Live blog: Parts of Ukraine's Avdiivka in 'critical' condition — official

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

1441 GMT — Some parts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka are in a "critical" condition as they fight off Russian shelling and incursions, a local official has said.

"While for several weeks we were saying the situation was very difficult but under control, now the situation is very difficult and in some places critical," said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town's military administration.

"This does not mean that everything is lost, that everything is very bad.

Russia launched a renewed push to capture Avdiivka in October, with troops on three sides of the town pounding it with relentless artillery strikes in a bid to force a Ukrainian withdrawal.

More updates 👇

1441 GMT — Ukraine 'blew up' drilling platform used by Russia in drone attacks

Ukraine has said a group of its special forces blew up a drilling platform in the Black Sea that Russia was using to enhance the range of its drones.

In a statement on the Telegram messaging platform, special forces said equipment on the platform was used for drones involved in attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure and to control the northwestern part of the sea.

The operation, dubbed Citadel, was conducted at night and resulted in the capture of "important enemy equipment" and the platform being blown up, the statement said.

1407 GMT — UN nuclear watchdog chief Grossi to visit Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has said he would visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine on Wednesday.

Grossi will assess if the plant can be safely run with a reduced number of staff and check how safe the fuel is that has been in the reactors for years.

1359 GMT — Ukraine’s parliament approves extension of martial law, mobilisation for 90 days

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved two bills to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days, a lawmaker said.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram that the bills on extending martial law and mobilisation received 335 and 323 votes in favour, respectively. The bills will come into effect on February 13.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first declared martial law and general mobilisation on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine. The measure has been extended several times since then.

1257 GMT — Top EU diplomat arrives in Ukrainian capital

The EU foreign policy chief has arrived in Ukraine's capital for a visit, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko.

"Josep Borrell has arrived in Kyiv," Goncharenko wrote on Telegram.

On Monday, visiting Poland's capital Warsaw, Borrell announced that the EU plans to sanction international companies that allegedly help Russia circumvent Western sanctions.

1231 GMT — Poland mulls deporting Ukrainians to shore up army

To shore up Ukraine's sinking number of soldiers, Poland is considering deporting Ukrainian refugees from the country.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it will not rule out deporting Ukrainians living in the country.

"With regard to issues related to military conscription of Ukrainians staying abroad, including on Polish territory, we are aware of the current situation and the problem it poses for the Ukrainian side," said online portal Onet quoting the statement.

There are 958,000 Ukrainian citizens in Poland, according to the European Commission.

1049 GMT — Georgian President denounces Russian plan for navy base in breakaway region

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has denounced a reported Russian plan to set up a navy base in the breakaway Abkhazia region as a threat to security in the Black Sea.

"Russia's plan to transform the Ochamchire port into its navy base is aimed at shifting the confrontation into the Black Sea, into our territorial waters, and at creating a threat to the strategic perspective of the Black Sea," Zurabishvili said during an address to parliament.

1022 GMT — Ukraine says it neutralised 'powerful Russian spy ring'

Ukraine said it had arrested five former and current intelligence officers it said were working for Russia as part of a powerful spy ring.

Kiev said the suspects were caught passing information to Russia's FSB security service about Ukrainian military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data and strategic energy facilities.

"The security service of Ukraine neutralised a powerful agent network run by the FSB's military counterintelligence which was operating in Ukraine," Kiev's SBU security service said in a statement.

The general prosecutor said the five — former employees of Ukraine's defence intelligence and its foreign intelligence units as well as a current SBU regional agent — were arrested on suspicion of treason.

"The suspects passed on intelligence about the Defence Forces and strategically important energy facilities to representatives of the aggressor state's special services," the general prosecutor said.

The agency posted photos of the men being arrested, with their faces blurred out, on its social media pages.

1007 GMT — Kremlin declines comment on alleged visit of Tucker Carlson to Russian presidential administration

The Kremlin, asked whether US journalist Tucker Carlson had visited the Russian presidential administration in Moscow this week, declined to comment.

Russian media showed pictures of Carlson at several spots around Moscow on Monday during a visit which has fuelled speculation that the former Fox News host may become the first Western journalist to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin during the war in Ukraine.

When asked if Carlson had visited the Russian administration building in central Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "I am not commenting in any way on the movements of an American journalist."

0957 GMT — Russia orders arrest of exiled writer Boris Akunin

A Moscow court ordered the arrest in absentia of bestselling Russian language writer Boris Akunin for allegedly spreading "disinformation" about the Russian army.

