- 4 Feb 2023 - 19:54(19:54 GMT)
Saudi energy minister warns sanctions against Russia could lead to energy shortages
Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has warned that Western sanctions against Russia could result in a shortage of energy supplies in the future.
Asked how trade measures would affect the energy market, Prince Abdulaziz told an industry conference in Riyadh, “All of those so-called sanctions, embargoes, lack of investments, they will convolute into one thing and one thing only, a lack of energy supplies of all kinds when they are most needed.”
The prince also said Saudi Arabia was working to send liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Ukraine. LPG is most commonly used as a cooking fuel and in heating.
The European Union has imposed a series of sanctions against Russia, reducing Russian energy exports, and other Western powers have also imposed measures as they seek to further limit Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 19:27(19:27 GMT)
Zelenskyy: Since war started, we secured release of more than 1,700 Ukrainians
Since the war started last February, Ukraine has secured the release of 1,762 men and women from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in his nightly video address.
Ukraine and Russia traded almost 200 prisoners of war in a swap announced separately by both sides on Saturday, with the bodies of two British volunteers also being sent back to Ukraine.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 19:00(19:00 GMT)
Germany says it has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine
Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general has said in a newspaper interview, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at international level. He said the amount of evidence was in the “three-digit” range.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 18:43(18:43 GMT)
Zelenskyy: Situation on front line getting tougher
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in his nightly video address that the situation on the front lines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle.
Russian forces are slowly gaining ground in the Donbas region, encircling the city of Bakhmut north of Donetsk and battling to take control of a nearby road which is a major supply route for Ukrainian forces. They are also trying to capture Vuhledar, southwest of Donetsk.
“I’ve often had to say the situation at the front is tough, and is getting tougher, and it’s that time again … The invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defences,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.
“It is very difficult now in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Lyman and other directions,” he continued.
Earlier in the day, deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Telegram that Russian efforts to break the defences in Bakhmut and Lyman had failed.
Lyman, which lies just to the north of Bakhmut, was retaken by Ukrainian forces last October.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 18:22(18:22 GMT)
Weeks to repair Odesa electrical substation damaged by fire: Ukraine officials
Officials warned that repairs could take weeks after the fire at an overloaded electrical substation in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Saturday, leaving nearly 500,000 people without power.
The government said it would appeal to Turkey for help and ordered the energy ministry’s stocks of high-power generators to be sent to the city.
The CEO of the state grid operator, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, said critical equipment that had already been damaged several times by Russian missile attacks burst into flames when it could no longer “withstand the load”.
“[The equipment] has been struck so many times that its state leaves much to be desired,” Kudrytskyi told a briefing in Odesa.
He said any further Russian missile or drone attacks could make the situation even worse.
“We will do everything we can for the improvement of the power supply situation to take days rather than weeks,” he said.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 18:02(18:02 GMT)
Gazprom to ship gas to Europe via Ukraine
Russia’s Gazprom said it will ship 29.3 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 17:45(17:45 GMT)
Ukraine releases footage of remains of Mariupol Drama Theatre
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has released footage on Twitter of the remains of the Mariupol Drama Theatre.
On March 16, 2022, a drama theatre where Kyiv says hundreds of people had been sheltering in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian forces, was bombed in one of the most shocking moments of the war.
The exact death toll is disputed with estimates ranging up to 600. Amnesty, which labelled the attack a “clear Russian war crime”, said the toll was at least “a dozen people and likely many more”.
All that is left of the Mariupol Drama Theater, where hundreds of civilians died as a result of targeted barbaric bombing by the occupiers. They can destroy the crime scene, but war criminals cannot escape punishment. pic.twitter.com/XiUGRcoUfF
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 4, 2023
- 4 Feb 2023 - 17:28(17:28 GMT)
EU leaders offer strong support for Ukraine
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Kyiv for an annual EU-Ukraine summit, where she promised the bloc’s support for Kyiv.
“Our presence in Kyiv today gives a very clear signal. The whole of the European Union is in this with Ukraine for the long haul, and we will stand up for Ukraine as we stand up for fundamental rights and respect for international law,” said von der Leyen.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 17:11(17:11 GMT)
18.1 million border crossings out of Ukraine since Russia invaded: UN
More than 18.1 million border crossings have taken place out of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022, according to the United Nations.
The number reflects cross-border movements out of the country and not individuals.
Just under 10 million people have crossed back into Ukrainian territory since 24 February last year.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 16:36(16:36 GMT)
500,000 households in Ukraine’s Odesa without power
An accident at a electrical substation, already damaged by Russian attacks, has left half a million households without power in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, authorities said.
