Ukraine war live updates: Zelenskyy defiant as Russia unleashes ‘massive’ missile strike;

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov thanked his Canadian counterpart for agreeing to send four German-made Leopard 2 tanks.

Canada’s decision follows separate announcements that Germany and the U.S. will provide Kyiv with tanks.

— Amanda Macias

The Pentagon said that it has not seen any indications that Russia intends to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine following Kremlin threats that the West has accelerated tensions by supplying Kyiv with tanks.

“We’ve heard these comments before and we do take these threats seriously,” deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said during a daily press briefing.

“We’ve seen no indication that Russia intends to use a nuclear weapon,” she said.

She added that the U.S. would not be dissuaded from providing Ukraine with the weapons and equipment that it needs.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took a defiant tone after Moscow unleashed fresh missile strikes on his country, insisting Kyiv will defeat a Russian invasion nearing its one-year mark.

“Another attempt by a terrorist state to intimidate us with a massive missile strike has recently been defeated, just as the whole of Russia will soon be defeated,” he said in a post on his Telegram account, according to an NBC News translation.

Russia launched missiles at various targets in Ukraine in a strike the head of Ukraine’s armed forces called “massive.”

— Jacob Pramuk

A U.S. official warned that Russia is slowing down urgent food supplies from Ukraine through a brokered humanitarian sea corridor.

There are 121 ships loaded with agricultural products waiting to leave Ukrainian ports through a U.N.-backed deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade, Erin McKee, the assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

McKee added that Russia’s war in Ukraine and its slowdown of food supply ships has exacerbated global food insecurity.

“In 2022, over 205 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian food assistance which was an 8% increase over 2021,” McKee said.

Before the war, Ukraine and Russia accounted for almost a quarter of global grain exports. Those shipments came to a severe halt for nearly six months until the U.N.’s Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed.

— Amanda Macias

Three vessels carrying 49,100 metric tons of grain and other food products have left Ukrainian ports, the organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from the country said.

The ships are destined for Italy, Turkey and Libya and are carrying wheat and barley.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw three key Ukrainian ports reopen.

So far, more than 675 ships have sailed from Ukrainian ports.

— Amanda Macias

The U.S. Agency for International Development and its partners have documented over 20,000 incidences of alleged war crimes and human rights abuses in Ukraine in the last year, said Erin McKee, the USAID assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia.

She presented the figure in an opening statement before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s hearing on “Countering Russian Aggression: Ukraine and Beyond.”

USAID began investigating war crimes in 2014 after Russian forces illegally overtook Crimea and large parts of the Donbas.

The Kremlin has denied that its forces target civilians or have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said it issued an arrest warrant earlier this week against a German national for allegations that he “transmitted information that he had obtained in the course of his professional activity at the Federal Intelligence Service to a Russian intelligence service.”

The individual, who was referred to as Arthur E., was arrested by officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office at Munich Airport after arriving from the United States.

“The accused is strongly suspected of complicity in treason,” according to the press release.

He is currently detained ahead of his trial.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Europe near the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine, NBC News reported.

Biden may travel to Poland — which borders Ukraine to the west — among other locations under consideration, three administration officials and a person familiar with the discussions told NBC. The plans are not finalized.

The one-year mark of Russia’s invasion will come on Feb. 24.

Through the trip, Biden aims to show support for Ukraine, according to NBC. He took a significant step in ramping up support for Ukraine’s military on Wednesday, when he announced the U.S. would send M1A1 Abrams tanks to the country.

Read the NBC story here.

— Jacob Pramuk

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was “meaningless” to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO bids after protests this month in Stockholm.

Speaking at a news conference, Cavusoglu also said there is no offer to evaluate Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership separately.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Turkey after Ankara indefinitely postponed trilateral talks with Sweden and Finland over their membership.

— Reuters

The Biden administration announced a slew of fresh sanctions and additional measures targeting Russia’s private military firm, the Wagner Group, saying it’s engaged in an “ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity” in Ukraine, the Central African Republic and Mali.

The Treasury Department identified the Wagner Group, led by Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a “significant transnational criminal organization.”

Last week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that U.S. intelligence estimates indicate the Wagner Group has at least 50,000 personnel in Ukraine, most of them recruited for the fight from Russian prisons.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

[The hearing and stream have ended.]

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on what it called “countering Russian aggression,” both in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Key officials at the State Department, Pentagon and U.S. Agency for International Development testified.

U.S. senators have largely backed the Biden administration as it has sent weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine during the 11 months of the Russian invasion. The effort intensified Wednesday as the U.S. announced it would send M1A1 Abrams tanks to bolster Ukraine’s defense.

— Jacob Pramuk

Four people were kicked out of the Australian Open after displaying Russian flags — which have been banned from Melbourne Park — and threatening security guards, police and Tennis Australia said Thursday.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the four have not been charged but were evicted from the site.

The flags, at least one of which included an image of Vladimir Putin, were being waved during a gathering outside of Rod Laver Arena after Novak Djokovic beat Russian player Andrey Rublev in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the year’s first Grand Slam tennis tournament Wednesday night.

