key

These are the key developments from day 1,445 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Sunday, February 8:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, targeting the country’s power grid, generation facilities and distribution substations, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Ukrainian Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said two thermal power stations in Ukraine’s western regions were hit, and electricity distribution lines were also targeted.
• Zelenskyy said more than 1,000 apartment buildings remain without heating in bitterly cold temperatures in the capital, Kyiv, due to the attacks.
• The Ukrainian president criticised Moscow’s targeting of energy infrastructure, saying Russia must be deprived of the ability to use the cold winter weather as leverage against Kyiv. “Every day, Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes,” he said.
• Poland suspended operations at the Lublin and Rzeszow airports near the border with Ukraine on Saturday following the Russian strikes. Polish authorities later said there had been no violation of the country’s airspace and reopened the two airports.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X that Ukrainian nuclear power plants have reduced output due to the renewed military activity that affected electrical substations and disconnected some power lines.

• Ukrainian military and security officials said that Kyiv struck an oil depot in Russia’s Saratov region and a plant that makes missile fuel components in the Tver region in western Russia.
• Ukrainian forces also launched a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region, according to the governor there, using long-range Neptune missiles and HIMARS rocket systems. The attacks wounded two people and disrupted power in seven municipalities, the official said.
• The Russian TASS news agency said another Ukrainian missile attack on the border region of Belgorod caused power outages at several water supply facilities, and that experts are “investigating the extent of the outage”.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops captured the village of Chuhunivka in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Peace talks

• Zelenskyy said the United States has given Moscow and Kyiv a deadline of June to reach an agreement on ending the war, after the two countries held two days of talks in Abu Dhabi this week.
• Zelenskyy said Washington has proposed talks in Miami in a week, and that Kyiv has agreed.
• The US also asked Russia and Ukraine to agree to a new ceasefire covering strikes on energy infrastructure as a de-escalation step during the talks, Zelenskyy said. He added that Kyiv was ready to stop attacks on Russian oil facilities and other energy infrastructure, but Moscow has yet to agree.
• The Ukrainian leader said he had reports from Ukrainian intelligence services on discussions in which Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev had proposed US-Russian cooperation deals worth as much as $12 trillion. Any such agreements between Moscow and Washington must not violate Ukraine’s constitution, Zelenskyy said.
• Zelenskyy added that Ukraine and Russia remain far apart in the discussions about territory. He said the US was proposing a free economic zone in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which Russia mostly occupies, but that neither Ukraine nor Russia was thrilled by this idea.

• Earlier, the Ukrainian leader met his negotiating team in Kyiv and said Ukraine “needs results” that ensure “effective security guarantees” for the country.

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that a third round of talks aimed at ending Russia’s war on Ukraine should take place “soon”. But he said there is no fixed date yet.

Politics and security

• Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdrii Sybiha said Kyiv supports a call for a ceasefire during the Winter Olympic Games after Italy and Pope Leo urged world leaders to use the Milano Cortina games to further peace.
• The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that two suspects in the attempted assassination of top Russian military intelligence official General Vladimir Alexeyev “will soon be interrogated”. It cited a source close to the investigation.
• Alexeyev, the deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence arm, was shot in his Moscow apartment building and rushed to hospital on Friday. He underwent successful surgery and regained consciousness on Saturday, but remained under medical supervision, Kommersant added.
• Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said – without providing evidence – was designed to sabotage peace talks.
• US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order rescinding a punitive 25 percent duty on all imports from India over its purchases of Russian oil, the White House said. The two nations earlier announced a trade deal slashing US tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent from 50 percent in exchange for India halting Russian oil purchases and lowering trade barriers.

Every year, Brits end up stranded at the airport due to issues with their passports but you can make sure you’re not one of them by making these 6 vital checks now

There’s nothing quite like that holiday excitement as you arrive at the airport, ready to jetset off somewhere sunny and get a well-deserved week or two off. However, every year thousands of Brits get caught out with documents that are invalid; and it means their trip gets cut short.

Not only can you be denied boarding on your flight, but your travel insurance is unlikely to cover the costs if you can’t travel because of invalid documents including your passport.

Luckily, we’re here to help as we’ve rounded up six vital passport checks to do now, so if there’s anything amiss you have plenty of time to get it fixed ahead of the summer (and avoid the pre-summer rush that the Passport Office always faces).

Check out our top tips below…

1. Validity duration

This one often catches holidaymakers out. When travelling to the EU, Brits need passports with at least three months validity, and the key thing to remember is this is based on your return date, not your departure. For example, if you’re on holiday from July 25 to August 1, your passport will need to be valid until at least November 1 2026.

Some countries such as Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore require six months of validity, so always check before you book your trip.

It’s also worth remembering that child passports only last for five years, not ten, so for those travelling with kids these checks are especially important.

2. The 10 year rule

The ’10 year rule’ often catches Brits out at the airport. Pre-Brexit, passports that were renewed before expiry could carry over a certain amount of validity. This meant some passports issued before September 2018 were valid for as long as ten years and nine months. Passports issued after this date are valid for ten years only.

However, since Britain has left the EU, UK passport holders are now classed as third-country nationals, meaning all passports must be issued less than 10 years before your departure date. This means some holidaymakers with older passports are being caught out, as while they may have enough validity on their passport, the document could be over ten years old.

If your passport will be passing the ten year mark soon, make sure you get it renewed before you go.

3. Damage

Even minor damage to a passport can see you denied boarding. According to the Passport Office, a passport is considered damaged if:

• you cannot read any of your details
• any of the pages are ripped, cut or missing
• there are holes, cuts or rips in the cover
• the cover is coming away
• there are stains on the pages (for example, ink or water damage)

You can replace a damaged passport online at a cost of £94.50 for adults. While this might sound pricey, it’s often cheaper than the expenses that come with being denied boarding. Keep your passport in a plastic wallet to protect it from damage.

4. Number of blank pages

With many countries moving away from manual stamps and onto more sophisticated processes such as the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), you might assume that you don’t need to check the number of pages left in your passport.

However, most countries still require a certain amount of blank space, and many EU countries are still making the switch to EES, so Brits may find they still need to get their passport stamped. EU destinations including Germany, Italy, and Belgium require two blank pages for stamps, some long haul destinations in Africa ask for four, while Nambia holds the record with visitors asked to present six blank pages.

A standard adult passport comes with 34 blank pages, but frequent travellers can opt for a 54-page passport which costs £107.50 instead of the standard £94.50 fee.

5. Signature

It’s something most of us forget to do when a new passport arrives, but make sure you sign it. An unsigned passport can be rejected as invalid, and it takes just a couple of seconds to do.

While it’s not a legal requirement, take some time to fill in your emergency contacts too. This is important in case of an accident, and could also be useful if your passport gets recovered after being lost or stolen.

READ MORE: Cheapest dates to travel during the 6-week summer holidays – including ‘golden’ weekREAD MORE: EasyJet, Jet2 and BA cabin bag rules as big Ryanair change kicks in ahead of half term

6. Correct passport

It may sound obvious, but it’s easy to accidentally pick up the wrong passport and not realise until your train is halfway to the airport. A quick check before you leave could save a lot of hassle.

When you renew your passport and the old one is returned, consider shredding and disposing of the expired document. Never store your old passport alongside the new one, otherwise this could lead to a costly mix-up when you head out to catch your flight.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Match of the Day pundit and former England captain Alan Shearer explains how West Ham were able to “play on the front foot” and pressurise Burnley’s defence in their 2-0 win at Turf Moor.

MATCH REPORT: Premier League – Burnley 0-2 West Ham United

Available to UK users only.

An array of political parties and alliances will be vying for seats in the Bangladesh Parliament on February 12 in the country’s first election since the ousting of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024. About 127 million registered voters are eligible to cast votes to elect 350 members of the Jatiya Sangsad, the country’s parliament.

The South Asian country has been in the hands of a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus since August 2024, when a student-led uprising ended Hasina’s long rule. Hasina ordered troops to crack down on protesters, killing 1,400 people. She has since been sentenced to death by a special tribunal in Bangladesh for the brutal crackdown, but remains in exile in India, and her Awami League party has been banned from political activity.

Besides the election on February 12, Bangladesh will also hold a referendum on the July National Charter 2025 – a document drafted following the student protests, setting the foundation for future governance of the country.

The two biggest groups competing for parliamentary seats across the country’s 300 constituencies are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is leading a coalition of 10 parties, and Jamaat-e-Islami (JIB), which heads an 11-party alliance, including the National Citizen Party, a group formed by students who led the anti-Hasina movement in 2024. The Awami League, which dominated Bangladeshi politics for decades, has been barred from fielding candidates.

Besides the two main blocs, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, which broke away from the JIB-led alliance, and the Jatiya Party, a longtime ally of Hasina’s Awami League, are contesting independently.

Here is a look at the main political parties and their leaders vying for parliament seats this year, and the key players influencing the election.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party

Led by Tarique Rahman, the son of the late former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the BNP is seen as one of the main contenders in the upcoming elections.

The party was founded in 1978 by Ziaur Rahman, Tarique’s father and one of the leading military figures of the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971, on the principles of Bangladeshi nationalism. According to the BNP website, this is an “ideology that recognises the right of Bangladeshis from all walks of life, irrespective of their ethnicity, gender or race”.

As a centre-right political party, the BNP has been a popular political force in the country for decades and has traditionally exchanged power with the Awami League.

For four decades after Ziaur Rahman’s assassination in 1981, his wife and Tarique’s father, Khaleda Zia, led the party. Khaleda served as the country’s first female prime minister from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. In that period, Jamaat was an ally of the BNP as they together fought against Hasina’s Awami League.

After Hasina came back to power in 2009 – she had also ruled between 1996 and 2001 –  the BNP faced the wrath of her government over corruption charges, and Khaleda was put under house arrest in 2018 in two related cases. She was acquitted of all charges after Hasina’s departure in 2024.

Since Hasina’s ousting in 2024, the BNP has risen again as a political frontrunner. A December survey by the United States-based International Republican Institute indicated the BNP had the support of 33 percent of respondents. That was also the only month when the BNP — seeking to position itself as a liberal force ahead of the elections — broke its alliance with Jamaat. Polls show Jamaat just marginally behind the BNP in popular support.

Tarique, 60, had been living in London, United Kingdom, since he fled Bangladesh in 2008 over what he called politically motivated persecution. He arrived in Dhaka on December 25, 2025 to take over the BNP leadership ahead of his mother Khaleda’s death on December 30.

“We will build a Bangladesh that a mother dreams of,” he said in December after returning to the country and calling on citizens from the hills and plains – Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians – to join him in creating a secure and inclusive nation.

In election rallies, he has pledged to improve the country’s infrastructure, among other promises.

“If elected, the healthcare system will be improved, a flyover will be constructed in Sherpur, permanent embankments will be built in the river erosion areas of Dhunat, and the youth will be made self-reliant through the establishment of IT education institutions,” he said.

According to Khandakar Tahmid Rejwan, lecturer in global studies and governance at the Independent University, Bangladesh, since Rahman’s return, the BNP has become more organised.

“The party has basically revived with a newfound spirit in both its central and grassroots-level leadership,” he said.

“Typical objections against BNP and affiliated party activists, like [allegations of] extortion … have also significantly declined. Top leaders of the central committee have also been comparatively cautious to avoid any statement that might create popular outrage. Significantly, the people are flocking in thousands to hear from Rahman at his electoral rally, even late at midnight,” he said.

Rejwan added that it is widely believed that Rahman is the only man who can currently unite Bangladesh with an “inclusive vision”, unlike his Jamaat rivals, who have failed to address any clear stance or acknowledge what are seen by many as their restrictive policies towards women and religious minorities.

Jamaat-e-Islami

The party was founded in 1941 by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi during British rule in India.

In 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of independence, Jamaat supported staying with Pakistan, and was banned after the country won its freedom.

But in 1979, four years after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had fought for Bangladesh’s independence and is seen by many as the country’s founding father, BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, who was the country’s president at the time, lifted the ban. Ziaur Rahman was also assassinated in 1981.

Over the next two decades, Jamaat developed into a significant political force. It supported the BNP-led coalition in 1991 and 2001.

But while Hasina was in power from 2009 until she was toppled in student-led protests in 2024 and fled to India, five top Jamaat leaders were executed, while others were jailed for crimes committed during the independence war of 1971. The party was barred in 2013 from running in elections.

In June 2025, the country’s Supreme Court restored the party’s registration, paving the way for its participation in elections.

While Jamaat no longer has an alliance with the BNP, its current leader, 67-year-old Shafiqur Rahman, has also focused on reorganising the party into a strong contender in the election.

Speaking at an election rally in Jamalpur city on Sunday, Shafiqur Rahman said the upcoming election “will be a turning point”.

“It is an election to end the cries of the families of martyrs. It is an election to bury the rotten politics of the past,” he said, according to The Daily Star newspaper.

But his party’s resurgence has also prompted debate over whether Bangladesh is prepared to be led by an Islamist force, which some fear could seek to enforce Islamic law or try to restrict women’s rights and freedoms.

However, Jamaat has rejected such fears and has told reporters it is focusing on expanding its electoral power. Last December, the party announced an alliance with the National Citizen Party, founded by 2024 leaders of the student-led uprising, and with the Liberal Democratic Party, led by 1971 war hero Oli Ahmad.

For the first time in its history, Jamaat is also fielding a Hindu candidate, Krishna Nandi, from Khulna, in a bid to attract non-Muslim voters.

The International Republican Institute survey suggested the Jamaat-led alliance at number two, with 29 percent, closely behind the BNP.

According to Independent University’s Rejwan, Jamaat has an appeal across Bangladesh’s social classes.

“Its student wing has literally outperformed any other political rivals in the university union elections. We are also seeing the Jamaat-affiliated women’s wing reaching out door-to-door in both rural and urban areas to expand their women’s base of voters. Moreover, since the fall of Hasina, we are seeing pro-Jamaat active and retired elites from security forces, university academics, and civil services constantly pushing the pro-Jamaat narratives within their respective capacities,” he said.

“Jamaat’s upper hand and pragmatic postures are now being extended to its allies, like NCP, which is explicitly reaping all the benefits of its senior partner in the alliance,” he added.

National Citizens Party (NCP)

The NCP, one of Jamaat’s allies, was formed in February 2025 by students who led the mass protests in July 2024 over government job quotas, which ultimately toppled Hasina’s government.

Seeking to stand for the 2026 elections, the leaders told a rally in February 2025 that they had formed the party “to uphold the spirit of the July movement among students”.

Led by Nahid Islam, 27, the stated ideals of the NCP are to ensure “governance without corruption” and to unite the country. The party says it aims to uphold freedom of the press, increase women’s representation in parliament and improve Bangladesh’s relations with neighbouring countries, such as India.

But lacking adequate funds to run by itself in an election, the party has allied with Jamaat. However, the move has been received poorly by some in Bangladesh. It also triggered some resignations by some NCP members over ideological differences.

According to local media reports, those members submitted a memorandum stating that Jamaat’s controversial political history and historical views against Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 were contrary to the NCP’s values.

In an interview with ABC News last month, Nahid Islam defended the decision to unite with Jamaat and said, “When we are forming an electoral alliance, we are not abandoning our own political beliefs. It’s just a strategic alliance.”

“It’s unfortunate to see the leader of the political party that arguably claims to own and lead the 2024 mass uprising and depose Hasina, now become a junior partner to a major political party,” Rejwan said.

“As a result, we see defections of many top leaders of NCP, and astonishingly, by allying, it was only able to bargain for 30 seats for its own candidate. To sum up, Nahid has sold his political autonomy and image of an exclusive figure by de facto becoming subservient to Jamaat,” he added.

Who are the other key players in the election?

Besides the main political parties, Muhammad Yunus, who currently leads the interim government, and General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, are also influential figures in this election.

Yunus, who was selected to run the government after Hasina’s ousting, is facilitating the election in his capacity as the country’s chief adviser.

But while political parties are campaigning for the election, Yunus is focusing on the referendum on the July Charter, which will take place on the same day.

After Hasina’s ousting, Yunus formed the Constitution Reform Commission (CRC) in 2025, seeking to amend the governance of the country. The commission proposed an anticorruption mechanism, electoral reforms and new rules the police must follow, among other issues. The July Charter is the culmination of the CRC’s work and takes its name from the protests which dismantled Hasina’s government in July 2024. Bangladeshis will vote to approve or reject it in the referendum.