“The situation is complex, the scale of the accident is significant,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on messaging app Telegram. He added that the substation had been “repeatedly” damaged as a result of Russian attacks.
Odesa region Governor Maksym Marchenko described the accident as “serious,” adding that the energy minister and the head of state-run electricity grid operator Ukrenergo had been sent to the city.
“A number of generators will be delivered to the region of Odesa within the next 24 hours,” he said. “We expect the first generators to arrive tonight.”
- 4 Feb 2023 - 15:36(15:36 GMT)
Where are Ukrainian refugees fleeing to?
- 4 Feb 2023 - 15:05(15:05 GMT)
WHO report on Ukraine health emergency sparks US, Russia row
The United States and Russia faced off over a World Health Organization report on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, with Moscow saying it was politically motivated and Washington calling for it to be swiftly updated.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s report was presented to the organisation’s executive board, on which both Russia and the US sit.
It covered events in the first nine months of 2022 and classed the situation in Ukraine, as one of eight acute global health emergencies.
The report documented more than 14,000 civilian casualties, with 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees displaced across Europe.
Of 471 attacks with heavy weapons on healthcare facilities globally, 448 occurred in Ukraine, the WHO report said.
Russia’s representative to the WHO board called it politicised and one-sided and described its references to Ukraine as unfounded accusations.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine since it began what it calls a special military operation, which has also devastated Ukraine’s cities, killed thousands of combatants and shaken the global economy.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 14:45(14:45 GMT)
UK PM says he will focus on providing Ukraine with military equipment
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President Zelenskyy agreed on the importance of the international community speeding up assistance for Ukraine.
“The Prime Minister said he was focused on ensuring the UK’s defensive military equipment reached the front line as quickly as possible,” Sunak’s office said in a statement, after a phone call between the two leaders.
“Both leaders agreed that it was vital that international partners accelerated their assistance to Ukraine to help seize the opportunity to push Russian forces back,” the UK statement added.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 14:02(14:02 GMT)
Russia says EU-Ukraine summit serves West’s ‘hegemonic aspirations’
Russia said the EU-Ukraine summit on Friday confirmed that the 27-member bloc’s support for Kyiv is just for the sake of serving the US and NATO’s “hegemonic aspirations”.
In a written response, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the European Union, by “violating” its own standard requirements for candidacy and declaring “common values” with Kyiv, stands in solidarity with “the total suppression of dissent, violation of freedom of speech and expression, gross violation of linguistic and confessional rights in Ukraine”.
Zakharova called the EU’s readiness to provide further support to Ukraine while calling for peace “equally hypocritical,” saying all of the EU’s military deliveries and financial support towards Kyiv leads to “an increase in the number of victims of the conflict, including those among the civilian population”.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 13:45(13:45 GMT)
Prisoner release ‘cause for celebration’, says AJ correspondent
The prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine has been positively received by Ukraine’s presidential office, calling us a “cause for celebration”, Al Jazeera’s reporter on the ground said.
“The intelligence confirms to us that including today, this is the 37th prisoner swap that has taken place since the war began last year,” said Zein Basravi, speaking from the capital Kyiv.
“In that time, prisoners have been swapped in their hundreds. At least 1,646 Ukrainian prisoners have been released, according to officials in Kyiv.”
Basravi said that those who are coordinating these swaps say that there are thousands more that remain in Russian hands, soldiers as well as hundreds of civilians.
In Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid said that the 63 Russian soldiers released are now being treated for psychological and medical help, and were able to contact their relatives.
“We’ve seen in the last few months that these releases have become routine,” he said.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 12:35(12:35 GMT)
Major accident causes power outages in Ukraine’s Odesa
A serious accident at a high-voltage substation in Ukraine’s Odesa region has caused emergency power outages in the regional capital, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“The situation is difficult, the scale of the accident is significant, it is impossible to quickly restore power supply, in particular to critical infrastructure,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
He said the substation had previously been damaged multiple times by Russian missile attacks.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 12:19(12:19 GMT)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 346
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 346th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Fighting, military aid
- Pete Reed, a humanitarian paramedic and United States Marine Corps veteran, was killed while he was evacuating civilians in Bakhmut after his ambulance was shelled, his wife Alex Potter said on social media.
- Western allies have pledged precision rockets and missile systems to Ukraine after Zelenskyy called for sophisticated weapons to push back Russian forces.
- A $2.2bn US military aid package to Ukraine includes a new rocket, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb, that would double the country’s strike range, the Pentagon has said.
