What has happened in the last hours
On the 346th day of the war started by Russia against Ukraine, these are the key data at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, February 4:
The mayor of Bakhmut: “They are trying to erase us from the face of the earth.” The mayor of the city of Bakhmut, the nerve center of Russian assault attempts in the last two weeks, stated this Saturday through his Facebook account that “the Russians are trying to erase us from the face of the earth.” Showing photos of bombed apartment buildings in the city, Oleksiy Reva has endorsed the words of the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelensky, who has described the town as a “fortress”. “They can’t break us!”, he has proclaimed himself. In his daily televised address, Zelensky has stressed the “difficult” situation at the front, with Russian forces sending “more and more” troops into combat. “On Bakhmut, on Vugledar, on Lyman and on other fronts”, he has enumerated himself. “But, like every day of the 346 days of war, the resistance of our soldiers decides everything.”
Zelensky claims that there are two officers among the prisoners exchanged today. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has affirmed this Saturday that there are two officers among the prisoners exchanged today with Russia. The rest, up to 116, are “soldiers and sergeants.” 87 of them are military, and the rest are part of the National Guard, Border Guard and the National Emergency Service. “We are constantly working to bring home all our people who are in Russian captivity”, he recalled in his daily televised address. “And I get happy every time it happens.” According to the president, 1,762 Ukrainian prisoners have been exchanged since the start of the invasion.
The port of Odesa loses electricity due to a failure in a substation. The port of the city of Odesa is one of the infrastructures that has been left without electricity this Saturday due to the “important” accident in an electrical substation that was being repaired after suffering damage in Russian bombing, as explained by the Ukrainian electricity company Ukrenergo . “The transformer has failed this morning in one of the high voltage stations that supply power to the city while it was being repaired after being damaged by Russian attacks,” the company explained in its Telegram account. According to the company, the situation in the vicinity of the port is under control and most of the city’s neighborhoods have already recovered power.
Ukrainian soldiers are already training in the use of British tanks. Ukrainian soldiers have been training in the use of British Challenger 2 tanks since this week. That was one of the topics of the conversation that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky had on Saturday by phone. “The British Prime Minister said he had met Ukrainian troops training in the UK last week and was inspired to see the courage and the stories (he was told) of loved ones in Ukraine.” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
Portugal announces the shipment to Ukraine of Leopard 2 tanks. The Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, announced this Saturday the shipment of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine as part of a coordinated operation with Germany that includes the repair of some of these vehicles. The president did not want to specify how many tanks he plans to send to supply the Ukrainian army, although he does foresee that the vehicles could be sent by the end of March.
In the photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba, for AFP, a volunteer cooks in a Bakhmut shelter.
