Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser, Andriy Yermak, has suggested Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters. Yermak said Ukraine had had “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram posting, although Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies, as Ukraine’s lobbying for the combat jets steps up only a few days after Germany and the US agreed to send over their tanks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for western weapons to be supplied more quickly. Speaking in his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said Russia was hoping to drag out the war, and exhaust his country’s ability to resist the invaders. “So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
The Kremlin warned the west’s supplying of further weapons to Ukraine would only lead to “significant escalation” of the conflict. Kyiv “demands more and more weapons” while Nato countries were “more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, after Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andriy Melnyk, called on Germany to send his country a submarine.
Russian forces continued attacks on positions across the frontline near the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk. Moscow’s troops have been pounding Bakhmut in the Donbas for several months, but in recent days the invaders appeared to have opened up a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vuhledar, 30 miles south-west of Donetsk city.
The situation in Bakhmut and Vuhledar was “very tough” with both and “other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks”, President Zelenskiy said. Vuhledar is close to the junction with the southern Zaporizhzhia front and considered a hinge point for both sides, but remains held by the Ukrainians despite a claim by the leader self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic to the contrary.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne, eastern Donetsk region. “Units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s military reported, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead and 10 injured, local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the regional governor. Oleh Synehubov said the missile struck the city centre on Sunday, and that an elderly woman’s body had been pulled from the rubble. He said 15 residents of the building were evacuated immediately after the explosion, and will be provided with temporary accommodation.
Ukraine’s state-run energy operator Ukrenergo has said there is a “significant” deficit in the country’s energy system due to damage caused by Russian missile attacks. Ukraine’s energy system had “survived” 13 rocket attacks and 15 drone strikes from Russian forces, which had “caused significant damage to high-voltage facilities and power plants”, it added.
Ukraine’s military will spend nearly $550m (£444m / €505m) on drones (UAVs) in 2023, and 16 supply deals have already been signed with Ukrainian manufacturers, defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said. Ukraine has received significant supplies of UAVs from its partners but Kyiv is now seeking to boost domestic production to build what officials cast as an “army of drones”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv on Monday. The pair “reviewed the state of the region’s energy infrastructure, the means of its protection and the pace of recovery”, and discussed the impact of Russian missile and drone strikes, Zelenskiy posted to Telegram.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has urged South Korea to increase military support to Ukraine, suggesting it reconsider its policy of not exporting weapons to countries in conflict. Stoltenberg thanked South Korea for its non-lethal aid to Ukraine, but urged it to do more, adding there is an “urgent need” for ammunition.
The UK’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that the tanks donated to Ukraine will arrive on the frontline “this side of the summer”. Britain should be “really proud” of having led the world in supporting Ukraine and standing up to Russian aggression, prime minister Rishi Sunak has said.
The president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, has criticised western countries for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons. Speaking to reporters in Zagreb, Milanović said he was “against sending any lethal arms” to Kyiv, arguing that supplying Ukraine with weapons only “prolongs the war” and that Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, will “never again be part of Ukraine”.
Delays in the provision to Ukraine of western long-range fires systems, advanced air defence systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine’s ability to seize opportunities for larger counter-offensive operations presented by Russian military failures, according to a Washington-based thinktank. Western delays in providing necessary military aid exacerbated “stalemate” conditions and the ability to regain significant portions of territory, the Institute for the Study of War said.
Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain “within a minute”, in a call shortly before the invasion of Ukraine. “He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that,” Johnson said in a three-part documentary for BBC Two on the conflict and the lead-up to Russia’s invasion in February last year.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signalled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining Nato without Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm. “We may deliver Finland a different message [on their Nato application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding out.
The new US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was heckled by a crowd of people chanting anti-US slogans as she entered the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow to present her diplomatic credentials. Protests in Russia – particularly on issues related to the war – are effectively banned unless they have the backing of the authorities.
Poland could supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, Kyiv suggests
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser has suggested Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters as Ukraine’s lobbying for the combat jets steps up only a few days after Germany and the US agreed to send over their tanks.
Andriy Yermak said Ukraine had had “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram posting, although Poland’s prime minister was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies.
