American officials are putting pressure on Ukraine, pushing it to be more active on the battlefield, writes The Washington Post with reference to officials.

Washington believes that the Western aid provided to Kiev is enough to change the course of events, but in the future it will be difficult to get the same volumes of supplies from Congress, so they need to act now.

Maria Zakharova commented on media reports regarding Washington's increasing pressure on Kiev on the issue of fighting.

"This is what is called "the war of the West against Russia to the last Ukrainian." American neoliberals have destroyed Ukraine and are exterminating the Ukrainian people. American hegemonic ambitions lead to colossal sacrifices," Maria @MariaVladimirovnaZakharova Zakharova responded to the article.

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💥 Direct hit with artillery 💥

Artillery of the DPR OBTF "Kaskad" disposes another batch of Ukrainian militants near Ugledar

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Air strike alert declared all over 404

Update: Russian aircraft in the sky over Belarus.

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Japan expressed serious concern and the unacceptability of the threat of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia.

This was stated by the Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister, Takeo Mori. He added that it is now important to strongly support Ukraine, and it is also necessary to continue to impose tough sanctions against Russia.

@infantmilitario
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The latest bulletin of British intelligence recognizes the successes of the Wagner PMC in the Bakhmut region and the advance of Russian troops in the Svatovo-Kremennaya region in order to deprive the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the territorial acquisitions of the autumn.

In general, it is concluded that the Russian troops were ordered to attack in several directions, but they have not yet been able to muster the necessary force in each of the directions to achieve decisive success.

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Situation near Artemovsk, February 14, 2023

After the loss of Krasnaya Gora, whose loss is still being denied by the AFU, although supporting evidence from the Wagner PMC has already been provided, the situation for the AFU garrison in Paraskovievka has become sharply complicated.The fighting is already going on in the village itself; the roads are being constantly shot through, and the Slavyansk-Artemovsk highway is not only under fire control but actually cut off. At the same time, the units of Wagner PMC have already gained a foothold in the northern districts of the city. There are also battles in the area of Berkhovka. There is an obvious desire to approach the highway through Khromovo and take it under fire control in order to complete the operational encirclement of Artemovsk.

To the south of Bakhmut, there are battles at Krasnoe, Stupochki, and in the direction of Chasov Yar. Fighting also continues in the southern and southeastern districts of the city, and there has been some progress. 

The AFU has not yet demonstrated a desire to leave Bakhmut, although the headquarters and rear units have been withdrawn or are being withdrawn, and volunteers have been banned from coming to Artemovsk, just as they did during the battles for Lysychansk and Soledar.

— Military analyst @Boris_Rozhin
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Ukraine is gradually becoming the property of Western countries.

Having sold off virtually all significant state-owned enterprises to the West, the Ukrainian government is not going to stop.The British newspaper The Telegraph reported that executives of the British defense industry visited Kiev to discuss the terms of the purchase of some of Ukraine's major defense enterprises.

Negotiations are currently under way to sell the Lviv armored plant and the Lviv automobile repair plant.
In addition, defense companies from other European countries are also negotiating with Ukraine. Armin Papperger, CEO of German Rheinmetall, said that the concern plans to buy the Kharkiv armored plant. According to Ed Arnold, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute think tank and a former British NATO army officer, the British oligarchs do not want to lose this competition with French and German companies and seek to put their country "at the beginning of the line."

It is noteworthy that the issue of the purchase of Ukrainian defense companies by Western countries began to be publicly discussed after Volodymyr Zelenski's visit to London and Paris last week. There, the Ukrainian president was most likely made to understand that a large number of Western weapons must be paid for after all.

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⚡NATO develops plans in case bloc countries engage in several conflicts at once — Bloomberg

In November, Stoltenberg said defense investment would be an important topic at the Vilnius summit, adding that "2 percent of GDP for defense should be seen as a floor, not a ceiling."

