Kyiv’s forces find success along southern frontline in February, while Russian troops grind forward in the east. What we know on day 1,469
Russia’s army recorded its slowest advance on the frontline in Ukraine in nearly two years in February, an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War showed, as Kyiv’s troops scored several localised breakthroughs. The slowdown came as Moscow’s forces at the front struggled after Elon Musk cut the Russians’ access to Starlink internet terminals. Russia advanced by a total of 123 sq kilometres (48 sq miles) – the lowest since April 2024 – during the month, according to the analysis conducted by Agence France-Presse.
Ukrainian troops managed several localised advances during February, the data showed, including a 61 sq-kilometre gain on 15 February, and gains of more than 50 sq kilometres on 21 February and 23 February. Kyiv’s forces saw most success along the southern frontline, pushing Russia’s army back in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Moscow, meanwhile, has been grinding forward in the east, moving closer towards the key hubs of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russia occupies just over 19% of Ukraine.
Russia’s Sheskharis oil terminal suspended oil loadings on Monday following a Ukrainian drone attack that injured five, damaged 20 buildings and set a fuel terminal on fire, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials and three trade sources. The Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk is Russia’s major oil outlet in the Black Sea, loading 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil. An official at Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said Ukrainian drones had struck the terminal at the port, hitting six of its seven loading facilities, and that the drones also struck Russian warships. Ukraine’s general staff said the drones also struck a naval base, along with an S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system. Russia made no mention of any damage to its military assets. Reuters could not independently verify what Ukraine had struck.
US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine expected later this week may take place in Switzerland or Turkey if a planned meeting in Abu Dhabi is not possible due to the war in the Middle East, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Monday. He also noted that western countries have given no indication so far that their delivery to Kyiv of vital air defence missiles could be disrupted by commitments to Middle East defence. Peace talks have appeared deadlocked in recent weeks over Russia’s insistence that Ukraine hand over the remaining part of its eastern Donbas region which Moscow does not control.
Russian strikes killed at least eight people in Ukraine including during an attack on a civilian passenger train, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday. Three people were killed in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian stronghold that Russian forces are advancing towards, officials said. The head of the wider Donetsk region said two people were killed and 13 wounded in Druzhkivka.
Slovakia wants to initiate a meeting with the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and ideally together with Ukraine and Hungary, to get oil flows along the Druzhba pipeline restarted as quickly as possible, the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, said on Monday. Slovakia and Hungary have blamed Ukraine for dragging its feet on restarting supplies of Russian crude through the pipeline, although Kyiv says repairs take time after what it said was a Russian attack on pumping stations in western Ukraine in late January. “This has now become a European-Ukrainian problem and Europe must decide on which side it stands,” Fico said.
Ukraine will complete the technical work needed to open negotiations on all topics for its EU accession process within days, Zelenskyy said on Monday. Zelenskyy urged the EU to agree on a firm date for Ukraine to join the bloc, saying that would provide an important guarantee of the country’s future security. “We are ready, but not all leaders of the European Union are … I mean, not everyone is ready to give Ukraine this opportunity,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine became a formal EU candidate country in the early days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But so far, Kyiv’s progress through the existing EU process has been held up by Hungary, which has blocked the unanimous approval required to open formally each of the six so-called accession “clusters” of issues to be resolved.
Continue reading...