Last month, Yunus expressed confidence in the results of the referendum and told the media he expected people and political parties to agree to the charter. But some critics have said holding the referendum and establishing the charter is not constitutional.

General Zaman is also a key player in the election.

Following the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader and then-president, the country entered a period marked by coups, countercoups and military rule, which reshaped the state.

Currently, the army is not vying for electoral power, but its focus will be on ensuring public order and security during the election, in light of political violence that has spread in the country since the upheaval of 2024.

The military also plays a role with respect to backing the political party in power or deciding how to govern the country during a political crisis.

In September 2024, after the protests against Hasina, Zaman told the Reuters news agency that he would back Yunus’s interim government “come what may”, while also floating a timeline for elections within 18 months, placing him central to the political debate.

A successful election will require goodwill from both Yunus and the army chief, according to Rejwan.

“Executives under the leadership of Yunus are critical to ensure the nationwide voting, while the Chief of Army Staff Waker’s forces, which would be deployed throughout the country, are indispensable to maintain public order and prevent the proliferation of political instability, violence and chaos,” he said.

Does Hasina have any power at all?

Hasina, who is currently in exile in India, has denounced the upcoming elections since her party, the Awami League, has not been allowed to take part. However, those who voted for her in the past must now choose how to vote this time.

In a message sent to the media last month, Hasina stated that “a government born of exclusion cannot unite a divided nation”.

“Each time political participation is denied to a significant portion of the population, it deepens resentment, delegitimises institutions and creates the conditions for future instability,” the former leader warned in an email to The Associated Press news agency.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “surprised and shocked” that Hasina had been allowed to make a public address in India. Her speeches and statements are banned from the media in Bangladesh.

“Allowing the event to take place in the Indian capital and letting mass murderer Hasina openly deliver her hate speech … constitute a clear affront to the people and the Government of Bangladesh,” the ministry said in a statement.

Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by a tribunal in Bangladesh last November, and Dhaka has called on New Delhi to extradite her.

But she remains in India, and Rejwan says she will be a key political instigator of unrest as the elections approach.

“If Hasina were a negligible figure, then the interim government wouldn’t have banned all of her speeches and statements from being aired on television or printed in newspapers … the interim government would also not have reacted so firmly against India for allowing her to speak,” he noted.

“This means Hasina is a factor that the interim government implicitly believes has an influence over the Awami League populace, who are yet undecided on whom to cast their vote for, given that AL is banned from the polls,” he said.

“The reality is that AL has its own clear political ideology and a base of loyal cadres, many of whom have declined to change their allegiance despite living a harsh clandestine life in Bangladesh or abroad,” he added.

A key nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia has expired today, creating the potential for significant changes in U.S. force posture. This could include loading more warheads into Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), restoring nuclear weapons capability to dozens of B-52 bombers, sending Ohio class ballistic missile submarines on patrol with extra Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), or fielding all-new capabilities. There are reports that American and Russian officials are negotiating a voluntary commitment to leave the two countries’ nuclear arsenals as they are, but this would be a temporary measure that could still leave open the door to a new arms race if a more permanent agreement cannot be reached.

U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START Treaty in 2010, and it entered into force the following year. The terms of the deal included a provision for a one-time five-year extension, which U.S. and Russian Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to in 2021. Russia formally suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023, citing U.S. actions in relation to the war in Ukraine, but said it would voluntarily continue to abide by the imposed limits. The agreement now sunsets for good today. Years of U.S.-Russian negotiations have so far failed to produce a follow-on treaty.

New START limited each country to 700 deployed strategic missiles and bombers (700), 1,550 total strategic nuclear warheads, and 800 relevant deployed and non-deployed launchers. For purposes of the treaty, strategic missiles were defined as ICBMs and SLBMs. Each reentry vehicle inside a single ICBM or SLBM, as well as each nuclear-capable heavy bomber, counted as a single warhead. Bombers, along with silos and mobile transporter-erector launchers for IBCMs and SLBM launch tubes on submarines, were all treated as individual launchers.

Axios has reported that U.S. and Russian negotiators in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates have been working to finalize a non-legally-binding voluntary commitment to stick to the New START limits at least for another six months. Delegations from the United States and Russia were already in the Middle Eastern country for talks regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Those meetings have separately produced an agreement to re-establish a high-level U.S.-Russian military-to-military dialogue for the first time since 2021.

The Kremlin had released a statement yesterday that, in part, reiterated a call Putin first made last September for both parties “to commit to voluntary self-limitations to keep the quantitative ceilings on the relevant weapons specified in the Treaty for at least one year after the termination of the agreement.” It’s not clear how this would be verified without the inspection provisions that were central to New START.

“Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” President Trump wrote today on his Truth Social platform. However, he did not explicitly rule out the possibility of a temporary voluntary arrangement in the interim.

“Not to my knowledge,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a routine press conference today when asked about whether a temporary agreement to continue abiding by the New START limits had been reached.

Regardless, in the absence of a formally binding agreement, the U.S. government does now technically have a free hand to make major changes to the state of America’s nuclear force posture for the first time in decades. There has been talk for years already about potential near-term steps the U.S. military might take if a more permanent deal did not emerge to follow New START’s sunset.

“A one-year extension would not prejudice any of the vital steps that the United States is taking to respond to the China nuclear build-up,” Rose Gottemoeller, a long-time American diplomat who served as the lead negotiator for New START, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee just this week. “The period will buy extra time for preparation without the added challenge of a Russian Federation, newly released from New START limitations, embarking on a rapid upload campaign. This would not be in the U.S. interest.”

Loading more warheads into LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBMs could be one option. Each of those ICBMs is currently tipped with a single warhead in line with the New START limits. However, the missiles were originally designed for a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) configuration with three warheads. Even with New START in force, Minuteman IIIs have still sometimes been fired as part of routine testing with multiple unarmed reentry vehicles, demonstrating that this remains an available capability.

Minuteman III Test Launch 4 Aug 2020 Vandenberg AFB, CA

“I do believe that we need to take serious consideration in seeing what uploading and re-MIRVing the ICBM looks like, and what does it take to potentially do that,” now-retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, then head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee back in 2024.

There are questions about how long it might take to ‘upload’ more warheads onto any portion of the 400 Minuteman IIIs currently sitting in silos spread across five states, and what that would cost. At least a portion of the deployed LGM-30Gs would also need to be refitted with MIRV-capable payload buses.

The number of warheads inside deployed Trident IIs, which also have a MIRV configuration, could also change in the future. These SLBMs can carry up to 14 individual warheads, depending on their exact type, but are understood to have often not had maximum loads to keep in line with New START’s provisions.

Under the terms of the treaty, the U.S. Navy also sealed off four of the 24 tubes on each of its 10 Ohio class ballistic missile submarines. In the past, Russian officials had complained about the extent (or lack thereof) of those modifications, which also involved the removal of certain internal components, and raised concerns about being able to regularly verify that the changes had not been reversed. Still, it is unclear exactly how much effort might be required to reactivate those tubes in the future.

There is also the matter of restoring nuclear capability to dozens of B-52 bombers that were modified to only be capable of employing conventional weapons as part of New START. Russia also previously raised concerns about the reversibility of those changes, which that country said involved “removing the nuclear code enabling switch and interconnection box, mounting a code enabling switch inhibitor plate, removing applicable cable connectors, [and] capping applicable wire bundles.” Nuclear-capable B-52s are readily identifiable today by antennas mounted on either side of the rear fuselage.

There has been some public disagreement in recent years about the cost and complexity of re-nuclearizing the B-52s, something TWZ has explored in the past. In the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2025 Fiscal Year, Congress did give the U.S. Air Force authority to pursue this course of action after New START came to a close. However, the provision in the NDAA, which was signed into law in December 2024, did not explicitly compel the service to do so.

There could be additional downstream impacts on the U.S. nuclear arsenal if a more formalized follow-on to New START does not emerge. This might include a MIRVed configuration for future LGM-35A Sentinel ICBMs, expanded orders for nuclear-capable B-21 Raider stealth bombers, and changes to the expected loadout of the forthcoming Colombia class nuclear ballistic missile submarines.

