Ukraine updates: NATO says new Russian offensive has started

Moldova’s president has accused Russia of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her tiny country’s leadership, stop it joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.

President Maia Sandu made her comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that his country had uncovered a Russian intelligence plan “for the destruction of Moldova”, and days later the country’s government resigned.

Sandu, whose country borders Ukraine, has repeatedly expressed concern about Moscow’s intentions towards the former Soviet republic and about the presence of Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region.

Ukrainian soldiers who have arrived at a Polish military base straight from the front line have praised the Leopard battle tanks whose ins and outs they have been learning under the watchful eye of allied instructors.

“As of today, I can say that the machine is very high quality, very good,” Ukrainian army Major Vadym Khodak told reporters attending the training showcase in the southwestern village of Swietoszow.

“And what I like is that our soldiers like it very much,” he said of the 105 Ukrainian soldiers who are receiving tank training from Polish, Canadian and Norwegian instructors.

A Russian military frigate has docked in Cape Town ahead of military drills with South Africa and China.

The Russian consulate in Cape Town tweeted a photo of the ship, the Admiral Gorshkov, in the harbour, saying it was on “its way to Durban, where it will take part in joint … drills”.

The exercises named “Mosi”, which means “smoke” in the local Tswana language, are scheduled to begin on Friday and last until February 27 off the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay.

They will coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Russia is delaying the launch of a ship to bring two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) while it investigates pressure loss in an unmanned cargo ship, according to its space agency.

Roscosmos and the US space agency, NASA, had said that a Soyuz MS-23 ship would be launched on February 20 to bring back Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio.

But in a video statement, Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said a decision had been taken to push back the launch until no later than March 10 while a team investigates the cause of a pressure loss in the cooling system of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, which is due to undock from the ISS on Saturday.

Russia says its natural gas exports plummeted by 25 percent in 2022 after the Ukraine war brought turmoil to Moscow’s ties with key buyers in Europe.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced the figures and attributed the fall in gas exports to “the refusal of European countries to buy Russian gas”.

“Gas production in 2022 totalled 673.8 billion cubic metres (23.8 trillion cubic feet],” Novak said. “Exports decreased by 25.1 percent to 184.4 billion cubic metres [6.5 trillion cubic feet].”

But he also said Russian oil exports had increased 7.6 percent over 2022 compared with a year earlier.

Germany’s foreign minister says she expects all NATO member states to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance “without further delay”.

The accession of the two Nordic countries would strengthen the alliance as a whole, Annalena Baerbock said at a news conference in Helsinki with her Finnish counterpart, Pekka Haavisto.

Sweden and Finland sought NATO membership shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and have said they want to join “hand in hand”.

For a new country to join the alliance, the unanimous approval of its 30 existing members is required. Turkey and Hungary have yet to back Sweden’s and Finland’s memberships.

Norway’s intelligence agencies see Russia as posing the main security threat to the country and to the remainder of Europe, the Nordic nation’s defence minister says.

“Russia today poses the biggest threat to Norwegian and European security, and the confrontation with the West will be long-lasting,” Bjorn Arild Gram predicted.

Gram made the remarks after Norway’s government received annual threat assessments from the country’s three security services: the domestic and foreign intelligence agencies and the Norwegian National Security Authority, or NSM.

The deputy head of the foreign Norwegian Intelligence Service, Lars Nordrum, said Norway’s oil and gas installations could be targeted by Russian sabotage. NSM head Sofie Nystrøm warned that “all of Europe will suffer” if Norwegian gas and oil installations were hit.

Russia says it would be “inappropriate” to extend the Black Sea grain deal unless sanctions affecting its agricultural exports are lifted and other issues are resolved.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed by Russia and Ukraine in July, created a safe corridor to allow grain to be exported from Ukrainian ports blockaded by the war.

The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, was extended by another 120 days in November and is up for renewal again next month, but Russia has signalled that it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal and with sanctions imposed on it since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago.

“Without tangible results on the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum, above all on the real removal of sanctions restrictions on Russian agricultural exports … the extension of the Ukrainian document is inappropriate,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said in an interview with the RTVI broadcaster.

Russia’s agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, but Moscow says blocks on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a “barrier” to it being able to export its own grains and fertilisers.

France’s foreign affairs ministry has “strongly” advised French nationals against going to Belarus given the “new offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine”.

Earlier on Monday, the United States told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and what it said was the risk of arbitrary arrest and harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 355 of the war.

KEEP READING

• Can EU-Russia relations be repaired post-Putin?
• Wagner mercenaries chief admits Russia facing Bakhmut resistance
• Russia attacks Ukrainian power grid and gains ground in the east
• Ischinger: Ukraine’s worst-case scenario is a long conflict

Ukraine has accused former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of spreading Russian propaganda after he said all Zelenskyy had to do to prevent the war in Ukraine was to “stop attacking” territory held by Russia-backed separatists in the east.

