Ukraine Russia war most current news: Putin ‘has lost’ as ‘global pariah Russia is paying enormous price’ for war

Russia has lost strategically, operationally and tactically in its war in Ukraine, US joint chiefs chair army General Mark Milley told reporters on Tuesday, after a meeting with NATO defence ministers in Brussels.

“Russia is now a global pariah and the world remains inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. In short, Russia has lost; they’ve lost tactically, operationally and tactically”, he said.

Two Dutch F-35 fighters obstructed a development of 3 Russian military airplane near Poland and accompanied them out, the Netherlands’ defence ministry said.

“The then unknown aircraft approached the Polish NATO area of responsibility from Kaliningrad,” the ministry declaration said on Monday.

Kaliningrad is a Russian Baltic coast enclave situated in between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania.

“After identification, it turned out to be three aircraft: a Russian IL-20M Coot-A that was escorted by two Su-27 Flankers. The Dutch F-35s escorted the formation from a distance and handed over the escort to NATO partners.”

The Il-20M Coot-A is NATO’s reporting name for the Russian Ilyushin Il-20M reconnaissance airplane while the Su-27 Flankers are NATO’s reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter airplane.

The Netherlands’ defence ministry said that 8 Dutch F-35s are stationed in Poland for February and March.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Azeri equivalent Ilham Aliyev and kept in mind the value of guaranteeing stability and security in the southern Caucasus area, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Tensions are high in between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Armenia over the challenged enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a mainly ethnic Armenian population however is worldwide identified as part of Azerbaijan.

In 2020, Azerbaijan retook area around the enclave after a war that ended in a Moscow-brokered ceasefire maintained by Russian peacekeepers. Both sides implicate each other of infractions and Armenia now says Azerbaijan is blockading the only roadway into Nagorno-Karabakh, a charge Baku rejects.

“The importance of consistent steps to ensure stability and security on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border was noted,” said a Kremlin readout of the call in between Putin and Aliyev.

“In this context, it was reaffirmed that all the relevant agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia at the highest level should be implemented unconditionally.”

Late last month Yerevan asked Putin to take a harder line on Nagorno-Karabakh and for Russian peacekeepers to end what it called the blockade.

NATO defence ministers met Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov after the Ramstein group event.

The alliance prepares to increase targets for stockpiling ammo as Kyiv is burning through shells much faster than the West can produce them, leaving stocks severely diminished.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius gotten in touch with the nationwide defence market to increase production capability.

He said Berlin had actually signed agreements with arms maker Rheinmetall to reboot production of ammo for the Gepard anti-aircraft weapons it has actually provided to Kyiv.

It had actually been pursuing months to discover brand-new munitions for the weapons, which its own military decommissioned in 2010.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gave the same message about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intrusion.

“We see no signs that President Putin is preparing for peace. What we see is the opposite, he is preparing for more war, for new offensives and new attacks,” he informed press reporters.

Nevertheless, the leading U.S. general, Mark Milley, said Russia had actually already lost in the eyes of the world.

“Russia is now a global pariah and the world remains inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. In short, Russia has lost: they’ve lost strategically, operationally and tactically,” Milley, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed press reporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia remained in a rush to attain as much as it might with its most current offensive prior to Kyiv and its allies might collect strength.

“That is why speed is of the essence. Speed in everything – adopting decisions, carrying out decisions, shipping supplies, training. Speed saves people’s lives, speed brings back security,” he said in a night video address.

Mr Zelensky – thanking allies for their pledges of more air defence weapons, tanks, weapons, shells and training – said much of what had actually been gone over ought to be kept a trick.

Mr Austin said he anticipated Ukrainian forces to perform an offensive of their own in the spring, and Kyiv’s allies were working to guarantee they had the armour, firepower and the logistics to make it efficient.

“We believe that there’ll be a window of opportunity for them to exercise initiative,” Austin said.

“The Kremlin is still betting it can wait us out, but one year on we are as united as ever. That shared resolve will help sustain Ukraine’s momentum in the crucial weeks ahead.”

Ukraine urgently requires more military help, the United States and NATO said on Tuesday, vowing that western assistance will not fail in the face of a brand-new Russian offending as the war will mark the very first complete year given that it started.

Western defence chiefs fulfilled in Brussels to talk about brand-new arms arrangements to Kyiv, which is advocating higher firepower, and upkeep of existing products consisting of shells whose production can barely equal the war.

“Ukraine has urgent requirements to help it meet this crucial moment in the course of the war,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a conference of the so-called Ramstein group of allies.

Russia, secured a decades-old territorial conflict with Tokyo over a chain of Pacific islands, has actually implicated Japan of ‘Russophobia’ and installing “vicious attacks” over the war in Ukraine.

Soviet soldiers took the islands off the northern coast of Japan at the very end of World War Two.

The unsettled clash over who has sovereignty over the chain – understood in Russia as the Kuril Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories – has actually avoided the 2 sides from signing an official peace treaty.

Japan – which signed up with other allies in enforcing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine intrusion – marks a Northern Territories Day ceremony every 7 February to advise individuals of its claim.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the occasion this year “was marked by a particular intensity of Russophobia,” mentioning declarations by authorities and what she called “aggressive actions” by far-right Japanese forces near Russian objectives.

“We noted that this time the baseless territorial claims to the southern Kuril Islands were accompanied by vicious attacks against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine,” she said in a declaration. The Russian armed force has existence on the islands, which have a population of approximately 20,000.

Zakharova, restating Russia’s enduring position that it has sovereignty over the islands, implicated Japan of rewording history and disregarding post-war truths. Japan’s foreign ministry did not instantly react to an ask for remark.

Japan tightened its Russia sanctions last month in the wake of rocket attacks on Ukraine, including items to an export restriction list and freezing the properties of Russian authorities and entities. This triggered Moscow to alert of an undefined effect on its relationship with Japan.

Russian soldiers combating in Ukraine have actually been supported on the battleground by 10s of countless mercenaries from a shadowy group led by a business person and long time affiliate of President Vladimir Putin.

The Wagner personal military business, under the control of Yevgeny Prigozhin, cut its teeth in implementations to Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas area in 2014 and has actually given that contracted soldiers to numerous disputes in the Middle East and Africa, consisting of the Syrian Civil War.

In Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine, Wagner has actually shown essential, however a power battle in between the Kremlin and the outspoken Mr Prigozhin just recently caused the group having its wings clipped by Moscow.

Russia’s army bombarded front-line Ukrainian soldiers and towns in the eastern Donetsk area in what seemed early salvoes of a brand-new offensive, as Western allies fulfilled to weigh sending out more arms to Kyiv for an anticipated counter-attack.

* Ukraine reported Russian shelling the whole time the frontline and said 16 settlements had actually been bombarded near the town of Bakhmut.

* In the last 3 days, Russia’s Wagner group of fighters made even more little gains around the northern borders of Bakhmut in Ukraine, Britain’s defence ministry said.

* Ukraine’s armed force said its forces had actually driven away attacks in 5 settlements in Luhansk and 6 in Donetsk, consisting of around Bakhmut, over the previous 24 hr.