“A small group of people displayed inappropriate flags and symbols and threatened security guards following a match on Wednesday night and were evicted. … Players and their teams have been briefed and reminded of the event policy regarding flags and symbols and to avoid any situation that has the potential to disrupt,” Tennis Australian said in a statement. “We continue to work closely with event security and law enforcement agencies.”

— Associated Press

Volunteers carry stoves that were brought to the humanitarian aid center to be distributed to civilians in need in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Due to displacement from Russia’s war, 650 stoves will be distributed to Ukrainians.

— Eugene Titov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The dust has barely settled since the decision by the U.S. and Germany to supply battle tanks to Ukraine, but talk has already turned to the possible use of other firepower, namely, fighter jets.

Ukraine has made no secret of the fact that it would like to receive fighter jets — such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, a multirole fighter aircraft developed for the U.S. Air Force — from its allies to help it fight Russia.

Kyiv appears confident that, as with Western tanks, it will eventually be given F-16s too.

“We will get F-16s,” Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told CNBC Thursday.

Sak said Kyiv expected there to be a similar approach to the tanks issue — essentially allies reluctant to give Ukraine fighter jets before an eventual agreement to do so, but said there was a hope that, in this case, the decision will be faster. “We hope that there will be no same mistakes, because we will get the F-16s,” he said.

Read the whole story here

— Holly Ellyatt

Britain hopes the Challenger 2 tanks it is supplying to Ukraine will arrive in the country at the end of March, defence department minister Alex Chalk said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Britain said it would send 14 of its main battle tanks along with additional artillery support to Ukraine.

“The intention is that it will be at the end of March,” he told parliament in response to a question asking when the tanks would arrive in Ukraine.

He said between now and then, Ukrainian forces would be trained intensively on how to operate and maintain the vehicles.

Other nations including the United States and Germany have also subsequently committed to supply tanks in moves hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in its battle to repel Russia’s invasion.

— Reuters

The Kremlin said Thursday that it sees the sending of Western tanks to Ukraine as tantamount to the West’s “direct involvement” in the war.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that “European capitals and Washington are constantly making statements that sending various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine does not mean the involvement of these countries or NATO in the fighting in Ukraine. We strongly disagree with this,” he told reporters, according to a NBC News translation.

“In Moscow, everything that NATO and the capitals I just mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. And we see that it is growing,” he added.

Russia reacted furiously to announcements by Germany and the U.S. on Wednesday that they would both be sending dozens of their respective tanks to Ukraine. Both Berlin and Washington insisted that the provision of offensive weaponry did not represent a threat to Russia.

— Holly Ellyatt

The Commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, described missile attacks on the country this morning as “massive,” saying Russia had used a variety of air and sea-based missiles.

“The enemy launched 55 air and sea-based missiles (X-101, X-555, X-47 “Kinzhal”, “Kalibr”, X-59) from Tu-95, Su-35, MiG-31K aircraft and ships from the Black Sea,” Zaluzhny said in a Telegram post Thursday.

 “The forces and means of air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 47 cruise missiles, 20 of them in the area of ​​the capital,” he noted, adding that three of the four Kh-59 guided air missiles did not reach their targets.

The commander said Russia’s goal — of “putting psychological pressure on Ukrainians and the destruction of critical infrastructure” — had not changed.

CNBC was unable to verify the details in Zaluzhny’s post. Various Ukrainian officials reported missile strikes in Ukraine Thursday, a day after Ukraine’s allies agreed to send Western tanks to the country.

— Holly Ellyatt

Kyiv city’s military administration said Thursday that 20 missiles of various types had been detected in Kyiv’s airspace this morning but that all “aerial targets were destroyed” thanks to air defense units.

A 55-year-old man died as a result of the fall of rocket parts, and two others were injured and hospitalized.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, added that the air alert is continuing due to the take-off of a “potential carrier of Kinzhal missiles – a MiG-31 fighter jet and an A-50 control plane in Belarus.”

“Stay in shelters until the alarm is over,” Popko warned.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday that Russia’s missile strike on the southern port city was President Vladimir Putin’s response to UNESCO’s decision to the put the city on its list of endangered World Heritage sites.

The World Heritage Committee at UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural agency, decided to inscribe the historic center of Odesa on the World Heritage List on Wednesday.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said Odesa was “a free city, a world city, a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts” and thus had been “placed under the reinforced protection of the international community.”

“While the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction.”

— Holly Ellyatt

After missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s capital city Thursday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person is known to have died and two others injured.

“As a result of a rocket hit into a non-residential building in the Holosiivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two injured. The injured were hospitalized by medics,” he said on Telegram.

There have also been updates from the cities of Odesa and Vinnytsia, to the southwest of Kyiv, with reports of damage to critical energy facilities.

Yuri Kruk, head of the Odesa District Military Administration, said on Telegram Thursday that Russian forces continued “to fire missiles at the territory of Ukraine from the sky and the sea.”

“There is already information about damages to 2 critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa. There are no casualties,” he said, asking civilians to remain in shelters.

In Vinnytsia, the head of the regional military administration Serhiy Borzov posted onTelegram that “there are hits of the enemy’s missiles in Vinnytsia [region]. There are no casualties. All operative services work on site.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Air raid warnings are sounding out across Ukraine on Thursday morning as the country braced itself for more missile strikes from Russia. Emergency power outages have been introduced in Kyiv city and the wider…