Good evening, we are closing this blog now. You can see all our Ukraine coverage here
A summary of today's developments
Ukraine and Russia both claimed that hundreds of enemy troops had been killed in the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new frontline.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said 221 pro-Moscow troops had been killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut.
Russia’s defence ministry said that as many as 210 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the broader Donetsk part of the frontline.
Ukraine’s military repelled more than 92 Russian assaults in five areas over the past day, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russian forces did not make any advances in Bakhmut on Saturday.
The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said he believed a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea would be extended from its 18 March deadline.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Russian representatives had not yet taken part in negotiations on extending the deal.
The National Police of Ukraine reported that Russia had launched 48 attacks against civilians in Donetsk oblast over the past day. The police said 15 cities and towns, including Bakhmut, Kostyantynivka, and Avdiivka, had come under attack.
Three civilians were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, denouncing what he called “brutal terrorist attacks” by pro-Moscow units.
More than 40 missiles had hit the north-eastern city of Kharkiv since the beginning of the year, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Saturday.
Moldovan police claim to have foiled a plot by Russia-backed groups trained to cause mass unrest during a protest against the government. An undercover agent infiltrated groups of “diversionists,” among them Russian citizens, who had been promised $10,000 to create “mass disorder” to destabilise Moldova, the head of its police force told a news conference.
Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Germany in an interview published on Sunday to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on western fighter jets. Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the “number one” problem in Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.
Switzerland is scrapping outdated Rapier surface-to-air missiles that could have been used by Ukraine to shoot down low-flying targets, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has thanked Canada for its decision to ban imports of Russian aluminium and steel products, and urged other countries to do the same.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has reportedly said there is infighting in the Kremlin’s inner circle, and that the Kremlin has in effect ceded control over the country’s information space.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, has asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russia-aligned wing of the church.
Most Britons think housing Ukrainian refugees is a good thing, a study shows. Eight in 10 people who took in Ukrainians fleeing the war said they had a positive experience of hosting refugees, while most of the public think the UK should continue to take in people from war zones, according to a study.
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Thousands of people gathered in the Moldovan capital Chișinău for a protest organised by a pro-Russia party, where demonstrators criticised the pro-European government for a steep rise in the cost of living.
As Russia has reduced gas supplies to Moldova over the past year, bills have risen up to six-fold in the country of 2.6 million. The energy crisis and the war in neighbouring Ukraine have also contributed to a 30% rise in inflation.
With western economic help, the government has subsidised energy bills but many are still struggling.
“What can we live off?” said Tamara, 70, who took part in the protest.
Ivan Vasile, 85, said his pension was the equivalent of £100 a month. “Can I afford to buy myself cheese? I cannot,” he said. “I eat little more than bread. Before, electricity and gas were cheaper. Democracy is for the rich.”
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Moldovan police claim to have foiled a plot by Russia-backed groups trained to cause mass unrest during a protest against the government.
An undercover agent infiltrated groups of “diversionists,” among them Russian citizens, who had been promised $10,000 (£8,300) to create “mass disorder” to destabilise Moldova, the head of its police force told a news conference.
Viorel Cernauteanu said seven people had been detained. Police also said 54 protesters had been arrested and four bomb threats registered.
The protest on Sunday was one in a series held against the new pro-EU government, organised by a group called Movement for the People.
The group is backed by the Russia-friendly Shor party, which holds six seats in Moldova’s legislature and is led by a UK-sanctioned oligarch, according to Sky News.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has tweeted about holding talks with his new Czech counterpart, Petr Pavel:
Had a call with 🇨🇿 President @prezidentpavel. Congratulated him on officially taking office. Outlined the situation at the front & our security needs. We discussed 🇺🇦’s EU integration & agreed to further cooperate. 🇨🇿 support is crucial for 🇺🇦 in fighting against RF's aggression!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 12, 2023
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Summary
Key events today.
Ukraine and Russia both claimed that hundreds of enemy troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new frontline.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said 221 pro-Moscow troops were killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut.
