March 5, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Negotiations to return the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to Ukraine’s control are not progressing, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Sunday.  

“The situation is currently at a standstill,” the energy minister said during the Ukrainian national telethon “United News.” 

The nuclear plant, which is Europe’s largest, has been under Russian control since March last year.  

“But in response to this, we received (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's null and void decree that ZNPP is 'federal property,'" the energy minister said.

Zaporizhzhia is among the Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia in violation of international law, and as part of that seizure, Putin has declared the plant Russian property and installed workers there.

As Russia continues to occupy the plant, Halushchenko claimed Ukraine is receiving “alarming signals” from experts with the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency working at the plant. The minister accused the Russian side of “behaving extremely unprofessionally” at the nuclear site. 

Last week, the head of IAEA, Rafael Grossi, expressed concern about the situation in the plant, citing delays in rotations of its team of experts in the facility, an increased security presence on-site and nearby fighting.  

Gen. Lord Richard Dannatt, formerly a top military leader in the United Kingdom, said Sunday that it makes “complete sense” for Ukraine's troops to “withdraw to a more defensible line,” in the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut. 

Dannatt is the UK's former chief of the General Staff — the professional head of the British Army. Speaking on Britain's Sky News, he argued that Bakhmut is strategically “not very significant" to Ukraine.

Despite that, the besieged city has already served effectively as “the anvil on which so many Russian lives have been broken, and therefore it makes complete sense for the Ukrainians now to withdraw to a more defensible line and continue the battle there,” Dannatt said.

A local Ukrainian commander on Sunday dismissed the growing speculation of a possible Ukrainian withdrawal from the city, saying that there have been no “tactical changes” on their side.

Speaking on Sky News, he said that for Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut is strategically “not very significant,” but has “achieved its aim of effectively being the anvil on which so many Russian lives have been broken, and therefore it makes complete sense for the Ukrainians now to withdraw to a more defensible line and continue the battle there.”    

What fighters on the frontline are saying: A local Ukrainian commander on Sunday dismissed the growing speculation of a possible withdrawal from the city, saying there have been no “tactical changes” on their side.

"On the contrary, some new reserves are coming in as reinforcement to hold the defense," said Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in Ukraine's National Guard. "The entire combat area is under chaotic shelling but there is connection with the city, there are routes that are not cut off."

More from Dannatt on the shape of the war: The general said it will be key for Ukraine to hold off Russia's current offensives, which he believes will yet intensify. Then, in the late spring or early summer, Ukraine "can mount a really strong counteroffensive utilizing the modern equipment that we are now giving them."

“I think that I am not alone in believing that a few decisive blows struck at certain points along that very extended front on the Russian army could well have the effect of breaking the morale of the Russian soldier or breaking the back of the Russian army,” Dannatt said.  

Asked about the West supplying equipment to Ukraine, the general said: “To be frank, I don’t think we have done enough. We need to do as much as we possibly can to ensure that this war is concluded this year.”  

Russian reservists said they were ordered to attack a Ukrainian strong point armed only with "firearms and shovels," according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

"The ‘shovels’ are likely entrenching tools being employed for hand-to-hand combat," it said in an intelligence update tweeted on Sunday. An entrenching tool is a digging tool used by military forces.

Designed in 1869, the ministry described the lethality of the standard issue MPL-50 entrenching tool as "particularly mythologised" in Russia.

"Its continued use as a weapon highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterise much of the war," it said, adding that evidence has shown an increase in close combat.

One reservist told the MoD that they were "neither physically nor psychologically" prepared for attack.

According to evidence obtained by the ministry, there has been a rise in close combat, which it says may be the result of a Russian insistence on an offensive despite being short of munitions.

In December, Russian citizens were crowdfunding to equip soldiers deployed in Ukraine with socks, winter clothes, sleeping bags and body armor. This came after troops complained they were short of basic equipment, which Russian officials said were teething problems.

Read more here.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that any negotiations around ending the war in Ukraine will only begin once Russian President Vladimir Putin understands he will not win.

"My view, it is necessary that Putin understands that he will not succeed with this invasion and his imperialistic aggression — that he has to withdraw troops. This is the basis for talks," Scholz said in an interview that aired Sunday.

He added that he believes Ukraine is "ready for peace."

Asked by Zakaria if there is a deal to be made that ends the war, perhaps with Ukraine conceding it will not retake Crimea or parts of the eastern Donbas region, Scholz said there will be no decision made without the Ukrainian side.

"We will not take decisions instead of them. We support them," he said.

Zakaria asked the chancellor if he would encourage Ukraine to consider such an agreement, however.

Scholz in the US: The German chancellor held meetings with US President Joe Biden in Washington Friday after a transformative 12 months that saw Germany undergo its most significant shift in military and energy policy in decades.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has turned Scholz, who took office two months before Moscow’s invasion, into a crisis leader, overseeing Europe’s largest economy and most powerful democracy during the worst violence on the continent since World War II.

