Russians ‘eradicating towns’ in eastern Donbas; UN chief warns world is walking into wider war – as it happened

Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, has proposed his country should provide some 75bn Norwegian kroner (£6.1 bn) in aid to Ukraine over five years.

Speaking at a news conference after meeting opposition leaders, Støre said:

We aim to secure a unified agreement on this in parliament.

Half of the aid in 2023 will fund Kyiv’s military requirements while the rest will go to humanitarian needs, although this split could change in coming years, he said.

The announcement comes after Støre’s government came under pressure to increase support for Ukraine, after earning billions in extra oil and gas revenue from Russia’s war.

The wealthy Scandinavian country’s oil and gas revenues have soared to record levels over the past 12 months as energy prices tripled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Norway replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.

Støre has previously dismissed any suggestion that the country was profiteering from the war. “It’s a notion I flatly refuse,” Støre said last week, adding that a major “multi-year support package” would be announced in the coming days.

Norway should also give 5bn kroner extra this year in aid to poor countries suffering from soaring global food prices in the wake of the Ukraine war, Støre said today.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over from Kevin Rawlinson to bring you the latest news from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Ukraine has faced temperatures as low as -20C this winter, at the same time as dealing with a humanitarian crisis as Russia hits key civilian infrastructure, analysis has shown.

Humanitarian groups have warned that attacks in the coldest winter months can “devastate” civilian lives, limiting access to energy and water to vulnerable groups such as displaced people and elderly people.

Antonio Voce, Ashley Kirk, Isobel Koshiw and Lucy Swan write:

6 Feb 202304.54 EST

Delays to German plan to assemble two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks

Philip Oltermann

Germany’s plan to quickly assemble two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks from European allies and send them to Ukraine is progressing slower than expected, as several states have yet to decide whether they can spare vehicles from their own stocks.

In Europe, other than Berlin, only Poland and Portugal have so far made concrete promises to contribute Leopard 2 tanks. Ukrainian soldiers are supposed to start being trained on Leopard 2 tanks in Germany and Poland from this week.

Other states appear to be prevaricating over whether to contribute as they consider the gaps the donated tanks would leave in their own defence.

The Netherlands, which doesn’t own any Leopards but leases 18 of the tanks from Germany, last said a decision to donate some of them to Ukraine had not yet been made, “but we certainly do not rule it out”.

Sweden has yet to reach a decision on the issue as its own Nato application hangs in a precarious balance due to Turkey’s ongoing threat of a veto. Finland, meanwhile, has decided that it needs its Leopards to defend its own border with Russia, German magazine Der Spiegel claimed over the weekend.

Leaders in Oslo announced a week ago that Norway would donate some of its older Leopard 2A4 tanks, which it wants to replace with 54 new German-made Leopard 2 tanks from manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

Slow decision-making processes in various European capitals have been pounced on in Berlin, where the government was for weeks painted as the main roadblock to further military support for Ukraine.

In the past year, about 200,000 Russians have fled their homeland for Serbia; a nation that retains close ties to Moscow but that has nevertheless condemned the invasion of Ukraine.

The AP reports that the Slavic country is Moscow’s closest European ally, with historic, religious and cultural ties that are bolstered by Kremlin political influence campaigns. Russia backs Serbia’s claim over its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 with western support. And Serbia has refused to impose sanctions on Moscow over the invasion.

At the same time, Serbia wants to join the European Union. Its populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, has denounced the invasion, and about 200,000 Russians have flooded into the country in the past year, with many seeking a new life in a brotherly land free of Kremlin oppression. Anastasia Demidova, who arrived in the Balkan nation from Moscow three months ago, told the news agency:

Here in Belgrade, we are not perceived with hostility, and that means a lot. I’ve been talking to a lot of Serbian people here and other foreigners. When they ask me ‘what are you doing here,’ I say: ‘We are against Putin and for a democratic Russia and we are against the war in Ukraine, obviously.

Others say they fled to avoid being drafted or because western sanctions crippled their businesses or took away their jobs. But they are maintaining links to their homeland, including financial ties, said the historian Aleksej Timofejev. Unlike their predecessors in the early 20th century, he said, they can’t go onward to the west because of the sanctions and still need visas to travel to richer countries in Europe.

They did not choose this country but came here because it is the only one that would have them.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that he discussed the New Start nuclear arms control treaty with new US ambassador Lynne Tracy last week, Reuters is citing the Interfax news agency as reporting.

He added that Russia was committed to the treaty but that no date had been set for new talks, citing the conflict in Ukraine.

Talks between Moscow and Washington on the New Start treaty were scheduled for last November but were called off at the last moment.

Canadian defence minister Anita Anand has shared an image of the first Canadian-donated Leopard tank arriving in Poland.

“The first Canadian Leopard 2 main battle tank that we’ve donated to Ukraine has now arrived in Poland,” Anand said.

