Russia Ukraine latest news: West warns of hasty claims after Nord Stream reports

It is still unclear who was responsible for last year’s attack on the Nord Stream pipelines as national investigations into the sabotage have to be completed, the NATO chief said.

“What we do know is that there was an attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, but we have not been able to identify who was behind it,” Jens Stoltenberg said before a meeting with EU defense ministers in Stockholm.

“National investigations are ongoing and I think it’s good to wait for those to be completed before we say a little more about who was behind it.”

The New York Times reported Tuesday that new intelligence, reviewed by US officials, had shown that a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines that carry natural gas from Russia to Europe.

Russia’s demands to extend a deal that would allow exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea have not yet been met, a Turkish diplomatic source has said. Reuters, adding that Ankara is “working very hard” to ensure the deal goes through.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports. It was extended in November and until March 18 and will expire unless another extension is agreed.

Russia indicated that barriers to its own agricultural exports had to be removed before it could proceed with the Black Sea deal with Ukraine.

“Turkey is working very hard to extend the Black Sea grain agreement, negotiations are still ongoing,” said a Turkish diplomatic source.

“Russia’s concerns, or rather the difficulties it faces, have not yet been overcome. But Turkey is doing its part for an agreement between all parties,” the source added.

Vladimir Putin presented flowers to a female war correspondent and medical personnel from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine at a Kremlin ceremony marking International Women’s Day, thanking them for their achievements in what he called a challenging time for the country.

“Nothing is impossible for you,” Putin said in a speech to a group of women who were then invited to come forward and take bouquets from him as trumpet fanfares sounded.

“You can be tender and feminine and very strong at the same time. You always strive for fairness, you do everything you can to ensure that life in the family, society and country improves unfailingly,” the president said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Russian women for their “reverence for motherhood” as he continues to send their sons and husbands to war in Ukraine.

In a televised address on International Women’s Day, flanked by the statue of Russian Empress Catherine II the Great in the Kremlin Senate Palace, he said: “Reverence and respect for women and motherhood is an unconditional value for us, something we have traditionally have passed on. generation to generation.

Putin continued that the celebration in Russia “is always filled with special warmth and meaning, with the most kind, joyful and sincere feelings.”

“Dear women, on this new spring day, I want to wish you love and mutual understanding with the people you love, and may the warmth that your hearts so generously share return to you and keep you warm as well,” Putin added.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has urged his EU counterparts to back a plan to buy a million artillery shells to help Kiev fight the Russian invasion and replenish their own supplies.

Speaking to reporters just before the meeting with ministers in Stockholm, Reznikov said Ukraine urgently needed the grenades to defend against Russian forces and launch a counter-offensive.

Reznikov said he supported a proposal by Estonia to unite EU countries together to buy 1 million 155-millimeter shells for Ukraine this year at a cost of 4 billion euros ($4.22 billion).

He said Ukraine wanted 90,000 to 100,000 artillery rounds per month. Ukraine is burning through shells faster than its allies can make them, officials have warned, sparking a renewed search for ammunition and ways to ramp up production.

Thousands of people in Ukraine have suffered complex injuries as a result of the war and need rehabilitation services and equipment to help them, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said.

Attacks on healthcare facilities, fewer health workers due to displacement and power shortages all made it difficult for people to get care, Dr. Satish Mishra from the WHO Regional Office for Europe at a press briefing.

Even before the war, in 2019, about half of the population in Ukraine could have benefited from rehabilitation services for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, said Dr Cathal Morgan, another WHO official.

Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic and war have significantly increased the need for rehabilitation services, he added. “Hence the need for urgency.”

A European Union high court has upheld the annulment of sanctions against the mother of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner fighting in Ukraine.

The EU blacklisted Violetta Prigozhina because she was complicit through business ties with her son in Russia’s aggression against her neighbour, a former Soviet republic now seeking integration with the West.

“The General Court annuls the restrictive measures applied to Ms. Violetta Prigozhina, mother of Mr. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the bloc’s second-highest court said.

It was a month after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops had withdrawn from the vicinity of Kiev and in their wake Bel Trew and her team stumbled upon a body at an abandoned Russian camp.

His hands were tied. He had been burned and shot in the back. Soldiers said he was a teenager.

As Bel tried to figure out who he was and what had happened, she discovered a world of nightmares: a nation struggling to find thousands of its missing and identify its dead.

Ukraine has turned Bakhmut into a meat grinder for some of Russia’s most skilled personnel, military experts said amid reports Moscow’s losses far exceed Kiev’s.

“It has served its purpose by effectively being the anvil on which so many Russian lives have been broken,” said Lord Richard Dannatt, the former Chief of the General Staff of the British Armed Forces. sky news.

The comments came as military expert Pavlo Narozhniy told Ukrainian NV Radio that Vladimir Putin’s losses in Bakhmut are between five and eight times greater than Ukraine’s.