Mar 3, 2023 14 min read

Wagner boss calls on Zelenskiy to withdraw from ‘practically surrounded’ Bakhmut

By Guardian - Léonie Chao-Fong (now); Martin Belam and Helen Sullivan (earlier)Fri 3 Mar 2023 13.22 GMT

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, has called on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to order a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin says Russian ‘pincers are getting tighter’ around the contested city.

Bakhmut is “practically surrounded” by Wagner fighters with only one route left for Ukrainian forces, Prigozhin said in a video published today.

Prigozhin, wearing a military uniform in a video posted on his social media channels, said:

Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Only one road is left (open to Ukrainian forces) The pincers are getting tighter.

Prigozhin’s claims have not been independently verified. The video has been geolocated to the village of Paraskoviivka, 4.3 miles north of the center of Bakhmut, Reuters reports. Prigozhin announced the capture of Paraskoviivka on 17 February.

The video then showed what looked like three captured Ukrainians – an older man and two young boys – who asked to be allowed to go home. They looked to be speaking under extreme stress.

Prigozhin added:

The [Ukrainian soldiers] are fighting, but their lives near Bakhmut are short – a day or two. Give them a chance to leave the city. The city is in fact surrounded.

A Ukrainian serviceman carries a shell to fire toward Russian positions, near the frontline town of Bakhmut. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

The Wagner boss published another video yesterday claiming to show his fighters inside Bakhmut. The footage was geolocated to the east of Bakhmut, about 1.2 miles from the city center.

5m ago13.22 GMT

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Latvia’s president, Egils Levits, for his country’s defense and political support as the pair met in a “meaningful and symbolic” visit to Ukraine.

Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, were pictured earlier today with Levits and his wife, Andra Levite, in Lyiv honoring the memory of Ukrainian soldiers fallen during the war.

Latvia's President Egils Levits and his wife Andra Levite attending a ceremony to pay tribute to fallen Ukrainian service members at a military cemetery in Lviv. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service Handout/EPA

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20m ago13.07 GMT

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree enabling the Russian state to suspend the directors and shareholders of any companies that fail to meet state defense contracts under conditions of martial law.

The new decree would apply to companies that “violate their obligations under a state contract, including failing to take measures to guarantee production deliveries”, Reuters reports.

The decree would allow the industry ministry to name a new external administrator to take over the running of such companies.

Asked earlier today if martial law could be introduced in certain regions of Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that was the president’s prerogative, but did not say whether Putin planned such a move.

44m ago12.43 GMT

Ukrainian forces blow up a railway bridge inside Bakhmut

Ukrainian forces have blown up a railway bridge inside the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, according to a report.

Video of the controlled explosion, posted on social media and geolocated by CNN, was shared widely today along with unconfirmed reports that it was a sign that Ukraine was preparing to withdraw from the city.

Ukraine’s 46th Brigade, which is operating in the city, denied the reports, saying the bridge was already unusable.

The unit said:

The bridge that is now being shown as proof that we are leaving was blown up a long time ago. Those who are in Bakhmut know that. Now it was just a control shot. Don’t spread panic. And yes, one can cross the river there without a bridge.

Updated at 12.58 GMT
51m ago12.36 GMT

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he saw a “small improvement” in diplomacy with Russia after a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Twenty (G20) major industrialized countries in New Dehli.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, remained in the room when western countries criticized Russia – unlike at the last G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali last year when he stormed out – said Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, today.

Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a forum in New Delhi, Borrell said:

At least this time he stayed and he listened. This is a small improvement but it’s important. I think it’s better than nothing.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken walks past Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. — US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, walks past the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Borrell said he would oppose any effort to boot Russia from the G20 because “we have to keep ways of talking, or at least listening if not talking”.

