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Ukraine war – latest: Putin ‘needs to understand he won’t win’; pro-Ukraine party appears to have won Estonian election
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says it is “necessary that Putin understands that he will not succeed with this invasion and his imperialistic aggression”. Listen to the latest episode of the Ukraine War Diaries while you scroll.
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Russians armed with ‘firearms and shovels’ as close combat increases View post
Ukrainian analyst says country has ‘practically stopped’ Russian advances in Bakhmut View post
Putin needs to understand he won’t win, German chancellor says View post
Russian army claims to have hit Ukrainian command centre View post
Two Ukrainian pilots in US for training assessment on attack aircraft View post
Professor Michael Clarke: Is Bakhmut about to fall – and who was involved in the Bryansk attack? View post
Alex Rossi: Inside the battered town of Vuhledar on the frontline View post
Live reporting by Andy Hayes, with Alex Rossi in Ukraine and Diana Magnay in Moscow
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4h ago
16:57
Pro-Ukraine party appears to have won Estonian parliamentary election
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s Reform Party appears to have secured first place in a parliamentary election.
If confirmed, it will mean that Tallinn retains one of Europe’s most staunchly pro-Ukraine governments.
Estonia, south of Finland, shares a border with Russia.
Preliminary results showed the conservative EKRE party in second place, with 15.7% versus 32% for Ms Kallas’s liberal grouping.
Reform won an election in 2019 but was kept out of power as three smaller parties formed a government.
That administration collapsed in 2021, allowing Ms Kallas, 45, to create a new coalition and take charge.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas casting her vote electronically on Wednesday
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas casting her vote electronically on Wednesday
Reuters
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8h ago
12:58
Putin needs to understand he won’t win, German chancellor says
Vladimir Putin needs to understand that he will not triumph in Ukraine and that the withdrawal of his troops is necessary before peace talks can take place, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said.
“My view, it is necessary that Putin understands that he will not succeed with this invasion and his imperialistic aggression — that he has to withdraw troops,” Mr Scholz told CNN.
“This is the basis for talks.”
Mr Scholz said he believes that Ukraine is “ready for peace”.
Asked about a possible deal to end the war – perhaps by Ukraine conceding that it will not retake Crimea or parts of the eastern Donbas region – Mr Scholz said decisions can only be taken with the involvement of Kyiv.
“We will not take decisions instead of them. We support them,” he said.
He went on: “We told (Ukraine) that they can go for membership of the European Union.
“They are working to make progress in all the criteria that are important for this.
“I think they know that we are ready to organise a certain way of security guarantees for the country, in times of peace to come, but we are not there yet.”
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9h ago
12:20
The war in pictures – on the outskirts of Kyiv
A destroyed car in the vilage of Moshchun, northwest of Kyiv
A destroyed car in the vilage of Moshchun, northwest of Kyiv
A woman walking through the village of Horenka, also northwest of Kyiv
A woman walking through the village of Horenka, also northwest of Kyiv
Matvii Sotnichenko, four, near a destroyed building in Horenka
Matvii Sotnichenko, four, near a destroyed building in Horenka
Vasyl Melnik, 53, with a neighbour in the basement where he lives since his house was bombed in Horenka
Vasyl Melnik, 53, with a neighbour in the basement where he lives since his house was bombed in Horenka
A destroyed car in Horenka
A destroyed car in Horenka
AP
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10h ago
11:42
Pictures of a city ‘razed to the ground’
Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs has tweeted two haunting pictures of Marinka in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.
They appear to show the town has been decimated – “razed to the ground” in the ministry’s words.
Drone footage filmed for the AP news agency has produced similar images.
Marinka’s police chief, Artem Schus, has said his town is “completely destroyed”.
Apart from soldiers, Marinka has been entirely evacuated because there is “no way for the civilian population to live there”, Mr Schus told AP last week.
He believes Russian forces are deliberately razing the ruins to “destroy all cover, regardless of whether it is a civilian shelter or a military facility”.
He added: “They destroy everything because, with their tactics, they cannot defeat our troops, and resort to the destruction of all living things.”
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10h ago
11:05
Watch: The strategy behind defending Bakhmut
The bloody battle for Bakhmut is continuing, and it looks as though it could fall into Russian control any day now.
Vladimir Putin’s soldiers have been able to make some small advances in recent days, and the Institute for the Study of War said earlier that they had secured a “positional advantage”.
Ukraine has been saying it will strategically withdraw from the eastern city before it gets encircled, but is using the fight to deplete Moscow’s forces as much as possible.
In the video below, former senior military intelligence officer Philip Ingram takes a look at the Ukrainian strategy…
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11h ago
10:40
Man and woman killed after Russian shell hits car
A man and a woman have been killed after their car was struck by a Russian shell, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office has said.
