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Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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European delegation in Kyiv to discuss strengthening ties, EU membership

Ukraine’s President Volodymy Zelenskyy welcomed a delegation of top European Union officials to Kyiv on Thursday for two days of important talks of strengthening ties between the country and the bloc, as well as the more thorny issue of Ukraine’s application to join the EU.

“We are starting two very important European integration days in Ukraine. This is the time when our joint agreements and decisions here in Kyiv will mean the strengthening of the entire Europe,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Earlier Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv with other EU officials, tweeting that it was good to be back in Ukraine’s capital for talks. An EU-Ukraine summit is due to take place Friday.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv was preparing new reforms as it looks to woo the EU to fast-track its membership application. The reforms, Zelenskyy said, would “change the social, legal and political reality in many ways, making it more human, transparent and effective.”

“We are expecting news for Ukraine. We are expecting the decisions from our partners in the European Union that will be in line with the level of cooperation achieved between our institutions and the EU, as well as with our progress,” Zelenskyy added.

Ukraine applied to join the 27-member political and economic bloc last year, just days after Russia invaded in February, and wants its application fast-tracked. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier this week that Kyiv hopes it can join the EU within two years.

Other counties in Europe, such as North Macedonia and Montenegro, have been waiting more than a decade to have their membership applications progress, however, and there are expectations that EU officials could try to temper Ukraine’s expectations during their visit.

—Holly Ellyatt

Russia could launch large-scale offensive on Feb.24, Ukraine’s defense minister says

Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov speaks during presentation of distinctions and diplomas to residents of Kyiv on January 17, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Kyiv believes Russia will launch a new offensive on February 24, the one-year anniversary of the invasion.

Speaking to France’s BFM TV network Wednesday evening, Reznikov said Ukraine’s armed forces are expecting a new, large-scale military action by Russia in the coming weeks

“We think that, given that they [the Russians] live in symbolism, they will try to try something around February 24,” Reznikov said, BFM TV reported, in comments translated by Google.

“We do not underestimate our enemy,” Reznikov said. He claimed that the true number of troops Russia has mobilized since last September to fight in Ukraine could be around half a million — far more than announced by President Vladimir Putin.

“Officially, they announced 300,000 [soldiers were being mobilized], but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more,” the minister said.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hinted that his country has plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events around the world to mark the first anniversary of the war, Reuters reported.

Lavrov said Russian diplomats were working on something to ensure Western-led events were “not the only ones to gain the world’s attention,” without providing further details.

— Holly Ellyatt

More explosions reported in Kramatorsk, day after deadly missile strike

More explosions have been reported in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, less than 24 hours after residential buildings were destroyed and damaged during a missile strike Wednesday night.

“Kramatorsk again suffered from the explosions — the Russians launched two more missile strikes,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram, according to a Google translation of his comments.

“Once again — the center of the city was hit, residential buildings. According to preliminary information, there are wounded among civilians.”

More details would be released soon, he said. CNBC was unable to immediately verify the report.

Rescue workers conduct search and rescue operation after Russian missile hits the residential building in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on February

Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Search and rescue teams were already looking for survivors of a deadly rocket attack on residential buildings in Kramatorsk which occurred Wednesday evening. During the attack, an apartment block was completely destroyed and eight other buildings were damaged, killing at least three people and wounding 20 others, Donetsk’s police force said.

It added that Russian troops had targeted a residential sector of the city with an “Iskander-K” cruise missile.

— Holly Ellyatt

Top Ukrainian and U.S. officials discuss war, possible next moves by Russia

Ukraine’s presidential office said Thursday that the Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, had spoken on the phone with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley (pictured) on Thursday.

Andre Pain | AFP | Getty Images

Top Ukrainian officials have held talks with their U.S. counterparts regarding the military situation in Ukraine, looking ahead to Russia’s offensive action expected imminently.

Ukraine’s presidential office said Thursday that the Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, had spoken on the phone with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on Thursday.

“They were informed about the current situation at the front, in particular in the Donetsk and Southern directions,” the president’s office said in a statement, adding that “there was an exchange of views regarding the possible actions of the enemy in the near future.”

Ukraine thanks the U.S. for its ongoing support, the statement read, in terms of its defense capabilities and its anti-corruption crackdown, saying the government is “determined to comprehensively contribute to the cleansing of authorities from corruption risks.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Austria expels four Russian diplomats

Austrian police stand guard in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna.

Alex Halada | Afp | Getty Images

Austria named four Russian diplomats, two at the Russian Embassy and two working at Moscow’s mission to the United Nations in Vienna, as personae non gratae, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The diplomats are alleged to have acted “in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status,” the ministry said, without giving further details. The move is unusual for Austria, which has traditionally enjoyed cordial relations with Russia before Moscow invaded Ukraine.

The four diplomats have a week to leave Austria, the ministry said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia’s Lavrov promises to overshadow pro-Ukraine anniversary events

A Russian soldier walks amid the rubble in Mariupol’s eastern side where fierce fighting between Russia/pro-Russia forces and Ukraine on March 15, 2022.

Maximilian Clarke | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow had plans to overshadow pro-Ukrainian events arranged by Western and allied countries around the world to mark the anniversary of Russia sending its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Lavrov said Russian diplomats were working on something to ensure Western-led events in New York and elsewhere were “not the only ones to gain the world’s attention,” without providing details.

— Reuters

Russia likely damaging its reputation as an arms exporter, UK says

Military vehicles at a plant that is part of Russian missile manufacturer Almaz-Antey, in St. Petersburg, on Jan. 18, 2023.

Ilya Pitalev | Afp | Getty Images

It’s highly likely that Russia’s role as a reliable arms exporter is being undermined by its invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions and could be disrupted for several years, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday.

“Even before the invasion, Russia’s share of the international arms market was declining. Now, when faced with conflicting demands, Russia will almost certainly prioritise deploying newly produced weapons with its own forces in Ukraine over supplying export partners,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.

A shortage of components is likely affecting the production of equipment for export, such as armored vehicles, attack helicopters and air defense systems, the ministry noted.

“In addition, Russia’s ability to sustain support services for existing export contracts, such as providing spare parts and maintenance, is likely to be seriously disrupted for at least the next three to five years,” it added.

— Holly Ellyatt

Rescue operations continue in Kramatorsk

Emergency services continue to work in Kramatorsk Thursday after a residential building was destroyed during a Russian rocket attack last night.

As a result of the attack, three storeys of a four-story residential building were destroyed, with the blast then setting fire to parked cars, the State Emergency Service said on Telegram.

Three people died in the attack and two others have been rescued. A total of 18 people were injured as a result of the attack, and eight of them have been hospitalized. The emergency services said 183 people and 18 units have been involved in rescue operations.

— Holly Ellyatt

‘We all want this to end’ but what matters is war’s outcome — not duration, Lavrov says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said everyone wants the conflict in Ukraine to end, but what matters to Russia is the outcome of the war, not the duration.

Alexander Zemlianichenko | Reuters

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said everyone wants the conflict in Ukraine to end, but what matters to Russia is the outcome of the war, not the duration.

“We all want this to end, but it’s not the time factor that matters here … [but] the quality of the results that we will provide for our people, for those people who want to remain part of Russian culture,” Lavrov told TV journalist Dmitry Kiselev on Thursday in comments reported by state news agency Tass.

Lavrov added that the more long-range weapons are supplied to Kyiv, the further they need to be moved away from Russia and territory that it considers Russian (such as Crimea and four Ukrainian regions it declared it had annexed last year).

“If now we are striving to move the artillery of the Ukrainian armed forces to a distance that will not pose a threat to our territories, then the more long-range weapons are supplied to the Kyiv regime, the further they will need to be moved away from the territories that are part of our country,” Lavrov said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Search for survivors continues after Kramatorsk rocket attack

Rescuers remove debris to search for survivors at a destroyed apartment building hit by a rocket in downtown Kramatorsk on Feb. 1, 2023.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

The search for survivors is continuing in Kramatorsk after a deadly rocket attack on residential buildings in the city in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.

More than 100 police officers are working at the site of the attack in which three civilians were killed and 20 wounded, the Donetsk police said in a statement Wednesday night.

The police said Russian troops had targeted a residential sector of the city with an “Iskander-K” missile — a Russian-made mobile short-range cruise missile, adding that at least eight apartment buildings were damaged and one of them was completely destroyed.

“People may still remain under the rubble. The enemy attack took place at 21:45 [local time]. A search and rescue operation is currently underway,” the police said in comments translated by NBC News.

Rescuers remove debris to search for survivors at a destroyed apartment building hit by a rocket during the night in Kramatorsk on February 1, 2023.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

It added that 11 investigative and operative groups, explosives experts, dog experts, paramedics, patrol police and other units were working on site. The police said that they are documenting the incident as a war crime.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure during the war but numerous residential buildings, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure such as schools and theaters have been damaged or destroyed during the almost one-year long conflict.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine says Russia is actively conducting reconnaissance, preparing for offensive

Russia is actively conducting reconnaissance operations and is preparing for an offensive in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, the military said Thursday.

Russia “is active in reconnaissance and preparing for an offensive on certain axes,” a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Shtupun, said in an update Thursday morning.

“Despite heavy losses, Russians continue to attempt offensives on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Novopavlivka axes,” he said.

On the previous day, Russia launched six missile strikes, four of which targeted civilian infrastructure in the settlements of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, and Druzhkivka (in the Donetsk region), as well as four air strikes and 73 strikes using MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), Shtupun said.

CNBC was unable to verify the information, although missile strikes were reported in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on Wednesday, including a deadly attack on residential buildings in Kramatorsk in which at least three people died and 20 others were injured.

“The threat of Russian air and missile strikes across Ukraine remains high,” Shtupun said.

Ukrainian servicemen make a trench near Bakhmut on Feb. 1, 2023, as they prepare for a Russian offensive in the area.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Russian forces and mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private military company, have been attempting to capture Bakhmut in Donetsk for months and have claimed to have made advances toward their target in recent weeks. Several Russian officials said Wednesday that Bakhmut was essentially surrounded on three sides.

Ukraine’s General Staff said Wednesday that its forces had repelled attacks in the vicinities of various settlements in Donetsk, including Bakhmut, and neighboring Luhansk.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian prosecutor general says Russia has committed more than 65,000 war crimes, reiterates calls for special tribunal

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin participates in a panel discussion at Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C., on February 1, 2023.

Amanda Macias | CNBC

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said Wednesday that regional authorities have registered more than 65,000 Russian war crimes since Moscow’s conflict began nearly a year ago.

“We have all witnessed with horror the evidence of atrocities committed in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izium, Kherson, Kharkiv regions and other liberated cities and towns,” Kostin said, adding that Ukrainian authorities have discovered mass burial sites in areas occupied by Russian troops.

“These crimes are not incidental or accidental, they include indiscriminate shelling of civilians, willful killing, torture, conflict-related sexual violence, looting and forced displacement on a massive scale,” he added in remarks at the Georgetown Law School in Washington.

His comments add to an emerging picture of the horrors experienced during nearly a year of war in Ukraine. The conflict has shown few signs of ending soon, even as local and international officials try to probe potential crimes committed over recent months in Ukraine.

In a separate discussion with journalists, Kostin said he believed Kyiv was close to gaining U.S. support to establish a special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s crimes of aggression.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

Russian journalist sentenced for speaking out on Ukraine

A damaged car and pile of debris are seen as the Russia-Ukraine War continues in Bakhmut, Ukraine on January 28, 2023.

Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

A court in Moscow sentenced a Russian journalist in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of disparaging the military, the latest move in the authorities’ relentless crackdown on dissent.

Alexander Nevzorov, a television journalist and former lawmaker, was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the military under a law that was adopted soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine. The law effectively exposes anyone critical of the Russian military action in Ukraine to fines and prison sentences of up to 10 years.

Nevzorov was accused of posting “false information” on social media about the Russian shelling of a maternity hospital in the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. Moscow has fiercely denied its involvement.

Nevzorov, who moved abroad after the start of the Ukrainian conflict, didn’t have an immediate comment on the verdict.