Lavrov and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke briefly on the margins of the G20 meeting on Thursday, in what was believed to be the pair’s first one-on-one conversation in person since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Updated at 13.00 GMT
1h ago12.10 GMT

Ukraine orders mandatory evacuation of families from Kupiansk

Ukraine has ordered a mandatory evacuation of families and vulnerable residents from Kupiansk and adjacent northeastern territories, amid fears that Russian forces will retake the frontline eastern city and rail hub.

Russian troops retreated from key cities in the northeastern Kharkiv region, including Kupiansk, and Ukraine recaptured it last September.

The Kharkiv regional military administration said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday evening:

Mandatory evacuation of families with children and residents with limited mobility began in Kupiansk community.

The evacuation order was due to the “unstable security situation” caused by Russia’s “constant” shelling of the town and its surroundings, it said.

Those evacuated would be provided with assistance, including accommodation, food, humanitarian aid, and medical support, it added. Occupied, liberated … occupied again? Ukrainian city fears another takeoverRead more

2h ago11.52 GMT

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Ukraine.

Oleksii Markelov holds his baby daughter, Kateryna, who was born during the Russian occupation, as he stands next to their house in Antonivka, Kherson region. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

The house of Oleksii Markelov and Natalia Lukina, who gave birth to Kateryna during the Russian occupation. The family lives under conditions of a constant thud of artillery fire as Russian positions are just 1.5km across the Dnipro river. — The house of Oleksii Markelov and Natalia Lukina, who gave birth to Kateryna during the Russian occupation. The family lives under conditions of a constant thud of artillery fire as Russian positions are just 1.5km across the Dnipro River. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a front line in Zaporizhzhia region. — Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a towed FH-70 howitzer in Zaporizhzhia region. Photograph: RFE/RL/SERHII NUZHNENKO/Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with his wife, Olena, and Latvian President Egils Levits with his wife, Andra, visit Cemetery of the Defenders in Lviv, Ukraine. — Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with his wife, Olena, and the Latvian president, Egils Levits, with his wife, Andra, visit the Cemetery of the Defenders in Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

Updated at 12.03 GMT - 2h ago11.44 GMT

Germany will not send Switzerland’s mothballed Leopard 2 battle tanks onwards to Ukraine if Bern agrees to send them to Berlin, a German defense ministry spokesperson has said.

Asked at a regular news conference how Berlin could guarantee this, the German spokesperson said:

There are existing and assessed contractual regulations.

Switzerland’s defense ministry earlier confirmed it had received a request from its German counterparts to allow Rheinmetall AG to acquire some of Switzerland’s mothballed Leopard 2 tanks.

The request said the tanks would not be sent to Ukraine but be used to backfill gaps created by the handover of Leopard 2s by Germany and Nato and EU allies, according to a ministry spokesperson.

Updated at 11.59 GMT - 2h ago11.35 GMT

Wagner boss calls on Zelenskiy to withdraw from ‘practically surrounded’ Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, has called on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to order a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut.

Bakhmut is “practically surrounded” by Wagner fighters with only one route left for Ukrainian forces, Prigozhin said in a video published today.

Prigozhin, wearing a military uniform in a video posted on his social media channels, said:

Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Only one road is left (open to Ukrainian forces) The pincers are getting tighter.

The video then showed what looked like three captured Ukrainians – an older man and two young boys – who asked to be allowed to go home. They looked to be speaking under extreme stress.

Prigozhin added:

The [Ukrainian soldiers] are fighting, but their lives near Bakhmut are short – a day or two. Give them a chance to leave the city. The city is in fact surrounded.

The Wagner boss published another video yesterday claiming to show his fighters inside Bakhmut. The footage was geolocated to the east of Bakhmut, about 1.2 miles from the city center.

