Russian strikes kill 5 civilians near embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian official says
Russian strikes kill 5 civilians near embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian official says
From CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko and Amy Cassidy
Russian strikes around the fiercely embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut left three men and two women dead Thursday, according to a regional official, and nine other civilians also sustained various wounds from shrapnel.
The five civilians killed varied in age between 32 and 66, according to a statement published online by the Donetsk region prosecutor’s office.
The statement said the shelling also damaged many residential buildings.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk appealed to the civilians who remain in Bakhmut to leave the city immediately.
“Frankly speaking, I am very surprised that there are still 6,000 civilians there (in Bakhmut),” she wrote on Telegram citing the latest data.
“Those who choose to stay in Bakhmut are endangering themselves and loved ones,” creating additional risks for the military and police, and “preventing our defense and security forces from working properly in the city,” she said.
Zelensky rules out conceding territory in potential future peace deal with Russia, he tells BBC News
From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would not agree to give up any Ukrainian territory in a potential future peace deal with Russia, he said in an interview with BBC News, warning it could lead Russia to “keep coming back.”
“Any territorial compromises would make us weaker as a state,” Zelensky told BBC News. “It’s not about compromise itself. Why would we fear that? There are millions of compromises in life. The question is with whom? Compromise with Putin? No. Because there’s no trust.”
Zelensky also said a spring offensive, warned of by Kyiv officials, had already begun.
“Russian attacks are already happening from several directions,” he said.
He also responded to comments made at a Thursday news conference by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in which Lukashenko insisted he would not send troops into Ukraine unless Belarus itself is attacked.
“I hope [Belarus] won’t join [the war],” Zelensky told BBC News. “If it does, we will fight and we will survive.”
Zelensky added it would be a “huge mistake” to allow Russia to use Belarus as a staging area for an attack.
EU lawmakers urge leaders to seriously consider providing Ukraine with fighter jets
From CNN’s James Frater in Brussels and Amy Cassidy in London
European leaders must “seriously consider” providing Kyiv with fighter jets, lawmakers in the European Union parliament said in a resolution adopted Thursday.
The resolution marked nearly one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“They reaffirm their support for providing military assistance to Ukraine for as long as is necessary and call for serious consideration to be given to delivering Western fighter jets and helicopters, appropriate missile systems and substantial increases in munitions delivery to Kyiv,” according to a satement.
“Ukraine must not only be able to defend itself, but also to regain full control of its entire internationally recognised territory,” it added.
The resolution, which is non-binding, also calls on the EU to implement a 10th package of sanctions against Moscow by the end of February and to tighten those already in place. Assets seized from Russian oligarchs should be used to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction, lawmakers said.
The legislators also urged the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — and national governments to begin talks with Kyiv this year on Ukraine’s bid for EU membership.
Russian response: The Russian Mission to the EU slammed the parliament’s resolution as a “paragon of disinformation” unsupported by “data, facts or evidence,” in a statement posted on its website.
“Obviously, the resolution is aimed at deliberately misleading the European public and trying to justify the European Union’s course to escalate the Ukrainian conflict and increase sanctions pressure on our country,” the mission said.
Moscow has faced constant diplomatic pressure from the EU, including economic sanctions, since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine.
More background: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took his plea for the supply of Western fighter jets directly to European countries last week, including in a surprise visit to London and at a European Union summit.
Ukrainian pilots will start training on NATO jets in the United Kingdom soon, but it’s unclear how soon allies could make a decision on whether to send the modern fighting planes.
NATO’s secretary general said Tuesday that the question of sending modern fighter jets to Ukraine is “not the most urgent issue” right now, focusing instead on delivering the military support it has already committed to Ukraine.
Russian attacks hit infrastructure in Lviv and Kirovohrad regions, Ukrainian authorities say
From CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko in Kyiv
Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday that Russia attacked infrastructure facilities in the Lviv and Kirovohrad regions.
Three missiles hit a critical infrastructure facility in the Drohobych district of the western Lviv region, according to the head of the district’s military administration Stepan Kulyniak.
There were no injuries, but “a number of buildings were destroyed and damaged,” Kulyniak said in a social media post. He did not specify what type of infrastructure facility was hit.
Meanwhile, in the Kirovhohrad region, authorities said an early morning missile attack hit “reservoirs with petroleum products,” causing a fire that was later extinguished.
“None of the service personnel was injured. People living near this facility were not injured either. The damage was done to the houses they live in,” said Andrii Raikovych, the head of the Kirovohrad region military administration. Raikovych added that authorities will inspect and repair the damage to residential buildings.
Senior US diplomat says new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine is “very pathetic”
From CNN’s Michael Conte and Jennifer Hansler
Russia’s newly declared offensive is “very pathetic,” according to a top US State Department official, who questioned whether the Russian people would continue to support the war in Ukraine.
“You see the war grinding in the east, in Bakhmut,” said US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. “Russia has declared that it is launching a new offensive. Well, if this is it, it is very pathetic, I would say.”
She said Ukraine is planning its own counteroffensive “for later on.”
Nuland also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is arrogant enough to believe that he can defeat Ukraine.”
“I think the more interesting question is whether the Russian people will stand for this, given how many of their sons they are losing, more than 200,000 Russians killed in action or wounded in action over the course of the year. They have in some categories lost more than half of their military equipment in this war, and more than a million of the brightest and best Russians have left the country,” she said.
“So what is this war bringing the average Russian? Nothing. Death, destruction, loss of a future, loss of the technological and economic potential that would come from being integrated with us. So what is more interesting is whether the Russian people will stand for this.”
More on Bakhmut: Earlier this month, the head of Russia’s Wagner private military group said the capture of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine was far from imminent.
“Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” Yevgeniy Prigozhin said in a statement distributed on a Wagner Telegram channel. “For the meat grinder to work properly, it is impossible to suddenly start festivities. There won’t be any festivities anytime soon.”
CNN’s Mick Krever contributed to this post.
Belarus says it won’t send troops to Ukraine unless it is attacked as border tensions escalate
From CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen, Zahra Ullah, Claudia Otto and Rob Picheta
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed there is “no way” his country would send troops into Ukraine unless it is attacked, amid fears Russia’s close ally will help to facilitate a spring offensive by Moscow.
“We are peaceful people. We know what war is and we don’t want war,” the authoritarian leader Lukashenko, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said at a small gathering of journalists from international media, including CNN, at Minsk’s Palace of Independence.
“There is no way we are going to send our troops to Ukraine unless you are going to commit aggression against Belarus,” Lukashenko said. “But don’t forget Russia is our ally, legally, morally and politically.”
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile announced that Putin will meet with Lukashenko in the Moscow region on Friday.
Belarus helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine last February, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country through the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) Ukrainian-Belarusian border to the north of Kyiv.
Minsk has since claimed on numerous occasions that Ukrainian drones and missiles have entered its territory, sometimes without providing evidence.
Read more here.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-2-17-23/h_7bd04fa50a23d32e1d8ce4dc552a1dd9