“We coordinate all actions aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defence forces with our Nato partners,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference where he announced plans to lift his country’s defence spending to 4% of GDP when asked about the jets. Any possible transfer of fighter jets would come “in full coordination” he added.
Ukraine began its lobbying campaign for the US-made jets almost immediately after Germany and the US said they would supply Leopard 2 and Abrams tanks, but this time its effort could be successful more quickly.
The deputy US national security adviser, Jon Finer, said last week that Washington would be discussing the idea of supplying fighter jets “very carefully” with Kyiv and its allies, while other reports said there was growing support for the idea in the Pentagon.
The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Monday wryly noted that:
I think what we know about all these demands is that … the initial response is no and it ends up being yes.
Crimea will ‘never again be part of Ukraine’, says Croatian president
The president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, has criticised western countries for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons, and said Crimea will “never again be part of Ukraine”.
Speaking to reporters in Zagreb, Milanović said he was “against sending any lethal arms” to Kyiv, arguing that supplying Ukraine with weapons only “prolongs the war”.
Western military support for Ukraine “is deeply immoral because there is no solution (to the war)“, he said, adding that the arrival of German tanks in Ukraine would only serve to drive Russia closer to China.
Referring to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, he said:
It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine.
Milanovic has embraced an anti-EU stance since he was originally elected in 2019 as a left-leaning liberal candidate, and has aligned his policies with those of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and Bosnian Serb secessionist leader Milorad Dodik.
Although the presidential post is mostly ceremonial in Croatia, Milanovic is formally the supreme commander of the armed forces.
In recent months, he has openly opposed the accession of Finland and Sweden into Nato as well as the training of Ukrainian troops in Croatia as part of EU aid to the embattled country.
France and Australia have announced plans to jointly manufacture ammunition for Ukraine.
French defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said the two countries had agreed to cooperate to make “several thousands” of 155-millimetre shells to help Ukraine, which he hoped could start being delivered in the first quarter of this year.
Lecornu was speaking after meeting his Australian counterpart Richard Marles, as the two countries seek to shore up defence cooperation. Australia will supply the powder while France’s Nexter will make the ammunition.
Marles told reporters the decision was intended as a “statement about how importantly Australia and France regard the support of Ukraine in the current conflict”.
Kremlin denies Putin threatened Boris Johnson with missile
The Kremlin has said the former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was lying when he said the Russian president threatened him with a missile strike during a phone call in the run-up to what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that what Johnson said was not true, or “more precisely, a lie”.
Updated
British tanks will reach Ukraine 'this side of summer', says defence minister
The UK’s defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that the tanks donated to Ukraine will arrive on the frontline before the summer.
Asked in parliament when the 14 Challenger tanks Britain has agreed to supply would be deployed on to the battlefield, Wallace replied:
It’ll be this side of the summer, or May - it’ll be probably towards Easter time.
He added that security reasons prevented him from setting out the timetable of training for Ukrainian forces on using the tanks.
Training would begin with instruction on the operation of individual vehicles before progressing to how to fight in formation, he said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for western weapons to be supplied more quickly. Speaking in his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said Russia was hoping to drag out the war, and exhaust his country’s ability to resist the invaders. “So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
The Kremlin warned the west’s supplying of further weapons to Ukraine would only lead to “significant escalation” of the conflict. Kyiv “demands more and more weapons” while Nato countries were “more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, after Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andriy Melnyk, called on Germany to send his country a submarine.
Russian forces continued attacks on positions across the frontline near the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk. Moscow’s troops have been pounding Bakhmut in the Donbas for several months, but in recent days the invaders appeared to have opened up a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vuhledar, 30 miles south-west of Donetsk city.
The situation in Bakhmut and Vuhledar was “very tough” with both and “other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks”, President Zelenskiy said. Vuhledar is close to the junction with the southern Zaporizhzhia front and considered a hinge point for both sides, but remains held by the Ukrainians despite a claim by the leader self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic to the contrary.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne, eastern Donetsk region. “Units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s military reported, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead and 10 injured, local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the regional governor. Oleh Synehubov said the missile struck the city centre on Sunday, and that an elderly woman’s body had been pulled from the rubble. He said 15 residents of the building were evacuated immediately after the explosion, and will be provided with temporary accommodation.
