For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia's war on Ukraine. All times EST.
11:30 p.m.: Canada is extending its mission to train Ukrainian combat engineers to October and deploying medical trainers too, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, according to Agence France-Presse.
He made the announcement during a joint news conference with visiting European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Speaking at a military base in Kingston, Ontario, Trudeau also pledged $3 million CAD for de-mining efforts in Ukraine and vowed with the EU to deliver generators to Ukraine, which has suffered repeated attacks on its power grid since the Russian invasion began a year ago.
The mission to train combat engineers had been due to conclude in the near future
"Canada will stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine as long as it takes," Trudeau said.
10:20 p.m.: A unit of Ukrainian medics treats up to 10 wounded soldiers a day in their small, improvised emergency center in the Donetsk region. Exhausted team members say they feel haunted by the lives they cannot save.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report.
9:10 p.m.: For military experts and close watchers of the Ukrainian battlefields, Bakhmut's symbolic importance far outweighs its strategic importance. Straddling the Bakhmutka River, just 20 kilometers west of the Luhansk region administrative border, the city, with a prewar population of around 70,000, used to be known mostly for its sparkling wines and salt mines.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this report.
8:15 p.m.:
7:37 p.m.: The Institute for the Study of War tweeted a link to a Time magazine article: "Further fissures between the #Wagner Group and the #Kremlin could pose a real challenge to the #Russian war effort, says ISW #Russia analyst @KarolinaAHird, noting that the former has been the primary driver of Russian gains on the frontline."
6:50 p.m.:
6 p.m.: The Institute for the Study of War tweeted a link to its Russian offensive campaign assessment: #Russian mobilized personnel from #Murmansk, #Arkhangelsk, and #Kaliningrad oblasts complained about receiving outdated weaponry from the 1940s.
5:03 p.m.: Ukraine's foreign ministry denied on Tuesday that Kyiv was involved in attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield last month, Reuters reported.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko alleged that Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services were involved in the drone attack in late February which was claimed by Belarusian anti-government activists.
"It is clear that this is another attempt to create an artificial threat from Ukraine for the sake of justifying (Belarusian) support for Russia's aggression," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement.
4:25 p.m.: A new United Nations report says acute malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers has increased by 25% in the past two years in 12 countries hard hit by rising food prices fueled by the fighting in Ukraine, The Associated Press reports.
Surveys in 11 countries in Africa and two in the Middle East that are worst affected by the food crisis were used in the UNICEF report, released Tuesday, a day before International Women’s Day.
Poor nutrition in pregnant and breastfeeding women can lead to weak immunity and complications during pregnancy and birth. Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have in previous studies recorded high infant mortality rates due to various complications.
3:47 p.m.: Poland said Tuesday that it will send 10 Leopard tanks to Ukraine this week, offering more of the vehicles that Kyiv says are crucial to countering Russia's invasion, Agence France-Presse reported.
Poland had promised to ship a total of 14 German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks to Kyiv, with the first four already delivered in late February, on the first anniversary of Russia's offensive in Ukraine.
"Poland already this week will deliver to Ukraine 10 Leopard 2A4 tanks," Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters in Warsaw before flying to Stockholm for a meeting of EU defence ministers.
3:03 p.m.: Bakhmut, an industrial town once known for its sparkling wine production and salt mines, had an estimated pre-war population of some 70,000 people, Agence France-Presse reported.
But Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians now remain.
"Approximately 38 children, as far as we know, remain in Bakhmut today," Vereshchuk said.
Both Moscow and Kyiv said on Tuesday that the fight for the town was exacting a huge cost in military personnel on both sides.
2:24 p.m.: The shocking magnitude of destruction inflicted by Russia's war in Ukraine will harm the rights of generations to come, the UN rights chief said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Volker Turk branded it a "betrayal" of the promises made when the foundations of universal human rights were laid down in the aftermath of World War II.
He also accused Russian state media of bombarding people with constant pro-war messages inciting hatred.
"The war in Ukraine has led to civilian casualties and destruction of a shocking magnitude," Turk said in his main speech to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
1:45 p.m.: The Ukrainian military says it has identified one of its soldiers who appears to be executed by Russian troops in a video that has circulated on social media, prompting calls from Kyiv for a war crimes investigation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Ukraine's 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday that it has identified the man, based on preliminary data, as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, one of its servicemen.
12:50 p.m.: Russia and Ukraine said on Tuesday they had exchanged scores of prisoners of war, the latest swap in more than a year of fighting, Reuters reported.
Russia's defense ministry said 90 Russian prisoners of war had returned from Ukraine in the latest exchange. Kyiv said 130 Ukrainian service personnel had been released from Russian custody.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff, said 87 of the Ukrainians had taken part in the defense of the southeastern city of Mariupol before its capture by Russia.
