Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.
The battle for Bakhmut rages as death toll rises
Ukrainian authorities insisted they would continue to try to hold the eastern city of Bakhmut, in what has become one of the longest and bloodiest battles since the war began. Despite continuing rumours that a Ukrainian retreat is imminent, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy instructed the army to bolster the defence of the city, even as the death toll rises.
Isobel Koshiw and Pjotr Sauer reported that Ukraine was suffering an estimated 100-200 casualties a day. Andriy, a deputy commander in the Donetsk region whose battalion is fighting in the Bakhmut area, told them that “positions are ready [for them] to retreat to. The reason they are still there is more of a political thing.”
On the other side, a Moscow-based analyst with links to Russia’s ministry of defence estimated that 6,000-8,000 Russian troops had been killed, predominantly recently recruited convicts. However, the analyst noted it was very difficult to be precise because the “brunt” of the fighting was being carried out by Wagner mercenary forces.
“Wagner doesn’t always retrieve the bodies of its fighters, while many of the former convicts fighting are not properly registered,” he said, on condition of anonymity.
Despite the brutal conflict, many civilians remain in Bakhmut. Peter Beaumont met a police major who was attempting to persuade those caring for children to let them be evacuated.
It is a search that has led to rumours that police are taking children from parents who refuse to leave, which has prompted some families to hide their sons and daughters, inexplicable as that might seem.
“But it’s not correct,” the officer said. “The law says we can only take children with permission of the parents. If the children don’t have parents but have a guardian, we can get permission from social services to take them out.”
Ukraine said on Tuesday that about 4,000 civilians had been killed in Bakhmut during Russia’s assault.
Russia launches largest missile barrage in weeks
At least nine people were reported killed on Thursday after Russia unleashed its largest missile bombardment against Ukraine in three weeks. Critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions across the country were hit. At least six of the dead were killed in a strike on a residential area in the western Lviv region, 700km from the frontline, Ukrainian emergency services said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 81 missiles in total, alongside eight Shahed drones. It claimed to have shot down 34 cruise missiles and four of the drones. Six hypersonic missiles, able to evade air defences, were among those launched.
Lorenzo Tondo in Kyiv reported that the attacks also briefly disconnected the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s biggest – from the grid. The UN’s nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, told his board of governors that urgent action was needed to protect the plant’s safety and security.
Pro-Ukraine group may have sabotaged Nord Stream
European and US intelligence officials obtained tentative intelligence to suggest a pro-Ukrainian saboteur group may have been behind the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, according to reports in the New York Times and German newspaper Die Zeit. German investigators believe the attack on the pipelines was carried out by a team of six people, using a yacht that had been hired by a company registered in Poland and owned by two Ukrainian citizens, according to Die Zeit.
Dan Sabbagh, Philip Oltermann and Lorenzo Tondo reported that the information was shared between European intelligence agencies in an effort to establish more information about those who carried out the undersea bombings in September, an attack that had left western governments perplexed.
Details about the intelligence remains sketchy and it is unclear what confidence the US intelligence community places in the theory, as well as who may have organised, funded and directed such a daring attack on the gas pipelines running between Russia and Germany. But it is suggested that the government of Kyiv did not direct the underwater strike.
An unarmed PoW was allegedly shot dead by Russians
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to “find the murderers” of an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war apparently shot dead by Russian troops in footage that spread rapidly across social media on Monday.
In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram 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. Lorenzo Tondo and Pjotr Sauer reported this story. Ukraine urged the international criminal court to investigate the footage.
‘Foreign agent’ law stirs anti-Russian sentiment in Georgia
After two nights of widespread, violent protests, Georgia’s ruling party withdrew a draft law that had drawn comparisons with a 2012 law in Russia that has since been used to crack down on dissent and suppress western-funded NGOs and media.
Pjotr Sauer reported that the proposed “foreign agent” bill faced criticism that it would limit press freedom and undercut the country’s efforts to become a candidate for European Union membership.
Across two nights hundreds of police, many carrying riot shields, used water cannon and teargas in clashes in Georgia’s capital. More than 100 protesters were arrested during this week’s protests. Thousands had marched in the streets to rally against the proposed law that would require any organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “foreign agents” or face substantial fines.
Speaking on Wednesday evening as the protests were continuing, Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for “democratic success” in Georgia and voiced gratitude for Georgian support for Ukraine.
“There is no Ukrainian who would not wish success to our friendly Georgia. Democratic success. European success,” he said.
Rightwing Republicans rail against US aid for Ukraine
Marjorie Taylor Greene, an influential far-right Republican in the US Congress, called for the US to stop aid to Ukraine, David Smith wrote, giving added voice to a grassroots revolt in the party that threatens bipartisan support for the war against Russia.
The Georgia congresswoman is a notorious provocateur who has made racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic statements and promoted bizarre conspiracy theories.
Yet she has emerged as a prominent voice in the House of Representatives after forging a bond with the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who vowed that Republicans will not write a “blank cheque” for Ukraine.
Pentagon accused of blocking effort to hand Russia war crimes evidence to ICC
The Pentagon was accused of blocking the sharing of US intelligence with the international criminal court (ICC) about Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Julian Borger reported.
The Biden White House and the state department have been a proponent of cooperation with the Hague-based ICC as a means of holding Russian forces accountable for widespread war crimes, but the defence department is firmly opposed on the grounds that the precedent could eventually be turned against US soldiers.
Meanwhile, the top US intelligence official said Washington did not believe the Russian military could recover from its losses in Ukraine to make territorial gains there this year, but she warned that Vladimir Putin still believed time was on his side.
The assessment, presented by the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday morning, was noncommittal on whether Ukraine could take back significant amounts of occupied land in its planned counter-offensive this spring.
War prompts Ukrainians to embrace their language
Until last year Kyiv was largely a Russian-speaking city. A survey in January revealed that since Putin’s invasion a year ago, 33% of Kyivans have adopted the Ukrainian language. About 46% said they had been speaking Ukrainian for a long time. Another 13% remain Russian speakers, Luke Harding reported.
Ukrainians are bilingual. Ukrainian has traditionally been spoken in the west of the country, with Russian more prevalent in the south and east. The most prominent switcher is Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who grew up in the central Russophone metallurgical city of Kryvyi Rih.
As president, Zelenskiy addresses his citizens and foreign parliaments in Ukrainian or English. He speaks Russian only when urging Russian soldiers to surrender, or when pointing out Putin’s actions to Russian citizens, whose understanding of the war shaped by state TV bears little resemblance to reality.
Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin speaks out from Russian prison
Writing from a cell in a Russian jail known as the Bear, Ilya Yashin remained as defiant as ever, Andrew Roth reported from Moscow. In neat, blue-ink lettering, the opposition politician was able to express himself candidly despite his incarceration. Removing Vladimir Putin from power, he wrote, was a prerequisite to “avoiding the risks of a new world war”.
“As long as Putin retains power, war, or at least the threat of war, will be permanent,” Yashin said in written answers to questions from the Guardian, delivered by his lawyers this week. “This man has gone mad from unlimited power and impunity, he has become a slave to his maniacal ambitions.”
Yashin was sentenced last year to eight-and-a-half years in prison for a broadcast on his popular YouTube channel in which he accused the Russian army of a massacre of civilians in Bucha.
