Russia-Ukraine updates: ‘Nervousness’ in NATO over tanks -Kremlin

American actor and director Sean Penn will premiere a documentary he filmed in Kyiv featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at next month’s Berlin film festival, organisers have said.

The 73rd-annual Berlinale, as the February 16-26 event is known, will shine a spotlight on the war, which will mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the event.

Penn’s “Superpower”, billed as “the chronicle of a film project that reality forced to change into something less controllable but more meaningful”, will be the most prominent among the Ukraine entries at the festival.

Penn was in Kyiv to shoot a documentary in late February 2022 when the Russian invasion began.

The two-time Oscar winner was photographed attending a government news conference in Kyiv, and could be seen meeting with Zelenskyy in a video posted to the Ukrainian president’s Instagram account.

The European Union has launched a civilian mission to help monitor Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, bolstering the bloc’s role in a region viewed by the Kremlin as Russia’s back yard.

The move comes as Moscow — focused on its war in Ukraine — has been losing influence after decades of domination over former Soviet states.

The initiative was requested by Armenia and expands upon a 40-strong mission that was deployed for two months late last year.

The new mission has a two-year mandate and will conduct “routine patrolling and report on the situation”, an EU statement said.

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has said Germany is not blocking the export of Leopard 2 tanks, as Berlin faces mounting pressure to supply them to Ukraine.
Asked about the issue, Borrell told a news conference today: “It seems Germany’s not going to ban the exporting of these weapons, if some EU member states who have them want to send them.”

He also outlined details of the EU’s newly approved military aid package to Ukraine, which brings the total amount of military support for Ukraine to $3.9bn, he said.

The total figure of the bloc’s support to Ukraine – including military, financial, economic and humanitarian aid – now stands at $53bn, Borrell added.

A former top FBI official has been charged with violating US sanctions on Russia by receiving concealed payments from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, prosecutors have said. Deripaska is at large.

Charles McGonigal, who led the agency’s counterintelligence division in New York City before retiring in 2018, faces four counts, including sanctions violations and money laundering.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say McGonigal, 54, received concealed payments from Deripaska, who was sanctioned in 2018, in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch in 2021. He is also charged with unsuccessfully pushing in 2019 for the lifting of the sanctions on Deripaska.

McGonigal is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan later on Monday along with Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet diplomat who later became a US citizen and was also charged in the case.

It is “too early” to talk about a potential 2024 re-election bid for Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has said.

The Russian president “has not made any statements on the matter”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

In 2021, Putin signed a law that will allow him to run for the presidency twice more in his lifetime, potentially keeping him in office until 2036.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update has said Russian forces continue to “endure operational deadlock and heavy casualties”.

The report also says new disciplinary measures introduced by Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff and newly appointed commander in Ukraine, have been met with scepticism, in particular in response to the decision to ban soldiers from growing their beards.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 23 January 2023

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/CSN2KpKIMu

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6ubHQ5sXPr

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 23, 2023

The European Union has ratified a new military aid package to Ukraine worth $544m, as the EU’s 27 foreign ministers met in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday.

The package was approved along with a further $49m for “non-lethal equipment” for the EU’s military training mission for Ukraine, sources told the Reuters news agency.

US prosecutors say a former top FBI official has been charged with violating sanctions on Russia by receiving concealed payments from oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

According to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Charles McGonical, who led the agency’s counterintelligence division in New York, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly taking the payments in return for agreeing to investigate a rival oligarch.

The Kremlin says hesitancy over whether to provide German-made Leopard tanks to Kyiv shows increasing “nervousness” within the NATO military alliance.

“Of course, all countries that take part, directly or indirectly, in pumping weapons into Ukraine and raising its technological level bear responsibility” for continuing the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine is not an “easy decision to make” for Germany, Julian Pawlak, a research associate from the Federal Armed Forces University in Hamburg, tells Al Jazeera.

“On the one hand, you have the voices from the Chancellery saying that they need to be careful and do not want to be hasty in their decisions. On the other side of course, it’s a new image of giving the green light for again sending German tanks to the east of Europe,” Pawlak said in a reference to Nazi Germany’s war on the Eastern Front in World War II.

But the tanks will only make a difference on the battlefield if used with the other weapons that Ukraine currently has, and its current stock of firearms is running out, Pawlak said.

“Time is running out regarding the old Soviet-style tanks and ammunition, so at some point in the future, numbers will go down, and Ukraine will depend more and more on Western ammunition and Western assets,” he said.

Germany’s armed forces have begun moving the first two of three promised Patriot anti-aircraft missile squadrons to Poland.

The air defence systems are expected to be delivered near Zamosc in southeastern Poland by Wednesday afternoon.

“Patriot is a purely defensive system,” said the head of the German forces in Poland, Colonel Jorg Sievers.

The aim, he said, is to protect NATO airspace as well as Poland’s territory, infrastructure and population.

A former Wagner Group mercenary will not be deported to Russia, his Norwegian lawyer says.

“The risk of him being deported? It is zero,” Brynjulf Risnes told the Reuters news agency.

Risnes said police detained Andrey Medvedev because there was “disagreement” between him and the police about the measures taken to ensure his safety.

The Russian rights group Gulagu.net, which helped Medvedev escape, said he would face “brutal murder” if he were deported to Russia.

For weeks, Ukraine has asked for German-made Leopard 2 tanks to help it defeat Russian forces.

Despite intense pressure from Western countries to supply the tanks, Berlin is hesitant, citing concerns about what the delivery could mean for the future of the conflict.

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts to look at why Germany is so reluctant to provide the much-needed weapons.

Hungary will not block the EU from implementing a measure to provide more military aid to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says in a video on his Facebook page.

Szijjarto spoke as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss more military aid to Kyiv.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he hoped ministers would approve another 500 million euros ($544m) in support.

A question mark has hung over how Hungary will vote because it has strong ties with Russia.

Latvia’s foreign minister says he has told Russia’s ambassador in Riga to leave the country by February 24 in a decision taken in solidarity with Estonia.

Edgars Rinkevics said on Twitter: “Due to the ongoing brutal Russian aggression against Ukraine and in solidarity with Estonia, Latvia will lower level of diplomatic relations with Russia effective February 24, demanding Russia to act accordingly.”

Due to the ongoing brutal Russian aggression against #Ukraine and in solidarity with #Estonia, #Latvia will lower level of diplomatic relations with #Russia effective February 24, demanding Russia to act accordingly

— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 23, 2023

Earlier on Monday, Russia said it was downgrading diplomatic relations with Estonia and accused Tallinn of “total Russophobia”.

Here are four maps we update daily, charting the latest developments in the conflict.

Zelenskyy promises to combat corruption after Ukrainian police detained the deputy infrastructure minister on suspicion of receiving $400,000 to facilitate the import of generators into Ukraine.

On Telegram, the president wrote: “Today, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dismissed a deputy minister who was exposed by NABU [the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine].”

“I want this to be our signal to all those whose actions or behaviour violate the principle of justice,” the president said. “Of course, now, the main focus is on defence, foreign policy and war. But this does not mean that I do not see or hear what is being said in society at different levels.”

Zelenskyy added that measures to fight corruption would be announced this week.

A former Wagner mercenary who fled to Norway to seek political asylum has been told he will be deported, a Russian human rights group says.

The Gulagu.net group, which helped Andrey Medvedev escape, said he would face “brutal murder” if he is returned to Russia.

Officials in Norway said earlier on Monday that they had “apprehended” Medvedev and were considering whether to seek a court decision on his imprisonment.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says European Union membership negotiations should start this year.

“We are convinced that pre-accession negotiations should begin as soon as possible after Ukraine has implemented the recommendations and the positive assessment of the European Commission,” Kuleba said in an online speech at an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.

“Ukraine is making every effort, and I am convinced that we should start pre-accession negotiations by the end of 2023,” he said.

Kyiv officially applied for EU membership on February 28, four days after Russia invaded.

One civilian has died and nine were wounded on Sunday in Ukraine, says the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Krylo Tymoshenko.

In his daily account of victims of the conflict, Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram that four people were wounded in the Donetsk region, one wounded in Zaporizhia, one dead and another wounded in Kharkiv, and three were wounded in Kherson.

Ukraine needs several hundred tanks from its Western allies to retake Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said.

“We need tanks – not 10-20, but several hundred,” the official, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram.

“Our goal is [restoring] the borders of 1991 and punishing the enemy, who will pay for their crimes.”

