Day 360 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Russia asks the UN for Independent Investigation into the Nord Stream Explosions

@UN

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Russia asks the UN for an independent investigation into the Nord Stream explosions

Russia has submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution demanding an independent investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September and the discovery of the perpetrators, Reuters reported.

According to the Russian deputy representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, the goal is to vote on the document within a week. He later clarified that the voting will take place from February 22 to 24.

Sweden and Denmark, in whose waters the explosions took place, declared the blasts intentional but did not say who might be responsible.

The United States and NATO called it sabotage, and Moscow blamed the West.

So far, neither side has presented concrete evidence.

Munich Security Conference: Europe pledges more support for Kyiv

European countries have pledged to step up their support for Ukraine, which is struggling to fend off Russia, and France's president told the Munich Security Forum that the time for talks with Moscow has not come yet.

Days before the anniversary of the deployment of Russian forces to Ukraine, Moscow scored a small victory in its flimsy offensive.

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said it had captured a village near Bakhmut, an eastern town that was the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle in Moscow's advance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted many lives were at risk, opening the Munich Security Conference with an impassioned plea to allies to step up support.

"We need speed - speed of our agreements, speed of our supplies ... speed of decisions to limit Russian potential," he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron joined the call for allies to "step up their support" for Ukraine to help its forces launch a counter-offensive.

"Now is not the time for dialogue because we have a Russia that has chosen war, that has chosen to intensify war, and that has chosen to go as far as committing war crimes and attacking civilian infrastructure," he said.

While insisting he did not want to see a protracted war, Macron said France was ready for a "prolonged conflict".

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted that German support was "planned to continue" and called on allies to speed up deliveries of heavy tanks promised to Ukraine.

Also present at the conference in Munich are US Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China's top diplomat Wang Yi and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Russian delegates, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has been a regular attendee in the past, were not invited.

Scholz's plea to the Allies to increase tank supplies underscores a recent shift in his political stance.

Until last month, he was accused of delaying work because of his unwillingness to allow the delivery of German Leopard tanks to Ukraine despite mounting pressure from Kyiv.

In the end, Berlin agreed to allow the shipment of weapons widely used in Europe to Ukraine and promised to deliver some of its most advanced military stockpiles.

Under German law, Berlin must give permission to other countries that use the tanks to re-export them.

However, they are now struggling to convince their allies to follow suit.

"Those who can send such battle tanks really need to do so now," Scholz told the conference, where he said he would wage an "intense campaign" to get allies to act on the issue.

"Ukraine should be in the EU"

Scholz and Macron later spoke on the sidelines with Polish President Andrzej Duda, with the German leader hailing the "good cooperation" between the trio in support of Ukraine.

In his address, Zelensky confirmed his ambitions for Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO. Recently, Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership, although full membership is still a long way off.

During a discussion, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki backed Ukraine's bid to join the bloc and said the "normal path to accession" should be abandoned given Kyiv’s "unusual" stance.

"We need Ukraine as part of the European Union, and eventually as part of NATO. From our point of view, the sooner the better," he said.

US-China relations are also a focus of the meeting, with tensions running high after Washington shot down an alleged spy Chinese surveillance balloon over US territory.

With high-level delegations from the US and China in town, there is speculation of talks on the sidelines to reduce tensions.

China's huge white balloon was spotted above a number of secret nuclear weapons sites earlier this month before it was brought down off the US East Coast. The incident caused a diplomatic scandal, and Blinken canceled a rare visit to China. However, Beijing claims that the balloon was just a misguided meteorological research apparatus.

Wagner claims to have captured a tactically key village north of Bakhmut

The Russian private military company "Wagner" announced that they captured a tactically important settlement north of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, DPA reported.

The owner of PMC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef", claims that his fighters have established full control over the village of Paraskovievka, located north of Bakhmut. He described the fighting for the settlement as "fierce and bloody", Interfax reported.

The information cannot yet be verified by an independent source, DPA notes. The information provided by "Wagner" was not mentioned in the evening summary of the Ukrainian General Staff.

In the area of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, unceasing, fierce fighting has been going on for months. If the neighboring villages of Verkhovka, Berkhovka and Yagodnoe are also captured, the Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut will no longer be able to be supplied from the north.

Prigozhin used the announcement to rebuke the Russian Defense Ministry, saying the offensive had succeeded despite the "munitions blockade". PMC "Wagner", which also uses prisoners, has recently been criticized for not receiving enough ammunition from the military, DPA notes.

Yesterday, the Ukrainian government called on all residents of Bakhmut to leave the town as fierce fighting over the town is expected to continue.

The White House: "Wagner" has lost 30,000 fighters in Ukraine

Russia's private military company (PMC) Wagner has claimed more than 30,000 casualties in Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with about 9,000 of those fighters killed in action, the White House said, as quoted by Reuters.

According to US estimates, 90 percent of the "Wagner" soldiers killed since December in Ukraine are prisoners, the spokesman for the National Security Council under the US presidency, John Kirby, said at a regular briefing.

Half of the casualties have been reported since mid-December, when fighting intensified in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the spokesman said, citing intelligence.

In recent days, he said, the private military company had been making progress in Bakhmut, but Kirby added that it had taken Wagner months to achieve this, and at a "terrible and unbearable cost".

"They may end up capturing Bakhmut, but for them it will have no real value, because the city has no strategic importance," he said, adding that even with such a development, the Ukrainian defense in Donbas would still remain strong.

Kirby told reporters that Wagner continues to rely heavily on prisoners sent to fight unprepared and unequipped, despite recent statements by company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin that he has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, BTA reported.

Mark Rutte: Tanks for Ukraine will arrive as soon as possible

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, announced that the Leopard 1 tanks bought for Ukraine by his country, together with Denmark and Germany, will arrive on the battlefield as soon as possible.

At a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Rutte also said he was ready to host a new tribunal to administer justice after the Russian invasion.

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