Closing summary
Hungary’s ruling party reportedly boycotted a parliamentary session on Sweden’s Nato membership, postponing a vote by the last alliance member to approve the expansion of the defensive alliance.
“The Netherlands Ministry of Defence is readying six additional F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine,” Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, announced.
Russia launched an attack against the southern city of Kherson on Monday, killing at least four residents and injuring one other person, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.
US senators on Sunday evening released the details of a highly anticipated $118bn package that pairs federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others. However, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said the deal was “worse than expected” and that it “will be dead on arrival” were it to reach his chamber.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is considering a “reset” to replace several senior officials, amid ongoing speculation that he is preparing to fire the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces. “It is a question of the people who are to lead Ukraine. A reset is necessary, I am talking about a replacement of a number of state leaders, not only in the army sector,” Zelenskiy said. Speculation has gripped Ukraine for weeks that the president is close to dismissing the highly popular commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Zelenskiy submitted a proposal to the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days. The president first declared martial law and general mobilisation on 24 February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The measure has been repeatedly extended since then.
Updated
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has insisted the UK would be able to defend itself properly if Russia turned its intentions towards the country.
Asked whether Britain has the capability in an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, he said:
Yes, and my first job is to keep everybody safe. Unfortunately, the world is becoming less safe and we can see that obviously with the situation in Russia and Ukraine.
I actually, oddly by coincidence, was in Ukraine at the same time that we were participating with the US on self-defence strikes against the Houthi group and that kind of demonstrates the world we are living in.
So, that is why we have increased our investment in defence spending and it is something that I spend more and more time on.
Sunak said his job is “to put the right investment in – which I have done. I did that first of all as chancellor, where we put the largest increase of funding into the MoD (Ministry of Defence) since the end of the cold war.”
He added:
Now how that is split between all the different things that the armed forces think they need, whether it is new technology, equipment, personnel, is more a function of them and what they think is the best way to protect ourselves and do what we need to do, as opposed to me.
But, in general, do I think we are well protected, well invested? Yes. We are the second biggest defence spender in Nato.
The prime minister’s comments come after MPs being told that the UK’s ability to fight an all-out war would be marred by the armed forces’ capability, stockpile shortages and a recruitment crisis.
Updated
Hungary's ruling party boycotts session on Sweden's Nato membership
Hungary’s ruling party has boycotted a parliamentary session on Sweden’s Nato membership, postponing a vote by the last alliance member to approve the expansion of the defensive alliance, AFP reports.
US ambassador David Pressman was present in the viewing gallery during Monday’s parliamentary session along with envoys from 14 other Nato countries, a US embassy spokesperson told AFP.
But the sitting was adjourned after only 51 out of 199 MPs voted on the agenda as almost all members of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP ruling coalition – except for presiding deputy speaker Sandor Lezsak – stayed away.
Orbán is delaying the vote due to his “personal vanity”, Agnes Vadai from the biggest opposition party told AFP.
She accused the Hungarian prime minister of seeking to “make headlines in the international press, while making a gesture to Russian President Vladimir Putin by undermining the unity of Nato and the EU.”
Senior Hungarian politicians have argued that Sweden’s bid had not been put to a parliamentary vote because the country had been critical of the state of Hungarian democracy.
Nevertheless, diplomats familiar with the Nato application process say Hungary never formally raised any objections to Swedish membership.
Updated
A Portuguese delegation that included the country’s foreign minister, João Cravinho, and education minister, João Costa, arrived in Kyiv earlier today to reiterate Portugal’s support for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Muito bom estar de novo em #Kyiv, desta vez com o meu colega João Costa para reiterarmos o nosso apoio à reconstrução da Ucrânia.
— João Cravinho (@JoaoCravinho) February 5, 2024
Very good to be back in #Kyiv, with my colleague Education Minister João Costa, to reiterate our support for Ukraine's reconstruction.
🇵🇹🤝🇺🇦 https://t.co/ebYTYSmN6B
Russian attack on Kherson kills four people - minister
Russia launched an attack against the southern city of Kherson on Monday, killing at least four residents and injuring one, interior minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
The artillery fire was reported to have hit Kherson at around noon.