The U.S. Air Force is already looking to ramp up B-21 production, with the possibility that this could lead to an increased overall fleet size in the future. American officials have been supportive of buying additional Raiders beyond the currently stated acquisition target of 100 aircraft. The possibility of purchasing 145 or more of the bombers has been raised in the past. The Air & Space Forces Association’s internal Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank is set to release a new white paper next Monday that calls for a future fleet of at least 200 B-21s (as well as 300 F-47 sixth-generation fighters).

Future U.S. developments could also extend to categories of nuclear weapons not currently in the American arsenal. The Air Force has at least explored the idea of a nuclear-armed hypersonic boost-glide vehicle. Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Charles Richard, who served as head of STRATCOM from 2019 to 2022, issued a new call for the U.S. military to develop a weapon of this kind at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. This is a capability already in service in Russia, at least to a degree. China has also been pursuing nuclear-capable weapons of this type, if they have not fielded them operationally already. The Russian and Chinese armed forces have also been working on other novel nuclear weapon capabilities, including space-based systems, which could influence future U.S. planning going forward.

It is worth noting here that any efforts to increase the total size of America’s stockpile, rather than field new capabilities that replace existing ones, would require significant investments on various levels. Last year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the current slate of U.S. nuclear modernization efforts would cost nearly a trillion dollars, in total, between 2025 and 2034. The U.S. military is also now pushing ahead with the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, which is also expected to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars and will otherwise impact the strategic landscape.

China, which is in the midst of a massive buildup of its nuclear arsenal, has been a central factor in discussions to date about a follow-on strategic arms control agreement to New START. U.S. officials have pushed to include the Chinese in any future agreement, something authorities in Beijing have repeatedly balked at. China’s current nuclear arsenal is still much smaller than those of either the United States or Russia. The U.S. government has assessed that China’s total stockpile could go from approximately 600 nuclear warheads today to 1,000 by 2030, and then to 1,500 by 2035. As noted, the U.S. and Russian governments were each allowed 1,550 strategic warheads under New START. Both countries have even more nuclear weapons that were never covered by New START, to begin with, and more are in development now.

“The President’s been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile,” Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said during a press conference yesterday in response to a question about New START.

SECRETARY RUBIO: The President has been clear that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China — because of their vast & rapidly growing stockpile. pic.twitter.com/FiYVUsBAVb

— Dylan Johnson (@ASDylanJohnson) February 5, 2026

New START’s expiration has fueled already growing concerns about the prospect of a new global nuclear arms race, which would not necessarily be limited to the United States, Russia, and China. The treaty’s sunset follows the steady collapse in recent years of a series of other arms control agreements between the United States and Russia, as well as other treaties intended to promote general transparency in military affairs. The U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, in 2019 over complaints about Russian violations has already had a notable impact on the development and fielding of new nuclear and conventionally-armed missiles in both countries.

The end of New START presents a “grave moment for international peace and security,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement yesterday.

Whether or not a temporary voluntary moratorium on the expansion of stockpiles on both sides leads to a new agreement, and one that might include China, is still an open question. Altogether, it remains to be seen now whether the New START limits continue to hold in the United States or Russia in the absence of a binding agreement.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Four days after a KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tanker made an aborted takeoff at Moron Air Base in southern Spain, the runway at the installation remain closed and will be for several more days, according to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Notice To Airman (NOTAM). The base is a key logistics hub for military aircraft, equipment and personnel heading east from the U.S. to Europe and the Middle East. The incident came as the U.S. is building up its forces in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility amid growing tensions with Iran.

We were the first to report about the mishap at Moron and related problems.

The jet, callsign GOLD71, is still blocking the runway, according to online flight trackers. According to a firsthand account provided to The War Zone, the incident started after the KC-46 experienced an engine failure on Saturday while taking off. That resulted in rejected takeoff with hard braking that reportedly blew out eight tires. What damage was done to the runway remains unclear. We have reached out to U.S. Air Forces Central-U.S. Air Force Africa (USAFE) and Air Mobility Command for more details.

The following video shows the aftermath of the aborted takeoff as the jet came to a halt.

“It was a routine takeoff of a Pegasus KC46 with an RTO (rejected takeoff) due to engine failure, emergency braking sequence and everything that involves braking a loaded tanker,” Pepe Jimenez, the aircraft spotter who took the video, told The War Zone on Tuesday morning. “AB Morón result blocked for days.”

Additional images taken by Jimenez after the mishap show damaged landing gear and base emergency crews responding.

Jimenez also shared images showing personnel near the KC-46A’s starboard engine.

After the mishap, the FAA issued an initial NOTAM on Jan. 31 notifying pilots that there was a disabled jet on the runway. That NOTAM expires Feb. 7.

“AERODROME CAUTION: DISABLED AIRCRAFT LOCATED ON THE RUNWAY 1935 FT FROM RWY 02 THRESHOLD (SOUTH END),” it read. 

On Monday, the FAA issued two more NOTAMs, notifying pilots that both the military and civilian runways at the facility would be closed until Feb. 6.

Jimenez told us that the incident left several aircraft at the base unable to take off. The list includes one KC-135 Stratotanker, another KC-46, one C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet, “and the entire 11th Wing with Eurofighters from the Spanish Air Force,” Jimenez told us.

Another image Jimenez shared with us shows the Globemaster III and another Pegasus at the base. The War Zone cannot verify the current status of the aircraft at Moron.

It is unclear at the moment how badly U.S. logistics are affected by Moron’s closure. At the time of the incident, GOLD71 was part of an effort to take Air Force F-35A stealth fighters to the Middle East, according to online flight trackers. The F-35As, from the Vermont National Guard, were moving east from the Caribbean after taking part in the operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. The fighters were diverted to Rota Air Base in Spain after the KC-46 mishap, and it remains unclear when the flight will resume to its ultimate destination. We were the first to report that they landed in Lajes, Portugal, and were possibly slated to head to Jordan.

Further highlighting the importance of Moron, a F/A-18G Growler electronic warfare (EW) jet left Moron and landed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Jan 31. Just like the F-35As, these aircraft departed from their assignment to the Caribbean before crossing the Atlantic. It is unclear if the Growlers took off before or after the KC-46 incident. Jimenez also captured an image of a Growler at Moron.

“Morón Air Base is a vital link in any operation moving east from the United States due to its strategic location close to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, its massive flight line, long runaway, aircraft refueling systems and excellent weather,” according to the 465 Air Refueling Squadron, the facility’s host unit.

In addition to serving as a transit hub, Moron also hosts temporary deployments of strategic aviation, like the B-52J Stratotankers from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The B-52s arrived in November in support of Bomber Task Force Europe 26-1.

B1-B Lancer bombers have also flown BTF missions to Moron from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

While the U.S. has other bases in the region, like Rota some 50 miles to the southwest, the KC-46 incident at Moron highlights the complexities of large-scale logistic maneuvers like the one taking place now. The U.S. is flowing forces to the Middle East as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to pressure Iran to end its nuclear ambitions. This has required many cargo flights to move materiel and personnel, as well as tankers to keep them refueled along the way. The situation at Moron shows how one incident can slow a global operation for days.

Yesterday, we reported that U.S. and Iranian officials were scheduled to meet on Friday for negotiations. Tuesday morning, Axios reported that Iran wants to change the venue from Istanbul to Oman.

The Iranians “also now want to hold them in a bilateral format, only with the U.S., rather than with several Arab and Muslim countries attending as observers,” Axios added.

Should the negotiations not happen or breakdown, Trump has options in the region for carrying through on his threat to attack Iran, even if there are not yet enough tactical aircraft in the region for a sustained military operation. We will keep an eye out to see when Moron reopens to continue assisting U.S. military logistics.

Update: 8:11 AM Feb. 4 –

The KC-46 has been moved to a taxiway, and the runway at Moron has reopened, according to the FAA’s latest NOTAM. However, Taxiway Alpha, where the jet was moved to, remains closed. It is unclear at the moment whether flights have resumed. The NOTAM is in effect through April 30.

Morón’s RWY02/20 is open again (with limitations). Personally I see a problem with the #KC46 just outside the runway strip penetrating obstacle limitation surfaces, but who am I… 😉🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/1C1THXCUL4

— Sir Listenalot (@SirListenalot) February 4, 2026

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

For months, United States President Donald Trump has called him a “sick man” and an “illegal drug leader”.

