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The latest developments in Russia's war on Ukraine. All times EST.
10:09 p.m.: Most of Ukraine has power despite a series of major Russian attacks on the generating system, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, praising the work done by repair crews.
Russia has carried out repeated waves of attacks on key infrastructure in recent months, at times leaving millions of people without light, heating or water supplies.
"Most of the territory of Ukraine has energy. Most of our people have electricity," Zelenskyy said in a video address, Reuters reported.
"This is yet another confirmation of our resilience, the strength of Ukraine, the colossal work that was and is being done by many people," he said, specifically mentioning power industry workers.
The one major exception is the southern port city of Odesa, where outages are still in force to help protect generating facilities harmed by earlier attacks.
8:47 p.m.: Britain offered to help countries willing to send aircraft to Ukraine now, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Saturday, as he urged allies to maintain their support in the war against Russia, Reuters reported.
Sunak has joined former British leaders Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in providing strong support to Ukraine, including through the delivery of weapons and training of troops.
It has so far refused to send fighter jets, saying the lengthy time needed to train pilots and substantial support crews required meant they would be of little immediate use, but Sunak told the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that Britain could help in other ways.
"We will happily provide a system to any country that is able to provide Ukraine with fighter jets right now. The UK stands ready to support those countries," he later told reporters.
He also said Western allies should consider how to ensure that Russia pays towards the reconstruction of Ukraine once the war has ended, and said the global community needed to recognize that a new framework was required to maintain long-term security.
7:33 p.m.: The U.S. government has had conversations with Elon Musk about the use of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday.
SpaceX this month said it has taken steps to prevent Ukraine's military from using the company's Starlink service for controlling drones in the region during the country's war with Russia.
Asked during an interview with NBC News whether the United States had asked Musk, the company's chief executive, not to restrict the use of Starlink capabilities by Ukraine's military, Blinken said: "Well, I can't share any conversations we've had other than to say we've had conversations."
SpaceX has privately shipped truckloads of Starlink terminals to Ukraine, allowing the country's military to communicate by plugging them in and connecting them with the nearly 4,000 satellites SpaceX has so far launched into low-Earth orbit.
Russia has attempted to jam Starlink signals in the region, though SpaceX countered by hardening the service's software, Musk has said.
5:45 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on other countries to exert pressure to hasten Russia's defeat, The Kyiv Independent reported.
5:30 p.m.: President Emmanuel Macron of France says in interview with French media released Saturday he wants Russia defeated in its war with Ukraine, but not "crushed."
5:05 p.m.: Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces captured Hrianykivka, a village in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region that is well to the north of most significant fighting.
A briefing note from Ukraine's General Staff later on Saturday said the village was being shelled but made no mention of an assault.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Russia's battlefield account.
Hrianykivka is around 180 km (110 miles) north of Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that has seen fierce fighting in recent weeks, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday thanked forces in the region, saying in a video address that "the most brutal and significant fighting is going on there."
4:25 p.m.: In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked allies for their support in hastening military aid and for holding Russia accountable for crimes against the Ukrainian people. "This week, we received strong signals from our partners, and concrete agreements regarding the inevitability of holding Russia accountable for aggression, for terror against Ukraine and its people.
Every Russian attack on the city of Kharkiv and the region, Sumy region and Donetsk region, Khmelnytsky, our Nikopol, and every corner of our state will have concrete legal consequences for the terrorist state.
It applies not only to the evil that Russia has brought since February 24 but also since 2014," he said.
3:50 p.m.
2:50 p.m.: The European Union is urgently exploring ways for its member countries to team up to buy munitions to help Ukraine after Kyiv pleaded for more supplies quickly, diplomats and officials said.
According to Reuters, EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the idea of joint procurement of 155-millimeter artillery shells — badly needed by Kyiv — at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
EU officials and diplomats say a joint approach would be more efficient than member states placing individual orders. Larger orders would also help industry invest in extra capacity, they said.
"It is now the time, really, to speed up the production, and to scale up the production of standardized products that Ukraine needs desperately," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
2:15 p.m.: The Dutch government said Saturday it would close its consulate in Saint Petersburg and would limit the number of Russian diplomats allowed at the Russian embassy in The Hague.
