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Russian missile wrecks apartment block, killing 3, as EU leaders visit Kyiv

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  • Zelenskiy gives gloomy assessment on Russian offensive in east
  • Russian strike destroys apartment building; 4 dead – officials
  • Lavrov says Russia will respond to long-range rocket deliveries
  • European Commission chief in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s EU bid
  • Zelenskiy vows more anti-corruption measures

KYIV, Feb 2 (Reuters) – A Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing at least three people, police said, as top European Union officials arrived in Kyiv for talks seen as key to Ukraine’s pivot towards the West.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed more anti-corruption measures as authorities continued raids ahead of Friday’s EU meeting, reflecting his determination to show that Kyiv can be a reliable steward of billions of dollars in aid.

“We are here together to show that the EU stands by Ukraine as firmly as ever. And to deepen further our support and cooperation,” the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted as she arrived in Kyiv by train on Thursday.

Ukraine sees the meeting as important to its hopes of joining the bloc, a process likely to take years.

In his evening video address, Zelenskiy also gave another bleak assessment of the battlefield situation as Russian forces continued to make incremental gains in the east of the country as the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion looms on Feb. 24.

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In Kramatorsk, a Russian Iskander-K tactical missile struck at 9:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) on Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring 20 others, police said.

“At least eight apartment buildings were damaged. One of them was completely destroyed,” police said in a Facebook post.

“People may remain under the rubble.”

Kramatorsk is about 55 km (34 miles) northwest of Bakhmut, currently the main focus of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

‘TOUGHER’ ON EASTERN FRONT

Russia, determined to make progress before Ukraine gets newly promised Western battle tanks and armoured vehicles, has picked up momentum on the battlefield and announced advances north and south of Bakhmut, which has suffered persistent Russian bombardment for months.

“Definite increase has been noted in the offensive operations of the occupiers on the front in the east of our country. The situation has become tougher,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video broadcast.

“The enemy is trying to achieve at least something now to show that Russia has some chances on the anniversary of the invasion,” he added.

Bakhmut and 10 towns and villages around it came under Russian fire, the Ukrainian military said late on Wednesday.

Avdiivka, another major Russian target, the nearby town of Maryinka and some neighbouring settlements were also hit, the military added.

Russian forces are pushing from both the north and south to encircle Bakhmut, using their superior troop numbers to try to cut it off from re-supply and force the Ukrainians out, Ukrainian military analyst Yevhen Dikiy said.

“This for us is the most difficult scenario,” Dikiy told Espreso TV.

“The enemy is able to use its sole resource, which it has in excess, its men,” he said, describing a landscape to the northeast of Bakhmut “literally covered with corpses”.

Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow has taken huge losses around Bakhmut, sending in waves of poorly equipped troops, including thousands of convicts recruited from prisons as mercenaries.

A former commander of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway in January told Reuters he wanted to apologise for fighting in Ukraine and was speaking out to bring perpetrators of atrocities to justice.

“First of all, repeatedly, and again, I would like to apologise,” Andrei Medvedev, 26, said.

ROCKETS

Ukraine has secured pledges of weapons from the West offering new capabilities – the latest expected this week to include rockets from the United States that would nearly double the range of Ukrainian forces.

“We’re focused on providing Ukraine the capability that it needs to be effective in its upcoming anticipated counter- offensive in the spring,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a visit to the Philippines on Thursday.

The new weapons would put all of Russia’s supply lines in eastern Ukraine, as well as parts of Crimea, within range of Ukrainian forces.

Moscow says such rockets will escalate the conflict but not change its course.

“The greater the range of the weapons supplied to the Kyiv regime the more we will have to push them back from territories which are part of our country,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state TV on Thursday. Moscow claims to have annexed four Ukrainian provinces last year, as well as Crimea which it seized in 2014.

Russian forces are probing areas of weakness in Ukraine’s defences on the western edges of Luhansk region, its governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian TV on Thursday.

“The amount of shelling has increased, the number of attacks in the direction of Svatove-Kreminna has increased… They are piling up our positions with bodies,” Gaidai said.

Reuters could not confirm the battlefield reports.

President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine last February in a “special military operation” to “disarm” its neighbour. He now casts the campaign as a fight to defend Russia against an aggressive West. Ukraine and the West call it an illegal war to expand Russian territory.

Reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Himani Sarkar and Gareth Jones
Editing by Robert Birsel and Peter Graff

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Philippines grants U.S. greater access to bases amid China concerns

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  • Philippines, U.S. agree to add four locations under EDCA
  • Agreement comes amid tensions in South China Sea, over Taiwan
  • EDCA allows U.S. access to Philippine military bases

MANILA, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The Philippines has granted the United States expanded access to its military bases, their defence chiefs said on Thursday, amid mounting concern over China’s increasing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea and tensions over self-ruled Taiwan.

Washington would be given access to four more locations under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Philippines’ Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez said in a joint news conference.

Austin, who was in the Philippines for talks as Washington seeks to extend its security options in the country as part of efforts to deter any move by China against self-ruled Taiwan, described Manila’s decision as a “big deal” as he and his counterpart reaffirmed their commitment to bolstering their countries’ alliance.

“Our alliance makes both of our democracies more secure and helps uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Austin, whose visit follows U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s trip to the Philippines in November, which included a stop at Palawan in the South China Sea.

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“We discussed concrete actions to address destabilising activities in the waters surrounding the Philippines, including the West Philippine Sea, and we remain committed to strengthening our mutual capacities to resist armed attack,” Austin said.

“That’s just part of our efforts to modernize our alliance. And these efforts are especially important as People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.

The additional locations under the EDCA bring to nine the number of military bases the United States would have access to, and Washington had announced it was allocating more than $82 million toward infrastructure investments at the existing sites.

The EDCA allows U.S. access to Philippine military bases for joint training, pre-positioning of equipment and the building of facilities such as runways, fuel storage and military housing, but not a permanent presence.

Austin and Galvez did not say where the new locations would be. The former Philippine military chief had said the United States had requested access to bases on the northern land mass of Luzon, the closest part of the Philippines to Taiwan, and on the island of Palawan, facing the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila.

Outside the military headquarters, dozens of protesters opposed to the United States maintaining a military presence in the country chanted anti-U.S. slogans and called for the EDCA to be scrapped.

Before meeting his counterpart, Austin met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr at the presidential palace on Thursday, where he assured the Southeast Asian leader, “we stand ready to help you in any way we can”.

Ties between the United States and the Philippines, a former colony, were soured by predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s overtures towards China, his famous anti-U.S. rhetoric and threats to downgrade their military ties.

But Marcos has met with U.S. President Joe Biden twice since his landslide victory in the elections last year and reiterated he cannot see a future for his country without its longtime treaty ally.

“I have always said, it seems to me, the future of the Philippines and for that matter the Asia Pacific will always have to involve the United States,” Marcos told Austin.

Reporting by Karen Lema
Editing by Ed Davies and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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North Korea says U.S. drills have pushed situation to ‘extreme red-line’ -KCNA

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SEOUL, Feb 2 (Reuters) – North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have pushed the situation to an “extreme red-line” and threaten to turn the peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.”

The statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington pursues hostile policies.

“The military and political situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red-line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces,” an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in the statement.

In Washington, the White House rejected the North Korean statement and reiterated a willingness to meet with North Korean diplomats “at a time and place convenient for them.”

“We have made clear we have no hostile intent toward the DPRK and seek serious and sustained diplomacy to address the full range of issues of concern to both countries and the region,” said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.

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The North Korean statement cited a visit to Seoul this week by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. On Tuesday Austin and his South Korean counterpart vowed to expand military drills and deploy more “strategic assets,” such as aircraft carriers and long-range bombers, to counter North Korea’s weapons development and prevent a war.

“This is a vivid expression of the U.S. dangerous scenario which will result in turning the Korean peninsula into a huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone,” the North Korean statement said.

North Korea will respond to any military moves by the United States, and has strong counteraction strategies, including “the most overwhelming nuclear force” if necessary, the statement added.

More than 28,500 American troops are based in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

“We reject the notion that our joint exercises with partners in the region serve as any sort of provocation. These are routine exercises fully consistent with past practice,” the White House statement said.