Two men, aged 45 and 50, were killed while sitting in a car, Roman Mrochko, the head of the Kherson military administration, was quoted as saying.
Updated
The prosecutor leading Sweden’s probe into the Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts in the Baltic Sea in 2022 plans to announce a decision this week on whether to drop the case, press charges or request that someone is detained, his office said on Monday.
It remains disputed who carried out the attacks, which took place against the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany.
Many European governments have suspected Russia, while Vladimir Putin has blamed the US and its allies. Ukraine has strenuously denied any link to the attacks.
Updated
Dutch ministry prepares six more F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine
“The Netherlands Ministry of Defence is readying six additional F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine,” Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, has announced.
The Netherlands Ministry of Defence is readying 6 additional F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine. The total number adds up to the previously pledged 24 F-16s. 🇺🇦's aerial superiority is essential for countering Russian aggression.#StandWithUkraine
— Kajsa Ollongren (@DefensieMin) February 5, 2024
Updated
Summary
US senators on Sunday evening released the details of a highly anticipated $118bn package that pairs federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others. However, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said the deal was “worse than expected” and that it “will be dead on arrival” were it to reach his chamber.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is considering a “reset” to replace several senior officials, amid ongoing speculation that he is preparing to fire the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces. “It is a question of the people who are to lead Ukraine. A reset is necessary, I am talking about a replacement of a number of state leaders, not only in the army sector,” Zelenskiy said. Speculation has gripped Ukraine for weeks that the president is close to dismissing the highly popular commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Zelenskiy submitted a proposal to the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days. The president first declared martial law and general mobilisation on 24 February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The measure has been repeatedly extended since then.
Russia carried out attacks against nine of Ukraine’s regions over the past day, killing at least one civilian and injuring at least five people, regional authorities said.
Updated
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, criticised the possibility of the firing of Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the popular commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, saying it was due to the general’s leadership that “many Ukrainians truly trust the armed forces”.
“Today is a moment when politics might prevail over reason and country’s interests,” Klitschko said on social media.
The mayor of Ukraine’s capital city has been a vocal critic of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The presidency in turn has accused Klitschko’s office of inefficiencies.
Republican House speaker: Draft bill to secure aid to Ukraine 'will be dead on arrival' if it reaches the house
The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said the recently unveiled deal on Ukraine aid and border security was “worse than expected” and that it “will be dead on arrival” were it to reach his chamber.
US senators released the details of a highly anticipated $118bn package yesterday evening that pairs federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others, launching a long-shot effort to push the bill past sceptical, hard-right House Republicans.
In a post on X, Johnson wrote on Monday:
I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the president has created.
As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, “the border never closes.” If this bill reaches the house, it will be dead on arrival.
With Congress stalled on approving $60bn in Ukraine aid, the US has halted shipments of ammunition and missiles to Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian soldiers outgunned as they try to come out on top of a grinding stalemate with Russian troops.
Updated
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it is unlikely that Russia’s planned revenue target for 2024 will be met as detailed in the country’s budget plan.
In its latest intelligence update, the MoD wrote on X:
It is likely the government will need to consider other policy measures to fund its planned expenditure.
The Russian government has ambitious plans to increase expenditure by 26% in 2024. This is reliant on optimistic expectations of revenues rising by 22%, with oil and gas revenues expected to increase by almost 25%.
It is likely that the government will need to reduce its contributions to the National Wealth Fund and increase domestic taxes and debt to fund its planned expenditure.
The MoD added that these policies will probably negatively affect the Russian economy in the medium to long term by maintaining inflationary pressures/constraining future growth.
Updated
Reuters has more on the Kremlin warning the west that any attempt to use frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine would be illegal (see post at 09.20 for more details).
The Financial Times reported on Saturday that the G7 had drawn up plans to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for debt sold to help Ukraine. Bloomberg also reported on the plan.
“We do not yet know how much these publications correspond to reality. Are there really such plans? It is important to wait for official statements on this matter,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
“We know that even the most serious publications now, unfortunately, consciously or not, make a lot of mistakes.”
