Russia-Ukraine war: Biden will send ‘message’ to Putin in war anniversary speech – live | Ukraine

The conference in Munich also heard this morning from US Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in a speech that she was under “no doubt” that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population — gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape, and deportation.

Russian authorities have forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of people, from Ukraine to Russia, including children. They have cruelly separated children from their families.

Harris said that, as a former prosecutor and former head of California’s Department of Justice, she knew “the importance of gathering facts and holding them up against the law.”

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt. These are crimes against humanity.

The Biden administration formally concluded last March that Russian troops had committed war crimes in Ukraine. A determination of crimes against humanity goes a step further, indicating that attacks against civilians are being carried out in a widespread and systematic manner.

More now from Rishi Sunak’s speech to the Munich security conference.

The prime minister said the world needed to “rebuild the international order on which our security depends”.

The whole world must hold Russia to account. We must see justice through the [international criminal court] for their sickening war crimes.

He added that “we should consider together how to ensure that Russia pays” towards the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Sunak said the treaties and agreements of the post-cold war era had failed Ukraine, and that a “new framework” was needed to guarantee its security.

Russia has committed violation after violation against countries outside the collective security of Nato, and the international community’s response has not been strong enough.

Ukraine will become a member of Nato, but until that happens we need to do more to bolster Ukraine’s long-term security.

We must give them the advanced Nato-standard capabilities that they need for the future and we must demonstrate that we’ll remain by their side.

He concluded by quoting President Zelenskiy, who last week said during an address in Westminster Hall that Ukraine and its allies were marching “towards the most important victory of our lifetime”, a victory over “the very idea of war”.

Sunak said: “We could have no greater purpose than to prove him right.”

‘Now is the time to double down on our support to Ukraine,’ Sunak tells conference

In pictures: Leaders gather in Munich

Two people were injured in this morning’s strike on Khmelnytskyi, the city’s mayor has said.

Reports said two explosions were heard in the city, which sits in the west of Ukraine, early on Saturday.

Posting on Telegram, Oleksandr Symchyshyn said two people had been treated for injuries following the incident, though added that the injuries were not life-threatening.

He added that the strikes had caused damage to three schools and a number of business properties as well as several hundred windows in high-rise buildings.

Two Russian cruise missiles have been shot down over Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force.

In a post on Facebook, it said that Russia fired four Kalibr missiles over Ukraine from the Black Sea on Saturday.

“Two missiles were destroyed by air defense forces,” it said.

It added that the “threat of missile attacks remains” and urged civilians to follow guidance from officials.

It comes after explosions were reported in the western Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine on Saturday morning. Air raid alerts were also issued across much of western and southern Ukraine but were subsequently lifted.

It is becoming “increasingly difficult” for the Russian government to “insulate the population” from the reality of the war in Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

In its daily intelligence update on Saturday, the ministry said a Russian poll conducted in December found that 52% had either a friend or relative who had served in the war.

It added that a report presented to President Putin last week by the parliamentary group that is monitoring the war is likely to have covered issues such as social support to those mobilised and their families.

“This issue is likely to become more salient if any further mobilisation (be it overt or tacit) takes place,” the ministry said.

The European Union wants to work with its defence industry to increase the supply of ammunition to both Ukraine and the armed forces of its member states, the bloc’s chief has said.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested that the EU’s delivery of the Covid vaccine could serve as a model for how to up production.

“We could think of, for example, advanced purchase agreements that give the defence industry the possibility to invest in production lines now to be faster and to increase the amount they can deliver,” she said.

Recent months have seen repeated warnings that Ukraine is currently using ammunition faster than Western countries are able to produce and supply it.

“It is now the time to speed up the production and to scale up the production of standardised products [such as ammunition] that Ukraine needs desperately,” von der Leyen said.

The taboo on supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine has been “lifted”, President Zelensky has said.

The country’s Western allies have so far been reluctant to provide long-range missiles for fear they could be used to strike Russian territory and lead to an escalation of the war.

Speaking in his nightly address on Friday, Zelensky, who has visited a number of Western capitals in recent months, said his “diplomatic marathon continues” and is making headway.

“A tank coalition has already been created for Ukraine, the taboo on the supply of long-range missiles has already been lifted, there have already been new successes in strengthening our artillery,” he said.

He added that the world has “heard how necessary” the creation of an “aviation coalition for Ukraine is for global security”. As well as long-range missiles, Ukraine is calling on its allies to provide its air force with fighter jets.

Two explosions heard in city of Khmelnytskyi

The West must give Ukraine the “advanced, Nato-standard capabilities” it needs to expel Russian forces from its territory, prime minister Rishi Sunak is set to tell the Munich Security Conference.

Sunak is due to arrive in Munich this morning and to deliver a speech to the conference around midday.

He is also expected to attend a number of bilateral meetings throughout the day, including with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and US vice president Kamala Harris.

