Ukrainian policemen stand in front of a damaged residential building after a Russian shelling in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on 29 January 2023. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian policemen stand in front of a damaged residential building after a Russian shelling in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on 29 January 2023. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
It is shortly after 1pm in Kyiv. Here is what you might have missed:
Ukraine has imposed sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps since the start of the invasion that Ukraine has taken to block Moscow’s and Minsk’s connections to Ukraine. The sanctioned companies chiefly engage in the transportation of goods, vehicle leasing and chemical production, according to the list published by the Ukraine’s national security and defence council.
US military officials are reportedly urging the Pentagon to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine so the country is better able to defend itself from Russian missiles and drones.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the 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 armed forces said in its daily morning report, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. The Wagner Group, designated by the US as transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said ahead of an EU-Ukraine summit next week thatUkraine had unconditional support from the bloc and needed to prevail against Russian attacks to defend European values. “We stand by Ukraine’s side without any ifs and buts. Ukraine is fighting for our shared values, it is fighting for the respect of international law and for the principles of democracy and that is why Ukraine has to win this war.”
A Russian strike killed three people in a residential district of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Saturday, the regional governor said. Fourteen other people were wounded in the attack, which also damaged four apartment buildings and a hotel. According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, Russia carried out attacks on Konstantynivka with multiple rocket launchers.
Russia accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday. It said a strike killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients and medical staff. The strike hit a hospital in the Russian-held settlement of Novoaidar and was carried out using a US-supplied Himars rocket launch system, the Russian defence ministry said. The claims could not be independently verified, AP reported.
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 says, AP reported. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for the armoured fighting vehicles that the US and Germany have pledged.
Ukraine said on Friday it would take its pilots about half a year to train for combat in western fighter jets such as US F-16s, as Kyiv steps up its campaign to secure fourth-generation warplanes. Ukraine got a huge boost this week when Germany and the US announced plans to provide heavy tanks to Kyiv, which is now hoping the west will also provide long-range missiles and fighter jets.
North Korea on Saturday denounced US pledges of battle tanks, claiming Washington was “further crossing the red line” to win hegemony by proxy war, Reuters quoted state media KCNA reporting. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, made the remarks in a statement, saying that North Korea will “stand in the same trench” as Russia against the US.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, will hold a meeting with Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Moscow, early next week, the RIA news agency reported.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday redoubled his efforts to stop Russian athletes participating the 2024 Olympics, saying they would try to justify the war against Ukraine if allowed to compete. Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine would launch an international campaign to keep Russia out of the summer Games, which will be held in Paris. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday that any attempt to squeeze Moscow out of international sport because of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine was “doomed to fail”.
Reuters reports that the German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost the output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the west, and may start producing Himars multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger said.
He spoke days before Germany’s defence industry bosses are due to meet the new defence minister, Boris Pistorius, for the first time.
With the meeting, Pistorius aims to kick off talks on how to speed up weapons procurement and boost ammunitions supplies in the long term after almost a year of arms donations to Ukraine has depleted the German military’s stocks.
Rheinmetall makes a range of defence products but is probably most famous for manufacturing the 120mm gun of the Leopard 2 tank.
Papperger said in an interview with Reuters:
We can produce 240,000 rounds of tank ammunition (120mm) per year, which is more than the entire world needs.
Rheinmetall is also in talks with Lockheed Martin, the US company manufacturing the Himars (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers in heavy use with Ukrainian troops, Papperger said.
Philip Oltermann and Kate Connolly report for us in Berlin:
Germany’s government is defiant, maintaining that its lockstep approach to weapons deliveries is the best way to support Ukraine, and the only way it can do so while keeping its domestic public on side.
Allies of Chancellor Olaf Scholz accuse his critics of being “dedicated” to making him a scapegoat.
The German leader faced mounting criticism last week from international and domestic partners over the protracted decision to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks, which are made in Germany and required authorisation by Berlin for re-export from other countries.
A deadlock on the tanks question was broken only last Wednesday, when Washington announced it would also send 31 of its own Abrams tanks to Ukraine, meeting a condition Berlin had reportedly insisted on for releasing the Leopard 2.
US military officials 'urging Pentagon to send F-16s to Ukraine'
US military officials are reportedly urging the Pentagon to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine so the country is better able to defend itself from Russian missiles and drones.
A senior US Defense Department official told Politico:
I don’t think we are opposed.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the publication that no final decision had been made.
It comes just weeks after the US committed to sending a $2bn package of weapons to Ukraine, including the the Patriot missile system.
US soldiers stand near a Patriot missile system at a Turkish military base in Gaziantep in 2013. Photograph: Bülent Kılıç/AFP/Getty Images
Ukraine‘s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, criticised the idea of neutrality in sports at a time when his country’s athletes fight and die in war, while their Russian counterparts might be allowed to compete.
Redoubling his efforts in what he called “a marathon of honesty” to stop Russian athletes from taking part in the 2024 Olympics, Zelenskiy said their presence would normalise Russia’s invasion of his country, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy said in his Saturday evening video address:
There is no such thing as neutrality when a war like this is going on. And we know how often tyrannies try to use sports for their ideological interests.
Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine would launch an international campaign to keep Russia out of the 2024 summer games, which will be held in Paris.
Russia said that any attempt to squeeze it out of international sport was “doomed to fail”.
Zelenskiy said:
Ukrainian athletes are forced to defend the lives of their loved ones and the freedom of our people from Russian aggression.
Russian strikes took the lives of hundreds of Ukrainian men and women who could have brought their talents to world sports.
Ukraine said it could boycott the Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part.
Zelenskiy is taking part in ‘a marathon of honesty’ to stop Russian athletes from taking part in the 2024 Olympics. Photograph: Reuters
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group both claim control of Blahodatne
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the 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 armed forces said in its daily morning report, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region.
The Wagner Group, designated by the US as transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
Germany’s government is maintaining that its lockstep approach to weapons deliveries is the best way to support Ukraine, and the only way it can do so while keeping its domestic public on side.
The German leader faced mounting criticism last week from international and domestic partners over the protracted decision to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks, which are made in Germany and required authorisation by Berlin for re-export from other countries.
But allies of Chancellor Olaf Scholz accuse his critics of being “dedicated” to making him a scapegoat. The view in German government circles is that close coordination remains necessary to shore up fluctuating domestic support for Europe’s largest economy arming Ukraine.
One government official said:
The government would risk losing public support if we were to follow the example of people criticising the chancellor from the sidelines.
We want to be able to support Ukraine until the very end. And that means we need to keep the people on board.
Opinion polls have shown the German public evenly divided over whether its government should send battle tanks to support Ukraine or not, with signs of a shift to a marginally supportive position only over the past two weeks.
Ukraine imposes sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies
Ukraine has imposed sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to block Moscow’s and Minsk’s connections to his country.
“Their assets in Ukraine are blocked, their properties will be used for our defence,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
The sanctioned companies chiefly engage in the transportation of goods, vehicle leasing and chemical production, according to the list published by the Ukraine’s national security and defence council.
The list includes the Russian potash fertiliser producer and exporter Uralkali, Belarus state-owned potash producer Belaruskali, Belarusian Railways, as well as Russia’s VTB-Leasing and Gazprombank Leasing, both dealing with transport leasing.
Ukraine has sanctioned hundreds of Russian and Belarusian individuals and firms since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
North Korea on Sunday denied providing arms to Moscow after the US said it supplied rockets and missiles to Russia’s private military group Wagner – which Washington has designated as a transnational criminal organisation, partly because weapons dealings with Kim Jong-un’s regime is a breach of UN sanctions.
The White House has shown US intelligence photographs in which it says Russian rail cars enter North Korea, pick up infantry rockets and missiles and return to Russia.
US satellite images said to show rail cars travelling between Russian and North Korea carrying weapons. Photograph: Reuters
A senior North Korean official via state media rejected the accusations, warning that the US would face a “really undesirable result” if it persisted in spreading the “self-made rumour”.
“Trying to tarnish the image of [North Korea] by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” said Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the department of US affairs.
He also called it “a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine”.
Joe Biden has promised to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Washington was “further crossing the red line” by doing so.
Along with China, Russia is one of North Korea’s few international friends and has previously come to the regime’s aid.
Other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the only country to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN security council, has long held the line against increasing pressure on nuclear-armed North Korea.
Hello, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here are some of the most recent developments:
Ukraine has imposed sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps since the start of the invasion that Ukraine has taken to block Moscow’s and Minsk’s connections to Ukraine. The sanctioned companies chiefly engage in the transportation of goods, vehicle leasing and chemical production, according to the list published by the Ukraine’s national security and defence council.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said ahead of an EU-Ukraine summit next week thatUkraine had unconditional support from the bloc and needed to prevail against Russian attacks to defend European values. “We stand by Ukraine’s side without any ifs and buts. Ukraine is fighting for our shared values, it is fighting for the respect of international law and for the principles of democracy and that is why Ukraine has to win this war.”
A Russian strike killed three people in a residential district of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Saturday, the regional governor said. Fourteen other people were wounded in the attack, which also damaged four apartment buildings and a hotel. According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, Russia carried out attacks on Konstantynivka with multiple rocket launchers.
Russia accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday. It said a strike killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients and medical staff. The strike hit a hospital in the Russian-held settlement of Novoaidar and was carried out using a US-supplied Himars rocket launch system, the Russian defence ministry said. The claims could not be independently verified, AP reported.
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 says, AP reported. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for the armoured fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany have pledged.
Ukraine said on Friday it would take its pilots about half a year to train for combat in western fighter jets such as US F-16s, as Kyiv steps up its campaign to secure fourth-generation warplanes. Ukraine got a huge boost this week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks to Kyiv, which is now hoping the west will also provide long-range missiles and fighter jets.
North Korea on Saturday denounced US pledges of battle tanks, claiming Washington was “further crossing the red line” to win hegemony by proxy war, Reuters quoted state media KCNA reporting. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, made the remarks in a statement, saying that North Korea will “stand in the same trench” as Russia against the United States.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, will hold a meeting with Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Moscow, early next week, the RIA news agency reported.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday redoubled his efforts to stop Russian athletes participating the 2024 Olympics, saying they would try to justify the war against Ukraine if allowed to compete. Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine would launch an international campaign to keep Russia out of the summer games, which will be held in Paris. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday that any attempt to squeeze Moscow out of international sport because of what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine was “doomed to fail”.