Last year, North Korea conducted a record number of ballistic missile tests, which are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions. It was also observed reopening its shuttered nuclear weapons test site, raising expectations of a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

In New York, South Korea’s foreign minister, Park Jin, met with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday and called for the U.N.’s continued attention to North Korea’s recent provocations and efforts to implement sanctions on the reclusive regime.

Guterres said any resumption of nuclear testing by North Korea would deal a devastating blow to regional and international security, and reaffirmed support to build lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, according to Park’s office.

Park is on a four-day trip to the United States, which will include a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Friday.

On Wednesday the United States and South Korea carried out a joint air drill with American B-1B heavy bombers and F-22 stealth fighters, as well as F-35 jets from both countries, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

“The combined air drills this time show the U.S.’ will and capabilities to provide strong and credible extended deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi and Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bill Berkrot and Gerry Doyle

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

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  • Security services make sweeping raids before EU summit
  • Homes of billionaire, former interior minster searched
  • New U.S. weapons would nearly double Ukraine’s range
  • Ukrainian soldier says fighting Russian forces in Bakhmut

KYIV, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Security services searched the home of one of Ukraine’s most prominent billionaires on Wednesday, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.

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.

It came as Kyiv has secured huge pledges of weapons from the West in recent weeks offering new capabilities – the latest expected this week to include rockets from the United States that would nearly double the firing range of Ukrainian forces.

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.

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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.

“Every criminal who has the audacity to harm Ukraine, especially in the conditions of war, must clearly understand that we will put handcuffs on his hands,” Ukraine’s security service chief Vasyl Malyuk was quoted as saying on the SBU Telegram channel.

The prosecutor general’s office said the top management of Ukrtatnafta had been notified it was under suspicion, as were a former energy minister, a former deputy defence minister and other officials.

Kolomoiskiy, who faces a fraud case in the United States, has been at the centre of corruption allegations and court disputes for years that Western donors have said must be resolved for Kyiv to win aid.

Zelenskiy, who first came to fame as the star of a sitcom on Kolomoiskiy’s TV station, has long promised to rid Ukraine of so-called oligarchs, but had faced accusations that he was unable to move decisively against his former sponsor.

In an address overnight before the raids, he alluded to new anti-corruption measures in time for Friday’s summit, at which Ukraine is expected to seek firm steps towards joining the EU.

“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,” he said, promising to reveal the details soon.

LONGER RANGE MISSILES

Ukrainian forces which recaptured swathes of territory from Russian troops in the second half of 2022 have seen their advance stall since November. Kyiv says the key to regaining the initiative is securing advanced Western weaponry.

Two U.S. officials said a new $2 billion package of military aid to be announced as soon as this week would for the first time include Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), a new weapon designed by Boeing. (BA.N)

The cheap gliding missiles can strike targets more than 150 km (90 miles) away, a dramatic increase over the 80 km range of the rockets fired by HIMARS systems which changed the face of the war when Washington sent them last summer.

That would put all of the Russian-occupied territory on Ukraine’s mainland, as well as parts of the Crimea peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014, within range of Kyiv’s forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the arrival of longer range U.S. weapons would escalate the conflict.

Western countries pledged scores of advanced main battle tanks for the first time last week, a breakthrough in support aimed at giving Kyiv the capability to recapture occupied territory this year.

But the arrival of the new weapons is still months away, and in the meantime, Russia has gained momentum on the battlefield, announcing advances north and south of the city of Bakhmut, its main target for months.

Kyiv disputes many of those claims and Reuters could not independently verify the full situation, but the locations of reported fighting clearly indicate incremental Russian advances.

Troops were fighting building to building in Bakhmut for gains of barely 100 metres (yards) a night, and the city was coming under constant Russian shelling, a soldier in a Ukrainian unit of Belarusian volunteers told Reuters from inside the city.

Ukraine’s general staff said late on Tuesday its forces had come under fire in Bakhmut and the villages of Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka on its southern approaches.

South of Bakhmut, Russia has also launched a major new offensive this week on Vuhledar, a longstanding Ukrainian-held bastion at the junction of the southern and eastern front lines. Kyiv says its forces have so far held there.

PURGE

The infusion of Western military and financial aid creates new pressure on Zelenskiy to demonstrate his government can clean up Ukraine.

Last week, he purged more than a dozen senior officials following a series of scandals and graft allegations in the biggest shakeup of Ukraine’s leadership since the invasion.

