I followed the coverage of the war; reactions in Moscow, images and everything there is to know
This is what you need to know today about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The United States transfers more than $1.2 billion to Ukraine.
- Poland acknowledged supplying Ukraine with weapons before the war
- The CIA chief said he was “sure” Beijing is considering sending “lethal equipment” to Moscow
- The Kremlin faces “structural problems” in recruitment drives
- The Ukrainian Justice accused Russia of having committed more than 70 thousand war crimes
- Zelensky fired the head of the joint armed forces of Ukraine
- NATO says Russia “does not have the capacity” to turn the Ukraine war into a nuclear conflict
Updated numbers of Russian casualties and weapons neutralized by Ukraine
In the last few hours, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shared, as it does weekly, the count of neutralized Russian weapons and the number of casualties on the Kremlin army. The data provided by the Defense portfolio indicate that 149,240 soldiers have died in Ukraine since the start of the invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky said that “Russian crimes committed in Ukraine should not be overlooked”
Volodimir Zelensky , the President of Ukraine announced that he met with International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan in Kiev and stressed that Russian crimes committed in Ukraine should not be overlooked and those responsible should face legal consequences, he reported. The Kyiv Independent outlet .
“ We have heard signals from you about your support and the importance of justice . It was important for us to hear this because it means that we are not alone in our desire to achieve justice for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
According to the press release, Zelensky said that Ukraine is prepared to help the ICC establish a prosecutor’s office in the country to investigate Russian war crimes.
The air alarm began to sound in various regions of Ukraine
As reported by the ANSA news site, Sirens are sounding in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Kharkiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad regions and in the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The head of the Poltava regional military administration, Dmytro Lunin, said on Telegram that a Russian pilotless aerial vehicle was shot down in the Poltava region.
Russia prohibits officials from using most foreign words
Russian government officials will be prohibited from using most foreign words in the course of their duties, under an amended law on the formal use of Russian that President Vladimir Putin signed on Tuesday.
Since launching the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Putin has said he wants to protect Russia from what he calls a degenerate West that he says is trying to destroy the country. The 2005 amendments to the law are designed to protect and support the status of the Russian, according to a text published on the government website.
”When using Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to use words and expressions that do not correspond to the norms of modern Russian (…) with the exception of foreign words that do not have corresponding equivalents in widespread use in Russian,” the text says.
Zelensky reports intensifying fighting near Bakhmut
The intensity of the fighting “increases without ceasing” around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut (east), which Russian troops have been trying to conquer for months, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Tuesday.
“The biggest difficulty, as before, is Bakhmut (…). Russia does not count its troops, it constantly sends them to assault our positions. The intensity of the fighting is increasing unabated,” Zelensky said in his daily evening briefing.
Ukraine admits a very tense situation near Bakhmut, besieged by Russia
The Ukrainian army admitted on Tuesday an “extremely tense” situation in Bakhmut, where Russian troops are trying to close the siege to conquer that eastern city devastated by weeks of bombing. Since the summer, Moscow troops have sought to take this city , which has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the industrial region of Donbas, in the east of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, who was in the area in December, promised to defend the city “for as long as possible.” “The situation around Bakhmut is extremely tense,” Oleksander Syrskyi acknowledged on Tuesday, quoted by the center official army press.
Finland started the construction of a metal fence on the border with Russia
Finland began building a 3-meter-high, 200-kilometre-long chain link fence on part of its border with Russia on Friday, fearing Moscow would use migrants to exert political pressure.
The works of the pilot section, three kilometers long and close to the city of Imatra, began on Tuesday “with clearing of the forest, and will continue to allow the construction of a road and the installation of a metal fence,” the Border Guard said in a statement. .
The construction of another 70 kilometers is planned between 2023 and 2025, mainly in the southeast. In total, Finland plans to build one of 200 kilometers by 2026, at a cost of 380 million euros (402 million dollars).
USA: if China sends lethal weapons to Russia “we will punish companies and people”
The United States assured today that if China provides lethal weapons to Russia it will have a problem with Washington. He also warned that he will not hesitate to punish Chinese companies or individuals that violate sanctions or otherwise support the Russian military effort.
“What I can say is that we warned China very clearly about the implications and consequences of proceeding with the provision of such (lethal) support. We will not hesitate to target Chinese companies or individuals who violate our sanctions or otherwise become involved in supporting Russia’s war effort,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Astana .
A drone crashed near Moscow and another three were shot down
A drone crashed this Tuesday about 100 km southeast of Moscow , near a gas compression station, Russian authorities announced, and said they had shot down three other devices of this type in different parts of the country. In recent months there have been several incidents with this type of device in Russian territory, although it is the first time that it has occurred in the capital region.
