Moscow-backed separatist leaders in conflict-hit eastern Ukraine have announced they will evacuate civilians to Russia as fears of a major escalation in fighting grow.
Friday’s announcement by the heads of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) came after the rebels and Ukraine’s government traded fresh accusations of shelling and other ceasefire violations in the Donbas region.
Meanwhile, Western powers continued to voice alarm over Moscow’s massing of more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine’s borders.
The United States and its allies have warned Russia may be attempting to manufacture a “pretext” for an attack on its neighbour by deliberately inflaming the conflict in Donbas.
Here are all the latest updates:
10 mins ago (15:10 GMT)
Evacuations signal a ‘very worrying development’
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the village of Novoselovka, in eastern Ukraine, says the separatists’ evacuation announcements are “a very worrying development”.
“Of course, we can in no way confirm that this necessarily means there will be a definitive escalation [in fighting] from the Russian-backed separatists,” he said.
“They have been saying now for days that they believe the Ukrainian side may be planning such a move, but the Ukrainians have staunchly denied that.”
28 mins ago (14:53 GMT)
Luhansk People’s Republic leader announces evacuation
The head of the LPR, one of two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine, has announced an evacuation of civilians.
“To prevent civilian casualties, I call on residents of the republic… to leave for the Russian Federation as soon as possible,” Leonid Pasechnik said in a statement.
Pasechnik’s move came after Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, announced an evacuation of the other rebel-held region in eastern Ukraine.
47 mins ago (14:34 GMT)
Blinken says US seeing false provocations
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that everything Washington has seen happening on Russia’s border with Ukraine in the past 24 to 48 hours is part of a scenario of creating false provocations designed to elicit a response.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference alongside German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Blinken also cast doubt on Russia’s claims it was pulling forces back from positions near its neighbour.
“On the contrary, we see additional forces going to the border including leading-edge forces that would be part of any aggression,” he said.
48 mins ago (14:32 GMT)
Germany cannot supply Ukraine weapons due to WW2 past, minister says
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has defended her country’s decision not to send weapons, saying its World War II past meant it had a duty to seek other ways to secure peace.
Baerbock pointed to Berlin being Ukraine’s biggest donor as an example of its support for Kyiv while she addressed the Munich Security Conference alongside Blinken, who agreed that Western powers were working in a complementary, coordinated way.
“This is our strength – we are standing all together but using our different roles of support, with our different histories,” Baerbock said.
53 mins ago (14:27 GMT)
France’s Macron voices concern over situation in eastern Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron has described the situation in eastern Ukraine as very worrying.
Macron told reporters at a European Union summit that he had heard reports coming in of several casualties in the region.
59 mins ago (14:22 GMT)
Putin warns of ‘deteriorating’ situation
Putin has warned the situation in eastern Ukraine is “deteriorating” and called for Ukraine’s government to hold negotiations with Moscow-backed separatists in control of swaths of territory in the region.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow alongside his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin also said Russia was ready to follow a negotiation track with NATO on its security demands.
But he claimed that the US-led military alliance and Washington were not yet in a mood to engage on Moscow’s key concerns – namely that Ukraine never be permitted to join NATO and that the alliance cease all military activity in Eastern Europe.
Putin has accused the West of failing to engage with Russia over its main security concerns [File: Thibault Camus/Pool via Reuters]2 hours ago (13:32 GMT)
Ukraine separatist leader announces evacuation of civilians to Russia
The DPR’s separatist leader has said rebel authorities will begin evacuating civilians to Russia as fears of a large-scale conflict grow.
“From today, a mass centralised departure of the population to the Russian Federation has been organised. Women, children and the elderly are subject to be evacuated first,” Pushilin said in a video message on the Telegram messaging service.
2 hours ago (13:15 GMT)
Putin ‘laying the groundwork’ for an invasion: Analyst
Heather Conley, the president of the German Marshall Fund of the US think-tank, says Putin is giving “all indications” he is prepared to launch an attack on Ukraine.
“He is laying the groundwork for the pretext, which has been the shelling along the line of contact in Donbas,” she said.
“He is waiting for the Ukrainian government to act to defend itself and we believe he will use that as the pretext for an invasion.”
