Nato members meet in Brussels to discuss sending supplies to Ukraine; report confirms at least 43 Russian camps aimed at giving children pro-Moscow views
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments for the next few hours.
Our top stories this morning. Nato members will meet for a second day in Brussels to discuss sending supplies to Ukraine.
Russia has lost “strategically, operationally and tactically”, Gen Mark Milley, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, has said. Speaking at a joint news conference with US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin, Milley said Russians were “paying an enormous price on the battlefield” in Ukraine.
Lloyd Austin has said he expects Ukraine to conduct an offensive against Russia in the spring. Speaking at a news conference following a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group, Austin said Russia is introducing a number of new troops to the battlefield but that many are ill-trained and ill-equipped. Russia has “inflicted a year of tragedy and terror” on its neighbour Ukraine, he said.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that supplying Ukraine with fighter jets was not a focus at the moment but would certainly be discussed. Securing Ukraine’s airspace is the priority, he told Germany’s ARD television. “Only when the skies over Ukraine remain safe over the next three, four months, then you can talk about all other further steps,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern city of Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting. The capture of Bakhmut would give Russia a significant symbolic boost ahead of the first anniversary of the war.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group whose mercenaries have been fighting for months to take the eastern city of Bakhmut, has said the battle is far from over. In a Telegram post, Prigozhin said Ukraine was reinforcing with up to 500 new fighters a day. “Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” he said, adding “We will not be celebrating in the near future.”
Russian forces have made incremental progress in the last day or two in their assault on the Ukrainian city of Bahkmut but it is unclear if it will fall, the White House has said. John Kirby, the US national security council spokesperson, added that if Bakhmut were to fall to the Russians “it would not have a strategic impact on the overall war”.
A British national has died in Ukraine, the UK government has said. The identity of the individual is not yet known, but their family has been informed. They are believed to be the eighth British national to have died in Ukraine since the war began last February.
One Ukrainian worker was killed and many have been hurt in recent days trying to repair the power network following Russian airstrikes, according to energy minister German Galushchenko. Russia unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Friday, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and causing emergency power outages for millions of people. In a statement, Galushchenko and Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergy said the country was producing enough energy to meet consumers’ needs.