— Associated Press

Ex-Wagner Group member apologizes to Ukrainians in Norway

A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary ‘Group Wagner’ and a slogan in Russian by the informal pro-Russia organisation ‘Narodna Patrola (lit.: People Patrol), on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Srdjan Stevanovic | Getty Images

A former member of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group who’s seeking asylum in Norway has apologized to Ukrainians living in the Scandinavian country, who object to his presence there.

“I’m a scoundrel to you, but I only ask you to take into account that I have come to realize that, albeit belatedly, and I spoke against all that,” Andrey Medvedev said in an excerpt from his interview to Norwegian broadcaster NRK that was posted online Tuesday. “I ask you not to condemn me, and in any case I apologize.”

Medvedev who has said that he fears for his life if he returns to Russia, lives in a center for asylum seekers in Oslo. He illegally crossed into Norway, which has a 198-kilometer (123-mile) -long border with Russia, earlier this month.

Medvedev has said that he left the Wagner Group after his contract was extended beyond the July-November timeline without his consent. He said he’s willing to testify about any war crimes he witnessed and denied participating in any himself.

— Associated Press

Ukraine raids home of billionaire in war-time anti-corruption crackdown

A picture taken on March 2015 by Unian agency shows Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky speaking during the Ukrainian Football Federation session in Kiev. Ukraine’s president has dismissed Igor Kolomoisky, one of the country’s most controversial tycoons from his regional governor’s post, his office said on March 25, 2015.

Vladyslav Musienko | AFP | Getty Images

Security services searched the home of one of Ukraine’s most prominent billionaires, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.

Photographs circulating on social media appeared to show Ihor Kolomoiskiy dressed in a sweatsuit and looking on in the presence of an SBU security service officer at his home.

The action, days before a summit with the European Union, appears to reflect determination by Kyiv to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation as one of the world’s most corrupt states.

The SBU said it had uncovered the embezzlement of more than $1 billion at Ukraine’s biggest oil company, Ukrnafta, and its biggest refiner, Ukrtatnafta. Kolomoiskiy, who has long denied wrongdoing, once held stakes in both firms, which Zelenskiy ordered seized by the state in November under martial law.

Separate raids were carried out at the tax office, and the home of Arsen Avakov, who led Ukraine’s police force as interior minister from 2014-2021. The SBU said it was cracking down on “people whose actions harm the security of the state in various spheres” and promised more details in coming days.

— Reuters

Vladimir Putin is now fighting for his own political survival: former German ambassador to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inability to score a decisive win on the battlefield or subjugate Ukraine to his will means he is now fighting for his own political survival via the war, according to Rüdiger von Fritsch, former German ambassador to Russia and partner at Berlin Global Advisors.

Bakhmut surrounded on three sides, Russian official says

Ukrainian soldiers return from the front line in Bakhmut, Ukraine on Jan. 29, 2023.

Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russian forces have almost completely surrounded Bakhmut in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, according to a Russian-installed official.

“Artemovsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut] is now in an operational encirclement, our forces are closing the ring,” Yan Gagin, an aide to Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the pro-Russian, separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic,” told the Rossiya-24t tv channel, according to state news agency Tass.

Gagin said battles are now taking place to control the highway between Bakhmut and the nearby town of Chasiv Yar. He said “this is the only artery through which Ukraine can supply its group in Artemovsk.”

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the claims but Russian forces have been trying to capture Bakhmut for months and have been seen to have been advancing in the area in recent weeks.

— Holly Ellyatt

Zelenksyy signals Kyiv ready to unroll new reforms as it pursues EU membership

Ukraine will host European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials on Friday, with hopes high in Kyiv that its application to join the EU will continue to progress.

Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv is preparing new reforms as it prepares for a summit with top EU officials at the end of the week.

“We are preparing new reforms in Ukraine. Reforms that will change the social, legal and political reality in many ways, making it more human, transparent and effective. But these details will be announced later, based on the results of the relevant meetings,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

Ukraine will host European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials on Friday, with hopes high in Kyiv that its application to join the EU will continue to progress.

“This week will be a week of European integration in every sense of the word,” Zelenskyy said. “We are expecting news for Ukraine. We are expecting the decisions from our partners in the European Union that will be in line with the level of cooperation achieved between our institutions and the EU, as well as with our progress. Progress, which is obvious – even despite the full-scale war,” he said.

“We are preparing Ukrainian positions for negotiations with EU representatives,” he added.

Ukraine applied to join the 27-member political and economic bloc last year, just days after Russia invaded last February, and wants its application fast-tracked. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier this week that Kyiv hopes it can join the EU within two years.

Other counties in Europe, such as North Macedonia and Montenegro, have been waiting more than a decade to have their membership applications progress, however, and there are expectations that EU officials could try to temper Ukraine’s expectations during their visit.

— Holly Ellyatt

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

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Business

ADP jobs report January 2022:

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Job creation in the private sector plunged in January as weather-related issues sent workers to the sidelines, payroll processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Companies added just 106,000 new workers for the month, down from an upwardly revised 253,000 the month before. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a gain of 190,000.

Most of the growth came in the hospitality industry, as bars, restaurants, hotels and the like added 95,000 positions. Other growth industries included financial activities (30,000), manufacturing (23,000), and education and health services (12,000).

However, the trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 41,000, construction was off 24,000, and natural resources and mining declined by 3,000.

In all, goods-producing industries saw a net loss of 3,000 jobs, while service providers added 119,000.

Pay growth was little changed for the month, but up 7.3% from a year ago.

Despite the low headline number, ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson, said weather factors were at play and job growth may not have been as weak as the number indicates.

Heavy rainfall hit New Jersey’s Edgewater and caused flooding on Monday, in New Jersey, United States on January 23, 2023.

Fatih Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

“In January, we saw the impact of weather-related disruptions on employment during our reference week,” Richardson said. “Hiring was stronger during other weeks of the month, in line with the strength we saw late last year.”

Like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ADP uses the week of the 12th for its payroll sampling. The firm noted that extreme weather events, including snowstorms in the Midwest and floods in California, impacted the jobs picture.

The Midwest region saw a decline of 40,000 jobs, while the Pacific Rim lost 4,000, according to ADP.

Companies with fewer than 50 employees struggled the most during the period, down 75,000 workers. Big firms employing 500 or more workers added 128,000.

The numbers come with the Federal Reserve trying to slow the economy through a series of interest rate hikes specifically aimed at bringing down inflation.

The report also comes two days before the more closely watched BLS count of nonfarm payroll growth for the month. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect to see growth of 187,000 in that report.

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World

Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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Boris Johnson calls on West to send fighter jets to Ukraine ‘as fast as possible’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomes former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 22, 2023.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Ser | Via Reuters

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is calling on Western allies to give Ukraine fighter jets and whatever else it needs to combat Russia, taking on a dramatically different tone to U.S. and European leaders.

“All I will say is that every time we have said it will be a mistake to give such and such an item of weaponry, we end up doing it and it ends up being the right thing for Ukraine,” Johnson said during an interview with Fox News. The former PM spoke while on a trip to Washington to rally support for Ukraine among members of Congress.

The U.S. and U.K. recently shot down the idea of sending Western F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, something Kyiv has long been asking for.

“We do not think it is practical to send those jets into Ukraine,” a Downing Street spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Aside from the massive amount of training it would require, many Western leaders also fear that sending such sophisticated and powerful equipment to Ukraine would provoke Russia too much. But Johnson rejected the notion, saying that was the same mindset that preceded many prior decisions to ultimately send other advanced weapons to Ukraine.

“I remember being told it was the wrong idea to give them the anti-tank shoulder-launched missiles. Actually, they were indispensable and the United States – under Donald Trump – gave them the Javelins as well. They were indispensable in the battles to repel the Russian tanks,” he said.

“All I’m saying is save time, save money, save lives. Give the Ukrainians what they need as fast as possible.”

— Natasha Turak

Israel’s Netanyahu says he is open to mediator role ‘if asked’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks during a briefing to ambassadors to Israel at a military base in Tel Aviv, Israel May 19, 2021.

Sebastian Scheiner | Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN in an interview that he would be willing to act as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia if asked by both countries and Washington.

“If asked by all relevant parties, I’ll certainly consider it, but I’m not pushing myself in,” Netanyahu said, adding that it would need to be “the right time and the right circumstances.”

The right-wing Israeli leader also said that he had been informally asked to play such a role shortly after the war broke out but declined, since he was not Israel’s prime minister at the time.

Israel is a longtime ally of Russia, and while it has condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, it has held back on sanctions for a number of reasons. Israel is a sanctuary for Russian Jews and is home to the third-largest number of Russian speakers outside of the ex-Soviet states, and around 100,000 Israelis lived in Russia before the war, though the current figure is unclear.

And while Israel’s government has sent humanitarian aid and defensive equipment to Ukraine since the Russian invasion, it’s refrained from sending offensive weapons that Kyiv has asked for, out of a reluctance to upset Moscow.

Netanyahu’s predecessor, Naftali Bennett, spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March in an attempt to mediate at Kyiv’s request, but was unsuccessful.

— Natasha Turak

Talks underway on long-range missiles, attack aircraft, official says

One of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s senior political advisors said talks were underway regarding long-range missiles for Ukraine, as well as attack aircraft.

“Each war stage requires certain weapons. Amassing RF’s (Russia’s) reserves in the occupied territories require specifics from (Ukraine) & partners,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

“So: 1. There is already a tank coalition (logistics, training, supply). 2. There are already talks on longer-range missiles & attack aircraft supply,” he added.

Ukraine has asked its allies for fighter jets to help it combat Russia’s invasion but allies are reluctant to commit. The U.S., German and U.K. have ruled out sending jets to Ukraine, but other allies, such as Lithuania and Poland, are keen that Kyiv should have access to the weaponry it needs to fight Russia.

— Holly Ellyatt

Kremlin welcomes bounty offer for destroying Western tanks in Ukraine

A person walks past a New Year decoration Kremlin Star, bearing a Z letter, a tactical insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine, at the Gorky Park in Moscow on December 29, 2022.

Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty Images

The Kremlin on Wednesday welcomed a Russian company’s offer of “bounty payments” for soldiers who destroy Western-made tanks on the battlefield in Ukraine, saying it would spur Russian forces to victory.

The Russian company Fores this week offered 5 million roubles ($72,000) in cash to the first soldiers who destroy or capture U.S.-made Abrams or German Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops would “burn” any Western tanks that were delivered to Ukraine, adding the bounties were extra encouragement for Russian soldiers.

— Reuters

Bakhmut surrounded on three sides, Russian official says

Ukrainian soldiers return from the front line in Bakhmut, Ukraine on Jan. 29, 2023.

Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russian forces have almost completely surrounded Bakhmut in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, according to a Russian-installed official.

“Artemovsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut] is now in an operational encirclement, our forces are closing the ring,” Yan Gagin, an aide to Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the pro-Russian, separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic,” told the Rossiya-24t tv channel, according to state news agency Tass.

Gagin said battles are now taking place to control the highway between Bakhmut and the nearby town of Chasiv Yar. He said “this is the only artery through which Ukraine can supply its group in Artemovsk.”

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the claims but Russian forces have been trying to capture Bakhmut for months and have been seen to have been advancing in the area in recent weeks.

— Holly Ellyatt

Spain to send up to six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, El Pais reports

A Leopard 2 A4 main battle tank.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Spain plans to send between four and six German-built Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified government sources.

The actual number will depend on the condition of the battle tanks in storage and how many other countries will eventually supply to Ukraine, the sources told El Pais.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kyiv secured pledges from the West this month to supply main battle tanks to help fend off Russia’s invasion, with Moscow mounting huge efforts to make incremental advances in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday his government expects to receive 120 to 140 Western tanks from a coalition of 12 countries in a first wave.

Kuleba said those tanks would include German Leopard 2, British Challenger 2 and U.S. M1 Abrams tanks, and that Ukraine was also “really counting” on supplies of French Leclerc tanks being agreed.

— Reuters

Zelenksyy signals Kyiv ready to unroll new reforms as it pursues EU membership

Ukraine will host European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials on Friday, with hopes high in Kyiv that its application to join the EU will continue to progress.

Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv is preparing new reforms as it prepares for a summit with top EU officials at the end of the week.