Russia’s defence ministry said that up to 210 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the broader Donetsk part of the frontline.
Ukraine’s military repelled more than 92 Russian assaults in five areas over the past day, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russian forces did not make any advances in Bakhmut on Saturday.
Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said he believes that a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea will be extended from its current 18 March deadline.
But Russia’s foreign ministry said Russian representatives had not yet taken part in negotiations on extending the Black Sea grain deal.
The National Police of Ukraine reported Russia had launched 48 attacks against civilians in Donetsk Oblast over the past day. The police said 15 cities and towns, including Bakhmut, Kostyantynivka, and Avdiivka, came under attack.
Three civilians were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, denouncing what he called “brutal terrorist attacks” by pro-Moscow units.
More than 40 missiles have hit the north-eastern city of Kharkiv since the beginning of the year, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Saturday.
Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Germany in an interview published on Sunday to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on western fighter jets. Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the “number one” problem in Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.
Switzerland is scrapping outdated Rapier surface-to-air missiles that could have been used by Ukraine to shoot down low-flying targets, Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported. The Swiss government prohibits countries that purchase Swiss arms from re-exporting them without permission.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has thanked Canada for its decision to ban imports of Russian aluminium and steel products, and urged other countries to do the same.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has reportedly said there is infighting in the Kremlin’s inner circle, and that the Kremlin has in effect ceded control over the country’s information space.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox church, has asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russian-aligned wing of the church.
Most Britons think housing Ukrainian refugees is a good thing, a study shows. Eight in 10 people who took in Ukrainians fleeing the war said they had a positive experience of hosting refugees, while most of the public think the UK should continue to take in people from war zones, according to a study.
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The National Police of Ukraine said today Russia had launched 48 attacks against civilians in Donetsk Oblast over the past day.
The police said 15 cities and towns, including Bakhmut, Kostyantynivka and Avdiivka, came under attack, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Russia attacked the region with S-300 missiles, aircraft, Grad and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, artillery, mortars and tanks, according to the report.
Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in his daily briefing that two civilians were killed and four were wounded over the past day.
The fiercest fighting of the war continues to rage near the embattled city of Bakhmut. As Russia slowly makes progress to capture the ruined city, more attacks are being recorded in neighboring settlements, such as Kostyantynivka and Chasiv Yar.
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The Swiss president, Alain Berset, has defended the controversial ban on transferring Swiss-made arms to Ukraine, saying :“Swiss weapons must not be used in wars.”
Switzerland , which is not a an EU member, has followed the bloc’s lead on sanctions targeting Moscow, but it has so far shown less flexibility on its military neutrality.
AFP reported:
Despite pressure from Kyiv and its allies, Switzerland has continued to block countries that hold Swiss-made weaponry from re-exporting it to Ukraine. To date, requests from Germany, Spain and Denmark have been rejected under the War Materiel Act, which bars all re-export if the recipient country is in an international armed conflict. Berset told NZZ the policy was based on “commitment to peace, to humanitarian law, to mediation where possible”.
Berset told NZZ the policy was based on “commitment to peace, to humanitarian law, to mediation where possible”. Switzerland’s role as the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions, as well as of the United Nations’s European headquarters “is reflected in our laws, including those relating to the export of weapons”, he said. Protection of humanitarian and human rights law and the Geneva Conventions “may sound passé to some, but it is more important than ever,” he said, warning it would be “extremely dangerous to throw these fundamental principles overboard now”. “As far as Switzerland is concerned, warfare is not part of the DNA,” Berset said, stressing his nation aimed “to be present wherever we can contribute to mediation and peace”. He said he believed negotiations with Russia were needed to end the war in Ukraine, “the sooner the better”.
Several initiatives are under way in parliament towards relaxing the re-export rules to make it possible for Swiss-made weaponry to be transferred by third countries to Ukraine. But Berset stressed the government’s “position is clear. It also corresponds to my personal position. Swiss weapons must not be used in wars.” The process towards a final decision, with debates between parliament and the government, followed by a probable referendum under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, is likely to take months.
