February 13, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday echoed claims by the Russian private military group Wagner that the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been captured.

“In the Donetsk direction, the volunteers of the assault detachments, with fire support from the rocket troops and artillery of the Southern group of troops, liberated the settlement of Krasna Hora in the Donetsk People's Republic," the statement from the daily briefing of the ministry said.

Earlier, Wagner had claimed to have captured the small village that lies just north of the Bakhmut, as the battle for control of the Donetsk region intensifies.  

More background: Moscow's claims come as Russian forces continue to attempt to encircle the city. Krasna Hora lies on the main north-south road leading to Bakhmut. It sits just below Soledar, the town that Russian forces captured last month.

Ukrainian troops have in recent weeks reported heavy fighting around Krasna Hora. Russian forces appeared to have originally bypassed the village, initially pushing further west toward the M-03 road that leads from Bakhmut to the strategically important city of Sloviansk.

A post on the Wagner Telegram channel showed fighters standing in front of a Krasna Hora sign. CNN has geolocated the sign to a southwestern entrance to the village, in the direction of Bakhmut.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed the capture of Krasna Hora in a statement on Telegram, and repeated his claim that Wagner was leading the charge in the battle for Bakhmut.

Germany has started to train Ukrainian soldiers on its Leopard 2 tanks, a government spokesperson told journalists on Monday.

The training is taking place in the city of Munster in west Germany, and is scheduled to finish by the end of March when Germany is expected to deliver the tanks to Ukraine, according to the spokesperson.

Remember: The leaders of Germany and the US announced last month that they would send contingents of tanks to Ukraine, reversing their longstanding trepidation at providing Kyiv with offensive armored vehicles and unleashing powerful new tools in Ukraine’s efforts to retake territory seized by Russia.

Russian artillery has blocked the main southern supply route close to the village of Chasiv Yar, which overlooks the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and remains in Ukrainian hands, according to numerous military sources on the ground and CNN’s own observations.

Wagner, the Russian private military company, on Sunday claimed to have captured Krasna Hora, a small village just north of Bakhmut. Russian artillery can now hit vehicles traveling on the main road to the city.

This leaves Ukrainian forces fighting street to street combat inside the town of Bakhmut, with the prospect of using complicated resupply routes on back roads.

The Ukrainian battle there is now also tougher because the Ukrainian artillery and tanks could not be used in the town, according to Ukrainian military sources and soldiers involved in the fight.

The war in Ukraine is depleting allies' ammunition stockpiles and the meeting of defense ministers on Tuesday will focus on ways to increase stockpiles and defense industrial capacities, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“For example, the wait for large caliber ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months. Orders placed today will only be delivered two and half years later,” he said during a press conference in Brussels, adding that the depleted stockpile puts defense ministries under strain. “We need to ramp up our production and production capacity.”

Concerns around depleting stockpiles did not appear to sideline NATO's commitment to support Ukraine as Stoltenberg highlighted the need to send Kyiv more weapons.

“The reality is we are seeing the start” of new Russian offensive already, Stoltenberg told journalists. “It’s urgent to provide Ukraine with more weapons."

Russia continued a high pace of attacks in Ukraine’s Luhansk region ahead of what the Ukrainian leader of that region said is a prelude to “massive attacks.”

He said that he believed that Russia was preparing for a “full-scale offensive,” pointing to increased shelling and air strikes. “They have a lot of reserves in personnel and a lot of equipment,” he said. “So we are waiting for them to launch round-the-clock massive attacks in the coming days.”

Allies will “step up and sustain” support for Ukraine, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“Almost one year of the invasion, President Putin is not preparing for peace. He is launching new offensives,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

His comments come ahead of a meeting of NATO ministers of defense on February 14. 

Russian forces are pummeling parts of eastern Ukraine with heavy shelling, as the battle for control of the Donetsk region intensifies in a grinding war of attrition.

Here are the latest developments:

Russian government officials were not invited to this year’s annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany, where the war in Ukraine will be a top priority for global leaders attending the summit.

The conference is due to take place in the German city between February 17 and February 19 — five days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We don't want to give (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov a platform for his propaganda,“ the chairman of the MSC said Monday.

“He has deliberately not been invited," Christoph Heusgen added during a press conference in Berlin.

Guests who have confirmed their attendance at this year’s conference include US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

“We deem China's participation very important,“ Heusgen said. “We are hoping that there will be sideline talks with the Chinese FM.”

Around 600 to 700 participants are expected to attend the MSC, according to Heusgen.

Some context: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said earlier that top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi will visit Russia as part of a diplomatic tour of Europe, during which he will speak at the MSC.

Although Beijing has claimed impartiality in Russia's war on Ukraine, it has refused to condemn the invasion.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov laid out his agenda ahead of a meeting Tuesday with allied officials in Ramstein, Germany, where parties will discuss Ukraine-focused defense talks amid Russia's invasion.

“The main issues on the agenda are:

He said the Ukrainian delegation would “work intensively with partners in the coming days. The pace is extremely high.”

Some context: Russia's invasion of Ukraine is nearing its one-year anniversary, as clashes intensify in a grinding battle of attrition for control of the eastern Donetsk region.

In recent weeks, the possibility of the West sending more weapons — especially fighter jets — to bolster Kyiv's military might in the war has been high on the agenda in discussions between allies and Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom said Ukraine will "wait and see" if its allied partners will agree to the country's request to send fighter jets after Poland's president cast doubt on the prospect.