Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 352

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 352nd day, we take a look at the main developments.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European Council President Charles Michel shake hands in Brussels.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Council President Charles Michel shake hands at the end of a news conference during the European leaders' summit in Brussels [Yves Herman/Reuters]

Here is the situation as it stands on Friday, February 10, 2023:

Fighting

  • An air-raid alert was declared in all of Ukraine on Friday as officials warned of potential Russian missile attacks, urging residents to take shelter. “There is a big threat of the missile attack. I want to stress again – do not ignore the air alert sirens,” said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration.
  • Kyiv says it expects Moscow to broaden its offensive with a big push as the February 24 anniversary of the invasion nears.
  • Russian forces launched a series of overnight raids that have knocked out power supplies in parts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, local officials said. There was no word on casualties.
  • Russia said it had destroyed four Ukrainian artillery depots in the eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine’s military said that over the past 24 hours, Russian troops maintained offensives in the regions of Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Novopavlivka and Vuhledar.
  • Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of the mostly Russian-occupied eastern Luhansk province, described a major new Russian assault around Kreminna, along a northern stretch of the eastern front.
  • Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield accounts.

Diplomacy

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has addressed the European Parliament saying that his country’s fight with Russia was one for the freedom of all of Europe. He was in Brussels to attend a summit of the European Union.
  • While Zelenskyy said that “Free Europe cannot be imagined without free Ukraine”, he heard from European Council chief Charles Michel that Ukraine’s road to EU membership would be long and hard.
  • “Europe will be with us until our victory. I’ve heard it from a number of European leaders … about the readiness to give us the necessary weapons and support, including the aircraft,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Brussels, without naming the countries.
  • Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said NATO must act together on jets for Ukraine.
  • Presidents of Poland and Ukraine met in Rzeszow, southeast Poland, on Thursday and discussed the situation in the region, the office of the Polish president said on Friday on Twitter.
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it would be Ukrainians who suffer if Britain or other Western countries supply fighter jets to Kyiv, and that the line between indirect and direct Western involvement in the war is disappearing.
  • Moscow does not believe Kyiv’s pledges that it will not use long-range Western arms to strike deep into Russian territory, Alexei Polishyuk, a department head at Russia’s foreign ministry, told state-owned RIA news agency.

Nord Stream pipelines

  • Russia’s foreign ministry said European countries were trying to hide the results of their investigations into last year’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, accusing them of covering up who was to blame.

Economy/Society

  • President Vladimir Putin said Russia’s economy had overcome the worst effects of sanctions and was expected to show modest growth this year, despite what he said were attempts to undermine certain industries.
  • A quarter of Ukraine’s population is at risk of developing a severe mental health condition as the country grapples with the year-long Russian invasion, a senior health official said.
Source: News Agencies