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Angela Giuffrida
Angela Giuffrida reports for the Guardian from Rome:
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is heading to Kyiv to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and reiterate Italy’s support for the war-torn country, as she navigates tensions on the issue within her right wing alliance and a divided public opinion.
Tuesday’s trip is seen as one of the most significant made by Meloni since she came to power in October and comes a week after her coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi, the Forza Italia leader, blamed Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The office of Meloni, who met her Polish counterpart on Monday evening, has not released details of the trip for security reasons.
Her visit carries symbolic significance, given that it comes a day after the US president, Joe Biden, made a surprise trip to the Ukrainian capital.
Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in Poland on Monday. Photograph: Fot Tedi/Newspix Pl/Newspix/ZUMA Press/REX/Shutterstock“It is a really important trip for Meloni, as she needs to show her reliability to Zelenskiy, but more so to her US and European partners,” said Sofia Ventura, a politics professor at the University of Bologna. “And she needs to do this knowing that her two allies are unreliable due to their relations with Russia. The spotlight is on Kyiv because of Biden’s visit, and will linger for Meloni, so she needs to show that she can match up.”
Read more here: Giorgia Meloni heads to Ukraine amid tensions within Italian coalition
Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne has this round-up of news from overnight on its official Telegram channel:
During the night, the Russian army attacked the Kherson community. In Dnipropetrovsk region and Mykolaiv region, the night passed without shelling.
During the past day, three people were killed in Donetsk region by shelling of the Russian army, five more residents of the region were injured. Two people died in the Kherson region.
The Russian army continues its offensive in five directions in the east. The defence forces of Ukraine carried out 16 strikes during the day on the areas of concentration of personnel and military equipment of the Russians.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is carrying some preamble to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s parliamentary address today. It notes that the last time the Russian leader addressed a similar message to parliament was in April 2021. It reports:
Putin will announce the next message shortly before the anniversary of the special military operation in Ukraine. It was the decision to start it that became the catalyst for huge negative changes in Russia’s relations with the countries of the west. On 24 February, the EU is preparing to publish its tenth package of anti-Russian sanctions. The US is also planning to announce another set of restrictions against Russia this week.
At the same time, without abandoning attempts to weaken the Russian economy, the collective west continues to pump weapons into Ukraine. Moreover, US President Joe Biden considered it necessary on the eve of Putin’s speech to personally fly to Kyiv and, following negotiations with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelenskiy, announce the allocation of another $500m military aid package to the country. In the expert community, such a step by the American leader was considered evidence of the intention to further aggravate relations with Russia.
On the contents of the speech, Tass quotes Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying “everyone is waiting for the message in the hope of hearing an assessment of what is happening, an assessment of the special military operation, an assessment of the international situation and the president’s vision of how we are coping with this and how we will go further.”
As for length, you may need to block out more than an hour in your diary. Tass reports that “TV channels in their schedule laid down an hour for broadcasting the upcoming event. However, according to a Kremlin spokesperson, ‘this is a formality’ and Putin may speak longer”. It notes:
For example, last time – in April 2021 – the president’s speech lasted one hour and 19 minutes. With the longest message – 1 hour 55 minutes – Putin delivered in 2018. The shortest speech – 48 minutes – he delivered twice – in 2004 and 2005. On average, Putin’s speech took one hour and seven minutes.
A little more on what we expect from US president Joe Biden’s visit to Poland here from Reuters. It reports that Marcin Przydacz, a foreign affairs adviser to Poland’s president, has said Biden and Andrzej Duda will discuss reinforcing Poland’s security and increasing the Nato presence in the country.
“[We will discuss] the security of the Polish state and allied cooperation with the USA, also within Nato, what can we do to make the eastern flank, including Poland, safer,” Przydacz told TVN 24. “It is no secret that we will talk about increasing the presence, also in terms of infrastructure, of Nato.”
Nearly 19,000 casualties recorded in Ukraine, UN saysThere have been at least 18,955 civilian casualties since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The OHCHR released the report citing the number of casualties as being 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured, but believes the actual figures are considerably higher.
From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 12 February 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 18,955 civilian casualties in the country: 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured.”
A total of 697 of the civilian casualties occurred in January 2023 where data indicated that violence continued along the 1,200km front line, but was primarily concentrated in Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Throughout January 2023, there was a very high intensity, and worsening trend, of damage being inflicted on both medical and educational facilities, the OHCHR said.
These incidents, and continued civilian casualties are likely largely due to Russia’s lack of discrimination in the use of artillery and other area weapon systems.
Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes, the OHCHR said, adding that it believes that the actual figures are considerably higher.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly ordered the formation of a new volunteer territorial defence so everyone knows how to “handle weapons” and be ready to respond to an act of aggression and keep public order in peacetime.
Reuters reports Lukashenko told a meeting of his security council on Monday:
The situation is not easy. I have said more than once: every man – and not only a man – should be able to at least handle weapons.
At least in order to protect his family, if needed, his home, his own piece of land and – if necessary – his country.”
Lukashenko, who allowed Russia to use Belarus to send troops into Ukraine a year ago, has often said his army would fight only if Belarus was attacked. He has also said the “experience” in Ukraine necessitates additional defence.
“In case of an act of aggression, the response will be fast, harsh and appropriate,” Lukashenko said.
Defence minister Viktor Khrenin said the territorial defence force would have 100,000-150,000 volunteers, or more if needed. The paramilitary formation will be ideally in every village and town.
The country’s professional army has about 48,000 troops and some 12,000 state border troops, according to the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.
Just a quick snap here that Joe Biden will reportedly speak in Warsaw on Tuesday afternoon, the White House has confirmed.
Biden will today meet Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss collective efforts to support Ukraine and thank Poland for helping the US and other countries facilitate deliveries of military and humanitarian assistance.
In the evening, he will give a speech on how the US has helped rally the world to support Ukraine as the war enters its second year with no end in sight.
“President Biden will make it clear that the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine, as you’ve heard him say many times, for as long as it takes,” said John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson.
China says certain countries must stop ‘fuelling the fire’
Helen Davidson
China’s new foreign minister has accused the US of shifting blame for the Ukraine war on to China, in an apparent pushback against warnings from Washington that China is considering supplying weapons to Russia.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, at the launch of a Chinese government paper on its global security initiative, Qin Gang said China was “deeply concerned” about the war in Ukraine escalating and possibly “spiralling out of control”.
Beijing signed a no-limits partnership with Moscow just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine one year ago. Since then, it has refused to condemn the invasion and some senior Chinese officials have offered explicit support for Russia’s aims. However it has presented itself as a neutral party, accusing the US and Nato of fuelling the conflict.
Since the outbreak of the crisis, China has taken an objective and impartial stance based on the merit of the issue,” Qin said on Tuesday.
We urge certain countries to immediately stop fuelling the fire, stop shifting blame to China, and stop hyping up Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.”
China’s top diplomat to visit MoscowChina’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is due to visit Moscow shortly, and may possibly even meet Putin, according to Russian officials.
A source close to the visit organisers told Russian state media outlet Tass that Wang Yi “is expected to arrive on Tuesday”.
“We would like a political solution to provide a peaceful and sustainable framework to Europe,” Wang Yi said ahead of his visit during a stop in Hungary.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state media: “We do not rule out a meeting between Mr Wang Yi and the president. He will indeed be in Moscow.”
Over the weekend, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned against Beijing providing material support to Moscow’s invasion, prompting China to tell the US to keep out of its relationship with Russia.
Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led Nato military alliance on the other.
Zelenskiy also warned that there will be a “world war” if China decides to support Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said Kyiv would like Beijing “to be on our side” in an interview with Die Welt.
If China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that,” he said.
Biden promises Kyiv extra $500m in military aidThe US will deliver a new package of additional US aid to Ukraine worth $500m (£415m) including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems, and air surveillance radars.
Joe Biden made the announcement during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday.
The defence package includes anti-armour systems, air surveillance radars and more ammunition for “US-provided Himars and Howitzers that Ukraine is using so effectively to defend their country,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden walks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as he arrives for a visit in Kyiv on Monday. Photograph: Ukraine Presidency/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/ShutterstockIt also includes Javelin anti-armour systems, about 2,000 anti-armour rockets, four forward-observation vehicles, two tactical vehicles, munitions, medical supplies and other equipment, according to the Biden administration.
“Russia alone could end its war today,” Blinken said. “Until it does so, we will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes to strengthen its military on the battlefield so that they will be in the strongest possible position at any future negotiating table.”
As we approach the anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I’m in Kyiv today to meet with President Zelenskyy and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 20, 2023 Amid the diplomacy taking place today across Europe, the war in Ukraine rages on.
Here are some of the latest images to come out of Ukraine today.
