Ukraine updates: NATO urges allies to boost defence spending

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has criticised Switzerland for refusing to supply munitions for German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns being used by Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion.

“Some countries still have munitions but are reluctant to supply them to Ukraine for historical reasons,” Habeck said in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper.

“We are in talks with Switzerland, and I have to be clear: I cannot understand why Switzerland does not provide Gepard munitions,” he said.

Berlin has sent German-made Gepard systems and munitions to Ukraine as part of a package of weapons to help the country repel Russia’s invasion.

Germany’s own production of munitions, however, is limited and it has asked Switzerland for authorisation to send Ukraine Swiss-made ammunition.

Switzerland has declined, reasoning that authorising the deal would compromise its neutrality.

President Zelenskyy has said that the situation near the east town of Bakhmut was the “most difficult” on the front line, but Ukrainian troops have so far been successfully holding back Russia’s advances.

“The situation in Bakhmut is the most difficult on the territory of our country,” Zelenskyy told a news conference.

“It’s not easy for our soldiers in the east but they don’t call it ‘fortress Bakhmut’ for nothing,” he said, adding that Ukrainian forces were “firmly holding” their positions.

Germany’s defence minister has said that ammunition stocks for German-made Gepard battle systems, which are used in Ukraine in the country’s fight against Russia, are “highly sufficient”.

Stocks should “suffice until the summer” (around midyear in Europe), Boris Pistorius told reporters in Brussels, where NATO defence ministers were gathered for talks.

Germany has signed contracts with Rheinmetall to restart the production of ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft guns it has delivered to Kyiv. Germany’s own military decommissioned the weapons in 2010.

Russia has lost about half its best tanks in the year since it invaded Ukraine and is struggling to replace them, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has said.

In its annual Military Balance report, a key reference tool for defence experts, the IISS said loss rates for some of Russia’s most modern classes of tank were as high as 50 percent, forcing it to rely on older Soviet-era models.

“They’re producing and reactivating nowhere near enough to compensate for those loss rates. Their current armoured fleet at the front is about half the size it was at the start of the war,” Henry Boyd, a research fellow at the IISS, told the Reuters news agency.

He estimated Russia’s tank losses at between 2,000 and 2,300.

Almost one year into the Russia-Ukraine war, thousands of people have died and nearly 17.6 million have been left in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

While the Ukrainian government remains steadfast in its fight against Russia’s invasion forces, Kyiv has also increasingly been confronting another enemy that has been gnawing within the country for years: corruption.

Read more here.

Several Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets were intercepted by North American air defence forces earlier this week as they flew over international airspace near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) has said.

The aircraft, which were identified on Monday, did not enter US or Canadian airspace and did not pose a threat, the joint US-Canadian centre said in a statement.

It added that the Russian flights were in no way related to the mysterious spate of airborne objects shot down by the US military over North America in the past few weeks, the details of which remain unknown.

“NORAD had anticipated this Russian activity … Two NORAD F-16 fighters intercepted the Russian aircraft,” it said.

Russia said on Wednesday that it had carried out several flights over international waters in recent days, including in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.

Six Russian balloons were spotted over Kyiv and most were shot down after being engaged by air defences, the Ukrainian capital’s military administration has said.

It said the balloons may have been carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment but did not specify when they flew over the capital, although air alerts were issued in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“According to information that is now being clarified, these were balloons that move in the air under the propulsion of wind,” the military administration said in a Telegram post.

“The purpose of launching the balloons was possibly to detect and exhaust our air defences,” it added.

There was no immediate response to the military administration’s report from Russia.

The European Union’s top diplomat says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a “wake-up call” for the bloc and that Kyiv must triumph in the conflict.

Josep Borrell said in a post on Twitter that Moscow’s offensive had “highlighted the importance of our common security and defence policy”.

“The EU has reacted strongly and we will continue to support Ukraine. Ukraine must win the war so it can win the peace,” he added.

Russia's invasion has been a wake-up call and highlighted the importance of our common security and defence policy.

The EU has reacted strongly and we will continue to support Ukraine. Ukraine must win the war so it can win the peace.@Europarl_ENhttps://t.co/8AeXwCOwrN pic.twitter.com/UiXWBgzl5q

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) February 15, 2023

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

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin says Ukraine has a “good chance” of taking the initiative on the battlefield as its war with Russia nears the one-year mark.

Austin also told reporters after a meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels that for every system the alliance’s member states provide to Kyiv, it will provide associated training to Ukrainian troops too.

“We’re laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just the platform,” he said.

