Russia Ukraine latest: Unarmed prisoners ‘executed by Putin’s forces’ after fall of Avdiivka, Kyiv claims

A school guard was killed in the Russian shelling of Sloviansk, local security sources have claimed on Telegram.

“On Saturday evening, February 17, the enemy launched a massive rocket attack. One of the strikes hit the building of the Sloviansk school #18, which housed a social canteen, a point of invincibility and one of the points of distribution of humanitarian aid.

“Search operations have been completed. Under the rubble of the destroyed school, we found the body of a deceased man – a guard of the educational institution,” said Vadym Liakh, head of the Sloviansk city police.

According to the city administration, the school guard killed was 65 years old.

They added this brings the total number of civilian victims of Russian aggression in the Sloviansk community to 50.

Russia has insisted it doesn’t target civilians in shelling campaigns.

Ukraine’s military on Monday shot down two more Russian warplanes used to drop highly destructive guided aerial bombs on Kyiv’s troops, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said.

The destroyed planes were an Su-34 fighter-bomber and an Su-35 fighter, Syrskyi said on Telegram, not disclosing the area where they were downed. At the weekend, Ukraine said it shot down three Russian Su-34s and one Su-35 in eastern skies.

“In just three days, the enemy lost six aircraft,” Oleksandr Pavliuk, Ukraine’s new ground forces chief, said on Telegram on Monday.

Russia has not commented on the reported downing of warplanes and Reuters was not able to verify Ukraine’s version.

Moscow has aerial superiority over Kyiv, but Ukraine is using Western air defence systems to counter that.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of hitting civilian targets using Su-34s, in particular in southern Kherson region, as well as attacking Ukraine’s front lines. Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians although many have been killed in its strikes.

To mark the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine breaking out, The Independent is bringing together a panel of experts who have been at the forefront of the coverage of the conflict.

Two years have passed since Russia invaded its European neighbour and the war has left Ukraine and its people in a state of utter devastation.

Hosted by Bel Trew, The Independent’s award-winning chief international correspondent, the panel will be looking back at key moments in the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as looking ahead to what is likely to happen next.

Russian forces have completed their takeover of Avdiivka by eliminating the last pocket of resistance at the eastern Ukraine city’s huge coke plant, the Russian military said on Monday, after the sheer weight of its troop numbers and greater firepower drove out Kyiv’s forces.

For Ukraine, the loss underscored its reliance on the supply of Western weapons and ammunition, as hold-ups have left it short of provisions and handicapped in the fight.

However, some Western military analysts believe that Ukraine could counter Russia’s attempt to build up on its Avdiivka success by trying to erect new defence lines in that immediate area and deploying fresh units to hold back Kremlin’s forces.

“Delays in Western security assistance to Ukraine are likely helping Russia launch opportunistic offensive operations along several sectors of the front line in order to place pressure on Ukrainian forces,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment.

Apart from Avdiivka, Russia is pushing harder in the northeastern Kharkiv region and in southern Zaporizhia, the Washington-based think tank said.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday they had opened an investigation into alleged shootings by Russian forces of six unarmed Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Avdiivka, and two at a village in the same region, after Russia claimed full control of the city.

“An investigation into the shootings of unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war in Avdiivka and Vesele has been launched,” the prosecutor’s office in Donetsk region said on its Telegram channel.

Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne quoted Ukrainian military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy as saying: “There is still no possibility to confirm or refute” the killings at Avdiivka, as an investigation was ongoing. However, he added it would not be the first time Russia had committed war crimes.

Russian forces on Monday claimed full control of the vast Soviet-era coke plant in the ruined Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, cementing the biggest battlefield gain in nine months.

Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had advanced about 9 km (5 miles) in that part of the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line, and that Russian troops were pressing forward after an deadly urban battle.

Ukraine said it had withdrawn its soldiers to save troops from being fully surrounded after months of fierce fighting. Putin hailed the fall of Avdiivka as an important victory and congratulated Russian troops.

“The ‘Centre’ grouping of troops, taking the offensive, took full control of the coke plant in Avdiivka,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement alongside video showing a series of blasts in what appeared to be the plant.“Russian flags were hoisted on the administrative buildings of the plant,” the ministry said.

Russian state television showed blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags being taken down in Avdiivka and Russia’s white, blue and red tricolour flag raised, including over the coke plant.

Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday the EU needs to “at least sharpen” sanctions against Russia after Alexei Navalny’s death, while “half-measures” are not enough to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If Ukraine falls, everybody is very clear to understand: we will be next. Putin has no intention to stop, he wouldn’t be able to stop,” Landsbergis said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, where they will be joined by the widow of Navalny.

Navalny, Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, died on Friday at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade sentence.

Dwindling ammunition threatens Ukraine’s hold on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line under withering assault by Russian artillery. Defensive lines are in jeopardy.

Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region after daily Russian onslaughts from three directions for the last four months.

Dwindling supplies of Western-supplied long-range artillery in particular means Ukrainian forces are inhibited from striking high-value targets deep behind Russian lines, where heavy equipment and personnel are accumulated.

For weeks, Ukrainian forces across the frontline have complained about critical shortages in ammunition, with some artillery batteries fighting with only 10 per cent of supply they need. Desperate to economise shells, military leaders ordered units to fire at only precise targets. But commanders on the ground say this is barely enough to restrain their better supplied enemy.

Concerns are growing that without military aid the fall of Avdiivka may be repeated in other parts of the frontline.

Addressing world leaders, diplomats and military officials gathered at the Munich Security Conference, Mr Zelensky warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened not just Europe but every country, as it was “war against any rules at all”.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February two years ago, nobody knew how it would play out. Here author and Russia expert Mark Galeotti sifts through the carnage of the bloody conflict for clues as to what will happen next: