***LIVE BLOG OF ONGOING EVENTS****
www.aljazeera.com
1 hour ago (17:15 GMT)
German army reinforcements reach Lithuania
A German army convoy of 130 soldiers and 60 vehicles has reached Lithuania, bringing almost half of planned reinforcements for the country’s German-led NATO battlegroup.
The German reinforcement operation will continue until the end of the week, bolstering German forces in Lithuania by more than 350 soldiers and 100 vehicles, Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup commander Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Andrae said.
“We have proven that we are capable of bringing in forces at short notice from long distance,” he told Reuters.
2 hours ago (16:51 GMT)
OSCE says tension ‘may seem to be easing’ in eastern Ukraine
The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission has told the UN Security Council that a flare up in tensions in eastern Ukraine overnight may be easing.
Yaşar Halit Çevik, chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said that some 500 explosions had been recorded between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
“After 11:20am we have recorded about 30 explosions, so the tension may seem to be easing,” he told the council.
2 hours ago (16:47 GMT)
Kremlin says Biden fuelling tension
The Kremlin has accused Biden of stoking tension by saying he expects Russia to invade Ukraine within days, RIA news agency has reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to Biden’s comment that an invasion was likely “in the next several days”.
2 hours ago (16:39 GMT)
Russian foreign ministry website goes back online
The website of Russia’s foreign ministry is back online after going down for a few hours.
The TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying that the website had gone down due to technical issues, without elaborating.
2 hours ago (16:35 GMT)
Blinken says Russian forces preparing to launch attack against Ukraine in ‘coming days’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Russian forces are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in “coming days,” adding that Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for an attack on its neighbour that could include a fake or real assault using chemical weapons.
Blinken told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine that he had sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Thursday proposing a meeting in person in Europe next week, as he called on Russia to state clearly and plainly during the meeting that it would not invade Ukraine.
2 hours ago (16:30 GMT)
Russia will manufacture a pretext, Blinken says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russia will manufacture a pretext, convene an emergency meeting and say that Russians or ethnic Russians need to be protected, and then a war will begin.
“Missiles and bombs drop across Ukraine, communications will be jammed, cyber attacks will shut down Ukrainian institutions,” Blinken told the UN Security Council.
“After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans.”
A Russian tank rolls on the field during military drills in Leningrad region, Russia [Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo]
2 hours ago (16:21 GMT)
Blinken: Principles that sustain security ‘are under threat’
Speaking to the UN Security Council, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that principles that sustain peace and security are under threat.
“This crisis directly affects every member of this council and every country in the world because the basic principles that sustain peace and security – principles that were enshrined in the wake of two world wars and the Cold War are under threat,” Blinken said.
“The principle that one country cannot change the borders of another by force.The principle that one country cannot dictate another’s choices or policies or with whom people associate, the principle of national sovereignty.
“This is the exact kind of crisis that the United Nations and specifically this Security Council was created to prevent. We must address what Russia is doing right now to Ukraine”.
2 hours ago (16:13 GMT)
UN political affairs chief says concerned about reports of ceasefire violations
United Nations Political Affairs Chief Rosemary DiCarlo has said there is concern about reports of fresh ceasefire violations in Ukraine over the past several hours and has called on all sides to exercise restraint.
“Whatever one believes about the prospect of such a confrontation, the reality is that the current situation is extremely dangerous,” DiCarlo told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
3 hours ago (15:33 GMT)
Moscow digs in on security demands, but says it is ready to discuss missiles
Russia has restated a set of security demands that the United States and its allies have already rejected, but also said for the first time it is ready to talk about mutual inspections of missile sites.
In a lengthy document handed to the US ambassador to Russia, Moscow accused Washington of failing to respond constructively to the demands it first presented in December, including for a halt to the eastern enlargement of NATO and a guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join the alliance.
Russia’s “red lines” were still being ignored, it said in a riposte to US and NATO counter-proposals received last month.
But Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Moscow was willing to discuss allowing checks on some of its missile facilities in European Russia in exchange for verification of US missile defence sites in Poland and Romania. The idea was floated by Washington last month.
3 hours ago (15:20 GMT)
Russia lists demands for Ukraine de-escalation
Russia’s response to the US has also listed a series of demands Moscow says need to be met in order for there to be a de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis.