Ukraine’s state-run energy operator Ukrenergo has said there is a “significant” deficit in the country’s energy system due to damage caused by Russian missile attacks. Ukraine’s energy system had “survived” 13 rocket attacks and 15 drone strikes from Russian forces, which had “caused significant damage to high-voltage facilities and power plants”, it added.
Ukraine’s military will spend nearly $550m (£444m / €505m) on drones (UAVs) in 2023, and 16 supply deals have already been signed with Ukrainian manufacturers, defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said. Ukraine has received significant supplies of UAVs from its partners but Kyiv is now seeking to boost domestic production to build what officials cast as an “army of drones”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv on Monday. The pair “reviewed the state of the region’s energy infrastructure, the means of its protection and the pace of recovery”, and discussed the impact of Russian missile and drone strikes, Zelenskiy posted to Telegram.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has urged South Korea to increase military support to Ukraine, suggesting it reconsider its policy of not exporting weapons to countries in conflict. Stoltenberg thanked South Korea for its non-lethal aid to Ukraine, but urged it to do more, adding there is an “urgent need” for ammunition.
Britain should be “really proud” of having led the world in supporting Ukraine and standing up to Russian aggression, prime minister Rishi Sunak has said. The UK earlier this month announced it would send 14 of its own Challenger 2 tanks, the first time a western nation send it would give its own heavy armour to Kyiv. Since then, a coalition of western nations including Germany and the US have confirmed they are willing to supply battle tanks.
Delays in the provision to Ukraine of western long-range fires systems, advanced air defence systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine’s ability to seize opportunities for larger counter-offensive operations presented by Russian military failures, according to a Washington-based thinktank. Western delays in providing necessary military aid exacerbated “stalemate” conditions and the ability to regain significant portions of territory, the Institute for the Study of War said.
Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain “within a minute”, in a call shortly before the invasion of Ukraine. “He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that,” Johnson said in a three-part documentary for BBC Two on the conflict and the lead-up to Russia’s invasion in February last year.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signalled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining Nato without Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm. “We may deliver Finland a different message [on their Nato application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding out.
The new US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was heckled by a crowd of people chanting anti-US slogans as she entered the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow to present her diplomatic credentials. Protests in Russia – particularly on issues related to the war – are effectively banned unless they have the backing of the authorities.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you today with all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
Earlier we reported that the new US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was heckled as she entered the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow to present her diplomatic credentials.
Kevin Rothrock of Meduza has a clip:
Behold the welcome wagon for Lynne Tracy outside Russia’s Foreign Ministry today. “The USA is a sponsor of death!” “Your tanks are killing civilians!” “Abrams & Tigers [sic] all burn the same!” “The US Army is a tool of aggression & plunder!” “You came here to profit off death!” pic.twitter.com/cfGxH92Box
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) January 30, 2023
Ukraine’s military will spend nearly $550m (£444m / €505m) on drones (UAVs) in 2023, and 16 supply deals have already been signed with Ukrainian manufacturers, defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday.
“In 2023, we are increasing the procurement of UAVs for the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Reuters reports Reznikov wrote on Facebook.
Ukraine has received significant supplies of UAVs from its partners but Kyiv is now seeking to boost domestic production to build what officials cast as an “army of drones”.
“The independence of the military-industrial complex is one of the factors of the country’s defence capability,” Reznikov wrote.
Here is the latest situation map of Ukraine from the Guardian’s graphics team. Earlier today the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said that pro-Russian forces were continuing to make advances in Vuhledar, which both sides consider to be a hinge point.
Updated
Reuters reports that the new US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was heckled by a crowd of people chanting anti-US slogans as she entered the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow to present her diplomatic credentials.
The group held hand-painted placards carrying messages criticising Washington, one of which read “Your tanks are killing civilians”.
The news agency notes that protests in Russia – particularly on issues related to the war – are effectively banned unless they have the backing of the authorities.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Tracy he expected her to follow the principle of not interfering in Russia’s internal affairs, the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The US embassy said: “Ambassador Tracy is focused on maintaining dialogue between our capitals at a time of unprecedented tension, protecting the interests of U.S. citizens detained in Russia, and supporting ties between the American and Russian peoples.”
