Russia-Ukraine war – live: Kremlin declares state of emergency in border city

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with executives of JPMorgan, the largest US lender, and other major international investors in Davos.

In a statement on Telegram, he said of the meetings: “It is important for us to attract private capital to the reconstruction of Ukraine. We hope that JP Morgan will help attract a large number of global investors and corporations to the Ukrainian economy.”

The West must not let up supplying Ukraine with weapons and money if it wants Kyiv to succeed in its war against Russia, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned.

“Ukraine can prevail in this war but we must continue to empower their resistance,” she told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, urging Kyiv’s western allies to continue their arms deliveries and financial support of Ukraine.

“Ukrainians need predictable financing throughout 2024 and beyond. They need a sufficient and sustained supply of weapons to defend Ukraine and regain its rightful territory.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is headlining a frenzied first full day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where top officials from the United States, the European Union, China, the Middle East and beyond will also take center stage Tuesday.

Mr Zelensky will endeavor to keep his country’s long and largely stalemated defense against Russia on the minds of political leaders, just as Israel’s war with Hamas, which passed the 100-day mark, has siphoned off much of the world’s attention and sparked concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Two children have been injured in what the Kremlin is claiming was a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian city overnight, according to the latest update.

Yelena Fedyainova, a resident of Voronezh City, has said her six-year-old boy was injured after a drone blew out the window of her apartment. She said the first drone hit at 2.30am local time (11.30pm GMT).

“There was a blow and a flash,” Ms Fedyainova told reporters. “I grabbed the child – there were shards everywhere and smoke.”

The mayor of Voronezh City, Vadim Kstenin, announced earlier that an 11-year-old girl had also been injured in the attack. He declared a state of emergency in the city this morning.

The alleged Ukrainian destruction of a Russian spy plane on Monday killed at least 11 Kremlin pilots, a Russian military blogger has claimed.

Fighterbomber, believed to be a pilot in the Russian air force, posted the update on Telegram detailing the consequences of yesterday’s attacks. The blogger has been vocal about the importance of not hiding information about the attacks; the Kremlin has refused to speak about it.

While information is still scant – no photo has yet emerged of the destroyed A-50 spy plane – Fighterbomber provided the only image of the second plane attacked on Monday, an Ilyushin-22 command aircraft.

Polish truckers who have been blockading some border crossings with Ukraine will suspend their protest tomorrow and an agreement with the government is due to be signed on Tuesday, an organiser said.

“It won’t be the end but there will be a suspension of the protest,” said Tomasz Borkowski, from the Committee to Protect Transporters and Transport Employers. “We agreed certain conditions, we will give the government time to work as it is a new government.”

The protest is due to end at 11am GMT.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sat down with Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the war in Ukraine.

The pair met in the Swiss town of Davos ahead of the World Economic Forum.

In a statement on X, Mr Zelensky wrote: “We discussed the situation on the front lines. I informed the Secretary General of Russia’s recent mass air strikes and emphasized the need to further strengthen Ukraine’s air defense. We also talked about other defense needs.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived this morning in Davos, Switzerland, to attend a session with CEOs as part of the World Economic Forum.

Below are some pictures appearing to show the aftermath of a drone attack on Voronezh City in Russia overnight. The city is roughly 170 miles from the Ukrainian border and sits next to an air base where Kremlin fighter jets are located.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview made public on Monday, has said there have been times when he felt the urge to “punch in the face” his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov in talks during the early stage of Moscow’s invasion.

Mr Kuleba’s brief remarks were part of an hour-long informal interview with a Ukrainian video blogger focusing on topics ranging from cooking to hobbies and Ukrainian soccer.

When asked, as part of a series of rapid-fire questions, about his most difficult set of negotiations, Mr Kuleba said: “The most difficult talks are those in which you feel simply that you want to go and punch your opposite number in the nose, but you really can’t do that.

“And I can say that this occurred two or three times. One occasion was with Lavrov in (the Turkish resort of) Antalya in spring of 2022.”

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met for several rounds of talks in the early weeks after the February 2022 invasion — first near Ukraine‘s border with Belarus and later in Turkey.

Mr Kuleba said at the time that the talks in Turkey had been difficult and dealt with a ceasefire and arranging humanitarian corridors. No agreement was clinched in those talks and there have been no negotiations since.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejects talks with Moscow until Russian troops are withdrawn from the slightly less than 20 percent of Ukraine they now hold. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready for talks but has vowed to pursue what Moscow calls its “special military operation”.

In Moscow, Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Mr Kuleba’s latest remarks underscored the incompetence of Ukraine‘s leadership.

“And that is the problem: uneducated, aggressive people were recruited under the guise of serving as ministers to ruin Ukraine for American money,” Zakharova told the daily Izvestia.

“Perhaps he belongs in a no-holds-barred bout rather than the foreign ministry?”