12:00 p.m.: Days before Russia launched its full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Boris Livshits ordered a military-grade spectrum analyzer from a Florida-based company for delivery to a suburban home in New Hampshire, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
Livshits, who resides in Russia, had been ordering dual-purpose technology totaling millions of dollars from American companies for shipment back home via U.S.-based intermediaries and shell companies for years.
According to U.S. legal filings, the elaborate scheme was meant to disguise the end user of the controlled products: the Russian military-industrial complex.
The scheme was one of possibly hundreds, by some estimates, set up by Russians to get around sweeping Western financial sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
11:15 a.m.: New intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, the New York Times reported first, according to Reuters.
There was no evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, the newspaper reported, citing U.S. officials.
Reuters could not independently verify the report, and U.S. officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Representatives for Kyiv and Moscow also could not be immediately reached.
11:01 a.m.: A court in Moscow has sentenced a student activist to 8 1/2 years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army. That was made a criminal offense under a new law Russian lawmakers rubber-stamped a week after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
The law has been used in a sweeping crackdown on dissent to prosecute people who deviate from the Kremlin's narrative of the conflict in Ukraine. Prominent opposition politicians are among others charged under the law.
10:15 a.m.: Mariupol, One Year After the Devastating Russian Siege: Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly visited Mariupol recently, a city that remains largely ruined a year after the devastating Russian encirclement. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the report.
9:30 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly committed his troops to staying in Bakhmut, apparently prolonging the war's bloodiest battle in a bid to break Moscow's assault force, Reuters reports.
Moscow has sent thousands of troops in recent weeks to try to capture the eastern Ukrainian city and secure its first battlefield victory in more than half a year.
Ukrainian had seemed to be preparing to pull out, but Zelenskyy's remarks in an overnight address suggested Kyiv had decided to stay, fight and reinforce the city, apparently convinced that Russia's losses in trying to storm it would be greater than those of the defenders.
8:15 a.m.: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Poland on his way to Ukraine, spokesman Stephane Dujarric reports. On Wednesday morning, Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky in Kyiv to discuss the continuation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in all its aspects, as well as other pertinent issues. The current grain deal expires on March 18.
This is the secretary-general’s third visit to Ukraine in the last year. The secretary-general will be back in United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday afternoon.
6:10 a.m.: Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a "terrorist" and more than 20 accomplices working with Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield, President Alexander Lukashenko was cited as saying, according to Reuters.
Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
"The Security Service of Ukraine, the leadership of the CIA, behind closed doors, are carrying out an operation against the Republic of Belarus. A terrorist was trained," the Belta news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Lukashenko said the aircraft had suffered only superficial damage in the attack, which was carried out using a "small drone," Belta reported.
The suspect detained over the attack against the Beriev A-50 surveillance plane is a dual Russian-Ukrainian national, Belta also quoted Lukashenko as saying. More than 20 people involved in the incident have been arrested so far, while other suspects are still hiding abroad, he added.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch attacks on Ukraine since the beginning of its military campaign against Kyiv a year ago.
Lukashenko has repeatedly said Belarus may join the conflict directly if its territory comes under attack from Ukraine.
5:50 a.m.: A Russian opposition activist who used social media to condemn the way Moscow is waging its war in Ukraine received an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence on Tuesday after a Moscow court found him guilty of spreading false information about the army, Reuters reported.
Dmitry Ivanov, who ran a protest channel on the Telegram social network for students of Moscow State University, denied any wrongdoing. Ivanov told the court he stood by his original statements which he said were factually accurate.
The verdict, published by his lawyer Maria Eismont on Facebook, said Ivanov would serve out his sentence in a penal colony and that he had also been banned for four years from being an administrator for Internet or social media sites.
Shortly after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine just over a year ago, Russia introduced sweeping wartime censorship laws which have since been used to silence dissenting voices across society.
"Discrediting" the army can currently be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading deliberately false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence.
Ivanov, who was detained in June last year, was accused of writing or reposting on Telegram a series of claims about the Russian army's behavior in Ukraine, including allegations of war crimes.
5:25 a.m.: Reuters reported that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow's forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces have been waging an intense campaign for months to seize control of the small city in what would become their first significant territorial advance since last summer.
Shoigu also said the West was increasing its arms deliveries to Ukraine, but vowed they would not change the course of events on the battlefield.
"The liberation of Artemovsk continues," Shoigu said in televised remarks, using the old Soviet-era name for Bakhmut.
"The city is an important hub for defending Ukrainian troops in the Donbas. Taking it under control will allow further offensive actions to be conducted deep into Ukraine's defensive lines," Shoigu said.
The heavily industrialized Donbas region of eastern Ukraine comprises Donetsk and Luhansk, which are both claimed by Russia along with two other Ukrainian regions as its own territory.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group which is leading the battle for the city, said last Friday that his forces had "practically surrounded" Bakhmut.
Ukraine's top generals have vowed to keep defending the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday.
4:50 a.m.: A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be "up to NATO", German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger NATO presence in the country, Reuters reported.