Following Wednesday’s raids, the parliamentary leader of Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, wrote on Telegram: “The country will change during the war. If someone is not ready for change, then the state itself will come and help them change.”

Reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Peter Graff
Editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Australian nuclear body joins search for missing radioactive capsule

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MELBOURNE, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Australia’s nuclear safety agency said on Tuesday it had joined the hunt for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, sending a team with specialised car-mounted and portable detection equipment.

Authorities have now been on a week-long search for the capsule which is believed to have fallen from a truck that made a 1,400 km (870 mile) journey in Western Australia. The loss has triggered a radiation alert for large parts of the vast state.

The capsule, part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed, had been entrusted by Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) to a specialist contractor to transport. Rio apologised on Monday for the loss, which happened sometime in the past two weeks.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency said it was working with the Western Australian government to locate the capsule. It added that the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has also sent radiation services specialists as well as detection and imaging equipment.

The truck travelled from Rio’s Gudai-Darri mine, north of Newman, a small town in the remote Kimberley region, to a storage facility in the suburbs of Perth – a distance longer than the length of Great Britain.

State emergency officials on Tuesday issued a fresh alert to motorists along Australia’s longest highway to take care when approaching the search parties, as vehicles carrying the radiation detectors are travelling at slow speeds.

“It will take approximately five days to travel the original route, an estimated 1400kms, with crews travelling north and south along Great Northern Highway,” Department of Fire and Emergency Services Incident Controller Darryl Ray said in a statement late on Monday.

The gauge was picked up from the mine site on Jan. 12. When it was unpacked for inspection on Jan. 25, the gauge was found broken apart, with one of four mounting bolts missing and screws from the gauge also gone.

Authorities suspect vibrations from the truck caused the screws and the bolt to come loose, and the capsule fell out of the package and then out of a gap in the truck.

The silver capsule, 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm long, contains Caesium-137 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour.

People have been told to stay at least five metres (16.5 feet) away as exposure could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness, though driving past the capsule is believed to be relatively low risk, akin to taking an X-ray.

Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs

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Western allies differ over jets for Ukraine as Russia claims gains

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  • Biden says ‘no’ when asked about F-16s for Ukraine
  • Zelenskiy says Moscow seeks ‘big revenge’
  • Russian administrator claims foothold in Vuhledar
  • Kyiv could recapture ground when Western weapons arrive – group

KYIV, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s defence minister is expected in Paris on Tuesday to meet President Emmanuel Macron amid a debate among Kyiv’s allies over whether to provide fighter jets for its war against Russia, after U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out giving F-16s.

Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighters like F-16s after securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday.

Asked at the White House on Monday if the United States would provide F-16s, Biden told reporters: “No.”

But France and Poland appear to be willing to entertain any such request from Ukraine, with Macron telling reporters in The Hague on Monday that “by definition, nothing is excluded” when it comes to military assistance.

In remarks carried on French television before Biden spoke in Washington, Macron stressed any such move would depend on several factors including the need to avoid escalation and assurances that the aircraft would not “touch Russian soil.” He said Reznikov would also meet his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu in Paris on Tuesday.

In Poland on Monday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also did not rule out a possible supply of F-16s to neighbouring Ukraine, in response to a question from a reporter before Biden spoke.

Morawiecki said in remarks posted on his website that any such transfer would take place “in complete coordination” with NATO countries.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukraine president’s office, noted “positive signals” from Poland and said France “does not exclude” such a move in separate posts on his Telegram channel.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was in Japan on Tuesday where he thanked Tokyo for the “planes and the cargo capabilities” it is providing Ukraine. A day earlier in South Korea he urged Seoul to increase its military support to Ukraine.

Biden’s comment came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had begun exacting its revenge for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion with relentless attacks in the east, where it appeared to be making incremental gains.

Zelenskiy has warned for weeks that Moscow aims to step up its assault after about two months of virtual stalemate along the front line that stretches across the south and east.

Ukraine won a huge boost last week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue.

While there was no sign of a broader new Russian offensive, the administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, said Russian troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the outset of the war.

Pushilin said that despite “huge losses” Ukrainian forces were consolidating positions in industrial facilities.

