At least three people were killed on Saturday after Russian troops attacked a residential area in Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, the regional governor said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops remained in a “bitter” confrontation with Russian fighters for control of the town of Vuhledar, southwest of the city of Donetsk, while the two sides fight along the southern front. Read the FRANCE 24 liveblog to report on the latest events in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
8:32 p.m.: Devastation and destruction in eastern Ukrainian cities
On Saturday, a Russian attack killed three people in a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka. “I closed my eyes, opened them and suddenly everything was blown away,” one resident said of the attack that destroyed her home. “I was covered in blood.”
Moscow seeks control of the entire Donetsk region, which it has already declared part of Russia.
FRANCE 24 journalist Oliver Farry brings us this account of the recent offensives:
01:53
6:46 p.m.: Ukraine denies report it intends to get 24 jets from allies, media say
Ukraine’s Air Force on Saturday denied a newspaper report that said it intends to get 24 fighter jets from allies and said talks about possible supplies are still ongoing, a domestic media outlet said.
Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat, said Ukraine initially wanted two squadrons of 12 aircraft each, preferably Boeing F-16 jets.
But in a statement made to Ukraine’s outlet Babel on Saturday, Ihnat said his comments at a media briefing on Friday had been misinterpreted.
“Ukraine is only at the stage of negotiations on aircraft. Airplane models and their numbers are currently being determined,” he said.
4:25 p.m.: Fast track talks underway for missiles and planes
Ukraine and its western allies are in “accelerated” talks over the possibility of arming the occupied country with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president said on Saturday.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine’s Western supporters “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply aircraft capable of providing cover for the armored fighting vehicles, which the United States and Germany pledged at the beginning of the month.
However, in a comment to online video channel Freedom, Podolyak said that some of Ukraine’s western partners maintain a “conservative” stance on arms sales “for fear of changes in the international architecture.”
4:04 p.m.: Moscow says 14 dead in Ukraine attack on eastern hospital
The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday accused the Ukrainian army of attacking a hospital in the eastern Luhansk region, killing 14 and injuring 24 others.
On Saturday morning in the city of Novoaidar, “Ukrainian forces deliberately attacked the building of a district hospital using missiles from a US-made HIMARS multiple-launch missile system,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that among the “hospital patients and medical staff,” 14 were killed and 24 injured.
FRANCE 24 could not confirm this information.
3:32 p.m .: On the Ukrainian front in Donetsk: “We are constantly being fired at”
A Ukrainian soldier takes shelter in his trench. “They shoot at us all the time,” he says of the Russian soldiers. Ammunition is missing and Vuhledar, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, is under heavy shelling.
The situation on the front lines remains “extremely acute,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, particularly in the Donetsk region, where Russia is stepping up an offensive amid its all-out invasion.
FRANCE 24 journalist Kimberley Lestieux brings us this report:
01:22
12:49 p.m.: EU President says Ukraine has unconditional support ahead of summit
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said before an EU-Ukraine summit next week that Ukraine has the bloc’s unconditional support and that the country must stand up to Russian attacks to defend European values.
“We stand by Ukraine without any ifs or buts,” von der Leyen said in a speech at an event of her party, the CDU, in Düsseldorf on Saturday. Ukraine “fights for our common values, it fights for respect for international law and for the principles of democracy, and therefore Ukraine must win this war,” she said.
Von der Leyen and her fellow EU commissioners plan to host an EU-Ukraine summit on February 3.
10:24 a.m.: Three dead in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka
Three people were killed and at least two others injured after Russian troops attacked a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, the governor of Donetsk Oblast (regional administrative unit) said on Saturday.
Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in the messaging app Telegram that four apartment buildings and a hotel had been damaged and that rescuers and police officers were on site to “carefully document another crime committed by the Russian occupiers”.
Kyrylenko earlier on Saturday said four people had been killed and at least seven injured in Russian attacks in the past 24 hours.
8:41 a.m.: Russia’s deputy foreign minister is meeting with the new US envoy early next week, the RIA news agency reports
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will hold a meeting with Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Moscow, early next week, the RIA news agency reported on Saturday.
Tracy arrived in Moscow earlier this week. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that the new US ambassador would not improve relations between the two countries, calling Washington’s ongoing “hybrid war” against Russia.
6.55 a.m .: The situation at the front is “extremely acute”, says Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation on the front line as “extremely acute”, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is stepping up its offensive.
Zelenskyi also reported major fighting around Vuhledar, southwest of the Donetsk regional capital, and Bakhmut, to the northeast. Bakhmut was largely pulverized by repeated Russian attacks.
Ukraine has been promised 321 heavy tanks by several countries, its ambassador to France said.
01:14
4:00 a.m.: “Bitter” fighting in Ukraine for Vuhledar near Donetsk
Ukrainian troops were engaged in a “bitter” confrontation with Russian fighters for control of the town of Vuhledar, southwest of Donetsk, on Friday, while the two sides fought along the southern front.
Both sides maintained their success in the small administrative center of apartment blocks surrounded by flat fields not far from the strategically important village of Pavlivka.
“The encirclement and subsequent liberation of this city solves many problems,” said Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-appointed leader of the Donetsk region. “Soon Vuhledar could become a new, very important success for us,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
But Kyiv said the city, which had a pre-invasion population of around 15,000, remained contentious. “There is fierce fighting there,” Ukrainian military spokesman Sergiy Cherevaty told local media.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Portal)
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