More than 142,000 Russian soldiers killed, says Ukraine

The Pentagon said on Friday that the first Ukrainian battalion with about 635 soldiers had completed a roughly five-week-long US course of combined arms training on the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Germany. Additional battalion-level combined arms training was already underway, it said.

The United States has announced plans to give Ukraine more than 50 of the armoured vehicles, which have a powerful gun and have been used by the US Army to carry troops around battlefields since the mid-1980s.

Moscow accused the United States of fuelling an escalation of the war and now being directly involved.

“The American warmongers… supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence and participate directly in the planning of combat operations,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, on Friday.

Rishi Sunak has boarded his flight from Stansted to Germany to attend the Munich security conference, according to the Press Association.

The prime minister will give a speech and meet with a number of world leaders while at the summit.

He is also expected to meet European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the fringes to talk about a deal to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The governor of Luhansk province in Ukraine’s east says ground and air attacks from Russian forces are increasing.

Serhiy Haidai told local TV of fighting near the city of Kreminna:

Today it is rather difficult on all directions. There are constant attempts to break through our defence lines.

Luhansk is one of two provinces in the Donbas region that Russia partially controls and wants to take fully.

Reuters also reported that Russia said in its latest update that a barrage of missile strikes on Thursday around Ukraine had achieved their goals in hitting facilities providing fuel and ammunition to Kyiv’s forces.

Ukraine reported 36 missiles, saying 16 were shot down and that its largest oil refinery, Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, was hit.

Biden will be ‘messaging’ Putin in Poland speech

Hello, this is Adam Fulton bringing you the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the west to speed up its support for Ukraine, telling world leaders gathered in Munich, Germany, for a major security conference that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would gain a military advantage unless arms deliveries arrived soon.

Zelenskiy said in a video address opening the summit on Friday:

We need to hurry up. We need speed – speed of our agreements, speed of our delivery … speed of decisions to limit Russian potential.

About 40 heads of state and government as well as politicians and security experts from nearly 100 countries – including the US, Europe and China – are expected to attend the three-day conference to discuss Europe’s security situation amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the US president, Joe Biden, will be “messaging” his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, when he speaks in Poland on Tuesday, the US says. More on that story soon.

In other developments at it approaches 9am in Kyiv and 10am in Moscow:

• The French president, Emmanuel Macron, urged allies to intensify their military support for Ukraine to help it carry out a needed counter-offensive against Russia. There could be no peace in Ukraine until Russia was defeated, Macron said at the Munich conference, adding that Russia was doomed to “a defeat in the future”.

• Zelenskiy warned a possible consequence of delaying western weapons to Ukraine could be a Russian invasion of Moldova. He said neighbouring Belarus would make a mistake of historic proportions if it joined in the Russian offensive and claimed polls showed 80% of its people did not wish to join.

• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, gave Zelenskiy an indirect rebuff, saying caution was better than hasty decisions and unity was better than going it alone. Scholz said Germany was the biggest supplier of weapons in continental Europe, and that the region was in uncharted territory and there was no blueprint for confronting a nuclear-armed aggressor, making it vital to avoid an unintended escalation.

• The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will call on world leaders to ensure a “lasting peace” for Ukraine with the establishment of a new Nato charter to help it defend itself “again and again” in the face of any future declarations of war by Russia. Sunak is expected at the Munich conference to call for countries to “double down on our military support”, and to warn that “the security and sovereignty of every nation” is at stake.

• Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said the US is inciting Ukraine to strike directly at Russian territory, after comments by the US undersecretary of state, Victoria Nuland, about Crimea. Nuland said the US supported Ukraine striking at targets in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 in a move that is only recognised by a handful of mostly rogue states.

• As many as 60,000 Russian forces may have been killed in just under a year of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. The casualty rate “has significantly increased since September 2022 when ‘partial mobilisation’ was imposed”. Convict recruits used by Wagner may have had a casualty rate of one in every two men.

• Russia’s defence ministry website has confirmed Lt Gen Andrey Mordvichev is the new head of the central military district, replacing Col Gen Alexandr Lapin, who in January was appointed chief of staff of Russia’s ground forces. Mordvichev’s appointment follows other sweeping changes to Russia’s military leadership.

• Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Dutch ambassador over what it called “obsessive attempts” by authorities in the Netherlands to hold it responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine in 2014. In a statement Russia accused the joint investigation team set up to establish who was responsible of being “politicised”.

• The World Health Organization has appealed for more funds to support Ukraine’s health sector, which has been severely damaged by the war. Ukraine needed more funds to ensure mental health, rehabilitation and community access to health services, said the WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, in a briefing in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.

• A British embassy security guard has been jailed for more than 13 years after a judge told him his “treachery” spying for Russia had put his former colleagues at “maximum risk”. David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, copied secret documents he found in unlocked filing cabinets and on desks at the embassy, including a letter to the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson.