Ukraine-Russia news – live: Putin ‘planning for more war’ not peace, Nato chief warns

The United States has formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” during its war in Ukraine, vice president Kamala Harris has said.

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” Ms Harris, a former prosecutor, told the Munich Security Conference.

“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes, you will be held to account.”

The official determination carries with it no immediate consequences for the ongoing war but, according to Reuters, Washington hopes that it could help further isolate Vladimir Putin and galvanise legal efforts to hold members of his government accountable through international courts and sanctions.

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that its forces have captured Hrianykivka, a village in Ukraine‘s eastern Kharkiv region that is well to the north of most significant fighting.

A briefing note from Ukraine‘s General Staff later on Saturday said the village was being shelled, but made no mention of an assault.

Hrianykivka is around 180 km (110 miles) north of Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that has seen fierce fighting in recent weeks.

France wants Russia to be defeated in Ukraine but it does not want to “crush” it, president Emmanuel Macron has told paper Le Journal du Dimanche.

“I do not think, as some people do, that we must aim for a total defeat of Russia, attacking Russia on its own soil. Those observers want to, above all else, crush Russia. That has never been the position of France and it will never be our position,” Mr Macron said.

Mr Macron has drawn criticism from some NATO allies for delivering mixed messages regarding his policy on the war between Ukraine and Russia, with some considering Paris a weak link in the Western alliance.

On Friday, Mr Macron urged allies to step up military support for Ukraine.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said today she was confident the EU’s joint interest in getting more ammunition to Ukraine will trump individual national interests when it comes to common European defence procurement programmes.

The bloc is urgently exploring ways for its member countries to team up to buy munitions to help Ukraine, following warnings from Kyiv that its forces - which are firing up to 10,000 artillery shells daily - need more supplies quickly.

“As always in this atrocious war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine, we see that we can move mountains under pressure, and therefore here too,” she said in an interview with Reuters and other media at the Munich Security Conference.

“These are not normal times, these are extraordinary times. And therefore we should also look at extraordinary measures or procedures,” she added.

The Dutch government has said “a number” of Russian diplomats will have to leave the Netherlands, accusing Moscow of trying to smuggle spies into the country that is home to institutions including the International Criminal Court and the global chemical weapons watchdog.

The announcement is the latest twist in a diplomatic dispute between the two countries that began shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago sparked a war on Europe’s eastern flank. “Despite numerous attempts by the Netherlands to find a solution, Russia continues to try to get intelligence officers into the Netherlands under diplomatic cover,” Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement. “We cannot and will not allow that.” He added that it remains “important to keep the embassies open as a communication channel, even now that relations with Russia are more difficult than ever.” The Russian diplomats were given two weeks to leave the country. A Russian trade office in Amsterdam was ordered shut by Tuesday.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has said that the European Union is partly to blame for prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine, doubling down on his government’s insistence that supporting Kyiv was a mistaken strategy for Europe. Speaking at an annual state of the nation address in Budapest, Mr Orban claimed the EU had fanned the flames of the war by sanctioning Russia and supplying Ukraine with money and weapons, rather than seeking to negotiate peace with Moscow. “When Russia launched its attack, the West didn’t isolate the conflict but elevated it to a pan-European level,” Mr Orban said.

“The war in Ukraine is not a conflict between the armies of good and evil, but between two Slavic countries that are fighting against one another. This is their war, not ours.”

Finland’s defense minister said Saturday that his country will join Nato without waiting for Sweden if its Nordic neighbor’s accession is held up by the Turkish government.

Mikko Savola told The Associated Press on Saturday that Finland would prefer that that the two countries join the alliance together, but it wouldn’t hold up the process if Turkey decides to approve Finland, but not Sweden, as it has warned.

“No, no. Then we will join,” Savola said in an interview on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

Since they broke with decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland and Sweden have insisted they want to join Nato together. But Turkey’s reluctance to accept Sweden unless it steps up pressure on Kurdish exile groups has made it more likely the two will have to join the alliance at different speeds.

“Sweden is our closest partner,” Savola said. “Almost every week our defense forces are practicing together and so on. It’s a very deep cooperation and we also trust fully each other. But it’s in Turkey’s hands now.”

Rishi Sunak has been asked whether he has spoken to Poland about providing its MiG aircraft to Ukraine during his discussions in Germany today.

“What I’ve done is said to all allies that we stand ready to support them if they can provide fighter jets for Ukraine now,” the PM told broadcasters in Munich.

“And for our part, we’re also leading the world in training Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard aircraft. That’s the right thing to do because this is about giving Ukraine the means to defend themselves and win this war.

“That’s about more air defence, that’s about armoured vehicles, it is about long-range weapons - the UK is out in front on all these things. And it is important we continue to do so and lead because we all want to see Ukraine succeed and this Russian aggression go ... completely checked and punished.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that the EU “can move mountains under pressure”, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said.

The bloc is urgently exploring ways for its member countries to team up to buy munitions to help Ukraine, following warnings from Kyiv that its forces – which are firing up to 10,000 artillery shells daily – need more supplies quickly.

“As always in this atrocious war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine, we see that we can move mountains under pressure, and therefore here too,” she told reporters at the Munich Security Conference, adding: “These are not normal times, these are extraordinary times. And therefore we should also look at extraordinary measures or procedures.”

In the past, the focus on national interests has often prevented closer defence cooperation between European countries, hampering and slowing down joint procurement programmes, but Ms von der Leyen expressed confidence that the bloc’s joint interest in providing Kyiv with ammunition will trump individual national interests when it comes to common European defence procurement programmes.

In her speech to the conference, Ms von der Leyen earlier suggested the EU join forces with the bloc’s defence industry to speed up and scale up the production of ammunition badly needed on the battlefield in Ukraine and to replenish stocks at home (see post at 10:46am).

Rishi Sunak and Kamala Harris have agreed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “global war”, Downing Street has said.

“The prime minister and Vice President Harris condemned those countries who have supported Putin’s efforts politically and militarily,” No 10 said in a statement, after their meeting at the Munich Security Conference.

“They agreed that Putin’s war in Ukraine is a global war, both in terms of its impact on food and energy security and in terms of its implications for internationally accepted norms like sovereignty,” the statement added.