Closing summary
It’s approaching 9pm in Kyiv. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories:
It will be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut, warned president Zelenskiy in an interview with CNN. “This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” he said.
New intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, the New York Times reported. There was no evidence that president Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants in Ukraine were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, the newspaper reported, citing US officials. The German government said it had taken note of the report which said new intelligence suggested a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream pipelines attack last year, but its own investigation has not yet reached results.
A senior aide to Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was “absolutely not involved” in last year’s attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines and has no information about what happened. Russia’s deputy UN envoy said that the report “only proves that our initiative on launching an international investigation under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General is very timely.”
Russia has sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties’’ - killed and wounded - in trying to capture Bakhmut, western officials estimated at a briefing on Tuesday. While no firm figure was offered for Ukrainian losses, the official said it was “significantly less”.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, has said 130 prisoners of war have been returned home following an exchange. Russia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement to say that 90 prisoners of war have been returned by Ukraine.
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children remain in Bakhmut. The city, the focus of fierce fighting in the Donbas region, had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000 people.
Britain’s defence industry is to be blocked from profiting from the EU’s vast increase in spending on arms for Ukraine, under a leaked plan seen by the Guardian. A “massive order” of ammunition, ranging from small arms to 155mm artillery rounds, is being prepared in Brussels but only EU and Norwegian manufacturers will be able to take advantage.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denied Kyiv was involved in attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield last month. Alexander Lukashenko alleged that Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services were involved in the drone attack in late February which was claimed by Belarusian anti-government activists.
A court in Moscow sentenced a student activist to eight and a half years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army, AP reports.
The situation is “stable and controlled” in the Luhansk region the governor, Serhiy Haidai said. In a post on Telegram, Haidai said the number of attacks in the direction of Bilogorivka and Kreminnaya had increased. Today, he said, the Russians have “pulled back to replenish their reserves”.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, will meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the Black Sea export of Ukraine grains, according to Reuters.
A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who died after she was found unconscious on a beach in south Devon on Saturday has been named as Albina Yevko. The teenager was found on Dawlish town beach, near where she was living, on Saturday evening after a search involving a police helicopter and HM Coastguard.
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”. In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette before apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Poland is to send more tanks to Ukraine this week, the country’s defence minister said. Poland had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to Nato”, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger Nato presence in the country.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces claim to have carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut and have control over all the asphalt roads in the area. None of the claims about the situation in Bakhmut have been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement. The Ukrainian president said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zelenskiy paid tribute to a soldier whose execution by machine gun was filmed and uploaded to social media. The graphic video shows a man smoking a cigarette who says “glory to Ukraine” before he is shot at what appears to be close range.
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent.
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Mikhail Razvozhaev posted to Telegram to say “The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.”
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang says the country must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires:
It will be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut, warned president Zelenskiy in an interview with CNN.
“This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” Ukraine’s president told CNN host Wolf Blitzer in an interview on Tuesday. “It will be an open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine in the Donetsk direction in the east of Ukraine.”
The battle for Bakhmut, which is still under Kyiv’s control, has raged for seven months, with thousands of people killed and hundreds of buildings collapsed or charred. The few remaining civilians have been confined to basements for months with no running water, electricity or gas.
In spite of the rumours of an imminent retreat of his troops, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had instructed the army to find forces to bolster the defence of the embattled city.
Russia’s deputy UN envoy said that the New York Times report on who could be responsible for the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year “only proves that our initiative on launching an international investigation under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General is very timely.”
Russia plans to call a vote in the UN Security Council by the end of March on its draft resolution asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish such an inquiry, Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters.
Updated
A senior aide to Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was “absolutely not involved” in last year’s attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines and has no information about what happened.
Mykhailo Podolyak made the comments in a statement to Reuters following the release of a New York Times report citing US officials suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible.
Updated
Britain’s defence industry is to be blocked from profiting from the EU’s vast increase in spending on arms for Ukraine, under a leaked plan seen by the Guardian.
A “massive order” of ammunition, ranging from small arms to 155mm artillery rounds, is being prepared in Brussels but only EU and Norwegian manufacturers will be able to take advantage.
France, Germany and Italy, the home of Europe’s biggest arms manufacturers are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries to the detriment of the UK, which is the world’s seventh largest arms exporter.
“Essentially, this is a zero-sum game and the proposal will bolster European defence industry at the costs of those outside the union,” a diplomatic source in Brussels said.
The German government said it had taken note of a New York Times report which said new intelligence suggested a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream pipelines attack last year, but its own investigation has not yet reached results.
Sweden, Denmark and Germany informed the United Nations Security Council a few days ago that the investigations are ongoing and that there are still no results, a spokesperson for the Chancellery said, Reuters reports.
The spokesperson added:
The Federal Public Prosecutor has been investigating the matter since the beginning of October 2022. It thus has sovereignty over the procedure.
Updated
Ukrainian cabinet ministers have approved a mechanism for the forced evacuation of children from active combat zones, according to the country’s Ministry of Reintegration.
In a Telegram post, it said from now on, the basis for mandatory evacuation is the decision of the regional military administrations, in agreement with the military command bodies and the Coordination Headquarters.
Parents, or another legal representative, will accompany evacuee children it said, adding that the decision comes after the issue was taken under personal control by deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Hundreds of mourners packed a Kyiv church on Tuesday for the funeral of volunteers killed on a sabotage mission in Russia, following a spate of attacks along Moscow’s frontier.
Mourners, many in camouflage and covering their faces, attended a service in a central church for four men – including one teenager – killed in December during an incursion into Russia’s southern Bryansk region, AFP reports.
Russia’s FSB security service announced it had killed the men, saying they were armed with rifles and explosives. Russian media reported their bodies were handed over this month.
The men’s coffins were draped with the banner of a nationalist battalion called Bratstvo, or Brotherhood, created on the basis of a party of the same name.
Outside the church, the leader of the Brotherhood party Dmytro Korchynsky told AFP:
[They were in] one of the reconnaissance sabotage groups of Bratstvo that take part in raids at the enemy’s rear, both in the occupied territories... and on Russian soil. They were killed during one of those raids.
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denied Kyiv was involved in attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield last month.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko alleged that Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services were involved in the drone attack in late February which was claimed by Belarusian anti-government activists.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement:
It is clear that this is another attempt to create an artificial threat from Ukraine for the sake of justifying (Belarusian) support for Russia’s aggression.
New intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, the New York Times has reported.
There was no evidence that president Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants in Ukraine were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, the newspaper reported, citing US officials.
The report said officials who reviewed the intelligence said no American or British nationals were involved and believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals or a combination of the two.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, has said 130 prisoners of war have been returned home following an exchange.
“We managed to return home 130 of our people - 126 defenders and 4 defenders. I am proud of the entire team that worked long and hard on this exchange,” Yermak wrote on Twitter.
#нашівдома
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 7, 2023
Черговий обмін полоненими - нам вдалося повернути додому 130 наших людей - 126 захисників та 4 захисниць. Я пишаюся всією командою, яка довго і напружено працювала над цим обміном. pic.twitter.com/dSkSYmzbqe
Earlier we reported that 90 Russian prisoners of war were returned by Ukraine, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Thanks to the Coordinating Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War for their excellent work. Our people are coming back. It feels incredible. pic.twitter.com/mtC1oOXLld
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 7, 2023
Updated
Up to 30,000 Russians killed and wounded in effort to capture Bakhmut, western officials estimate
Russia has sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties'’ - killed and wounded - in trying to capture Bakhmut, western officials estimated at a briefing on Tuesday. While no firm figure was offered for Ukrainian losses, the official said it was “significantly less”.
The official speculated that a high proportion of those casualties, many of which will be prisoners recruited by Wagner, could have been killed. “The death rates of Wagner has been significantly higher than the Russian armed forces,” they said, which have been estimated at three wounded to one killed.
The figures are crude estimates and impossible to verify, but if broadly accurate would mean that Russia may have sustained more casualties than the US did in 20 years of operations in Afghanistan, where a little less than 21,000 were killed and wounded.
The officials said they believed that Ukraine is still able to hold and resupply its military in Bakhmut, although the city is surrounded from three sides and said the defenders could “last for another month” - or chose to make a tactical withdrawal “within a week”. But the course of the long-running battle remained uncertain, they added.
Updated
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement to say that 90 prisoners of war have been returned by Ukraine.
On its official Telegram channel, it posted:
As a result of the negotiation process, 90 Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime
Airplanes of the military transport aviation of the Russian aerospace forces will transport the released servicemen to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions of the Russian defence ministry. All those released are provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance.
4,000 civilians including 38 children remain in Bakhmut – Ukrainian deputy PM
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children remain in Bakhmut.
