Russia-Ukraine war live: Nato criticises Putin for ‘dangerous’ nuclear rhetoric; Donbas town of Avdiivka ‘post-apocalyptic’

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Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, has warned that Moscow has the weapons to destroy any enemy, including the US, if its own existence is threatened.

Patrushev, in an interview with the state Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, said:

American politicians trapped by their own propaganda remain confident that, in the event of a direct conflict with Russia, the United States is capable of launching a preventive missile strike, after which Russia will no longer be able to respond. This is shortsighted stupidity, and very dangerous.

He added:

Russia is patient and does not intimidate anyone with its military advantage. But it has modern unique weapons capable of destroying any adversary, including the United States, in the event of a threat to its existence.

A quick snap from Reuters: the Kremlin has denied Turkish reports that Vladimir Putin planned to visit the Turkish capital, Ankara.

The chair of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, also used his visit to the UK to call for the creation of a special tribunal to investigate Russia’s war crimes.

“We want to use all the legal mechanisms to make sure Russia is defeated legally, held accountable for all the crimes they commit in Ukraine,” he said, adding that the crimes were “not real if they are not prosecuted”.

Addressing MPs and peers, he called for the UK to recognise the Soviet-era Holodomor famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33 as genocide, and said it was “connected” to today’s crimes.

The Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart to Westminster, telling him: “Our parliament is your parliament.”

He added:

Ukrainian politicians play a vital role in serving their people and telling the world the reality of war. We are a friend that will listen, we are a friend that will support and continue to support.

Ukraine is ready to send its pilots to be trained in using western fighter jets, the chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, has told British lawmakers.

Stefanchuk, speaking during a visit to the UK, said Kyiv could bring “joint victory for Ukraine and the world” once it “gets the wings”, in language echoing that of President Volodymyr Zekenskiy’s speech to the British parliament last month.

He said:

We are ready for more intense training of Ukrainian servicemen. We’re ready to send our pilots to be trained in fighter jets. We keep saying ‘please give us your experience’.

He also thanked the UK for its decision to send 14 Challenger 2 tanks, which paved the way for other nations to follow suit. He added:

Today is the time for Britain to become a leader to also open the door to use aircraft and long-range rockets.

At least two people have been killed in a Russian missile strike in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to the regional governor.

The attack left 29 others wounded, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said in a Facebook update.

A number of high-rise buildings and offices were also damaged or destroyed, he said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier said that one person had died in the shelling in Sloviansk.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukraine presidency’s office, has tweeted about the meeting with the Unicef goodwill ambassador and British actor, Orlando Bloom.

A Russian diplomat has said Moscow may seek compensation for the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines caused by two explosions last September, according to state media.

The pipelines are multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects designed to carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They were ruptured by unexplained blasts that Moscow has – without providing evidence – accused the west of being responsible for. The US and Nato have called the incident “an act of sabotage”.

Dmitry Birichevsky, head of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for economic cooperation, told state-owned Ria Novosti news agency:

We do not rule out later raising the issue of compensation for damage as a result of the explosion.

He did not say who Russia would seek damages from, but added:

At the moment, it’s very difficult to speak about the future of the Nord Stream pipeline system. On the whole, according to experts, the damaged lines could be restored.

The Kremlin has said it is for all shareholders to decide whether the two pipelines should be mothballed. Russia would establish who was behind the blasts before claiming any compensation, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said today.

Peskov said:

For now, the data indicates that such a large-scale act of sabotage and a terrorist attack against critical infrastructure could not have been carried out without the participation of the state and special state services.

Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from the frontline near the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s ground forces commander said on Monday his troops were continuing to repel heavy Russian attacks on the eastern city of Bakhmut and that defending it was a “military necessity”. Ukraine’s military said Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi had acted during a visit to the eastern frontline to solve “problematic issues that prevent effective execution of combat tasks” and taken “operational decisions aimed at strengthening our capabilities to deter and inflict damage on the enemy”. It gave no details, and did not say when the visit took place, but Syrskyi’s comments signalled again Ukraine’s intention to keep fighting in Bakhmut despite the heavy death toll there.

Ukraine has accused Russia of destabilising Belarus and making its smaller neighbour into “a nuclear hostage”, after Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Moscow has made a deal to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory. The country’s opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the move “grossly contradicts the will of the Belarusian people” and reflected the further subjugation of Belarus under Russian control.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to his official Telegram about the death of at least one person in an attack on Slovyansk. Ukraine’s president wrote: “Another day that began with terrorism by the Russian Federation. The aggressor state shelled our Slovyansk. Unfortunately, there is a dead person and victims of various degrees of severity. All services are working on the ground. Help is being provided.”

Russian forces launched two missile strikes, 23 airstrikes and 38 attacks from rocket salvo systems against Ukrainian troops and infrastructure in populated areas, according to the latest update from the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.

The secretary of Russia’s security council, Nikolai Patrushev, has said Nato countries are party to the conflict in Ukraine, according to excerpts from an interview with the Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday.

Russian state-owned news agency Tass is carrying reports that an attempt was made this morning to assassinate the police chief in occupied Mariupol. It quotes a Russian-installed official in the occupied territory saying: “In the morning they blew up the car of police chief Mikhail Moskvin. He is alive, everything is in order.”

RIA reported that Ukrainian forces shelled the Kalininsky district in the occupied city of Donetsk. “There are victims,” it said, without specifying further.

There have also been explosions reported in occupied Melitopol, which Vladimir Rogov, a local Russian-installed leader, ascribed to the work of air defence.

Poland has detained a foreign citizen on charges of spying for Russia, prosecutors said on Monday.

Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from the 2024 Olympics in Paris unless Moscow pulls its forces out of Ukraine, Poland said on Monday.

Belarus is accusing Poland of heightening tensions between itself and the EU by deliberately slowing the movement of trucks and cars at its border. Belarus says Poland is failing to implement bilateral agreements.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. L?onie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.

Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from the 2024 Olympics in Paris unless Moscow pulls its forces out of Ukraine, Poland said on Monday, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it planned to let them compete as neutrals.

“We strongly believe that now is not the time to consider the opening up of a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to the Olympic Games in any status,” Reuters reports the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russian state-owned news agency Tass is carrying reports that an attempt was made this morning to assassinate the police chief in occupied Mariupol.

It quotes a Russian-installed official in the occupied territory as saying: “In the morning they blew up the car of police chief Mikhail Moskvin. He is alive, everything is in order.”

The source informed Tass that the car exploded a few metres away from the police chief.

There have also been explosions reported in occupied Melitopol, which Vladimir Rogov, a local Russian-installed leader, ascribed to the work of air defence.

The claims have not been independently verified.