Live blog: Ukraine will join NATO but in 'long- term' - Stoltenberg

 

The fierce fighting for the industrial city of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk continues to rage, as Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its 370th day.

 

When the war ends "we need to ensure that history doesn't repeat itself," Stoltenberg told a press conference with Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin. (AFP Archive)

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance in the "long-term", but stressed that the immediate issue is it remaining an independent nation in the face of Russia's offensive. 

"NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective," Stoltenberg told reporters during a visit to Finland's capital Helsinki.

After Russia's offensive began last February, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the US-led military alliance to grant his country a fast-track membership.

 

Following are the latest updates:

1008 GMT - Russia open to Ukraine talks, but won't give up annexed regions

The Kremlin has repeated its position that Russia was open to negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, but that new "territorial realities" could not be ignored.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would never renounce its claims to four Ukrainian regions that Moscow declared it had annexed last year following referendums that Kiev and the West slammed as bogus and illegal.

Russia proclaimed it had annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions last September in a grand ceremony in Moscow.

The regions were subsequently named as constituent subjects of the Russian Federation in a constitutional decree. Peskov said Russia was open to negotiations if Kiev accepted Moscow's control over the regions.

0940 GMT - Japan adds Wagner Group, others on sanctions list against Russia

Japan has decided to widen its sanctions against Russia, including on the private militia Wagner Group, over Moscow's war on Ukraine.

At least 143 new individuals and organisations linked to Russia were added to Tokyo’s list of sanctions, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Those sanctioned will face asset freezes, as well as bans on Japanese domestic firms exporting to Russia while Tokyo will target politicians, military officers, businesspeople and companies in Russia.

The move comes after Japan hosted a virtual G-7 summit last Friday 

 commemorating the first anniversary of Moscow's war on Ukraine.

0937 GMT - Ukrainian air defence systems target Russian weaponry: Commander

Ukraine’s air defence systems target Russian warplanes, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on a regular basis, said a Ukrainian army commander.

"This (air defence) system is actively used. I would like to point out that every day, every night, attacks (air and missile) on civilian settlements in Ukraine continue and the air alarm is sounding.

Now in its second year, the Russia-Ukraine war has so far killed more than 8,100 civilians, with nearly 13,500 more wounded, according to the latest UN figures.

 

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah says no oil-producing countries want to make a profit from the Russia-Ukraine conflict

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