Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces close in on key strategic city as ‘last battles’ rage

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said there was no reason to be excited about US president Donald Trump’s pressure on Europe and Ukraine as there is still "a long way to go" in peace talks.

His remarks come a day after he dampened hopes for an economic cooperation deal with the Trump administration, decrying the US’s declared aim of “economic dominance”.

"We also don't see any bright future in the economic sphere," Lavrov said.

Ukraine is opening up exports of its domestically produced weapons, president Volodymyr Zelensky says, as a way for Kyiv to cash in on its wartime technological developments and generate badly needed funds.

Zelensky said 10 "export centres" for Ukrainian weapons would be opened in 2026 across Europe, adding that combat drones would be among the exports.

“Today, Europe's security is built on technology and drones," Zelensky said on Sunday evening."All of this will be based largely on Ukrainian technology and Ukrainian specialists,” he said.

Zelensky said production of Ukrainian drones would begin in Germany in February, adding to those already being built in the UK under a joint production initiative. He did not identify the companies involved.

Ukraine's allies have expressed interest in learning from its wartime experience and technological innovation to bolster their own forces, many of them weakened by decades of low defence spending.

Yana Kozah, a Ukrainian singer and songwriter who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion, is now using her voice to perform and raise funds to help people back at home.

The Trowbridge resident sings in a choir and even performs solo so that she can raise money for John's Red Bus, a UK charity delivering aid.

“[In Ukraine,] people are without heating, no light. Sometimes you wish you could not read the news but then you remember these people are living it, they cannot turn it off," Kozah told BBC West Point.

She has previously raised funds for Ukrainian children.

“The main reason I'm trying to do what I'm doing is to help my country in ways I can," she said.

It had been four long years since American figure skater Vadym Kolesnik saw family members still living in Ukraine.

Four years of Russian bombs landing on Kharkiv, reducing their homes to rubble. Four years of war that destroyed the appliance and lighting business run by Kolesnik's father, Igor. Four years of drones flying over the head of his brother, also named Igor, who enlisted in the Ukrainian army following the Russian invasion in 2022.

“It seems like it's been a lifetime,” Kolesnik said.

Russian forces are trying to press forward around the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's military said on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long campaign to seize the strategic hub as Moscow seeks to capture the whole of the Donetsk region.

Ukraine has struggled to halt slow Russian advances around Pokrovsk and elsewhere along the 1,200-km (746-mile) front line while it comes under U.S. pressure to reach a peace deal to end the four-year war in ongoing talks.

Kyiv's General Staff said on Monday its forces still held the northern part of Pokrovsk, a city with a pre-war population of 60,000, and were also defending the smaller city of Myrnohrad nearby.

Pokrovsk, a railway nexus, has been the site of fierce fighting since last year. Its fall would mark Russia's biggest battlefield victory since it seized the eastern city of Avdiivka in early 2024.

Moscow claimed late last year to have captured Pokrovsk, which Kyiv denied.

Ukraine and France will start joint weapons production, Kyiv’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said yesterday after a meeting with French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin.

“Met with a French MoD delegation led by @CaVautrin. Visited Ukrainian air-defense positions against the backdrop of the latest Russian missile and drone attacks. Demonstrated how Ukraine protects its skies every day. Grateful to France for the strong support that saves lives,” Fedorov said.

In a message on Telegram, he added: “We are moving from supplies to joint production and long-term solutions that systematically strengthen our defence.”

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych trained wearing a helmet brandished with images of compatriots killed during the war in his homeland, delivering on a promise to use the Winter Olympics to keep attention on the conflict.

Visible on the helmet are teenage weightlifter Alina Perehudova, boxer Pavlo Ischenko, ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov, actor and athlete Ivan Kononenko, diving athlete and coach Mykyta Kozubenko, shooter Oleksiy Habarov and dancer Daria Kurdel.

“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who is his country's flag bearer, told Reuters of the portraits after his training session at the Cortina sliding centre.

An agreement to settle the nearly four-year-old conflict between Russia and Ukraine must also take into consideration security guarantees for Russia, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying.

“We recognise that a peace settlement in Ukraine must take account of Ukraine’s security interests, but a key factor, of course, is Russia’s security interests,” deputy Russian foreign minister Alexander Grushko told the Izvestia media outlet.

“If you look carefully and study the statements made by the leaders of the European Union, no one talks about security guarantees for Russia. This is a key element of a peace accord. Without it, an agreement is impossible.”

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have held two rounds of talks in recent weeks with US representatives in the United Arab Emirates. No peace deal has emerged, but the two sides agreed at their latest meeting last week on the first exchange of prisoners of war in five months.

Security guarantees for Ukraine have been a focal point of discussions, along with the extent of Russia’s control of Ukrainian territory and plans for post-war recovery in Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that documents on security guarantees for Ukraine were ready.

Media outlet Izvestia said Mr Grushko listed elements of what might be contained in such guarantees.