"Russia keeps trying to secretly get intelligence agents into the Netherlands under cover of diplomacy. We cannot and shall not allow that," Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement. "At the same time Russia refuses to give visas to Dutch diplomats who would work at the consulate in St. Petersburg or the embassy in Moscow."
The government said it had decided to limit the number of diplomats at the Russian embassy in The Hague to match the number of those at the Dutch embassy in Moscow.
"A number of diplomats shall therefore have to leave the country within two weeks," The Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement, without giving a specific number.
The Dutch government also ordered the Russian trade office in Amsterdam to close by Tuesday, Reuters reports.
In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said it would respond to the move, RIA news agency reported.
1:10 p.m.: Finland’s defense minister said Saturday that his country will join NATO without waiting for Sweden if its Nordic neighbor’s accession is held up by the Turkish government.
Mikko Savola told The Associated Press on Saturday that Finland would prefer that that the two countries join the alliance together, but it wouldn’t hold up the process if Turkey decides to approve Finland, but not Sweden, as it has warned.
Although Finland and Sweden have insisted, they want to join NATO together, Turkey is reluctant to approve Sweden accession into the North Atlantic Alliance unless it steps up pressure on Kurdish exile groups.
“Sweden is our closest partner,” Savola said. “Almost every week our defense forces are practicing together and so on. It’s a very deep cooperation and we also trust fully each other. But it’s in Turkey’s hands now,” he said.
12:15 p.m.:
12:05 p.m.: In his speech to the Munich Security Conference, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged world leaders Saturday to “double down” on helping Ukraine. Sunak said additional arms and security guarantees are needed to protect the country and the rest of Europe from Russian aggression now and in the future, Reuters reports.
The British prime minister underscored Britain’s recent commitment to provide battle tanks, advanced air defense systems and longer-range missiles to Ukraine. He prompted other nations to do the same before Russia launches an expected spring offensive.
“Now is the moment to double down on our military support,” Sunak said. “When Putin started this war, he gambled that our resolve would falter. Even now he is betting we will lose our nerve.”
Sunak also called on NATO to provide long-term security guarantees for Ukraine from future Russian aggression and to protect the system of international rules that have helped keep peace since the end of World War II.
“It’s about the security and sovereignty of every nation,” the prime minister said. “Because Russia’s invasion, its abhorrent war crimes and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric are symptomatic of a broader threat to everything we believe in.”
11:30 a.m.: China has "neither stood by idly nor thrown fuel on the fire" regarding the crisis in Ukraine, and continues to call for peace and dialog, top diplomat Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
"I suggest that everybody starts to think calmly, especially friends in Europe, about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war," said Wang, the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
Wang also said there were "some forces that seemingly don't want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon." He did not specify whom he was referring to, Reuters reports.
China will set out its position on settling the Ukraine crisis in a document that will state all countries' territorial integrity must be respected, Wang said.
11:00 a.m.: Ukraine and Russia are poised to go on the offensive along a jagged 600-mile-long frontline in the southeast.
Russia, The New York Times reports, “wary of the growing Ukrainian arsenal of Western-supplied weapons, is moving first.”
Using tens of thousands of new conscripts in the hope of overwhelming Ukraine, its forces are attacking heavily fortified positions across bomb-scarred fields and through scorched forests in the East. They are looking for vulnerabilities, hoping to exploit gaps, and setting the stage for what Ukraine warns could be Moscow’s most ambitious campaign since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is training thousands of its own soldiers outside the country and scrambling to amass heavy weapons and ammunition, in advance of an assault meant to “break the bones” of Russia’s army, said Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former director of Ukraine’s national security council.
Military analysts say it is likely to try to split the enemy forces into two zones, hoping to smash through Russian lines in the south and put its supply lines running out of Crimea in jeopardy.
“There is little doubt that both sides want to go on the offensive,” said Mick Ryan, a retired Australian army major general who is a fellow at the Lowy Institute, a research institute, “but it really comes down to how much capacity both sides have to do that.”
According to The New York Times, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has given an order to take all of the Donbas region by March, Ukrainian intelligence says.
With around 320,000 Russian soldiers already in Ukraine and 150,000 estimated to be at training sites, the Kremlin could try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions through the sheer volume of attacks.
