Russia’s war on Ukraine: The latest news
February 16 (Reuters) – Russia has rained missiles over Ukraine, hitting its biggest oil refinery, Kiev said, while the head of the Wagner mercenary group predicted it would be weeks if not months before the long-besieged town of Bakhmut fell .
BATTLE
* Following a pattern of heavy airstrikes at times of Ukrainian battlefields or diplomatic advances, Russia launched 32 rockets in the early hours of the morning, Ukraine’s Air Force said. Half were shot down, it added, a lower rate than normal.
* Among them, air defenses in the south shot down eight Kalibr missiles launched from a ship in the Black Sea, Ukrainian officials said. Other rockets hit northern and western Ukraine, as well as the central regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad.
* However, Ukraine’s energy minister and national power grid operator signaled that the nighttime Russian airstrikes had not caused major power disruptions.
* Russia has typically conducted its biggest waves of daylight airstrikes, hitting energy assets, but Ukrainian officials suggest Moscow is beginning to adjust its strategy, including using balloons for reconnaissance.
* Russia and Ukraine exchanged 101 prisoners of war in their latest prisoner exchange on Thursday, authorities said.
* Russia’s current battlefield is centered on the small town of Bakhmut in Donetsk, one of two provinces that make up the eastern Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland now partially occupied by Russian forces.
* The head of Russia’s Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, predicted that Bakhmut, now bombed out after months of heavy shelling, would fall next month or in April, depending on how many men Ukraine throws into the fight and how good his men are taken care of.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
POLITICS, SANCTIONS, HELP
* European Union countries are “on track” to adopt new sanctions against Russia in time for the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Moscow on February 24, according to bloc-centre Brussels diplomatic sources.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin’s future in power has become less certain following the invasion of Ukraine, a Western official has said, but it’s not possible to predict when changes will come in the Kremlin.
* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Moscow never asked Minsk to go to war in Ukraine and would only order his troops to fight alongside ally Russia if another country attacked Belarus, the reported state news agency Belta.
* Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday in Kiev for the first time since the Russian invasion, next week offered his support for a Ukrainian peace initiative at the United Nations.
* NATO countries are ramping up production of artillery ammunition as Ukraine burns through shells much faster than the West can make them, the alliance said.
* British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday agreed on the importance of increasing support for Ukraine in the coming weeks, Sunak’s office said.
* Filmmakers from around the world gathered in Berlin for the city’s film festival, which is set to open later on Thursday with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Compiled by Himani Sarkar and Mark Heinrich
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