Russia-Ukraine war live: UK to accelerate support for Ukraine as Sunak says ‘prolonged stalemate’ would only benefit Russia
UK accelerating support for Ukraine because ‘prolonged stalemate would only benefit Russia’
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, supports accelerating support for Ukraine after completing a review that a “prolonged stalemate” in the conflict would benefit Russia.
In a statement after today’s Cabinet meeting, reported by PA media, a No 10 spokesperson said:
He said since becoming prime minister he had reviewed the UK’s approach and concluded that a prolonged stalemate in the conflict would only benefit Russia. Which was why he had decided there was an opportunity to accelerate UK support working closely with our allies to give Ukraine the best chance of success and make the most of the window of opportunity where Russian forces were on the back foot. He said the new strategy would also see greater diplomatic efforts and planning work with the Ukrainian on how to rebuild once the conflict had ended.
The spokesperson also said it would not be “practical” for the UK to send its fighter jets to Ukraine, as Kyiv campaigns to obtain the jets to build up a fighting force to break through the Russian lines in the spring.
They said:
The UK’s Typhoon and F35 fighter jets are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly, given that we believe it is not practical to send those jets into Ukraine.
They added:
It is the length of time it takes to learn how to use what are very complex pieces of equipment that is the limiting factor in this case but we will explore what more we can do to support Ukraine.
The UK will “continue to discuss with our allies about what we think what is the right approach”, they added.
Key events
The former UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is in Washington this week to meet with Republican lawmakers as he presses the US to sustain support to Ukraine.
Johnson is scheduled to speak at a private Republican club on Tuesday evening and to meet with a group of Republican senators, Reuters reported, citing US lawmakers.
He will discuss the need for “western unity and support for Ukraine and what more can be done against the threat Russia poses” at the Atlantic Council thinktank on Wednesday.
In an opinion piece for the Washington Post published yesterday, Johnson called on Ukrainians to be “given everything they need to finish this war, as quickly as possible” and for its admission to the Nato alliance.
Johnson wrote:
If we had been brave and consistent enough to bring Ukraine into Nato — if we had actually meant what we said — then this utter catastrophe would have been averted.
UK accelerating support for Ukraine because ‘prolonged stalemate would only benefit Russia’
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, supports accelerating support for Ukraine after completing a review that a “prolonged stalemate” in the conflict would benefit Russia.
In a statement after today’s Cabinet meeting, reported by PA media, a No 10 spokesperson said:
He said since becoming prime minister he had reviewed the UK’s approach and concluded that a prolonged stalemate in the conflict would only benefit Russia. Which was why he had decided there was an opportunity to accelerate UK support working closely with our allies to give Ukraine the best chance of success and make the most of the window of opportunity where Russian forces were on the back foot. He said the new strategy would also see greater diplomatic efforts and planning work with the Ukrainian on how to rebuild once the conflict had ended.
The spokesperson also said it would not be “practical” for the UK to send its fighter jets to Ukraine, as Kyiv campaigns to obtain the jets to build up a fighting force to break through the Russian lines in the spring.
They said:
The UK’s Typhoon and F35 fighter jets are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly, given that we believe it is not practical to send those jets into Ukraine.
They added:
It is the length of time it takes to learn how to use what are very complex pieces of equipment that is the limiting factor in this case but we will explore what more we can do to support Ukraine.
The UK will “continue to discuss with our allies about what we think what is the right approach”, they added.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, and the US’s new ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, held a meeting today where they discussed arms control issues, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
The pair “discussed some pressing issues of arms control at the meeting”, it said.
This was Ryabkov’s second meeting with Tracy since she assumed the position of US ambassador to Moscow, the state-run Tass news agency reported. The pair also met yesterday when Tracy entered the foreign ministry to present copies of her diplomatic credentials.
The Russian state-owned Ria Novosti news agency reported that Ryabkov told Tracy on Monday that he expected her to follow the principle of not interfering in Russia’s internal affairs.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it rejects “defamatory statements” by Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who accused the committee of being a “promoter of war, murder and destruction” after the committee said it would consider ways for Russian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The IOC was offering Russia “a platform to promote genocide & encourages their further killings”, Podolyak posted to Twitter on Monday.
#IOC is a promoter of war, murder & destruction. The IOC watches with pleasure RF destroying 🇺🇦 & then offers 🇷🇺 a platform to promote genocide & encourages their further killings.
Obviously ru-money that buys Olympic hypocrisy doesn’t have a smell of 🇺🇦 blood. Right, Mr. #Bach?— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) January 30, 2023
His remarks came after the IOC said it was continuing to work on a pathway which would enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, a move that has been criticised by the British government.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said allowing Russia to compete at the 2024 Paris Games was tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”, adding:
As if you could shut your eyes to what Russia is doing in Kherson, Kharkiv, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
Responding to Podolyak’s tweet, an IOC spokesperson said:
The IOC rejects in the strongest possible terms this and other defamatory statements. They cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion.
Russia preparing for ‘imminent’ offensive in Ukraine, says thinktank
Russian forces are preparing for a renewed attack on Ukraine imminently, with the most likely course of action being an offensive in the coming months, according to analysts.
Citing western, Ukrainian and Russian sources, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War writes that Moscow is “preparing for an imminent offensive”.
In its latest update posted last night, it points to remarks by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said there were “no signs” that Vladimir Putin was “preparing for peace”.
