Because the conflict enters its 720th day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the state of affairs on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
Preventing
- Norway’s intelligence service warned Russia was “gaining the benefit” within the conflict in Ukraine owing to a better variety of troops and materiel equipped by Iran, China, North Korea and Belarus. Nils Andreas Stensones, the pinnacle of the army intelligence unit, mentioned Kyiv would wish “intensive” Western army help to show the state of affairs round.
- Researchers in Kyiv mentioned a preliminary evaluation concluded that Russia hit the Ukrainian capital final week with a hypersonic Zircon missile, marking the weapon’s first use within the conflict. The Zircon has a spread of 1,000km (625 miles) and travels at 9 instances the velocity of sound, in line with Russia.
- Ukraine’s Air Pressure mentioned air defence techniques destroyed 14 out of 17 drones that Russia launched in a single day and one Kh-59 cruise missile. Some buildings had been broken, together with within the central metropolis of Dnipro, however there have been no stories of casualties.
- The Kremlin denied Ukraine’s declare that its troops had been utilizing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web system for army communications in elements of Ukraine it occupies. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the system was neither licensed to be used in, nor formally equipped to, Russia, and due to this fact couldn’t be used.
Politics and diplomacy
- The European Union adopted a regulation to put aside windfall income made on frozen Russian central financial institution property, within the first concrete step in the direction of the bloc’s purpose of utilizing the cash to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. Some 300 billion euros ($323 billion) of Russian central financial institution property had been frozen after the nation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years in the past.
- Kristina Puzyreva, a Canadian-Russian lady, pleaded responsible in a United States court docket to cash laundering conspiracy for her position in a multimillion-dollar scheme to ship drone and missile elements to Russia for army use in opposition to Ukraine, the US Justice Division mentioned. She faces a most of 20 years in jail
- Russia imposed sanctions on 18 UK residents together with officers, historians and Russia specialists accusing them of making an attempt to demonise Russia. Moscow additionally claimed that the UK’s technique in Ukraine had led to additional escalation and lack of life within the conflict.
- France’s Viginum company, which works to defend in opposition to international on-line threats, mentioned it had found a “structured and coordinated” community of Russian web sites designed to unfold Kremlin propaganda in Europe and the US.
- A court docket in Moscow ordered the arrest of Meta spokesperson Andy Stone for 2 months pending trial on quite a few terrorism-related counts. Meta’s major social platforms – Fb and Instagram – had been banned quickly after Russia invaded Ukraine, and Meta was subsequently discovered responsible of “extremist actions” in Russia. Stone will not be in Moscow.
Weapons
- Ukraine’s Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov advised the Reuters information company that Ukraine would produce 1000’s of long-range drones able to deep strikes into Russia in 2024, and already had as many as 10 corporations making drones with the power to succeed in Moscow and St Petersburg.
- Authorities in Moldova mentioned they destroyed some 50kg of explosives found in a part of a Russian-launched Shahed drone that crashed on its territory close to the southern city of Etulia, near the border with Ukraine.