“The target was probably a civilian infrastructure ,” said the governor of this region, Andrei Vorobyov, explaining that the security services and “other competent authorities are investigating” what happened. Shortly before these statements, the Defense Ministry had indicated that Russian forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones in southern Russia.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of several drone strikes against Russian military infrastructure inside the country. Those allegations include drone strikes in the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
New Russian attacks in the Ukrainian region of Kherson kill at least four people
At least four people were killed and five others injured after receiving a series of attacks attributed to the Russian Armed Forces in the Kherson region of eastern Ukraine, according to local authorities. The victims are civilians. The UN Office for Human Rights confirmed the death of more than 8,000 civilians since the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.
The regional administration also confirmed damage to homes on its Telegram account, some of which have collapsed as a result of the attacks. The emergency services have recovered a woman from the rubble of one of these houses.
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions where Russia held referendums in 2022 to justify its annexation, even though the territory is divided and not fully controlled by Russian forces.
For Ukraine, Russia’s missile reserves are “almost zero”
The head of the Ukrainian intelligence service , Kirilo Budanov, said that, in view of the latest attacks against the country, the missile reserves of the Russian Armed Forces are “almost at zero” . Speaking to the Voice of America radio station , the official pointed out that the Russian attacks are increasingly spaced out and with fewer projectiles used .
From the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense they say they have indications that Russia may be carrying out a “change of tactics” in the use of missiles in the framework of the war. However, despite the warnings issued from the United States, Budanov himself already ruled out on Monday that China was sending weapons to a Russia that, according to him, given that it only has the support of Iran, would be trying to acquire Burmese weapons.
Putin asks the security service to improve actions against Western spy agencies
Vladimir Putin called on the FSB security service to step up its activity to counter what he described as increasing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and the West.
In a speech to FSB officials, Putin said the agency had to stop “sabotage groups” entering Russia from Ukraine, step up protection of key infrastructure and prevent any attempt by Western security services to reactivate what he called terrorist or extremist cells on Russian soil.
“Traditionally, Western intelligence services have always worked actively in Russia, and now they have launched additional personnel, technical and other resources against us,” said the Russian president, giving instructions to prevent the illegal entry of weapons into Russia. and tighten security in four regions of Ukraine that Moscow partially seized.
Agreement on grain exports
Ukraine called on the UN and Turkey to start negotiations on the extension of a grain export agreement. “We sent a letter requesting that this issue be started as March 18 is very close, but so far we have not received any response,” a source said.
Grain exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of cereals, fell by almost 27% -to 31.8 million tons- in the 2022/23 season until February 27, impacted by a lower harvest and the logistical difficulties caused by the Russian invasion. Ukraine exports about three million tons of agricultural products a month under the deal, but according to local authorities the country is capable of exporting six million tons a month from ports in the Odessa region.
Russia accuses the US of preparing a chemical weapons attack against its forces in Ukraine
Russian authorities today accused the United States of preparing a chemical weapons attack against its forces in Ukraine and warned of the possibility that Washington is trying to create a pretext for it.
The head of the Biological, Chemical and Radioactive Protection Troops, General Igor Kirilov, thus indicated in response to the words of former United States ambassador to Russia John Sullivan that it is the United States that, “in reality, prepares this type of attack.” Sullivan had previously warned that Russia would be planning to use chemical weapons as part of the invasion of Ukraine.
“We understand these same reports as confirmation of the real intentions of the United States and its allies to carry out provocations with toxic chemical weapons in Ukraine,” he said, according to information from the TASS news agency . In this sense, he added that the preparations for this type of attack “are already ready” and indicated that on February 10, chemical substances were transferred by train to a steel mill in the city of Kramatorsk.
In total, always according to the Russian official, there were 16 sealed boxes in one of the wagons, half of which carried a danger symbol due to the presence of chemical components.” These types of substances cause disorientation, hallucinations, memory problems and psychosis ”, he pointed out.
The Kremlin insists: it denounces that NATO participates in “a direct armed confrontation” against Russia
From the Kremlin they insist that NATO entered into “a direct armed confrontation” with Russia through its delivery of arms to Ukraine . The spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov , stressed that “its [NATO’s] Intelligence works against Russia 24 hours a day and its weapons (…) are delivered to Ukraine free of charge to shoot against the Russian Army and against Ukrainian citizens, cities and villages”.
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia , the Russian official said that “you have to call things what they are.” “They must understand this, although it is remarkable how sensitive they are in this and how they repeat like a mantra that they do not want to be participants in the conflict (in Ukraine),” said Peskov, who therefore defended Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend participation. of Moscow in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) .
“When the document came out, when the negotiations took place, the nuclear arsenals of France and the United Kingdom were left out, since they are not comparable in power and volume with those of Russia and the United States, although they are sufficient for the entire system of strategic security in Europe,” he said. “These countries, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, are in the same organization, which is ‘de facto’ at war against us” , before criticizing that NATO and the United States have condemned Putin’s announcement, but “have not shown any willingness to take Russia’s concerns into account.”
