Battle | Ukraine says Russia launched missile attack in east

Ukraine withdraws from Avdiivka. Lithuania calls for more European initiatives. More information on the news blog.

9.12 am: Ukraine says it shot down another Russian fighter jet last night. It was an SU-34 fighter jet, Ukrainian Air Force Chief Mykola Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging service.

Air defenses destroyed twelve Russian attack drones and a Kh-59 cruise missile. The Ukrainian military reported on Saturday that three Russian warplanes had been shot down.

5:12 am: Ukraine's government expects the central government to still decide to supply Taurus cruise missiles to the country, which was attacked by Russia nearly two years ago.

“One answer is that you didn't ask for a clear no,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “We always hope that such issues will eventually be resolved, because that's what life has taught us over the past two years.” At the end of the 60th Security Conference in Munich, The war in the Gaza Strip will be in focus again today.

4.30 am: Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) has reiterated his hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be prosecuted for alleged war crimes in connection with the war of aggression against Ukraine. “I hope and want him to answer in court at some point,” Bushman said in “Bild am Sonntag” (Balms). “I know we need to persevere.”

Regarding Putin's personal responsibility, Bushman said: “If someone orders a specific violation of international criminal law, the holder of that authority may be a war criminal.”

2.10 am: Ukrainian sources say Russian forces have fired shells and rockets at several towns in eastern Ukraine. At least three people were killed and others buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Kramatorsk city administration said in a telegram that a rocket hit the industrial part of the city and private houses.

Two people were killed. Russian bombs also hit a school in the nearby town of Sloviansk. Rescue teams are searching for at least one person trapped under the rubble. Further north, in the city of Kubyansk, one person was killed when a two-story house was hit by a Russian shell, according to the governor of the Kharkiv region.

1:14 am: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for early peace talks in Ukraine. China has worked tirelessly to promote peace talks in Ukraine and calls for an early start of talks, the ministry said. China is neither an author nor a participant in the Ukraine crisis. Wang said it did not stand idly by or take advantage of the crisis.