February 14, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Germany is to increase ammunition production in light of Russia's ramped up offensive in Ukraine, the country's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels ahead of a two-day NATO Defense Ministers meeting, Pistorius highlighted Russia's increasing efforts to "regain the initiative in the Donbas."

The defense minister called the “issue of air defense and ammunition supply“ much “more important than fighter jets”.

This echoes remarks made by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also on Tuesday, saying that NATO's “urgent need” is to deliver the military support it has already promised Ukraine rather than make decisions on whether to send modern fighter jets too. 

Also on Tuesday, Pistorius announced that Germany had signed contracts with ammunition manufacturers to provide for the Gepard air defense systems it has delivered to Ukraine. 

As far as other ammunition is concerned, Pistorius said he could “only ask the defense industry to ramp up production quickly.”

In light of the “possible risk of escalation,” he warned that every step taken by NATO allies has to be “weighed up” carefully. 

“I believe there will be no short-term end to the war, no short-term winner,“ Pistorius said.

Two Dutch F-35 fighter jets were scrambled to identify and intercept three aircraft flying near the Polish border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on Monday, according to the Dutch Defense Ministry.

“The at-the-time unidentified aircraft approached the Polish NATO area of responsibility from Kaliningrad,” the ministry said in a statement.

Eight Dutch F-35s are based in Poland for the months of February and March – half for NATO patrols, and half for a training program.

The audio is garbled at times, but the emotions are unmistakable.

“I am being taken to be shot. I lost a lot of people there. Remember this: do not send more people here. It’s enough, they want to kill us all.”

It is the last message Viktor Sevalnev would send. A convict, who had been in jail for armed robbery and assault, he was sent from prison to fight for Russia in Ukraine. After most of his colleagues died in an assault on a factory outside Soledar, it was the act of survival that proved fatal to Sevalnev.

In a last message to his wife, he said he feared officials from the Russian Ministry of Defense would soon take him from his hospital bed, where he recorded the audio message, and execute him. Days later, his body was returned to his wife in Moscow, in a closed coffin.

Sevalnev’s callous fate joins a growing list of complaints of abuse from convicts whom CNN has spoken to. For months, Russia has been using the shadowy private mercenary company Wagner to bolster its frontline presence with prisoners – a scheme at first denied and secretive, but then openly promoted by Wagner’s owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

However, Sevalnev and several prisoners CNN has spoken to seem to indicate a disturbing new strategy. They say they were directly employed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Read the full story here. 

The United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the Ukraine Contact Group will support Ukraine’s “fight for freedom over the long haul,” adding that it would also help advance Ukraine during a “spring counter-offensive.”

“With unity and urgency, we will again deliver the support that we have promised to Ukraine," Austin said ahead of the Ukraine Defense contact group meeting in Brussels. "We will put capabilities into the hands of trained Ukrainian forces … so they can be integrated together on the battlefield.”

Austin also said it has committed to nearly $50 billion in “lethal assistance” to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion last year.

“The United States, Germany, and the Netherlands are working together to provide Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine,” he said. “France and Italy are working to provide a SAMP/T air-defense system.”

After listing other countries donations to Ukraine, Austin said a year after Russia’s invasion, Putin is “betting that it can wait us out.”

“But one year on, we are as united as ever,” Austin said.

A South Korean court has ruled in favor of reviewing the refugee status applications of two out of the five Russian men who have been stranded at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport since last October after escaping conscription.

The application request of a third man was denied by the court while another two men are still waiting for a decision on their cases. 

They fled Russia after the government’s military mobilization order last September and have been stranded at Seoul’s airport for months after authorities refused to accept them.

Stranded status: Three of the men arrived at the airport last October and two in November, according to their lawyer Lee Jong-chan. But since their applications for refugee status were denied by the South Korean Justice Ministry, they’ve been at the airport’s departure lounge for months waiting for a ruling on their appeal, according to Lee.

In a press release on Tuesday, Lee welcomed the court’s decision and said that he hopes the two Russian men would now be allowed to enter the country as soon as possible. Lee said thought that it was “regrettable” that one person’s application was dismissed without specifying the reason for the decision.

What does these mean for them? Tuesday’s court decision doesn’t mean the two men have been granted refugee status, but rather that their application will now be reviewed by authorities. The South Korean government can still appeal the court’s decision, according to Lee.

It is unclear when the two other men’s cases will be reviewed by the court. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday rejected accusations by Moldovan President Maia Sandu that Moscow is plotting to destabilize the country.

In a statement on Telegram, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said "such claims are completely unfounded and unsubstantiated."

Sandu on Monday accused Russia of planning to use "saboteurs" to destabilize the former Soviet republic, echoing a claim made days earlier by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. CNN is unable to independently verify claims made by Sandu.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday also accused Kyiv of trying to draw Moldova into confrontation with Russia.

Some background: On Thursday, Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted a Russian plan to destabilize Moldova.

The next day, the prime minister of Moldova and her cabinet resigned — just hours after a Russian cruise missile crossed over the country's territory. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's ambassador over what it said was an "unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile."  

A decision on whether to send modern fighter jets to Ukraine is "not the most urgent issue" right now, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. 

The alliance needs to focus instead on delivering the military support it has already committed to Ukraine, Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels before a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lobbied strongly for allies to send modern fighter jets to Ukraine, officially requesting the Netherlands' supply of American made F-16 jets on Friday. 

The NATO chief also acknowledged the type of support allies have provided to Ukraine "has changed and evolved" and will continue to do so "as this war develops." 

Last week, Poland's President Andrzej Duda appeared to downplay the prospect of any imminent deliveries of aircraft to Ukraine, calling it a "serious" decision that would not be "easy" to take. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said Ukraine must get the weapons it needs to “win this war."

Speaking to reporters at the NATO’s minister’s meeting in Brussels, Stoltenberg said consultations among alliance members to support Kyiv would continue over the next two days.

It was important to discuss the types of systems and platforms NATO members should send to Ukraine and that all of the systems “work as they should,” he added.

"When it comes to artillery, we need ammunition, we need spare parts, we need maintenance, we need all the logistics to ensure that we are able to sustain these weapon systems," Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg also reaffirmed comments he made Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “preparing for more war.”

China’s top diplomat will visit Russia this month, according to its Foreign Ministry, in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine began last year.

Wang Yi, who was named Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy adviser last month, will visit Russia during an eight-day international tour starting Tuesday that will also include visits to France, Italy, Hungary and a speaking engagement at the Munich Security Conference next weekend, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken may also attend.

The foreign itinerary is Wang’s first after leaving his post as foreign minister and taking up his new role, and it could provide a test of the diplomat’s ability in balancing Beijing’s close ties with Moscow, while also attempting to boost China’s image and relations in Europe – and by extension the United States.

Read more here.