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The president has urged western allies for more weapons amid fierce fighting
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Moment Zelensky told tanks would be delivered
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of “constant Russian attacks” across frontline regions in his daily address.
Mr Zelensky says the eastern Donetsk region has seen “constant fighting”, calling the situation across the frontline “very tough.”
The president added that Russia is looking to drag out the conflict in a ‘war of attrition’. He said: “We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”
Talks reported to be ongoing over requests for long-range missiles and military aircraft were confirmed by Ukraine’s defence minister, who said in an interview on Canadian television he saw military jets as a “game changer”.
The discussions come as shelling in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Sunday killed three civilians, hitting a hospital and a school.
A missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is also reported to have killed one civilian, wounding several others.
Meanwhile, an attack from the mercenary Wagner Group on Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region on Sunday, was repelled by Ukraine’s forces, according to the General Staff of Ukraine‘s Armed Forces.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of “constant Russian attacks” across frontline regions in his daily address.
In a markedly sombre tone, Zelensky said: “The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the Donetsk region are under constant Russian attacks.
“There are constant attempts to break through our defense.”
Zelensky repeated reports from his previous address on Saturday of fierce fighting in the Donetsk region, amid reports of Ukrainian forces struggling to hold Bakhmut, at the epicentre of fighting in the region.
President Zelensky continued: “We are doing everything to ensure that our pressure outweighs the occupiers’ assault capabilities.
“Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon.
“We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”
President Zelensky also paid tribute to those killed in shelling in Kherson, where three people died on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his stance on Russian athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Games, suggesting it showed that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
He added that he had sent a letter to French president Emmanuel Macron as part of his assertive campaign.
In his latest address, Zelensky said: “Attempts by the International Olympic Committee to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to tell the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable.
“As if you could shut your eyes to what Russia is doing in Kherson, Kharkiv, Bakhmut and Avdiivka,” all of which have been the focus of intense attacks in recent days.
His latest comments were accompanied by references to the “tragedies” of the 20th century, including the hosting of the 1936 Olympic Games in Hitler’s Berlin.
Zelensky added “The Olympic movement and terrorist states definitely should not cross paths.”
Read more here:
Thomas Bach said the IOC and international sports federations are discussing how to bring Russian athletes back into competition.
Efforts within the US military high command to supply Ukrainian forces with modern F-16 fighter jets are quietly gaining pace, a defence department official has said.
Speaking with Politico, a senior official from the US department of defence said: “I don’t think we are opposed,” when asked if jets were being considered for supply.
A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment for this story, though referred reporters to previous statements made by deputy national security adviser Jon Finer.
Ukraine’s own stock of fighter jets are older models, first produced by the Soviet Union
Finer said that US officials would be discussing the prospect of fighter jets “very carefully” with Ukraine and its other western allies.
He continued: “We have not ruled in or out any specific systems.”
President Zelensky reiterated his plea for arms and military equipment in his latest daily address, where he said: “We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”
Boris Johnson has claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened to kill him in a missile attack, saying “it would only take a minute” in a call ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.
The former prime minister said the “extraordinary” conversation occurred in February following his visit to Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support for Ukraine, amid growing fears of invasion.
The former prime minister, who would later emerge as a key supporter among western allies of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, made the claim in a new series for BBC Two looking at how the West grappled with the Russian president in the years leading to the invasion.
Read more here:
‘It would only take a minute’, Russian president told British PM ahead of Ukraine invasion
Four people were killed and five injured in an attack by Ukrainian forces on a bridge in Melitopol, a city in southeastern Ukraine.
Reported by Russian-installed head of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram that a rocket was launched at the railway bridge from across the Molochna river.
The Zaporizhzhia region has been partially occupied by Russia since it first invaded in February last year, and contains Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Balitsky added that the rocket was launched from a Himars missile system, which are in production in the United States.
He added: “At this time, renovation work was under way at the facility. According to preliminary data, as a result of the shelling, four people from the railway brigade were killed, five were injured, they are receiving the necessary medical care.”
Reporters from news agency Reuters were unable to verify the accuracy of Balitsky’s statement.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday it will not hold annual talks with Japan on renewing a pact allowing Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands.
The islands, off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories.
As reported on Russian state media, the defence ministry said: “In the context of the anti-Russian measures taken by the Japanese government … the Russian side informed Tokyo that it could not agree on the holding of intergovernmental consultations on the implementation of this agreement.”
Japan tightened its sanctions regime on Russian trade, institutions and individuals on Friday in response to the increase in shelling attacks.
Russia had suspended the diplomatic agreement in June which allowed Japanese boats to fish near the islands, though the Japanese chief cabinet secretary has demanded the talks to go ahead.
Three people were killed by Russian shelling on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, damaging a hospital and a school, regional officials said.
The administration wrote on Telegram: “Today’s Russian shelling injured nine people: three people died (two men and one woman), six were injured.”
In an earlier post, before casualties could be identified, it was reported: “As a result of enemy shelling, a number of civil infrastructure objects were damaged: the Kherson Regional Clinical Hospital, a school, a bus station, a post office, a bank, and residential buildings.”
Ukrainian firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a house following Russian shelling in the city of Kherson on January 29
Ukraine’s ministry of health posted on Facebook that a nurse was wounded in the attacks.
Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November after Russian forces occupied the city in the early days of the conflict.
The city has since seen regular shelling and attacks from Russian positions across the Dnipro river.
Officials from Ukraine’s western allies have reported concern that the “window for Ukraine isn’t indefinite”, requiring more munitions and supply to break through.
Cited in a report from the Wall Street Journal, the unnamed officials from western nations suggest Russian forces will control any ‘war of attrition’, with Ukraine needing an expansion of supply of powerful military equipment to counter this.
Recent expansion of conscription, military training in Russian schools and continued ability to finance spending in the conflict have suggested Moscow has a greater ability to stay in the war.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces’ General Staff, Russia has lost 126,000 troops and thousands of pieces of military hardware since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The report also suggests that officials have less confidence in the ability of Ukraine’s armed forces to carry out offensives seen last year.
Ukrainian president Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News that Ukraine needs “500 tanks” to liberate its provinces.
The Russian regional governor for Kursk, situated on the northeastern border of Ukraine, has reported shelling of the bordering region and strikes on Russian villages.
Alleged mortar strikes cut off two villages from electricity, however there were no reported casualties.
Governor Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram messaging app: “The village of Chervonozhovtneve of the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region came under mortar fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“12 hits were recorded. There are no casualties. Power supply lines were damaged, which left the village of Chervonozhovtneve and the neighboring village of Volfino without electricity.”
Ukraine’s military has not commented on the alleged attack.
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