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300bn of sovereign Russian assets in the west.
Updated
Russia carried out attacks against nine of Ukraine's regions over the past day - authorities
Russia carried out attacks against nine of Ukraine’s regions over the past day, killing at least one civilian and injuring at least five people, regional authorities said.
Russian forces launched 36 attacks against Kherson oblast over the past day, injuring one person and damaging residential areas and a museum in the city of Kherson, the regional governor, Oleksandr Produkin, wrote on Telegram.
In the region of Donetsk, Russia attacked Toretsk, killing one civilian and injuring four people across the region, governor Vadym Filashkin said.
The Russian military also reportedly hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, injuring two people, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Russia launched artillery and mortar attacks on roughly 18 settlements in Kharkiv oblast, governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Vesele, Hatishche, Budarky, Synkivka, Tabaivka, Ivanivka, Berestovka were among the areas targeted. There were no reported casualities.
Russian attacks damaged a power substation, houses, the glazing and facade of an administrative building, a warehouse and agricultural equipment in the region, Syniehubov said.
Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Sumy, and Mykolaiv oblasts also reportedly came under attack. There were no casualties reported.
Zelenskiy asks Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and general mobilisation
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has submitted a proposal to the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days.
The president first declared martial law and general mobilisation on 24 February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The measure has been repeatedly extended since then.
Ukraine’s parliament previously extended martial law and mobilisation from November 2023 until Feb. 14, 2024.
Zelenskiy’s proposal would extend the two measures until 14 May.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said this would be the 10th vote of the parliament on martial law since the beginning of the war.
Under martial law, Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60, with some exceptions, are not allowed to leave the country as they may be called up for military service.
Updated
Sweden’s Nato bid could be ratified when Hungary’s parliament reconvenes for a normal session, the ruling Fidesz party’s parliamentary group said on Monday, adding that first they expected a visit by the Swedish prime minister to Budapest.
“If this is an important issue for the Swedes, then obviously the Swedish prime minister will come to Budapest,” Fidesz told Reuters.
Hungary – which, unlike most other Nato countries, continues to maintain a friendly relationship with Russia – has, along with Turkey, dragged out Sweden’s Nato ratification process (Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022).
Domestically, senior politicians from Orbán’s Fidesz party have argued that continued delays to Swedish membership are justified because Sweden has, in their view, unfairly criticised the state of Hungarian democracy.
The Kremlin declined to say whether or not Vladimir Putin would grant an interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson – or whether he was in Moscow.
“We can hardly be expected to provide information on the movement of foreign journalists,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked about speculation that Carlson was in Russia to interview Putin.
“Many foreign journalists come to Russia every day, many continue to work here, and we welcome this,” Peskov said. “We have nothing to announce in terms of the president’s interviews to foreign media.”
Updated
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of carrying out what it called a monstrous terrorist attack at the weekend by striking a bakery and restaurant in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine.
“Continued strikes on peaceful infrastructure, in this case the bakery, are monstrous terrorist acts. The number of victims speaks to the monstrousness of this terrorist act,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“To stop more of them, the special military operation is continuing,” he said, referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia said at least 28 people were killed in the attack in the city of Lysychansk.
The Moscow-installed governor of Luhansk, Leonid Pasechnik, said Kyiv had targeted a bakery that was known to have fresh bread on weekends.
RIA Novosti published a video of a heavily damaged building, with emergency workers pulling out an entirely crushed car.
The one-storey building had a large sign on it that read “Restaurant Adriatic” and appeared entirely destroyed and covered in rubble.
Updated
The Kremlin warned the west that any attempt to use frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine would be illegal and undermine the entire global economic system, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was speaking after Bloomberg reported that G7 countries are considering using frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine.
Under the proposal, Ukraine’s allies could sell debt to contribute to the country’s reconstruction, using the frozen assets as collateral.
Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin said that a working group of Russia’s central election commission had found 15% of the supporters’ signatures he submitted to back his election bid to be invalid.
That figure, if confirmed, is three times higher than the allowable error rate and would provide grounds for the commission to disqualify Nadezhdin from running against Vladimir Putin in March.