‘BATTLE FOR EVERY METER’

Pushilin said Ukrainian forces were throwing reinforcements at Bakhmut, Maryinka and Vuhledar, towns running from north to south just west of Donetsk city. The Russian state news agency TASS quoted him as saying Russian forces were making advances there, but “not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter.”

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Ukraine still controlled Maryinka and Vuhledar, where Russian attacks were less intense on Monday.

Pushilin’s adviser, Yan Gagin, said fighters from Russian mercenary force Wagner had taken partial control of a supply road leading to Bakhmut, a city that has been Moscow’s focus for months.

A day earlier, the head of Wagner said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village just north of Bakhmut, although Kyiv said it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports. But the locations of the reported fighting indicated clear, though gradual, Russian gains.

In central Zaporizhzhia region and in southern Kherson region, Russian forces shelled more than 40 settlements, Ukraine’s General Staff said. Targets included the city of Kherson, where there were casualties.

The Russians also launched four rocket attacks on Ochakiv in southern Mykolaiv, the army said, on the day Zelenskiy met the Danish prime minister in Mykolaiv city, to the northeast.

WESTERN DELAYS

Zelenskiy is urging the West to hasten delivery of its promised weapons so Ukraine can go on the offensive, but most of the hundreds of tanks pledged by Western countries are months away from delivery.

British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said the 14 Challenger tanks donated by Britain would be on the front line around April or May, without giving an exact timetable.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Western countries supplying arms leads “to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so.”

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank said “the West’s failure to provide the necessary materiel” last year was the main reason Kyiv’s advances had halted since November.

The researchers said in a report that Ukraine could still recapture territory once the promised weapons arrive.

The Belarusian defence ministry said on Tuesday that Russia and Belarus had started a week-long session of staff training in preparation for joint drills in Russia in September.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow justifies as necessary to protect itself from its neighbour’s ties with the West, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Stephen Coates; Editing by Cynthia Osterman & Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Biden says no F-16s for Ukraine as Russia claims gains

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  • Russian administrator claims foothold in Vuhledar
  • Kyiv says Russian gains come at huge cost
  • Think-tank says delay in Western arms halted Ukraine’s advance

KYIV, Ukraine/WASHINGTON Jan 30 (Reuters) – The United States will not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its fight against Russia, President Joe Biden said on Monday, as Russian forces claimed a series of incremental gains in the country’s east.

Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister said on Friday. A Ukrainian air force spokesman said it would take its pilots about half a year to train on such fighter jets.

Asked if the United States would provide the jets, Biden told reporters at the White House, “No.”

The brief exchange came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia had begun exacting its revenge for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion with relentless attacks in the east.

Zelenskiy has warned for weeks that Moscow aims to step up its assault on Ukraine after about two months of virtual stalemate along the front line that stretches across the south and east.

Ukraine won a huge boost last week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue.

“The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets,” Yuriy Sak, who advises Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told Reuters on Friday.

While there was no sign of a broader new Russian offensive, the administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, said Russian troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the outset of the war.

Pushilin said Ukrainian forces were continuing to throw reinforcements at Bakhmut, Maryinka and Vuhledar, three towns running from north to south just west of Donetsk city. The Russian state news agency TASS quoted him as saying Russian forces were making advances there, but “not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter.”

Pushilin’s adviser, Yan Gagin, said fighters from Russian mercenary force Wagner had taken partial control of a supply road leading to Bakhmut, a city that has been Moscow’s main focus for months.

A day earlier, the head of Wagner said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village just north of Bakhmut.

Kyiv said it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne and Vuhledar, and Reuters could not independently verify the situations there. But the locations of the reported fighting indicated clear, though gradual, Russian gains.

Zelenskiy said Russian attacks in the east were relentless despite heavy casualties on the Russian side, casting the assaults as payback for Ukraine’s success in pushing Russian forces back from the capital, northeast and south earlier in the conflict.

[1/7] U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 140th Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard during NATO exercise Saber Strike flies over Amari military air base, Estonia June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

“I think that Russia really wants its big revenge. I think they have (already) started it,” Zelenskiy told reporters in the southern port city of Odesa.

Mykola Salamakha, a Ukrainian colonel and military analyst, told Ukrainian Radio NV that Moscow’s assault in Vuhledar was coming at huge cost.

