Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv denies ‘absurd’ claim by Moscow that it is building nuclear weapon with Europe – UK Times

In his address earlier today to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky called for Donald Trump to visit Ukraine.

“Only by coming to Ukraine, and seeing with one’s own eyes our life and our struggle, feeling our people and the enormity of this pain – only then can one understand what this war is really about. And because of whom. Who the aggressor is here and who must be pressured,” the Ukrainian president said in the address, as he stressed the importance of a visit by Trump.

He said Ukraine is defending life, adding that it is “not a street fight” but an “attack by a sick state on a sovereign one”.

Zelensky added: “Putin is this war. He is the cause of its beginning and the obstacle to its end. And it is Russia that must be put in its place. So that there can be real peace.”

I could hear the take-off detonation being filmed live and broadcast around the world in my earpiece, along with my TV colleague’s report of the Russian attack. It was the morning that Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Standing in the pre-dawn freeze on a terrace overlooking Kharkiv’s Freedom Square four years ago, it was less than a minute before I was reporting on those rockets when they exploded on impact.

The skyline bulged orange, then came the concussive thump, then the cracks of the rockets exploding. They’d been fired from Russia into Ukraine’s second-biggest city.

Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

South Africa’s government has said that 11 of a group of 17 men who were lured into fighting for Russia in Ukraine were set to return home soon, after an initial four landed back in the country last week.

A further two remained in Russia, with one in a hospital in Moscow, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.

Ramaphosa raised the fate of the 17 men, who sent distress calls to the South African government in November after getting trapped in Ukraine’s Donbas region, in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month.

Reports of African men being lured into Russia with promises of jobs and ending up on Ukraine’s front line have become more frequent in recent months, creating tensions between Moscow and some of the countries involved.

A Kenyan intelligence report presented to lawmakers last week estimated that more than 1,000 Kenyans had been recruited to fight on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine. Kenya’s foreign minister has said he plans to visit Russia to address the issue.

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Nordic and Baltic countries for spending billions on supporting Ukraine.

In a post on X he said: “We appreciate the readiness of the Nordic and Baltic countries to continue assisting Ukraine: at least €12.5 billion in defense support this year and no less than €918 million to strengthen energy resilience.”

The Security Council meeting on Ukraine saw a clash between the US and China over the accusation that Beijing’s imports of Russian oil and Chinese sales of materials with military uses to Russia have helped sustain Moscow’s operations in Ukraine.

“China remains a decisive enabler of Russia’s war machine,” Tammy Bruce, the US deputy UN envoy told the council. “If China truly wants peace, it should immediately end exports of dual-use goods and stop purchasing Russian oil.”

Fu Cong, China’s UN ambassador, responded by accusing the US of fabricating “all sorts of excuses and lies” about China intended “to create division and conflict.” Washington, he said, should “stop shifting blame and creating conflicts and wars around the world.”

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said Europe was presenting itself as the source of moral standards for others when it brought a “brutal regime of a neo-Nazi ilk” to power in Ukraine. He called the general assembly resolution “another manipulation” that had “nothing to do with reality.”

Continuing his 18-minute address, Zelensky praises the resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian aggression.

He says: “All this time, we have not let our anger eat us from within. Ukrainians have turned their own rage into energy for the fight and have proven: we can be forced into shelters, but it is impossible to drive Ukraine underground forever.

“We inevitably rise, we return, we continue to fight – because we fight for life. For the right to stand on our land – and to breathe our own air.”

It’s been four years of war. Four years of a Russian onslaught to extinguish Ukrainian independence that Vladimir Putin thought would be over in days. For just over a year of this, I worked as a special adviser to a foreign secretary, with this as my main brief. And I don’t think it’s quite understood just how far the war has changed not just the course of Ukrainian but also Russian history.

One of the last things I did in government was join a visit to the White House, where top British officials sought to get across just how much the Ukrainian army has changed for the better in 18 months. This is exactly what I had a chance to explain to Vice President Vance – whose views on Ukraine, more nuanced than is assumed, are central to US policy.

Former special adviser Ben Judah writes:

Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev called for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign in a social media post that claimed the UK is supplying Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

“Starmer needs to resign before trying to cover up his shame by provoking a nuclear war,” Dmitriev said in a post on X.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said there was no truth to the comments.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the conflict remained “as a stain on our collective ‌conscience” and repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire.

In another sign of support at the United Nations, dozens of countries including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Peru gathered to condemn Russia’s violations at a meeting on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“What Russia has done and is doing in Ukraine right now is violating every principle in the book,” Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, told the meeting.

“Everything the UN stands for is being violated,” he added, ending his speech with “Glory to Ukraine!”