And it has thrust him and Biden into one of the world’s most consequential relationships, sustained by shared opposition to Russia’s invasion but strained at moments over how to respond.

“You stepped up to provide critical military support. And I would argue, beyond the military support, the moral support you’ve given Ukrainians has been profound. Profound,” Biden told his counterpart this week in the Oval Office.

CNN's Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

When Sweden and Finland declared their intention to join NATO last May, it was seen by many as a poke in the eye for Russia.

Historically, both countries had committed to non-alignment with NATO as a way of avoiding provoking Moscow. The invasion of Ukraine changed that. 

Both Finland and Sweden – along with the vast majority of NATO allies – would like to see the countries formally join the alliance at a NATO summit on July 11. However, a significant hurdle stands in the way of this becoming a reality: Turkey has yet to give the plan its formal and official blessing. 

Turkey is not the only nation blocking the move: Hungary has also failed to ratify the Nordics’ accession. But right now getting Turkey on side is considered the priority. 

Unfortunately for the pro-NATO gang, Western officials are increasingly pessimistic that Turkey will budge.

Officially, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan objects to Sweden and Finland’s membership on security grounds, stemming from a dispute over the extradition of a designated terror group from both Nordic countries.

But Gonul Tol, an expert in the Middle East Institute’s Turkey program, believes there are other reasons that Erdogan doesn’t want to upset Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

From protecting his strongman image to maintaining Russia's economic lifeline to Turkey, Tol says the Turkish claims about Sweden and Finland harboring terrorists provide perfect cover for Erdogan not to engage on the NATO question at a politically inconvenient time.

Read more here.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola visited Ukraine Saturday, vowing “the aggressors that have started a war on our continent will not go unpunished."

Speaking on a panel at the “United for Justice” conference in Lviv, Metsola reiterated the parliament’s support for initiatives collecting evidence of potential crimes committed by Moscow and its forces.

The three-day conference was organized by Ukrainian authorities “to ensure accountability for core international crimes allegedly committed in Ukraine,” according to the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.  

Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska was also on the panel with the European Parliament leader.

Metsola met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Saturday, and together the pair met students at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv. 

In another tweet about her meeting with Zelensky, Metsola said she has “learnt many things from Ukraine the past year. But perhaps the most important lesson is one articulated by (Ukrainian poet) Taras Shevchenko: ‘Keep fighting, you are sure to win.'”

“True in the quest for peace & freedom as it is in life. Never give up,” she added.

Ukraine’s forces are holding on to a key route in and out of the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut, according to a deputy commander in the Ukrainian National Guard.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding the Bakhmut-Kostiantynivka highway, it is fairly stable," said Volodymyr Nazarenko, who ranks second-in-command in the Svoboda battalion. "Situation around Bakhmut as well as on its outskirts is very much like hell, as it is on the entire eastern front.”

The Bakhmut-Kostiantynivka highway is a crucial route for getting supplies into the city.  

Nazarenko also said there have been no “tactical changes” on the Ukrainian side, adding, “we are holding the defense.” 

Nazarenko dismissed the growing speculation of a possible Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. 

“There is no withdrawal. On the contrary, some new reserves are coming in as reinforcement to hold the defense. The entire combat area is under chaotic shelling but there is connection with the city, there are routes that are not cut off,” he said. 

African Olympic committees said Sunday that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.  

In a statement posted on Twitter, the Association of the National Olympics Committees of Africa said that members had "decided unanimously to support the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in all international competitions."  

This comes following a call from the United States and 30 other “like-minded” countries on February 20 to impose a ban on Moscow and Minsk's athletes from competing in international sports because of Russia's war in Ukraine — an invasion launched in part from ally Belarus' territory.

The International Olympic Committee sparked controversy in January when it unveiled a multi-step plan for Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, but as neutral parties (rather than competing in the name and symbology of their home country).

The IOC has stressed its “strong commitment to the unifying mission of the Olympic Movement” remarking in a January 30 statement that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.”

The African association said Sunday that its decision is aligned with the position of the IOC and its President Thomas Bach and “will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in total neutrality without any identity sign.”  

CNN's Zayn Nabbi and Eve Brennan contributed to this report.

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Three people, including two children, have been killed by Russian shelling in a village in southern Ukraine, an official in Kyiv said Sunday.  

“Poniativka village of Kherson region was shelled with mortars. Residential building was hit. Three people died,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a Telegram post. 

The shelling came Sunday afternoon, according to Kherson’s regional military administration.

On Saturday, a 57-year-old man was killed by Russian shelling in Kherson's village of Lvove, where several civilian houses and the area's Palace of Culture were also damaged.