10:40 a.m.: Carsten Linke, a 52-year-old children’s soccer coach in the quaint Bavarian town of Weilheim, was arrested on charges of treason and spying for Russia in one of the gravest espionage scandals in recent German history.
Linke, a former German soldier, worked for Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or B.N.D., as a director of technical reconnaissance — the unit responsible for cybersecurity and surveilling electronic communications. It contributes about half of the spy agency’s daily intelligence volume.
As a Russian mole, he would have had access to critical information gathered since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year. He may have obtained high-level surveillance, not only from German spies, but also from Western partners, like the C.I.A. the New York Times reports. The discovery of a double agent has rattled German political circles.
Officials worry the case could be the tip of an ominous iceberg.
“Recruiting other spies is the top tier of espionage,” one of the officials said. “And our technical reconnaissance unit is one of the most important departments of the B.N.D. To find someone relatively high up there? That makes this case explosive,” he said.
10:05 a.m.: "Superpower," a documentary film about the Ukraine’s war of independence by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman premiered at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 18.
"The Berlinale stands in 2023 even more firmly for these democratic values, and remembers victims of war, destruction and oppression all over the world," the organizers of the festival said in a statement.
According to the Kyiv Independent, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, thanked Penn and Kaufman for their film in a Telegram post.
Yermak said, the film "tells the story of the war for independence, the Russian invasion, which Sean Penn himself met in Kyiv and saw with his own eyes the first day of the start of a full-scale war."
During the press conference after the premiere of the film, Sean Penn said that the U.S. had to accept "a level of shame" for not supplying Ukraine with defense aid sooner.
Berlinale Live 2023: Press Conference "Superpower"
9:30 a.m.: A photograph of a captured Ukrainian Gvozdika self-propelled artillery mount, published by the Sitkha Corner telegram channel close to Wagner PMC, reveals a large repair base for military equipment of Russian troops on the territory of an abandoned mine near Lugansk, in the urban-type settlement of Yubileyny. RFE/RL found the original source of the image and geolocated it.
8:55 a.m.: The U.S. has formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity,” during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said.
8:40 a.m.: Ukrainian soldiers fighting to hold off a Russian offensive on the small eastern city of Bakhmut pleaded for more weapons as senior Western leaders convened in Mnich Friday to discuss security issues after Russia’s invasion on Ukraine, that shook Europe is nearing its one-year anniversary.
As Russian troops are intensifying assaults in the east, Ukraine is planning a spring counter-offensive, for which it wants more, heavier and longer-range weapons from its Western allies.
According to Reuters, Europe's worst conflict since World War Two war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions from their homes, pummeled the global economy and made Putin a pariah in the West.
The governor of Luhansk, one of two provinces in what is known as the Donbas which Russia partially controls and wants to take completely, said ground and air attacks were increasing.
"Today it is rather difficult on all directions," Serhiy Haidai told local TV. "There are constant attempts to break through our defense lines," he said of fighting near the city of Kreminna.
8:05 a.m.: The European Union is urgently exploring ways for its member countries to team up to buy munitions to help Ukraine, after Kyiv warned that its forces need more supplies quickly, Reuters reports.
EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the idea of joint procurement of 155-millimeter artillery shells – badly needed by Kyiv – at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
EU officials and diplomats say such an approach would be more efficient than EU members placing individual orders. Larger orders would also help industry invest in extra capacity, they said.
On Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the EU's member states at the Munich Security Conference to come together to get more ammunition to Kyiv as soon as possible.
7:45 a.m.: Two civilians were wounded in the west Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi as Russia fired missiles from the Black Sea on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched four Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea, two of which were shot down by air defenses, Reuters reports.
Two explosions were heard in Khmelnytskyi, which lies 170 miles (274 km) west of Kyiv, the regional governor said.
Oleksandr Symchyshyn, the mayor of Khmelnytskyi, said on national television that the explosions, which he blamed Russia, had wounded two people, but their injuries were not serious.
"There are three damaged educational institutions, around ten damaged high-rise apartment blocks. Around five hundred windows and balconies have been destroyed," he said.
5:25 a.m.: French supermarket chain Auchan was accused of being a "weapon of Russian aggression" by Ukraine on Friday after media reports that its shops had been used to supply goods to the Russian army, Agence France-Presse reported.