In an update posted to Telegram, the authority reported that the strike took place in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
It said an investigation into the attack has now been launched.
“The occupiers hit the car in which the couple was sitting. A man and a woman died on the spot from their injuries,” the post read.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office
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11h ago
10:11
Ukraine says it has ‘eliminated’ 930 Russian soldiers in last 24 hours
Ukraine has claimed it has “eliminated” 930 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours.
In its latest update on Russian losses, the Ukrainian defence ministry said a total of 153,120 military personnel have been killed.
It also reported that 302 military jets, 2,071 drones and 6,692 armoured combat vehicles have been destroyed since the war began.
Clearly it is not possible to verify these figures and Moscow would almost certainly disagree.
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12h ago
09:47
Russia secures ‘positional advantage’ in battle for Bakhmut
Russian forces appear to have secured a “positional advantage” in the battle for Bakhmut, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
In a series of tweets, the US thinktank said Vladimir Putin’s troops have got themselves into a position which would allow them to conduct a “turning movement” against parts of the eastern city.
A turning movement is used to force the enemy to abandon prepared defensive positions, the ISW explained.
However, Russia has not been able to force Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the area, and the ISW believes it doesn’t have the ability to encircle the city anytime soon.
“The Russians may have intended to encircle Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian command has signalled that it will likely withdraw rather than risk an encirclement,” it added.
What is an encirclement?
Throughout the months of fierce fighting in Bakhmut, there has been a lot of discussion about Russia’s aim to encircle Kyiv.
The military strategy aims to surround an enemy from several fronts, effectively isolating it from the outside.
It is a dangerous situation for the side that is encircled, as troops are usually cut off from the base of their operations and their supply routes can become redundant.
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12h ago
09:25
In pictures: Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire mortar
Mortars have been used throughout the war in Ukraine.
The artillery piece is used to fire explosive projectiles.
Soldiers operate it by dropping a shell onto a firing pin into a tube that detonates the shell’s propellant.
Earlier today, a woman and two children were killed as a result of Russian mortar shelling in a southern Ukrainian village.
Now, photos captured by Reuters show Ukrainian servicemen preparing to fire the weapons on a front line near the town of Horlivka, in Donetsk.
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12h ago
09:00
Turkey working to renew Black Sea grain deal as expiry date draws closer
Turkey is working hard to extend a UN-backed initiative that has enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia, the country’s foreign minister has said.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports.
The agreement was extended in November and will expire on 18 March unless an extension is agreed.
Turkish diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu said: “We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal.”
Earlier this week, Russia said it would only agree to extend the
Black Sea grain deal if the interests of its own agricultural producers are taken into account.
Boats waiting for inspection under the Black Sea Grain Initiative
Boats waiting for inspection under the Black Sea Grain Initiative
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13h ago
08:35
‘There is no way we can get there’ – Bakhmut evacuations slow to just five people a day
Evacuations from the embattled city of Bakhmut have significantly slowed as Ukrainian troops are struggling to reach trapped residents.
Speaking to CNN, the area’s deputy mayor said five to 10 people were being taken out of the city each day, down from the roughly 600 who were leaving during the peak of evacuations.
Oleksandr Marchenko told the news outlet Russia has been blowing “everything to the ground” and striking multi-storey buildings.
“There are air raids, artillery shelling, mortar shelling. The enemy is striking the city with everything they can,” he said.
“There is no way we can get there.”
There are thought to be between 4,000 to 4,500 people still in Bakhmut, but Mr Marchenko said it was difficult to persuade those there to leave.
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13h ago
08:10
Ambulances heading to Ukraine set alight in Poland
A convoy of ambulances being sent to Ukraine has been almost halved in numbers after one was set on fire in Poland.
According to Polish news outlet TVN24, a 35-year-old man has been charged with arson over the attack.
It said one ambulance was completely destroyed by the fire, while a second one parked next to it was damaged by the flames.
Two other emergency vehicles were badly damaged as well.
The suspected arsonist was sitting at a nearby bus-stop watching the incident when he was caught by police, sub-inspector Katarzyna Cislo from the Regional Police Headquarters in Krakow said.
Poland was set to send 10 ambulances to Ukraine yesterday morning, but due to the blaze it could only send six.
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14h ago
07:44
Russian army claims to have hit Azov Regiment command centre
The Russian army has claimed to have hit a command centre of the Ukrainian forces’ Azov Regiment.
In its daily update on the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry said the strike took place in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
The ministry did not elaborate on the attack.
The Azov Regiment, which had far-right and ultra-nationalist origins and is now a unit of Ukraine’s national guard, garnered international attention for its resistance to the Russian siege of Mariupol’s vast steelworks last year.
Who are the Azov Regiment?