“Alongside our allies, we’ll soon be training the armed forces of Ukraine in the use of this equipment.”

Ukrainian presidential advisor Anton Gerashchenko has shared a video of Ukrainian soldiers recently released from Russian captivity.

In the footage, one of the men claims to have been held for eight months while another says he is eating fruit for the first time in a year.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that his country is ready to provide necessary assistance to Turkey in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck the country earlier on Monday.

Shocked by the news about the death and injury of hundreds of people as a result of the earthquake in Turkey,” Zelenskiy tweeted.

I extend my condolences to the President Erdoğan , the people of Turkey and the families of those who lost their lives in the earthquake in Turkey and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured. We stand with the people of Turkey in this difficult time. We are ready to provide the necessary assistance to overcome the consequences of the disaster.”

6 Feb 202301.19 EST

Ukraine’s defence minister to be moved from post

Dan Sabbagh

Ukraine’s defence minister, under pressure from a corruption scandal, is to be reshuffled into another government job, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced late on Sunday.

Oleksii Reznikov is the latest top Ukrainian official to be replaced in a clamp down on corruption. He will reportedly be replaced by Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the GUR military intelligence agency.

One of Ukraine’s better-known figures internationally, Reznikov’s position has been under threat after it emerged the defence ministry paid twice or three times the supermarket price of food to supply troops on the frontline.

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On Sunday night, David Arakhamia, chief of Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People parliamentary bloc, said Reznikov would become minister of strategic industries, tasked with strengthening military-industrial cooperation, after a day of speculation about the defence minister’s future in Kyiv.

War dictates changes in personnel policy,” Arakhamia said on his Telegram channel. “Times and circumstances require strengthening and regrouping. This is what is happening now and will happen in the future”

After Arakhamia’s statement there was no immediate comment from Reznikov, but earlier he had given a press conference, in which he suggested that his tenure as defence minister may not last much longer.

No one is in the chair for his whole life,” Reznikov had said earlier on Sunday amid speculation that he would be forced to resign or be reshuffled, and stressed that his position as defence minister “was up to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine in accordance with the constitution”.

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next hour.

Ukraine’s defence minister, under pressure from a corruption scandal, is to be reshuffled into another government job, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced.

Oleksii Reznikov is the latest top Ukrainian official to be replaced in a clampdown on corruption. He will reportedly be replaced by Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the GUR military intelligence agency.

On the battlefield, fierce battles are being fought in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Zelenskiy described the fighting as “very difficult” in his latest address and reiterated the possibility of a Russian offensive this month.

If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:

• Ukraine’s defence minister, under pressure from a corruption scandal, is to be reshuffled into another government job, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced. Oleksii Reznikov will be replaced by Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence. His position had been under threat after it emerged the defence ministry paid twice or three times the supermarket price of food to supply troops on the frontline.

• Ukraine is bracing for a possible Russian offensive this month before the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. “There are already many reports that the occupiers want to do something symbolic in February to try to avenge their last year’s defeats,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday night address. “We see this increased pressure in various areas of the frontline, as well as pressure in the information field.”

• Kyiv has the reserves to hold back Moscow’s forces even though the latest western military supplies will not all arrive in time, Reznikov, has claimed. “Not all of the western weaponry will arrive in time. But we are ready. We have created our resources and reserves, which we are able to deploy and with which we are able to hold back the attack.” Reznikov added that the attack would be for “symbolic” reasons but its resources were not ready from a military point of view. “Despite everything, we expect a possible Russian offensive in February. This is only from the point of view of symbolism; it’s not logical from a military view. Because not all of their resources are ready. But they’re doing it anyway,” he said.

• Russia is gradually stepping up its attacks and closing in on the eastern city of Bakhmut amid heavy fighting. Reznikov claimed that Moscow was losing “500 killed and wounded every day in Bakhmut” – a figure that it is not possible to verify. Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Bakhmut was becoming “increasingly isolated”, in its latest intelligence assessment which noted that Russia now had the two main roads into the city under threat from direct artillery fire, making it harder to supply the defending forces into the town.

• Iran and Russia are looking to build a factory in Russia that could supply more than 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal claimed that the two governments are moving ahead with plans, and that an Iranian delegation went to Russia in January to visit the planned site.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Iraq on Sunday for talks on energy and food security in view of the Ukraine conflict, an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesperson said. Lavrov will also visit Mali this week, in a trip that the west African country’s government says will strengthen defence and security ties. It will be the first time a Russian foreign minister has visited Mali, and is part of a push by Moscow to extend its influence over countries in Africa.

• The EU-imposed ban on Russian seaborne oil products will come into force on Monday. The 27-nation bloc is banning Russian refined oil products such as diesel fuel and joining the US and other allies in imposing a price cap on sales to non-western countries. A ban on Russian seaborne crude came into force on 5 December and the extension to oil products will mean that 70% of Russian energy exports will now be subject to sanction. Oil products represent a third of Russian oil exports.

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