But on Tuesday, Trump welcomed his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC.

Both leaders hailed the meeting as productive, while acknowledging the lingering tensions that divide them.

At a news conference after their meeting, Petro waved away questions about his rocky history with Trump, whom he has publicly accused of human rights violations.

Instead, he called the interaction “ a meeting between two equals who have different ways of thinking”.

“He didn’t change his way of his thinking. Neither did I. But how do you do an agreement, a pact? It’s not as between twin brothers. It’s between opponents,” Petro said.

Separately, Trump told reporters from the Oval Office that he felt good about the meeting. “I thought it was terrific,” he said.

On the agenda for the two leaders were issues including the fight against transnational drug trafficking and security in Latin America.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s meeting.

A White House charm offensive

Over the past year, Trump has invited the media to participate in his meetings with foreign leaders, often holding news conferences with the visiting dignitaries in the Oval Office.

Not this time, however. The meeting between Trump and Petro lasted nearly two hours, all of it behind closed doors.

But the two leaders emerged with largely positive things to say about one another.

In a post on social media, Petro revealed that Trump had gifted him several items, including a commemorative photograph of their meeting accompanied by a signed note.

“Gustavo – a great honor. I love Colombia,” it read, followed by Trump’s signature.

In another post, Petro showed off a signed copy of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. On its title page, Trump had scrawled another note to Petro: “You are great.”

“Can someone tell me what Trump said in this dedication?” Petro wrote jokingly in Spanish on social media. “I don’t understand much English.”

A turning point in a tense relationship?

Petro’s joke appeared to be a cheeky nod to his notoriously rocky relationship with Trump.

It was only six days into Trump’s second term, on January 26, 2025, that he and Petro began their feud, trading threats on social media over the fate of two US deportation flights.

Petro objected to the reported human rights violations facing the deportees. Trump, meanwhile, took Petro’s initial refusal to accept the flights as a threat to US “national security”. Petro ultimately backed down after Trump threatened steep sanctions on imported Colombian goods.

They continued to trade barbs in the months since. Petro, for instance, has condemned the deadly US attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, comparing the strikes with murder.

He has also criticised Trump for carrying out a US military offensive in Venezuela to abduct then-President Nicolas Maduro. That attack, Petro said, was tantamount to “kidnapping”.

Trump, meanwhile, stripped Petro of his US visa following the Colombian leader’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, where he criticised the US and briefly joined a pro-Palestinian protest.

The Trump administration also sanctioned Petro in October, blaming the left-wing leader for allowing “drug cartels to flourish”.

After removing Maduro from power on January 3, Trump offered a warning to Petro: he had better “watch his a**”. The statement was widely interpreted to be a threat of military action against Colombia.

But Trump and Petro appeared to have reached a turning point last month. On January 7, the two leaders held their first call together. Tuesday’s in-person meeting marked another first in their relationship.

Agreeing to disagree

Despite the easing tensions, the two leaders used their public statements after the meeting to reaffirm their differences.

Trump was the first to speak, holding a news conference in the Oval Office as he signed legislation to end a government shutdown.

The US president, a member of the right-wing Republican Party, used the appearance to reflect on the political tensions the two leaders had in the lead-up to the meeting.

“He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted, because I’d never met him,” Trump told reporters.

He added that Tuesday’s meeting was nevertheless pleasant. “I didn’t know him at all, and we got along very well.”

Petro, meanwhile, held a longer news conference at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, where he raised some points of divergence he had with Trump.

Among the topics he mentioned was Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which the US has supported, and sustainable energy initiatives designed to be carbon neutral. Trump, in the past, has called the so-called green energy programmes a “scam”.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing leader, also reflected on his region’s history with colonialism and foreign intervention. He told reporters it was important that Latin America make decisions for itself, free from any outside “coercion”.

“ We don’t operate under blackmail,” he said at one point, in an apparent reference to Trump’s pressure campaigns.

Differing approach to combating drug trafficking

One of the primary points of contention, however, was Petro’s approach to combating drug trafficking.

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, responsible for 68 percent of the global supply.

The Trump administration has used the fight against global drug trafficking as a justification for carrying out lethal military strikes in international waters and in Venezuela, despite experts condemning the attacks as illegal under international law.

It has also stripped Colombia of its certification as an ally in its global counter-narcotics operations.

Trump’s White House has said it will consider reversing that decision if Petro takes “more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking”.

But Petro has rejected any attempt to label him as soft on drug trafficking, instead touting the historic drug busts his government has overseen.

He made this argument yet again after Tuesday’s meeting, claiming that no other Colombian administration had done as much as his to fight cocaine trafficking.

Rather than take a militarised approach to destroying crops of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, Petro argued that he has had more success with voluntary eradication programmes.

This push, he said, succeeded in “getting thousands of peasant farmers to uproot the plant themselves”.

“These are two different methods, two different ways of understanding how to fight drug trafficking,” Petro said. “One that is brutal and self-interested, and what it ends up doing is promoting mafia powers and drug traffickers, and another approach, which is intelligent, which is effective.”

Petro maintained it was more strategic to go after top drug-ring leaders than to punish impoverished rural farmers by forcibly ripping up their crops.

“I told President Trump, if you want an ally in fighting drug trafficking, it’s going after the top kingpins,” he said.

A Trumpian note

Tuesday’s meeting ultimately marked yet another high-profile reversal for Trump, who has a history of shifting his relationships with world leaders.

Last year, for instance, he lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a public Oval Office clash, only to warm to the wartime leader several months later.

But Colombia is quickly approaching a pivotal presidential election in May, which will see Petro’s left-wing coalition, the Historic Pact, seek to defend the presidency against an ascendant far right.

Petro himself cannot run for consecutive terms under Colombian law. But there is speculation that Tuesday’s detente with Trump may help Petro’s coalition avoid US condemnation ahead of the vote.

Colombia, after all, was until recently the largest recipient of US aid in South America, and it has long harboured close ties with the North American superpower. Straining those ties could therefore be seen as an election liability.

While Petro acknowledged his differences with Trump during his remarks, at times he expressed certain views that overlapped with the US president’s.

Like Trump has in the past, Petro used part of his speech on Tuesday to question the role of the UN in maintaining global security.

“ Did it not show incapacity? Isn’t a reform needed?” Petro asked, wondering aloud if there was “something superior to the United Nations that would bring humanity together better in a better way”.

But when it came to donning Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, Petro drew a line – or rather, a squiggle.

On social media, he shared an adjustment he made to the cap’s slogan. A jagged, Sharpie-inked “S” amended the phrase to include the entire Western Hemisphere: “Make Americas Great Again.”

These are the key developments from day 1,441 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Wednesday, February 4:

Fighting

• At least two teenagers were killed, and nine other people were injured following a Russian strike targeting the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
• A 24-hour air raid alert was issued in the Zaporizhia region following the attack, which damaged four high-rise apartment buildings.
• Three people were killed in Ukrainian shelling of the Moscow-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, Kremlin-installed authorities said.
• Russia launched an overnight attack described as the “most powerful” this year on Ukraine’s battered energy facilities, officials in Kyiv said, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without heating amid glacial winter temperatures and in advance of talks to end the four-year war.

• The latest Russian operation against Ukraine’s energy sector was the biggest since the start of 2026, Ukraine’s leading private energy company DTEK said on Telegram.

• A power plant in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv was also badly damaged in the Russian attack, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The attack on Kharkiv also injured at least five people, according to officials.

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russia deployed 450 attack drones and more than 60 missiles during the onslaught and accused Moscow of waiting for temperatures to drop before carrying out the strikes.

• A power plant in Kyiv’s eastern Darnytskyi district was seriously damaged in the Russian attack, Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram, prompting officials to redirect resources to restoring heating to thousands of residents in the city.

• At least 1,142 high-rise apartment blocks have been left without heating in the Ukrainian capital following the Russian attacks, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of launching “a deliberate attack against energy infrastructure”, which he said involved “a record number of ballistic missiles”.
• Zelenskyy also said that Russia had exploited the recent brief United States-backed truce on attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to stockpile weapons, which had been used in the latest attacks. The latest Russian strikes came a day before the next scheduled trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
• Part of the gigantic Motherland monument in Kyiv, an iconic Soviet-era World War II memorial featuring a woman holding a sword and a shield, was damaged during the latest Russian attack, with Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna describing the damage inflicted as “both symbolic and cynical”.

