Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin denies plan to put nuclear weapons in space as Kyiv dismisses claim village taken

Russia’s top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, visited troops fighting in the war in Ukraine to discuss the next steps after the taking the town of Avdiivka, state media reported on Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russian troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.

Gerasimov was shown awarding medals to Russian troops involved in taking Avdiivka and he was given a report by the commander in charge of the Russian assault on Avdiivka, Colonel-General Andrei Mordvichev, state media said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN that Avdiivka would not have fallen had Kyiv received weapons held up by the U.S. Congress’ failure to approve a large aid package.

After the failure of Ukraine to pierce Russian front lines in the east and south last year, Moscow has been trying to grind down Ukrainian forces just as Kyiv ponders a major new mobilisation.

A Los Angeles woman has been detained in Russia on accusations of treason for allegedly giving funds to Ukraine, according to Russia’s FSB security services.

The woman, a 33-year-old dual American-Russian citizen, was not identified in a statement issued by the FSB, which said she “was involved in providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country.”

The FSB in the central Urals city of Yekaterinburg accused her of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests outside of Russia and of sending aid to Kyiv.

It said the woman had been “proactively collecting funds… which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medical items, equipment, means of destruction and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces.”

Read the full story here…

The Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against Gershkovich’s detention filed by his lawyers, upholding an earlier ruling to keep him behind bars until the end of March.

That means Gershkovich, 32, will spend at least a year behind bars in Russia after his arrest in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

Gershkovich and the Journal have denied the espionage allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities haven’t detailed any evidence to support the charges.

Read the full story here…

An Edinburgh charity founder who has personally delivered aid to “decimated” frontline villages in Ukraine and helped thousands of civilians has urged Britons to continue to care for ordinary people impacted by war in the country.

Oleg Dmitriev, 43, told the PA news agency he was compelled by the “feeling of injustice and the catastrophe” to start helping deliver aid to Ukraine two weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24 2022.

Since then he has established his own charity, Sunflower Scotland, which has helped more than 11,700 people in Ukraine’s frontline villages, people in liberated areas and hospitals.

Almost two years on, Mr Dmitriev has travelled to at least 16 frontline villages and towns to deliver aid to people living in the most dangerous and impoverished circumstances.

He first visited the city of Kharkiv, which he said was a “heartbreaking experience”.

Read the full story here…

Russia launched 19 attack drones at Ukraine overnight and six missiles, with the Ukrainian air defence systems destroying 13 of the drones and one missile, Ukraine‘s air force said on Wednesday.

Some of the drones that were not destroyed did not reach their targets, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app, without providing further detail. It said that the 13 drones that were destroyed were downed chiefly over regions close to the frontline.

The air force also said that it destroyed a Kh-59 air-to-surface guided air missile in the Poltava region. It said that Russia launched five other missiles, but it did not say whether the missiles that were not destroyed reached their targets.

Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian air force’s report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia claimed they captured the key village of Krynky, territory they have fought over Ukraine with for months.

Ukraine rejected Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s claims they had taken full control of the area, labelling it “a falsification of the facts”.

Unidentified sources in the United States say Russia is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon but President Vladimir Putin said he opposes nuclear weapons in space and Moscow has flatly denied the U.S. assertions.

The United States believes Russia is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon whose detonation could disrupt everything from military communications to phone-based ride services, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was his understanding the system would involve a nuclear explosive device placed into orbit.

Reports about possible Russian development emerged after the Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee on Feb. 14 issued a cryptic statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”

The clearest public sign Washington thinks Moscow is working on a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon was a White House spokesperson’s comment on Thursday that the United States believes the system being developed would violate the Outer Space Treaty.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was his understanding the system would involve a nuclear explosive device placed into orbit.

Reports about possible Russian development emerged after the Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee on Feb. 14 issued a cryptic statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”

The clearest public sign Washington thinks Moscow is working on a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon was a White House spokesperson’s comment on Thursday that the United States believes the system being developed would violate the Outer Space Treaty.

Vladimir Putin has gifted a Russian-made limousine to his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un, the latest signal of deepening relations between two countries that are otherwise increasingly isolated on the global stage.

North Korean state media said the car was hand-delivered by a Russian delegation over the weekend, and on Tuesday the Kremlin confirmed that Mr Putin had sent a full-sized luxury sedan limousine by Aurus, Russia’s first luxury car brand.

Mr Putin’s present to Mr Kim is likely to be in violation of Moscow-backed United Nations Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang, which prohibit the supply of luxury goods including all “transportation vehicles” to the East Asian nation.

KCNA reported that the car was received on 18 February by Mr Kim’s sister and close aide, Kim Yo-jong, as well as other senior North Korean officials.

My colleague Shweta Sharma has the full report here:

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is in exile in neighboring Lithuania after challenging Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 ballots, has called for boycotting the upcoming election in Belarus.

“We are calling for a boycott of this cynical farce because this imitation of election has nothing to do with democracy,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press. “Belarusians inside the country hate this regime, but they can’t openly say that due to brutal repressions.”

Speaking during a meeting Tuesday with top Belarusian law enforcement officials, Mr Lukashenko alleged that Western countries were pondering plans to stage a coup in the country or try to seize power by force. He claimed, without offering evidence, that Polish authorities in particular could use blackmail and threats to try to convince senior Belarusian officials to switch allegiances.

Valery Karbalevich, an independent Belarusian political analyst, observed that Lukashenko treats the election as a “military operation.”

“This is the continuation of the concept of election as a war, a military operation in which the Belarusian leader is fighting internal and external foes,” Mr Karbalevich said. “Authorities in Belarus see any election as a threat and a pretext to step up repressions and tighten the screws.”