While allies generally agree that they need to spend more, one of the main outstanding issues will be how quickly they should do so, according to a senior European diplomat, who added that there is also a desire for much of this spending to be invested in capabilities rather than in pensions or other intangible expenses. Allies also set a goal in 2014 to spend at least 20 percent of their annual defense spending on new equipment and research.

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Russia to reroute oil exports to ‘friendly’ states – Russian government official

Energy supplies will not go to countries that support price caps

Russia intends to shift the exports of its oil and petroleum products to ‘friendly’ countries this year, increasing their share in total supplies shipped abroad to 75-80%, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak has revealed.

“As for supplies to states that maintain illegitimate price restrictions, our position here is widely known and remains unchanged: such countries will not receive Russian oil,” Novak wrote in an article for the magazine Energy Policy on Monday.

He noted that oil production in Russia amounted to 535.2 million tons in 2022, which is 2% more than in the previous year. Oil exports increased by 7.6%, to 242 million tons, Novak wrote.

The deputy PM also noted that last year, in order to reorient Russian oil supply to friendly countries, a project was implemented to increase transportation via the major eastern port of Kozmino. As a result, deliveries to the countries in the Asia-Pacific region rose to 42 million tons per year.

@www.rt.com

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🇭🇺 🇺🇦Hungary is waiting for a convenient moment to capture Transcarpathia.

This was stated by a retired lieutenant general of the Ukrainian foreign intelligence, Vasyl Bogdan. Budapest is not supplying weapons to an already partitioned Ukraine in absentia, as it has its own plans for this conflict, he explained.

According to Bogdan, Hungary is waiting for the critical moment for Ukraine when it can "get its hands on Zakarpattya again."
 
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DPR chief Pushilin's latest statements about the battles for Artyomovsk and Ugledar:

Fighting is going on in the area of Paraskoviivka, whose capture will cut off the last supply route for Ukrainian troops in Artemovsk (Bakhmut).
Fighting unfolded in the southeastern part of Ugledar.

t.me/RVvoenkor
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Iranian-Chinese leaders meet in Beijing

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Russian companies did the most drilling at their oil fields in more than a decade last year, with little sign that international sanctions or the departure of some major Western firms directly harmed so-called upstream operations.

This helps to explain how the country’s oil production rebounded in the second half of 2022 even as further restrictions were imposed on its exports. 

“The industry largely continues working just like before,” said Vitaly Mikhalchuk, head of the research center at Business Solutions and Technologies, formerly the Russian unit of consultant Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Russia has been able to retain most oil-service competencies, assets and technologies.”

Europe also introduced “comprehensive exports restriction on equipment, technology and services for the energy industry in Russia.” 
Yet Russian oil rigs drilled a total depth of more than 28,000 kilometers last year, the highest in over a decade, according to industry data seen by Bloomberg. The total number of wells started rose nearly 7% to above 7,800, with most key oil companies beating their results of the previous year, the data show. 

Several factors have helped Russia keep its oil industry ticking over. 

First, top international providers accounted for only 15% of the country’s total oil-services segment in 2021, according to data from Vygon Consulting. The in-house units of domestic producers such as Rosneft PJSC, Surgutneftegas PJSC and Gazprom Group make up the bulk of the market, the data showed.  
Second, some of the most significant western oil-service providers didn’t leave the country. SLB and Weatherford International Plc continue Russian operations, with some limitations. 

SLB Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said in July that his company’s unique corporate structure gives it flexibility to work in Russia while fully complying with US and EU sanctions 

Third, the two oil-service giants that did depart Russia — Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Co. — sold off their in-country businesses to the local management. This allowed the units to retain personnel and expertise, according to Victor Katona, a crude analyst at Kpler.

The main issue for Russia’s domestic oil industry has been obtaining western high-tech equipment, according to BST. Yet “these problems are resolved thanks to imports through intermediaries in friendly states or by finding alternative suppliers in China,” said Mikhalchuk.
Since hitting a post-invasion low of 10.05 million barrels a day in April, Russian oil production rebounded to around 10.9 million barrels a day at the end of 2022 and stayed close to that level in January.

Article by : Bloomberg
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Explosion in Ukraine's kramatorsk

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