Ukrainian forces appear to have seized more land inside a Russian border region with a series of offensives – with Vladimir Putin said to be facing discontent over the Kremlin’s handling of the situation in the territory. Follow the latest on the Ukraine war.
Friday 7 February 2025 17:21, UK
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We’ll be back soon with more updates on the war in Ukraine.
Before we go, here is a rundown of what has been happening over the last 24 hours:
Ukraine’s military has released footage of what it says shows Russian drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles, to use the technical term) being incapacitated as they fly toward targets in Ukraine.
Late last month, it was reported that British forces had put in place contingency plans to board and seize Russian ships off the UK coast if there is evidence they are damaging undersea pipelines.
Moscow has responded to the suggestion – saying it would be forced to take action.
“If this were to hypothetically happen, it would be a violation of the [UN] convention [on the law of the sea],” ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
“Naturally, we have the right to defend our interests by legal means. But it is unlikely to come to that, as our response will be inevitable, fully lawful, and justified.”
The Russian diplomat described the statements on the potential detention of Russian ships implied “some readiness of the British Navy, a tiny one now, to some sort of concrete actions”.
“But, obviously, this will require a political decision,” he added.
UK Defence Secretary John Healy said last month he had ordered the Royal Navy to intercept Russia’s Yantar spy ship in the English Channel in November.
Intelligence officials at the UK’s Ministry of Defence say the pace of territorial gains being made by Moscow’s forces inside Ukraine has slowed in recent weeks.
“In January 2025, Russia’s territorial advances in Ukraine slowed as they took approximately 320sqkm, compared with approximately 400sqkm in December 2024,” the update said.
“Russia seized control of the stronghold of Velyka Novosilka, but advances along most of the frontline have been relatively minor.”
The officials added that North Korean units fighting alongside Russian forces had been “temporarily withdrawn” from the front lines, “likely to rest and refit before redeploying”.
“This is almost certainly primarily due to heavy losses sustained during attacks against Ukrainian-held positions,” they said.
These images show Ukrainian forces conducting a live fire exercise with tank crews, at an undisclosed location in the country.
One of Donald Trump’s most frequently-aired grievances is the respective level of contributions to NATO by its various members.
The leader has often bemoaned the fact that many countries pay less towards the alliance than Washington – although the latest figures released by NATO show Germany matched the US funding.
However, against the backdrop of Trump’s complaints, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte said today that defence spending by the group’s European members and Canada rose by 20% in 2024, compared to the previous year,
Many members have been anxious to show they have taken Trump’s message on board and have already increased military spending, particularly since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NATO said the 20% boost by the alliance’s non-US members took their total defence spending to more than $485bn (£390bn).
“I’m looking forward to hosting defence ministers at NATO next week where we’ll talk about investing more and better in defence,” Rutte said in response to a request to NATO for the latest spending figures.
“We’ve crunched the numbers. They’re going up. In fact, spending by Europe and Canada is up 20% in 2024, bringing the total additional investment in recent years from $640bn to $700bn.”
Russian forces have taken control of the city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry has said.
It has not been possible to independently verify the battlefield report.
A major struggle for the city began in June last year, with bitter fighting for control since then.
Analysts suggest it is of strategic value as an important logistics hub.
Russia calls the city by its Soviet-era name of Dzerzhynsk and says Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region is now part of Russia, an assertion which Kyiv rejects.
Russian forces also continue pushing toward Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub roughly 50km southwest of Toretsk, and towards Chasiv Yar to the north.
A series of maps show the current situation at various points on the Ukraine-Russia front lines.
View the maps below to see the latest battlefield developments in Kharkiv, Donestsk, Zaporizhia and Kursk.
Ukraine has said it believes the work of the International Criminal Court in relation to Russian war crimes will continue despite sanctions imposed on the organisation by Donald Trump.
Trump authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel.
The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
And Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told a briefing in Kyiv: “We are convinced that the ICC will continue to fulfil important functions in Ukraine’s case, in particular bringing Russian war criminals to responsibility.
“We know that relations between the US and ICC have a long history.”
We return now to the subject of a potential meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Moscow said this morning that there had been a lot of inaccurate reports on US plans for ending the Ukraine war – and called for patience.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked this morning about a report that Trump’s envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, was seeking to arrange a truce even before talks on a peace settlement.
“We have nothing to add yet,” he said.
“There is nothing substantive on this account yet; we just need to be patient.”
Trump and Putin have both said they are keen to meet in person.
“Russia is open to negotiations. In any case, a settlement should come as a result of negotiations,” Peskov said.
As we reported earlier today, CNN previously quoted Peskov as saying there had been no initial contacts between the two leaders about whether such a meeting was needed or where and how it might take place.
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