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UN general assembly to vote on draft peace resolution next week
The UN general assembly will vote next week on a draft resolution stressing “the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The vote will happen on the as Ukraine marks one year since Russia’s invasion.
The UN will, not for the first time, demand Moscow withdraw its troops and calls for a halt to hostilities. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to vote next Thursday after two days of speeches by dozens of states to mark the 24 February anniversary of the start of the war.
Ukraine and its supporters hope to deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation by seeking yes votes from nearly three-quarters of the General Assembly to match or exceed the support received for several resolutions last year.
“We count on very broad support from the membership. What is at stake is not just the fate of Ukraine, it is the respect of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of every state,” said European Union Ambassador Olof Skoog, who helped lead the drafting of the General Assembly resolution.
Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy declined to comment on the draft resolution, which member states received on Wednesday.
Critical infrastructure hit in Russian strikes on western region of Lviv
Critical infrastructure was damaged in Russian strikes on the Lviv region in Ukraine’s west, the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi, reported on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties.
“During the air alert, a critical infrastructure object was hit in the Lviv region. There are no victims or victims. The fire was extinguished. Details later. Keep yourselves. Don’t ignore the sirens,” he said.
The strike occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning. It is currently shortly before 8am in Lviv.
Air raid sirens sounded in cities and towns across Ukraine, but so far the damage in Lviv is the only reported strike.
Welcome and summary
Hello, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from Ukraine.
Air raid alarms sounded in cities across Ukraine early on Thursday morning, as Russian strikes hit critical infrastructure in Lviv, in the country’s west. There were no casualties. We’ll have more on this shortly.
In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
Russian forces are mounting “round-the-clock” attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said. “The situation is tense. Yes, it is difficult for us,” Maliar posted to Telegram. The situation in Luhansk remained difficult, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said, without mentioning any retreats in eastern Ukraine.
Russia is sending heavy equipment and mobilised troops into the Luhansk region but Ukrainian forces continue to defend the eastern Ukrainian region, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, has said. The Russian defence ministry claimed earlier its troops had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defences on the eastern front of Luhansk. It said Ukrainian troops had retreated in the face of Russian attacks, but did not say in which part of the region. Haidai said Russia’s claim that Ukrainian troops had pulled back “does not correspond to reality”.
The Wagner boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has admitted that his mercenary group is facing difficulties in Ukraine. “The number of Wagner units will decrease, and we will also not be able to carry out the scope of tasks that we would like to,” Prigozhin said, amid growing evidence that his political influence in the Kremlin is waning.
Six aerial targets were spotted over Kyiv during an air alert in the Ukrainian capital, and most were shot down after being engaged with air defences, according to the Kyiv military administration. In a Telegram post, it said the six Russian balloons may have been carrying corner reflectors and reconnaissance equipment. It did not specify when they flew over the capital.
Ukraine’s allies have said it is unlikely they will be able to supply the number of tanks previously promised. After a meeting in Brussels of western defence ministers, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said they would not be able reach the size of a battalion. The bad news comes just after the Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that Russia had begun a renewed offensive in the east in an attempt to take more territory before new western equipment arrives in the spring.
Nato countries are increasing the production of 155mm artillery rounds and need to ramp up that production even further to help Ukraine, Stoltenberg has said. Stoltenberg said allies have not reached conclusions on a new pledge for defence spending, but it was “obvious that we need to spend more”.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said Ukraine has a “real good chance” of taking the initiative on the battlefield. Speaking after a meeting with Nato defence ministers in Brussels, Austin said that for every system that Nato provided, it would train troops on that system. “We’re laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just the platform,” he said.
Russia’s army is estimated to have lost nearly 40% of its prewar fleet of tanks after nine months of fighting in Ukraine, according to a count by the specialist thinktank the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). That rises to as much as 50% for some of the key tanks used in combat, forcing Russia to reach into its still sizeable cold war-era stocks. Ukraine’s tank numbers are estimated to have increased because of the number it has captured, as well as supplies of Soviet-era tanks from its western allies.
Ukraine will receive a package of support worth £200m from the UK and other European nations for military equipment, including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition, the British government has announced. Britain agreed with the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Lithuania to send an initial package of support to Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
The European Commission has called for a ban on the export of vital technology to Russia worth €11bn to further weaken the Kremlin’s war effort, cementing what EU officials have called the bloc’s toughest-ever sanctions. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was targeting industrial goods that Russia needed, such as electronic components for drones and helicopters; spare parts for trucks and jet engines; and construction equipment such as antennas or cranes that could be turned to military uses.
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