Monday, February 13

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Electricians repair power lines after they were damaged by the remnants of a Russian rocket that fell on residential buildings in Kyiv on Feb. 10, 2023. (Photo by Oleksii Chumachenko/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

UK Defense Ministry: Russia likely suffering highest casualties since first week of full-scale war. According to the ministry, the uptick in Russian losses is likely due to various factors, such as a lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the frontline, including in Vuhledar and Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast.

Wagner Group boss claims Russian capture of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut. Photos and video posted on social media on Feb. 12 showed Wagner mercenaries in front of a sign reading Krasna Hora. In its morning briefing on Feb. 12, the Ukrainian General Staff said they recorded Russian shelling in the Krasna Hora, implying some Ukrainian presence in the settlement.

Intelligence: Intercepted call shows Russia recruits Iranian, Kurdish drone operators. In a conversation intercepted by the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, two Iranian-made Shahed 136/131 kamikaze drone operators discuss target coordinates using Kurdish with a dash of Farsi, a language spoken in Iran.

Guardian: Iran smuggles long-range combat drones to Russia for war against Ukraine. Iran smuggled at least 18 long-range Mohajer-6 combat drones to Russia in November for the war against Ukraine shortly after a Russian delegation visited Tehran, the Guardian reported on Feb. 12, citing sources in Iran.

Ukraine imposes sanctions against 200 people, including 1 Ukrainian. The measures are predominantly economic and will remain in effect for 50 years. The only Ukrainian on the list is a former deputy chief engineer at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant seized by Russia, who allegedly agreed to collaborate with the Russian occupiers.

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Kuleba: Additional sanctions to be announced on Feb. 24. Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said in a televised address that new sanctions and other measures will be announced on Feb. 24, the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky dismisses National Guard deputy commander reportedly in charge of logistics. Zelensky’s executive order didn’t specify the reasons for the dismissal, though Ruslan Dziuba, the commander in question, was reportedly in charge of military logistics. Earlier, Zelensky held several meetings with the security and defense agencies concerning various areas, including personnel policy, the interaction between state institutions, and “the purity of agencies’ work.”

Minister: Russia has damaged over 1,200 medical facilities since Feb. 24. Russian forces have damaged a total of 1,218 Ukrainian medical facilities, including 540 hospitals, over the course of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said on Feb. 12.

Air Force: Russia uses drone, spy balloons for reconnaissance in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The air defense attempted to down the drone, but it is not yet clear if this was successful, the Air Force said.

Deputy PM: Russian forces are draining Kakhovka Reservoir. “This is ecocide,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. “The occupiers are draining the Kakhovka Reservoir. It’s a threat to the environment, water supply, and agriculture of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.”

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Ukraine war latest: Russia’s Wagner Group claims it captured Krasna Hora, West says Russia’s casualties at its peak

Read our Feb. 12 update here.

Photo: Getty Images

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The human cost of Russia’s war

Ukraine’s Armed Forces: 200 Russian soldiers killed near Bakhmut in 24 hours. During the fierce battles near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast in the past 24 hours, Russian forces lost 212 killed and 315 injured, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces spokesperson.

Russian military attacks Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, kills woman. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Feb. 12 that the Russian army had shelled the region three times during the day, killing a 53-year-old woman.

Landmine explosion kills 2 civilians in Kherson Oblast. A car with two men of 45 and 48 years hit a landmine on a field road near the village of Novoraysk in Kherson Oblast. The men were killed instantly, according to the Kherson Oblast military and civil administration.

Governor: 1 killed, 1 injured in Russian shelling of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. One 53-year-old woman was killed, while an 87-year-old woman was wounded by shrapnel in the city of Nikopol on the Dnipro River. The shelling also damaged four residential buildings, a water pipeline, and a college.

General Staff: Russia has lost 137,780 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. Russia has also lost 3,280 tanks, 6,488 armored fighting vehicles, 5,148 vehicles and fuel tanks, 2,287 artillery systems, 465 multiple launch rocket systems, 234 air defense systems, 296 airplanes, 286 helicopters, 2,007 drones, and 18 boats.

International response

Swiss media: Credit Suisse bank freezes $19 billion in Russian assets. By doing so, Credit Suisse alone froze a third of all declared Russian assets in Switzerland, according to SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

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Zelensky: Global sanctions must be imposed on Russia’s nuclear industry. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Feb. 12 that Ukraine is doing its best to ensure that global sanctions are imposed on Russia’s nuclear industry.

Andrzej Duda: ‘If Ukraine doesn’t receive arms in coming weeks, Putin may win.’ Ukraine’s need for Western arms is urgent and will determine the outcome on the battlefield, Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the French media outlet Le Figaro.

Ukraine’s finance minister: ‘Time to cut Russia out of global financial system.’ “The international order can only survive if the rules are followed. We have powerful mechanisms available to enforce these rules. The time has come to use them,” Sergii Marchenko wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times.

In other news

Russian propaganda media briefly displays anti-war, anti-Putin news items. Headlines of the items posted on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website included “Putin orders the killing of ciivilians in Ukraine” and “EU creates tribunal in The Hague for trial of Putin”. The news items were taken down by administrators less than ten minutes after being published.

Ukrainian rescuers in Turkey clear rubble from 94 sites. Ukrainian rescuers have examined 224 sites and cleared rubble from 94 in Turkey in the aftermath of the recent earthquakes, the State Emergency Service said on Feb. 12.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Francis Farrell, Alexander Khrebet, Olga Rudenko, Anna Myroniuk, Oleg Sukhov, Natalia Datskevych, Teah Pelechaty, and Anastasiia Malenko.

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