These include a halt to Western weapons supplies and removal of those already sent, the withdrawal of Western military advisers and instructors from Ukraine, and a halt to any joint NATO exercises with Ukraine.
“In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees of our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures,” the document said.
Russia has suggested in the past that “military-technical measures” could include missile and troop deployments.
3 hours ago (14:59 GMT)
Biden says threat of Russian invasion is ‘very high’
US President Joe Biden has warned that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is now “very high”, but added the door to a diplomatic solution remains open.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said “every indication” Washington had suggested Moscow was “prepared to go into Ukraine” within several days.
He claimed that Russia had not moved back its forces from near Ukraine’s borders and said Washington had reason to believe the Kremlin was now engaged in a false flag operation that could be used to justify an invasion.
But he added a diplomatic solution remained possible, which is why he had asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to go to the United Nations to make a statement on Thursday. “He’ll lay out what that path is,” Biden said.
4 hours ago (14:45 GMT)
Russia expels US diplomat
Russia has expelled the US deputy chief of mission (DCM) to Russia, Bart Gorman, a Department of State spokesperson says.
“Russia’s action against our DCM was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response,” the spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear what Moscow’s justification for the expulsion was, but the US and Russia have been engaged in a tussle over their respective diplomatic presences in each others’ capitals of late and the Kremlin said in December that US embassy staff who had been in their posts for more than three years should return home.
The Department of State spokesperson said Gorman, the second most senior official at the US embassy in Moscow, had a valid visa and had been in Russia for less than three years.
4 hours ago (14:28 GMT)
Zelenskyy accuses rebels of shelling kindergarten in ‘big provocation’
Zelenskyy says that Russian-backed separatists have shelled a kindergarten situated in a village in eastern Ukraine, calling the attack a “big provocation”.
“It’s important that diplomats and the OSCE remain in, their monitoring activities are an additional deterrent. We need an effective mechanism for recording all ceasefire violations,” he said on Twitter, citing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been monitoring the situation in eastern Ukraine but has pulled out some of its staff in recent days.
4 hours ago (14:21 GMT)
Satellite images indicate Russian military activity near Ukraine still high
Satellite images show Russia has moved some of its military equipment that was deployed near Ukraine, but other hardware has arrived and Moscow still has a lot of forces and equipment massed close to its ex-Soviet neighbour, US-based private company Maxar Technologies says.
The pictures released by Maxar Technologies, which has been tracking the build-up of Russian forces for weeks, showed locations in Belarus, western Russia and annexed Crimea on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the images.
4 hours ago (14:12 GMT)
NATO chief warns Russia could be trying to stage a ‘pretext’ for an invasion
NATO is concerned Russia could be trying to stage a “pretext” for an invasion in Ukraine amid reports of shelling across the ceasefire line in the country’s conflict-hit east, its secretary-general has said.
“There is still no clarity, no certainty about the Russian intentions,” Stoltenberg told reporters after a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
4 hours ago (14:07 GMT)
UK forces have completed Ukraine military training activities, minister says
The United Kingdom has finished its military training activities in Ukraine and the only remaining British troops in the country are there to protect the ambassador, a government minister has said.
“Within Ukraine itself, there is a small force that remains for the purposes of protecting the ambassador and her team,” Armed Forces minister James Heappey told the BBC.
“Beyond that, all of our training activity alongside the Ukrainians has been ceased and we’ve been very clear throughout that there will be no UK involvement in any conflict in Ukraine.”
The UK had supplied defensive weapons and training personnel to Ukraine.
4 hours ago (13:58 GMT)
EU ready to present sanctions package ‘as soon as needed’
The European Union is ready to present a stinging package of sanctions on Russia should Moscow attack Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat says.
“We have a very tough package prepared and I am ready to present this package as soon as needed,” Josep Borrell told reporters upon arriving at a summit with EU and African leaders.
4 hours ago (13:52 GMT)
US envoy to UN says Russia moving towards ‘imminent invasion’
Russia is still moving toward an “imminent invasion” of Ukraine, the US envoy to the UN has claimed before what is expected to be a heated meeting of the world body’s security council on the ongoing crisis.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet “should focus on what is happening right now” and said Blinken’s attendance at the organisation’s headquarters in New York would demonstrate Washington’s “intense commitment to diplomacy”.
“Our goal is to convey the gravity of the situation. The evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. This is a crucial moment,” she tweeted.
