Latest developments in Ukraine: Feb. 27

This photo taken on Feb. 25, 2023, shows an Orthodox icon near empty graves after the exhumation of bodies from mass graves dug during the Russian's occupation in the town of Izyum, Kharkiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [AFP]

The latest developments in Russia's war on Ukraine. All times EST.

12:40 a.m.: Russia's former president and an ally of President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Monday that the continued arms supply to Kyiv risks a global nuclear catastrophe, reiterating his threat of nuclear war over Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Dmitry Medvedev's apocalyptic rhetoric has been seen as an attempt to deter the U.S-led NATO military alliance and Kyiv's Western allies from getting even more involved in the year-old war that has dealt Moscow setbacks on the battlefield.

The latest comments by Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security council, follow Putin's nuclear warning last week and his Sunday remarks casting Moscow's confrontation with the West as an existential battle for the survival of Russia and the Russian people.

"Of course, the pumping in of weapons can continue .... and prevent any possibility of reviving negotiations," Medvedev said in remarks published in the daily Izvestia.

"Our enemies are doing just that, not wanting to understand that their goals will certainly lead to a total fiasco. Loss for everyone. A collapse. Apocalypse. Where you forget for centuries about your former life, until the rubble ceases to emit radiation."

12:01 a.m.: Belarus's exiled opposition said Sunday that partisans had destroyed a Russian plane at an airstrip near the capital Minsk, according to Agence France-Presse.

"Partisans... confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk," tweeted Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

"This is the most successful diversion since the beginning of 2022," he added.

The two Belarusians who carried out the operation had used drones, he said, adding that they had already left the country and were safe.

Viacorka did not say what kind of Russian plane had been targeted but said it was worth 330 million euros. According to news media close to the opposition, it was an A-50 surveillance plane.

"I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the Russian hybrid occupation of Belarus & fight for the freedom of Ukraine," Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter in response to the news.

AFP reported that it was not possible to independently verify the operation and the Russian army has for the moment made no statement.

Belarus, Russia's only ally in Europe against Kyiv, has not taken a direct role in Moscow's attack on Ukraine, but did allow territory to be used by Russian forces for their 2022 invasion.

Kyiv says Russia has also used Belarusian air strips as a base from which to launch strikes on Ukraine.

In recent months, Belarus and Russia have held a series of military operations and Ukraine has expressed fears that Minsk will enter the conflict.