Ukraine Russia news latest: Frontline not changing despite huge Russian losses, Zelensky says

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the Ukraine’s borders have not been altered by Russia despite their numerous claims of capturing towns and villages in the besieged country’s eastern sector.

“…despite all the pressure on our forces, the frontline has not changed. I am grateful for this to all our warriors, all soldiers and sergeants, officers and generals who are defending the respective frontline areas,” he said in his nightly address yesterday.

He added: “Of course, the reports on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions evoke particular emotions. We are doing our best to deter enemy attacks there – constant intense assaults, which Russia does not stop, even though it suffers huge losses there.”

Mr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian General Syrskyi reported to him on the Bakhmut and Lyman directions.

“Fierce battles are taking place. Principled battles. We are doing everything to support our guys. General Tarnavskyi reported on the fighting in the Avdiivka and other directions. The invaders are using the entire range of weapons against our guys there, including CS gas grenades,” the Ukrainian president said.

Watch live as Biden addresses crowd in Poland to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion Ukraine

Vladimir Putin’s speech to Russia’s elite yesterday came almost one year to the day since invading Ukraine.

Here are eight key points from his speech, which was delivered to members of both houses of parliament, state officials, military commanders and soldiers. It lasted about one hour and 45 minutes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States — sharply upping the ante amid tensions with Washington over the fighting in Ukraine.

Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address, Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times.

Explaining his decision to suspend Russia’s obligations under New START, Putin accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine.

“They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” he said.

Putin argued that while the U.S. has pushed for the resumption of inspections of Russian nuclear facilities under the treaty, NATO allies had helped Ukraine mount drone attacks on Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned fresh missile attacks on Ukrainian civilians in Kherson as he downplayed Vladimir Putin’s speech. “I have not watched it, because during this time there were missile strikes on Kherson. Twenty-one people were wounded and six were killed,” Mr Zelensky said.

Addressing the attack in his nightly address, he said: “The Russian army has once again brutally shelled Kherson today. There are wounded and dead. My condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones…”

“This Russian shelling did not and could not have any military purpose. As well as thousands of similar Russian attacks, which are a real message from Russia to the world. The terrorist state is trying to tell the world by firing missiles at city streets, at residential buildings, at schools, at pharmacies and hospitals, at churches, at bus stops, at markets, at power plants that terror is allegedly something to be reckoned with,” he added.

Russian propagandists have claimed they aided Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine by offering him a “security guarantee”.

Discussing the US president’s trip to Kyiv on Russian state TV, the presenters claim they could have “destroyed Biden” while he was meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Has someone given a security guarantee?” one asked, with another answering: “We did”.

“You know, we could have destroyed Biden.”

During his trip to Kyiv, the president promised another £500m in military aid to Ukraine.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has called Moscow’s decision to suspend participation in the New Start treaty as “really unfortunate and very irresponsible.”

“We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does,” he said while visiting Greece.

“We’ll of course make sure that in any event, we are postured appropriately for the security of our own country and that of our allies.”

The Polish foreign affairs ministry has said it will provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 tanks in the next “two to three weeks” after the Ukrainian forces complete their crash course on the battle vehicle.

In January, the country had pledged an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it had already promised.

Warsaw has positioned itself as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies and also pressed hard for Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and to allow other countries to do so as well, a demand which Berlin agreed to.

The European Union on Tuesday urged its member countries to provide more ammunition to Ukraine from their stockpiles and from any orders that they might have already placed with the defense industry to help defeat invading Russian forces.

According to some estimates, Ukraine is firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells daily — about the same amount that a small European country orders in a peace-time year — but this is only around a third of the number of rounds that Russia is using, one year into the war.

“We have to act with a sense of urgency,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Borrell said that he had written to the bloc’s 27 defense ministers urging them to “give Ukraine priority” when it comes to weapons and ammunition.

“What we have to do is measured in weeks, not in months,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed to his Western allies to quicken their military support, warning that delays would play into Russia’s hand as the invasion approaches its anniversary on Feb. 24.

My colleague Lorne Cook has more:

China said on Tuesday that a “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought” as its top diplomat prepared to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Beijing has been positioning itself as a broker for the end of the Ukraine conflict, and has said its president Xi Jinping will deliver a “peace speech” on 24 February, the one-year anniversary of the war.

Chinese state media on Tuesday released Mr Xi’s “Global Security Initiative” or GSI, a concept paper that the Global Times said was released “with the aim of eliminating the root causes of international conflicts and improving global security”.

“GSI is open and inclusive, and if any country would join the initiative and sincerely wants to safeguard world peace, we’ll support that,” Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang said.

“We will continue to promote peace talks, provide Chinese wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and work with the international community to promote dialogue and consultation to address the concerns of all parties and seek common security,” Mr Qin said.