“The security of one country cannot be guaranteed at the expense of that of another,” said Peskov, while agreeing with the peace proposal recently presented by China. “It is a very important ideological point that corresponds to our position,” he defended.
Bakhmut, in the eye of the storm
As Volodimir Zelensky admitted, the situation in the city of Bakhmut is “extremely tense” . This was stated by the Ukrainian Army about that point in the east of the country that the Russians have been trying to take since the summer and where they have advanced in recent weeks.
“The enemy sent the best-prepared units (of the paramilitary group) Wagner to attack, trying to break through the defense of our troops and surround the city ,” it was officially added. Since the summer, Moscow troops have been trying to take Bakhmut, a city that has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine .
In recent weeks, Russian forces have moved slowly toward taking this industrial city, which had a population of about 70,000 before the Russian invasion launched a year ago. Zelensky acknowledged last night that the situation for his troops around Bakhmut was “getting more and more complicated.”
It is that the Russians managed to cut several important routes for the supply of the Ukrainian troops. The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Saturday claimed responsibility for his men’s capture of the town of Yahidne, located on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut.
Ukraine repels 60 Russian attacks in the last 24 hours
The Ukrainian military repelled 60 Russian strikes in five areas over the past 24 hours in north-eastern and eastern Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in its morning update, as published by The Kyiv Independent.
Japan applies sanctions against Russian citizens
Japan introduced additional sanctions against 39 Russian individuals, including the head of Russian arms manufacturer Concern Kalashnikov, 73 Russian companies and Rosbank, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced.
03.00 Vladimir Putin honored Steven Seagal, American actor and Russian citizen
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to honor American actor Steven Seagal with the State Order of Friendship for contributing “to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.”
Seagal has been a frequent visitor to Russia and became a citizen of the country in 2016 when he received a Russian passport hand-delivered to him by Putin. He also worked as a “special representative” of the Russian Foreign Ministry in the United States and Japan.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief sees no signs of Chinese arms shipments to Russia
Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kirilo Budanov sees “no indication” thatChina is going to supply arms to Russia,he said in an interview broadcast on Monday by Voice of America radio .
Senior US officials have said they are “sure” thatChina is considering supplying lethal equipment to Moscow, and a diplomatic campaign is underway to stop it.But when asked about that possibility in the lengthy interview, Budanov stated: “I don’t share that opinion.”
“Right now I don’t think China will agree to transfer arms to Russia (…) I don’t see any indication that such a thing is even being discussed,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern weeks ago about the potential arms shipment in a tense meeting with his Chinese counterpart, and the CIA director said in an interview on Sunday that Beijing would be considering that possibility.
Remains of three unmanned aerial vehicles found in the Russian city of Belgorod
The remains of three UAVs were found in Belgorod , Russia, about 41 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Mayor Valentin Demidov said Monday .
One of the UAVs crashed into the window of an apartment complex, the Russian official said.
The remains of two other drones were found on the streets. Three cars suffered light damage, Demidov said.
So far no injuries have been reported.
The UN chief denounced that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unleashed “the most massive violations of human rights”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech to the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva that the Russian invasion “has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement.”
As he pointed out, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unleashed “the most massive violations of human rights” in the world today.
Russia dismissed an early peaceful exit from the war
AFP.- The Russian government affirmed that the plan proposed by China to resolve the conflict with Ukraine “deserves attention”, although it clarified that the necessary conditions for a “peaceful” solution to the conflict have not yet been met.
“We consider the plan of our Chinese friends with great attention; For now, we do not see the premises for this matter to take a peaceful path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the press. And he added: “The special military operation (in Ukraine) continues.”
On Friday, one year after the start of the Russian offensive, China released a 12-point document calling on Moscow and kyiv for peace talks.
Russia and Ukraine have so far not shown any serious willingness to start negotiations, and have reacted prudently to the Asian giant’s proposal.
Zelensky admits that the situation in Bakhmut “is becoming more and more difficult”
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, has again asked for “modern” combat aircraft in order to “protect the entire territory” of Ukraine, referring to the latest attacks carried out by Russian troops on Monday and which have resulted in the lives of at least two people.
Zelensky has explained that three employees of the country’s emergency services have been injured and two have died, after a drone attacked the city of Khmelnitsky when workers were extinguishing the fire from a previous attack that occurred during the night.
The United States announces the shipment of US $ 1.2 billion to Ukraine
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen confirmed today during a visit to Kiev the transfer of $1.2 billion to Ukraine to help the country “respond to Russian attacks” through financial relief.
Yellen met with President Volodimir Zelensky and Prime Minister Denis Shmigal during their visit to the Ukrainian capital, which came a week after another by US President Joe Biden, the first since the start of the Russian invasion.
In remarks following her meeting with both officials, Yellen announced “the transfer of an additional amount of more than $1.2 billion” to Ukraine days after the one-year anniversary of the invasion, on February 24.
“It is the first delivery of the close to 10,000 million budget aid that the United States will provide in the coming months,” he said.