Russia Ukraine news latest: Zelensky vows to ‘find murderers’ after soldier ‘shot by Russians’

Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation to find the killers of an unarmed prisoner of war, after footage of the shooting emerged online.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to “find the murderers” after a video showing an apparently unarmed man being gunned down by unseen shooters was circulated on social media.

The 12-second video seen by The Independent shows the unidentified man in uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm standing and smoking a cigarette in a wooded area.

The Wagner Group is a private military company under the control of Yevgeny Prigozhin that cut its teeth in deployments to Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in 2014 and has since dispatched troops to several conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, including the Syrian Civil War.

In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Wagner has proved indispensable, but an apparent power struggle between the Kremlin and the outspoken Mr Prigozhin has led to the group having its wings clipped by Moscow.

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk refused to shake the hand of her Russian opponent, Varvara Gracheva, after securing her first WTA title in Texas.

After securing victory in Austin, Kostyuk shook the hand of the umpire but not her beaten opponent, twice walking past a beaten Gracheva for a handshake as the Russian headed directly to her chair.

The eighth seed dedicated her victory to “all the people who are fighting and dying” in the conflict.

Sir Keir Starmer and Belarus’s exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya have discussed the need for western allies to confront the Kremlin-backed Belarusian regime.

The Labour leader “expressed his admiration for her bravery in the face of violence and oppression” and stressed his party’s “strong commitment to a free and democratic Belarus”, according to a readout of the meeting in London.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya ran against authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko – an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin – in Belarus’s 2020 disputed election before being pressured to leave the country.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to “find the murderers” after a video showing an apparently unarmed man being gunned down by unseen shooters was circulated on social media.

The 12-second video seen by The Independent shows the man in uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm standing and smoking a cigarette in a wooded area.

The man, who was named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Shadura, who had been missing since 3 February, says “Slava Ukraini!” – or Glory to Ukraine – before multiple shots are fired. The man slumps to the ground as he appears to have been shot. A voice is heard saying “Die, b***h” in Russian.

Rebuilding Britain’s dwindling stockpile of munitions after the war in Ukraine could take at least a decade putting UK national security at risk, MPs have warned.

The Commons Defence Committee said the UK and other Nato allies have allowed their reserves of ammunition to fall to “dangerously low levels” as they seek to keep Kyiv supplied in its struggle against the Russian invader.

It said the way in which Western governments procure armaments is “not fit for purpose” and it urged the Ministry of Defence to draw up an action plan to cut the time needed to restore its stockpiles.

From the start, Russia’s military action tended to be seen as an old-fashioned war launched by an old-fashioned autocrat. As such, it was as surprising as it was shocking to all those who believed such wars to be over, at least in Europe. The scenes that have dominated our television screens ever since have been tragically reminiscent of black-and-white newsreel showing battles for the very same cities during the Second World War.

But the supposedly old-fashioned autocrat who gave the orders for this war is a more complicated figure than many think.

He sold the invasion as a collective decision with his military chiefs, but it is the president alone who will have to answer to history, writes Mary Dejevsky:

Ukrainian has said its forces are holding out in the brutal fight for the eastern city of Bakhmut – as the head of the mercenary Wagner group complained that Russia‘s frontlines around the area could collapse without more ammunition from Moscow.

Russia is trying to encircle Bakhmut to secure what would be its first major gain in its invasion for more six months, at the culmination of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war during the winter months. Moscow sees the capture of the city in Donetsk as a stepping stone towards control of the wider Donbas – Ukraine‘s industrial heartland which encompasses the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The months of intense fighting, for Bakhmut particularly but also in other areas, has depleted both sides’ artillery reserves, with thousands of shells fired daily. Volodymyr Nazarenko, a Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut, said there had been no order to retreat from the city and “the defence is holding”, albeit in grim conditions.

As the mother’s cries of anguish pierced the cold morning air, mourners who had fought back tears could hold them no longer.

“Oh Yana, oh my daughter,” Olena Rikhlitska howled. “My baby, my little one.”

Her only child, 29-year-old Yana Rikhlitska, lay in a coffin before her, the younger woman’s blonde hair still in the tight braids she adopted when she voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army as a medic late last year.

Just over a week ago, Associated Press journalists filmed Yana Rikhlitska as she helped treat wounded soldiers in a field hospital outside Bakhmut, which Russian forces have pulverized during a three-sided assault to seize the city in eastern Ukraine.

A few days later she was dead. Rikhlitska and another medic were killed by shelling as they shuttled between the field hospital and the front line.

The Independent has the full story:

Hundreds of refugees from Ukraine celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim in Berlin Tuesday dressed in colourful costumes and dancing to loud Israeli music.

They danced, drank and ate together with hundreds of other members of the German capital’s Chabad community that organized the party in a hotel. Many of the Ukrainian refugees at the Purim party were students and young children, among them dozens of orphans who fled from Odesa a year ago.

“A year ago these kids were sitting in the bunkers, rockets falling on them,” said Yehuda Teichtal, a Berlin rabbi and head of the local Chabad community who had helped their escape from the war in Ukraine.

“Now they’ve found a new home, are studying German, learn new skills, and also learn how to help themselves,” he added.

Teichtal, wearing huge orange sunglasses and a glittery silver cap, danced with some of the refugee children in circles as Israeli singer Ishay Lapidot performed popular Purim songs on stage.