Key events
Here is some more detail on the announcement from Sweden that it will donate military aid to Ukraine worth about 7.1 billion Swedish crowns (£541m) – see earlier post at 08.32 for more details.
The package includes around 2 billion crowns (£153m) worth of artillery ammunition as well as anti-aircraft artillery and recoilless rifles, Sweden said.
As part of the package, Sweden will also earmark cash for the purchase of material through international Ukraine funds, and 1 billion crowns (£76m) for the purchase of around 10 new armoured combat vehicles that will be ready for delivery to Ukraine in 2026.
Russian troops have carried out 435 strikes against 19 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing two people in Primorskyi and Lisnyi, governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram on Tuesday morning.
Officials received 13 reports concerning the destruction of residential buildings and “infrastructure facilities”, according to Fedorov, who is head of the southern Zaporizhzia regional administration.
Polish farmers will step up protests on the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, blocking almost all traffic in what they say is an attempt to save their livelihoods but which Kyiv says is damaging its war effort.
Farmers across Europe have been demonstrating against constraints placed on them by EU measures to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and what they say is unfair competition from abroad, particularly Ukraine.
“(There will be a) total blockade of all traffic at border crossings,” Adrian Wawrzyniak, a spokesperson for the Solidarity farmers’ union, said.
Wawrzyniak said that while military aid would be allowed through, all passenger traffic would be blocked, not only lorries. He said there would be blockades at ports and of motorways, according to Reuters.
The protests mark an escalation of the unrest as previous demonstrations by the truckers and farmers did not completely block all border crossings.
Kyiv says its agricultural exports through eastern Europe have not damaged EU markets.
Sweden’s defence minister, Pal Jonson, has welcomed news that Hungary’s parliament plans to vote on the Nordic country’s Nato membership next week.
“We of course welcome this,” he told a press conference.
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has proposed that parliament should vote on the ratification of Sweden’s bid to join Nato on 26 February, which the party will support, the leader of Fidesz’ parliamentary group said on Tuesday.
Hungary is the only Nato country not yet to have ratified Sweden’s application, a process that requires the backing of all of the alliance’s members.
Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party has cited what it called unfounded Swedish allegations that it has eroded democracy in Hungary as the reason why Sweden’s bid had been held up.
Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022, at the same time as Finland, in a historic shift in its security policy prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that February.
Sweden to donate its largest Ukraine military aid package to date
Sweden will donate military aid to Ukraine worth about 7.1 billion Swedish crowns (£541m), the country’s largest contribution to date, the country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.
It will be Sweden’s 15th round of aid for Ukraine, taking the overall aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 to about 30 billion crowns (£2.3bn).
“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Sweden’s defence minister, Pal Jonson, told a press conference.
The latest package includes artillery and artillery ammunition, maritime assault vessels and other equipment, Sweden said. The military aid also includes the transfer of equipment and fresh cash for arms procurement.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said last week that the parliament can ratify Sweden’s Nato membership when it convenes for its new spring session later this month, the only remaining parliament in the 31 member alliance to do so.
Sweden applied to join Nato nearly two years ago in a historic shift in policy prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here are the latest developments:
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Russia is exploiting delays in aid to Ukraine, and the situation in areas where Russian troops are concentrated is “extremely difficult”, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Ukraine’s president spoke visiting the frontline in the Kupiansk sector in the north-east. “This is a very sensitive matter. Artillery shortages, the need for frontline air defence and for longer-range weapons,” said Zelenskiy.
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A Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine with his aircraft in 2023 has been found dead in Spain, according to the main military intelligence agency in Kyiv, the GUR. Spanish media said Maksim Kuzminov was found shot 12 times on a car park ramp underneath an apartment block in the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante on the Mediterranean coast.
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It comes after the suspected killing by Russia of the leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison camp. On Monday, Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya published a video address in which she vowed to continue her late husband’s political work and called on Russians to rally around her.
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Ukraine shot down two more Russian warplanes used to drop guided aerial bombs, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said. The destroyed planes were an Su-34 fighter-bomber and an Su-35 fighter, Syrskyi wrote on Telegram. Over the weekend, Ukraine said it had shot down three Russian Su-34s and one Su-35.
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Ukrainian troops were facing “heavy fire” from Russian forces in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a Ukrainian army spokesperson was quoted by AFP as saying. It comes after Russia said it had taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, its biggest gain since capturing Bakhmut last May, after a retreat by Ukrainian troops.
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Ukraine’s government has said it is trying to work with SpaceX to prevent Russian invaders using Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service. “We found an algorithm and made a proposal to SpaceX,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, a Ukrainian government minister. “SpaceX has done something similar with the Israeli government.” Fedorov said Ukraine needed its own terminals to work in all areas “because specific technologies are being used linked to drones. There are other ways so that our Starlinks work and others [the Russians’] do not. We are working on this with SpaceX.”
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Sweden will on Tuesday announce military assistance to Ukraine of SEK7.1bn, according to Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish news outlet. It works out to about US$680m/€630m/£540m.
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Joe Biden, the US president, said he was willing to meet with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, to discuss Ukraine funding, adding that Republicans are making a mistake by opposing it. The Senate this month passed a $95bn aid package that includes funds for Ukraine, but Johnson has refused to bring it up for a vote on the floor of the House, which Republicans control by a 219-212 margin.
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NBC News reported the White House was prepared to send long-range tactical missiles to Ukraine if Congress approves a new funding package.
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Canada will donate more than 800 SkyRanger R70 multi-mission drones to Ukraine, Canada’s defence minister, Bill Blair, has said. The drones, from Teledyne in Waterloo, Ontario, were valued at over C$95m, the ministry said, and funded through C$500m in previously announced military assistance.
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The Red Cross said it was trying to find out what happened to 23,000 people who have disappeared over the course of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was seeking to determine whether they had been captured, killed or had lost contact after fleeing their homes.
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Belgium’s foreign minister, Hadja Lahbib, has called on the EU to develop an army amid increasing nervousness about Russian aggression.
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Speaking on his way into the summit of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, called Vladimir Putin a “murderer” and said Ukraine urgently needs more ammunition.