Ukraine Update…721 days into the Russian Conflict..A Retreat…Plea for more Aid….

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a desperate plea for fresh arms on Saturdayafter Ukrainian troops pulled out of Avdiivka, handing Moscow its first major military victory since last May. He told the Munich Security Conference that the slowing of weapons supplies was having a direct impact on the frontline and was forcing Ukraine to cede territory.

• Zelenskiy also told world leaders not to ask when the Ukraine war will end but instead “why is Putin still able to continue it” as he underlined the threat Russia poses beyond his own country and called for more support.

• President Joe Biden said he had told Zelenskiy that he was “confident” the US Congress would renew war aid, but added that without American help Kyiv could lose further territory to Russian advances. Failure by US lawmakers to approve new funding for military aid to Kyiv would be “absurd” and “unethical,” Biden told reporters after attending church in Delaware, adding: “I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need.”

• A number of Ukrainian troops were captured by Russia during their withdrawal from the town of Avdiivka, Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian commander responsible for forces in Ukraine’s south-east, has said.

• The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had left Avdiivka and were entrenched at the nearby Avdiivka coke and chemical plant in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. “Measures are being taken to completely clear the city of militants and to block Ukrainian units that have left the city and are entrenched at the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant,” spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a video published on the ministry’s Telegram channel.

• Russian forces shelled and fired missiles at a series of cities in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving others under the rubble of shattered buildings, Ukrainian officials said. Two cities close to the frontline in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Slovyansk – came under fire. And farther north in the town of Kupiansk one person was killed when a two-storey house was struck by Russian shells, the governor of Kharkiv region said.

• Ukrainian forces shot down three Russian warplanes over eastern Ukraine on Saturday, the country’s air force chief has said. This claim has not been independently verified.

• Kamala Harris on Saturday criticised Donald Trump’s cajoling of Russia to attack Nato allies of the US who don’t pay their dues, saying the American people would never accept a president who bowed to a dictator. “The idea that the former president of the US would say that he – quote – encourages a brutal dictator to invade our allies, and that the United States of America would simply stand by and watch,” Harris said. “No previous US president, regardless of their party, has bowed down to a Russian dictator before.”

• Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Saturday he had discussed the prospects for peace with his Chinese counterpart, part of a long-running bid to bolster relations with Beijing. Kuleba said he had discussed with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi about Ukraine’s plans to hold a global peace summit, which Switzerland has agreed to help stage.

• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s mother and his lawyer were told on Saturday that he had been struck down by “sudden death syndrome”, his team has said. Another lawyer of Navalny’s, however, was told by the penal colony’s investigative committee that the cause of death had not yet been established, Navalny’s spokesperson said.

• G7 foreign ministers have demanded that Russia fully clarify the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death. The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States met in Munich on Saturday…..

More…

…

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Russian forces have established “full control” over Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast as Russian forces continued to advance in the settlement on February 17, and Ukrainian forces have likely withdrawn from Avdiivka. Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the evening of February 17 that elements of the Russian Central Grouping of Forces are completing the capture of Avdiivka and clearing areas where Shoigu claimed Russian forces had trapped Ukrainian forces. Putin credited the 30th Motorized Rifle Brigade (2nd Combined Arms Army [CAA], Central Military District [CMD]); 35th, 55th, and 74th Motorized Rifle Brigades (all of the 41st CAA, CMD); 1st, 9th, and 114th Motorized Rifle Brigades and 1454th Motorized Rifle Regiment and 10th Tank Regiment (all of the 1st Donetsk People’s Republic [DNR] Army Corps [AC]); and the 6th, 80th, and 239th Tank Regiments (all of the 90th Tank Division, 41st CAA, CMD) for capturing Avdiivka under the leadership of Russian Center Group of Forces commander Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev.