Because the conflict enters its 720th day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the scenario on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
The wrestle
- Norway's intelligence service has warned that Russia is “gaining the higher hand” within the conflict in Ukraine due to higher numbers of troops and materials offered by Iran, China, North Korea and Belarus. Nils Andreas Stensones, the top of the navy intelligence unit, stated Kiev would wish “in depth” Western navy help to show the scenario round.
- Researchers in Kiev stated a preliminary evaluation concluded that Russia struck the Ukrainian capital final week with a hypersonic Zircon missile, marking the primary use of the weapon in conflict. The Zircon has a spread of 1,000 km (625 miles) and travels at 9 occasions the velocity of sound, in keeping with Russia.
- The Ukrainian Air Pressure stated air protection programs destroyed 14 of the 17 drones that Russia launched in a single day and one Kh-59 cruise missile. Some buildings have been broken, together with within the central metropolis of Dnipro, however there have been no studies of casualties.
- The Kremlin has denied Ukraine's declare that its troops have been utilizing Elon Musk's Starlink satellite tv for pc web system for navy communications in elements of Ukraine it occupies. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the system was neither licensed to be used in Russia, nor formally offered in Russia, and subsequently can’t be used.
Politics and diplomacy
- The European Union has adopted a regulation to cancel the unclaimed income made on the frozen property of the Russian central financial institution, within the first concrete step in the direction of the bloc's aim of utilizing the cash to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. About 300 billion euros ($323 billion) of Russian central financial institution property have been frozen after the nation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine practically two years in the past.
- Kristina Puzyreva, a Canadian-Russian girl, pleaded responsible in a US court docket to 1 rely of cash laundering conspiracy for her function in a multimillion-dollar scheme to ship drone and missile elements to Russia for navy use in opposition to to Ukraine, stated the US Division of Justice. She faces a most of 20 years in jail
- Russia has imposed sanctions on 18 UK residents, together with officers, historians and specialists on Russia accusing them of attempting to demonize Russia. Moscow additionally claimed that the UK's technique in Ukraine had led to additional escalation and lack of life within the conflict.
- French company Viginum, which works to defend in opposition to overseas on-line threats, stated it had uncovered a “structured and coordinated” community of Russian web sites designed to unfold Kremlin propaganda in Europe and america .
- A court docket in Moscow has ordered the arrest of Meta spokesman Andy Stone for 2 months pending trial on quite a lot of terrorism prices. Meta's predominant social platforms – Fb and Instagram – have been banned shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, and Meta was later discovered responsible of “extremist actions” in Russia. Stone is just not in Moscow.
Weapons
- Ukraine's Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov advised the Reuters information company that Ukraine will produce hundreds of long-range drones able to deep strikes in Russia by 2024, and already has as much as 10 firms making drones with the power to succeed in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- Authorities in Moldova say they’ve destroyed about 50 kg of explosives found in a part of a Russian-launched Shahed drone that crashed on its territory close to the southern metropolis of Etulia, close to the border with the Ukraine.