"This not down to who wants what - or who wants to provide what - but rather up to NATO," Pistorius told reporters as he visited the Pabrade training ground in Lithuania.
Since 2017, Germany has led an international battalion with some 1,500 troops in Lithuania as part of a NATO effort to deter Russia from attacking the Baltic region, seen as one of the weakest spots in the alliance's eastern flank.
Berlin also has a brigade of some 3,000 to 5,000 troops on standby in Germany with the ability to deploy to Lithuania within 10 days if needed.
But the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been calling for bigger and permanent NATO deployments to defend their territories since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
There have been concerns, however, that any permanent deployments would be costly and deprive NATO of the flexibility to freely move troops to other locations along its eastern flank.
Pistorius said it was unclear whether a German brigade would be deployed to Lithuania on a permanent basis, adding that any such move would require the construction of extensive infrastructure to house troops as well as families.
4:30 a.m.: Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv's understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
"The situation with negotiations is rather complicated. Now a lot depends not on us but on the partners," said the source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine is a major global grain grower and exporter, but its exports have been hit by Russia's invasion.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July and was extended in November, but it is due to expire on March 18 unless an extension is agreed.
Yuriy Vaskov, Ukraine's deputy minister of restoration, told Reuters last month that Kyiv would ask all sides to start talks on extending the deal by at least one year and that Ukraine wanted the city of Mykolaiv's ports included.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week that Ankara was working hard to extend the initiative while Russia has signaled it is unhappy with aspects of the deal.
Moscow has said it will agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal only if the interests of its own agricultural producers are taken into account.
Russia's agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, but Moscow says restrictions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a "barrier" to it being able to export its own grains and fertilizers.
Ukraine's grain exports are down 26.6% at 32.9 million tons in the 2022/23 season as of March 6, hit by a smaller harvest and logistical difficulties caused by Russia's invasion.
4:05 a.m.:
3:20 a.m.: Reuters also reported that Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang on Tuesday said a crisis like that in Ukraine should not be repeated in Asia.
Speaking to reporters at the annual parliament meeting, Qin also said the Indo-Pacific strategy by the United States is an attempt to form "exclusive cliques" that hurts the interests of regional countries.
He also said any attempt to encircle China is bound to fail.
2:30 a.m.: The Ukraine crisis seems to be driven by an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict, China's foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, Reuters also reported.
The "invisible hand" is "using the Ukraine crisis to serve certain geopolitical agendas," Qin said on the sidelines of the annual parliament meeting in Beijing, calling for dialog to begin as soon as possible. "Conflict, sanctions, and pressure will not solve the problem...The process of peace talks should begin as soon as possible, and the legitimate security concerns of all parties should be respected," Qin said.
Qin's reiteration of China's position on the Ukraine war comes amid growing tensions between Beijing and the European Union, which has questioned China's sincerity as a mediator when it has refused to name Russia as the aggressor in the conflict.
Qin also said Beijing has not provided weapons to either side of the Ukraine conflict, amid loud warnings from U.S. officials on unspecified "consequences" for China, should it send lethal aid to Russia.
"(China) is not a party to the crisis and has not provided weapons to either side of the conflict. So on what basis is this talk of blame, sanctions and threats against China? This is absolutely unacceptable."
2 a.m.:
1:40 a.m.: China must advance its relations with Russia as the world becomes more turbulent, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Speaking to reporters at an annual parliamentary session in Beijing, Qin said the close interactions between both leaders — President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin — provided the anchor for China-Russia relations.
He did not give a definite answer when asked if Xi would visit Russia after China's parliament session, which goes on for one more week.
Asked whether it is possible that China and Russia would abandon the U.S. dollar and euro for bilateral trade, Qin said that countries should use whatever currency is efficient, safe and credible.
"Currencies should not be the trump card for unilateral sanctions, still less a disguise for bullying or coercion," he said.
China, which has refused to name Russia as the aggressor in the Ukraine conflict, has often criticized the United States for bullying other countries with unilateral sanctions.
1:10 a.m.:
12:30 a.m.: Two Ukrainian pilots are in the United States to improve their flying skills, the Pentagon said Monday as Washington continues to rule out F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine despite pressure from Kyiv, Agence France-Presse reported.
A US military official confirmed that the pilots are in Tucson, Arizona for a "familiarization event."
"This event allows us to better help Ukrainian pilots become more effective pilots and better advise them on how to develop their own capabilities," the Pentagon official said.
12:01 a.m.: Ukraine's economy ministry has lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2023 to 1%, the Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted a deputy minister as saying, Reuters reported.
The ministry had previously projected that the economy, which has been hit by Russia's invasion and shrank by about a third last year, would grow 3.2% this year.
Speaking at an event in Kyiv, deputy economy minister Oleksiy Sobolev said the new figure was based on the assessment that fighting would continue beyond the middle of this year.
He also projected that inflation would fall to 24% from 26.6% last year, Interfax reported.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