2h ago11.02 GMT

Summary of the day so far …

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner group, has published a video that he said showed his fighters in the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. In a post on Telegram, uniformed men are seen lifting a Wagner banner on top of a heavily damaged building. The video has been geolocated to the east of Bakhmut, about 1.2 miles from the city center, where Wagner fighters have been for a while.
Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad group denounced Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war as unacceptable, according to a statement issued after a meeting on Friday. The ministers also said they opposed any unilateral actions to increase tensions in the South China Sea, and expressed concerns about the “militarisation” of disputed territories, in a thinly veiled reference to China. The Quad group includes India, Australia, Japan, and the United States.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has again issued a denial that Ukraine has mounted any attacks within Russian territory. President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia had been hit by a “terrorist attack” in Bryansk, and vowed to crush what he said was a Ukrainian sabotage group that had fired at civilians. Ukraine accused Russia of staging a false “provocation”. The Kremlin said Friday it would take measures to prevent a repeat of what it described as a border incursion.
Ten people are considered missing and five people are now known to have died after a missile hit a residential building in Zaporizhzhia in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Volodymyr Litvinov, head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson, has reported that a tractor driver has been killed by Russian shelling in the area.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian proxy who operates in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region has claimed on Telegram that Ukrainian forces are shelling Enerhodar, the city which stands next to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is also reporting military action at the ZNPP, stating “Employees of the security agencies of the Russian Federation came under aimed fire on the line of contact when meeting International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were rotating at the ZNPP.”
Belarus has sentenced the Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents after the 2020 pro-democracy protests against his rule. Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist, is the founder of Viasna, the authoritarian country’s most prominent human rights group.
He was detained in July last year and charged with smuggling cash into Belarus to fund his group’s activities but is widely recognized as being persecuted for his opposition to Lukashenko. Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel peace prize alongside the Russian human rights organization Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, in October.
Joe Biden, the US president, and Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, will focus their discussions in Washington on Friday on war aid for Ukraine and may also touch on concerns that China may provide lethal aid to Russia, a senior US administration official has said.
The US will announce a new military aid package for Ukraine on Friday, worth roughly $400m and comprised mainly of ammunition, two officials and a person familiar with the package have told Reuters.
Switzerland’s defense ministry on Friday said it had received a request from its German counterparts to allow Rheinmetall AG to acquire some of Switzerland’s mothballed Leopard 2 tanks. The request said the tanks would not be sent to Ukraine but would be used to backfill gaps created by the handover of Leopard 2s by Germany and Nato and EU allies.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Russia “will not let the west blow up gas pipelines again” and said that Moscow would no longer rely on the west as an energy partner.
Mikhail Abdalkin, a member of the Samara regional Duma, has been charged with “discrediting the Russian armed forces” and will go on trial on 7 March. Abdalkin posted a photograph of himself on Telegram on 21 February listening to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state address with what appeared to be noodles draped over his ears.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.

Updated at 11.57 GMT - 3h ago10.41 GMT

Belarus jails Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Alex Bialiatski

Andrew Roth

Belarus has sentenced the Nobel peace prize-winning dissident Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison as part of Alexander Lukashenko’s purge of opponents after the 2020 pro-democracy protests against his rule.

Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist, is the founder of Viasna, the authoritarian country’s most prominent human rights group. He was detained in July last year and charged with smuggling cash into Belarus to fund his group’s activities but is widely recognized as being persecuted for his opposition to Lukashenko.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the country’s opposition leader in exile, wrote on Twitter: “The sentencing of Viasna human rights defenders today – including Nobel peace prize laureate Ales Bialiatski – is simply appalling. Ales has dedicated his life to fighting against tyranny. He is a true hero of Belarus and will be honored long after the dictator is forgotten.”

Bialiatski was sentenced alongside three other Viasna activists, the group said in a statement on Friday. Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel peace prize alongside the Russian human rights organization Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, in October.

Updated at 11.13 GMT- 3h ago10.07 GMT

Volodymyr Litvinov, head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson, has reported on his Telegram channel that a tractor driver has been killed by Russian shelling in the area. He posted:

Russians fired at a tractor driver near the village of Tomaryne in the Beryslav territorial community. The 33-year-old victim was taken to the nearest medical facility by the military. However, the doctors could not do anything but declare his death. The injuries received due to the Russian shelling turned out to be too severe.

