Germany indicates it will drop its veto on Leopard 2 tanks being sent to Ukraine; a fierce battle looms in Bakhmut, with a major Russian offensive expected. Listen to the latest episode of Ukraine War Diaries as you scroll.
Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) has accused Ukraine of storing Western-supplied arms at nuclear power stations across the country.
It provided no evidence for the claims.
In a statement, the SVR said US-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers, air defence systems and artillery ammunition had been delivered to the Rivne nuclear power station in the northwest of Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian armed forces are storing weapons and ammunition provided by the West on the territory of nuclear power plants,” it said.
Ukraine’s many nuclear power stations have been the focus of attention since the start of the conflict. Russian forces seized the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant less than 48 hours after troops invaded, and also captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest in Europe – early in the war.
One figure who has become increasingly prominent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the head of the shadowy Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In newly emerged video, he is reportedly heard warning recruits of the brutal nature of the fighting in which they will soon be forced to take part, in Soledar, in the eastern Donetsk region.
Wagner forces have been engaged in intense warfare in an effort to seize control of the salt-mining town.
Mr Prigozhin is heard telling his recruits that compared Soledar, Stalingrad was “resting”.
This is a reference to a key battle – considered by many historians to be the single most pivotal battle of the Second World War – in which Nazi Germany were eventually defeated by Russian forces.
Waged in the city now known as Volgograd, in involved intense, close-quarter combat. It was the deadliest battle of the war, and one of the bloodiest in the history of warfare – with an estimated two million people killed.
A Russian warship armed with new-generation hypersonic cruise weapons will take part in joint exercises with the navies of China and South Africa in February, it has been reported.
It was the first official mention of the participation by the frigate, “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov”, which is armed with Zircon missiles.
The missiles fly at nine times the speed of sound, with a range of more than 1,000km (620 miles), Russia claims. They form the centrepiece of its hypersonic arsenal, along with the Avangard glide vehicle that entered combat duty in 2019.
“‘Admiral Gorshkov’ … will go to the logistic support point in Syria’s Tartus, and then take part in joint naval exercises with the Chinese and South African navies,” according to Russian state agency, TASS, citing an unidentified defence source.
Arguably the biggest news in recent days surrounding Ukraine’s ongoing effort to defend itself against Russia has been the vexed issue of the sending of German-made tanks to Kyiv.
But having held back from donating the Leopard 2 machines itself while also blocking other countries from doing so, Berlin has signalled a shift in its stance.
In what would be a breakthrough for Ukraine, Germany’s foreign minister said the country would not stand in the way if Poland wanted to send its Leopard 2 tanks.
The news will come as a boost for Kyiv as it seeks to bolster its forces ahead of an expected new Russian offensive.
As described in our previous post, eleven months after Russia’s invasion, the fighting is centred on the town of Bakhmut.
There, Russia’s Wagner mercenaries and Ukrainian forces have been locked in a battle of attrition.
Russia’s defence ministry said for the second day in a row on Sunday that its forces were improving their positions in Ukraine’s southern region of Zaporizhzhia, although a Ukrainian military spokesperson told the state broadcaster the situation there was “difficult” but stable.
We start the day with a dispatch from Sky’s Alex Rossi, in Bakhmut, where a relentless and deadly fight looms as it prepares for a massive Russian offensive:
The city of Bakhmut is almost under siege.
As you approach, the rumbling percussion of artillery echoes all around – it’s the sound of a coming storm.
The first thing that draws your eye is the smoke from shelling in the centre, spiralling up against a bruised skyline.
Russia‘s advance is choking routes into this desperate place, which is at the epicentre of this war.
We travelled on one of the remaining roads in.
It’s a sketchy, nervous journey along smashed-up streets.
Read Alex Rossi‘s full eyewitness account below:
According to news site Menadefense, around 20 T-72B tanks, which were being modernised in the Czech Republic were sent to Ukraine a week ago.
The decision to deliver the arms was made during the Rammstein Air Base meeting for Ukraine, which took place on 26 April, 2022.
At the meeting, Morocco and Tunisia were the only two countries to represent North Africa.
The tanks were part of a larger number brought by the Moroccan army from Belarusian stocks in 1999 and 2000.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius has said a decision concerning the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine will be made soon, whichever way it may go.
He said the government has many factors to consider and the country would not make a hasty decision, when speaking in an interview with Germany’s ARD TV.
Such factors include the consequences for the security of the German population.
This comes after Mr Pistorius told a German newspaper yesterday that he is planning to visit Ukraine within the next four weeks.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock told French broadcaster LCI that Germany would not stand in the way if Poland decided to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
Speaking through a translator, Ms Baerbock said: “For the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way.”
The question came after Pawel Jablonski, deputy foreign minister of Poland, said on January 20, that the country could send in the tanks even if Germany opposes it.
Speaking to private radio RMF FM, Mr Jablonski said Poland are “ready to take such a step,” after Warsaw and other NATO allies have been urging Germany to give them the go-ahead.
He said: “At the moment we are trying to make Germany not only agree to these tanks being sent by Poland or other countries, but also to do so themselves.
“I think that if there is strong resistance, we will be ready to take even such non-standard action… but let’s not anticipate the facts.”
Echoing this Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, criticised Germany’s reluctance, saying that if the country did not consent to transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine, his country was prepared to build a “smaller coalition” of countries that would send theirs anyway.
A round-up of the former prime minister’s surprise visit to Ukraine where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visited a church in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, and attended an exhibition dedicated to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
