Fierce fighting continues to rage in many places in Ukraine.
Apparently there are drone attacks in Crimea.
The news ticker.
Ukraine
warns of Kremlin's
"Plan B"
: Russia could seek a division of Ukraine
Losses for
Russia
: Moscow may have misjudged the situation at the front
This
news ticker
on
military events in the Ukraine war
is constantly updated.
Update from Friday, February 17, 11:40 a.m.:
Crimea could again be targeted by the Ukrainian armed forces because of the weakened Russian military.
According to reports, there was a drone attack on the Crimean port city of Sevastopol on Thursday morning, as the pro-Russian governor Mikhail Rasvozhayev announced on Telegram.
However, he did not expressly blame Ukraine.
He wrote that two UAVs "were shot down over the sea" and that "our defense forces continue to repel the attack."
He added that "several" other drones had been shot down.
Aside from road closures and a temporary suspension of ferry services, "everything is quiet in the city," he said.
Telegram channel
Crimean Wind
reported that "around 5 a.m. several explosions were heard over the areas where Russian military units are located".
The strongest explosion is said to have occurred at around 6:15 a.m.
News about the Ukraine war: Russia attacks Bakhmut - several civilians killed
Update from Friday, February 17, 10:30 a.m .:
Several people were apparently killed or injured by Russian attacks in the Donetsk region.
This is reported by the head of the military administration of the region Pavlo Kyrylenko on Telegram.
The Russian army killed "five residents in Bakhmut, and injured ten other people in the oblast," wrote Kyrylenko.
Yesterday, Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk called on the last 6,000 residents of Bakhmut to leave the city as soon as possible.
On Thursday, Russia also shelled the cities of Mariupol and Volnowacha, among others.
According to Kyrylenko, however, it is currently impossible to give an exact number of victims.
Tanks, drones, anti-aircraft defenses: weapons for Ukraine
Tanks, drones, anti-aircraft defenses: weapons for Ukraine
Update from February 17, 8:14 a.m .
: Russia launched a new wave of attacks against Ukraine during the night, reports the Ukrainian military.
According to the Kyiv Independent,
there were
more than 24 aerial attacks and 50 other blows.
War in Ukraine main topic at Siko in Munich
Update from February 17, 7.49 a.m .
: The Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyj opened the Munich Security Conference (Siko) today (February 17) with a video speech.
Then Scholz and Macron talk.
The conference will focus on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which began a year ago.
Update from February 16, 8:10 p.m .:
According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak, the Russian military “definitely changed its tactics” in the attacks on major Ukrainian cities.
As the 50-year-old reported to the AP news agency, Moscow is increasingly relying on the use of missiles without explosive devices and balloons to trick Ukraine's air defenses.
"They want to overload our anti-aircraft defense system to get an additional chance of hitting infrastructure," Podoliak said.
The presidential adviser cited an increasing shortage of missiles within the Russian military as the reason for this change of pace.
Moscow would now launch older Soviet-era missiles along with "new missiles that have some value."
News about the Ukraine war: Lukashenko makes it clear - in this case Belarus would enter the war
Update from February 16, 5:30 p.m .:
Belarus President and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko has stated conditions when the Belarusian army would support Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in the war.
In the event of a direct attack on Belarus, Belarus would go to war alongside Russia.
The answer will then be “the most brutal.
And the war will take on a completely different character,” the Belarusian news agency
belta
quoted Lukashenko as saying.
This applies not only to Ukraine, but also to neighboring countries, according to Lukashenko.
Ukraine-News: Ukraine warns of Russian “Plan B”
Update from February 16, 3:25 p.m .:
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, warned in the
BBC
interview of a “Plan B” by the Kremlin in the wake of the failed conquest of all of Ukraine.
The pro-Russian politician and Putin confidante Viktor Medvedchuk proposed the plan.
Russia now wants to move on to another option and split up Ukraine along the lines of North and South Korea, Danilov said.
Ukraine-News: Moscow probably “misjudged” the position of the front
Update from February 16, 1:57 p.m .
: Up to 80 percent of some Russian attack units are said to have already fallen in the Ukraine war.