Latest Ukraine updates: US warns Russia preparing for invasion
Ukraine news from February 17: Russian deputy foreign minister says claims it plans to invade are ‘baseless’.
1 hour ago (17:15 GMT)
German army reinforcements reach Lithuania
A German army convoy of 130 soldiers and 60 vehicles has reached Lithuania, bringing almost half of planned reinforcements for the country’s German-led NATO battlegroup.
The German reinforcement operation will continue until the end of the week, bolstering German forces in Lithuania by more than 350 soldiers and 100 vehicles, Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup commander Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Andrae said.
“We have proven that we are capable of bringing in forces at short notice from long distance,” he told Reuters.
2 hours ago (16:51 GMT)
OSCE says tension ‘may seem to be easing’ in eastern Ukraine
The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission has told the UN Security Council that a flare up in tensions in eastern Ukraine overnight may be easing.
Yaşar Halit Çevik, chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said that some 500 explosions had been recorded between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
“After 11:20am we have recorded about 30 explosions, so the tension may seem to be easing,” he told the council.
2 hours ago (16:47 GMT)
Kremlin says Biden fuelling tension
The Kremlin has accused Biden of stoking tension by saying he expects Russia to invade Ukraine within days, RIA news agency has reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to Biden’s comment that an invasion was likely “in the next several days”.
2 hours ago (16:39 GMT)
Russian foreign ministry website goes back online
The website of Russia’s foreign ministry is back online after going down for a few hours.
The TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying that the website had gone down due to technical issues, without elaborating.
2 hours ago (16:35 GMT)
Blinken says Russian forces preparing to launch attack against Ukraine in ‘coming days’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Russian forces are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in “coming days,” adding that Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for an attack on its neighbour that could include a fake or real assault using chemical weapons.
Blinken told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine that he had sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Thursday proposing a meeting in person in Europe next week, as he called on Russia to state clearly and plainly during the meeting that it would not invade Ukraine.
2 hours ago (16:30 GMT)
Russia will manufacture a pretext, Blinken says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russia will manufacture a pretext, convene an emergency meeting and say that Russians or ethnic Russians need to be protected, and then a war will begin.
“Missiles and bombs drop across Ukraine, communications will be jammed, cyber attacks will shut down Ukrainian institutions,” Blinken told the UN Security Council.
“After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans.”
A Russian tank rolls on the field during military drills in Leningrad region, Russia [Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo]
2 hours ago (16:21 GMT)
Blinken: Principles that sustain security ‘are under threat’
Speaking to the UN Security Council, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that principles that sustain peace and security are under threat.
“This crisis directly affects every member of this council and every country in the world because the basic principles that sustain peace and security – principles that were enshrined in the wake of two world wars and the Cold War are under threat,” Blinken said.
“The principle that one country cannot change the borders of another by force.The principle that one country cannot dictate another’s choices or policies or with whom people associate, the principle of national sovereignty.
“This is the exact kind of crisis that the United Nations and specifically this Security Council was created to prevent. We must address what Russia is doing right now to Ukraine”.
2 hours ago (16:13 GMT)
UN political affairs chief says concerned about reports of ceasefire violations
United Nations Political Affairs Chief Rosemary DiCarlo has said there is concern about reports of fresh ceasefire violations in Ukraine over the past several hours and has called on all sides to exercise restraint.
“Whatever one believes about the prospect of such a confrontation, the reality is that the current situation is extremely dangerous,” DiCarlo told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
3 hours ago (15:33 GMT)
Moscow digs in on security demands, but says it is ready to discuss missiles
Russia has restated a set of security demands that the United States and its allies have already rejected, but also said for the first time it is ready to talk about mutual inspections of missile sites.
In a lengthy document handed to the US ambassador to Russia, Moscow accused Washington of failing to respond constructively to the demands it first presented in December, including for a halt to the eastern enlargement of NATO and a guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join the alliance.
Russia’s “red lines” were still being ignored, it said in a riposte to US and NATO counter-proposals received last month.
But Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Moscow was willing to discuss allowing checks on some of its missile facilities in European Russia in exchange for verification of US missile defence sites in Poland and Romania. The idea was floated by Washington last month.
3 hours ago (15:20 GMT)
Russia lists demands for Ukraine de-escalation
Russia’s response to the US has also listed a series of demands Moscow says need to be met in order for there to be a de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis.