Diplomacy
- Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general has said in a newspaper interview, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at the international level.
- Canada has imposed sanctions on 38 people and 16 entities that it says are “complicit in peddling Russian disinformation and propaganda”.
Read more here.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 12:01(12:01 GMT)
Portugal to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, PM says
Portugal will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said, without specifying how many will be shipped.
Costa added that Portugal is in talks with Germany to obtain parts needed for the repair of a number of inoperable Leopard tanks in Portugal’s inventory.
“We are currently working to be able to dispense some of our tanks,” Costa told Lusa news agency during a trip to the Central African Republic. “I know how many tanks will be (sent to Ukraine) but that will be announced at the appropriate time.”
- 4 Feb 2023 - 11:46(11:46 GMT)
US warns Turkey on exports seen to boost Russia’s war effort
The United States has warned Turkey in recent days about the export to Russia of chemicals, microchips and other products that can be used in Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, and it could move to punish Turkish companies or banks contravening sanctions.
Brian Nelson, the US Treasury Department’s top sanctions official, visited Turkish government and private sector officials on Thursday and Friday to urge more cooperation in disrupting the flow of such goods.
In a speech to bankers, Nelson said a marked year-long rise in exports to Russia leaves Turkish entities “particularly vulnerable to reputational and sanctions risks”, or lost access to G7 markets.
They should “take extra precaution to avoid transactions related to potential dual-use technology transfers that could be used by the Russian military-industrial complex,” he said in a copy of the speech issued by the Treasury.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 11:30(11:30 GMT)
Zelenskyy: Ukraine will fight for Bakhmut ‘as long as we can’
Ukraine will not give up on embattled Bakhmut in the east of the country, President Zelenskyy has said, as Moscow’s forces continue their onslaught against a town the Ukrainian leader described as a “fortress”.
The hotly contested town in the Donetsk region has been at the centre of fighting for months and Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukrainian forces would continue to hold it for as long as possible, during a summit in Kyiv with EU leaders.
“No one will surrender Bakhmut. We will fight as long as we can,” Zelenskyy said.
Read more here.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 11:15(11:15 GMT)
Medvedev: more US weapons supplies mean ‘all of Ukraine will burn’
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced US weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia’s nuclear doctrine.
“All of Ukraine that remains under Kyiv’s rule will burn,” journalist Nadana Fridrikhson quoted him as saying in a written interview with her.
On Friday, the Pentagon said that a new rocket that would double Ukraine’s strike range was included in a $2.175bn US military aid package.
Fridrikhson asked Medvedev, who as deputy chairman of the Security Council has become one of Russia’s most hawkish pro-war figures since its invasion of Ukraine, whether the use of longer-range weapons might force Russia to negotiate with Kyiv.
“The result will be just the opposite,” Medvedev replied, in comments that Fridrikhson posted on her Telegram channel.
“Only moral freaks, of which there are enough both in the White House and in the Capitol, can argue like that.”
- 4 Feb 2023 - 10:59(10:59 GMT)
Ukraine’s prosecutor launches criminal case against Wagner chief
Ukraine’s prosecutor general is launching a criminal case against the Russian head and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to a statement on Telegram, Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is accused of the “encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine” and “waging an aggressive war”.
“Prosecutors have already interrogated two such fighters who are in the EU. An investigation into the involvement in war crimes of another PMK member, who is in Norway under way,” the statement said.
Read more here.
- 4 Feb 2023 - 10:56(10:56 GMT)
Dozens of soldiers freed in prisoner swap
Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home following a prisoner swap, officials on both sides said on Saturday.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said in a Telegram post that 116 Ukrainians were freed.
He said the released POWs include troops who held out in Mariupol during Moscow’s monthslong siege that reduced the southern port city to ruins, as well as fighters from the Kherson region and snipers captured during continuing fierce battles for the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Russian defence officials, meanwhile, announced that 63 Russian troops had returned from Ukraine following the swap, including some “special category” prisoners whose release was secured following mediation by the United Arab Emirates.
Russia-Ukraine updates: Dozens of soldiers freed in prisoner swap
All the updates from February 4 as they happened.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Saturday, February 4:
- Some 179 Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home following a prisoner swap, officials on both sides said.
- Ukraine will not give up on embattled Bakhmut in the east of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Western allies have pledged precision rockets and missile systems to Ukraine after Zelenskyy called for sophisticated weapons to push back Russian forces.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general is launching a criminal case against the Russian head and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for “waging an aggressive war”.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies