Ukraine news – live: Putin has lost nearly 200,000 troops in war, US officials say

It is a matter of “weeks, not days or months” in which Ukraine’s troops will complete training to use Western tanks, Poland’s defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak has told a press conference in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that Kyiv expects to receive 120 to 140 Western tanks from a coalition of 12 countries in a first wave of deliveries, including German Leopard 2, British Challenger 2 and US M1 Abrams tanks.

Washington’s announcement of a new $2.175bn package of military aid for Ukraine brings the total pledged by the United States so far since Russia’s invasion to $29.3bn, according to Jack Detsch, of Foreign Policy.

Here is more information on what the new package will include:

In a piece for Independent Voices, our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta writes:

The week ends with a meeting of great significance between European Union officials and the Zelensky government, with calls for Ukraine’s expedited membership under discussion.

The summit – attended by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and chairperson Charles Michel – is being held in Kyiv. It is the first such gathering to take place in a warzone and there will be much media coverage.

But Ukraine is highly unlikely to achieve its aim of being fast-tracked. There will, instead, be a show of further solidarity including the doubling of the training mission for Ukrainian troops to 30,000 and €25m to demine liberated territories, as well as the possible announcement of more Russia sanctions.

There is a case to be made that the European Union should consider Ukraine an exceptional case for membership. Brussels could perhaps have prevented what befell the country if it had been more flexible in the past.

Ukraine thought it was on its way to getting closer integration when Brussels and the IMF presented terms which many Western officials now agree were too strict. This led President Viktor Yanukovych, already pro-Moscow ,to turn to Vladimir Putin for economic bailout which arrived in the form of $ 15 billion investment in Ukraine’s national debt and a one-third reduction in gas prices.

The blocking of the path to the West led to turmoil. I remember being with colleagues at a conference in Yalta, in Crimea, in 2013 when the mood was euphoric with the prospect of closer European Union ties. We were back in Ukraine a few months later for the Maidan uprising in Kyiv. Crimea was lost to the Russians in the violent strife that followed.

Reuters has more background on the Russian oil price cap proposal agreed by EU member states today, according to the presidency:

“Poland and Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had pushed for the caps to be set at lower levels to curb Russia's revenues from fuel, diplomats had said, dragging on talks for days.

“The price caps, together with an EU ban on Russian oil product imports, are part of a broader agreement among the Group of Seven (G7) countries. It follows a $60 per barrel cap imposed on Russian crude on 5 December as G7 countries, the EU and Australia seek to limit Moscow's ability to fund its war in Ukraine.

“Both caps work by prohibiting Western insurance and shipping companies from insuring or carrying cargoes of Russian crude and oil products unless they were bought at or below the set price cap.”

France and Italy have finalised technical talks for the joint delivery of a SAMP/T-MAMBA air defence system to Ukraine in spring 2023, the French defence ministry has announced.

The defence systems are the only European-built system that can intercept ballistic missiles, and are capable of tracking dozens of targets and hitting 10 simultaneously.

“This will allow Ukraine to defend itself against Russian drones, missiles and plane attacks, through the coverage of a significant part of the Ukrainian territory,” a ministry statement said.

Our world affairs editor Kim Sengupta reports:

It may well be the case that the Russians will try to do something around the anniversary of the war. But Western intelligence and defence officials, as well as individual Ukrainian commanders privately, stress they have seen no evidence that the Kremlin is yet in a position to launch a major offensive.

The Russians are, however, likely to continue with operations in the Donbas, in the east, where it has had some incremental success: and there may be rounds of missile strikes with reports that Moscow has increased production of the weapons and are also securing parts from abroad.

The United States has imposed sanctions on the board of directors of Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars, alleging that Iranian drones are being used by Russia to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.

The US Treasury Department’s office of foreign assets control designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars.

The drone maker was previously sanctioned by the US and EU for making drones for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Iranian entities continue to produce UAVs for Iran’s IRGC and military. More broadly, Iran is supplying UAVs for Russia’s combat operations to target critical infrastructure in Ukraine,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s top sanctions official.

Rishi Sunak’s government has been accused of letting fossil fuel giants “off the hook” by failing to target the “proceeds of war”, after Shell announced record profits this week.

While Shell is due to publish its 2022 pay data in March, the company’s declared figures for 2021 show that Shell paid the 12 members of its non-executive board at the time a total of €2,631,000, including taxable benefits (£2,345,000 at Friday’s exchange rate).

This is equivalent to 70 nurses, based on an average nursing salary estimate of £33,384 in 2021 by the Royal College of Nurses.

However, when including Shell’s two executive directors at the time, both of whom have now left the company, the total paid out by the firm to its board in 2021 rises to €14,638,000 (£13,049,376) – enough to employ 390 nurses.

The Independent has taken a look at who Shell’s directors are and what they are paid:

Sixty-three Russian prisoners of war were released as a result of a complex negotiation process with Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported, citing Moscow’s defence ministry.

The group of released Russian servicemen includes “sensitive category” persons, whose exchange was made possible through the mediation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the agencies added.