“Approximately 38 children, as far as we know, remain in Bakhmut today,” AFP quotes Iryna Vereshchuk saying.
The city, the focus of fierce fighting in the Donbas region, had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000 people.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement, and there are conflicting reports about the state of the defence of the city.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut, while Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group whose troops are spearheading the attack, has said that between 12,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian troops remain defending it.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Tuesday the seizure of Bakhmut would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Updated
Wagner group's Prigozhin claims between 12,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian troops still in Bakhmut
Agence France-Presse is carrying some comments it attributes to founder of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. It reports that Prigozhin would not comment on defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s earlier remarks that the capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut was key to launching a further offensive in the wider region.
In remarks carried by his press service, Prigozhin urged against “putting the cart before the horse, saying that we have taken Bakhmut and what will happen after”.
He estimated that between “12,000 and 20,000” Ukrainian troops were still defending the city.
“It is very complicated to kill between 12,000-20,000 Ukrainian soldiers by tomorrow morning. Such masters only exist in the depths of the general staff or at Soyuzmultfilm,” he said, referring to the Russian cartoon studio founded in the Soviet era.
Prigozhin also said that he “had not met” Shoigu in Bakhmut, where Prigozhin claims to have gone himself. The defence minister was in occupied areas of Ukraine at the weekend, including Mariupol.
On television this morning in Russia, Shoigu said Bakhmut “is an important defensive hub for Ukrainian troops in Donbas” and that “capturing it will allow for further offensive operations deep into the defence lines of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Summary of the day so far …
A court in Moscow sentenced a student activist to eight and a half years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army, AP reports.
The situation is “stable and controlled” in the Luhansk region the governor, Serhiy Haidai said. In a post on Telegram, Haidai said the number of attacks in the direction of Bilogorivka and Kreminnaya had increased. Today, he said, the Russians have “pulled back to replenish their reserves”.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, will meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the Black Sea export of Ukraine grains, according to Reuters.
A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who died after she was found unconscious on a beach in south Devon on Saturday has been named as Albina Yevko. The teenager was found on Dawlish town beach, near where she was living, on Saturday evening after a search involving a police helicopter and HM Coastguard.
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”. In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette before apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Poland is to send more tanks to Ukraine this week, the country’s defence minister said. Poland had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to Nato”, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger Nato presence in the country.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces claim to have carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut and have control over all the asphalt roads in the area. None of the claims about the situation in Bakhmut have been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement. The Ukrainian president said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zelenskiy paid tribute to a soldier whose execution by machine gun was filmed and uploaded to social media. The graphic video shows a man smoking a cigarette who says “glory to Ukraine” before he is shot at what appears to be close range.
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent.
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Mikhail Razvozhaev posted to Telegram to say “The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.”
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang says the country must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
Updated
Thousands of people in Ukraine have sustained complex injuries linked to the war and need rehabilitation services and equipment to help them, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has said.
Attacks on healthcare facilities, fewer healthcare workers due to displacement and power shortages were making it difficult for people to get care, according to Satish Mishra from the WHO’s regional office for Europe, Reuters reports.
Even before the war, in 2019, about half the population in Ukraine could have benefited from rehabilitation services for non-communicable conditions such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, Cathal Morgan, another WHO official said.
Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war have significantly increased the need for rehab services, he added. “Hence the need for urgency.”
Updated
An update from the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh:
Russia has taken 20,000 to 30,000 casualties in trying to take Bakhmut, killed to wounded ratio could be worse than one to three - Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) March 7, 2023
A court in Moscow has sentenced a student activist to eight and a half years in prison for social media posts criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army, AP reports. That was made a criminal offence under a new law Russian lawmakers rubber-stamped a week after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Ivanov was charged over a number of posts in his Telegram channel that called Russia’s campaign in Ukraine a “war” and talked about Russian forces attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, committing war crimes in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Irpin, and targeting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Most were reposts from other sources.
The legislation has been used to prosecute individuals who deviate from the government’s official narrative of the conflict that the Kremlin insists on calling “a special military operation.”
Prominent opposition politicians, such as Ilya Yashin, who is serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison term, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is in jail awaiting trial, also were charged with spreading false information about the military.
Updated
The situation is “stable and controlled” in the Luhansk region the governor, Serhiy Haidai, has said.
In a post on Telegram, Haidai said the number of attacks in the direction of Bilohorivka and Kreminna had increased. Today, he said, the Russians have “pulled back to replenish their reserves”.
Freshly mobilised Russians are demotivated when their commanders abandon them, when they see the real number of losses of the Russian army, as well as the conditions in which they found themselves at the front.
Haidai added:
The Russians in the occupied territories treat the local population even more aggressively – they take out their anger on civilians due to the lack of success at the front.
Updated
The United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, will meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the Black Sea export of Ukraine grains amid Russia’s war in the country, Reuters reports.
“The secretary-general has just arrived in Poland on his way to Ukraine,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday, adding that Guterres will discuss the continuation of the deal “in all its aspects and other pertinent issues.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Police name Ukrainian girl, 14, who died after being found unconscious on beach in south Devon
A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who died after she was found unconscious on a beach in south Devon on Saturday has been named as Albina Yevko, Sky News reports, citing a police statement.
The teenager was found on Dawlish town beach, near where she was living, on Saturday evening after a search involving a police helicopter and HM Coastguard.
She was airlifted to the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital where she died. Formal identification has taken place and her next of kin have been informed, according to Devon and Cornwall police.
Albina’s mother, Inna Yevko, said:
Myself and my family are devastated to have lost our beautiful Albina. Nothing can ever replace her in our hearts. We ask that our privacy is respected at this incredibly painful time.
DI Becky Davies said: “Our investigation continues as we try to piece together Albina’s final hours.
Officers continue to undertake door-to-door inquiries as we try to identify any witnesses or CCTV footage that capture Albina’s movements. While this death remains unexplained, we are not currently treating it as suspicious.
Updated
Ukraine names PoW allegedly filmed being shot dead by Russian soldiers
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”.
In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday and was widely shared on Twitter, a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette. The soldier, in uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm, says “Glory to Ukraine” and is then apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Read more from Lorenzo Tondo and Pjotr Sauer here:
Updated
Ukraine’s military on Tuesday identified a soldier who it said was shot dead by “Russian invaders” in a video spread on social media, and hailed him as a hero whose death would be avenged.
In a Facebook post, the 30th Mechanized Brigade named the man as Tymofiy Shadura. Reuters reports. It said he had been missing since 3 February after hostilities around the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war in Ukraine.
“According to preliminary information, the deceased is a serviceman of the 30th separate mechanized brigade, Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura,” the brigade’s Facebook post said.
Formal confirmation would be made once his body was returned from territory occupied by Russian forces, said the brigade, which is part of Ukraine’s Ground Forces.
The claims have not been independently verified.
On Monday Ukraine urged the international criminal court to investigate the footage circulating on social media that appeared to show Russian fighters killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
In the graphic clip that first circulated on Telegram, a detained combatant is seen standing in a shallow trench and smoking a cigarette. The soldier says “Glory to Ukraine” and is then apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Updated
Poland is to send more tanks to Ukraine this week, the country’s defence minister said on Tuesday.
“Four (tanks) are already in Ukraine, another 10 will go to Ukraine this week,” Mariusz Blaszczak told a news conference. Poland had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
Giving a speech to the Human Rights Council, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, has said that the scale of civilian deaths and destruction in the Ukraine war is “shocking”, Reuters reports.
Belarus has detained what it described as a “terrorist” and more than 20 accomplices working with Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield, Reuters cited president Alexander Lukashenko as saying.
Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
“The Security Service of Ukraine, the leadership of the CIA, behind closed doors, are carrying out an operation against the Republic of Belarus. A terrorist was trained,” the Belta news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Lukashenko said the aircraft had suffered only superficial damage in the attack, which was carried out using a “small drone”. The suspect detained over the attack against the Beriev A-50 surveillance plane is a dual Russian-Ukrainian national, Belta also quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Updated
A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to NATO”, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger NATO presence in the country.
Since 2017, Germany has led an international battalion with some 1,500 troops in Lithuania as part of a NATO effort to deter Russia from attacking the Baltic region, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters at Pabrade training ground in Lithuania, Pistorius said:
This not down to who wants what - or who wants to provide what - but rather up to NATO.
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Summary of the day so far …
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces claim to have carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut and have control over all the asphalt roads in the area. None of the claims about the situation in Bakhmut have been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement. The Ukrainian president said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zelenskiy paid tribute to a soldier whose execution by machine gun was filmed and uploaded to social media. The graphic video shows a man smoking a cigarette who says “glory to Ukraine” before he is shot at what appears to be close range.
