Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- Russia’s U.N. ambassador criticized the peace resolution. “Moscow is ready for a solution,” Vassily Nebenzia said. “The draft resolution submitted here will not help this at all. It will rather encourage the West, which will continue its militaristic line, using the U.N. as a cover.”
- The Ukraine war has exposed a deep global divide.While Western countries have rallied against Moscow and united in support for Kyiv — with President Biden hailing the Western alliance as a “global coalition” — a closer look beyond the West suggests the world is far from united on the issues of the war, The Washington Post reports.
- Russia will in the coming year put on combat duty its first launchers equipped with the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which can carry a large nuclear payload, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in an address marking Defender of the Fatherland Day, which commemorates the Red Army’s founding in 1918. He also said Moscow would begin the mass deployment of sea-launched hypersonic missiles.
- Ukrainian authorities in Kherson announced additional security measures ahead of the war’s anniversary, citing a possible escalation. In a Facebook post, the administration asked people to switch to remote work and announced patrols at gatherings.
Battleground updates
- Finland is set to send three Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, modified for clearing mines and without a main cannon. But while Berlin had hoped to steer two Leopard 2 battalions — totaling about 70 tanks — to Ukraine before an anticipated Russian offensive this spring, the West is still short on contributions. “If other countries deliver [Leopard 2 tanks] … I would very much welcome that, especially the A6 model, but I can’t conjure it up either,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said while visiting a training session for the tanks being held for Ukrainians near Munster on Monday.
- The commander of Russia’s Eastern Group of Forces is probably facing “intense pressure” to take the town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. The area is under heavy fire, and “there is a realistic possibility that Russia is preparing for another offensive effort” in the region despite recent losses there, the ministry said.
- Wagner Group head Yevgeniy Prigozhin said an ammunition shipment is on its way to his mercenaries, in a Telegram post on Thursday. It comes days after he launched a bitter tirade against the Russian military, claiming it was depriving his fighters of ammunition.
- Several hundred foreign troops will soon join German military instructors teaching Ukrainian forces how to use Western tanks and other arms, the head of the European Union’s Special Training Command, Lt. Gen. Andreas Marlow, said in an interview with Reuters. The specialists will come from Norway and the Netherlands and will arrive by the end of March, he said……