According to the
Interfax-Ukraine
news agency , Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said the evacuation of the dead and wounded was “limited or non-existent”.
Moscow's armed forces would suffer heavy casualties in eastern Ukraine on a daily basis.
“More and more Russian fighters are realizing that their commanders are misjudging the situation on the front lines.
The proof of this are the numerous so-called 'Suicide Squads', ie poorly trained and equipped units, which are recording particularly high losses,”
Interfax-Ukraine
quoted Maljar as saying.
Ukraine-News: Russia drives night attack wave
Update from February 16, 11:15 a.m
.: Putin's military fired 36 rockets and cruise missiles at Ukraine during the night.
"Unfortunately, there were hits in the north, west and in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions," said the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, on Telegram.
The Russian military have changed their tactics and are also using dummies to mislead the air defense.
The Ukrainian army command informed about 16 intercepted missiles.
The Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, also said that Kiev expects a massive rocket attack on Thursday or Friday next week.
On Thursday, Russia marks the so-called Defender of the Fatherland Day.
Friday marks the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Update from February 16, 9:09 a.m
.: Russia can hardly rely on its air force in its attack on Ukraine, British secret services estimate.
The Ministry of Defense in London has now announced that Russian fighter jets have recently flown more attacks again.
However, they could not perform their actual key role because they would be deployed almost exclusively over Russian-controlled territory, it said.
The reason is, on the one hand, the functioning Ukrainian air defense system, and the fighter jets were also scattered over several bases because of the danger of Ukrainian attacks on Russian airfields.
With an estimated 1,500 military aircraft, the Russian Air Force is largely intact despite the loss of around 130 aircraft since the beginning of the war.
However, an extension of the air war is unlikely under the current circumstances, it was said from London.
This would result in "unsustainable aircraft losses".
"Overall, the Russian Air Force continues to perform poorly in the war," it said.
Ukraine-News: Selenskyj sees his country in a decisive battle phase
Update from February 16, 8:46 a.m .:
With a view to the expected new weapons aid, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees his country in a crucial phase.
"We have to shape the spring in such a way that it is really noticeable that Ukraine is moving towards victory," Zelenskyy said in his evening video message on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy referred to Russia's massive losses in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army must use this phase for military successes, he explained: "Our task is to ensure that there (in Russia) there is less and less effort to keep Ukrainian territories occupied."
Ukraine-News: Six suspected spy balloons over Kiev
Update from February 15, 5 p.m.:
According to Ukraine, six suspected Russian balloons have been sighted over Kiev.
Most of them were shot down by the air force, the military administration in Kiev said on Telegram.
The balloons could have carried radar reflectors or spy equipment.
"According to information that is now being clarified, they were balloons that move in the air under the propulsion of the wind," it said.
"The purpose of launching the balloons may have been to detect and exhaust our air defenses."
Update February 15, 4:45 p.m.:
The Russian military commissariats, together with the management of educational institutions, are urging students to sign their consent to early draft for the Russian army.
Instead of in the summer, after completing their studies, the students are to be drafted in April, reports pravda.com.
Students can take exams early if they sign these declarations, it said.
Ukraine-News: After Wagner, Russia is also recruiting prisoners
Update from February 15, 3:05 p.m
.: Hundreds of children have died in one year because of the war in Ukraine.
Between February 2022 and January 2023, at least 438 children were killed and 842 injured in acts of war, the children's charity Unicef said.
Scattered unexploded ordnance and landmines would also put children at risk.
"We must not allow the children and young people in Ukraine to become a lost generation," said Unicef Chairman Georg Graf Waldersee, according to the statement.
The organization has expanded its aid in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
Update from February 15, 11:40 a.m .:
US military experts believe it is possible that Russia’s Defense Ministry is now also recruiting prisoners to use them as “cannon fodder” in the Ukraine war.
The recruitment of prison inmates is a sign that the Kremlin may be planning so-called "human waves," writes the Institute for the Study on War.
This refers to a tactic in which large numbers of soldiers - often with little training - are used in an attack at the cost of heavy casualties.
Both the Ukrainian secret service and the US broadcaster CNN had previously reported that Russian prisoners were being recruited, similar to what Wagner's private mercenary army probably does.
