WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's Zelenskiy sacks top official, says clean-up drive continues
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday issued a decree sacking a senior security figure and said separately that his drive to clean up the government would continue.
Authorities have dismissed dozens of officials in recent weeks and opened probes as part of a widespread drive against wrongdoing. The European Union says addressing corruption is a requirement for Ukraine joining the 27-member bloc.
Zelenskiy dismissed Ruslan Dziuba as deputy commander of the National Guard, according to a brief decree issued by the presidential office. It did not give any reasons for the move.
Zelenskiy - who has stressed the need for the defence ministry in particular to be cleaned up - did not specifically mention Dziuba in his daily video address.
Instead, he said he had met defence sector and law enforcement officials to discuss ways to protect institutions from what he called attempts from outside or inside to reduce their effectiveness and efficiency.
Referring to the crackdown, he said: "All this activity is not just about certain episodes or criminal proceedings ... the state will continue to modernize the institutions themselves. The purity of the work of state structures must be guaranteed."
Ukraine's defence minister said on Thursday hundreds of officials at the ministry or in the armed forces had been disciplined last year after internal audits, and that he had "zero tolerance" for corruption.
** Ukraine holds defence as battles rage in Donetsk region, top commander says
Ukraine's forces hold defence along the frontline in Donetsk, including of the besieged town of Bakhmut, with the fiercest battles raging for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv's top military commander said on Saturday.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said Russia carries out some 50 attacks daily in Donetsk, a region in Ukraine's southeast that Moscow has been trying to occupy fully.
"Fierce fighting continues in the area of Vuhledar and Maryinka," Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram message after a call with U.S. General Mark Milley.
"We reliably hold the defence. In some areas of the front we have managed to regain previously lost positions and gained a foothold."
Zaluzhnyi did not specify where the gains were. He added that Ukraine continues to hold Bakhmut, tying to "stabilise" the frontline around the town.
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Saturday that his forces are facing fierce resistance around Bakhmut from Ukrainian defenders.
On Friday, Britain said Russian forces were making gains north of Bakhmut, but were having a more difficult time attacking Vuhledar, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) further south.
It is impossible to independently establish the control areas of each side, as fighting along the frontline has slowed in recent months to what Ukraine defence ministry calls "crawling" attempts to move little by little.
Ukraine's military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that despite Russia's pressure in Maryinka, a nearly deserted and destroyed small city that has been on the frontline since the start of the war a year ago, Ukrainian forces managed to hold the ground.
"Fighting is going on in the city centre, but there have been no changes over the past 24 hours," Zhdanov said in a social media video.
Wagner's head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said it could take two years for Moscow to control the whole of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine. Moscow last year claimed both as "republics" of Russia, in a move condemned by most countries of the United Nations as illegal.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other military officials have been on a diplomatic marathon in recent months trying to secure more Western weapons and fighter aircraft.
"The key to success on the battlefield is effective fire damage, which requires an appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition," Zaluzhnyi said.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Strike by Russian troops affects Ukrainian defense companies, top brass says
The Russian Armed Forces on Friday delivered a massive strike on critical facilities generating power for Ukraine’s defense sector and transportation networks, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.
"On February 10, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a massive strike from high-precision weapons <…> and unmanned aerial vehicles on critical facilities generating power for Ukraine’s defense companies and transportation networks," he said.
Also, foreign weapons and ammunition supplies as well as the deployment of reserves by railway to the combat zones were blocked.
** Russian troops kill over 140 Ukrainian troops, destroy 3 foreign howitzers near Donetsk
The Russian Armed Forces have killed over 140 Ukrainian servicemen and destroyed two US-made M777 howitzers and a Polish Krab howitzer near Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, reported on Saturday.
"As a result of a successful offensive by the Southern Group of Forces in the Donetsk direction, more than 140 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, and two US-made M777 howitzers, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer, Giatsint-B and D-30 howitzers, and a US-made AN/TPQ-50 radar system were destroyed," he specified.
Reuters/TASS