Updated
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he met Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, and also discussed the impact of Russian missile and drone strikes.
The pair “reviewed the state of the region’s energy infrastructure, the means of its protection and the pace of recovery”, Zelenskiy posted to Telegram.
Images show Zelenskiy greeting Frederiksen on a snowy street before entering a hospital where they met soldiers wounded in Russia’s invasion.
Kremlin warns sending more weapons to Ukraine ‘leads to significant escalation’
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said the west’s supplying of further weapons to Ukraine will only lead to “significant escalation” of the conflict.
Kyiv “demands more and more weapons”, Peskov said in a call with reporters, after Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andriy Melnyk, called on Germany to send his country a submarine.
Hi guys, I know I’m gonna get a new shit storm, but I have another creative idea. Germany (ThyssenKrupp) produces one of the world’s best submarines HDW Class 212A. The Bundeswehr has 6 such U-boats. Why not to send one to Ukraine? Then we’ll kick 🇷🇺fleet out of the Black Sea💪 pic.twitter.com/qy75sRVZ76
— Andrij Melnyk (@MelnykAndrij) January 28, 2023
Peskov said western countries were “encouraging these demands, and professes its readiness to provide such weapons”. He added:
It’s a dead-end situation: it leads to significant escalation, it leads to Nato countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for western weapons to be supplied more quickly as Russian forces continued attacks on positions across the frontline near the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk.
Speaking in his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said Russia was hoping to drag out the war, already heading for the one year mark, and exhaust his country’s ability to resist the invaders.
“So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said, warning that Russia was making “constant attempts to break through our defence”.
Last week, Germany and the US agreed to send western standard tanks to Ukraine, although they will arrive in the country in two months at the earliest, before what is expected to be a critical period in the war next spring.
But the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War argued that the incremental pace of western weapons supply – in which new arms have been sent after weeks or months of debate – has held back the Ukrainian defenders.
“Delays in the provision to Ukraine of western long-range fires [artillery] systems, advanced air defense systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine’s ability to take advantage of opportunities for larger counter-offensive operations presented by flaws and failures in Russian military operations,” it warned.
Russian forces have been pounding Bakhmut in the Donbas for several months, but in recent days the invaders to have opened up a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vuhledar, 30 miles south-west of Donetsk city.
The situation in both places, Zelenskiy said, was “very tough” with “Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks” as the end of January approaches.
Ukraine’s state-run energy operator Ukrenergo has said there is a “significant” deficit in the country’s energy system due to damage caused by Russian missile attacks.
In a statement published today, Ukrenergo said:
The power grid is still recovering from the previous series of hostile missile attacks that damaged power plant units. As a result, electricity production at the operating power plants cannot fully cover consumption.
Ukraine’s energy system had “survived” 13 rocket attacks and 15 drone strikes from Russian forces, which had “caused significant damage to high-voltage facilities and power plants”, it continued.
It added:
All regional power distribution companies have been notified of consumption limits that act throughout the day. As a reminder, each regional power distribution company draws up schedules of planned hourly outages to ensure that the consumption of the region is within the approved limit.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the aftermath of a Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
One woman was killed and three others were wounded by the shelling, according to the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov.
Updated
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of being a “promoter of war, murder and destruction” after the committee said it would consider ways for Russian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The IOC was offering Russia “a platform to promote genocide & encourages their further killings”, Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
#IOC is a promoter of war, murder & destruction. The IOC watches with pleasure RF destroying 🇺🇦 & then offers 🇷🇺 a platform to promote genocide & encourages their further killings.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) January 30, 2023
Obviously ru-money that buys Olympic hypocrisy doesn’t have a smell of 🇺🇦 blood. Right, Mr. #Bach?
Ukraine’s sports minister, Vadym Guttsait, last week warned the country would consider a boycott of the 2024 Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to take part. His remarks came after the IOC said it was continuing to work on a pathway which would enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, a move which was criticised by the British government.
Updated
UK should be ‘really proud of leading the world’ in Ukraine support, says Sunak
Britain should be “really proud” of having led the world in supporting Ukraine and standing up to Russian aggression, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.