“We are preparing new reforms in Ukraine. Reforms that will change the social, legal and political reality in many ways, making it more human, transparent and effective. But these details will be announced later, based on the results of the relevant meetings,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

Ukraine will host European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU officials on Friday, with hopes high in Kyiv that its application to join the EU will continue to progress.

“This week will be a week of European integration in every sense of the word,” Zelenskyy said. “We are expecting news for Ukraine. We are expecting the decisions from our partners in the European Union that will be in line with the level of cooperation achieved between our institutions and the EU, as well as with our progress. Progress, which is obvious – even despite the full-scale war,” he said.

“We are preparing Ukrainian positions for negotiations with EU representatives,” he added.

Ukraine applied to join the 27-member political and economic bloc last year, just days after Russia invaded last February, and wants its application fast-tracked. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier this week that Kyiv hopes it can join the EU within two years.

Other counties in Europe, such as North Macedonia and Montenegro, have been waiting more than a decade to have their membership applications progress, however, and there are expectations that EU officials could try to temper Ukraine’s expectations during their visit.

— Holly Ellyatt

U.S. readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons, sources say

U.S. President Joe Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the White House in Washington on Dec. 21, 2022.

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The United States is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The aid is expected to be announced as soon as this week, the officials said. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons, they added.

One of the officials said a portion of the package, expected to be $1.725 billion, would come from a fund known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows President Joe Biden’s administration to get weapons from industry rather than from U.S. weapons stocks.

The White House declined to comment. The contents and size of aid packages can shift until they are signed by the president.

In addition to the USAI funds, more than $400 million worth of aid was expected to come from Presidential Drawdown Authority funds, which allows the president to take from current U.S. stocks in an emergency.

That aid was expected to include mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs), guided multiple launch rocket systems (GMLRS) and ammunition. The U.S. has sent approximately $27.2 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Russia calls the invasion a “special operation.”

— Reuters

U.S. accuses Russia of endangering nuclear arms control treaty

In image from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Oct. 26, 2022, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is test-fired as part of Russia’s nuclear drills from a launch site in Plesetsk, northwestern Russia.

Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

Russia’s refusal to allow on-the-ground inspections to resume is endangering the New START nuclear treaty and U.S.-Russian arms control overall, the Biden administration charged.

The finding was delivered to Congress and summarized in a statement by the State Department. It follows months of more hopeful U.S. assessments that the two countries would be able to salvage cooperation on limiting strategic nuclear weapons despite high tensions over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Inspections of U.S. and Russian military sites under the New START treaty were paused by both sides because of the spread of the coronavirus in March 2020. The U.S.-Russia committee overseeing implementation of the treaty last met in October 2021, but Russia then unilaterally suspended its cooperation with the treaty’s inspection provisions in August 2022 to protest U.S. support for Ukraine.

“Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control,” the State Department said Tuesday.

The administration also blamed Russia for the two country’s failure to resume talks required under the New START treaty.

— Associated Press

Biden says he will talk to Zelenskyy soon about additional weapons packages

U.S. President Joe Biden talks to reporters before walking to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House January 4, 2023 in Washington, DC.

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President Joe Biden told reporters he is planning to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about future military aid packages.

“We’re going to talk,” Biden said when asked if he has spoken to Zelenskyy and what he planned on tell him about future assistance requests.

In recent days, Kyiv has asked Western partners for additional weapons, including fighter jets.

— Amanda Macias

Bakhmut hit by rocket-propelled artillery 197 times over past day, official says

A damaged car and pile of debris are seen as the Russia-Ukraine War continues in Bakhmut, Ukraine on January 28, 2023.

Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Bakhmut in Donetsk remains the key target for Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhii Cherevaty, said during a national telethon Tuesday.

“Bakhmut continues to be one of the main directions of the enemy’s attack. There, they struck our positions with rocket-propelled artillery 197 times” over the past day, he said, in comments reported by news agency Ukrinform.  

He added that 42 combat clashes had taken place in the same timeframe with 277 Russian soldiers killed and 258 wounded.

Ukrainian soldiers return from the front line in Bakhmut, Ukraine on Jan. 29, 2023.

Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Cherevaty said Russian troops were unable to cut the route used to supply Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut despite the repeated attacks.

 “So far they have not succeeded. Everything is being done to prevent them from blocking the movement of our units. All the necessary ammunition, equipment, food, are being delivered to Bakhmut,” Cherevaty said.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia claims further advances in Donetsk

Russia’s defense ministry claimed that its armed forces in Ukraine have seized another village in Donetsk.

Russian troops have reportedly captured the village of Blahodatne in the region (the area pro-Russian separatists call the “Donetsk People’s Republic” or DPR), according to an official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov.

Ukraine has not commented on the claim, but Russia has been seen to have made incremental gains in the Donetsk region around Vuhledar, to the southwest of the city of Donetsk.

A volunteer who are evacuating civilians from Bakhmut, when the Russian shelling began in Bakhmut, Ukraine on January 30, 2023.

| Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Yan Gagin, an advisor to the acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, told the Rossiya-1 TV channel Tuesday that Russian forces in Donetsk are taking control of one settlement after another, and are advancing on Bakhmut, capturing which is a key strategic goal for Russia.

“Our troops in Artemovsk [Russia’s name for Bakhmut] are advancing, and they are taking settlement after settlement, moving quite actively,” he said in comments reported by news agency Tass and translated by Google.

The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said Tuesday that, in the last three days, Russia likely developed its probing attacks around the Donetsk towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar into a “more concerted assault.”

The settlements lie around 30 miles southwest of the city of Donetsk, and Russia previously used the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade in an unsuccessful assault on the same area in November 2022, the ministry noted on Twitter.

—Holly Ellyatt

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Kyiv criticises Croatian president for saying Crimea will never return to Ukraine

Pedestrians pass a giant wall mural showing a map of the Crimean peninsula filled with the flag of the Russian Federation, in support of the Russian annexation, in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 28, 2014.

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Ukraine’s foreign ministry criticised Croatian President Zoran Milanovic on Tuesday for saying Crimea would never return to Ukrainian control, describing his comment as “unacceptable.”

Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. In remarks on Monday detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Milanovic said it was “clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine”.

“We consider as unacceptable the statements of the president of Croatia, who effectively cast doubt on the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.

— Reuters

Ukraine’s defense minister in Paris with jets on the agenda

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that whether Ukraine will be supplied with fighter jets would depend on several factors.

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Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will be meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and his French defense counterpart Sebastien Lecornu in Paris Tuesday, with the thorny issue of fighter jets high on the agenda.

Ukraine has set its sights on receiving fighter jets, such as U.S. F-16s, from its allies, but the U.S. and Germany have already ruled out such weaponry, particularly given the fact they only greenlighted the sending of Western tanks to Ukraine last week.

For his part, President Joe Biden answered with an emphatic “no” when asked by reporters Monday if the U.S. would be sending jets to Ukraine.

There appears to be a softer attitude among some of Ukraine’s allies, however. with Poland and France signaling that the provision of fighter jets is not out of the question. On Monday, Macron said any offer would depend on several factors.

“Nothing is excluded in principle,” Macron said after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte when asked about the possibility of sending jets to Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion, France 24 reported.

The conditions are that Ukraine must first make the request; that any arms would “not be escalatory”; and that they would “not be likely to hit Russian soil but purely to aid the resistance effort.” Macron added that any arms delivery “must not weaken the capacity of the French armed forces.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russians setting up ‘field hospitals’ amid heavy losses in Luhansk

Hospital staff in Ukraine. Many medical facilities have had to move underground amid extensive Russian bombardment.

Marcus Yam | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Russian forces are reportedly commandeering civilian medical facilities and turning them into “field hospitals” in order to treat wounded soldiers as casualties mount, Ukraine said Tuesday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook claiming that Russian forces in Luhansk continue to “suffer heavy losses” and that they have “begun using additional civilian medical facilities to house wounded Russian invaders.”

Two hospitals in the city of Luhansk, including a maternity hospital, have become field hospitals where soldiers are being treated, Ukraine said. Because of that, the General Staff said maternity services can now only be offered at the Luhansk Regional Perinatal Center “where there is a catastrophic lack of space and risks and adverse conditions for childbirth.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia carrying out ‘more concerted assault’ on Donetsk now, U.K. says

In the last three days, Russia likely developed its probing attacks around the Donetsk towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar into a “more concerted assault,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.

The settlements lie around 30 miles southwest of the city of Donetsk, and Russia previously used the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade in an unsuccessful assault on the same area in November 2022, the Ministry noted on Twitter.

Members of a Ukrainian artillery unit cover their ears as an M109 self-propelled artillery unit is fired at Russian mortar positions around Vuhledar from a front line position on Dec. 19, 2022 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

“Elements of the 155th are again involved as part of an at least brigade sized force which has likely advanced several hundred metres beyond the small Kashlahach River which marked the front line for several months.”

The ministry noted that Russian commanders are likely aiming “to develop a new axis of advance” into the Ukrainian-held part of the Donetsk region “and to divert Ukrainian forces from the heavily contested Bakhmut sector.”

“There is a realistic possibility that Russia will continue to make local gains in the sector,” the U.K. said, but it added that “it is unlikely that Russia has sufficient uncommitted troops in the area to achieve an operationally significant breakthrough.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Biden rules out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the White House in Washington on Dec. 21, 2022.

Olivier Contreras | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Monday afternoon that the U.S. would not send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

When asked by reporters whether he would send fighter jets to Kyiv, Biden replied with one word: “No.”

The U.S. and Germany only last week gave the greenlight to sending modern battle tanks to Ukraine after months of pleas from Kyiv for the tanks.

Within hours of receiving news that it would be receiving Western tanks, Kyiv renewed its calls for fighter jets, such as the U.S.’ F-16s, saying it needs all the firepower it can get sooner rather than later.

Biden’s comments come a day after his German counterpart, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also ruled out sending jets to Ukraine, saying it seems “frivolous” to discuss the issue when allies had just approved the sending of tanks.

Ukraine’s defense minister is expected in Paris on Tuesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, with differences appearing to emerge between allies over F-16s.

News outlet Politico reported Monday that France is considering Ukraine’s request for fighter-jet pilot training, citing an aide to the country’s defense minister, while Poland has signaled its willingness to send such weaponry but said it would act in “full coordination” with its allies.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia’s new offensive against Ukraine will fail, Zelenskky vows

“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defense,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

Yan Dobronosov | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv and its Western partners will do everything necessary to make sure “Russia’s intentions to move to a new stage of offensive for the sake of revenge fail.”

“I am confident in our army. We will stop them all little by little, destroy them and prepare our big counteroffensive,” Zelenskyy said in an address alongside his Danish counterpart in Odesa.

Zelenskyy thanked Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen for providing financial and security assistance to Ukraine.

“I am grateful to the Danish coalition government for creating a separate fund to help our country. Reconstruction should become one of the key directions of the fund’s work,” Zelenskyy added.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian representative in Tehran summoned to Ministry of Foreign Affairs following drone strikes in Iran

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook that the temporary representative of Ukraine was summoned to a meeting at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.

Nikolenko did not elaborate on the details of the meeting but added that Kyiv is not responsible for the string of explosions at Iranian facilities, according to an NBC News translation.

Over the weekend Iran said that bomb-carrying drones struck a defense manufacturing plant in the central city of Isfahan. The Iranian Defense Ministry did not share information on who it suspected of carrying out the strike.

— Amanda Macias

EU allocates 114 million euros to build an energy hub in Poland

Local residents charge their devices, use internet connection and warm up after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 24, 2022.

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The European Union allocated 114 million euros to Poland’s new “rescEU energy hub” for Ukraine.

The hub will essentially be a logistics center for supplying emergency energy aid to Ukrainians amid Russian shelling on critical infrastructure. The funds will purchase approximately 1,000 generators to be distributed to Ukrainians through the hub.

The European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism has previously provided 1,400 generators to Ukrainians in need.

— Amanda Macias

Friends bury 28-year old orphan Ukrainian serviceman in Bakhmut

EDITOR’S NOTE- Graphic Content- This post contains the image of a dead Ukrainian servicemen in Sloviansk.

