Russia Ukraine war live: Putin’s forces take Avdiivka coke plant

Saving lives was the priority says Volodymyr Zelensky, as delays to military aid from the US will only add to pressures on the battlefield, writes Askold Krushelnycky in Kyiv

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Russia says its forces have taken full control of the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, two days after Ukraine confirmed its withdrawal from the town.

Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday that Ukrainian units were still entrenched at the plant, which is on the northwestern edge of Avdiivka.

The sprawling plant complex was an important industrial asset before the start of the war, and has been the site of intense fighting as both countries battled for control of the strategically-placed town.

Ukrainian forces withdrew from the town on Saturday to protect its remaining soldiers from being encircled, and after daily Russian onslaughts from three directions for the last four months.

Avdiivka has been a frontline city ever since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, and the fortified settlement with a maze of trenches and tunnels served to protect important – and less easily defended – logistical hubs further west.

There is a stark generational divide between how the public see the various threats and how they should be dealt with – but the majority agree that the world is a less safe place than five years ago, new polling suggests.

Younger people believe that the war in Gaza should be the top foreign policy priority for the government, while the rest of the population believe that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the most important issue to address.

Two major wars and the death of Russian Putin critic Alexei Navalny hang heavy over the annual gathering, writes Bel Trew.

In remarks delivered from the White House before he departed for an event in Ohio, Mr Biden said he was “not surprised” and “outraged” by reports that Navalny had died.

Poland’s prime minister said on Friday that his country will upgrade the wall on its border with Belarus to better insulate the frontier against unauthorized migration.

Donald Tusk also said that Poland and Finland both see the need for changes in the European Union’s asylum legislation, which he called “inadequate” in the face of the current migration challenges and threats posed by Russia‘s and Belarus’s policies that are pushing unauthorized migration into the EU.

To mark the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine, The Independent is bringing together a panel of experts who have been at the forefront of covering the conflict to discuss how it has unfolded and what might happen next.

The foreign secretary’s surprising entreaty to the US Senate – that it should not show the kind of weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s – was as timely as it was powerful. The complacency many Western politicians have shown to Russia of late is astonishing: we cannot allow Putin to be appeased.

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Switzerland, known for being neutral in wars, is planning to boost its defence spending by up to 19% over the next four years.

The Swiss government is citing a rise in global instability, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and gaps created when Swiss authorities cashed in on a peace dividend from the fall of the Berlin Wall decades ago.

Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas on Sunday dismissed a warrant issued by Russia for her arrest, saying it was just an attempt to intimidate her amid speculation she could get a top European Union post.

Once ruled by Moscow but now a member of both the European Union and NATO, Estonia has been a supporter of Kyiv and Kallas has been one of Moscow’s most vocal critics since the Russian invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Russian police placed her and several other Baltic politicians on a wanted list on Feb. 13 for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

“It is meant to intimidate and make me refrain from the decisions that I would otherwise make,” Kallas told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“But it’s Russia’s playbook. It’s nothing surprising and we are not afraid.”

The Baltic politicians risk being arrested only if they cross the Russian border, otherwise declaring them wanted has no real consequences.