At the same time, Vladimir Rogov, a Russian proxy who operates in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has claimed on Telegram that Ukrainian forces are shelling Enerhodar, the city which stands next to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). He posted to Telegram to say:

Explosions are heard in the city. According to preliminary information, Ukrainian forces fired Nato-style heavy artillery. The sounds of arrivals (at least seven) were most loudly heard by the citizens in the area of the industrial zone, located not far from the ZNPP.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is also reporting military action at the ZNPP, stating “Employees of the security agencies of the Russian Federation came under aimed fire on the line of contact when meeting International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were rotating at the ZNPP.”

None of the claims have been independently verified.

Updated at 10.21 GMT - 4h ago09.55 GMT

Tass reports that a military adviser to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – an occupied area of Ukraine that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed – has told the news agency that the DPR intends to strengthen checkpoints along the line of contact as a result of yesterday’s incident in Bryansk. Tass reports that according to official figures, two people died and a 10-year-old boy was injured.

Additionally, Reuters reports that the Kremlin said this morning it would take measures to prevent a repeat of what it described as a border incursion by Ukraine-backed nationalists. It did not specify the additional measures.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia had been hit by a “terrorist attack”, and vowed to crush what he said was a Ukrainian sabotage group that had fired at civilians. Ukraine accused Russia of staging a false “provocation”.

4h ago09.38 GMT

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has again issued a denial that Ukraine has mounted any attacks within Russian territory.

Explosions at critical facilities; unidentified drones attacking Russian Federation’s regions; clashes of gangs; partisans attacking populated areas – all these are direct consequences of the loss of control inside Russian Federation. And consequences of war. Ukraine is not involved in internal conflicts in the Russian Federation.

Yesterday Russia accused Ukrainian forces of mounting an incursion within its borders which the Kremlin described as terrorism, and earlier this week it dismissed Podolyak’s denial that Ukraine had launched drones against targets within Russia.

Updated at 09.44 GMT - 4h ago09.33 GMT
4h ago09.16 GMT

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports on its Telegram channel on the situation in Donetsk. It writes:

On 2 March, Russian troops carried out 45 strikes on 17 settlements in Donetsk region. They hit Bakhmut nine times with artillery, 18 high-rise buildings and one private house were destroyed and damaged, and there were wounded.

Earlier, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, said in a video that Bakhmut was “practically surrounded”

None of the claims have been independently verified.

5h ago08.55 GMT

The air alert that has been in effect across Ukraine is ending.

5h ago08.10 GMT

Reuters reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, said in a video published on Friday that the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was “practically surrounded” by Russian forces and that Kyiv’s forces had access to only one road out.

Prigozhin in the video called on Volodymr Zelenskiy to withdraw his forces from the city, which Russia has been trying to capture without success for months.

Updated at 08.50 GMT - 5h ago08.00 GMT

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this summary of news from the past 24 hours on its official Telegram channel:

In Zaporizhzhia, the rubble of a five-story building, which was hit by a Russian rocket the previous night, continues to be dismantled. The number of dead has increased to five, 10 people are considered missing.

In the last day, Russian troops fired more than 360 projectiles in the Kherson region: residential buildings were damaged, one person died, 17 were injured.

In Donbas, the Russian army continues to fire on populated areas along the entire frontline. On 2 March, as a result of shelling in the Donetsk region, two people were killed and five were injured.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Updated at 08.05 GMT - 6h ago07.48 GMT

Switzerland’s defense ministry on Friday said it had received a request from its German counterparts to allow Rheinmetall AG to acquire some of Switzerland’s mothballed Leopard 2 tanks.

The request said the tanks would not be sent to Ukraine but would be used to backfill gaps created by the handover of Leopard 2s by Germany and Nato and EU allies, a ministry spokesperson told Reuters.