Friends gather to bury Ukrainian serviceman, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, at a cemetery in Sloviansk. Koroniy was a member of the Azov battalion, killed in action in Bakhmut, Donetsk region.

Ukrainian servicemen and friends of the late Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, who was killed in action in Bakhmut, carry his coffin during a funeral at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Kateryna Avdeyeva (C), holds a portrait of her late friend, Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion killed in action in Bakhmut, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, as she attends his funeral ceremony at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Natalia Shalashnaya (R), 52, mourns over the casket of the late Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion killed in action in Bakhmut, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, of whom she was the legal guardian, at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images

Kateryna Avdeyeva (C), mourns as she holds a portrait of her late friend, Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion killed in action in Bakhmut, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, as she attends his funeral ceremony at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Natalia Shalashnaya, 52, pours water into the grave of the late Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion killed in action in Bakhmut, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, of whom she was the legal guardian, at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Oleksiy Storozh (R), 28, fires his rifle in the air during the burial of his best friend, the late Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov battalion killed in action in Bakhmut, 28-year-old orphan Oleksandr Korovniy, at a cemetery in Sloviansk on January 30, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Kremlin dismisses Boris Johnson’s missile strike accusation

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

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The Kremlin dismissed Boris Johnson’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike.

The former U.K. prime minister claimed in a BBC documentary that he’d had a phone call with Putin before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Johnson said in the show that Putin “threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that.”

“But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” Johnson said.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the claim as a “lie” Monday, telling reporters “What Mr. Johnson said is not true. More precisely, it is a lie,” he said according to an NBC News translation of the comments.

“This may either be a deliberate lie by Mr. Johnson, and then the question arises as to the reasons for his presentation of such a version of events. Or he actually did not understand what President Putin was talking about with him. And in this case it becomes a little worrying for the interlocutors of our President,” Peskov said.

“But once again I officially repeat: this is a lie, there were no threats with missiles.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s prime minister says Kyiv wants to join the European Union within two years

Ukraine has made no secret of its wish to join the EU and has already applied to join the bloc.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv wants to join the European Union within two years, setting a very ambitious timetable for joining the bloc.

Speaking to Politico, Shmyhal said “we have a very ambitious plan to join the European Union within the next two years … So we expect that this year, in 2023, we can already have this pre-entry stage of negotiations,” he said.

Ukraine has made no secret of its wish to join the EU and has already applied to join the bloc. It is not the only candidate country. Others, such as North Macedonia and Montenegro have waited over ten years for any progress in their own respective membership applications. French President Emmanuel Macron has said EU membership for Ukraine is likely to be a process that will take “decades.”

EU commissioners are heading to Kyiv on Friday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Politco noted that their task will likely be “managing expectations” regarding such a tight timetable for entry into the EU.

— Holly Ellyatt

Boris Johnson claims Putin threatened him with a missile attack

Russia welcomed Boris Johnson’s departure from office.

Justin Tallis | Afp | Getty Images

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to threaten him with a missile strike in what he described as an “extraordinary” phone call before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In an excerpt of a BBC documentary called “Putin vs the West,” Johnson says he spoke to Putin in February 2022, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During that call, he said he told Putin that war would be an “utter catastrophe” and would entail sanctions on Moscow and likely more NATO troops on Russia’s borders.

Johnson said that after making those points during the call, in which he said Putin had been “very familiar,” Putin appeared to threaten him.

“He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that,” Johnson said in the documentary, the BBC reported.

“But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”

It’s impossible to ascertain whether Putin was serious in his comment but relations between the U.K. and Russia were already strained before the war, particularly after a Russian nerve agent attack carried out in the U.K. in 2018. The U.K.’s staunch support of Kyiv has heightened tensions.

— Holly Ellyatt

Germany’s Scholz adamant Berlin will not send fighter jets to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin on Jan. 25, 2023.

Fabrizio Bensch | Reuters

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted at the weekend that fighter jets would not be provided to Ukraine, telling a German newspaper that there should not be a “bidding war” over weaponry and that Germany “will not allow a war between Russia and NATO.”

Scholz reiterated Germany’s objections to sending fighter jets to Ukraine, telling the Tagesspiegel newspaper Sunday that there is no question of doing so.

“The question of combat aircraft does not arise at all,” Scholz said, according to Politico’s translation of the original story.

“I can only advise against entering into a constant competition to outbid each other when it comes to weapons systems,” he added.

Germany last week agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine after months of resisting pressure to do so. Berlin also said it would allow other allies to send their own German-made tanks to Kyiv. The U.S. also agreed to send a number of M1 Abrams tanks.

A Belgian F-16 jet fighter takes part in the NATO Air Nuclear drill “Steadfast Noon” at the Kleine-Brogel air base in Belgium on October 18, 2022.

Kenzo Tribouillard | Afp | Getty Images

Ukraine expressed gratitude for the decision to send tanks but immediately said it needed more firepower to counter Russia’s invasion, asking for fighter jets from its allies. One defense ministry advisor told CNBC he was sure Kyiv would receive F-16 fighter jets from its allies and that there should be no delay over the decision, as there was over tanks.

Over the weekend, another Ukrainian official said negotiations over the possible sending of attack aircraft to Ukraine were “ongoing.”

“Our partners understand how the war develops. They understand that attack aircraft are absolutely necessary to cover the manpower and armoured vehicles that they give us,” advisor to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak told the Freedom TV channel Saturday.

“In the same way, in order to drastically reduce the key tool of the Russian army – artillery, we need missiles. That’s why negotiations are already underway, negotiations are accelerating,” Podolyak said in comments translated by NBC News.

— Holly Ellyatt

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UBS earnings Q4 and FY 2022

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UBS reported fourth quarter and full-year earnings.

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UBS beat market expectations with its latest results on the back of lower expenses and higher interest rates. But the lender’s revenues declined because of weaker client activity.

The bank reported $1.7 billion of net income for the fourth quarter of last year, bringing its total annual profit to $7.6 billion in 2022. Analysts had expected UBS would achieve a net income of $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter and of $7.3 billion for the year, according to Refinitiv data.

Looking ahead, the Swiss lender said that revenues for the first quarter of 2023 are set “to be positively influenced” by higher client activity and interest rates, as well as by the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in Asia.

“We delivered good full-year and solid fourth-quarter results in a difficult macroeconomic and geopolitical environment,” CEO Ralph Hamers said in a statement.

Here are a couple of highlights from the latest release:

  • CET 1 capital ratio, a measure of bank solvency, stood at 14.2%, down from 14.4% in the previous quarter;
  • Revenues dropped to $8.029 billion from $8.705 billion a year ago;
  • Return on tangible equity, a measure of bank’s performance, rose to 13.2% at the end of the quarter, up from 10% a year ago.

Among the bank’s units, Global Wealth Management posted a fourth-quarter net interest income increase of 35% on the year, given higher deposit margins off the back of higher interest rates. Personal and Corporate Banking also recorded a 21% year-on-year hike in net interest income over the same period, as a result of higher interest rates and loan revenues.

But market uncertainty hit the investment banking and asset management arms of the business. The former saw a 24% yearly drop in revenues, whereas asset management revenues fell by 31% year-on-year due to the “negative market performance and foreign currency effects.”

“The rate environment is helping the business on one side, and that offsets some of the lower activity that we see on the investment side,” Hamers told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore on Tuesday.

He added that, following the first half of last year, there was a shift in the markets that put pressure on the investment side of the bank.

“We saw a move from what we would call micro focus, which is equity focused, to macro focus, which is rates focused,” he said, noting that the Swiss bank was not able to benefit from that transition as much as some of its peers, given its smaller presence in the U.S.

‘Uncertain’ Outlook

UBS said it will be purchasing more shares this year.

“We remain committed to a progressive dividend and expect to repurchase more than $5 billion of shares in 2023,” Hamers said in a statement.

However, the Swiss bank is cautious about the economic outlook, citing central bank activity as a potential catalyst for market volatility.

“While inflation may have peaked in the second half of 2022, and an energy crisis in Europe seems likely to be averted, the outlook for economic growth, asset valuations and market volatility remains highly uncertain, and central bank tightening may have an impact on market liquidity,” the bank said in its latest results.

UBS shares are up by about 15% over the last 12 months.

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South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial continues for Day 4

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Dick Harpootlian’s brutal cross-examination of state’s crime scene expert gets graphic

Dick Harpootlian Monday grilled the SLED special agent who oversaw evidence collection at the crime scene after the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.

“Wasn’t his brain laying at his feet?” Harpootlian asked Worley.

“It was beside his left leg,” she replied. Paul’s bloody footprints were found near his body likely when he stumbled toward the door of the feedroom after the first shotgun blast.

The second shot blew off his head. “His brain flew out,” Harpootlian said. “There’s hair and blood and pieces of skull in the ceiling around him.”

Harpootlian asked Melinda Worley, a tire and shoe impression expert, whether a deputy’s bloody footprint found near Paul’s body was “preservation of the scene to your standards?”

“Not exactly, no,” she replied. The bloody footprint that didn’t belong to Paul likely came from a deputy on the scene.

“Do you know what other evidence they may have destroyed?” Harpootlian asked of Colleton County deputies, who were the first responders on the scene.

“I have no idea,” she answered.

Harpootlian also confronted her with a photo that showed what may have been a footprint on Maggie’s calf.

He questioned why there was only one photo of this, and there’s no scale indicating the impression’s size.

“This was not done according to procedure?” asked Harpootlian.

“I did not know about this on the scene,” she replied before acknowledging she was present at the crime scene when the photograph was taken. At the time, no one appreciated that it was a footwear impression, she said.

Worley added that even if she had multiple photos of the suspected footprint, she wouldn’t have been able to “attribute it to a type of footwear.”

The witness also conceded that Alex’s white T-shirt was not completely clean and had what appeared to be dirt smudges.



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Erdogan suggests Turkey could accept Finland into NATO — without Sweden

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declaring a three-month state of emergency and vowing to hunt down the “terrorist” group behind the 2016 coup attempt during a news conference following the National Security Council and cabinet meetings at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, July 20, 2016. Following the coup, a newsroom crackdown ensued and a series of trials against journalists were launched.

Adem Altan | Afp | Getty Images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed another blow to Sweden’s NATO bid, suggesting that his government could approve Finland’s NATO membership application without its Nordic neighbor.

Finland and Sweden both formally applied to join the 73-year-old defense alliance in May of last year, reversing their long-held policy of nonalignment in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The two have vowed to take their steps forward in tandem.

Erdogan, angry at Sweden’s government for a number of reasons, is poised to make or break both countries’ NATO accession plans, as each state’s application requires unanimous approval from all 30 current members. Hungary is the only country besides Turkey that is yet to approve the Nordic countries’ bids, which the rest of the member states want to fast-track.

“We may deliver Finland a different message [on their application], and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdogan said during a speech on Sunday.

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Russia will soon issue new history text books to students

A schoolgirl looks at a computer screen showing a map of Russia including annexed Ukrainian territories in Moscow on October 12, 2022.

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Russia will roll out a new history textbook to high schools in the coming months, with students to be taught about the “special military operation,” as Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine, according to a report by news agency Interfax

The history textbooks will cover Russia’s version of events in Ukraine, including “the entry into Russia” of the Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics” as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, four regions that Russia claimed to have annexed last September following spurious referendums.

Russian Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov said Monday that the new textbooks are expected to be ready in March and could appear in schools from the new academic year, Interfax said, in a report translated by Google.

The history books are being created at break-neck speed as Russia looks to promote its version of events in Ukraine to students. In December, Education Minister Kravtsov said a working group would be formed in order to create “unified textbooks on the history of Russia” and world history.

Ukraine and its Western allies do not recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory and see Russia’s attempts to disseminate Russian culture and language in those areas and to “Russify” them as another abuse of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

— Holly Ellyatt

Kremlin dismisses Boris Johnson’s missile strike accusation

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

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The Kremlin dismissed Boris Johnson’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike.

The former U.K. prime minister claimed in a BBC documentary that he’d had a phone call with Putin before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Johnson said in the show that Putin “threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that.”

