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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST.
5:14 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest Ukraine assessment that Russian forces continued limited counterattacks along the Svatove-Kreminna line. Russian forces also continued offensive operations around Soledar, as well as in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka areas.
Ukrainian forces are highly unlikely to still hold positions within the settlement of Soledar itself, the assessment said.
Russian forces continued defensive operations and reinforced frontlines positions on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast.
4:26 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to visit the United Nations to address a high-level meeting of the 193-member General Assembly on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of his country if the security situation permits, a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova cautioned in an interview Friday with The Associated Press that many factors need to be in place for him to come, citing first and foremost the military situation on the ground and a warning from Ukraine’s intelligence service that Russia is planning “a very serious offensive in February.”
“Our president would want to come, he has a will or intention to come,” she said, “but it’s still a question if there will be a security situation that will allow him to come.”
3:10 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said Russia may raise the upper end of its age range for military conscription from 27 to 30. The change would kick in in time for the spring draft. The move could help Russia meet its goal of boosting its forces by 30%.
2:16 a.m.: European countries will eventually resume higher imports of Russian gas, Qatar’s energy minister and gas company CEO predicted Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Russian gas exports to Europe plunged after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, head of QatarEnergy, said the situation could change in the future.
“We’re all blessed to have to be able to forget and to forgive. And I think things get mended with time … they learn from that situation and probably have a much bigger diversity,” he told the Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi. “But Russian gas is going back, in my view, to Europe.”
Gas exports by Russian energy giant Gazprom to the European Union and Switzerland fell by 55%, the company said this month.
Europe was previously Gazprom’s main export market, but supplies were drastically reduced because of sanctions following the Ukraine invasion last February.
1:17 a.m.: Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe from 2014 and 2017. He is currently the Pershing chair in strategic studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Georgian Service, Hodges discusses the Russian military operation’s lack of coherence and how new fighting vehicles and tanks from abroad could change the course of the war.
12:02 a.m.: Germany on Saturday inaugurated its second liquefied natural gas terminal, part of a drive by Europe’s biggest economy to put reliance on Russian energy sources firmly behind it, The Associated Press reported.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz took part in the ceremony in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast, which came less than a month after he inaugurated Germany’s first LNG terminal at Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea. Several more are expected to go online in the coming months, including another in Lubmin.
The terminals are part of an effort to prevent an energy crunch that also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of Germany’s last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of 2022, until mid-April.
Days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Scholz announced that his government had decided to build the first LNG terminals.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.