“The town is on an upland and an extremely strong defensive hub has been created there,” he said. “This is a repetition of the situation in Bakhmut – one wave of Russian troops after another crushed by the Ukrainian armed forces.”

WESTERN DELAYS

The hundreds of modern tanks and armoured vehicles pledged to Ukraine by Western countries in recent weeks for a counteroffensive to recapture territory are months away from delivery.

This leaves Kyiv to fight through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.

Moscow’s Wagner mercenary force has sent thousands of convicts recruited from Russian prisons into battle around Bakhmut, buying time for Russia’s regular military to reconstitute units with hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Zelenskiy is urging the West to hasten delivery of its promised weapons so Ukraine can go on the offensive.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western countries supplying arms leads “to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so.”

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank said “the West’s failure to provide the necessary materiel” last year was the main reason Kyiv’s advances had halted since November.

That allowed Russia to apply pressure at Bakhmut and fortify the front against a future Ukrainian counter-attack, its researchers said in a report, though they said Ukraine could still recapture territory once the promised weapons arrive.

Zelenskiy met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday in Mykolaiv, a rare visit by a foreign leader close to the front. The city, where Russia’s advance in the south was halted, had been under relentless bombardment until Ukraine pushed the front line back in November.

Russia’s invasion, which it launched on Feb. 24 last year claiming it was necessary to protect itself from its neighbour’s ties with the West, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Kevin Liffey, Ronald Popeski and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff, Philippa Fletcher and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean and Cynthia Osterman

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Odds ‘very high’ of U.S. military conflict with China, top Republican says

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WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A top Republican in the U.S. Congress on Sunday said the odds of conflict with China over Taiwan “are very high,” after a U.S. general caused consternation with a memo that warned that the United States would fight China in the next two years.

In a memo dated Feb. 1 but released on Friday, General Mike Minihan, who heads the Air Mobility Command, wrote to the leadership of its roughly 110,000 members, saying, “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.”

“I hope he is wrong. … I think he is right though,” Mike McCaul, the new chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, told Fox News Sunday.

The general’s views do not represent the Pentagon but show concern at the highest levels of the U.S. military over a possible attempt by China to exert control over Taiwan, which China claims as a wayward province.

Both the United States and Taiwan will hold presidential elections in 2024, potentially creating an opportunity for China to take military action, Minihan wrote.

McCaul said that if China failed to take control of Taiwan bloodlessly then “they are going to look at a military invasion in my judgment. We have to be prepared for this.”

He accused the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden of projecting weakness after the bungled pullout from Afghanistan that could make war with China more likely.

“The odds are very high that we could see a conflict with China and Taiwan and the Indo Pacific,” McCaul said.

The White House declined to comment on McCaul’s remarks.

DEMOCRAT DISAGREES

Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he disagreed with Minihan’s assessment.

Smith told Fox News Sunday that war with China is “not only not inevitable, it is highly unlikely. We have a very dangerous situation in China. But I think generals need to be very cautious about saying we’re going to war, it’s inevitable.”

Smith said the United States needs to be in a position to deter China from military action against Taiwan, “but I’m fully confident we can avoid that conflict if we take the right approach.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month said he seriously doubted that ramped-up Chinese military activities near the Taiwan Strait were a sign of an imminent invasion of the island by Beijing.

A Pentagon official on Saturday said the general’s comments were “not representative of the department’s view on China.”

Reporting By Ross Colvin; Additional reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Mark Porter

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Rheinmetall eyes boost in munitions output, HIMARS production in Germany

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DUESSELDORF, Jan 29 (Reuters) – German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost the output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters.

He spoke days before Germany’s defence industry bosses are due to meet new defence minister Boris Pistorius for the first time, though the exact date has yet to be announced.

With the meeting, Pistorius aims to kick off talks on how to speed up weapons procurement and boost ammunitions supplies in the long term after almost a year of arms donations to Ukraine has depleted the German military’s stocks.

Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) makes a range of defence products but is probably most famous for manufacturing the 120mm gun of the Leopard 2 tank.

“We can produce 240,000 rounds of tank ammunition (120mm) per year, which is more than the entire world needs,” Papperger said in an interview with Reuters.

The capacity for the production of 155mm artillery rounds can be ramped up to 450,000 to 500,000 per year, he added, which would make Rheinmetall the biggest producer for both kinds of ammunition.

In 2022, Rheinmetall made some 60,000 to 70,000 rounds each of tank and artillery shells, according to Papperger, who said production could be boosted immediately.

Demand for these munitions has soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, not only due to their massive use on the battlefield but also as Western militaries backfill their own stocks, bracing for what they see as a heightened threat from Moscow.

Papperger said a new production line for medium calibre ammunition, used by German-built Gepard anti-aircraft tanks in Ukraine for example, would go live by mid-year.

Germany has been trying for months to find new munitions for the Gepard that its own military had decomissioned in 2010.

HIMARS PRODUCTION LINE IN GERMANY?

At the same time, Rheinmetall is in talks with Lockheed Martin(LMT.N), the U.S. company manufacturing the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers in heavy use with Ukrainian troops, Papperger said.

“At the Munich Security Conference, we aim to strike an agreement with Lockheed Martin to kick off a HIMARS production (in Germany),” he said, referring to an annual gathering of political and defence leaders in mid-February.

“We have the technology for the production of the warheads as well as for the rocket motors – and we have the trucks to mount the launchers upon,” Papperger said, adding a deal may prompt investments of several hundred million euros of which Rheinmetall would finance a major part.

Rheinmetall also eyes the operation of a new powder plant, possibly in the eastern German state of Saxony, but the investment of 700 to 800 million euros would have to be footed by the government in Berlin, he said.

“The state has to invest, and we contribute our technological know-how. In return, the state gets a share of the plant and the profits it makes,” Papperger suggested.

“This is an investment that is not feasible for the industry on its own. It is an investment into national security, and therefore we need the federal state,” he said.

The plant is needed as shortages in the production of special powders could turn out to be a bottleneck, hampering efforts to boost the output of tank and artillery shells, he noted.

A few days before the meeting with the new defence minister, Papperger pushed for an increase of Germany’s defence budget.

“The 51 billion euros in the defence budget will not suffice to purchase everything that is needed. And the money in the 100 billion euro special funds has already been earmarked – and partially been eaten up by inflation,” he said.

“100 billion euros sounds like a giant sum but we would actually need a 300 billion euro package to order everything that’s needed,” he added, noting that the 100 billion special fund does not include ammunitions purchases.

Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany was 20 billion euros short of reaching NATO’s target for ammunitions stockpiling, according to a defence source.

To plug the munitions gap alone, Papperger estimates the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) would need to invest three to four billion euros per year.

In the talks with the minister, the defence boss hopes for a turn towards a more sustainable long-term planning in German procurement, stretching several years into the future, as the industry needed to be able to make its arrangements in time.

“What we are doing at the moment is actually war stocking: Last year, we prefinanced 600 to 700 million euros for goods,” Papperger said. “We must move away from this crisis management – it is crisis management when you buy (raw materials and other things) without having a contract – and get into a regular routine.”

Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Angus MacSwan

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World

Iran thwarts drone attack on military site – state media

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DUBAI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A loud explosion at a military plant in Iran’s central city of Isfahan was caused by an “unsuccessful” drone attack, Iranian state media reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry.

“One of (the drones) was hit by the … air defence and the other two were caught in defence traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop’s roof,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA.

Iranian news agencies earlier reported the loud blast and carried a video showing a flash of light at the plant, said to be an ammunitions factory, and footage of emergency vehicles and fire trucks outside the plant.

In July, Iran said it had arrested a sabotage team made up of Kurdish militants working for Israel who planned to blow up a “sensitive” defence industry centre in Isfahan.

The announcement came amid heightening tensions with arch-enemy Israel over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel says Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this.

“(The attack) has not affected our installations and mission…and such blind measures will not have an impact on the continuation of the country’s progress,” the defence ministry statement said.

There have been a number of explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities in the past few years.

In 2021, Iran accused Israel of sabotaging its key Natanz nuclear site and vowed revenge for an attack that appeared to be the latest episode in a long-running covert war.

The blasts at sensitive Iranian sites have at times caused concern amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme with Israel and the United States.

Israel has long threatened military action against Iran if indirect talks between Washington and Tehran fail to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact.

Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Cynthia Osterman and Josie Kao

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