• In remarks following the Tuesday attacks, US President Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he “kept his word” and had stuck to a short-term deal halting strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure until Sunday.
• Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, had said earlier that the US president was not surprised by the attacks.
• NATO chief Mark Rutte, during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, said that Russia’s overnight attacks did not suggest Moscow was serious about making peace.

Military aid

• Sweden and Denmark will jointly procure and supply Ukraine with air defence systems worth 2.6 billion Swedish crowns ($290m) to help it defend against Russian attacks, Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson and his Danish counterpart, Troels Lund Poulsen, announced.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine has agreed with Western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a coordinated military response from Europe and the US, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the discussions.

• French President Emmanuel Macron said he was preparing to resume dialogue with Putin nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but he stressed that Moscow was not showing any “real willingness” to negotiate a ceasefire.

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Trump and discussed the situation in Ukraine, including the overnight Russian attacks on the country, the United Kingdom government said.

• Reaching a peace deal to end Russia’s war will require tough choices, NATO’s Rutte said in an address to Ukraine’s parliament during his Kyiv visit.

Economy

• The Kremlin said it had heard no statements from India about halting purchases of sanctioned Russian oil after Trump announced that New Delhi had agreed to stop such purchases as part of a trade accord with Washington.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was carefully analysing Trump’s remarks on the trade deal with India. He added that despite the recent announcement, Moscow intends “to further develop our bilateral relations with Delhi”.

• Russia’s economy grew by 1 percent in 2025, Putin said, marking a much slower expansion compared with the 2024 figure, as the country stutters under the burden of its war on Ukraine and international sanctions. Putin acknowledged during a government meeting that growth is “lower” than the two previous years.

Sport

• Russia welcomed remarks by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said he wanted Russia’s four-year ban from international football tournaments lifted because it had “achieved nothing”, Peskov said, describing Infantino’s comments as “very good”.
• Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi called Infantino’s comments “irresponsible” and “infantile”, noting that Russia’s invasion had killed more than 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.
• Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych said the International Olympic Committee’s allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals, despite their links to occupied territories or expressions of support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine, undermined the principle of neutrality. He said he intends to use the Winter Olympic Games to draw attention to the war in Ukraine.

These are the key developments from day 1,440 of Russia’s war on Ukraine

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, February 2:

Fighting

• The ‍Ukrainian ‍capital, Kyiv, came under attack early on ⁠Tuesday morning from ​Russian missiles, ‍Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s ‍military administration, ⁠said on the Telegram messaging app.
• Tkachenko said several apartment ​buildings ‌and an educational establishment had been damaged. Reuters news agency ‌witnesses reported ‌loud explosions ⁠in the city.

• A father and a son have been killed, and two children and their mother were wounded after Russia struck an area in the front line of the Donetsk region, according to regional authorities.

• A coal mining site in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region was attacked for the second time in 24 hours, according to the private energy producer DTEK. There were no immediate reports on casualties or damage to infrastructure.

Diplomacy and politics

• Russia has largely observed a ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Monday, as Kyiv prepared for the next round of trilateral talks with the US and Russia, expected to begin on Wednesday.

• In a separate post on social media, Zelenskyy added that a recent “de-escalation” with Russia – an apparent reference to a brief ceasefire in attacks on energy facilities – was helping to build trust in the negotiations.

• Zelenskyy said in separate remarks that it was realistic to achieve a dignified and lasting peace, in advance of the next round of peace talks with Russian and US officials in the United Arab Emirates. He added that a deal on US security guarantees for Ukraine post-war is now “complete”.

• US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Abu Dhabi for the talks with Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official said.

• Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow said, citing Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

• Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that a proposal by European powers to deploy NATO-member troops in Ukraine as part of a proposed security guarantee and peace deal was unacceptable for Russia.
• German authorities detained at least five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening EU sanctions imposed after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, federal prosecutors announced.

Sport

• FIFA President Gianni Infantino said he supports the reinstatement of Russia in the football federation and called for an end to the country’s four-year exclusion from international tournaments, including the World Cup in Qatar and the qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup.
• Sport federations that claim sport is separate from politics should not include armed conflicts in that definition, because “war is a crime, not politics”, Ukrainian Minister of Sports Matvii Bidnyi said in an interview with the AFP news agency in advance of the Winter Olympics.

Energy

• Indian oil refiners will need a wind-down period to complete Russian oil deals before imports from that country can be halted, Reuters reported after Trump announced a trade agreement with India that included a halt to oil purchases from Russia.

• Ukraine’s electricity imports jumped by 40 percent in January 2026 compared with December 2025, hitting a record 894 gigawatt hours amid constant Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, which have left millions of people without power and heating, Reuters reported, citing analysts.

• The EU’s decision last week to ban Russian gas imports was “100 percent legally sound”, the bloc’s energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, told reporters in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, adding it would prevent Russia from weaponising energy amid its war on Ukraine.

These are the key developments from day 1,439 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, February 1:

Fighting

• A Russian drone strike on a bus carrying miners in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least 12 people, according to officials.
• Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal denounced the strike as a “cynical and targeted” attack on energy workers. Their employer, DTEK, said the victims were finishing a shift.
• Another Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed a man and a woman, while nine people were wounded in Russian attacks on a maternity ward and a residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, officials said. Among those injured were two women undergoing medical examination.
• In a post on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of attempting to disrupt logistics and connectivity between Ukrainian cities and communities through its drone, bomb and missile attacks. He said Russia used more than 980 attack drones, nearly 1,100 guided aerial bombs, and two missiles against Ukraine.
• Nearly 700 apartment buildings remain without heating in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, due to previous Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said, as a new wave of bitter cold swept across much of the country.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces gained control over the village of Zelene in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, and the settlement of Sukhetske in the Donetsk region, according to the TASS news agency. The ministry added that Russian forces hit facilities of transport infrastructure used in the interests of the Ukrainian army.
• Tech billionaire Elon Musk said moves by his SpaceX company to stop Russia’s “unauthorised” use of its internet system Starlink seem to have worked, after Ukrainian officials reported finding Starlink terminals on long-range drones used in Russian attacks.
• Ukrainian Minister of Defence Mykhailo Fedorov said Kyiv was developing a system that would allow only authorised Starlink terminals to work on Ukrainian territory.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy said a new round of trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian and US officials on a Washington-drafted plan to end the nearly four-year war has been postponed to February 4 and 5 in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi.
• Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, praised US President Donald Trump’s “brash” style as “effective” in seeking peace, but added that Moscow had seen no trace of nuclear submarines that Trump claimed he had moved to Russian shores.
• Medvedev added in his interview with the Reuters and TASS news agencies that Trump “wants to go down in history as a peacemaker – and he is really trying”, which explains “why contacts with Americans have become much more productive”.
• Medvedev also said that European powers had failed to defeat Russia in Ukraine, but had inflicted severe economic harm on themselves by trying to do so.
• Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu held talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi in Beijing, with China’s top diplomat saying that bilateral relations between the two countries could “break new ground” this year.
• Wang also told Shoigu that China and Russia must work together to uphold multilateralism in a time of “turmoil”, and “advocate for an equal and orderly multipolar world”.
• The US and Russia’s New START pact, the final treaty in the world that restricted nuclear weapon deployment, is set to expire on Thursday, and with it, restrictions on the two top nuclear powers. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in September a one-year extension of New START, but little has been heard from Trump since he indicated last year that an extension “sounds like a good idea”.

These are the key developments from day 1,438 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Sunday, February 1:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine killed one person and wounded seven others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the country’s emergency service. High-rise buildings, homes, shops and cafes were also damaged.
• Another person was wounded by shelling in the Zaporizhia region, the service said, with a blast also destroying three residential buildings and 12 homes.
• In the Donetsk region, at least two people were killed, and five more were wounded, in 13 separate Russian attacks across multiple districts, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
• A total of 172 people, including 35 children, were evacuated from the front line, Filashkin said.
• Russian strikes hit state railway infrastructure in the Zaporizhia and Dnipro regions, a tactic Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was intended to “cut our cities off from one another”.
• In total, 303 combat clashes took place throughout Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram, tallying 38 air strikes, 119 guided bombs, 2,510 kamikaze drones and 2,437 attacks on settlements and troops.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that its troops captured ⁠the villages ​of Petrivka, ‍in Ukraine’s southeastern ‍Zaporizhzhia region, and ⁠Toretske, in the eastern ​Donetsk ‌region. Al Jazeera could not verify the claim.
• Russia’s TASS state news agency also claimed that Russian forces had taken control of at least 24 Ukrainian settlements since the start of the year, the majority of which were in the Zaporizhia region.
• Two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia’s Belgorod region, TASS reported.

Energy

• Parts of Ukraine, including at least 3,500 buildings in Kyiv, faced a blackout throughout Saturday after a failure on interconnection lines with Moldova, officials reported.
• The Kyiv metro closed down, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, along with the capital’s water and electricity supplies, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
• Although the capital’s water supplies had returned by around 10:30pm local time (20:30 GMT), energy workers were continuing to restore heat to roughly 2,600 houses, Klitschko said.
• Ukraine is investigating the stoppage, but “as of now, there is no confirmation of external interference or a cyberattack”, the president said. “Most indications point to weather: ice buildup on the lines and automatic shutdowns.”
• At the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, SpaceX has temporarily restricted operations of its Starlink systems in Ukraine to prevent Russian drone attacks, Serhii Beskrestnov, technology adviser to the defence minister, announced on Facebook.
• “I apologise once again to those who have been temporarily affected by the measures taken, but for the security of the country, these are now very important and necessary actions,” Beskrestnov wrote.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States special envoy Steve Witkoff said that he had “productive and constructive meetings” with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida.
• “We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said, adding that he was “grateful” for US President Donald Trump’s “critical leadership in seeking a durable and lasting peace”.
• US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks.
• In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “in regular contact with the US side” and is “waiting for them to provide specifics on further meetings”, expected to take place next week.
• “Ukraine is ready to work in all effective formats,” he added. “What matters is the results, and that meetings happen.”
• Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha spoke with Deputy Prime Minister of Liechtenstein Sabine Monauni, discussing “developments in the peace negotiations and urgent needs of Ukraine’s energy system”, Sybiha wrote on X.
• “We also paid special attention to further sanctions pressure on Russia and joint international efforts to hold it to account,” Sybiha said.

The US has intensified threats against Iran if it doesn’t agree to its demands, as Trump says a ‘massive armada’ is amassing in the region. Al Jazeera’s Virginia Pietromarchi answers key questions on the latest escalation.

Published On 29 Jan 202629 Jan 2026

Click here to share on social media

Share

“Football obsessive.”

Ask people who know Steve Holland well how they would describe the former Chelsea and England coach and the same phrase is repeated.

“Football is his life,” a source told BBC Sport.

“Whether it’s Champions League, thoughts on players or something else, he has a hell of a brain when it comes to football detail.”

It explains why, instead of sitting back and reflecting on the success of Manchester United’s 3-2 win at Arsenal, Holland spent the return journey to North West England going through footage of the victory with head coach Michael Carrick and the rest of his backroom team to come up with a plan for Sunday’s home game against Fulham.

On Monday, while the players were given a day off, Holland and company were at United’s Carrington training ground, honing the sessions they hope will lead to a third straight Premier League win.

Attention to detail is a Holland character trait, something he has relied on since joining Crewe in 1992, after concluding he would advance further as a coach than he did as a player if he dedicated himself to the profession at a young age.

Holland, 55, believes only former England boss Graham Taylor was younger than him when he gained what is now known as the Uefa A Licence coaching badge, when he was 21.

Of the rest of United’s new coaching set-up, boss Carrick had not even started secondary school when Holland began his coaching journey. Jonathan Woodgate is slightly older than Carrick. Jonny Evans and Travis Binnion are younger.

It is why Holland’s presence – and, through his England experience, ability to deal with intense pressure – is so vital to Carrick and his coaching team and why he is getting so much credit for the positive start to a tenure that has already delivered victories against Manchester City and Arsenal and taken United up to fourth in the Premier League.

“He won’t be bothered about the scrutiny and pressure at Manchester United,” says former Radio Stoke editor Graham McGarry, who got to know Holland well during his 16-year stint with Crewe.

“He will take it all in his stride and just do his job.

“His training sessions are fantastic. You can already see the Manchester United players are responding to them.”

Not that Holland is likely to be talking about it in public.

A second trait that keeps being noted is that he is a man of few words, someone who is difficult to read. “You never knew whether he was quietly content or silently raging,” said a source who has worked with him.

But that mask can help when it comes to delivering messaging. The less someone speaks, the argument goes, the more likely their audience is to listen when something is being said.

It is far too early to assess Holland’s work. It is just over two weeks since the coaching team were introduced to United’s players as a group for the first time, but several well-placed sources stress the coaching team work as a collective.

It should not be dismissed either that while Darren Fletcher didn’t win his two games in interim charge, he reset the formation following Ruben Amorim’s dismissal on 5 January. The Scot began to lift the mood. He also recalled Kobbie Mainoo. It meant key players Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo returned from the Africa Cup of Nations to a stable environment, which gave Carrick the best chance of success.

Changes to the training programme have been made, according to sources. The days are now shorter, but more intense. There is a different energy about sessions and more focus on individual work with specific players. The matchday routine for home games has been tweaked so players now arrive at Old Trafford slightly closer to kick-off.

Carrick was given the job ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in part, because of the work he does ‘on the grass’. But Holland ran the sessions with England, allowing Gareth Southgate to take an overview.

In consultation with Southgate, Holland concluded England’s formation had been ‘too stodgy’ in qualification for the 2018 World Cup, triggering the switch to a back three. “Harry Maguire’s ability on the was ball fundamental,” explained Holland in a half-hour dissection of his work for the Coaches Voice podcast in 2021.

Speaking to Sky Sports before the Manchester City game, Maguire recalled his own dealings with Holland.

“He was magnificent for England,” he said. “We all knew what we were doing.

“I can remember a lot of time working with Steve and he really does drill in tactically how to defend and how to keep the ball out of the back of the net.

“It’s basics but really disciplined basics. I feel he will have a big part to play in making our defensive record a lot better.”

Since leaving his role with England following Euro 2022, Holland has had a short, unsuccessful spell in Japan and undertook some work for the League Managers’ Association.

What he has not done is court media attention.

The Coaches Voice chats and others with the Football Association are rare examples of Holland being interviewed.

“The perfect number two,” as he has been described.

The insight that does exist is revealing.

“With any session the more the players are enjoying their work the more you will get out of them,” he explained in an interview published by the FA.

“It is important to try to find creative ways of delivering repetitive practice to stimulate the players’ interest.

“The key always with practice is the transfer into the game. It is important to try and maximise the possibility of a transfer by not steering too far from the reality of the game.”

He may be new to Manchester United but navigating the fall-out from a departing boss is something Holland has plenty of experience of.

It was then Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas who elevated him from the youth ranks to the senior team at Chelsea. “I was on holiday in Spain,” recalled Holland. “I took the call on day two and returned home on day three. My wife still reminds me of that regularly.”

Villas-Boas was sacked after nine months back in 2012. His successor, Roberto di Matteo, won the Champions League but was dumped after eight.

Behind the scenes, Holland was impressing. He survived the tenures of Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink before quitting to concentrate solely on England after Chelsea won the Premier League in Antonio Conte’s first season in charge.

“At a big club, every day is a drama,” Holland told the Coaches Voice. “It is never quite as bad as it is made out to be but your ability to handle these moments are decisive.

“My experience of life at Chelsea has taught me it is about winning. That winning mentality doesn’t include feeling sorry for yourself or making excuses. It means you analyse and push to do better next time.”

They seem like wise words given the intensity of the noise that surrounds Manchester United, who will look to add more weight to claims their revival under Carrick and co is more than a flash in the pan when they host Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.

From the outside looking in, it seems Holland is already having a significant positive impact at English football’s fallen giants.

The job might be tough, and the demands might be high, but it is fair to assume the Stockport-born ‘football obsessive’ is in his element.