The UK earlier this month announced it would send 14 of its own Challenger 2 tanks, the first time a western nation send it would give its own heavy armour to Kyiv. Since then, a coalition of western nations including Germany and the US have confirmed they are willing to supply battle tanks.
Speaking at a Q&A in County Durham, Sunak said:
We were the first major country to do that. What that has led to is other countries, like America and like Germany, saying they will do the same thing.
That is really important because it will provide the support that Ukraine needs to, hopefully, make more progress against Russia over the early part of this year.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you the latest news from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Boris Johnson has said that Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain “within a minute”, in a call just before the invasion of Ukraine.
The former prime minister’s comments came in a three-part documentary for BBC Two looking at the conflict in Ukraine and the lead-up to Russia’s invasion in February last year.
It had been in a conversation about hypothetical support for Nato on Russia’s borders if Putin decided to invade, as Johnson tried to talk Putin down.
He told the makers of Putin vs the West that he didn’t regard Putin’s comments as a threat. He went on to become one of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s biggest supporters and has visited Kyiv since resigning as prime minister.
The show will air on BBC Two on Monday at 9pm.
“He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that,” Johnson said.
“I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead and 10 injured, local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the regional governor. Oleh Synehubov said the missile struck the city centre on Sunday, and that an elderly woman’s body had been pulled from the rubble. He said 15 residents of the building were evacuated immediately after the explosion, and will be provided with temporary accommodation.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne, eastern Donetsk region. “Units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s military reported, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, has said that pro-Russian forces are continuing to make advances in Vuhledar.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signalled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining Nato without Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm. “We may deliver Finland a different message [on their Nato application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding out.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has stepped up his campaign to keep Russian athletes out of the 2024 Paris Games. Ukraine’s president said he had sent a letter to Emmanuel Macron, and that allowing Russia to compete would be tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
The Kremlin said on Monday that former British prime minister Boris Johnson was lying when he said Putin had threatened him with a missile strike during a phone call in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine. Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that what Johnson said was not true, or “more precisely, a lie”. Johnson, who has repeatedly been accused of dishonesty during his political career, was speaking to the BBC for a documentary, and said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that would “only take a minute”.
Authorities in Slovenia have apprehended two alleged Russian spies who used an agency dealing in real estate and antiques as a front for their activities, local media reported on Monday.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said it cannot be ruled out that Poland and the Baltic states may break off diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation entirely.
Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has told the Politico website that he wants the country to join the European Union within two years.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said that shelling of Bezliudovka from Ukraine had injured two people.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has urged South Korea to increase military support to Ukraine, suggesting it reconsider its policy of not exporting weapons to countries in conflict.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne has reported on Telegram that its correspondents in Kherson have heard explosions.
My colleague Dan Sabbagh is in Kyiv, which he describes as “beautiful and unbowed”.
Morning from Kyiv
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) January 30, 2023
Beautiful and unbowed pic.twitter.com/XkyjDHEjOF
The Kremlin said on Monday that former British prime minister Boris Johnson was lying when he said President Vladimir Putin had threatened him with a missile strike during a phone call in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that what Johnson said was not true, or “more precisely, a lie”.
Johnson, who has repeatedly been accused of dishonesty during his political career, was speaking to the BBC for a documentary, and said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that would “only take a minute”.
Updated
Ukrainian officials continue to apply pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is reportedly exploring ways that Russian and Belarussian athletes could compete at the Paris 2024 Games under neutral flags.
This morning, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has posted to Twitter to say:
Russia won 71 medals in Tokyo Olympics. 45 of them were won by athletes who are also members of the Central Sports Club of the Russian Army. The army that commits atrocities, kills, rapes, and loots. This is whom the ignorant IOC wants to put under white flag allowing to compete.
Russia won 71 medals in Tokyo Olympics. 45 of them were won by athletes who are also members of the Central Sports Club of the Russian Army. The army that commits atrocities, kills, rapes, and loots. This is whom the ignorant IOC wants to put under white flag allowing to compete.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) January 30, 2023
In 2020, Russian athletes competed in Tokyo not under the national flag but as a team representing the “Russian Olympic Committee” as a result of Russia’s worldwide sports ban for a state-sponsored doping cover-up.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, states that the number of injured overnight in the Kherson has increased to ten. It posted to its telegram channel:
As of the morning of 30 January, the number of injured people as a result of yesterday’s shelling by Russian troops increased to ten, the city council reports.