Ukraine-News: Ukraine continues to defend Bakhmut - is it the right tactic?
Update from February 15, 10:57 a.m .:
Despite the difficult situation in Bakhmut, Ukraine’s strategy to continue defending the city in eastern Ukraine, which has been contested for months, is correct.
This is what the "Institute for the Study on War" (ISW) writes in a current analysis.
“Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut has forced the Kremlin to exhaust much of the Wagner group as a force,” the US think tank argues.
In addition, Russia must deploy high-quality air forces in order to make progress.
As a result, Russia is weakened - and that favors the conditions for a Ukrainian counter-offensive, according to the ISW.
The further defense of Bachmut and the preparation of a counter-offensive were therefore not mutually exclusive.
Western observers had previously called for a change of tactics in the matter of Bachmut.
US officials said it might make more sense to focus on a counteroffensive in the spring.
The Washington Post
quoted a senior government official
as saying that a Russian conquest of Bakhmut would not bring about "a significant strategic turnaround on the battlefield" .
Ukraine News: Secret service insiders warn of Putin's new fighter jet tactics
Update from February 15, 8:32 a.m
.: Russia is now probably pulling fighter jets together on the border with Ukraine.
This is reported by the
Financial Times
, citing two unnamed insiders with information from Western intelligence agencies.
At a meeting of the Ukraine contact group on Tuesday (February 14), US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin emphasized the danger posed by Russia's air fleet.
"He made it pretty clear that we only have a small window of opportunity to help Ukraine against a possible offensive," the report quoted one of the insiders as saying.
The Western supporters are now trying to deliver air defense systems and artillery ammunition to Ukraine, it said.
"Russia's land forces are pretty depleted, so this is a strong indication that Russia now wants an air battle."
Bitter battles for Bachmut: "Great battle of attrition with very high losses"
Update from February 15, 6:22 a.m
.: US Chief of Staff Mark Milley described the battle for the Bakhmut region in the east of the country as a war of attrition.
There is a lot of violence and fighting, but the front line is fairly stable, said Milley on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels when asked about the current war situation.
"I would describe it as a very big battle of attrition with very high casualties, especially on the Russian side."
Selenskyj also spoke of an "extremely difficult" situation in the east of his country.
"These are literally fights for every meter of Ukrainian land" (see previous update).
According to Milley, the Ukrainians are currently holding the fort, while the Wagner group in particular is attacking on the Russian side.
“There are no sophisticated maneuvers here.
It's frontal attacks, waves of attacks, lots of artillery with extremely high casualties in this area," he said.
How long this will go on is difficult to say.
It's been like this for weeks now.
Zelenskyj: Situation at the front "extremely difficult"
Update from February 14, 11:09 p.m.:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj described the situation at the front as “extremely difficult”.
In the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in particular, there is "literally a fight for every meter of Ukrainian land," Zelenskyy said in his evening video message on Tuesday.
Update from February 14, 7:10 p.m .:
Russian forces are conducting air and ground attacks near Bakhmut, Shakhtarsk and other cities in the Donetsk region in the Ukraine war in eastern Ukraine.
This was announced by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday.
"The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on attacks in the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk directions," the military said in one of its regular updates.
"Enemy aircraft are actively deployed."
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russia is conducting airstrikes near Avdiivka and Wuhledar.
Among other things, the occupiers dropped K-51 aerosol grenades on Ukrainian positions.
In addition, two Russian missiles hit civilian infrastructure in the region, injuring several civilians.
“The Palace of Culture, which functions as a humanitarian aid center, was damaged.
A medical facility was also damaged,” the report said.
Ukraine war news: Kremlin confirms new conquest
First report from February 13:
The Russian Ministry of Defense has confirmed the capture of Krasna Hora.
The village is located a few kilometers south of the town of Bakhmut, which was heavily fought over in the Ukraine war.
The Wagner group of mercenaries had previously announced that they would take the village.
Originally, there was once again speculation that the 63-year-old's term of office could be extended again against the background of the war in Ukraine.
(
AP/AFP
)
List of rubrics: © Madeleine Kelly/Imago