2 hours ago (13:14 GMT)
UN chief voices concern over ‘conflict in Europe’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used his opening speech at the Munich Security Conference to call for a de-escalation of the crisis.
“With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe,” Guterres said.
“I still think it will not happen. But if it did, it would be catastrophic,” he added.
2 hours ago (13:02 GMT)
Netherlands to send military equipment to Ukraine
The Netherlands plans to send military equipment to Ukraine, including rifles, ammunition, radar systems and mine-detecting robots, the country’s government has said.
“We continue to aim for a diplomatic solution”, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said. “But at the same time, Ukraine must be able to defend itself against a possible Russian attack.”
3 hours ago (12:48 GMT)
Videos of Russian military on the move spread on TikTok
As tensions ratchet up, footage posted online has become a valuable new tool for researchers analysing Russian military movements.
Read more here.
3 hours ago (12:14 GMT)
US says Russia has massed up to 190,000 personnel
Russia’s build-up of military personnel threatening Ukraine probably totals up to 190,000 soldiers, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” Michael Carpenter told an OSCE meeting on the Ukraine crisis, which Russia did not attend, referring to border areas and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
“This is the most significant military mobilisation in Europe since the second world war.”
4 hours ago (11:41 GMT)
Polish PM threatens tougher sanctions
European nations are preparing sanctions against Russia that will be much harsher than those imposed after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Poland’s prime minister says.
“We are constructing a package of concrete sanctions, which are to be much stronger than those from 2014,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference in Brussels, broadcast by Polish state-owned news channel TVP.
4 hours ago (11:30 GMT)
Lukashenko to take part in overseeing drills with Putin: Report
Lukashenko has said he will take part alongside Putin in overseeing forthcoming military drills, according to a report by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
The Belarusian leader remarks came after he held talks with Putin in Moscow. He did not say which drills. Minsk and Moscow are currently holding large joint exercises in Belarus.
Putin is expected to oversee drills of Russia’s nuclear forces on Saturday.
4 hours ago (11:16 GMT)
Russia ‘flexing its military and nuclear capabilities’
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, says Russia does not see its holding of forthcoming military drills involving Putin as an escalatory action.
“These are annual drills that are scheduled to take place, usually in October, but this year they have been moved forward as they have been in the past,” she said.
“So it’s not completely unusual, but of course, this is going to be seen [by Kyiv and the West] as yet another step that Russia is taking to further flex its military and nuclear capabilities … this is really the pinnacle of Putin’s show of strength at this time.”
Read more on the drills here.
4 hours ago (11:08 GMT)
Q&A: Ukraine invasion an ‘obsession’ for Putin
Former Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk has told Al Jazeera he believes Putin will “try to get his hands on Ukraine” for as long as he is alive.
“This is his obsession and it seems he is determined to do it one way or another,” Zagorodnyuk said.
Read more here.
4 hours ago (10:59 GMT)
Kremlin says situation in Donbas ‘very concerning’
Moscow is alarmed by reports of intensified fighting in eastern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
“What is happening in the Donbas is very concerning news and potentially very dangerous,” he told reporters.
5 hours ago (10:35 GMT)
US defence secretary announces Abrams tanks for Poland
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced the planned sale of 250 Abrams tanks to Poland as the US moves to strengthen the defences of a key Eastern European ally amid the mounting tensions over Ukraine.
“This is the most modern version of the Abrams, and will provide Poland with a highly-advanced tank capability,” Austin told a news conference following talks in Warsaw, adding that the delivery timeframe was under discussion.
“It will also strengthen our interoperability with the Polish armed forces, boosting the credibility of our combined deterrence efforts and those of our other NATO Allies.”
Austin said the Abrams tanks will boost the ‘combined deterrence efforts’ of Washington and Warsaw [File: Ints Kalnins/Reuters]5 hours ago (10:00 GMT)
US VP Harris to meet NATO chief in Munich
US Vice President Kamala Harris will meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the Munich Security Conference later on Friday.
Harris will also meet the leaders of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. She will then continue her three-day visit to the conference with meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other world leaders on Saturday.
6 hours ago (09:46 GMT)
NATO and the Ukraine-Russia crisis: Five key things to know
The future of NATO is at the centre of the standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Moscow wants guarantees that its neighbour, a former Soviet state, will be permanently barred from joining the US-led military alliance.
But Western leaders say the Kremlin cannot be allowed an effective veto on Kyiv’s foreign policy decisions and have defended NATO’s “open-door policy”.
Click here for five key things you need to know about the issue.
6 hours ago (09:29 GMT)
Ukraine says probability of a large-scale escalation is ‘low’
Kyiv estimates the probability of a major escalation of conflict with Russia to be “low”, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.
“Our intelligence sees every move that could pose a potential threat to Ukraine. We estimate the probability of a large-scale escalation as low,” Reznikov told Ukraine’s parliament.
He also said Russia had amassed some 149,000 troops around Ukraine’s borders and that another several thousand were expected to arrive soon.
6 hours ago (09:25 GMT)
Putin to oversee nuclear drills
Putin will oversee forthcoming exercises by Russia’s nuclear forces involving the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles, Russian news agencies report.
“On February 19, 2022, under the leadership of the supreme commander-in-chief of Russia’s armed forces, Vladimir Putin, a planned exercise of strategic deterrence forces will be held, during which ballistic and cruise missiles will be launched,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement carried by the agencies.
The ministry said it planned the manoeuvres some time ago to check the readiness of Russia’s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.
7 hours ago (08:47 GMT)
Timeline: How did the recent Ukraine-Russia crisis start?
Tensions over the Ukraine-Russia crisis have been simmering for months, with diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation showing little sign of progress.
Click here for a timeline of the main events so far.
7 hours ago (08:39 GMT)
‘War is totally avoidable and unnecessary’
Spain’s foreign minister has called on the Kremlin to take steps to de-escalate the current crisis and offered Moscow assurances that NATO and the European Union pose no threat to Russia.
“Neither NATO nor the EU have a hidden agenda or hidden interests or anything that cannot be explained,” Manuel Albares said on radio station Onda Cero. “War is totally avoidable and unnecessary.”
(Al Jazeera)8 hours ago (07:35 GMT)
Russia, US defence chiefs to speak by phone
Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu will speak by phone with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin at the request of the US, Interfax cites the Russian ministry as saying.
9 hours ago (06:40 GMT)
Russia announces withdrawal of forces
Russia says it has started withdrawing more tanks and other armoured vehicles from areas near Ukraine’s border after running war games.
“Another military train carrying personnel and military equipment belonging to tank army units of the western military district returned to their permanent bases in the Nizhny Novgorod region after completing scheduled exercises,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Separately, it said 10 warplanes were being redeployed from the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula to airfields in other regions as part of drills.
9 hours ago (06:20 GMT)
Ukraine records 60 ceasefire violations over 24 hours
The Ukrainian military says it has recorded 60 ceasefire violations by pro-Russian separatists over the past 24 hours, with one soldier injured.
In a report, the military said separatists opened fire on more than 10 settlements, using heavy artillery, mortars and a tank.
10 hours ago (05:20 GMT)
G7 ready for ‘serious dialogue’ with Russia
Baerbock says the Group of Seven (G7) is prepared to have “a serious dialogue” with Russia.
In a statement issued ahead of Friday’s key security conference in Munich, she said Berlin and its partners in the group – Canada, France Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US – would use the event “to send out a message of unity”.
“We are ready for a serious dialogue on security for all,” the German foreign minister added. Russia is not scheduled to attend the annual conference, which runs until Sunday.
10 hours ago (05:20 GMT)
Russia says infantry units return after Crimea drills
Several mechanised infantry units that took part in drills in Crimea have returned to their bases, Interfax reports, citing Russia’s defence ministry.
The troops had pulled back to the regions of Dagestan and Chechnya following the exercises, Interfax reported.
11 hours ago (04:47 GMT)
Russian-backed rebels accuse Kyiv of shelling village
Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine have accused government forces of shelling rebel-held territory.
The DPR said Petrivske village was targeted at about 03:30 GMT, according to Interfax.
Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/18/g7-says-ready-for-serious-dialogue-with-russia-on-ukraine-live
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