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent.
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Mikhail Razvozhaev posted to Telegram to say “The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.”
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang says the country must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Geneva Abdul will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Reuters is carrying further quotes from the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, about the attempted sabotage of a Russian military plane at an airfield near Minsk last month. He has claimed that more than 20 people involved in the incident have been arrested so far.
Citing the Belta news agency, Reuters reports Lukashenko said “The security service of Ukraine, the leadership of the CIA, behind closed doors, are carrying out an operation against the Republic of Belarus. A terrorist was trained.”
Lukashenko said the aircraft had suffered only superficial damage in the attack, which was carried out using a “small drone”.
The suspect detained over the attack against the Beriev A-50 surveillance plane is a dual Russian-Ukrainian national, Belta also quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Shoigu also said the west was increasing its arms deliveries to Ukraine, but vowed they would not change the course of events on the battlefield.
“The liberation of Artemovsk continues,” Reuters reports Shoigu said in televised remarks, using the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut.
Updated
Pjotr Sauer reports for the Guardian on the detention of Dmitry Ivanov:
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent.
Ivanov, 23, a pro-democracy activist and computer science student who runs the “Protest at MGU” [Moscow State University] Telegram channel, was tried on charges of spreading false information meant to discredit the Russian army, under a law introduced after Russia launched its invasion.
In a courtroom speech shortly before the sentencing was announced, Ivanov said:
“Peace to Ukraine, freedom to Russia! My example should not scare you. We have to do a lot to live in the country we deserve and to end this war.”
“You must understand that Russia is not Putin. Tens of millions of Russians are against this criminal war … This is a dark moment in our history, but it is always darkest before dawn,” Ivanov added.
Ivanov was part of a small group of vocal anti-war activists who had stayed behind following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite the growing threat of arrests.
Speaking to the Guardian last year, Ivanov vowed to continue to organise protests against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“I don’t think I should be afraid or run away. This is my country,” he said at the time.
Ivanov now joins a growing group of other prominent dissenters who have been imprisoned for speaking out against the war, including opposition politicians Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza
Belarus claims to have detained sabotage group who targeted Russian planes near Minsk
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield, Reuters reports, citing the Belta news agency.
Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
Footage shared on social media appeared to show the lead up to the attack, with a drone approaching the Russian military Airborne Warning And Control System (Awacs) plane while it was on the ground.
Reuters reports that a Russian court on Tuesday sentenced the founder of an opposition Telegram channel, Dmitry Ivanov, to more than eight years in prison on charges of disseminating false information about Russia’s armed forces.
Updated
Ukraine starts online negotiations to extend Black Sea grain deal – but yet to speak directly to Russia
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday.
The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
“The situation with negotiations is rather complicated. Now a lot depends not on us but on the partners,” said the source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The Black Sea grain initiative was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and was extended in November. It is due to expire on 18 March unless an extension is agreed.
Yuriy Vaskov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of restoration, told Reuters last month that Kyiv would ask all sides to start talks on extending the deal by at least one year and that Ukraine wanted the city of Mykolaiv’s ports included.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said last week that Ankara was working hard to extend the initiative while Russia had signalled it was unhappy with aspects of the deal.
Moscow has said it will agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal only if the interests of its own agricultural producers are taken into account.
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Russia’s state-owned Tass quotes Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, as saying that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut. According to the report, he says:
Our artillery, our equipment and our troops are already in the city. They control almost half of Bakhmut.
I do not rule out attempts [by Ukrainian forces] to break through in order to try to keep it, and breakouts from the city itself, there is a chaotic retreat of small groups.
Tass reports that Gagin claimed that “asphalt roads in the area are already completely under the fire control of the Russian forces”.
The exact military position in Bakhmut remains unclear, and Gagin’s claims have not been independently verified.
An air alert has been declared across Ukraine.
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires.
Updated
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Russian state-owned media Tass quotes Mikhail Razvozhaev’s Telegram channel, where he has posted:
The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.
Sevastopol is in Crimea, which the Russian Federation annexed in 2014, in a move not widely recognised internationally.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on its Telegram channel for Sumy that Bilopillia, a city in the north-east of Ukraine, close to the border with Russia, has been hit by mortar fire this morning. No damage or casualties were reported. The claim has not been independently verified.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Russia’s FSB security services claim to have “neutralised” two men they claim attempted to carry out a car bombing on Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev.
