Russia’s war on Ukraine: The latest news

Feb 12 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a decree on Saturday sacking a senior safety determine and mentioned individually that his drive to scrub up the federal government would proceed.

FIGHTING

* Ukraine’s forces are holding their defences alongside the entrance line within the japanese area of Donetsk, together with the besieged city of Bakhmut, with the fiercest battles for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s prime army commander mentioned on Saturday.

* Yevgeny Prigozhin, founding father of Russia’s Wagner Group, mentioned on Sunday that the mercenary pressure had taken the village of Krasna Hora, on the northern fringe of Bakhmut.

* Prigozhin mentioned on Saturday it may take two years for Moscow to regulate all the two japanese Ukrainian areas whose seize it has said as a key purpose of the conflict.

* A 53-year-old girl was killed on Sunday morning after Russian forces shelled an house constructing within the southeastern Ukrainian metropolis of Nikopol, the regional governor mentioned.

* Galina Danilchenko, the Russia-installed mayor of the Ukrainian metropolis Melitopol in south-eastern Zaporizhzhia area, mentioned on Saturday one civilian died and two individuals have been injured in in a single day shelling by Ukrainian forces.

* Reuters couldn’t confirm the battlefield accounts.

NATO LEADERSHIP

* NATO Secretary-Normal Jens Stoltenberg will finish his time period as deliberate in October, a spokesperson for the alliance mentioned, after a newspaper reported an additional extension was within the works.

POWER SUPPLIES

* Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the encircling area, in addition to the Odesa and Dnipro areas, can keep away from energy cuts on Sunday, main producer DTEK mentioned, as authorities labored to restore energy grids broken by a significant Russian strike.

WEAPONS

* British arms and army automobiles may very well be manufactured in Ukraine underneath licence, easing the nation’s dependence on provides of arms from Western allies, the Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday.

DIPLOMACY

* U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov mentioned priorities, together with air defence and artillery, for upcoming conferences of Kyiv’s allies in Brussels, each side mentioned on Saturday.

* Russian Sports activities Minister Oleg Matytsin mentioned calls from greater than 30 nations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics have been unacceptable, TASS information company reported.

* Russian athletics stars aren’t any strangers to being barred from worldwide competitions, and the prospect of lacking subsequent yr’s Olympics over the invasion of Ukraine has piled onto years of frustration felt in direction of world sports activities our bodies.

* NATO ought to maintain an emergency assembly to debate current findings about September explosions on the Nord Stream gasoline pipelines, Russia’s Overseas Ministry spokeswoman mentioned late on Saturday.

Compiled William Mallard and Frances Kerry

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