Slovenian authorities have apprehended two alleged Russian spies who used an agency dealing in real estate and antiques as a front for their activities, local media reported on Monday.
According to media outlets, the two “foreign citizens” were arrested in December and remain in custody as the prosecutors continue their investigation into espionage allegations.
The two are suspected of “spying for a foreign intelligence agency and certifying false content in official documents,” reports said.
Associated Press note that if found guilty, the suspects face in total up to eight years in prison. The suspects have also been active abroad, with one of the two holding Argentinian citizenship, according to the reports.
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Russia’s foreign ministry has published a transcript of a lengthy Q&A with the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in which he says that Russia anticipates that Poland and the Baltic states may cut off diplomatic ties altogether. In recent weeks a series of tit-for-tat moves have seen Russia and its Baltic neighbours downgrade their diplomatic relations. In the statement, Lavrov says:
Poland and the Baltic countries are states where a frenzied Russophobic campaign has been unfolding for a long time and which are trying to be cooperators of any anti-Russian undertakings of the west. Recently, bilateral relations with these countries have degraded catastrophically, interaction with them in all areas has been frozen and practically reduced to zero.
But we are not in favour of breaking diplomatic relations. Even in the most difficult situation, it is necessary to maintain channels for dialogue, resolving issues of our fellow citizens and compatriots. It cannot be ruled out that, having entered into an anti-Russian rage, these countries will decide to completely break off contacts with us. If this happens, then the responsibility for this step and its consequences will fall entirely on the leadership of these states. We intend to firmly defend our national interests, and opponents must understand that their actions will have long-term consequences.
Lavrov also set out what he said were Russia’s diplomatic aims for 2023, with the statement reading:
Russian diplomacy will continue to adhere to the basic principles of our country’s foreign policy activities, such as independence, multi-vector approach, respect for international law, reliance on national interests, and openness to mutually beneficial cooperation. We will continue to fight for truth and justice in international affairs, against the rudiments of neo-colonialism and the hegemonic ambitions of the United States and its satellites, and the notorious “order based on incomprehensibly invented rules” aggressively promoted by them. Any attempt to harm Russia and its allies will be resolutely rebuffed.
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Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, has reported on Telegram that the region went without air alerts during the last 24 hours. He posted that “66 forced migrants arrived in our region by two evacuation trains during the day” and that 545 people departed Ukraine for the safety of Przemyśl in Poland on three trains via his western region.
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The UK government should reverse “swathing cuts” to the army because its equipment has become “obsolete” and we are at “war in Europe”, the chairman of the defence select committee in the British parliament has said.
PA Media reports that Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood told Sky News: “The army is in a dire state. Our army is simply too small, we have cut down by 10,000 troops.
“I do hope the defence review will look at these issues and reverse some of the swathing cuts that were made a couple of years ago. It is up to the Treasury and Number 10 to recognise the world is changing – we are now at war in Europe, we need to move to a war footing.”
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Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has given an update on the overnight strike on the city which has killed one person and injured three others. He posted to the Telegram:
As a result of a Russian missile hitting a residential building in the centre of Kharkiv, the 4th floor and partially the 3rd floor of the building were completely destroyed. 15 residents of this building were evacuated immediately after the explosion. Necessary medical assistance was provided to three injured people.
Rescuers searched for the dead woman’s body in the rubble for three hours. The injuries she received were incompatible with life.
Specialists of the state emergency service are now examining the neighbouring houses, which may also have been damaged. Work on liquidation of the consequences continues.
In the near future, an examination of the condition of the building will be conducted and a decision will be made on the possibility of its restoration or final demolition. All victims will be provided with temporary housing if necessary.
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The air alerts in southern regions of Ukraine appear to be over after just 16 minutes – state broadcaster Suspilne is reporting the all clear has been given in Kherson, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukraine wants to join EU within two years, PM says
Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has told the Politico website that he wants the country to join the European Union within two years. It is a tight timetable that the EU is likely to find over-ambitious. He told the website:
We have a very ambitious plan to join the European Union within the next two years. So we expect that this year, in 2023, we can already have this pre-entry stage of negotiations.
