Ukraine-Russia war live: Nato and EU countries considering sending soldiers to Kyiv, claims Slovak PM

Several NATO and European Union members are considering sending soldiers to Ukraine according to the prime minister of Slovakia.

Robert Fico – who has opposed sending military supplies to Ukraine – was speaking ahead of a meeting of European leaders in Paris on Monday.

“I will limit myself to say that these theses (in preparation for the Paris meeting) imply a number of NATO and EU member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis,” Fico told a televised briefing following a meeting of Slovakia’s security council.

“I cannot say for what purpose and what they should be doing there,” he said, adding that Slovakia, a member of the EU and NATO, would not be sending soldiers to Ukraine.

Fico said he saw a risk of a large escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and that more information could not be revealed to the public.

Although members of NATO have supplied billions in arms to Kyiv, leaders have stated they are avoiding a direct conflict with Russia.

When asked about the comments, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said: “The Czech Republic certainly is not preparing to send any soldiers to Ukraine, nobody has to worry about that.”

NATO had no immediate comment on Fico’s remarks.

Germany’s foreign minister was forced to abandon a diplomatic trip to Ukraine on Sunday after a drone hovered above her.

Annalena Baerbock was visiting a waterworks facility in Mykolayiv to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

However, a Russian drone was spotted nearby forcing her to leave the scene and drive west to Moldova, according to German broadcaster ZDF.

At least 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed fighting back against the Russian invasion that began two years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, providing the first official death toll from Kyiv in more than a year.

“31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000… (Russian president Vladimir) Putin is lying there… But nevertheless, this is a big loss for us,” he said in a news conference at the Ukraine Year Forum in Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky said Russia’s casualties – both injured and dead – during the invasion stood at 500,000, of which 180,000 were Russian soldiers killed in the war, according to Kyiv’s estimates.

Russian officials have claimed to have destroyed a US-supplied Abrams tank in Ukraine for the first time.

The US began supplying the tanks to Ukrainian forces last September, sparking claims from Russian officials that the tanks would “burn”.

“From the very beginning, our soldiers said that these tanks would burn just like others,” state news agency RIA quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying – referring to previous instances where Russia says it has destroyed Western weaponry in Ukraine.

Reuters could not immediately verify a video published on social media that purported to show an Abrams on fire.

Germany’s Foreign minister was forced to cut her trip in southern Ukraine short on Sunday as a Russian drone continuously hovered nearby.

Annalena Baerbock was visiting a waterworks facility in Mykolayiv to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

However, a Russian drone was spotted nearby forcing her to leave the scene, according to German broadcaster ZDF.

It came after she pledged an £85 million aid package for Ukraine and said Germany is “racking our brains” to find a way to deliver more aid.

Russian officials have claimed to have destroyed a US-supplied Abrams tank in Ukraine for the first time.

The US began supplying the tanks to Ukrainian forces last September, sparking claims from Russian officials that the tanks would “burn”.

“From the very beginning, our soldiers said that these tanks would burn just like others,” state news agency RIA quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying – referring to previous instances where Russia says it has destroyed Western weaponry in Ukraine.

Reuters could not immediately verify a video published on social media that purported to show an Abrams on fire.

Russian forces have lost nearly 700 military vehicles during a five month long assault around Donetsk City in eastern Ukraine, data has shown.

The Kremlin announced it had taken over a second town north of the city this morning having captured Avdiivka earlier this month. At the start of the year, the Kremlin claimed it had also taken nearby Mariinka southwest of the city. Though this final claim is unverified, it is evident that the Donetsk City area is proving the most vulnerable point of the Ukrainian frontline.

But the attacks have come at a catastrophic cost to Russian equipment and personnel.

The data of vehicle losses, compiled by tracker Naalsio, shows that Russian assaults in the first month led to the destruction, damage or abandonment of 226 pieces of equipment, before spiking again in December, during which 172 vehicles were lost.

That includes tanks, armoured and infantry fighting vehicles, multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), trucks, engineering vehicles, anti-aircraft systems and mobile artillery systems.

The geolocated attacks range across a 46 mile line from Novomykhailivka, south of Marinka and southwest of Donetsk City, up to Betmanove northeast of Avdiivka and north of Donetsk City.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned on Monday that the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony could send a “green light” for authoritarian countries to kill other political prisoners.

Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to neighbouring Lithuania in 2020 after running against incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko, said she had been particularly affected by Navalny’s death due to her family circumstances.

Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Siarhei, a video blogger critical of the authorities, was arrested in May 2020 after announcing his intention to run against Lukashenko.

His family has stopped receiving any news.

“In the last year, he has been kept in incommunicado mode,” Tsikhanouskaya told Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“It means that I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know if he’s alive, what his health is… Letters are not delivered, I hear my children every day asking when they are going to see their daddy because it’s so painful.”

“The murder of Alexei Navalny should be like a green light for other murders, because if not strong response now, it will be more bad news for those in prisons,” she said in a plea, in English, for more pressure to release political prisoners.