The 67-year-old was charged in December last year after he expressed support for Kiev in a phone call with Russian pranksters posing as Zelenskyy.

Akunin, who has lived abroad since 2014, will be immediately held in custody for two months if he is extradited or ever sets foot in Russia, Moscow's Basmanny District Court ruled.

0956 GMT — Security still fragile at Ukraine's Russian-controlled nuclear power plant: UN nuclear chief

Security at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile amid worrying recent staff cuts enacted by Russian authorities occupying the facility, which is one of the 10 biggest atomic power plants in the world, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief said.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who is in Kiev, told The Associated Press that his upcoming visit to the plant as the war approaches its two-year milestone will aim to assess the impact of recent personnel reductions after Russia denied access to employees of Ukraine’s Energoatom.

"This huge facility used to have around 12,000 staff. Now, this has been reduced to between 2,000 and 3,000, which is quite a steep reduction in the number of people working there," Grossi said.

"To man, to operate these very sophisticated big installations you need a certain number of people performing different specific functions."

0948 GMT — Ukraine's Donetsk region pounded by up to 2,500 Russian strikes daily: governor

Russia is firing between 1,500 and 2,500 shells and rockets at Ukraine's war-ravaged Donetsk region every day and is targeting critical infrastructure to make it harder for people to remain there in winter, its governor told Reuters.

The eastern province, 57 percent of which is controlled by Russia, has been at the forefront of war since 2014, when Russian-backed proxies seized the region's capital city, also called Donetsk, as well as many other large towns.

Since Russia launched a full-scale military incursion in 2022, this has been where many of the war's most vicious and protracted battles have occurred.

"The enemy shells (the region) from 1,500 to 2,500 times a day," Governor Vadym Filashkin said in an interview on Friday, adding he believed Moscow was still aiming to capture the entire region.

"The enemy's shelling is this dense, this heavy, almost every day."

0738 GMT — Baby killed in Russian strike in northeast Ukraine: governor

A two-month-old baby has been killed and three people were injured in a Russian strike in northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said.

"Around 2:30 am (0030 GMT), a three-storey hotel was destroyed in Zolochiv... following two S-300 missile strikes," the official said on Telegram, adding that the two-month-old child died and three women were wounded.

0637 GMT — Biden to receive Scholz amid Ukraine aid impasse

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will try to build on the momentum from Europe's success in agreeing new aid for war-stricken Ukraine when he heads to Washington this week, where President Joe Biden is struggling to overcome opposition to a US package.

The leaders' talks Friday will also focus on escalating tensions in the Middle East, where Israel is waging a war on Gaza and where the US has launched strikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria following a drone attack that killed three American soldiers at a Jordanian base.

The United States is Kiev's biggest military backer, and Germany its second biggest, and the Biden-Scholz meeting comes almost two years since Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine.

0558 GMT — Russia says it thwarted Ukrainian drone attack over Belgorod

Russia has claimed to have thwarted an overnight drone attack by Kiev in the western Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

"Tonight, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using seven aircraft-type UAVs against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped," the defence ministry said on Telegram.

"All Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted by air defence systems on duty over the territory of Belgorod region," the ministry added without specifying the exact location of the attack or whether it caused any damage or injuries.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the city of Gubkin had come under attack by Ukrainian drones. No casualties were reported, Gladkov said on Telegram, but four homes were damaged.

2240 GMT — Trump urges US Republicans to reject Ukraine aid deal

Former US president Donald Trump has urged Republicans to reject a bill tying the toughest border security measures in a generation to $60 billion in Ukraine aid.

"Don't be STUPID!!! We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form!" Trump, who looks almost certain to be facing President Joe Biden again in November, posted on social media.

US President Joe Biden and Trump offer starkly divergent approaches to Ukraine, with the Democrat clear that helping the pro-Western ally repel Russia is vital to ensure a safer world, while his predecessor pushes an isolationist, "America First" policy.

2200 GMT — Poland building new fortifications in border zone with Belarus, Russia

Poland is building new fortifications and shelters in the border zone with Belarus and Russia, according to a report in a Polish economic and legal newspaper.

The Ministry of Defence did not disclose detailed information, but a ministry source told the Rzeczpospolita daily that the move was "part of the overall national defence plan."

The ministry said in a briefing that "work is underway on the further expansion of engineering fortifications, including a shelter system and their improvement in the border zone."

"The situation is dire; more and more countries feel it," Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told the daily Super Express.

For our live updates from Monday, February 5 click here.