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Russian-Ukrainian
- The United States will not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has requested in its fight against Russia, President Joe Biden said on Monday, as Russian forces claimed a series of additional gains in the east of the country.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Andriy Yermak, suggested that Poland was willing to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters. Yermak said Ukraine had received “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram post, although Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki was careful to stress that his own country would only act in consultation with NATO allies, as Ukraine’s lobbying for fighter jets intensifies just days after Germany and the United States agreed to send tanks.
- Zelenskiy demanded that Western weapons be supplied more quickly. Speaking in his evening speech, the Ukrainian president said Russia hoped to prolong the war and exhaust his country’s ability to resist invaders. “So we have to make time our weapon. We need to speed up events, speed up the procurement and opening up of new weaponry options needed for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
- Russian-Ukrainian
- The Kremlin has warned that supplying Ukraine with more weapons from the West will only lead to a “significant escalation” of the conflict. Kyiv “demands more and more weapons” as NATO countries “get more and more directly involved in the conflict”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the deputy Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk called on Germany to send a submarine to his country.
- Russian forces continued their attacks on front line positions near the eastern towns of Bakhmut and Donetsk. Troops from Moscow have shelled Bakhmut in Donbass for several months, but in recent days the invaders appear to have opened a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vuhledar, 30 miles southwest of the city of Donetsk.
- The situation in Bakhmut and Vuhledar was “very difficult” with both areas and other parts of the Donetsk region “under constant Russian attack”, Zelensky said. Vuhledar is close to the junction with the southern Zaporizhzhia front and seen as a pivotal point for both sides, but remains Ukrainian-held despite a claim to the contrary by the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
- Ukrainearmy and russia wagner private military group both claim to have control in the field of Blessingseastern region of Donetsk.
- Dmitry MedvedevA longtime ally of Vladimir Putin and currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, boasted that the sanctions had little effect on the Russian economy.
- NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and JapanPrime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Tuesday to strengthen ties, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its growing military cooperation with China had created the most tense security environment since World War II.
- A Russian court fined the streaming service Tic 4 million rubles (£46,200/$57,000) for failing to remove what he called “false” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- UkraineThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the President of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, for saying that Crimea would never return to Ukrainian control, calling his comment “unacceptable”. In remarks on Monday detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Milanović said it was “clear that Crimea will never be part of Ukraine again.”
- Russia and Belarus began a week of personnel training for the joint command of their regional grouping of forces, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.
- The Russian government on Monday banned domestic oil exporters and customs authorities from adhering to Western-imposed price caps on Russian crude. The measure was taken to help enforce President Vladimir Putin’s Dec. 27 decree banning the supply of crude oil and petroleum products from Feb. 1 for five months to countries that meet the caps. The new Russian law prohibits companies and individuals from including oil price cap mechanisms in their contracts.
- UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says tanks donated to Ukraine will get to the frontline “this side of summer”. Britain should be “really proud” of leading the world in supporting Ukraine and resisting Russian aggression, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.
The Russian-Ukrainian War at a Glance: What We Know as of Day 342 of the Invasion | Ukraine