These include a halt to Western weapons supplies and removal of those already sent, the withdrawal of Western military advisers and instructors from Ukraine, and a halt to any joint NATO exercises with Ukraine.
“In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees of our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures,” the document said.
Russia has suggested in the past that “military-technical measures” could include missile and troop deployments.
3 hours ago (14:59 GMT)
Biden says threat of Russian invasion is ‘very high’
US President Joe Biden has warned that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is now “very high”, but added the door to a diplomatic solution remains open.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said “every indication” Washington had suggested Moscow was “prepared to go into Ukraine” within several days.
He claimed that Russia had not moved back its forces from near Ukraine’s borders and said Washington had reason to believe the Kremlin was now engaged in a false flag operation that could be used to justify an invasion.
But he added a diplomatic solution remained possible, which is why he had asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to go to the United Nations to make a statement on Thursday. “He’ll lay out what that path is,” Biden said.
4 hours ago (14:45 GMT)
Russia expels US diplomat
Russia has expelled the US deputy chief of mission (DCM) to Russia, Bart Gorman, a Department of State spokesperson says.
“Russia’s action against our DCM was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response,” the spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear what Moscow’s justification for the expulsion was, but the US and Russia have been engaged in a tussle over their respective diplomatic presences in each others’ capitals of late and the Kremlin said in December that US embassy staff who had been in their posts for more than three years should return home.
The Department of State spokesperson said Gorman, the second most senior official at the US embassy in Moscow, had a valid visa and had been in Russia for less than three years.
4 hours ago (14:28 GMT)
Zelenskyy accuses rebels of shelling kindergarten in ‘big provocation’
Zelenskyy says that Russian-backed separatists have shelled a kindergarten situated in a village in eastern Ukraine, calling the attack a “big provocation”.
“It’s important that diplomats and the OSCE remain in, their monitoring activities are an additional deterrent. We need an effective mechanism for recording all ceasefire violations,” he said on Twitter, citing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been monitoring the situation in eastern Ukraine but has pulled out some of its staff in recent days.
4 hours ago (14:21 GMT)
Satellite images indicate Russian military activity near Ukraine still high
Satellite images show Russia has moved some of its military equipment that was deployed near Ukraine, but other hardware has arrived and Moscow still has a lot of forces and equipment massed close to its ex-Soviet neighbour, US-based private company Maxar Technologies says.
The pictures released by Maxar Technologies, which has been tracking the build-up of Russian forces for weeks, showed locations in Belarus, western Russia and annexed Crimea on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the images.
4 hours ago (14:12 GMT)
NATO chief warns Russia could be trying to stage a ‘pretext’ for an invasion
NATO is concerned Russia could be trying to stage a “pretext” for an invasion in Ukraine amid reports of shelling across the ceasefire line in the country’s conflict-hit east, its secretary-general has said.
“There is still no clarity, no certainty about the Russian intentions,” Stoltenberg told reporters after a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.
4 hours ago (14:07 GMT)
UK forces have completed Ukraine military training activities, minister says
The United Kingdom has finished its military training activities in Ukraine and the only remaining British troops in the country are there to protect the ambassador, a government minister has said.
“Within Ukraine itself, there is a small force that remains for the purposes of protecting the ambassador and her team,” Armed Forces minister James Heappey told the BBC.
“Beyond that, all of our training activity alongside the Ukrainians has been ceased and we’ve been very clear throughout that there will be no UK involvement in any conflict in Ukraine.”
The UK had supplied defensive weapons and training personnel to Ukraine.
4 hours ago (13:58 GMT)
EU ready to present sanctions package ‘as soon as needed’
The European Union is ready to present a stinging package of sanctions on Russia should Moscow attack Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat says.
“We have a very tough package prepared and I am ready to present this package as soon as needed,” Josep Borrell told reporters upon arriving at a summit with EU and African leaders.
4 hours ago (13:52 GMT)
US envoy to UN says Russia moving towards ‘imminent invasion’
Russia is still moving toward an “imminent invasion” of Ukraine, the US envoy to the UN has claimed before what is expected to be a heated meeting of the world body’s security council on the ongoing crisis.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet “should focus on what is happening right now” and said Blinken’s attendance at the organisation’s headquarters in New York would demonstrate Washington’s “intense commitment to diplomacy”.
“Our goal is to convey the gravity of the situation. The evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. This is a crucial moment,” she tweeted.