Shmyhal addressed the issue of corruption in Ukraine, which has been a key concern for the EU. Politico writes:
Shmyhal insisted that the Zelenskiy government is taking corruption seriously. “We have a zero-tolerance approach to corruption,” he said, pointing to the “lightning speed” with which officials were removed this month. “Unfortunately, corruption was not born yesterday, but we are certain that we will uproot corruption,” he said, openly saying that it’s key to the country’s EU accession path.
EU commissioners will be travelling to Kyiv later this week for a summit with Ukraine’s president.
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Reuters is carrying a quick snap to report that Iran has summoned Ukraine’s senior diplomat in Tehran over comments Ukrainian officials have made about the drone attack on Isfahan yesterday.
An air alert has been declared across several of Ukraine’s southern regions including Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk. It is not an infrequent occurance, and does not necessarily mean that strikes are under way, but nevertheless residents are being urged to take shelter.
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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has posted to Telegram to say that shelling is taking place in Bezliudovka, which is over the border to the north of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. He writes:
According to preliminary data, there are two victims – men with shrapnel wounds and shell shock. Medical and operational services went to the scene.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting on Telegram that emergency electricity blackouts have started in Donetsk region, as the “schedules of stabilisation shutdowns do not work”.
Russia’s war in Ukraine is expected to weigh on long-term energy demand and accelerate the world’s shift to renewables and low-carbon power as countries boost domestic energy supplies, BP said in a report on Monday.
In its benchmark 2023 Energy Outlook, BP said the Ukraine war would slow global economic activity by 2035 by about 3% compared with last year’s forecast due to higher food and energy prices as well as reduced trade activity, Reuters reports.
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Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has also reported on the situation in the region, and Vuhledar in particular. In his daily operational briefing on the Telegram messaging app he wrote:
No one was injured in the Volnovakha direction under fire from Vuhledar, Novoukrainka and Prechystivka. In the Donetsk direction, Kurakhove was shelled five times — five private houses were damaged. [In the last day] Russians killed one resident of Donetsk region, wounded one more.
The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, has said that pro-Russian forces are continuing to make advances in Vuhledar. Russian state-owned news agency Tass quotes him saying:
Our units continue to advance in the Vugledar direction. Now we can say that units in the eastern part of Vuhledar have established themselves, and work is also being done in the vicinity.
Tass goes on to report that “Pushilin clarified that it was too early to make predictions about taking control of Vuhledar, because the enemy had not received an order to retreat, and had time to gain a foothold in the city.”
The DPR is one of the partially occupied regions of Ukraine the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed in September 2022. Russia, Syria and North Korea were the only UN member states to recognise the DPR, which was formed in 2014, as a legitimate authority prior to the annexation claim.
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Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.
This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live blog from my colleague Samantha Lock in Sydney. You can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
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Russia keeping open option of another round of call-ups: UK MoD
Russian authorities are probably keeping open the option of another round of call-ups under the “partial mobilisation” initiative, according to British intelligence.
In its latest daily report, the UK Ministry of Defence said that the Russian leadership “highly likely continues to search for ways to meet the high number of personnel required to resource any future major offensive in Ukraine, while minimising domestic dissent”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 30 January 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 30, 2023
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/vyFi04elmi
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/YuoAMeW7LQ
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China’s foreign affairs minister is set to visit Moscow in February, according to a Reuters report citing Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper.
Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi may visit the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the newspaper cited one source as saying.
The Guardian was not able to immediately verify the report.
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Delays in the provision to Ukraine of western long-range fires systems, advanced air defence systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine’s ability to seize opportunities for larger counter-offensive operations presented by Russian military failures, according to a Washington-based thinktank.
Western delays in providing necessary military aid exacerbated “stalemate” conditions and the ability to regain significant portions of territory, the Institute for the Study of War said.
Delays in the provision to #Ukraine of Western long-range fires systems, advanced air defense systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine’s ability seize opportunities for larger counter-offensive operations presented by #Russian military failures.https://t.co/7WRrRyBAOA pic.twitter.com/jI6o4cue8c
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) January 30, 2023
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Nato chief urges South Korea to step up military support
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has urged South Korea to increase military support to Ukraine, suggesting it reconsider its policy of not exporting weapons to countries in conflict.
