The Russo-Ukrainian War at a Glance: What We Know on Day 342 of the Invasion | Ukraine

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President Joe Biden said on Monday that the United States would not provide the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its war against Russia, as Russian forces claimed a series of incremental gains in the country’s east.

And Andrzej Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief advisor, noted that Poland is ready to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighters. Yermak said Ukraine had “positive signals” from Warsaw in a post on Telegram, though Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, was careful to stress that his country would only act in consultation with NATO allies, as Ukrainian pressure for fighter jets only escalates. A few days after Germany and the United States agreed to send tanks.

Zelensky called for Western arms to be made available more quickly. The Ukrainian president, speaking in his evening address, said that Russia hopes to prolong the war and exhaust his country’s ability to resist the invaders. “So we have to allocate time for our weapon. We must speed up events, speed up the supply and open up new necessary weapons options for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

The Kremlin has warned that supplying more weapons to Ukraine by the West will only lead to a “significant escalation” of the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Andrey Melnik, called on Germany to send his country a submarine.

Russian forces continued their attacks on positions across the front line near the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Donetsk. Moscow forces have been bombing Bakhmut in the Donbass for several months, but in recent days it appears that the invaders have opened up a new effort to gain ground around the village of Vohlidar, 30 miles southwest of Donetsk city.

President Zelensky said that the situation in Bakhmut and Volidar was “very difficult” as both regions and other parts of the Donetsk region were under “continuous Russian attacks”. Vuhledar is located near the junction with the southern Zaporizhzhia front and is considered a pivotal point for both sides, but is still held by the Ukrainians despite the claim of the leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic to the contrary.

Both the Ukrainian military and Russia’s private military group, Wagner, claim to control the Blahodatny district in eastern Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military reported that “Ukrainian Defense Forces units repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of… Blahodatny… in the Donetsk region,” adding that its forces had also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, which has been designated a transnational criminal organization by the United States, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.

On Monday, the Russian government banned domestic oil exporters and customs authorities from complying with oil price ceilings imposed by the West on Russian crude. The measure was issued to help implement President Vladimir Putin’s December 27 decree banning the supply of crude oil and petroleum products from February 1 for a period of five months, to countries that adhere to the caps. New Russian law prohibits companies and individuals from including oil price cap mechanisms in their contracts.

Ukraine’s state-run energy company, Ukraingo, said there was a “significant” deficit in the country’s energy system due to damage caused by Russian missile attacks. It added that the Ukrainian power system “survived” 13 missile and 15 drone attacks from Russian forces, causing “severe damage to high-voltage installations and power plants”.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, has said the Ukrainian military will spend close to $550m (£444m / €505m) on drones in 2023, and 16 supply deals have already been signed with Ukrainian manufacturers. Ukraine has received large supplies of drones from its partners, but Kyiv is now seeking to boost domestic production to build up what officials describe as a “drone army”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky met the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine on Monday. Zelensky wrote on Telegram that the duo “reviewed the state of the region’s energy infrastructure, ways to protect it and the pace of recovery,” and discussed the impact of Russian missile strikes and drones.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has urged South Korea to increase military support to Ukraine, signaling that it is reconsidering its policy of not exporting weapons to the conflicting countries. Stoltenberg thanked South Korea for its non-lethal aid to Ukraine, but urged it to do more, adding that there was an “urgent need” for ammunition.

Britain’s Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, said the tanks donated to Ukraine would arrive on the front line “this side of summer”. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain should be “really proud” of leading the world in supporting Ukraine and countering Russian aggression.

The President of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, has criticized Western countries for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons. Speaking to reporters in Zagreb, Milanovic said he was “against any lethal weapons” being sent to Kyiv, arguing that supplying weapons to Ukraine “prolongs the war” and that Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized and annexed in 2014, would “not be never part of Ukraine.

The new US ambassador to Russia, Lynn Tracy, is harassed by a crowd chanting anti-American slogans as she enters the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow to present her diplomatic credentials. Protests in Russia – particularly on war-related issues – are effectively banned unless supported by the authorities.

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