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Switzerland is scrapping outdated Rapier surface-to-air missiles that could have been used by Ukraine to shoot down low-flying targets, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung has reported.
A spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) said that all Rapier short-range anti-aircraft missile systems would be dismantled.
The Rapier missile was originally developed for the British army and is capable of shooting down highly manoeuvrable targets.
The newspaper reported that the disposal of weapons has caused a backlash from some Swiss politicians, according to the Kyiv Independent.
The Swiss government prohibits countries that purchase Swiss arms from re-exporting them without permission. Swiss neutrality also dictates that the country will not send weapons directly or indirectly to any party to a war.
The Swiss government refused to let Spain transfer Swiss-made anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine in February.
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Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces continued to conduct military operations in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
“In the Donetsk direction ... more than 220 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, three armoured fighting vehicles, seven vehiclesand a D-30 howitzer were destroyed during the day,” Reuters quoted the ministry as saying.
It was not able to independently verify the claims.
Both sides say they have inflicted significant losses and the exact numbers are difficult to verify.
Ukraine said on Saturday that more than 500 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in a recent 24-hour period as they battled for control of Bakhmut.
Russian forces and troops from the Wagner group of mercenaries have captured territory in the eastern part of the city and outskirts to the north and south, but have so far failed to encircle it completely.
Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would punch a hole in Ukrainian defences and be a step towards seizing all of the Donbas industrial region, a major target.
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Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has thanked Canada for its decision to ban imports of Russian aluminium and steel products, and urged other countries to do the same.
He tweeted:
Eliminating russia's ability to finance the war is one of the steps to 🇺🇦’s victory. Grateful to 🇨🇦 government, @JustinTrudeau, @cafreeland, for banning imports of aluminium & steel from rf. We hope for similar decisions from other countries. We must stop russian war machine.
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) March 12, 2023
Canada announced a ban on imports of Russian aluminium and steel products on Friday with the aim of denying Moscow revenues to fund its war in Ukraine. The imports were worth almost $180m (£150m) in 2021, according to the latest government data.
“Canada, and our partners, have already sanctioned the Russian Central Bank and capped the price of Russian oil and gas,” the country’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, said in a statement.
“And now, we are ensuring Putin cannot pay for his war by selling aluminium and steel in Canada, in coordination with action taken by the United States today.”
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Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco has reported a record annual net profit of $161bn (£134bn) for 2022, up 46% from the previous year on higher energy prices, increased volumes sold and improved margins for refined products.
The profits, which are around triple those of Exxon’s $56bn, follow similar reports in February from international peers such as BP , Shell and Chevron, which mostly posted record profits last year.
Oil prices swung wildly in 2022, climbing on geopolitical worries about the war in Ukraine, then sliding on weaker demand from China and worries about a global economic contraction, Reuters reports.
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Most Britons think housing Ukrainian refugees is a good thing, a study shows.
Eight in ten people who took in Ukrainians fleeing the war said they had a positive experience of hosting refugees, while most of the public think the UK should continue to take in people from war zones, according to a study.
Detailed polling from More in Common, a civil society organisation, found that 88% of people who took in refugees from Ukraine would do so again, compared with 3% who would not.
It also found that 68% of Britons believe the fact that the UK has taken in more than 150,000 refugees from Ukraine is a good thing and only 17% think it is a bad thing.
The findings come amid controversy over Rishi Sunak’s policy of detaining and deporting refugees who flee to the UK across the Channel in small boats, prompting outrage among human rights campaigners and the UN refugee agency.
Read the report here:
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Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that Moscow had not yet taken part in negotiations on extending the Black Sea grain deal.
“There have been no negotiations on this subject, especially with the participation of Russian representatives,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said.
The next round of talks on extending the deal will be held in Geneva on 13 March between Russia’s delegation and the top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan, she said.