The Azov Regiment (or Brigade) were formed as a volunteer fighter group in May 2014, soon after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
They fought Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine and helped recapture the southern port city of Mariupol after it was temporarily taken over by the Russians that year.
Taking their name from the Sea of Azov off the coast of Mariupol, they were originally made up of members of the ultra-nationalist group Patriot of Ukraine and the neo-Nazi Social National Assembly Group (SNA).
Both have links to neo-Nazism and white supremacism, but in 2015, a spokesperson for the group said that only between 10 and 20% of recruits were Nazis.
They denied adhering to Nazi ideology as a whole but still use symbolism such as the swastika and SS regalia.
Analysts have said that after years of working with the military, they have made efforts to disassociate from far-right ideologies.
Vladimir Putin, however, has used their Nazi links to justify the Russian invasion, branding it a ‘special operation to de-Nazify Ukraine’.
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14h ago
07:23
Woman and two children killed in Russian mortar shelling
A woman and two children have been killed in Russian mortar shelling of a village in southern Ukraine, the head of the country’s presidential office has said.
The attack on Poniativka village in Kherson struck one private house, Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram, without providing any further details.
“Russian terrorists continue to kill civilians,” he said.
Kherson was occupied by Russian troops from the early days of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine until its recapture by Kyiv’s forces in November.
Since its liberation, the city has regularly been shelled from Russian positions across the Dnipro river.
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14h ago
07:04
‘I hope everyone comes back’ – Young girl talks of returning to school as digital centre opens
A digital education centre has opened in a southern Ukrainian city that was bombarded at the start of the war.
Russian forces launched almost daily attacks on Mykolaiv at the beginning of their invasion, but strikes seemed to calm down near the end of last year after Ukraine recaptured nearby Kherson.
As a result, UNICEF has been able to open a centre to help children continuing learning, despite their schools being closed.
A nine-year-old girl named Diana is one of the children who have been attending the centre.
She told the charity: “I’ve been missing my school, my friends, my class teacher and the school building overall.
“I wish everyone could return to Mykolaiv and come back to school. I hope everyone comes back.”
UNICEF has equipped the education hubs with laptops, projectors, whiteboards and charging stations.
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15h ago
06:43
Ten air strikes recorded in Donetsk in last 24 hours
Ten air strikes have been recorded in Donetsk in the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s National Police has said.
At least 16 residential buildings were destroyed in the attacks, along with a number of cars, and a gas pipe.
In a Telegram post, the police said a child was injured, but more information on civilian casualties was being collected.
Several areas, including Avdiivka, Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, came under fire.
Photos shared by the police showed huge craters in the ground following the strikes.
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15h ago
06:21
Ukraine’s defence ministry releases video of tank exercises
The Ukrainian defence ministry has shared a video of its armed forces completing tank exercises.
The joint drill by the 3rd Tank Brigade and the 22nd Special Operations Battalion of the Presidential Brigade aims to strengthen Ukraine’s offensive skills.
In the clip, soldiers drive the tanks across a muddy, barren terrain while others run behind, carrying guns.
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15h ago
05:58
Top Russian commanders briefed on invasion after defence minister’s rare Ukraine trip
Top commanders of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been briefed by the country’s defence minister after his rare visit to troops in Ukraine.
Sergei Shoigu arrived in Ukraine yesterday, handing out medals to Russian soldiers and taking a tour of a destroyed town.
His ministry said Mr Shoigu held a meeting with commanders of the operation, and gave them an update on his plans.
“Sergei Shoigu paid special attention to the set-up of all the necessary conditions for the safe deployment of personnel in the field, the organization of comprehensive support for the troops, especially the work of medical and rear units,” it said in a statement.
It did not reveal details about any other topics that were discussed, or whether the meeting took place during or after his trip.
Russia’s top military chiefs have visited the frontlines in Ukraine only occasionally since the war began.
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16h ago
05:39
In pictures: Aftermath of Russian missile strike
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia was hit by a Russian missile strike.
At least 13 people were killed as a result of the attack, which destroyed an apartment building.
An eight-month-old baby was among the fatalities, the state emergency service said on Telegram.
Photos of the aftermath have been released by agencies. Here are a few of them:
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16h ago
05:17
At least 13,000 Ukrainian children deported to Russia so far
At least 13,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia by Moscow’s forces – and there could be “tens of thousands” more, a Ukrainian MP has said.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said Kyiv has been trying to raise the alarm about children going missing for months.
Her comments come after The Sunday Times reported Ukrainian children were being told they were being taken on school trips, but many never returned.
“This is part of the genocide that the Russians are conducting against the Ukrainian nation,” Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
She explained that Russian forces had been taking the children and “turning them into a different nationality”.
“Some of them have been taken to so-called summer camps or vacation camps for a week, then never returned. And some of them were even given already for adoption to Russian families as if they didn’t have their own families back in Ukraine,” she said.