The revelations in Le Monde newspaper in France and investigative websites Bellingcat and The Insider cast a fresh spotlight on the Mulliez family, which owns Auchan as well as DIY chain Leroy Merlin and sports retailer Decathlon.
Estimated to be France's eighth wealthiest, the family has resisted public pressure to stop trading in Russia despite the risks of being linked to the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
The reports said employees at Auchan in Russia had collected store goods worth 2 million rubles ($27,000), including woolen socks and gas bottles, which were sent to soldiers marked as humanitarian aid.
The company said it was "very surprised" by the allegations.
"We are in the process of checking the assertions but to date the facts in our possession do not corroborate" the investigation, the group said.
4:15 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian forces continued offensive operations along the Svatove-Kreminna line. They also continued ground attacks around Bakhmut, in the Donetsk City-Avdiivka area, and in western Donetsk Oblast.
Additionally, Russian and Ukrainian military activity near Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, indicates that Russian forces are likely deployed to positions close bank of the Dnipro River.
3:12 a.m.: Nearly 50 lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties on Friday attended the start of Europe's premier annual security conference to affirm bipartisan support for U.S. aid to Ukraine, Reuters reported.
"We are here to send a clear message to this conference and everyone around the world: the U.S. is on a bipartisan basis totally behind the effort of help Ukraine," Mitch McConnell, the Democratic-controlled Senate's Republican minority leader, told Reuters after meeting conservative German politicians.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder said McConnell's unequivocal support for Ukraine was welcome after the uncertainty of the former President Donald Trump administration's isolationist America First policy.
Other prominent U.S. lawmakers in Munich included Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Republican chairmen of the House foreign relations and intelligence committees and their Democratic Senate counterparts.
2:10 a.m.: The World Health Organization on Friday appealed for more funds to support Ukraine's health sector, which has been severely damaged by the Russian invasion, Reuters reported.
"We aim to reach 13.6 million people with this support this year," WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told an online briefing from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr. "That's why we have increased our appeal for 2023 to $240 million — $160 million for Ukraine and $80 million for refugee-receiving countries."
He described its health system as "remarkably resilient" despite sustaining nearly 780 attacks against it.
But Ukraine also needed more mobility aids such as wheelchairs for those who sustained major injuries in the conflict.
A WHO survey showed that 10% of Ukrainians struggle to access medicine, including because of damaged or destroyed pharmacies and the unavailability of supplies, Kluge said.
One third of the people surveyed reported they could no longer afford the medication they require.
1:08 a.m.: A German intelligence officer who allegedly passed state secrets to Russia was asked to gather information about the Ukraine's artillery and air defense positions, media reported Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.
Russia's FSB intelligence service instructed the suspect to find out the exact positions of HIMARS precision rocket launchers supplied by the U.S. and the Iris-T air defense system supplied by Berlin, Der Spiegel magazine reported.
"People familiar with the case say it is rather unlikely that such data was passed on," it said.
But the alleged spy, identified only as Carsten L., did manage to pass on dossiers held by Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency on top-secret Russian communication systems, according to German magazine Focus.
Carsten L. was arrested on Dec. 22 on suspicion of treason.
In January, a second suspect identified as Arthur E. was also arrested and accused of being complicit in the treason by helping Carsten L. pass the information to Russia. Unlike Carsten L., Arthur E. was not employed by the BND.
12:02 a.m.: Belarus said Friday it was limiting access for Polish trucks on its territory and announced the expulsion of a liaison officer following Warsaw's decision to close a border crossing, Agence France-Presse reported.
The foreign ministry in Minsk summoned Poland's charge d'affaires to condemn Warsaw's decision to close one of its three existing border crossings with Belarus as "unilateral" and "inhumane."
In response, Polish trucks will now be able to enter and leave Belarus only through crossings on their common border, and no longer via third countries Lithuania and Latvia.
Minsk also said it would reduce staffing at Poland's consulate in Grodno to match staff numbers in the Belarusian consulate in Polish Bialystok, evoking a future expulsion of diplomats.
Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski later tweeted, "If Belarusian authorities go ahead and implement the announced restrictions against Polish carriers, Poland will respond in kind regarding Belarusian carriers."
Poland said last week it was closing the Bobrowniki border checkpoint for reasons of "state security," as tensions soared between the two neighbors.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