The commission will make a final ruling on the matter on Wednesday, Nadezhdin’s spokesperson said.
Nadezhdin, a centre-right candidate who has called himself a “principled opponent” of the war, wrote on Telegram that he would appeal to the supreme court if the commission refused to register him.
Nadezhdin’s is not the first anti-war candidacy to appear in this Russian election cycle.
Yekaterina Duntsova, a Russian TV journalist, had submitted documents to run as an independent candidate for president when she was disqualified by the Russian central elections commission in December. She has since announced her support for Nadezhdin’s campaign.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot.
Putin has won previous elections by a landslide, but independent election watchdogs say they were marred by widespread fraud.
The European Commission will not add any new import bans in its package of sanctions on Russia, EU diplomats said, as a 13th package proposal takes its final shape.
The commission and EU member states want to quickly pass a new set of measures to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Despite calls from some EU countries to ban more Russian exports like aluminium, the commission will propose a package it hopes will cause minimal debate among member states so it is passed quickly, according to Reuters.
Member states need to vote unanimously to adopt new sanctions.
“There will be hundreds of listings … entities and individuals. No big (company) names,” one of the diplomats said.
Russia’s ambassador to France will be summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday over the deaths of two French aid workers last week in a bombardment in Ukraine, a diplomatic source told AFP.
The ministry “will also denounce reinforced disinformation targeting France,” the source said, days after defence officials flagged a “coordinated Russian scheme” to spread false information.
The two aid workers were killed on Thursday in a strike on Beryslav, a small Ukrainian town close to the frontline on the north bank of the river Dnipro, France’s foreign ministry said.
Three more French citizens, according to the ministry, were injured in the attack, which Paris has called an act of “barbarism”. French terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into it.
Updated
US senate releases deal on border and Ukraine aid
US senators on Sunday evening released the details of a highly anticipated $118bn package that pairs federal enforcement policy on the US-Mexico border with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and others.
The proposal is the best chance for Joe Biden to bolster dwindling US wartime aid for Ukraine – a major foreign policy goal that is shared by both the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, and top Republican, Mitch McConnell. The Senate was expected this week to hold a key test vote on the legislation, but it faces a wall of opposition from conservatives.
Crucially, with Congress stalled on approving $60bn in Ukraine aid, the US has halted shipments of ammunition and missiles to Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian soldiers outgunned as they try to come out on top of a grinding stalemate with Russian troops.
In a bid to overcome opposition from House Republicans, McConnell had insisted last year that border policy changes be included in the national security funding package.
You can read the full story by my colleagues, Ed Pilkington and Joanna Walters, here:
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is considering replacing several senior officials, including state leaders. In an interview with Italian TV, Zelenskiy said “a reset is necessary”, adding that “I have in mind something serious that does not concern a single person, but the direction of the country’s leadership.”
The comments come amid continued speculation that the president is about to dismiss the commander of Ukraine’s military, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
We’ll have more on this in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
Russia said 28 people, including one child, have died in Saturday’s shelling of a bakery in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, which is under Russian occupation. A further 10 people were rescued from under the rubble by emergency services, according to officials.
More than two dozen people, mostly journalists, were detained on Saturday at a protest in central Moscow where wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen mobilised to fight in Ukraine called for their return, according to a Reuters witness and independent Russian news reports.
Belgium is asking G7 countries to consider using €260bn in seized Russian assets held by the west as collateral for loans to Ukraine, according to a report in the Financial Times. This would avoid questions around the legality of seizing the assets outright, as has also been considered by Ukraine’s allies, according to the paper.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set a world record for the total amount of time spent in space on Sunday. As of 8:30GMT, Kononenko overtook his compatriot Gennady Padalka who logged more than 878 days in orbit, according to Russia’s space corporation, Roscosmos.
US senators are racing to release a highly anticipated bill that pairs border enforcement policy with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and other US allies. The proposal is the best chance for president Joe Biden to resupply Ukraine with wartime aid. The Senate was expected this week to hold a key test vote on the legislation, but it has already run into a wall of opposition from conservatives.
