Ukraine news – live: Putin has lost nearly 200,000 troops in war, US officials say
Russian death toll includes regular military and Wagner Group mercenaries, says US
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Russian troops who have either died or were left wounded in the continuing war in Ukraine is nearing 200,000, according to the US and Western officials.
Senior US officials and Western diplomats said the number has climbed above the 100,000 figure given in November last year, The New York Times reported.
This week, senior US officials said they believed the number for Russia was closer to 200,000, according to the report.
This comes as Vladimir Putin marked the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi forces in the battle of Stalingrad, and invoked the battle as justification for the conflict in Ukraine.
Mr Putin evoked the spirit of the Soviet army that defeated Nazi German forces at Stalingrad 80 years ago to declare that Russia will defeat Ukraine.
Lambasting Germany for helping to arm Ukraine, he said: “Unfortunately we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country.
German has evidence of war crimes in Ukraine 'in three digit range’
Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at international level.
“Currently, for example, we are focusing on the mass killings in Bucha or attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure,” Peter Frank told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
So far, prosecutors have pieces of evidence in the “three-digit range”, he added, without elaborating.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of committing atrocities in Bucha, a satellite town of Kyiv, soon after launching their invasion last February. Moscow has denied the charge. Russia has also targeted key infrastructure in Ukraine but denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Germany began collecting evidence in March 2022 to prosecute possible war crimes, including by interviewing Ukrainian refugees and evaluating publicly available information, Frank said, adding that German prosecutors were not yet investigating specific individuals.
“We are preparing ourselves for a possible later court case - be it with us in Germany, be it with our foreign partners, be it before an international court,” he added.
Asked who should be tried, Frank said Russian state leaders and those implementing decisions at the highest military level should be held accountable.
War crimes claims come after von der Leyen said centre for prosecution would be set up
Ukraine is pushing for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian military and political leaders it holds responsible for starting the war.
The International Criminal Court has launched its own investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes days after Moscow’s invasion, but it does not have jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is visiting Kyiv, said on Thursday that an international centre for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in Ukraine would be set up in The Hague.
Moscow has rejected allegations by Kyiv and Western nations of war crimes.
Portugal to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
Portugal will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Saturday, without specifying how many will be shipped.
Costa added that Portugal is in talks with Germany to obtain parts needed for the repair of a number of inoperable Leopard tanks in Portugal’s inventory of the weapon.
“We are currently working to be able to dispense some of our tanks,” Costa told Lusa news agency during a trip to the Central African Republic. “I know how many tanks will be (sent to Ukraine) but that will be announced at the appropriate time.”
Costa’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Admiral Antonio Silva Ribeiro, the head of the Portuguese armed forces, said last month Portugal had 37 Leopard 2 tanks but it has been widely reported by local media that most are inoperable.
Portugal is working with Germany to get the parts needed to repair the tanks that are not operational, Costa said, adding he hoped to deliver them to Ukraine by the end of March.
The defence ministry said it would not comment on the “operability of weapons and equipment systems” for security reasons.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier this week the country would receive 120 to 140 Western tanks in a “first wave” of deliveries from a coalition of 12 countries.
Kyiv secured pledges from the West to supply main battle tanks to help fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Moscow mounting huge efforts to make incremental advances in eastern Ukraine.
Former Russian President warns Ukraine ‘will burn'
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced US weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia’s nuclear doctrine.
“All of Ukraine that remains under Kyiv’s rule will burn,” journalist Nadana Fridrikhson quoted him as saying in a written interview with her.
Fridrikhson asked Medvedev, who as deputy chairman of the Security Council has become one of Russia’s most hawkish pro-war figures since its invasion of Ukraine, whether the use of longer-range weapons might force Russia to negotiate with Kyiv.
“The result will be just the opposite,” Medvedev replied, in comments that Fridrikhson posted on her Telegram channel.
“Only moral freaks, of which there are enough both in the White House and in the Capitol, can argue like that.”
The Pentagon said on Friday that a new rocket that would double Ukraine’s strike range was included in a $2.175 billion U.S. military aid package.
Medvedev warns Russia ready to use all types of weapons - including nuclear
With the first anniversary of the invasion approaching on February 24, Russian forces have been on the back foot for the last eight months, and do not fully control any of the four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow has unilaterally declared part of Russia.
President Vladimir Putin casts Russia’s campaign in Ukraine as an existential defence against an aggressive West and has, like Medvedev, several times brandished the threat of a nuclear response, saying Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people.
Asked what would happen if the weapons that Washington has promised Ukraine were to strike Crimea - which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 - or deep into Russia, Medvedev said Putin had addressed the matter clearly.
“We don’t set ourselves any limits and, depending on the nature of the threats, we’re ready to use all types of weapons. In accordance with our doctrinal documents, including the Fundamentals of Nuclear Deterrence,” he said. “I can assure you that the answer will be quick, tough and convincing.”
Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear strike after “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened”.
Power outages in Odesa after ‘serious accident’
A serious accident at a high-voltage substation in Ukraine’s Odesa region has caused emergency power outages in the regional capital, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Saturday.
“The situation is difficult, the scale of the accident is significant, it is impossible to quickly restore power supply, in particular to critical infrastructure,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
He said the substation had previously been damaged multiple times by Russian missile strikes.
Ukraine working to restore power to critical infrastructure
Prime Minister Shmyhal said authorities were now working to restore power supply to critical infrastructure and apartment blocks that needed electricity to heat homes.
The temperature in Odesa, Ukraine’s main southern port city on the Black sea with a pre-war population of one million, was at two degrees Celsius on Saturday and is due to dip below freezing for much of the next week.
Mr Shmyhal said he had ordered Ukraine’s energy ministry to scramble every available high-power generator in its nationwide inventory and deliver it to Odesa within a day.
He also ordered Ukraine’s foreign ministry to appeal to Turkey to send powerships-- vessels that carry power plants-- to come to the city’s aid.
Three civilians killed in last 24 hours
At least three civilians have been killed in Ukraine over the past 24 hours as Russian forces struck nine regions in the country’s south, north and east, according to reports on Ukrainian TV by regional governors on Saturday morning. Two people were killed and 14 others wounded in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region by Russian shelling and missile strikes, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram update on Saturday morning. The casualty toll included a man who was killed and seven others who were wounded Friday after Russian missiles slammed into Toretsk, a town in the Donetsk region. Kyrylenko said that 34 houses, two kindergartens, an outpatient clinic, a library, a cultural centre and other buildings were damaged in the strike. Seven teenagers received shrapnel wounds after an anti-personnel mine exploded late on Friday in the northeastern city of Izium, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. He said they were all hospitalized but their lives were not in danger.
Overnight shelling in town near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Regional Ukrainian officials reported overnight shelling by Russia of border settlements in the northern Sumy region.
The town of Marhanets, which neighbors the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was also said to have been hit.
Kyiv has long accused Moscow of using the plant, which Russian forces seized early in the war, as a base for launching attacks on Ukrainian-held territory across the Dnieper river.
We’re pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for the evening but keep checking independent.co.uk for the latest updates.
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