Global rights group Amnesty International has slammed Russia’s jailing of journalist Maria Ponomarenko over her reporting of the Mariupol theatre bombing in Ukraine last year.

Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in a penal colony for accusing the Russian air force of attacking the venue, where women and children were sheltering, last April.

“Maria Ponomarenko’s sentence shows that in Russia telling the truth, denouncing a war crime and demanding justice for the killing of civilians, has itself become a grave offence punishable by many years in prison,” Amnesty said in a statement.

“Her sentence is yet another example of injustice and the cynicism of the authorities in Russia, which are disturbingly routine. The authorities are trying to lock up all those who disagree with them and intimidate others to stay silent and look the other way rather than risk years behind bars.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 30 members of the NATO military alliance have committed at least $80bn worth of military, humanitarian and financial aid to Kyiv.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s defence minister says President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked him to remain in his current post amid intense speculation over the former’s political future.

Asked in an interview with the Reuters news agency whether he expected to continue as defence minister in the months to come, Oleksii Reznikov replied, “Yes, it was the decision of my president.”

Reznikov’s future was thrown into doubt in recent weeks after a senior parliamentarian from Zelenskyy’s party said he would be replaced amid a corruption scandal linked to his ministry.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called on the alliance’s member states to invest more in defence spending as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.

“It is obvious that we need to spend more,” Stoltenberg said after a meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels.

He added that member states should commit to spending a minimum of two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence. NATO leaders agreed in 2014 to move towards meeting that spending target within a decade.

In this episode, Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast focuses on how the war in Ukraine has changed Poland, a European Union member state.

Russian journalist Maria Ponоmarenko has been sentenced to six years in a penal colony for accusing the country’s air force of bombing a theatre in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol last April where women and children were sheltering.

In its ruling, the Lenin district court in the Siberian city of Barnaul found Ponоmarenko guilty of spreading “fake news” and also banned her from working as a reporter for five years, according to a court service statement. State prosecutors had asked for a nine-year sentence.

“Patriotism is love for the motherland, and love for one’s motherland should not be expressed by encouraging crime,” Ponоmarenko told the court before her sentencing, according to the RusNews outlet where she worked. “Attacking your neighbour is a crime.”

“If it is a war – then call it a war,” she said from a cage in the courtroom. “This is a state crime against the army – it is like spitting on the graves of veterans.”

The Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theatre in Mariupol was destroyed by bombardment on the morning of March 16, 2022. It had been used as a haven for civilians during the Russian siege of the city.

Kyiv accused Russia of bombing the theatre, while Russia said it had been blown up by Ukrainian nationalists.

Sweden’s government will present a NATO accession bill to parliament in March, the country’s foreign minister has said.

Tobias Billstrom set out the plan in a speech outlining the Swedish government’s foreign policy priorities for the year.

Sweden and Finland both applied to join the transatlantic military alliance last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but their ascension has been held up by Turkey and Hungary.

Ankara has accused the government in Stockholm of being too lenient towards groups it deems to be “terrorist” organisations or existential threats, including Kurdish groups.

Russia’s foreign minister has said Moscow will focus on ending what he called a Western “monopoly” over global affairs as part of a new foreign policy approach.

“The Anglo-Saxons – and the rest of the collective West, unquestioningly submitting to them – seek to impose their dictates on world affairs at any cost,” Sergey Lavrov told legislators in Russia’s State Duma.

“Our renewed foreign policy concept will focus on the need to end the West’s monopoly on shaping the framework of international life, which in the future must be determined not in its egoistic interests but on a fair, universal balance of interests,” he added.

The Kremlin has often accused Western countries, led by the “Anglo-Saxon” United States and Britain, of trying to dominate global politics and meddle in others’ affairs, while seeking to suppress rising powers in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Russia is pouring troops and military equipment into Luhansk but Ukrainian forces are maintaining their defensive lines in the eastern region, its governor has said.

“The Russians are attacking in waves with the support of aviation,” Serhiy Haidai said in a Telegram post. “[But] Our defenders hold the defence.”

Russia’s defence ministry said earlier in the day that its forces had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defences on the eastern front. The ministry claimed Ukrainian troops had retreated in the face of Russian attacks in Luhansk.

In the isolated farming village of Posad-Pokrovske in southern Ukraine, two brothers and their wives have decided to stay put despite Russia’s deadly offensive.

“We are 80, we’ve worked all our lives, in the same garden and now we’re waiting for death,” Stepan Kovalyov, one of the brothers, said. “What else can we be waiting for?”

Read more here.