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Turkish defence minister says he believes Ukrainian grain deal will be extended
The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said on Sunday that he believed the deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea will be extended from its 18 March deadline.
The initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey last July, was intended to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia’s invasion to be exported safely from three ports.
The deal was extended for 120 days in November and will renew on 18 March if no party objects. Moscow, however, has already signalled it will only agree to an extension if restrictions affecting its own exports are lifted.
Turkey has said previously that it is working hard to extend the deal. “In separate talks with the Russian and Ukrainian sides, we saw that both sides are approaching this positively. We believe it will conclude positively,” Akar said in an interview with state-owned Anadolu Agency reported by Reuters.
“We have the opinion that the duration will be extended on 18 March,.”
The west has not explicitly targeted Russia’s agricultural exports, but Moscow says sanctions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a barrier to it being able to export its grain and fertilisers.
Russia has also complained that Ukrainian grain exported under the deal is going to wealthy countries.
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The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has reportedly said there is infighting in the Kremlin’s inner circle, and that the Kremlin has in effect ceded control over the country’s information space.
Speaking at a forum on Saturday on the “practical and technological aspects of information and cognitive warfare in modern realities” in Moscow, Zakharova mentioned that despite fighting among unspecified Kremlin “elites”, the Kremlin could not replicate the Stalinist approach of establishing a modern equivalent to the Soviet Information Bureau, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment.
The ISW added:
Zakharova’s statement is noteworthy and supports several of ISW’s longstanding assessments about deteriorating Kremlin regime and information space control dynamics. The statement supports several assessments: that there is Kremlin infighting between key members of Putin’s inner circle; that Putin has largely ceded the Russian information space over time to a variety of quasi-independent actors; and that Putin is apparently unable to take decisive action to regain control over the Russian information space.
It is unclear why Zakharova – a seasoned senior spokesperson – would have openly acknowledged these problems in a public setting. Zakharova may have directly discussed these problems for the first time to temper Russian nationalist milbloggers’ expectations regarding the current capabilities of the Kremlin to cohere around a unified narrative – or possibly even a unified policy.
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According to the Institute for the Study of War , Russian forces did not make any advances in Bakhmut on Saturday.
New: #Russian forces did not make any confirmed advances within #Bakhmut on March 11. @criticalthreats
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 11, 2023
Our latest: https://t.co/U0sK1WbhHo pic.twitter.com/ZgmTs2629K
The eastern city of Bakhmut has been Russia’s main target for more than seven months.
On Saturday, Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the armed forces of Ukraine, claimed that Russian forces lost more than 500 troops over the past day in Bakhmut. The casualties included 221 killed and 314 wounded, according to Cherevaty, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Both Ukrainian and Russian forces are seeing heavy losses. Russia’s assault on Bakhmut relies heavily on the private military company Wagner group, which said on Friday it had opened recruitment centres in 42 Russian cities.
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More than 40 missiles have hit the northeastern city of Kharkiv since the beginning of the year, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Saturday.
“Only since the beginning of this year – in less than two-and-a-half months – over 40 enemy missiles have already struck Kharkiv,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the resulting “ruins, debris, shell holes in the ground” amounted to a self-portrait of Russia, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Engineers are working to restore power to thousands of customers in the region after Russia’s latest attack on Thursday. Electricity has been restored for 90% of people in Kharkiv oblast, according to the officials, but public transport that depends on electricity is still not fully operational.
Russian forces are also reportedly directing their efforts at reclaiming lost ground in the direction of Kupiansk, located 156km east of the regional capital. Since Kupiansk was liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022, it has been subjected to daily attacks because of its close proximity to the border.
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Ukraine’s military claims to have repelled more than 92 Russian assaults over past day
Ukraine’s military repelled more than 92 Russian assaults in five areas over the past day, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed in its morning briefing on Sunday, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to the general staff report, Russian forces are concentrating their efforts on conducting offensives toward Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka, and Shakhtarsk in Donetsk oblast.
Over the past 24 hours, Russia launched five missiles, targeting the city of Zaporizhzhia, 12 airstrikes, and 56 MLRS attacks against Ukraine, targeting the city of Kherson, which resulted in civilian casualties, it said.
Ukraine’s air force carried out six strikes on temporary Russian bases, while Ukraine’s rocket and artillery forces hit four Russian temporary bases, one ammunition depot and two electronic warfare stations, it added
The Ukrainian military warns about a continued high threat of missile attacks throughout Ukraine.
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The head of the Russian Orthodox church has asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russian-aligned wing of the church.
Kyiv on Friday ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC) to leave a monastery complex where it is based, the latest move against a denomination that the government says is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow.
Patriarch Kirill on Saturday urged religious leaders and international organisations to “make every effort to prevent the forced closure of the monastery, which will lead to a violation of the rights of millions of Ukrainian believers”, said a statement posted on the church’s website.
Kirill strongly backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The UOC says it has severed its ties with Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate, and is the victim of a political witch-hunt.
Since October, the Security Service of Ukraine has regularly carried out searches at UOC churches, imposed sanctions on its bishops and financial backers, and opened criminal cases against dozens of its clergymen.
Among the many leaders to whom the appeal is addressed are Pope Francis; the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby; the head of Egypt’s Coptic church, Pope Tawadros; as well as the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, and the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, the church said.
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The impact of the heavy casualties Russia continues to take varies dramatically across Russia’s regions, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
In proportion to the size of their population, the richest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been left relatively unscathed.
This is especially true for the families of the country’s elite.
On 21 February 2023, Russian senior officials were photographed making up the front two rows of the audience of President Putin’s state of the nation speech. None of these are known to have children serving in the military.
In many of the eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate 30+ times higher than in Moscow. In places, ethnic minorities take the biggest hit; in Astrakhan, some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations.
As the Russian MoD seeks to address its continued deficit of combat personnel, insulating the better-off and more influential elements of Russian society will highly likely remain a major consideration.
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 12, 2023
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 11 March 2023.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/Q556veYzIS
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/RTRuEc0HP5
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Ukraine’s foreign minister also said Ukraine would keep defending Bakhmut.
“If we withdrew from Bakhmut, what would that change? Russia would take Bakhmut and then continue its offensive against Chasiv Yar, so every town behind Bakhmut could suffer the same fate,” Dmytro Kuleba said.
Asked how long Ukrainian forces could hold on, he declined to give a specific answer, comparing them to people defending their house against an intruder trying to kill them and take everything they own.
Some military experts have questioned the sense of continuing to hold the city, but the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said that it helped to win time in preparation for the coming counteroffensive.
“The real heroes now are the defenders who are holding the eastern front on their shoulders, and inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy,” Syrsky was quoted as saying in a statement on Saturday.
“It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counteroffensive, which is not far off.”
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Ukraine’s foreign minister urges Germany to speed up supplies of ammunition
In an interview published on Sunday, Ukraine’s foreign minister has urged Germany to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on western fighter jets.
Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the “number one” problem in Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.
He said German weapons manufacturers told him at the Munich Security Conference last month that they were ready to deliver but were waiting for the government to sign contracts.
“So the problem lies with the government,” Kuleba was quoted as saying.
Kuleba made clear he did not expect western allies to give Ukraine the fighter jets it has been asking for any time soon.
But he said Ukrainian pilots should be trained anyway, so they would be ready once that decision was taken, the paper wrote.
If Germany were to train Ukrainian pilots, that would be a “clear message of its political engagement”, he said.
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Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. This is Christine Kearney bringing you up to date.
The Ukrainian military is preparing for an upcoming counteroffensive, with a top commander saying his forces’ ongoing defence of Bakhmut in the face of fierce and sustained Russian attacks is necessary to “buy time” for that push.
The remarks came as British intelligence said the frontline had shifted in the fight for Bakhmut – the longest and bloodiest battle of Moscow’s year-long invasion – but that any further Russian advance in the devastated town would be “highly challenging”.
Ukraine and Russia are both claiming that hundreds of each other’s troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with a small river that bisects the town marking the new frontline. The exact number of casualties is difficult to independently verify, Reuters reports.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said 221 pro-Moscow troops were killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut. Russia’s defence ministry said up to 210 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the broader Donetsk part of the frontline.
British military intelligence said on Saturday that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group had taken control of most of the eastern part of Bakhmut – an advance that the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed on Wednesday.
“In the city centre, the Bakhmutka River now marks the frontline,” the British defence ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin.
Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would punch a hole in Ukrainian defences and be a step towards seizing all of the Donbas industrial region, a major target. Kyiv counters that the battle is grinding down Russia’s best units.
British intelligence said that with the river running through some open ground, “this area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westward”.
In other developments as it turns 9am in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv:
Three civilians were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Saturday, and another died in Donetsk, regional officials said. Reuters reported the governor of Kherson oblast, Oleksandr Prokudin, as saying three people, including an elderly woman, had also been wounded. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the three people killed in Kherson had gone to a store to buy groceries. “I would like to support all our cities and communities that are subjected to brutal terrorist attacks,” he said in a regular evening video address.
Russia has bombarded Ukraine more than 40,500 times since its invasion in February 2022, according to the Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. The shelling had destroyed more than 152,000 residential buildings since the war began, Euromaidan reported Klymenko as saying.
Russian missile strikes targeted “critical infrastructure” in Zaporizhzhia, the Kyiv Independent reported. The strikes launched on Saturday were likely to have come from S-300 air defence missiles, the outlet reported the Zaporizhzhia oblast military administration as saying.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, dismissed reports that a “pro-Ukrainian group” carried out a high-profile attack on the Nord Stream pipelines late last year. Speaking to former Portuguese minister Bruno Macaes in an interview with the New Statesman, Kuleba said: “It is the first time that I’m hearing a story of a secret pro-Ukrainian or Ukrainian group that is able to conduct operations of that scale and sophistication.”
Canada has announced a ban on imports of Russian aluminium and steel products, with the aim of denying Moscow revenues to fund its war in Ukraine. The imports were worth almost C$250m (US$180m/£150m) in 2021, according to the latest government data.
Ukraine’s foreign minister urged Germany in an interview published on Sunday to speed up supplies of ammunition and to start training Ukrainian pilots on western fighter jets. Dmytro Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that ammunition shortages were the “number one” problem in Ukraine’s attempt to repel Russia’s invasion.
Most of Kyiv’s power supply was restored, Ukrainian officials said, after a Russian missile and drone barrage targeting critical infrastructure on Thursday. Power supplies were fully restored in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, private provider DTEK said, while about 60% of households in Kharkiv city that were knocked off the grid were back online, Associated Press quoted authorities as saying. Significant damage remained in the Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions in Ukraine’s north-west and north-east.
Iran has reached a deal to buy advanced Su-35 fighter planes from Russia, Iranian state media said on Saturday, expanding a relationship that has seen Iranian-built drones used in Russia’s war on Ukraine. “The Sukhoi-35 fighter planes are technically acceptable to Iran and Iran has finalised a contract for their purchase,” the broadcaster IRIB quoted Iran’s mission to the United Nations as saying in New York.
The UK government has written to Olympic sponsors urging them to pressure the International Olympic Committee over its proposal to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete at next year’s Paris Games, British media reported on Saturday. The IOC is facing a mounting backlash after setting out a pathway in January for competitors from Russia and its ally Belarus to earn Olympic slots through Asian qualifying and to compete as neutral athletes in Paris, Reuters reported.
Russia has listed the World Wildlife Fund as a foreign agent. According to the Russian justice ministry, the Washington DC-based conservation group, “under the guise of protecting nature and the environment … tried to influence the decisions of the executive and legislative authorities” and “hindered the implementation of industrial and infrastructure projects”, the Associated Press reports.
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