These are the key developments from day 1,435 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Thursday, January 29:

Fighting

• The death toll from a Russian attack on a passenger train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Tuesday rose to six, after the remains of several bodies were recovered from the wreckage, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on the Telegram messaging app.
• At least six people were injured in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram.
• Russian forces attacked several locations across Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 46-year-old man and injuring at least two other people, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, said on Facebook.
• One person was killed in a Ukrainian attack on the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in Russia’s Belgorod region, the regional emergencies task force reported, according to the country’s TASS state news agency.
• A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in the city of Enerhodar, in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Russia’s locally appointed official Yevhen Balitsky said, according to TASS.
• Fedorov has ruled out installing anti-drone netting as a mode of defence, saying that “there are more effective ways to combat Russian attacks”, Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency reported.

Military aid

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that France will deliver more “French aircraft, missiles for air defence systems, and aerial bombs” to Ukraine this year, following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Regional security

• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at an event in Paris that a 2035 target for rearming Europe “would be too late”.
• “I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing,” Frederiksen said. “Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US,” she added.

• Switzerland plans to inject an additional 31 billion Swiss francs ($40.4bn) into military spending starting from 2028 by increasing sales taxes for a decade.
• “The world has become more volatile and insecure, and the international order based on international law is under strain,” the Swiss government said, noting that other European countries have also been increasing their defence spending.

Politics and diplomacy

• Vladislav Maslennikov, a top European Affairs official at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told TASS that restoring relations with the European Union will only be possible if European countries “cease their sanctions policy”, stop “pump[ing] weapons into the Kyiv regime, and sabotag[ing] the peace process around Ukraine.”

• President Macron said at an event in Paris that European countries must focus on asserting their “sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, and on the fight against global warming”.
• “France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” said Macron, who has turned down an invitation for France to join Trump’s Board of Peace, which some critics say is an attempt to replace the United Nations.

Peace talks

• United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that negotiations over Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is part of the Donbas region that is now 90 percent occupied by Russian forces, are “still a bridge we have to cross” in talks between Russia and Ukraine.
• “It’s still a gap, but at least we’ve been able to narrow down the issue set to one central one, and it will probably be a very difficult one,” Rubio said.

Energy

• Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 639 apartment buildings in Kyiv remain without heat, with temperatures forecast to drop to -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight this week.

Hey, Greenland — feeling a little low after President Trump’s ongoing attempts to buy or otherwise acquire the land under your feet? Neil Young can fix that framework!

Just keep “Rockin’ in the Free World.” For free. Forever.

The 80-year-old “hippie at heart” on Tuesday granted “our friends in Greenland” a year of free access to his music catalog, hoping that its contents “ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government.”

(Of course, all U.S. administrations, even Trump’s, are effectively temporary, given the whole “elections every four years” thing. That should ease some stress right there.)

“It is my sincere wish for you to be able to enjoy all of my music in your beautiful Greenland home, in its highest quality,” Young wrote on his blog. “This is an offer of Peace and Love. All the music i have made during the last 62 years is yours to hear.” It’s unclear whether he’s giving away the middle-tier “Rust” subscription, which is just a penny under $45 a year, or the top-notch “Patron” subscription, which adds unspecified extras and a promise of priority treatment for $99.99 annually. The basic level subscription, at $24.99 a year, doesn’t provide the “highest quality” sound or the “music films” his message promises.

Greenlanders who take him up on his offer can renew for free annually as long as they stay put on the island. Young’s team will need cellphone numbers with the Greenland country code: 299.

Young said he hoped other “organizations” would follow in his footsteps.

He does have a “Heart of Gold,” after all.

Dilling, a key route for supply lines, had under the paramilitary group’s control for nearly two years.

Sudan’s military says it has broken a nearly two-year siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a key town in the Kordofan region, gaining control over major supply lines.

In a statement late on Monday, the military said it had opened a road leading to South Kordofan province’s Dilling town.

“Our forces inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, both personal and equipment,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war with the army for control of Sudan for nearly three years.

Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli – the besieged state capital – and el-Obeid, the capital of neighbouring North Kordofan province, which the RSF has sought to encircle.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the Sudanese capital Khartoum, described the army’s takeover of Dilling as a “very significant gain” that may lead to more advances in the province.

“The army is trying to make use of this momentum to take territory not just from the RSF, but also from its ally, the SPLM-N, led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which controls territory and has forces in South Kordofan,” Morgan said.

Paramilitary troops were likely to fight back and attempt to retake the lost territory by relocating fighters from el-Obeid and Kadugli, according to Morgan.

Morgan added that the humanitarian situation in Dilling would likely improve as the army will now be able to bring in medical supplies, food and other commercial goods that had been prevented from entering during the RSF’s siege.

After being forced out of Khartoum in March, the RSF has focused on Kordofan and the city of el-Fasher, which was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region until the RSF seized it in October.

Reports of mass killings, rape, abductions and looting emerged after el-Fasher’s paramilitary takeover, and the International Criminal Court launched a formal investigation into “war crimes” by both sides.

Dilling has reportedly experienced severe hunger, but the world’s leading authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, did not declare famine there in its November report because of a lack of data.

A United Nations-backed assessment last year already confirmed famine in Kadugli, which has been under RSF siege for more than a year and a half.

More than 65,000 people have fled the Kordofan region since October, according to the latest UN figures.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. At its peak, the war had displaced about 14 million people, both internally and across borders.

These are the key developments from day 1,433 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, January 27:

Fighting

• At least two people were injured after Russian forces launched a drone and missile attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The attack also damaged apartment buildings, a school, and a kindergarten, he added.

• Russian drones also hit a high-rise apartment building in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown southeast of Kharkiv. The head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said the attack triggered a fire, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
• A Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital damaged parts of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine’s most famous religious landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement.
• In Russia, one person was killed following a Ukrainian drone attack in the border region of Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.
• Ukraine’s military said it struck the Slavyansk Eko oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight. The military said in a statement that parts of the primary oil processing facility were hit. There were no initial reports of casualties.

• One person was injured, and two business enterprises caught fire in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban – also in Russia’s Krasnodar – after fragments fell from a destroyed drone, the regional emergencies centre said.

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 34 in the Krasnodar region.

Military aid

• NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Ukraine’s interception rate of Russian missiles and drones has decreased due to Kyiv having fewer weapons to protect it from incoming attacks. Rutte urged allies to dig into their stockpiles to help defend Ukraine.

Humanitarian aid

• Czechs have collected more than $6m in just five days in a grassroots fundraising effort to buy generators, heaters and batteries to send to Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of people are freezing in sub-zero temperatures after Russian attacks on power plants, the online fundraising initiative Darek pro Putina (“Gift for Putin”) said.

Ceasefire talks

• Talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are expected to resume on February 1, Zelenskyy said in his regular evening address. He urged Ukraine’s allies not to weaken their pressure on Moscow in advance of the expected talks.

• In a separate post on X, Zelenskyy said military issues were the primary topic of discussion at trilateral talks with the US and Russia over the weekend in Abu Dhabi, but that political issues were also discussed. He added that preparations are under way for new trilateral meetings.

• The US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were held in a “constructive spirit”, but there was still “significant work ahead”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow. The talks should be viewed positively despite these differences, he added.

• The Kremlin also said that the issue of territory remained fundamental to Russia when it came to getting a deal to end the fighting, the Russian state’s TASS news agency reported. Moscow has insisted that for the war to end, Russia must take over all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

• German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul denounced Russia’s “stubborn insistence on the crucial territorial issue” following the talks in Abu Dhabi.

Politics

• European Union countries have approved a ban on Russian gas imports by late 2027, a move to cut ties with their former top energy supplier nearly four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• Ukrainian Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal welcomed the ban, saying in a statement that independence from Russian energy “is, above all, about a safe and strong Europe”.
• Germany’s Wadephul said that Russia is testing European countries’ resilience with hybrid tactics, such as the damaging of undersea cables, the jamming of GPS signals and the deployment of a shadow fleet of vessels to break sanctions, as its deadly war in Ukraine continues.

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Budapest would summon Ukraine’s ambassador over what Orban said were attempts by Kyiv to interfere in a Hungarian parliamentary election due on April 12. In recent weeks, Orban has intensified his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and sought to link opposition leader, Peter Magyar, with Brussels and Ukraine.