“But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” Johnson said.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the claim as a “lie” Monday, telling reporters “What Mr. Johnson said is not true. More precisely, it is a lie,” he said according to an NBC News translation of the comments.

“This may either be a deliberate lie by Mr. Johnson, and then the question arises as to the reasons for his presentation of such a version of events. Or he actually did not understand what President Putin was talking about with him. And in this case it becomes a little worrying for the interlocutors of our President,” Peskov said.

“But once again I officially repeat: this is a lie, there were no threats with missiles.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s prime minister says Kyiv wants to join the European Union within two years

Ukraine has made no secret of its wish to join the EU and has already applied to join the bloc.

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv wants to join the European Union within two years, setting a very ambitious timetable for joining the bloc.

Speaking to Politico, Shmyhal said “we have a very ambitious plan to join the European Union within the next two years … So we expect that this year, in 2023, we can already have this pre-entry stage of negotiations,” he said.

Ukraine has made no secret of its wish to join the EU and has already applied to join the bloc. It is not the only candidate country. Others, such as North Macedonia and Montenegro have waited over ten years for any progress in their own respective membership applications. French President Emmanuel Macron has said EU membership for Ukraine is likely to be a process that will take “decades.”

EU commissioners are heading to Kyiv on Friday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Politco noted that their task will likely be “managing expectations” regarding such a tight timetable for entry into the EU.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia warns United States: the end of nuclear arms control may be nigh

Russia told the United States on Monday that the last remaining pillar of bilateral nuclear arms control could expire in 2026 without a replacement due to what it said were U.S. efforts to inflict “strategic defeat” on Moscow in Ukraine.

Both Russia and the United States still have vast arsenals of nuclear weapons which are currently partially limited by the 2011 New START Treaty, which in 2021 was extended until 2026.

What comes after Feb. 4, 2026, however, is unclear, though Washington has indicated it wants to reach a follow-on agreement with Russia.

Asked if Moscow could envisage there being no nuclear arms control treaty after 2026, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA state new agency: “This is quite a possible scenario.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says the risk of direct clashes between Moscow and Washington have increased after the U.S. decision to supply more advanced rocket systems to Ukraine.

Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images

Ryabkov, Russia’s top arms control diplomat, said the United States had in recent years ignored Russia’s interests and dismantled most of the architecture of arms control.

“New START may well fall victim to this,” Ryabkov told RIA. “We are ready for such a scenario.”

His remarks constitute a warning to Washington that its continued military support for Ukraine could scupper the final major post-Cold War bilateral arms control treaty with Russia.

The United States has supplied more than $27 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, including over 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft rocket systems, 8,500 Javelin anti-tank missile systems and over 1 million 155mm artillery rounds.

“The entire situation in the sphere of security, including arms control, has been held hostage by the U.S. line of inflicting strategic defeat on Russia,” Ryabkov said.

“We will resist this in the strongest possible way using all the methods and means at our disposal.”

— Reuters

Boris Johnson claims Putin threatened him with a missile attack

Russia welcomed Boris Johnson’s departure from office.

Justin Tallis | Afp | Getty Images

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to threaten him with a missile strike in what he described as an “extraordinary” phone call before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In an excerpt of a BBC documentary called “Putin vs the West,” Johnson says he spoke to Putin in February 2022, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During that call, he said he told Putin that war would be an “utter catastrophe” and would entail sanctions on Moscow and likely more NATO troops on Russia’s borders.

Johnson said that after making those points during the call, in which he said Putin had been “very familiar,” Putin appeared to threaten him.

“He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that,” Johnson said in the documentary, the BBC reported.

“But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”

It’s impossible to ascertain whether Putin was serious in his comment but relations between the U.K. and Russia were already strained before the war, particularly after a Russian nerve agent attack carried out in the U.K. in 2018. The U.K.’s staunch support of Kyiv has heightened tensions.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia keeping options open over further mobilization, UK says

Russian authorities are likely keeping open the option of another round of call-ups under its “partial mobilisation” program, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense.

In an intelligence update on Twitter, the ministry cited media reports last week suggesting Russian border guards were preventing dual passport-holding Kyrgyz migrant workers from leaving Russia, telling the men that their names were on mobilization lists.

Russian citizens drafted during the partial mobilization being dispatched to combat coordination areas after a military call-up for the Russia-Ukraine war in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 10, 2022.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Separately, on Jan. 23, the ministry noted that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the decree on the partial mobilization, announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin last September, “continues to remain in force, claiming the decree remained necessary for supporting the work of the Armed Forces.”

“Observers had questioned why the measure had not been formally rescinded,” the British ministry stated, adding that “the Russian leadership highly likely continues to search for ways to meet the high number of personnel required to resource any future major offensive in Ukraine, while minimising domestic dissent.”

There has been mounting speculation that Putin could announce another mobilization wave, given the Russian defense ministry’s recent announcement that it plans to beef up its combat personnel to 1.5 million people, from a current reported level of around 1.1 million.

— Holly Ellyatt

Zelenksyy presses Western allies for faster weapons supplies

“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defense,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

Yan Dobronosov | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed allies for faster weapons supplies as fighting in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region, continues to be intense.

“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defense,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

“We are doing everything to ensure that our pressure outweighs the occupiers’ assault capabilities. And it is very important to maintain the dynamics of defense support from our partners,” he said, adding that “the speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war.”

“Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine’s allies Germany and the U.S. agreed last week to send Kyiv dozens of tanks, with other allies in Europe pledging to send their own German-made tanks as well, and the U.K. sending British tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine’s ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, said on Friday that 321 Western tanks are set to be delivered to Ukraine.

— Holly Ellyatt

Germany’s Scholz adamant Berlin will not send fighter jets to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin on Jan. 25, 2023.

Fabrizio Bensch | Reuters

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted at the weekend that fighter jets would not be provided to Ukraine, telling a German newspaper that there should not be a “bidding war” over weaponry and that Germany “will not allow a war between Russia and NATO.”

Scholz reiterated Germany’s objections to sending fighter jets to Ukraine, telling the Tagesspiegel newspaper Sunday that there is no question of doing so.

“The question of combat aircraft does not arise at all,” Scholz said, according to Politico’s translation of the original story.

“I can only advise against entering into a constant competition to outbid each other when it comes to weapons systems,” he added.

Germany last week agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine after months of resisting pressure to do so. Berlin also said it would allow other allies to send their own German-made tanks to Kyiv. The U.S. also agreed to send a number of M1 Abrams tanks.

A Belgian F-16 jet fighter takes part in the NATO Air Nuclear drill “Steadfast Noon” at the Kleine-Brogel air base in Belgium on October 18, 2022.

Kenzo Tribouillard | Afp | Getty Images

Ukraine expressed gratitude for the decision to send tanks but immediately said it needed more firepower to counter Russia’s invasion, asking for fighter jets from its allies. One defense ministry advisor told CNBC he was sure Kyiv would receive F-16 fighter jets from its allies and that there should be no delay over the decision, as there was over tanks.

Over the weekend, another Ukrainian official said negotiations over the possible sending of attack aircraft to Ukraine were “ongoing.”

“Our partners understand how the war develops. They understand that attack aircraft are absolutely necessary to cover the manpower and armoured vehicles that they give us,” advisor to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak told the Freedom TV channel Saturday.

“In the same way, in order to drastically reduce the key tool of the Russian army – artillery, we need missiles. That’s why negotiations are already underway, negotiations are accelerating,” Podolyak said in comments translated by NBC News.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian tank crews arrive in UK to begin training on Challenger 2s

A Challenger 2 main battle tank on display for The Royal Tank Regiment Regimental Parade, on Sept. 24, 2022, in Bulford, England.

Finnbarr Webster | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ukrainian tank crews arrived in the U.K. over the weekend to begin training on Challenger 2 tanks that Britain has provided to the country.

The U.K. said it would provide 14 tanks earlier in January, ahead of the U.S. and Germany announcing last week that they too would provide tanks.

Tank crews will be trained to both operate and maintain the tanks, which will be delivered to Ukraine by March.

— Holly Ellyatt

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Zelenskyy slams IOC decision to let Russian and Belarusian athletes compete in Olympic Games

TOKYO, JAPAN – JULY 23: The Olympic Rings are seen outside the stadium as fireworks go off during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on July 23, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games.

“Russia must stop aggression and terror, and only after that it will be possible to talk about Russian participation in the context of the Olympic movement. Olympic principles and war are fundamentally opposed to each other,” Zelenskyy wrote in a statement.

“We will do everything so that the world will protect sports from political and any other influence of the terrorist state, which is simply inevitable if Russian athletes participate in competitions,” he added.

On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee outlined a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the upcoming 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milan.

“No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport,” the IOC’s executive board announced in a statement.

— Amanda Macias

7-year-old Ukrainian Anya lives in a shelter with her family

Photos capture a young girl named Anya, 7, as she lives in a shelter with her family amid the war in Donetsk region.

DONETSK OBLAST, UKRAINE – JANUARY 25: Anya, 7, hugs her cat in the shelter where she lives with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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Anya, 7, plays with Ukrainian soldiers as she lives in a shelter with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. 

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Anya, 7, plays with Ukrainian soldiers as she lives in a shelter with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. 

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Anya, 7, plays with her toys and paints pictures to spend time in the shelter where she lives with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. 

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Anya, 7, plays with her toys and paints pictures to spend time in the shelter where she lives with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. 

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

7-year-old Anya’s relatives are seen outside the shelter where they live amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Anya, 7, plays on the streets as she lives in a shelter with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Anya, 7, plays with her toys and paints pictures to spend time in the shelter where she lives with her family amid the war in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on January 25, 2023. 

Mustafa Ciftci | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

— Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A look at the tanks the U.S. and Germany agreed to send Ukraine

The U.S. and Germany announced in separate statements earlier this week that they would equip Ukraine with the mighty M1A1 Abrams tank and the Leopard 2 tank.

The 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks, which amount to one Ukrainian tank battalion, will expand on the more than $27 billion the U.S. has committed to Kyiv’s fight since Russia invaded nearly a year ago.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin will supply 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks in what it called a “first step.” He said that Germany’s goal was to “quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine” and that training would begin quickly.

M1 Abrams, Leopard 2 tanks Western countries will send to Ukraine

Elmurod Usubaliev| Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The UK says it committed £2.3 billion in 2022 to Ukraine’s security assistance

The British government said it has so far committed £2.3 billion to Ukraine’s security assistance in 2022.

“Our commitment to Ukraine remains steadfast and we will match or exceed last year’s military support in 2023,” the UK’s Ministry of Defense wrote in a tweet.

“This military aid helps Ukraine defend against air attacks, fight on land, defend their shores, and be equipped for winter.”

— Amanda Macias

Zelenskyy thanks Poland for providing Kyiv with 60 tanks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his Polish counterpart for his decision to provide Kyiv with 60 tanks.

“As 160 years ago, we are together, but this time the enemy has no chance. Together we will win,” Zelenskyy added.

Poland’s decision follows separate announcements that Germany and the U.S. will provide Kyiv with Leopard 2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks.

— Amanda Macias

10 killed in latest Russian shelling, Ukraine says

Broken tree limbs and other debris litter the ground at an industrial area in Kyiv following a morning missile strike that left one person dead and two wounded on January 26, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

A new barrage of Russian shelling killed at least 10 Ukrainian civilians and wounded 20 others in a day, the office of Ukraine’s president said Friday as the country worked to recover from an earlier wave of Russian missile strikes and drone attacks.

Regional officials said towns and villages in the east and in the south that are within reach of the Russian artillery suffered most. Six people died in the Donetsk region, two in Kherson, and two in the Kharkiv region. A day earlier, missiles and self-propelled drones that Russian forces fired had hit deeper into Ukrainian territory, killing at least 11 people.

The bombardments followed announcements by the United States and Germany of plans to ship powerful tanks to help Ukraine defend itself. Other Western countries said they also would share modern tanks from their stockpiles.

Moscow has bristled at the move, and accused Western nations of entering a new level of confrontation with Russia.

