President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says there should be no delays in delivering weapons to help Ukraine fight Russia as he addresses the Munich Security Conference via video link.
Russia is intensifying its offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, its governor says.
Russia appoints several new commanders in a military reshuffle.
Ukraine was weathering a wave of Russian attacks on its power grid and seeing recovering supplies despite Russia’s campaign against key infrastructure, energy operator, Ukrenergo, has said.
After humiliating defeats on the ground, Russia has since October pummelled Ukraine’s energy facilities, leading to power shortages that have left millions in the cold and dark during winter.
“There has been no shortage of electricity in the energy system during the entire working week, and none is expected so far,” Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messenger.
Russia has summoned Italy’s ambassador to the country after Moscow said a number of performances by Russian artists in Italy had been cancelled.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry accused Italian authorities of discriminating against Russian artists without providing further detail.
“Decisions by the Italian authorities unfortunately indicate a tendency to discriminate against Russian artists and restrict cultural and humanitarian exchanges,” it said.
In December, an Italian theatre called off a performance by prominent Russian dancer, Sergei Polunin, amid an online backlash over his tattoos of President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is hosting his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, for talks in Moscow today while Western leaders congregate at the Munich Security Conference.
Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency reported that the pair would discuss military cooperation and security issues during their meeting.
Russia and Belarus are close allies and Moscow used Belarusian territory as a launchpad for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.
— Al Jazeera And News Agencies