Speaking at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul on Monday, Stoltenberg thanked South Korea for its non-lethal aid to Ukraine, but urged it to do more, adding there is an “urgent need” for ammunition.
I urge the Republic of Korea to continue and to step up on the specific issue of military support,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s a decision for you to make, but I’ll say that several Nato allies who have had as a policy to never export weapons to countries in a conflict have changed that policy now.”
In meetings with senior South Korean officials, Stoltenberg argued that events in Europe and North America are interconnected with other regions, and that the alliance wants to help manage global threats by increasing partnerships in Asia.
South Korea has signed major deals providing hundreds of tanks, aircraft and other weapons to Nato member Poland since the war began, but the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has said that his country’s law against providing arms to countries in conflicts makes providing weapons to Ukraine difficult.
Stoltenberg noted that countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Norway had similar policies but changed them.
“If we don’t want autocracy and tyranny to win, then they need weapons, that’s the reality,” he said, referring to Ukraine.
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Russia’s deputy foreign minister has ruled out talks with Ukraine or its western allies, according to local media reports.
With the US having decided to supply tanks to Ukraine, it makes no sense for Russia to talk to Kyiv or its western “puppet masters”, the Russian state Ria news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Monday.
Ryabkov said no one in the west has come up with any serious initiatives on resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
The Russian official added that “small steps” would be needed for Moscow and the US to come closer to agreement on bilateral issues.
“We hope that the tactics of small steps will allow us to come to mutually acceptable solutions on the most important issues of the bilateral agenda,” Ryabkov told Ria.
Erdoğan says Turkey may accept Finland into Nato without Sweden
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said for the first time that Ankara could accept Finland into Nato without its Nordic neighbour Sweden.
Erdoğan’s televised comments came days after Ankara suspended Nato accession talks with the two countries.
Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the defence alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey and Hungary remain the only members to have failed to ratify the two bids by votes in parliament.
If necessary, we can give a different response concerning Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different response for Finland,” Erdoğan said.
He also repeated his demand for Sweden to hand over suspects sought by Ankara.
If you absolutely want to join Nato you will return these terrorists to us,” Erdoğan said.
Sweden has a bigger Kurdish diaspora than Finland and a more serious dispute with Ankara.
Both countries have been trying to break down Erdoğan’s resistance through months of delicate talks.
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Russian missile strikes kill three in Kherson
Russian missile strikes killed three people in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said.
“Today, the Russian army has been shelling Kherson atrociously all day,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday evening address. “Two women, nurses, were wounded in the hospital. As of now, there are reports of six wounded and three dead.”
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Ukraine calls for faster weapons supplies
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up the supply of new weaponry to help his forces overcome Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian president said time should be used as a weapon in his Sunday night address.
The speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war.
Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon.
We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy also noted the “significant defence results” in military aid support in the past week from the United States, Germany, Poland, Canada, Belgium, Norway and Italy.
“We have to make the next week no less powerful for our defence,” he added.
Addressing the situation on the battlefield, Zelenskiy described the situation as “very tough”.
“Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defence,” he said.
“The enemy … maintains a high intensity of attacks.”
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Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up the supply of new weaponry to help his forces overcome Russia’s invasion.
“The speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war … We have to make time our weapon,” the Ukrainian president said in his Sunday night address.
Addressing the situation on the battlefield, Zelenskiy described it as “very tough”.
“Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defence,” he said.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead and five injured, local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring others, according to the regional governor. Oleh Synehubov said the missile struck the city centre on Sunday.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne, eastern Donetsk region. “Units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s military reported, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signalled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining Nato without Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm. “We may deliver Finland a different message [on their Nato application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding out.
Vladimir Putin was open to contacts with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, though no phone call was scheduled, a Kremlin spokesperson told the state Ria Novosti news agency. Scholz told the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel: “I will also speak to Putin again – because it is necessary to speak.”
Kyiv and its western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping Ukraine with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a top aide to Ukraine’s president said. Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for armoured vehicles the US and Germany have pledged.
US military officials are reportedly urging the Pentagon to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine so it is better able to defend itself from Russian missiles and drones.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
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