Three armed Ukrainian servicemen pictured during large-scale military exercises in the Chonobyl Exclusion Zone, Kyiv region, northern Ukraine. Photograph: Ruslan Kaniuka/Ukrinform/NurPhoto/REX/ShutterstockUkrainian servicemen cover their ears as they fire a mortar toward the Russian position on a frontline not far from Bakhmut in Donetsk, Ukraine. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesA Ukrainian soldier warms himself beside a fire in a dugout bunker in the southern Donbas region, Ukraine. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty ImagesPutin to deliver major war update in state of the nation addressVladimir Putin will today deliver his state of the nation address to Russia’s Federal Assembly where he will address both houses of parliament and set out his aims for the second year of his invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian president will update Russia’s political and military elite on the state of what he calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine with many eager to know what his plans are for the year ahead.
The address comes at a highly symbolic time, almost a year to the day when Putin announced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state television:
At such a crucial and very complicated juncture in our development, our lives, everyone is waiting for a message in the hope of hearing an assessment of what is happening, an assessment of the special military operation.”
Putin will also give his analysis of the international situation and outline his vision of Russia’s development after the west imposed sweeping sanctions on it, the Kremlin said.
The speech is due to begin at 9am GMT in central Moscow.
The Kremlin is also planning to hold a celebratory concert at the Luzhniki Stadium later in the day, and then to convene extraordinary sessions of the Duma and Federation Council on Wednesday.
Biden arrives in PolandJoe Biden arrived in Warsaw late on Monday evening where he is set to meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, along with other leaders of countries on Nato’s eastern flank.
During a surprise visit to Kyiv ahead of his planned trip to Poland, the US president said:
When (Russian President Vladimir) Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong.
The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high. Sacrifices have been far too great. … We know that there will be difficult days and weeks and years ahead.”
Biden is set to deliver a speech on how the US has helped rally the world to support Ukraine and stress American support for Nato’s eastern flank.
US President Joe Biden arrives at Warsaw Chopin Airport on Monday evening, 20 February. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty ImagesSummary and welcomeHello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold.
Vladimir Putin is set to deliver his anticipated state of the nation address to Russia’s Federal Assembly due to begin at 9am GMT in central Moscow.
The Russian president will update Russia’s political and military elite on the state of what he calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine and set out his aims for the second year of his invasion. The address comes at a highly symbolic time, almost a year to the day when Putin announced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has arrived in Warsaw where he is set to meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, along with other leaders of countries on Nato’s eastern flank.
It’s 7am in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Joe Biden visited Kyiv on Monday to announce a new package of additional US aid to Ukraine worth $500m (£415m) including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems, and air surveillance radars. The timing of his visit – before a planned address by Vladimir Putin on Tuesday – was seen as a deliberate rebuke of the Russian president.
The US president arrived in Warsaw late on Monday evening where he is set to meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, along with other leaders of countries on Nato’s eastern flank.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine, even though it wasn’t supplied before”. But no new commitments were detailed.
EU foreign ministers discussed jointly procuring ammunition to provide to Ukraine during a meeting in Brussels. “It is the most urgent issue. If we fail on that, the result of the war is in danger,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said before the meeting. Borrell said the EU needs to ensure that Ukraine has enough ammunition to continue its fight against the Russian invasion, regarding the advance payments scheme as a vital medium-term solution, but wants ammunition delivered from national stocks now.
Vladimir Putin’s state of the nation speech on Tuesday will be accompanied by a celebratory concert at the Luzhniki Stadium on the same day. He is then set to convene an extraordinary sessions of the Duma and Federation Council on Wednesday.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is expected to visit Moscow with proposals for a political settlement to the war. Over the weekend, US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned against Beijing providing material support to Moscow’s invasion, prompting China to tell the US to keep out of its relationship with Russia. “We would like a political solution to provide a peaceful and sustainable framework to Europe,” Wang said ahead of his visit during a stop in Hungary.
Zelenskiy also warned that there will be a “world war” if China decides to support Russia in its war on Ukraine. Zelenskiy said Kyiv would like Beijing “to be on our side” in an interview with Die Welt. “If China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that,” he said.
Russia claimed its forces have taken control of a village near Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city home to the longest-running battle of Moscow’s offensive. The Russian defence ministry said that volunteer fighters had “fully liberated” the settlement of Paraskoviivka with the support of regular forces, including paratroopers and artillery. The statement did not mention Russia’s mercenary group Wagner which claimed to have captured village on Friday.
The head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has acknowledged a “major problem” with ammunition supplies for his fighters, accusing Russian officials of deliberately denying his fighters sufficient ammunition. In an emotional seven-minute-long audio message published on his official Telegram channel, he said he was required to “apologise and obey” to someone “high up” who he has a “difficult relationship with” in order to secure ammunition.
A local resident walks past a heavily damaged building in Izyum, Ukraine, on 20 February. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images