Ukraine-Russia war latest: Ukraine moves US tanks away from frontlines after 'hunter-killer drone' attacks (2024)

Russian jets have already used more than9,000guided aerial bombs against Ukraine this year, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

The recent pause in US funding helped Moscow to seize the initiative, the Ukrainian president added.

He is asking for additional Patriot air defence systems to be supplied, saying at least seven are required.

"We urgently need Patriot systems and missiles for them," he said.

"This is what can and should save lives right now."

He added: "We need the ability toshoot down the air combat aircraft so that they do not approachour positions and borders," Mr Zelenskyy said at the start of avirtual meeting led by the United States.

Lloyd Austin, theUS defence secretary, said the meeting of theUkraine Defence Contact Group -a coalition of about 50 countries - would focus onUkraine's air defence capabilities.

As we have been reporting, the US has finally passed a new $61bn (£49bn) programme of funding for Kyiv into law.

Over the past couple of weeks we've been asking for your questions on the war for our military analysts and international correspondents.

Every week we're picking one or two to answer - here is this week's...

Will the Ukrainians have another spring offensive or wait again until the summer?
Declan

Military analyst Sean Bell answers this one...

Thank you for this interesting question, Declan.

For the past few months, the tide of the war in Ukraine has been in Russia's favour as shortages of weapons have limited Ukraine's strategic options.

Russia has been attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure and major cities with barrages of missile and drones, leaving Ukraine with critical shortages of aid defence missiles.

The Russian air force has also been more active in support of its frontline forces, capitalising on Ukraine's growing shortage of defensive missile capability.

Despite the broad spectrum of military action from both sides, the primary metric of success in this conflict is territory gained/liberated, and Russia has been focusing its ground forces on the Donbas region.

Putin's long game

Despite suffering huge casualties, Russian forces have clearly been capitalising on Ukraine's dwindling stocks of artillery shells and bullets to gain momentum on the front line.

Vladimir Putin is evidently playing the long game here, as he always anticipated that the West's enthusiasm to support Ukraine would wane, leaving Russia to achieve its invasion objectives.

Although the recent announcement of a new package of $60bn military aid from the US will be welcome news for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the immediate challenge will be to translate the commitment of cash into weapons and ammunition in the hands of the Ukrainian fighters - and swiftly.

Momentum is invaluable in military operations, and reversing Russian progress across the frontline will be one of Ukraine's main priorities this spring/summer.

Having stabilised the frontline, Ukraine's attention can then turn to the wider strategy of "what next".

Last year's much anticipated "spring offensive" failed to make significant territorial gains, so Ukraine will need to reconsider its wider strategy to focus its limited resources most effectively.

Feast-famine approach won't work

Longer-term, the West needs to agree its strategic approach to the conflict.

Large-scale conflicts consume munitions and weapons at a rate well beyond the capacity of peacetime stockpiles, and require an industrialisation of national defence industries to produce the huge volumes required.

Russia has grown its defence industrial base to three times its pre-war levels, and is also using oil revenues to fund munitions imports from North Korea and Iran.

The West has yet to match this capacity.

If Ukraine is to prevail in the war with Russia, it will need a predictable and sustainable supply of weapons - not the feast/famine approach that has characterised the past two years.

The West has the defence industrial capability to over-match Russia, but has yet to demonstrate the political resolve to fulfil that potential.

West's political will is key

In the meantime, Russia knows that a more direct engagement by the West in support of Ukraine would be decisive - Russia could not achieve its war aims.

That is why President Putin and Russian foreign minister Lavrov use threatening rhetoric whenever the West considers increasing support for Ukraine, with regular threats that such support would increase the risk of nuclear war.

However, it is Russia that invaded Ukraine, and it is Russia's military action that is causing such devastation to Ukrainian communities across the frontline.

Ultimately, the West can halt Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine - by providing weapons, boots on the ground and/or establishing a no-fly-zone - if it has the political resolve to do so.

If not, this latest round of military aid to Ukraine risks being seen as a short-term palliative, without a long-term strategy.

The United States is sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine "this week", Joe Biden has said.

Referring to a $61bn (£49bn) programme of funding for Kyiv that has finally been passed byCongress following a long delay, the president said he had signed it quickly into law.

