces.
“As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” Putin said in remarks issued early on Thursday morning by the Kremlin. The “triad” refers to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air.
Putin said that for the first time, Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles - a weapon able to carry multiple nuclear warheads – would be deployed this year.
“We will continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and will start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles,” Putin said.
Updated
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
On the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war, Vladimir Putin has threatened to strengthen Russia’s nuclear forces. His comments were released ahead of an address to mark Thursday’s Defender of the Fatherland public holiday.
And Nato’s chief says the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.
We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
Joe Biden has said Putin made a “big mistake” by suspending the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US. Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US will not increase the risk of a nuclear war, Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said. Russia’s parliament on Wednesday approved Putin’s move to suspend the treaty.
The Biden administration is considering releasing intelligence it believes shows that China is weighing whether to supply weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “an affront to our collective conscience”, at a two-day meeting of the general assembly. Friday’s anniversary is “a grim milestone for the people of Ukraine and for the international community”, he said in New York.
Two civilians were killed in Russian shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to regional officials. Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration, said an 81-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man were killed during shelling of the village of Novotyahinka, about 40km (25 miles) from Kherson city. A Russian missile strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday morning left two civilians wounded, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv region, has said.
Biden vowed that the US would defend “literally every inch of Nato” territory, ahead of talks with Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, and leaders of the Bucharest Nine (B9), a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the Nato alliance and closest to Russia.
All members of the Bucharest Nine (B9) have jointly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Polish presidential adviser said. Biden and the B9 leaders “reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine and underscored their shared commitment to stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes” according to a White House account of Wednesday afternoon’s meeting in Warsaw.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as China and Russia reaffirm their close bilateral relationship. Wang told Putin that Beijing will play a “constructive” role in reaching a political settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, the Russian state-owned Tass news agency reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, Wang met Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, where he said he expected to reach a “new consensus” on advancing the relationship between the two allies. Xi Jinping, China’s president, is expected to visit Putin in Russia in the coming months.
Vladimir Putin has praised soldiers who are “fighting heroically, courageously, bravely” to “defend the fatherland”, in a speech at a rally in Moscow to mark a year of war in Ukraine. Thousands gathered at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow to attend a concert marking the “Defenders of the Fatherland” Day.
EU countries have failed to agree on a new set of sanctions against Russia meant to be in place for the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, four diplomatic sources in Brussels have told Reuters. More talks among Brussels representatives of EU member countries were due on Thursday afternoon, said the sources.
Updated