Malofeyev is a media baron and owner of the ultra-conservative Tsargrad TV. He has supported Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine and trumpeted Moscow’s invasion as a “holy war.” He has been sanctioned by the US and was last year charged with trying to evade sanctions.
A video was released showing what the FSB claims was the attempt to plant the bomb, with the agency blaming the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), which claims to be part of Ukraine’s armed forces. The Ukraine government did not immediately comment on the claims.
The incident comes a week after an armed group with the right-wing RVC crossed into Bryansk from Ukraine and engaged in a gun battle in which the FSB said two civilians were killed and two others wounded.
- with AP and Reuters
Stronger relations with Russia inevitable in face of US hostility: China
Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang says China must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US.
In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, on the sidelines of the “two sessions” political gathering on Tuesday, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
Qin said the US side claimed that it wanted to outcompete China but didn’t seek conflict “but in reality, the US side’s so-called competition is all-out containment and suppression, a zero-sum game where you die and I live.
Qin defended the close friendship between China and Russia, a relationship closely watched by the west in light of the war in Ukraine. He said the ties between Beijing and Moscow “set an example for global foreign relations”.
With China and Russia working together, the world will have a driving force. The more unstable the world becomes the more imperative it is for China and Russia to steadily advance their relations.
He said there was “close contact” between the leadership of the two countries, with “head of state” relations forming the anchor of the relationship. “The strategic partnership … will surely grow from strength to strength.”
For more read the full story by Guardian reporter Helen Davidson in Taipei.
Updated
The ISW also says the destruction of Wagner as an organised fighting group would have “positive ramifications beyond the battlefield”.
During the last nine months in which the organisation has been involved in assaulting Bakhmut, the ISW says the Wagner Group has “ostentatiously ramped up efforts to disseminate Wagner’s militarism and ideology throughout Russia”.
Wagner’s existence as an independent fighting force separate from the Russian military has mean Yevgeny Prigozhin has been considered a potential future challenger to Russian resident Vladimir Putin, which the ISW speculates is why his force is being set up for failure.
Badly damaging Prigozhin’s power and reputation within Russia would be an important accomplishment from the standpoint of the long-term prospects for restoring sanity in Russia. That is an aim in America’s interests as well as in Ukraine’s, and it raises the stakes in the Battle of Bakhmut beyond matters of terrain and battlespace geometry.
Wagner Group members were allegedly responsible for the murder of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a returned Russian POW who was executed with a sledgehammer after he defected to Ukraine then volunteered to return to Russia in a prisoner swap.
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Ukraine’s ongoing defence of the besieged city of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the Institute of Study of War (ISW).
In its latest update released on Tuesday the ISW says the city has become “strategically significant [for Ukraine] due to the current composition of Russian forces there.”
It says that while there is a risk Ukraine is “expending its own elite manpower and scarce equipment on mainly Wagner prison recruits who are mere cannon fodder” it suggests the large numbers of convicts Wagner has recruited is “not limitless” and “the permanent elimination of tens of thousands of them in Bakhmut means that they will not be available for more important fights”.
The ISW also added that Wagner has drawn upon its “elite elements” which have been supported by Russian airborne units.
The opportunity to damage the Wagner Group’s elite elements, along with other elite units if they are committed, in a defensive urban warfare setting where the attrition gradient strongly favors Ukraine is an attractive one.
Recent statements from Wager Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin about concerns over a lack of ammunition suggest he fears his forces are being sacrificed “to the last man” by the Russian Ministry of Defence, the ISW says.
Updated
Maps released by the Institute for Study of War showing ground movements as of Monday suggest Russian forces have taken 40% of Bakhmut after a nine-month-long campaign.
The developments come after Volodymyr Zelenskiy committed Ukrainian armed forces to defend the besieged city amidst conditions one commander has described as “hell on earth”. Earlier on Monday the ISW suggested Russian forces would not be able to capitalise on any gains even if they were to capture the city and that Ukraine’s defence was creating conditions for a future counteroffensive.
Here are today's control-of-terrain maps of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 7, 2023
Interactive map, updated daily: https://t.co/hwgxTnU2Tr
Archive of time-lapse maps, updated monthly: https://t.co/IT6FiqwgGO pic.twitter.com/VqU3KrrLEW
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s vow to defend Bakhmut following a meeting with senior military officials may be at odds with the developing situation on the ground.
