Live coverage: Russian invasion of Ukraine

 

Of: Aftonbladet 

 

Published: February 12 

 

Updated: Today 16.23 

 

NEWS 

 

Here we report around the clock on the war in Ukraine. 

 

3 points about the war today:

 

*President Zelensky says he does not believe Ukraine can take back all of its territory from Russia by military means. The reason is that it would cost too many lives, according to the president. 

 

*Russia has an intense offensive in eastern Ukraine but is said to have not given up on plans to take Kyiv, Kremlin sources told the Meduza newspaper. "Sooner or later, Europe will get tired of helping," a source told the newspaper. 

 

*Ukrainian regional officials report that Russian forces "stormed" Sevierodonetsk after Russia's failure to surround the city. Moscow has targeted the city in an effort to take control of the Donbass region. 

 

Pined post today at 16:42 

 

by Josefine Karlsson 

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Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff turned 32 years old. Photo: BFM TV / AP 

A French journalist has been killed in Ukraine, reports AFP, citing French President Emmanuel Macron. 

 

Macron wrote on Twitter that journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was on a humanitarian bus with civilians when he was shot dead. 

 

He is said to have been in Sevierodonetsk to monitor the evacuation of civilians, according to Serhiy Hajdaj, the region's governor. 

 

*Angelica Molin 

 11 min 

 

US President Joe Biden has no plans to send any rockets to Ukraine that could reach Russian territory, CNN reports.

 

- I will not send anything you can shoot into Russia, he answers the question of whether he will send long-range weapons.

 

CNN reported last week that the Biden administration is preparing to launch advanced long-range missile systems, which are now the main request from Ukrainian officials. 

 

Nivette Dawod 

15:58 

 

Three civilians have been killed and several others injured in heavy fighting in the Donetsk city of the eastern region of the same name, the Ukrainian regional military administration said, according to CNN. 

 

On Sunday, the Russian military is said to have attacked the city with both small arms and tanks, artillery and rockets. The shelling continued on Monday. 

 

- The situation is difficult. The attacks along the front line do not end, says Pavlo Kyrylenko, chief of the Donetsk region's military, on Ukrainian television. 

 

He states that the most difficult battles in the Donetsk region are taking place in Avdiivka, Toretsk and Lyman, among others. 

 

*Nivette Dawod 

 15:27 

The EU's 27 heads of state and government will meet for another extra summit in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. All the items on the agenda have in one way or another something to do with the war in Ukraine. 

 

The most difficult thing will be to agree on a sixth sanction package against Russia. 

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was optimistic that a solution would be found when he arrived at the meeting. 

 

He stressed that the important thing now is that the EU can hold on to the unity that has characterized the decisions since Russia attacked Ukraine. 

 

Ahead of the summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (S) informed the Riksdag's EU Committee about the situation. 

 

- The government will push for us to be able to take as comprehensive a new sanction package as possible, she says. 

 

A new draft of conclusions read by TT states that the new sanctions package against Russia will cover both crude oil and petroleum products, but that a temporary exception will be made for deliveries via pipeline. 

 

The latter is a concession for countries such as Hungary to agree to sanctions. But countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia have also objected, due to their dependence on Russian oil. 

 

However, the EU ambassadors, who have met frequently and long ago to tie the knots ahead of the summit, have not succeeded in resolving the question of how long the exemption should apply. The sensitive issue remains to be resolved. 

 

- We are not there yet, but it has matured. My expectations are low that it will be resolved within the next 48 hours, but I have high hopes that it will happen thereafter, says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on her way to the summit. (TT) 

 

*Nivette Dawod 

 15:12 

 

Petro Poroshenko, former president of Ukraine and now a member of parliament, has now been allowed to leave the country for a political meeting with the European People's Party, the EPP group, in the European Parliament, writes the news agency Reuters.

 

Poroshenko is suspected of having funded Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine through illegal coal sales in 2014 and 2015, but denies any wrongdoing. Due to the investigation, he has been banned from leaving the country. In addition, he is 56 years old and men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine during wartime unless they have a state of emergency. 

 

The EPP meeting is held in Rotterdam, Nederlä