Speaking in South Korea on Monday, Stoltenberg said:
We see the opposite. We see that [the Russians] are preparing for more war, that they are mobilising more soldiers, more than 200,000, and potentially even more than that. That they are actively acquiring new weapons, more ammunition, ramping up their own production, but also acquiring more weapons from other authoritarian states like Iran and North Korea.
The ISW also notes that a Ukrainian military chief, Ivan Tymochko, stated that Russian forces were strengthening their grouping in Donbas as part of an anticipated offensive. It also cited him as saying that Russian forces would need to launch an offensive due to increasing domestic pressure for victory.
The update continues:
Stoltenberg’s and Tymochko’s statements support ISW’s previous forecast that Russian forces are setting conditions to launch an offensive effort, likely in Luhansk oblast, in the coming months.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Summary of the day so far …
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The United States would not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine was seeking 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.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser has suggested Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with the F-16 fighters. Andriy Yermak said Ukraine had received “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram posting, although Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies.
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Russian forces continued attacks on positions across the frontline near the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk. Moscow’s troops have been pounding Bakhmut in the Donbas for several months, but in recent days the invaders appeared to have opened up a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vuhledar, 30 miles south-west of Donetsk city.
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The situation in Bakhmut and Vuhledar was “very tough”, with both areas and other parts of the Donetsk region “under constant Russian attacks”, Zelenskiy said.
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Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Japan’s premier Fumio Kishida pledged on Tuesday to strengthen ties, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its growing military cooperation with China had created the most tense security environment since the second world war.
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A Russian court has fined the streaming service Twitch 4m roubles (£46,200/$57,000) for failing to remove what it said were “fakes” about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Dmitry Medvedev, a longtime ally of Vladimir Putin and deputy chair of the security council of Russia, has boasted that sanctions are having little effect on the Russian economy.
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Ukraine’s foreign ministry criticised the president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, for saying Crimea would never return to Ukrainian control, describing his comment as “unacceptable”. On Monday, in remarks detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Milanović said it was “clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine”.
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Russia and Belarus have started a week-long session of staff training for the joint command of their regional grouping of forces, the Belarusian defence ministry has said.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back with you later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here with you shortly to continue our live coverage.
Dmitry Medvedev, a longtime ally of Vladimir Putin and deputy chair of the security council of Russia, has boasted that sanctions are having little effect on the Russian economy. On Telegram he wrote:
Enemy countries do not have the courage to admit that their “hellish” sanctions have failed miserably. Do not work. The vast majority of industrial products and consumer goods were replaced by our own, Russian, and the missing ones – by Asian brands. Parallel imports also work, from which we get the same western brands, and their owners get nothing. So everything is as always: the Americans make money on a humiliated Europe. Crushed Europe endures and loses money. At the same time, even the IMF predicts economic growth in Russia this year.
Medvedev went on to say that Russia would continue to use western intellectual property “without any licences and payment of royalties … for everything from movies to industrial software”.
He then offered praise to those who have pirated software, writing “thanks to those who have developed various programs for the unlicensed use of their expensive intellectual products” and deployed an animated laughing troll emoji as part of the message.
Medvedev has previously been both president and prime minister of Russia.
Here are some of the latest images to have been sent to us over the news wires from Ukraine.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on Telegram that its correspondents in Kherson have again heard explosions.
The Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Japanese premier Fumio Kishida pledged on Tuesday to strengthen ties, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its growing military cooperation with China had created the most tense security environment since the second world war.
The comments came in a statement issued during Stoltenberg’s trip to Japan after a visit to South Korea on which he urged Seoul to increase military support to Ukraine and gave similar warnings about rising tension with China.
“The world is at a historical inflection point in the most severe and complex security environment since the end of the second world war,” the two leaders said in the statement.
It also raised concerns about Russia’s nuclear threats, joint military drills between Russia and China near Japan, and North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.
Stoltenberg told reporters a Russian victory in Ukraine would embolden China at a time when it was building up its military, “bullying its neighbours and threatening Taiwan”.
Reuters reports he added: “This war is not just a European crisis, but the challenge to the world order.”
A Russian court has fined the streaming service Twitch 4m roubles (£46,200/$57,000) for failing to remove what it said were “fakes” about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reports.
Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
Moscow has long objected to foreign tech platforms’ distribution of content that it deems to fall foul of its restrictions, with Russian courts regularly imposing penalties.
Reuters has a quick snap that Germany’s energy regulator has said the country has sufficient gas supplies for this winter, but must start preparing for the winter of 2023-24.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry criticised the Croatian president, Zoran Milanović, on Tuesday for saying Crimea would never return to Ukrainian control, describing his comment as “unacceptable”.
In remarks last night detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv, Milanović said it was “clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine”. [See 7.20 GMT]
“We consider as unacceptable the statements of the president of Croatia, who effectively cast doubt on the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Reuters reports Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.
The leader of the We Are Together with Russia group in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, has posted to Telegram to claim that last night pro-Russian forces repulsed an attempt by Ukrainian forces to break through in the region. He wrote:
Zaporizhzhia front: a night attempt to break through the special group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Our scouts, using a Mavic quadcopter with a thermal imager, detected the movement of Ukrainian special forces on the front line at night.
The enemy group was promptly hit by artillery. Only one enemy saboteur got up and fled after being covered by an automatic grenade launcher.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said that President Vladimir Putin spoke with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a telephone call.
In a readout of the call, the foreign ministry stated: “Further development of bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic and energy sectors, as well as cooperation within the Opec Plus group to provide the stability of global oil market were discussed.”