It arrived on his desk early on Wednesday, he said, and he approved it before midday.

The new items will help to defend Ukraine from "Russian bombardment", he said.

Earlier (06.54) we reported that the US is expected to announce about $6bn (£4.8bn) in military aid to Ukraine today.

A British man has been charged with conducting hostile state activity to benefit Russia, prosecutors have said.

Dylan Earl, 20, is alleged to have targeted businesses linked to Ukraine to benefit the Russian state.

Nick Price, head of the CPS's special crime and counterterrorism division, said: "Included in the alleged activity was involvement in the planning of an arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked commercial property in March 2024."

Four others have also been charged in connection with the investigation, the CPS said, after reporting restrictions were lifted today.

Read more on this breaking story here.

China is "frightened" of evoking US sanctions but is still getting "right up to the line" in assisting the Russian war effort, Professor Michael Clarke has said.

Analysing remarks by the US secretary of state (see previous post) that Washington has serious concerns about China providing weapons components to Russia, our military analyst said China is carefully calibrating its actions.

Those components - while not particularly sophisticated - are needed for missiles and high-tech weapons, Prof Clarke said.

He explained: "It's been known for a long time that the Chinese are supplying these.

"They're not supplying Russia with weapons because they're frightened of American sanctions.

"They're certainly frightened of secondary sanctions, whereby the Americans can sanction a company dealing with a company that supplies to Russia."

Despite that fear, however, Prof Clarke said the Chinese have "gone right up to the line in assisting Russia without obviously sending them weapons".

In addition, they are facilitating the supply of weapons from North Korea to Russia, he added.

Russia would struggle to sustain its invasion of Ukraine without China's help, the US secretary of state has said.

Antony Blinken - speaking in Beijing following talks withChina's top diplomat, Wang Yi - said he had "reiterated" serious concerns about China providing components that are "powering Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine".

He added: "China is the top supplier of machine tools, microelectronics and nitrocellulose, which is critical to making munitions and rocket propellants and other dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp its defence industrial base," he said during a news conference.

That industrial base is "churning out rockets, drones, tanks and other weapons that President Putin is using to invade a sovereign country", he added.

Those weapons are being used to "demolish a power grid and other civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent children, women and men", Mr Blinken said.

He went on: "Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China's support.

"In my meetings with NATO's allies earlier this month and with our G7 partners just last week, I heard that same message: fuelling Russia's defence industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security.

"Beijing cannot achieve better relations with Europe while supporting the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.

"As we've told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core US interest.

"In our discussions today, I made it clear that if China does not address this problem, we will."

At least four people were injured after Russia bombed an industrial site and a residential building in northeastern Ukraine, local officials have said.

Three children and a woman were hurt when munitions hit acentral part of the town of Derhachi in the Kharkiv region,governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

In the Sumy region, two bombs struck an industrial facility, regional authorities said.

The neighbouring regions, which border Russia, have undergone frequent aerial attacks.

In recent weeks, more intensive strikes have hitcivilian and energy infrastructure.

A journalist working for the Russian edition of Forbes magazine hasbeendetained on suspicion of spreading "fake news" about the Russianarmy, the magazine has said on its website.

Sergei Mingazov is being held in adetention centre in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, according to his lawyer,Konstantin Bubon.

There has been no contact with the journalist, Forbes reported.

Forbes is an American business magazine.

By Ed Conway, economics and data editor

The extraordinary, unprecedented and largely unexplained flows of millions of pounds of British luxury cars into states neighbouring Russia continued in February, according to new official data.

Some £26m worth of British cars were exported to Azerbaijan, according to HM Revenue & Customs.

In the latest quarter this former Soviet state - which has developing economy status - was the 17th largest destination for UK cars, and bigger than long-established export markets such as Ireland, Portugal and Qatar, the numbers show.

Read more below...

Russian forces have accelerated their advance west ofAvdiivka, the UK defence ministry has said.

Russia took control of the city, which is north of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, in mid-February.

It has now entered the town of Ocheretyne, about 15km north of central Avdiivka, the MoD added in its latest intelligence update.

The area is one of the "primary areas of Russian operations", it said.

"Despite sustaining continued high losses, it is highly likely that Russian ground forces are able to continuously target Ukrainian positions in the area and have taken control of several small settlements."