Live blog: Joint EU arms plan will work but Kiev needs help now - Borrell

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has backed a call for the bloc's members to buy arms jointly to help Ukraine but warned it would not solve Kiev's urgent need for more ammunition now.

Borrell was responding to an Estonian proposal for the EU to place large ammunition orders on behalf of multiple member states to speed up procurement and encourage European arms firms to invest in increasing their production capacities.

EU officials and diplomats say they are urgently exploring the possibility of joint procurement of 155-millimetre artillery shells to help Kiev defend itself against Russia. 

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the Estonian plan in Brussels on Monday.

In a panel discussion with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in Munich, Borrell said: "I completely agree with the Estonian prime minister's proposal, we are working on that and it will work."

Following are the other developments:

Sunday, February 19, 2023

1916 GMT — US plans new sanctions on Russia, targets key industries 

The Biden administration is planning to impose new export controls and a fresh round of sanctions on Russia, targeting key industries, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The new sanctions will target Russia's defence and energy sectors, financial institutions and several individuals, the report added. 

1806 GMT —  Biden to discuss more troops in upcoming visit: Polish PM

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said that he and US President Joe Biden will discuss possibly increasing US troop presence in Poland and making it more permanent during Biden's upcoming visit to Warsaw.

"We are in the process of discussion with President Biden's administration about making their (troop) presence more permanent and increasing them," Morawiecki said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"I'm very grateful also for sending new Patriot systems and other very modern weapons and munitions because this is also to some extent a proxy for presence of soldiers, but of course the two go in tandem," he said. 

1609 GMT — Russian shelling kills three in southern Ukraine

 Russian shelling killed three adult members of a family in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, regional authorities said.

Four others - including two children - were injured when a shell flew into the yard of a house in the village of Burgunka, officials said.

"The Russian occupiers killed a family in the region of Kherson," the regional administration said in a statement.

"Three people died at the scene of the tragedy - the father, mother and uncle."

Separately, an 8-year-old boy was injured by the shelling in the same village, the regional authorities said.

1603 GMT — Russia accuses Kiev of planning to stage nuclear incident 

Russia has said that Ukraine was planning to stage a nuclear incident on its territory to pin the blame on Moscow ahead of a United Nations meeting, without providing evidence for the accusation.

Russia's defence ministry said in a statement that radioactive substances had been transported to Ukraine from a European country and Kyiv was preparing a large-scale "provocation".

"The aim of the provocation is to accuse Russia's army of allegedly carrying out indiscriminate strikes on hazardous radioactive facilities in Ukraine, leading to the leakage of radioactive substances and contamination of the area," it said.

Ukraine and its allies have dismissed such accusations. 

1335 GMT — Ukraine troops prepare for threat of Russia capturing Bakhmut 

Ukrainian troops conducting weekend exercises near the small town of Siversk, in the country's east, said they were preparing to defend one of the possible targets of a new Russian offensive.

Siversk, which had a pre-war population of 10,000, is 35 kilometres (21 miles) north of Bakhmut - scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks - and on a direct road to another of the key towns in the Donetsk region, Sloviansk.

1120 GMT — Ukraine presses US Congress members for F-16 jetfighters

Ukrainian officials have urged US Congress members to press President Joe Biden's administration to send F-16 jet fighters to Kiev, saying the aircraft would boost Ukraine's ability to hit Russian missile units with US-made rockets, lawmakers said.

The lobbying came over the weekend on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in talks between Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Democrats and Republicans from the Senate and House of Representatives.

"They told us that they want (F-16s) to suppress enemy air defences so they could get their drones" beyond the Russian front lines, Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who flew US Navy fighters in combat,  was quoted by a Reuters news report published on Sunday.

Biden last month said "no" when asked if he would approve Ukraine's request for Lockheed-Martin-made F-16s.

1118 GMT — France to send Kiev armoured vehicles within week

France has announced that it will begin delivering the armoured vehicles it has promised Ukraine in its war against Russia by next weekend.

The vehicles, of the AMX-10 type and sometimes described as "light tanks", are used for armed reconnaissance and attacks on enemy tanks.

The first vehicles will be sent to Ukraine "by the end of next week", Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Le Parisien newspaper's Sunday edition.

He declined to specify the number of vehicles in the first batch, saying he did not want to give Russia any "strategic information".

According to the French defence ministry, AMX-10s are highly mobile, "powerfully armed" and offer protection against light infantry fire.

Their combat weight is 20 tonnes, around a third of that of France's Leclerc battle tanks.

0856 GMT — West must provide more military support to Ukraine - EU's Borrell

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday the West must provide more military aid to Ukraine and speed up its deliveries.

"Much more has to be done and much quicker. There is still a lot to be done. We have to increase and accelerate our military support," Borrell said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

0831 GMT — Kremlin warns against US provocations in Crimea

The Kremlin on Sunday cast the United States was a "major provocateur" of international tensions for condoning attacks on Crimea, warning that the remarks about the peninsula underscored the depth of disagreement between the two countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to comments by US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who called for the demilitarisation of Crimea.

Nuland also said that Washington supports Ukrainian attacks on military targets on the peninsula.

Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

"Nuland belongs to a very broad camp of the most aggressive 'hawks' in American politics. This is a point of view we know well," Peskov said in comments published by the TASS news agency. 

For our live updates from Saturday (February 18), click here