Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin has already lost ‘strategically, operationally and tactically’, says US general | Ukraine

A British national has died in Ukraine, the UK government has said.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said:

We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ukraine, and are in contact with the local authorities.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group whose mercenaries have been fighting for months to take the eastern city of Bakhmut, has said the battle is far from over.

In a Telegram post, Prigozhin said Ukraine was reinforcing with up to 500 new fighters a day.

According to his press service, Prigozhin said:

Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working.

“We will not be celebrating in the near future,” he added.

His comments came as Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area.

Troops blew up the bridge on Monday, according to a local Donetsk region news site. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting and reportedly dwindling stockpiles.

Peter Beaumont

Iran is emerging as a global leader in the production of cheap and lethal drones, according to US officials who say Tehran is using the war in Ukraine as a shop window for its technologies.

Analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency outlined how Iran had turned from being a regional drone player in the Middle East to becoming Moscow’s most significant military backer in the war.

Countering denials by Iran’s foreign ministry that its drones had been used in deadly attacks in Ukraine, including against civilian energy infrastructure, the officials shared declassified intelligence demonstrating that Iranian drones used in attacks in the Middle East – including one claimed by Iran – were identical in all significant features to drones being used in Ukraine.

One official described Tehran as having emerged as a global leader in the production of cheap and very effective drones.

Although the supply of Iranian drones to Moscow for its war in Ukraine has long been treated as fact in much reporting, as well as in multiple US briefings that have sought to describe the increasingly close military cooperation between Iran and Russia, the officials stressed that the point of their briefing was to persuade sceptics in a global audience of the depth of the intelligence the US has amassed on Iran’s drone shipments.

Iran has supplied three models of drone to Russia: Shahed 131 and 136 single-use kamikaze drones, used by Moscow as a cheaper alternative to cruise missiles, and the Mohajer-6 multi-role drone, which can be used for intelligence gathering and to carry a missile payload.

Using in-flight footage and debris of suicide and multi-role drones used in Ukraine, the officials said they sought to prove that Iranian denials that its drones had been used were untrue, as the US seeks wider support for sanctions against Iran over its drone supplies.

Read the full story here:

It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern city of Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting and reportedly dwindling stockpiles. The capture of Bakhmut would give Russia a significant symbolic boost ahead of the first anniversary of the war.

• Wagner Group forces have almost certainly made further small gains over the last three days around the northern outskirts of Bakhmut, including into the village of Krasna Hora, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. However, organised Ukrainian defence continues in the area and the tactical Russian advance to the south of the town has likely made little progress, the latest British intelligence report adds.

• One Ukrainian worker was killed and many have been hurt in recent days trying to repair the power network following Russian airstrikes, according to energy minister German Galushchenko. Russian unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Friday, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and causing emergency power outages for millions of people. In a statement, Galushchenko and Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergy said the country was producing enough energy to meet consumers’ needs.

• The Nato secretary general has urged members of the transatlantic military alliance to ramp up ammunition production for Ukraine. Jens Stoltenberg warned Vladimir Putin was preparing for new offensives and attacks, and that the question of supplying fighter jets to Ukraine was on the agenda but “not the most urgent issue now”.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, is taking part in the Nato ministerial talks that begin later on Tuesday. Reznikov said his goals included protecting Ukraine’s skies, “strengthening the tank coalition”, securing sufficient ammunition, ensuring more training for the Ukrainian army and stable logistics, maintenance and repair of weapons.

• A meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group, a US-initiative that convenes more than 50 countries supporting Kyiv in its defence against Russian aggression, has met in Brussels ahead of Nato ministerial talks.

• The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has said he expects Ukraine to conduct an offensive against Russia in spring. Speaking at a news conference following a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group, Austin said Russia is introducing a number of new troops to the battlefield but that many are ill-trained and ill-equipped. Russia has “inflicted a year of tragedy and terror” on its neighbour Ukraine, he said.

• Russia has lost “strategically, operationally and tactically”, Gen Mark Milley, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, has said. Speaking at a joint news conference with Lloyd Austin, Milley said Russians were “paying an enormous price on the battlefield” in Ukraine.

• Norway has announced it will send eight German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks and other equipment to Ukraine. In a statement, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it was “more crucial than ever to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom”. The announcement comes a day after Støre spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call, where the pair discussed Norway’s five-year pledge for Ukraine.

• Germany has signed contracts with Rheinmetall to restart the production of ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft guns it has delivered to Kyiv, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has said. “We will quickly start our own production of Gepard ammunition at Rheinmetall. I am very happy we have been able to guarantee the delivery of this important part of air defence,” Pistorius said before a meeting with Nato ministers in Brussels.

• The US has told Ukraine it will not send long-range missiles because it has too few to spare, according to a report. US officials have said transferring Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to the battlefield in Ukraine would risk a shortage of its own stockpiles and damage its own readiness for any fight in the future, sources have told Politico.

• The Kremlin has again criticised Nato over its stance towards the war in Ukraine, saying the military alliance was becoming more and more involved in the conflict in Ukraine. “Nato is an organisation which is hostile to us and which proves this hostility every day,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.

• Two Dutch F-35 fighters were scrambled to intercept three Russian military aircraft near Poland, according to the Netherlands’ defence ministry. Poland’s defence ministry confirmed that Dutch F-35 fighter jets were scrambled on Monday to intercept three Russian aircraft. The F-35 fighters were operating over international waters and Polish airspace was not violated, it said.

• The UK says it will mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a national moment of silence. Prime minister Rishi Sunak will lead a one-minute silence at 1100 GMT on 24 February, in an expression of solidarity with Ukraine.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has admitted that he founded and financed a company the US has described as a “Russian troll farm” which meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Prigozhin’s statement outlined his specific links to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a St Petersburg-based company that US intelligence officials say was central to Russian efforts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’m here to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.