— Associated Press

Ukrainian servicemen undergo rehabilitation in Lviv

Ukrainian serviceman Andriy Askerov (L) and another serviceman Andriy sit at the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Yuriy Dyachyshyn | Afp | Getty Images

Yuriy Dyachyshyn | Afp | Getty Images

Yuriy Dyachyshyn | Afp | Getty Images

Yuriy Dyachyshyn | Afp | Getty Images

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Ukraine to receive 60 more tanks from Poland

Ukraine is set to receive 60 more tanks form Poland, in addition to the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks Warsaw pledged to send earlier this week.

“Poland sent 250 tanks as the first country half a year ago or even more than that,” Polish Foreign Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told CTV News.

“Right now, we are ready to send 60 of our modernized tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession.”

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. It has long pressed Berlin to allow it to send Ukraine its German-made Leopard 2 tanks, and after months of refusal, Germany relented this week.

— Natasha Turak

Hungary plans to veto EU sanctions on nuclear energy from Russia

Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban — a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — has said that ending Russian oil purchases would be an “atomic bomb” on Hungary’s economy.

Attila Kisbenedek | Afp | Getty Images

Hungary made clear its intention to veto any EU sanctions that target Russian nuclear energy during an interview of its prime minister Viktor Orban on Hungarian state radio.

Ukraine has asked the 27-member bloc to put sanctions on Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom, but Orban, in an interview quoted by Reuters, said any such move by the EU “must obviously be vetoed.”

“We will not allow the plan to include nuclear energy into the sanctions be implemented,” the Hungarian leader said. “This is out of the question.”

Hungary is home to a Russian-built nuclear power plant that it aims to expand jointly with Rosatom. Orban is also on friendly terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has previously stood in the way of EU sanctions on other Russian energy commodities.

— Natasha Turak

Ukrainian presidential advisor issues warning to colleagues over corruption

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak posted what appeared to be a warning to fellow officials in his country’s government, shortly after several were removed from their positions over corruption and graft charges.

“Every official should understand they are responsible to the state and nation. Especially in the wartime,” Yermak wrote on Twitter.

“Whoever forgets it gets a quick response. Regardless of their names and positions. Period.”

Ukraine is regularly ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe and the world, and that reputation has raised concerns among some Western officials as to the transparency over where foreign military and financial aid goes.

Tuesday saw more than a dozen Ukrainian officials fired, in an announcement by Ukraine’s cabinet ministry. While the ministry did not outline reasons for the firings, they came shortly after publicized reports and accusations of corruption by members of the government.

— Natasha Turak

UK Defence Ministry casts doubt on Russian claims of territorial advancement

The UK’s Defence Ministry expressed doubt over Russian claims of gaining significant territory in Ukraine’s eastern Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

“Russian units have probably conducted local, probing attacks near Orikiv and Vuhledar [in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, respectively], but it is highly unlikely that Russia has actually achieved any substantive advances,” the ministry wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

“There is a realistic possibility that Russian military sources are deliberately spreading misinformation in an effort to imply that the Russian operation is sustaining momentum,” it added.

— Natasha Turak

Explosions heard near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: IAEA

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station.

Carl Court | Getty Images

Monitors from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported hearing explosions near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as Russia hit the country with a new wave of attacks.

Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief, made a repeated call for a security zone to be established around the plant, which is Europe’s largest of its kind and currently occupied by Russian forces.

A representative for Russian state nuclear energy company Rosenergoatom, Renat Karchaa, called the comments baseless and a “provocation.”

— Natasha Turak

10 Ukrainian regions suffer emergency power outages

Ukraine’s Kherson residents receive humanitarian aid as the city experiences electricity and water shortages, in November 2022.

Paula Bronstein | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Several of Ukraine’s regions have to implement emergency power cuts because of outages caused by Russia’s wave of attacks on Thursday, Ukrainian state news channel Suspilne reported.

“Currently, ten regions of Ukraine are already using emergency power outages due to a power shortage in the network after yesterday’s Russian shelling, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing,” it wrote on its official Telegram channel.

Millions of Ukrainians are enduring regular power outages, enduring freezing winter temperatures as Russia targets critical infrastructure and energy facilities.

— Natasha Turak

Zelenskyy calls for more sanctions on Russia after deadly strikes

“This Russian aggression can and should be stopped only with adequate weapons. The terrorist state will not understand anything else,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday.

Yan Dobronosov | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more sanctions on Russia after a wave of missile and drone attacks on Thursday left at least 11 people in Ukraine dead.

“This Russian aggression can and should be stopped only with adequate weapons. The terrorist state will not understand anything else. Weapons on the battlefield. Weapons that protect our skies,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday.

“New sanctions against Russia, i.e. political and economic weapons. And legal weapons – we need to work even harder to establish a tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

The Russian attacks on civilians came a day after Western allies pledged to send battle tanks to Ukraine, something European allies like Germany had until then been reluctant to do for fear of provoking Moscow.

— Natasha Turak

Japan bans exports of robots, semiconductor parts to Russia in new sanctions

Japan on Friday announced additional sanctions in response to Moscow’s latest actions in Ukraine, banning exports to Russia of key strategic goods and freezing assets of dozen individuals.

Japan will prohibit Russia-bound shipments of goods that can be used to enhance military capability, including semiconductor equipment and components, robots, power generators, explosives and vaccines, according to the trade ministry.

The new export ban will take effect on Feb. 3, it said.

Japan also froze assets of an additional three entities and 22 individuals in Russia and 14 pro-Moscow individuals related to the “annexation” of the southeastern Ukraine region.

— Reuters

A rapidly expanding cemetery in Russia offers insight into the Wagner Group convicts who are dying in Putin’s war

For months, Wagner has been locked in a bloody battle of attrition to take the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Western and Ukrainian officials have said it is using convicts as cannon fodder to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses. 

Videos and photographs of the graves first appeared on social media channels in the Krasnodar region in December. Reuters geolocated these images to the Bakinskaya cemetery and reviewed satellite imagery of the site from Maxar Technologies and Capella Space.

Satellite pictures show that the Wagner plot was empty in the summer, had three rows of graves by the end of November and was three-quarters full by early January. Virtually the entire plot was used by Jan. 24.

Read the full story from Reuters here.

— Reuters

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

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20 missiles shot down over Kyiv’s airspace, official says

Kyiv city’s military administration said Thursday that 20 missiles of various types had been detected in Kyiv’s airspace this morning but that all “aerial targets were destroyed” thanks to air defense units.

A 55-year-old man died as a result of the fall of rocket parts, and two others were injured and hospitalized.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, added that the air alert is continuing due to the take-off of a “potential carrier of Kinzhal missiles – a MiG-31 fighter jet and an A-50 control plane in Belarus.”

“Stay in shelters until the alarm is over,” Popko warned.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian strikes on Odesa a response to UNESCO decision, official says

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday that Russia’s missile strike on the southern port city was President Vladimir Putin’s response to UNESCO’s decision to the put the city on its list of endangered World Heritage sites.

The World Heritage Committee at UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural agency, decided to inscribe the historic center of Odesa on the World Heritage List on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian state flag flies on a pedestal where the monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, also known as Monument to the founders of Odesa, once stood on Jan. 8, 2023 in Odesa, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said Odesa was “a free city, a world city, a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts” and thus had been “placed under the reinforced protection of the international community.”

“While the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction.”

— Holly Ellyatt

One dead, two injured in Russian missile strikes on Kyiv

After missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s capital city Thursday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person is known to have died and two others injured.

“As a result of a rocket hit into a non-residential building in the Holosiivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two injured. The injured were hospitalized by medics,” he said on Telegram.

There have also been updates from the cities of Odesa and Vinnytsia, to the southwest of Kyiv, with reports of damage to critical energy facilities.

Civilians take shelter inside a metro station during air raid alert in the centre of Kyiv on December 13, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images

Yuri Kruk, head of the Odesa District Military Administration, said on Telegram Thursday that Russian forces continued “to fire missiles at the territory of Ukraine from the sky and the sea.”

“There is already information about damages to 2 critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa. There are no casualties,” he said, asking civilians to remain in shelters.

In Vinnytsia, the head of the regional military administration Serhiy Borzov posted onTelegram that “there are hits of the enemy’s missiles in Vinnytsia [region]. There are no casualties. All operative services work on site.”

— Holly Ellyatt

After tanks decision, Russia lashes out with missile strikes

Air raid warnings are sounding out across Ukraine on Thursday morning as the country braced itself for more missile strikes from Russia. Emergency power outages have been introduced in Kyiv city and the wider region as well as Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr while the threat of missile strikes is live.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that there had been explosions in a part of the city as he warned civilians to shelter while Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, commented earlier on Telegram that Russian forces had “launched more than 15 cruise missiles in the direction of Kyiv.”

Popko said that “thanks to the excellent work of the air defense, all air targets were shot down.” He warned that the danger of air strikes had not passed, however.

A resident of Kyiv uses the subway as a bomb shelter on Dec. 5, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Emergency blackouts had been introduced in the city Thursday, with the city’s military administration saying “the reason is the threat of a missile attack. Early power outages will help avoid potential damage to critical infrastructure facilities.”

Moscow is fuming after Ukraine was given a big boost by its allies Wednesday after the U.S. and Germany agreed to send battle tanks to the country for the first time. Russia reacted angrily, with officials saying it was “extremely dangerous” and crossed “red lines.”

Serhii Bratchuk, the press person the head for the Odessa RMA (regional military administration) said earlier this morning that “around six Tu-95 aircrafts (preliminary from the Murmansk region) took off and fired missiles at the port city. We expect more than 30 rockets, which have already begun to appear in several areas. Air defense is working, there is no information about drones yet,” Bratchuk said.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the reports.

— Holly Ellyatt

Japan’s Prime Minister to consider visit to Ukraine: Kyodo News

Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida speaks at the start of the tenth annual review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at U.N. headquarters on August 01, 2022 in New York City. Japan’s average minimum wage is set to rise at a record pace this year, the government said on Tuesday, a positive development for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s efforts to cushion households from global commodity inflation.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a parliamentary session that he would consider visiting Ukrainian capital Kyiv, depending on “various circumstances,” Kyodo News reported.

“Nothing has been decided at this point, but we will consider,” Kishida was quoted as saying.

The prime minister’s response came after a ruling party lawmaker urged him to follow the leaders of allied countries in the Group of Seven, as Japan prepares to host an upcoming G7 summit in Hiroshima in May.

– Jihye Lee

After tanks, fighter jets? Ukraine pushes NATO allies for more weaponry

A Belgian F-16 fighter jet flies over Florennes Military Air Base, in Florennes, Belgium. Ukraine is believed to be keen on receiving combat aircraft like this from its allies.

Geert Vanden Wijngaert | AP

The dust has barely settled after the U.S. and Germany’s momentous decision on Wednesday but talk has already turned to the possible supply of other weaponry to Ukraine, specifically combat aircraft.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to Kyiv’s allies Wednesday, stating that the decision by the United States, Germany and Britain to send tanks to Ukraine was “historic.” He said he had also spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday and during that call he called for more assistance.

“We have to unlock the supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine, it is important for us to expand our cooperation in artillery, we have to achieve the supply of aircraft to Ukraine. And this is a dream. And this is a task. An important task for all of us,” he said in his nightly address.

Ukraine has made no secret of the fact that it would like to receive fighter jets, such as the U.S.’ F-16s, from its allies to help it fight Russia, but there has been little positive response.

Having just achieved a diplomatic victory in achieving tanks, however, the focus is now on practical matters, with Zelenskyy saying just how many tanks Ukraine would be receiving is a key issue.

“The key thing now is speed and volume. The speed of training of our military, the speed of supplying tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Training for Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine, White House says

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (L) listens as National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon’s upcoming training for Ukrainians using the M1A1 Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine.

Kirby said the U.S. has not yet decided on a specific location or timing for the training.

He also said that the Pentagon does not have extra tanks to pull from its current arsenal to provide for Ukraine.

“We just don’t have them,” Kirby said, adding that “even if there were excess tanks it would still take many months anyway.” He also declined to provide a timeline of when the M1A1 Abrams tanks would be ready for Ukrainian forces.

— Amanda Macias

Zelenskyy thanks Biden for Abrams tanks decision

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his decision to provide Kyiv with 31 Abrams tanks as well as training and maintenance support.