Ukraine’s borders were established in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Norwegian police have apprehended a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group, Andrey Medvedev, who fled to the Nordic country, an official says.

“He is apprehended, … and we are considering whether to seek a court’s decision for internment,” police lawyer Line Isaksen told the Reuters news agency, declining to give details.

A lawyer for Medvedev said last week that he had fled the Wagner Group in July and is seeking asylum in Norway.

Lavrov says the terms of the Black Sea grain initiative, which clears the way for Ukrainian grain to be exported from its southern Black Sea ports, were “more or less being fulfilled”.

However, Russia still faces problems exporting its agricultural products, Lavrov said at a news conference during a visit to South Africa.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the longer Ukraine rejects peace talks, the harder it will be to resolve the conflict.

Russia has repeatedly said it is open to talks, but Ukraine and the US say they see no sign that Moscow is serious about ending the war and instead suspect it of trying to buy time to regroup.

“The longer they [the Ukrainians] refuse, the harder it will be to find a solution,” Lavrov said at a news conference during a visit to South Africa.

EU countries and their partners must do everything possible to ensure Ukraine wins against Russia, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says.

“It’s important that we as an international community do everything we can to defend Ukraine, so that Ukraine wins and wins the right to live in peace and freedom again,” Baerbock said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Baerbock declined to make any specific comment on the sought-after Leopold 2 tanks.

The Kremlin dismisses US sanctions on the Wagner Group, saying they will have no practical effect.

“I don’t think that in practical terms it has any significance for our country and even less for the Wagner private military company,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The White House said on Friday that the mercenary group would be designated a significant transnational criminal organisation and new sanctions against it would be announced this week.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin wrote to the US national security spokesperson John Kirby to clarify what crime his forces were accused of.

The Kremlin says it remains interested in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but there are no plans for a meeting between the head of the nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, and President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a report by the Russian foreign intelligence service, which argues that Ukraine is storing weapons at its nuclear power stations, demonstrated the importance of dialogue with the IAEA.

Russia says no new date has been set for talks with the US on the START nuclear arms treaty.

Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, said conditions were not suitable for new talks on the agreement, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads of each side.

“The situation does not, frankly speaking, allow for setting a new date, … taking into account this escalation trend in both rhetoric and actions by the United States,” Interfax quoted Ryabkov as saying.

In November, talks between Moscow and Washington on resuming inspections under the new START nuclear arms reduction treaty were due to take place in Egypt, but Russia postponed them.

Russia says it is downgrading diplomatic relations with NATO member Estonia, accusing the Baltic nation of “total Russophobia”.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ordered the Estonian envoy to leave next month. Both countries would be represented by an interim charge d’affaires instead of an ambassador.

“In recent years, the Estonian leadership has purposefully destroyed the entire range of relations with Russia,” the ministry said. “Total Russophobia, the cultivation of hostility towards our country, has been elevated by Tallinn to the rank of state policy.”

The move was made in response to an Estonian decision to reduce the size of the Russian embassy in Tallinn, Moscow said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in South Africa to hold talks with his counterpart in Pretoria.

The South African government said the talks with Naledi Pandor are routine, but opposition parties have condemned the visit as insensitive.

Pandor has insisted that South Africa will not be dragged into taking sides in the Ukraine war and has criticised the West for its selective condemnation of Russia while ignoring other acts of aggression, such as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

The South African military is to host a joint military exercise with Russia and China from February 17 to 27, which coincides with the first anniversary of the conflict.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service accuses Ukraine of storing Western-supplied arms at nuclear power stations.

The agency said in a statement that US-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers, air defence systems and artillery ammunition had been delivered to the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant in the northwestern city of Varash.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are storing weapons and ammunition provided by the West on the territory of nuclear power plants,” the agency said, adding that an arms shipment to the Rivne power station had taken place in the last week of December.

Poland will ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says.

Warsaw is building a coalition of nations ready to send German-made Leopards, but even if there is no permission from Berlin, Warsaw will make its own decisions, Morawiecki added.

“Even if, eventually, we do not get this permission, we – within this small coalition – even if Germany is not in this coalition, we will hand over our tanks, together with the others, to Ukraine,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Sunday that Poland hasn’t formally asked for Berlin’s approval, but “if we were asked, we would not stand in the way.”