In comments on Sunday, Berlusconi said he judged the Ukrainian president’s behaviour “very, very negatively” and said that if he were still head of Italy’s government, he would not seek a meeting with Zelenskyy.

“Berlusconi’s ridiculous accusations against the Ukrainian president are an attempt to kiss Putin’s hands, which are covered in blood up to the elbows,” Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, wrote on Facebook.

“At the same time, the Italian politician should understand that by spreading Russian propaganda, he encourages Russia to continue its crimes against Ukraine, and therefore, bears political and moral responsibility,” he added.

Nikolenko also welcomed a statement by the office of the current Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, reiterating the government’s “firm and convinced” support for Ukraine.

NATO’s secretary general says a feared new major Russian offensive in Ukraine has already started.

“We see no sign whatsoever that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is preparing for peace. … What we see is President Putin and Russia still wanting to control Ukraine,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference in Brussels.

“We see how they are sending more troops, more weapons, more capabilities,” he said. “The reality is that we are seeing the start [of a new offensive] already.”

Stoltenberg also said he expected the issue of fighter jets to be discussed at a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers that starts on Tuesday.

He stressed that NATO countries supplying combat aircraft to Ukraine would not make the alliance part of the conflict.

Moldova’s president has accused Russia of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her country’s leaders, stop it from joining the European Union and use it in the war against Ukraine.

President Maia Sandu levelled the accusations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services “for the destruction of Moldova” – claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials.

Sandu, whose country borders Ukraine, has repeatedly expressed concern about Moscow’s intentions towards the former Soviet republic and about the presence of Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region.

“The Kremlin’s attempts to bring violence to Moldova will not work,” Sandu said at a news briefing. “Our main goal is the security of citizens and the state. Our goal is peace and public order in the country.”

Sandu said the plan involved citizens of Russia, Montenegro, Belarus and Serbia entering Moldova to try to spark protests and “change the legitimate government to an illegal government controlled by the Russian Federation”.

“The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings and even take hostages,” she added.

Read more here.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance plans to increase its targets for ammunition stockpiles, which are being depleted by the war in Ukraine

“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of ammunition,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. “… This puts our defence industries under strain, so we need to ramp up production and invest in our production capacities.”

NATO defence ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss possible further military aid for Ukraine.

Hungary’s foreign minister has announced that he is paying a visit to Minsk on Monday with the aim of keeping “channels of communication open”.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a post on his Facebook page that during his trip to Belarus he would represent the Hungarian stance of trying to achieve peace in Ukraine.

Belarus is a major ally of Russia, and Minsk has backed Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine although it has ruled out joining the war itself.

Russia used Belarus as a springboard for its invasion in February last year, deploying thousands of soldiers to its neighbour under the pretext of carrying out military drills before launching its offensive.

The United States has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.

“US citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately,” the US embassy in Moscow said in a new travel advisory note issued on Sunday.

The embassy also advised nationals to “exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions”.

“Do not travel to Russia,” it added.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, has said Moscow will achieve its goals in Ukraine by the end of the year.

Kadyrov’s forces have played a prominent role in the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded almost a year ago, and he has forged an informal alliance with the increasingly prominent Wagner Group militia chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and other nationalist hardliners who back the war.

In an interview broadcast on state television’s flagship Rossiya-1 channel, he said Russia had the forces to take the capital Kyiv – from which it was driven back in the early weeks of the war – and that it needed to capture Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and its main port, Odesa.

“I believe that, by the end of the year, we will 100 percent complete the task set for us today,” Kadyrov said.

Here are three maps that we update daily to chart the latest war developments:

Ukraine’s power grid is meeting consumers’ energy needs after repair work was carried out following the latest wave of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure, the country’s energy minister has said.

German Galushchenko said emergency repairs had been completed rapidly after Russian attacks on Friday that struck energy facilities across the country.

“And today, on the first business day of the week, despite a significant increase in consumption, Ukraine’s power system continues to meet the electricity needs of consumers,” Galushchenko said in a statement.

The national power grid operator, Ukrenergo, said additional power units had been put into operation at several thermal power plants following the repair work.

Russia’s defence ministry says Moscow’s troops have pushed forward a few kilometres along the front lines in Ukraine.

The ministry said Russian forces had managed to advance two kilometres (1.2 miles) to the west in four days. However, it did not say along which part of the long front line, encompassing several Ukrainian regions in the country’s south and east, they had moved.

“The Russian servicemen broke the enemy’s resistance and advanced several kilometres deeper into its echeloned defence,” it said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said its forces had repelled Russian attacks in the country’s Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions.

The military reported heavy Russian shelling all along the front line and said 16 settlements had been bombarded near the city of Bakhmut, in Donetsk, where intense battles are being fought.