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Kyiv says its military still holds on in northern part of Pokrovsk and is defending a smaller city nearby
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The Russian military is continuing to face heavy losses as they fight to take the key city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv‘s military said.
Moscow’s forces have suffered more than 2,000 casualties in the past two days, according to figures from the Ukraine’s military, as Putin throws large numbers of personnel towards heavily fortified Ukrainian defences.
Putin’s troops are waging a months-long campaign to seize the strategic railway hub and capture the whole of the Donetsk region while peace talks stall.
The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces still hold the northern part of Pokrovsk and are also defending the smaller city of Myrnohrad nearby.
Kyiv says Russia’s army suffers around 1,000 injuries and deaths every day.
A January report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that at least 325,000 soldiers have been killed, the most by any major power since World War II.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Berlin has confirmed.
Mr Merz is set to open the annual security forum with a speech that will outline German foreign policy in times of great power politics and strained transatlantic relations, the official told reporters in Berlin.
“The chancellor has repeatedly made clear that he is not among those who say we are in a situation in which we must — or even can – write off the United States,” a German official said.
“I expect he will outline what he sees as a path forward for transatlantic relations.”
Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych has been informed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that a helmet he intended to use at the Milano Cortina Games, featuring images of compatriots killed during the war, violates rules on political statements and cannot be worn in competition.
The helmet, which depicts several athletes who died in the conflict – some of whom were personal friends of Heraskevych – is now expected to be shelved.
Heraskevych, who serves as his country’s flag bearer at the Games, had been using the helmet in training.
He was reportedly informed of the ban by Toshio Tsurunaga, an IOC representative responsible for communications with athletes, during a visit to the Athletes’ Village.
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A Russian strike has killed four people, including three small children, in a town west of Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
Two children aged one and two died along with a 34-year-old man in the house where they were staying in the town of Bohodukhiv, according to a statement by Oleh Syniehubov on Telegram.
A 74-year-old woman was injured in the incident.
Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces have seized the settlement of Zaliznychne in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
The Independent could not independently verify Tuesday’s battlefield report from Moscow.
The German government plans to order strike drones worth 536 million euros (£467 million), part of a rearmament push after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
The contracts for loitering munitions – drones that hover over a potential strike area before flying into targets – are part of a larger framework deal worth 4.3 billion euros.
The contracts, outlined in documents seen by Reuters, are widely expected to be rubber-stamped by the lower house of parliament’s budget committee. They were first reported by Spiegel magazine.
The drones are initially intended to support Germany’s 45th Tank Brigade, which is deployed in Lithuania.
According to the documents, the contracts with the two companies are to have a term of seven years. The initial batch is scheduled to be delivered by early 2027.
An earthquake hit Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, officials said on Tuesday.
The mayor of the port city of Novorossiysk, Andrei Kravchenko, said that the earthquake did not cause any damage to the city’s infrastructure.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said that the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.8.
Ukraine is opening up exports of its domestically produced weapons, president Volodymyr Zelensky says, as a way for Kyiv to cash in on its wartime technological developments and generate badly needed funds.
Zelensky said 10 “export centres” for Ukrainian weapons would be opened in 2026 across Europe, adding that combat drones would be among the exports.
“Today, Europe’s security is built on technology and drones,” Zelensky said on Sunday evening.”All of this will be based largely on Ukrainian technology and Ukrainian specialists,” he said.
Zelensky said production of Ukrainian drones would begin in Germany in February, adding to those already being built in the UK under a joint production initiative. He did not identify the companies involved.
Ukraine’s allies have expressed interest in learning from its wartime experience and technological innovation to bolster their own forces, many of them weakened by decades of low defence spending.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his country’s support for efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict in a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Mr Ramaphosa’s office said.
The Kremlin had earlier announced that the pair discussed the situation in Ukraine.
Russia’s crucial oil and gas revenues, which have sustained its war against Ukraine, have suddenly dwindled to multi-year lows as the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches.
This sharp decline is the result of new punitive measures from the US and the European Union, tariff pressure from US President Donald Trump against India, and a tightening crackdown on the fleet of sanctions-dodging tankers carrying Russian oil.
The resulting revenue drop is forcing President Vladimir Putin to borrow from Russian banks and raise taxes.
While these measures are currently keeping state finances “on an even keel”, they only increase strains in a war economy now plagued by slowing growth and stubborn inflation.
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