Michael Kofman, director of studies at the CAN think tank in Arlington Virginia, and one of the few observers to have correctly called Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine, said on Sunday that a continued defence of Bakhmut “doesn’t plan to Ukraine’s advantage as a force”.
In follow up comments posted to social media, Kofman said the ongoing defence of Bakhmut may prove costly if Ukraine intends to engage in a counteroffensive in the coming months.
I think the tenacious defense of Bakhmut achieved a great deal, expending RU manpower and ammunition. But strategies can reach points of diminishing returns, and given UA is trying to husband resources for an offensive, it could impede the success of a more important operation.
— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) March 5, 2023
It is a situation Zelenskiy himself appeared to acknowledge less than a week ago when he said he was contemplating a retreat from Bakhmut after a nine-month siege to allow Ukrainian forces to regroup in better-reinforced positions.
Zelenskiy pledges to defend Bakhmut despite rumours of retreat
The Ukrainian president has doubled down on the defence of Bakhmut despite rumours of an imminent retreat from the besieged city that has endured a nine-month assault.
During his evening address on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had met senior generals where they indicated their support for continuing the defence.
I told the chief of staff to find the appropriate forces to help the guys in Bakhmut. There is no part of Ukraine about which one can say that it can be abandoned.
After a series of meetings with Zelenskiy, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, “spoke in favour of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening [Ukrainian] positions in Bakhmut”, Zelenskiy’s office said.
For more on this story, read the full report by Lorenzo Tondo.
Updated
Opening Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has committed to defending the embattled city of Bakhmut despite a partial encirclement. Zelenskiy said he had discussed the situation with his chief of the general staff and commander of ground forces who backed “continuing the defensive operation”. In his nightly address the president said there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
In his first media appearance as foreign minister China’s Qin Gang has defended the close friendship between China and Russia, a relationship closely watched by the west in light of the war in Ukraine. He said the ties between Beijing and Moscow “set an example for global foreign relations”.
Both Kyiv and Moscow appear to be struggling with ammunition shortages and mounting casualties. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, which is leading the Russian offensive in Bakhmut, said that his representative had been denied access to the headquarters of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine after Prigozhin repeatedly complained about a lack of ammunition.
Zelenskiy paid tribute to a soldier whose execution by machine gun was filmed and uploaded to social media. The graphic video shows a man smoking a cigarette who says “glory to Ukraine” before he is shot at what appears to be close range.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense says it has identified three Russian soldiers allegedly responsible for shooting an evacuation convoy in Irpin in March 2022. Nine civilians died during the attack with twelve others wounded. The shooters served with the 173rd separate reconnaissance battalion and two soldiers from the 137th guards paratrooper regiment.
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has visited Mariupol in a rare trip to occupied Ukraine by a senior Moscow figure. The Russian defence ministry issued images on Monday of Shoigu “inspecting Russian reconstruction efforts of infrastructure”.
Russia’s FSB security service claims to have thwarted a car bomb attack on Russian nationalist businessman Konstantin Malofeyev. The FSB blamed the Russian Volunteer Corps, which claims to be part of Ukraine’s armed forces. The Ukrainian government has not responded to questions about the incident.
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been handed a 15-year jail term after being convicted in absentia for treason and “conspiracy to seize power”. She said the verdict was punishment for her efforts to promote democracy.
The European Union is reported to be edging closer to joint procurement of ammunition to help Ukraine and replenish members’ stockpiles. Major questions regarding funding and scale remain to be resolved in what would be a landmark move.
Russia’s premier tank force is expected to be re-equipped with Soviet-made T-62 tanks first fielded in 1954 to make up for combat losses, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. The MoD said there was a “realistic” possibility” that the 60-year-old tanks would be supplied to units that had been expected to receive the next-generation T-14 Armata main battle tank.
Russia’s prosecutor general has said it is labelling German-based anti-corruption group Transparency International an “undesirable organisation”. “It was found that the activities of this organisation clearly go beyond the declared goals and objectives,” it said.
A British-led £520m international fund to provide fresh weapons for Ukraine and intended to be “low bureaucracy” has been plagued by delays, with only £200m allocated amid warnings that the rest of the funding will not provide arms at the front “until the summer”.
Most of Ukraine’s winter grain crops – winter wheat and barley – are in good condition and could produce a good harvest, Ukraine’s academy of agricultural science has been quoted as saying.
