Live blog: Russia trying to attack beyond Avdiivka, Ukraine warns

Sunday, 18 February, 2024

1737 GMT — Russian troops launched multiple attacks to the west of the recently captured Avdiivka in a bid to force more gains on the battlefield, a Ukrainian army spokesperson.

Facing manpower and ammunition shortages, Ukraine was forced to withdraw from the industrial hub in the eastern Donetsk region, handing Moscow its first major territorial gain since May 2023.

"The enemy is trying to actively develop its offensive," Dmytro Lykhoviy, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army commander leading Kiev's troops in the area, said on state TV.

Ukraine's general staff reported 14 failed Russian attacks on the village of Lastochkyne, around two kilometres (one mile) to the west of Avdiivka's northern edge.

"But our considerable forces are entrenched there," Lykhoviy said.

He also reported failed Russian attacks near the villages of Robotyne and Verbove in the southern Zaporizhzhia region -- one of the few places where Ukraine managed to regain ground during last year's counter-offensive.

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1820 GMT — Ukraine opens probe into claims Russia shot captured POWs

Kiev opened a war crimes investigation Sunday after two separate reports of Russian troops shooting captured Ukrainian soldiers emerged.

Ukraine's army posted a grainy video shot from the air of what it said was a Russian soldier shooting two Ukrainian soldiers at point-blank range.

In the video, two soldiers labelled as Ukrainian advance towards another labelled as Russian in a trench.

They then appear to stop before the Russian soldier grabs and shoots them repeatedly, including while they are lying on the floor, not appearing to resist.

AFP could not verify the authenticity of the video, its location or when it was shot.

"This morning... the Russians once again showed their attitude to international humanitarian law by shooting two Ukrainian prisoners of war," Ukraine's ground forces wrote on Telegram in a post accompanying the video.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General said it had opened an investigation into possible war crimes based on the footage.

It said the incident happened near the village of Vesele in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

The prosecutor also said it was investigating reports of the alleged execution of six wounded Ukrainian soldiers left behind during Kiev's withdrawal from Avdiivka.

1000 GMT — Ukraine's military says Avdiivka front stabilised after withdrawal

The situation has somewhat stabilised on Ukraine's eastern Avdiivka front after the withdrawal of Kiev's forces on Saturday, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Sunday.

"I can state...that on the day after leaving Avdiivka, we perceive the situation as having stabilised somewhat," Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said in televised comments.

He also said that Ukrainian forces took casualties during the withdrawal, but they were minimal given the circumstances.

0926 GMT — Ukraine 'matter of life and death' for Russia — Putin

Events on the battlefield in Ukraine are a matter of "life and death" for Russia that could determine its fate, President Vladimir Putin has said.

"I think it is still important for us ourselves and even more so for our listeners and viewers abroad, to understand our way of thinking," Putin said in an interview with state TV.

"Everything that is happening on the Ukraine front: For them, it is an improvement of their tactical position, but for us, it is our fate; it is a matter of life and death," he said.

Putin was responding to a question about a two-hour-long interview he gave to US talk show host Tucker Carlson, which the Kremlin used to promote its narratives on the war.

At least three people were killed and nine injured in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions by Russian shelling overnight, local authorities have said.

“On Feb 17, the Russians killed two residents of the Donetsk region — in Kramatorsk. Two more people in the region were injured during the day,” Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Telegram that the bodies of two people were removed from the rubble of a destroyed building in Kramatorsk.

Saying that 28 personnel and six emergency services equipment units were involved in search and rescue operations in the area, the statement added that rescuers also extinguished two fires that started due to the shelling.

0605 GMT — Ukraine claims downing dozen Russian drones, missile, warplane

Ukraine's forces destroyed 12 Russia-launched attack drones overnight as well as one Kh-59 cruise missile and one SU-34 fighter bomber, Ukraine's Air Force chief has said.

"I want to thank Air Force units for their successful combat work!" Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Have a nice day, everyone!"

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

0131 GMT — Kiev's top diplomat discusses ‘need to restore just peace’ in Ukraine during talks with China’s Wang

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he met his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Munich to discuss bilateral relations and the “need to restore just peace” amid the war between Kiev and Moscow.

The two met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Kuleba wrote on X that he informed Wang about Ukraine’s “vision for the upcoming glob al peace summit in Switzerland.”

The Swiss government is expected to host the summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but details have yet been made public.

0030 GMT — 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers killed in 24 hours — Russian defence

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu said that the Russian army had taken control of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, according to a statement by the Defence Ministry.

The announcement came when Shoygu met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin Palace.

A total of 1,500 soldiers from the Ukrainian army were killed in the fight for Avdiivka in the last 24 hours, noted Shoygu.

The Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine were illegally annexed by a decree signed by Putin on Sept. 30, 2022.

2330 GMT — At least three dead in Russian assaults on Ukraine cities, officials say

Russian forces shelled and fired missiles at a series of cities in eastern Ukraine, killing at least three people and leaving others under the rubble of shattered buildings, Ukrainian officials said.

Two cities close to the front line in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Slovyansk - came under fire.

The city council in Kramatorsk said on Telegram that a missile hit a section of town used for industry and individual houses, killing two people. Rescuers were combing rubble for another person believed to be trapped beneath it.

2315 GMT — Ukrainian units entrenched at Avdiivka Coke Plant, Russian defence ministry says

The Russian defence ministry said that Ukrainian forces left Avdiivka and were entrenched at the nearby Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant after Russian units took full control of the town in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

"Measures are being taken to completely clear the city of militants and to block Ukrainian units that have left the city and are entrenched at the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant," Russian Defence Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video published on the ministry's Telegram channel.

For our live updates from Saturday, February 17, click here.