Summary
We are now closing the live blog. Here is a summary of events:
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has that all of President Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine must be met before any settlement is possible.
Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told allies in recent meetings he was preparing options to end the war in Ukraine, news website Semafor reported on Monday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC), where the war with Russia and how to end it will be high on the agenda, organisers said on Monday. AFP reported that senior representatives from the new US administration will also be at the gathering which takes place from Friday to Sunday.
Zelenskyy has said Donald Trump’s plan for a quick settlement in Ukraine must include security guarantees. In an interview with the UK broadcaster ITV, Zelenskyy said: “If I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees, I would be ready for any format for talks.”
President Trump indicated he had been in contact with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and that progress was being made in talks to end the war. Asked by reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he had had his conversation with Putin since becoming president on 20 January or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it ... And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow had yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, in remarks published on Monday.
Russia has lost 850,490 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported today. This number includes 1,170 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to Moscow to attend second world war commemorations, Tass state news agency reported on Monday.
Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, injuring a woman and damaging several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”. In an interview on NBC Waltz said the Russian economy was not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. He added the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine and said European allies would need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine.
Here are some photos coming to us over the wires.
We have more on the upcoming Munich Security Conference (MSC). (see 10.48 entry).
MSC chair Christoph Heusgen told a Berlin press conference:
We hope that Munich will be used - and we have signs that it will - to make progress with regard to peace in Ukraine.
We assume that talks will take place on the sidelines. I will leave it open whether a plan will be announced at the conference.
What I am certain of is that the conference will be used to see the contours of such a plan.
Senior representatives from US President Donald Trump’s administration will be at the conference.
The US delegation will include vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and presidential envoy on the Ukraine-Russia war Keith Kellogg, AFP reports.
Heusgen added:
I hope we will make progress in Munich... the fact that the person responsible for this, Kellogg, will attend is an indication of this for me.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend in person, allowing for potential talks with representatives of Kyiv’s key allies, Heugsen said.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires from the Don’t Be Silent! Captivity Kills rally that took place in Kyiv in support of Ukrainian POWs.
Moscow says all of Putin’s conditions must be met if there is to be peace deal on Ukraine
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees US relations and arms control, said on Monday that all of President Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine must be met before any settlement is possible.
Ryabkov said the sooner the United States and the West understood that all of Putin’s conditions needed to be met, the sooner there would be a settlement.
On 14 June last year, Putin set out his terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Ryabkov added that US supplies of modern weapons to Ukraine had made the United States a party to the conflict, Reuters reports.
Any talks on Ukraine would have to address the root causes of the conflict and recognise the “reality on the ground,” he said, warning any ultimatums to Moscow would fail.
Ryabkov praised the administration of US President Donald Trump for indicating its interest in talking to Russia about the conflict in Ukraine and said Moscow was ready for dialogue “on an equal basis”.
Trump's Ukraine-Russia envoy preparing options to end war - report
Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told allies in recent meetings that he was preparing options to end the war in Ukraine, news website Semafor reported on Monday, citing three unnamed Western officials.
The publication added that in one meeting, Kellogg said he is aiming to meet and coordinate with officials from every Nato country, a Western official said.
Zelenskyy expected to attend the Munich Security Conference
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC), where the war with Russia and how to end it will be high on the agenda, organisers said on Monday.
Agence France-Presse reported that senior representatives from the new US administration will also be at the gathering which takes place from Friday to Sunday.
“We assume that talks will take place on the sidelines,” MSC chair Christoph Heusgen told a Berlin press conference.
Key event
Ukraine’s teen soldiers: the cadets who hold the country’s future in their hands
Photojournalist Jelle Krings joined youngsters training to become Ukraine’s next generation of soldiers at a military school in Kyiv. Here is his piece for the Guardian.
At the boarding school in Kyiv, cadets are training to become Ukraine’s youngest soldiers – and help defend their country against Russia’s devastating invasion. The Ivan Bohun military high school – one of three such establishments in Ukraine – is home to hundreds of teenagers.
The lives of the cadets, who stay at the facility for two years before they turn 18, are strictly choreographed, according to Dmytro Yermolenko, the deputy head. He says the teenagers are given systematic military training and learn strict discipline.
One of the recruits is 16-year-old Yevhen, whose childhood dream was to join the school. His grandfather, a decorated general, had set the example. Generations of the family have served as artillerymen, submariners and intelligence officers but Yevhen wants to become a fighter pilot. “It’s a very necessary job right now,” he explains. If Yevhen is successful, he could be training on Dutch or Danish F-16s by next year.
You can see the full picture essay here.
Updated
Here are some images coming to us over the wires from Ukraine.
Russia has lost 850,490 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported today. This number includes 1,170 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost:
10,001 tanks
20,813 armored fighting vehicles
22,879 artillery systems
36,638 vehicles and fuel tanks
24,623 drones
1,273 multiple launch rocket systems
3,054 cruise missiles
1,059 air defence systems
370 aircraft
331 helicopters
28 warships and boats
one submarine
Trump plan to end war must include security guarantees, Zelenskyy says
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would be ready for talks in any format if he has “an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us”.
Donald Trump’s plan for a quick settlement in Ukraine must not only stop the war but also ensure that there can no longer be any more Russian aggression, Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
He said Ukraine wanted no repeat of the experience of peace accords and talks that failed to produce results in the years running up to Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. He said that meant putting security guarantees in place.
“A frozen conflict will lead to more aggression again and again. Who then will win prizes and go down in history as the victor? No one. It will be an absolute defeat for everyone, both for us, as is important, and for Trump,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s ITV.
“If I had an understanding that America and Europe will not abandon us and they will support us and provide security guarantees, I would be ready for any format for talks,” he said.
The comments were broadcast as Trump indicated he had been in contact with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and that progress was being made in talks to end the war. This would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a US president since early 2022. Asked by reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday whether he had had his conversation with Putin since becoming president on 20 January or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it ... And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”
Here are some of the other latest developments:
Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to Moscow to attend second world war commemorations, Tass state news agency reported on Monday.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”. In an interview on NBC Waltz said the Russian economy was not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table. He added that the Trump administration is looking to use this week’s engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine and said European allies would need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow had yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, in remarks published on Monday. “It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities,” Mikhail Galuzin told Ria state news agency in an interview. “Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he said.
Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, injuring a woman and damaging several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.
Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured the eastern Ukrainian village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, near the strategic military hub of Chasiv Yar that Moscow is attempting to seize.
An explosion on Sunday on an oil tanker at a port in north-west Russia forced the crew to evacuate and was being investigated, the country’s federal shipping agency said. The Rosmorrechflot maritime and river transport agency wrote on Telegram that “an explosion took place in the engine room” of the Koala in Ust-Luga port west of St Petersburg on Sunday morning.
Updated
