Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy welcomes new air defense systems

Russia's Emergency Ministry said at least eight people were killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday.

Russian officials said Ukraine struck a two-story building housing a popular bakery and that more people were likely buried under the rubble.

"According to current data as a result of the shelling of a bakery in Lysychansk eight people died and 10 were wounded with varying degrees of severity," Natalia Pashchenko, the Moscow-installed Health Minister of the Luhansk region where Lysychansk is located, said on Telegram. 

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the incident.

Lysychansk fell to Russian forces soon after Moscow's invasion began in 2022.

Russia and Iran will once more not be invited to attend the Munich Security Conference, which is to take place in the southern German city from February 16 to 18.

The chair of the conference, Christoph Heusgen, said Moscow's recently stated refusal to negotiate with the current Ukrainian government had led to its exclusion from the guest list. 

"And that is why we have said that we are not inviting the Russian government, but we are inviting Russians from nongovernmental organizations, exiled politicians," he said.

Russia was already excluded last year over its invasion of its neighbor.

Iran is being left out of the meeting amid growing tensions in the Middle East caused by the actions of its proxies.

"In the case of Iran, we are hearing from the German government and also from the Americans that there is no interest in talks. As things stand at the moment, we are only inviting Iranians from nongovernmental organizations," Heusgen said.

Heusgen also said that the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was excluded last year as well, would not be invited to attend.

At the conference, heads of states, governments and international organizations, ministers, lawmakers and senior defense figures are to discuss current and future challenges to global security. 

The AFP news agency reports that one of its journalists was among some 20 arrested by Russian police while covering a central Moscow protest by the wives of men who were mobilized to fight in Ukraine. 

The Russian and foreign reporters were being transported in a van to a police station, an detained AFP video journalist said. 

In video footage, police could be seen taking reporters wearing yellow press vests to police vans. 

Wives of men compelled to fight in Ukraine have been staging protests outside the Kremlin walls, demanding the men be brought home. 

The Kremlin has so far been hesitant to clamp down on the protests, but the rallies have also been ignored by Russian state media.

Poland's president has underlined his support for Ukraine after saying he was not sure if the country would be able to regain control over Russian-occupied Crimea. 

President Andrzej Duda's said that he believed Ukraine could take back Donetsk and Luhansk but that liberating Crimea might be less likely.

Duda had also said the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, "is a special place... also for historical reasons. Because in fact, if we look historically, it was in Russia's hands for most of the time."

His comments drew criticism from politicians in Poland's governing coalition. Warsaw has said Ukraine needs to regain all of its territory in order to deter Moscow from further aggression. Ukraine has also pledged it will recover every part of its territory including Crimea in the war with Russia.

Polish lawmaker Roman Giertych dismissed Duda's comments as "incredibly stupid" on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"I would like to remind Mr Duda that there are cities in our country that in their history belonged to Poland for a shorter time than to another country," Giertych wrote.

The Polish head of state is aligned with Poland's nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost its leading position in the government in December. He sought to defuse the dispute on Saturday, posting that his "actions and position on Russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine have been and are clear from day one."

"Russia's attack on Ukraine and occupation of internationally recognized territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, is a crime," he added. "We all stand shoulder to shoulder for a free, sovereign, and independent Ukraine against aggression and brutal imperialism!"

Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other's infrastructure during night-time drone and missile attacks, officials said on Saturday. 

"A fire broke out at the Volgograd oil refinery after a drone was shot down," said the governor of the Volgograd region, Andrey Bocharov.

Bocharov said the fire was swiftly contained and that there had been no fatalities or injuries.

The operation is believed to have been conducted by the SBU security service. A Ukrainian source told the Reuters news agency that it hit an oil processing facility.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry says seven drones were shot down, including two over the Volgograd. Also, four aerial objects were intercepted over the southwestern Russian region of Belgorod, the military said. Another one was reported to have been hit over the Rostov-on-Don region. Both areas border Ukraine. 

There was no information about any possible damage in those attacks from the Russian side.

Meanwhile, Kyiv says Ukraine was targeted with 14 drones and 2 Ovod missiles — a type of Russian cruise missile known to NATO as Kingbolt. Energy supply sites in the industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk were the main target, as they had been the previous night.

Dnipropetrovsk's military governor Serhiy Lysak also reported two fires. "Almost 15,000 people are without electricity in the district. And also two heating plants in Kryvyi Rih, which supplied 43,000 people," he wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine's army says nine drones were intercepted. 

Russian officials have not been invited to Germany's annual Munich Security Conference that is set to be held later this month. Iranian leaders have also been excluded from the high-profile meeting that will be attended by some 50 politicians and 100 ministers and is being held from 16 to 18 of February.

Russia decided not to send a delegation to the Munich forum in 2022, which was held just days before Moscow launched its full-scale offensive of Ukraine on February 24. Last year, with the war in Ukraine raging, the organizers have decided not to invite Russia, and Russian politicians will also not be welcome to this year's summit. 

Citing Russian President Vladimir Putin's unwillingness to negotiate with Ukraine, Conference chair Christoph Heusgen said, "we are not inviting the Russian government, but we are inviting Russians from non-governmental organizations, exiled politicians."

"In the case of Iran, we are hearing from the German government and also from the Americans that there is no interest in talks. As things stand at the moment, we are only inviting Iranians from non-governmental organizations," Heugsen said.

The Munich Security Conference is an international forum where global leaders discuss security policy and future challenges. Besides Russian and Iranian governments, some German political parties including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have also been left out. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the arrival of two new air defense systems saying they can "shoot down anything."

Zelenskyy said during his nightly address that the delivery of the air defense systems was the culmination of "working tirelessly at various levels for months."

The Ukrainian leader said the systems were "not yet sufficient for the complete defense of Ukraine" but added that Kyiv was "workingtowards that goal every day."

He discussed the intense fighting around the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, saying the situation there was "extraordinarily difficult."

Ukrainian forces have been holding down the town so far amid intense fighting with Russian forces. The front line in Ukraine, however, has barely moved. 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that two French aid workers had been killed in a Russian strike in Ukraine.

"Two French aid workers have been killed in Ukraine by a Russian strike. A cowardly and outrageous act," Macron said on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

"My solidarity goes out to all the volunteers who are committed to helping people," he added.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said: "Russia will have to answer for its crimes."

Ukrainian authorities said the two men had died in a recent drone attack in southern Ukraine.

rm/sri (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)