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Zelenskiy strips Kremlin allies of citizenship
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stripped four political figures of their Ukrainian citizenship on Tuesday, including pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk who was transferred to Russia last year in a prisoner swap deal, Reuters reports.
“I have decided to terminate the citizenship of four persons: Andriy Leonidovych Derkach, Taras Romanovych Kozak, Renat Raveliyovych Kuzmin and Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“If people’s deputies choose to serve not the people of Ukraine, but the murderers who came to Ukraine, our actions will be appropriate.”
Medvedchuk, a close ally of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, headed a banned pro-Russian party the “Opposition Platform - For Life” in Ukraine and was facing treason charges before being transferred to Moscow in September 2022.
Kozak and Kuzmin had been both elected to Ukraine’s parliament as members of Medvedchuk’s party.
The United States imposed sanctions on Kozak, the owner of three television channels, in January of 2022 for alleged spreading of Russian disinformation, after Kyiv sought his arrest on treason charges.
Ukraine has also charged Kuzmin with high treason.
Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker also sanctioned by Washington, was charged in the United States in December with money laundering and sanctions violations.
He had been accused of helping Russia interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2020.
Wagner ‘may make up quarter of Russian combatants’
Western intelligence officers believe the Wagner group is playing an increasingly significant role in Russia’s campaign and that, according to one official speaking on condition of anonymity, “there’s a realistic possibility that Wagner personnel now make up a quarter or more of Russian combatants”.
However, their military effectiveness in the Bakhmut sector – where their forces are concentrated – is still considered to be limited, with the same official describing the pace of advance as so slow that “sometimes it takes two weeks to take a single house”.
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow’s first major battlefield success since last summer.
“Wagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his Telegram channel late on Tuesday.
Prigozhin said on Tuesday Ukrainian troops were surrounded in the centre of the town and “there are street battles ongoing. The number of prisoners taken will be announced tomorrow”:
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments for the next while.
Western intelligence officers believe the Wagner group is playing an increasingly significant role in Russia’s campaign and that, according to one official speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, “there’s a realistic possibility that Wagner personnel now make up a quarter or more of Russian combatants”.
And our other top story this morning: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stripped four political figures of their Ukrainian citizenship on Tuesday, including pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk who was transferred to Russia last year in a prisoner swap deal.
Here are the other key recent developments:
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow’s first major battlefield success since last summer. “Wagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his Telegram channel late on Tuesday. Soledar, home to huge salt mines, has symbolic, military and commercial value for Russia.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the “heroic” defenders of Soledar but gave no update on the military situation in his nightly address on Tuesday.
Russian forces trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on Avdiivka, Ukraine’s armed forces said, a second focus for Russia south of Bakhmut and not far from the city of Donetsk, held by Russian proxies since 2014.
Russia’s artillery fire in Ukraine has gone down dramatically from its wartime high, in some places by as much as 75%, according to US and Ukrainian officials. The drop in shelling is further evidence of Russia’s increasingly weak position on the battlefield nearly a year into its invasion, officials have told CNN. The officials did not give a clear or single explanation behind the striking decline in artillery fire.
Western officials have warned that Ukraine will not be able to take back a significant amount of territory from Russia without an increase in military capability, including tanks and armoured vehicles. Russian and Ukrainian forces are currently too closely matched for the Ukrainians to be able to mount a major offensive, a western official said on Tuesday. They said a reported Ukrainian call for 300 tanks was “not an unreasonable number” to create the force mass needed for them to go on the attack.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said his government would purchase a US air defence system to donate to Ukraine. The US-built air defence system was worth C$406m (US$302m), defence minister Anita Anand said. “Canada will continue to stand with the Ukrainian people as they fight against Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion,” Anand said.
Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the Patriot missile system in the US as soon as next week, US officials said. The training programme will take place at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, with the programme expected to take “several months”, one said.
Russia has appointed Colonel-General Alexander Lapin as chief of staff of the country’s ground forces, state-owned news agency TASS reported, despite criticism from hawks over his performance in Ukraine.
The family of one of two British men missing in Ukraine have said they are “very worried and concerned” about his health. Chris Parry, 28, was last seen on Friday with fellow Briton Andrew Bagshaw, 48, heading to the town of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine. The men had been working as volunteers helping people evacuate from the frontline.
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