Zelenskyy said the transfer of M1A1 Abrams tanks is, “an important step on the path to victory.”

“Today the free world is united as never before for a common goal – liberation of Ukraine,” he added.

— Amanda Macias

State Department denies reports outlining riff between Washington and Berlin over tanks for Ukraine

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, August 16, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The State Department downplayed reports that Germany and the U.S. were at odds over whether to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks.

“Time and again, Germany has proven itself as a stalwart ally of the United States,” Price said, adding that Berlin and Washington have only had constructive discussions in the weeks leading up to the separate security assistance announcements.

Earlier on Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin would provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Germany said its goal was to “quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.” The country will supply 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks in what it called a “first step.”

— Amanda Macias

U.S. will send Abrams tanks to Ukraine ahead of expected Russian offensive

A M1A2 SEP (V2) Abrams Main Battle Tank being unloaded in

Staff Sgt. Grady Jones | U.S. Army | Flickr CC

The Biden administration said it will equip Ukraine with the mighty M1A1 Abrams tank, a key reversal in the West’s effort to arm Kyiv as it prepares for a fresh Russian offensive.

The 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks, which amount to one Ukrainian tank battalion, will expand on the more than $26 billion the U.S. has committed to Kyiv’s fight since Russia invaded nearly a year ago.

The U.S. plans to purchase the new M1s using funds from the congressionally approved Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

It will “take some time” for the tanks to be delivered to Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said Wednesday. “We are talking months as opposed to weeks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

Russia furious that Western tanks will be given to Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone during a conversation with Agatha Bylkova from the Kurgan region, an 8-year-old participant of a New Year’s and Christmas charity event, in Moscow, Russia, January 3, 2023. 

Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Via Reuters

Russia expressed mounting fury at the prospect of modern Western tanks being sent to Ukraine, calling it “extremely dangerous” and saying previous “red lines” were now a thing of the past.

Germany announced earlier Wednesday that it was ready to send 14 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, and to allow other countries to send their own German-made tanks to Kyiv. The U.S. is also expected to announce imminently its own intention to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The Russian Embassy in Berlin called the German government’s decision “extremely dangerous” and said it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation” while the foreign ministry warned that “red lines” were a “thing of the past” as it slammed what is saw as the West waging a “hybrid war” against Russia.

The use of modern Western tanks by Ukraine is likely to add momentum to its efforts to push Russian forces out of occupied areas of the country, particularly the eastern Donbas region, but Russia sees the gift of tanks as further evidence that the West is fighting what it sees as a proxy war against it in Ukraine.

Read more on the story here.

— Holly Ellyatt

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage:

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Training for Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine, White House says

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (L) listens as National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon’s upcoming training for Ukrainians using the M1A1 Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine.

Kirby said the U.S. has not yet decided on a specific location or timing for the training.

He also said that the Pentagon does not have extra tanks to pull from its current arsenal to provide for Ukraine.

“We just don’t have them,” Kirby said, adding that “even if there were excess tanks it would still take many months anyway.” He also declined to provide a timeline of when the M1A1 Abrams tanks would be ready for Ukrainian forces.

— Amanda Macias

Swiss panel seeks to allow re-exports of its weaponry to Ukraine

The Swiss Parliament in Bern, Switzerland.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

A parliamentary panel in Switzerland has recommended waiving a law that bars countries from re-exporting Swiss armored vehicles, weapons and other war material to Ukraine for its defense against Russia, insisting the move would not violate the country’s much-vaunted neutrality.

The Security Policy Committee of the lower house of Switzerland’s parliament voted 14-11 Tuesday to allow a re-export exception for cases involving a use of force that violates international law — notably, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 11 months ago.

Adherence to the concept of neutrality is enshrined in the Swiss constitution. The National Council committee’s vote amounts to only a small first step, and it remains far from certain whether the government would authorize such a waiver.

“The majority of the committee believes Switzerland must offer its contribution to European security, which requires more substantial aid to Ukraine,” the committee said in a statement. It insisted the proposed changes “respect the law of neutrality” because they would not involve direct exports of Swiss war materiel to conflict zones.

— Associated Press

Kremlin expresses alarm over ‘Doomsday Clock,’ blames U.S. and NATO

The 2023 Doomsday Clock is displayed before a live-streamed event with members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

The Kremlin expressed alarm that the “Doomsday Clock” had edged closer to midnight than ever, even though the scientists who moved the symbolic dial cited Moscow’s own “thinly veiled threats” to use nuclear weapons.

The “Doomsday Clock,” created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, on Tuesday moved its “time” in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.

Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation. The clock’s hands are moved closer to or further away from midnight based on scientists’ reading of existential threats at a particular time.

“The situation as a whole is really alarming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, calling for a sober appraisal of the tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis.

He said there was no prospect of any detente, based on “the line that was chosen by NATO under U.S. leadership.”

“This imposes on us a duty to be particularly careful, to be alert and to take appropriate measures,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Bulletin’s president cited repeated warnings by President Vladimir Putin and other Russian politicians that Moscow might be prepared to use nuclear weapons as a key factor in the decision to advance the dial of the “Doomsday Clock.”

— Reuters

Germany to send Starlink internet terminals to Ukraine

The Starlink photo is seen on a mobile device with Ukraine on a map in the background in this illustration photo in Warsaw, Poland on 21 September, 2022.

STR | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram that Germany plans to transfer a batch of Starlink terminals to Kyiv.

Starlink, the satellite internet arm of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has been crucial in keeping Ukraine’s military online during the war against Russia, even as communication infrastructure gets destroyed.

Last year, Musk reversed his previous decision to cut off funding for Starlink in Ukraine.

“The hell with it,” the billionaire later tweeted, “even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”

— Amanda Macias

State Department denies reports outlining riff between Washington and Berlin over tanks for Ukraine

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, August 16, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The State Department downplayed reports that Germany and the U.S. were at odds over whether to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks.

“Time and again, Germany has proven itself as a stalwart ally of the United States,” Price said, adding that Berlin and Washington have only had constructive discussions in the weeks leading up to the separate security assistance announcements.

Earlier on Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin would provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Germany said its goal was to “quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.” The country will supply 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks in what it called a “first step.”

— Amanda Macias

Zelenskyy thanks Biden for Abrams tanks decision

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his decision to provide Kyiv with 31 Abrams tanks as well as training and maintenance support.

Zelenskyy said the transfer of M1A1 Abrams tanks is, “an important step on the path to victory.”

“Today the free world is united as never before for a common goal – liberation of Ukraine,” he added.

— Amanda Macias

A look at Biden’s latest security package for Ukraine

U.S. M1A2 “Abrams” tank moves to firing positions during U.S. led joint military exercise “Noble Partner 2016” near Vaziani, Georgia, May 18, 2016.

David Mdzinarishvili | Reuters

The Biden administration approved a $400 million in fresh military aid for Ukraine that will include 31 U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tanks.

Here’s a look at the latest package which brings U.S. commitment to $27.1 billion since Russia’s invasion nearly a year ago:

The capabilities in this package include:

•             31 Abrams tanks with 120mm rounds and other ammunition

•             8 tactical vehicles to recover equipment

•             Support vehicles and equipment

•             Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment

— Amanda Macias

Biden spoke with German, French, British and Italian counterparts ahead of tank decision

The White House said that President Joe Biden spoke with his counterparts from Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom ahead of his announcement that Washington was ready to provide Ukraine with M1A1 Abrams tanks.

The addition of the U.S. tanks to the latest military aid package follows German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Germany said its goal was to “quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.” The country will supply 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks in what it called a “first step.”

— Amanda Macias

U.S. will send Abrams tanks to Ukraine ahead of expected Russian offensive

A M1A2 SEP (V2) Abrams Main Battle Tank being unloaded in

Staff Sgt. Grady Jones | U.S. Army | Flickr CC

The Biden administration said it will equip Ukraine with the mighty M1A1 Abrams tank, a key reversal in the West’s effort to arm Kyiv as it prepares for a fresh Russian offensive.

The 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks, which amount to one Ukrainian tank battalion, will expand on the more than $26 billion the U.S. has committed to Kyiv’s fight since Russia invaded nearly a year ago.

The U.S. plans to purchase the new M1s using funds from the congressionally approved Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

It will “take some time” for the tanks to be delivered to Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said Wednesday. “We are talking months as opposed to weeks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine forces pull back from Donbas town after onslaught

Ukrainian tankers carry out maintenance on their tanks on the Donbas frontline.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Ukrainian forces have conducted an organized retreat from a town in the eastern region of the Donbas, an official said, in what amounted to a rare but modest battlefield triumph for Russia after a series of setbacks in its invasion that began almost 11 months ago.

The Ukrainian army retreated from the salt mining town of Soledar to “preserve the lives of personnel,” Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told The Associated Press.

The soldiers pulled back to previously prepared defensive positions, he said. Russia claimed almost two weeks ago that its forces had taken Soledar, but Ukraine denied it.

Moscow has portrayed the battle for the town not far from the Donetsk province city of Bakhmut, as key to capturing all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for almost nine years and controlled some territory before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the safety of ethnic Russians living in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province, which together make up the Donbas, as justification for the invasion. Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian provinces and two others in late September.

The withdrawal of Ukraine’s troops from Soledar takes the Russian forces a step closer to Bakhmut, but military analysts say the town’s capture is more symbolic than strategic. The fighting in eastern Ukraine has stood mostly at a stalemate for months.

— Associated Press

Russia furious that Western tanks will be given to Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone during a conversation with Agatha Bylkova from the Kurgan region, an 8-year-old participant of a New Year’s and Christmas charity event, in Moscow, Russia, January 3, 2023. 

Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Via Reuters

Russia expressed mounting fury at the prospect of modern Western tanks being sent to Ukraine, calling it “extremely dangerous” and saying previous “red lines” were now a thing of the past.

Germany announced earlier Wednesday that it was ready to send 14 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, and to allow other countries to send their own German-made tanks to Kyiv. The U.S. is also expected to announce imminently its own intention to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The Russian Embassy in Berlin called the German government’s decision “extremely dangerous” and said it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation” while the foreign ministry warned that “red lines” were a “thing of the past” as it slammed what is saw as the West waging a “hybrid war” against Russia.

The use of modern Western tanks by Ukraine is likely to add momentum to its efforts to push Russian forces out of occupied areas of the country, particularly the eastern Donbas region, but Russia sees the gift of tanks as further evidence that the West is fighting what it sees as a proxy war against it in Ukraine.

Read more on the story here.

— Holly Ellyatt

Norway police release former Wagner commander from detention

Norwegian police said on Wednesday they would not seek to intern a former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who recently fled to Norway, ordering him instead to stay at a secret location for security reasons.

Andrei Medvedev fled Russia by crossing into Norway on Jan. 13. He has said he fears for his life after witnessing what he said was the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners brought to the front lines in Ukraine to fight for Wagner.

On Monday police said he was detained by immigration police and held at the Trandum immigration detention centre outside Oslo, due to “disagreement” about measures taken to ensure his safety.

Trandum is where asylum seekers who have been turned down are held before they are deported. Police have denied suggestions Medvedev might be deported to Russia.

A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary ‘Group Wagner’ and a slogan in Russian by the informal pro-Russia organisation ‘Narodna Patrola (lit.: People Patrol), on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Srdjan Stevanovic | Getty Images

“The police’s immigration unit releases Medvedev from … Trandum under an order to be at a specific place of residence,” police said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Police had until Wednesday to decide whether to seek a court order to intern him.

Medvedev’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, was not immediately available for comment.

On Monday, Risnes had said Medvedev had been detained due to “disagreement” about measures taken to ensure his safety and said that there was “zero chance” he would be deported to Russia.

— Reuters

Zelenskyy expresses gratitude to Germany for tanks

Ukraine’s President Volodymy Zelenskyy thanked Germany and Chancellor Olaf Scholz for its decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and to allow other countries to re-export their own German-made tanks.

“German main battle tanks, further broadening of defense support & training missions, green light for partners to supply similar weapons. Just heard about these important & timely decisions in a call with @OlafScholz,” Zelensyy said on Telegram, adding that he was “sincerely grateful” to the chancellor and Germany for the decision.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal also expressed his thanks to Berlin, saying Ukraine now expected “to involve a wide range of partners in the tank coalition in order to obtain as many tanks as possible in the shortest possible time.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meet for a working session in Mariinsky Palace, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 16, 2022.

Ludovic Marin | Reuters

Germany released a statement on the phone call between President Zelenskyy and Chancellor Scholz earlier today, saying the leaders had “exchanged views on the political, military and humanitarian situation in Ukraine.”

 “The Chancellor reiterated unwavering solidarity with Ukraine in the face of Russian Federation’s aggression and announced that Germany will continue to increase military support to Ukraine in close coordination with European and international partners,” the statement read.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian official confirms retreat from Soledar

A Ukrainian multiple-launch rocket system is hiding among the trees near Soledar as the fighting in the Donbas region continues.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

An official has confirmed that Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the town of Soledar in Donetsk but said they had done so to save personnel.

Speaking to NBC News, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson of the Eastern Group of Ukrainian Armed Forces, said the withdrawal had taken place “in order to preserve the lives of the personnel, the Defense Forces moved away from Soledar and are now staying on previously prepared defense lines.”

Cherevatyi said the defenders of Soledar, where fighting has been intense for weeks, had performed a “real feat” holding their positions in the town and inflicting “huge losses” on Russia, given they were fighting Russian forces that that were up to five times larger.

—  Holly Ellyatt

Netherlands also prepared to supply battle tanks to Ukraine, PM says

Europe needs to do more to support Ukraine, according to the Dutch prime minister.

Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images

The Netherlands is prepared to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine if needed, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.

“If a contribution from the Netherlands helps, we are prepared to do so,” Rutte told Dutch broadcaster RTL.

Rutte said the Netherlands could opt to buy tanks it currently leases from Germany, and supply those to Ukraine.

— Reuters

Germany’s tank decision welcomed by allies

A Leopard 2 tank is seen during a visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to NATO’s new spearhead force “VJTF 2019” in Munster, Germany May 20, 2019. 

Fabian Bimmer | Reuters

Germany’s decision to offer a number of its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and to allow other countries with the same weaponry to send their own stocks to Kyiv, has been greeted positively.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hailed the move as a “big step.” Poland had already sent a request to Germany on Tuesday asking if it could send 14 of its own German-made Leopards to Ukraine before Berlin’s announcement.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner wrote on Twitter that battle tanks for Ukraine would strengthen the country and said “it is an important step that the US participates alongside the #Leopard.”

Meanwhile, the vice president of the German Bundestag and Greens member, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, tweeted “the Leopard’s freed” and that “hopefully now it can quickly help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian attack and for the freedom of Ukraine and Europe.”

The U.K.’s defense secretary also said he was “delighted” at Germany’s decision.

There has been no official response from Ukraine’s president yet but Kyiv will be pleased with Germany’s decision as it paves the wave for other allies to send their own German-made tanks to Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, simply tweeted a leopard emoji.

— Holly Ellyatt

Germany announces it will send 14 of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech in front of a Leopard 2 tank during a visit to a military base of the German army Bundeswehr in Bergen, Germany, October 17, 2022. 

Fabian Bimmer | Reuters

Germany has announced that it is ready to send 14 of its own tanks to Ukraine and to allow others to do so, in an U-turn from its previous position.

Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Wednesday that Germany will provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 tanks out of its own Bundeswehr (German armed forces) stocks.

Here is the statement from the Germany government, translated by NBC News:

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in the cabinet on Wednesday that Germany will continue to increase military support for Ukraine. The federal government has decided to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with Leopard 2 main battle tanks. This is the result of intensive consultations that took place with Germany’s closest European and international partners.

“This decision follows our well-known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our ability. We are acting in a closely coordinated manner internationally,” said the Chancellor in Berlin.

The goal is to quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine. As a first step, Germany will provide a company with 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from Bundeswehr stocks. Other European partners will also hand over Leopard-2 tanks. The training of the Ukrainian units is to begin quickly in Germany. In addition to training, the package will also include logistics, ammunition and system maintenance.

Germany will issue the appropriate transfer permits to partner countries that want to quickly deliver Leopard 2 tanks from their stocks to Ukraine.

— Holly Ellyatt

Relentless Russian shelling of Ukraine continues as tanks are in focus

Ukrainian soldiers are seen on their ways to frontlines with their armoured military vehicles as the strikes continue on the Donbas frontline.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

While international news headlines are focusing on the issue of tanks for Kyiv, the country continues to experience missile strikes on the north, northeast, east and south.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported Wednesday that Russian forces had launched four missile and 26 air strikes over the past 24 hours and more than 100 strikes using multiple launch rocket systems, an update noted.

There had been “multiple attacks” by Russia in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, the updated noted.

“The threat of Russian air and missile attacks remains high across Ukraine,” the update said, adding that “despite numerous losses, Russia does not cease attempts to advance on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka axes. However, the enemy stays on the defensive on Kup’yans’k, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson axes.”

Other regional officials reported shelling in Kherson city and the rest of the southern region, with Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of the Kherson regional military administration reporting on Telegram that the region was shelled 52 times yesterday, and that shells had hit a maternity hospital, school, polyclinic, seaport and residential building, leaving one civilian dead and six others injured.

In Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, the Head of the Regional Military Administration Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram a number of settlements have been shelled overnight and early Wednesday morning, causing damage to residential and industrial areas and injuring two people.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said Wednesday that the northern border regions of Sumy and Chernihiv had been shelled the previous day.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.

— Holly Ellyatt

U.S. tanks for Ukraine would be seen as a ‘blatant provocation,’ Russian official says

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov speaks during a discussion about the legacy of Anatoly Dobrynin on Nov. 18, 2019, in Washington, DC.

Mark Wilson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A top Russian official has said that any delivery of American tanks to Ukraine would be seen as “another blatant provocation” by the West.

“If the United States decides to supply tanks, it will be impossible to justify such step using arguments about ‘defensive weapons’,” Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Telegram Wednesday.

“This would be another blatant provocation against the Russian Federation. No one should have illusions about who is the real aggressor in the current conflict,” he claimed.

The U.S. is expected to announce soon that it will send a number of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, with Germany expected to say Wednesday that it is ready to send Leopard 2 tanks. The decision to send tanks comes after months of requests from Kyiv, and as Russia is expected to launch new offensives in Ukraine in spring.

The Russian ambassador to the U.S. is a vocal critic of the West, claiming that “Washington is deliberately trying to inflict strategic defeat on us.” He said American tanks would be “destroyed as all other samples of NATO military equipment.”

Ukraine’s NATO allies have supported Ukraine throughout the war with billions of dollars’ worth of military and financial aid, fearing that a victory for Russia in Ukraine could only spur on Moscow’s apparently expansionist aims in other former Soviet republics like Georgia and Moldova.

— Holly Ellyatt

Missing British aid workers confirmed to have died in Ukraine

Two British aid workers have died in Ukraine as they attempted to evacute civilians from a fighting hot spot in eastern Ukraine.

Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, were reported missing on Jan. 7. They were last seen heading to the town of Soledar in Donetsk that was under intense attack by Russian forces and later captured.

A statement issued by Parry’s family Tuesday confirmed their deaths, saying the men had been killed “whilst attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar, eastern Ukraine.” A statement issued by Bagshaw’s family, and reported by Sky News, said the pair’s car was hit by an artillery shell while they were attempting to rescue an elderly woman. Both families praised the men’s bravery and selflessness.

Destroyed buildings in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Nov. 20, 2022.

Diego Herrera Carcedo/ | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Concerns over the men’s safety were raised after the Russian private military company known as the Wagner Group said soon after the pair went missing that it had found the body of one of the aid workers and showed images of the men’s British passports on the messaging app Telegram.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia is ‘preparing for a new wave of aggression,’ Zelenskyy says

Soldiers prepare to head out near the Bakhmut front lines with Russia on Jan. 22, 2023 in Chasov Yar, Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its offensive in the Donetsk region in the new year, with the region’s Kyiv-appointed governor accusing Russia of using scorched-earth tactics.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russia is preparing for new offensives in Ukraine, with increased activity already seen in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

“Russia is preparing for a new wave of aggression – with the forces it can mobilize,” Zelenskyy warned in his nightly address. 

“Now the occupiers are already increasing the pressure around Bakhmut and Vuhledar and other directions. And they want to increase the pressure on a larger scale,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia wants to “throw more of their people and equipment into combat operations.”

There has been intense fighting around Bakhmut in Donetsk for months. Capturing the town is a strategic goal for Russian forces wanting to seize the entire Donetsk region and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up the Donbas. Russian forces have claimed several tactical advances in Donetsk in recent weeks, including the capture of Soledar.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine says it needs a decision on tanks

After more indecision from Ukraine’s allies regarding the delivery of tanks to Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that allies need to decide on whether they will deliver modern battle tanks to Ukraine.

“There is a lot of talk about tanks. About the modern tanks that we need. And about how this deficit can be filled. A lot of efforts, words, promises,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday.

“But it is important to see the reality: it is not about five, or ten, or fifteen tanks. The need is greater. We are doing what is necessary every day to fill the deficit … However, discussions must be concluded with decisions. Decisions on real strengthening of our defense against terrorists,” as Ukraine labels Russia’s leadership.

“Allies have the required number of tanks. When the weight of decisions is necessary, we will be happy to thank you for each weighty decision,” he said.

Boris Pistorius (right) German defense minister, and Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general, give a press conference at the German Defense Ministry after a joint meeting on Jan. 24, 2023.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Germany’s defense minister said Tuesday morning that the country’s position had not changed regarding the sending of German-made tanks to Ukraine, but by the evening there were reports suggesting a U-turn in Berlin, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz expected to make a formal announcement Wednesday. In the U.S. too, reports suggested Washington was also ready to send M1 Abrams tanks.

Whether the number of tanks that are provided is enough is another matter, however. Ukraine previously said it needs hundreds of tanks to stave off Russia’s ongoing invasion “not 10-20,” as one presidential advisor said earlier this week.

— Holly Ellyatt

Biden administration preparing to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine, officials tell NBC News

U.S. soldiers fire from an M1 Abrams main battle tank.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The Biden administration is preparing to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine, three senior U.S. officials tell NBC News.

The decision to equip Kyiv with the weapons platform could come as early as Wednesday, the officials said, adding that the exact number of tanks in the administration’s latest security package was still under deliberation.

What’s more, the mighty M1A1 tanks will not be available to the Ukrainians for several months due to the colossal logistics and training requirements.

Read the full story from NBC News here.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. reiterates support for Finland, Sweden joining NATO

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a news conference in Washington, U.S. March 10, 2022.

Manuel Balce Ceneta | Reuters

The Biden administration reiterated its support for both Finland and Sweden joining NATO at the earliest opportunity, after Helsinki said a pause was needed in trilateral talks with Turkey on the Nordic countries’ application to join the military alliance.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price was repeatedly asked at a news briefing whether Washington would support Finland’s possible accession without Sweden, but declined to comment on what he called a “hypothetical” and not a “live question right now.”

“This has always been a discussion about Finland and Sweden… (about) moving from an alliance of 28 to an alliance of 30. That’s what we want to see happen,” Price said, adding that Finland joining NATO separately “is just a question that we’re not entertaining.”

Turkey’s president said Sweden should not expect his country’s support after a protest near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm at the weekend, which included the burning of a copy of the Koran.

— Reuters

Replacing weapons NATO allies sent to Ukraine could yield $21.7 billion in U.S. defense sales

Ukraine was already stocking up on U.S.-made Javelins before Russia invaded. Here a group of Ukrainian servicemen take a shipment of Javelins in early February, as Russia positioned troops on Ukraine’s border.

Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images

Replacing weapons and other equipment NATO countries sent to Ukraine could lead to nearly $22 billion in sales for the U.S. defense industry, according to a report from the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power also said that restoring the NATO allies’ arsenals could also lower the Pentagon’s cost of obtaining weapons.

“It would also enhance the quality of the weapons U.S. warfighters wield and strengthen U.S. defense industrial base capacity,” the authors of the report added.

— Amanda Macias

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