Ukraine-Russia war latest: Germany ‘won’t stand in way’ of Poland tanks as Boris Johnson makes surprise trip

Russia said no new date has been set for talks with the United States on the New START nuclear arms treaty, accusing the US of ramping up tensions between the two sides.

Talks between Moscow and Washington on resuming inspections under the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty were due to take place in November in Egypt, but Russia postponed them and neither side has set a new date for a meeting.

Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, said the conditions were not right for new talks on the treaty, which caps the number of each side’s strategic nuclear warheads.

“The situation does not, frankly speaking, allow for setting a new date … taking into account this escalation trend in both rhetoric and actions by the United States,” Ryabkov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Moscow said in November that it had to cancel talks with the United States over inspections of nuclear facilities under the New START treaty, which is set to expire in February 2026, citing “political reasons” and Washington’s supply of weapons to Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) has accused Ukraine of storing Western-supplied arms at nuclear power stations across the country.

It provided no evidence and The Independent was unable to verify the claims.

In a statement, the SVR said US-supplied Himars rocket launchers, air defence systems and artillery ammunition had been delivered to the Rivne nuclear power station in the northwest of Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are storing weapons and ammunition provided by the West on the territory of nuclear power plants,” it said, further claiming that an arms shipment to the Rivne power station had taken place in the last week of December.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia power plant and Ukraine says Russia is using the site as a de facto weapons depot.

The speaker of Russia‘s parliament warned on Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their own destruction, a message that followed new pledges of armoured vehicles, air defence systems and other equipment.

“Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” State Duma chair Vyacheslav Volodin said.

“If Washington and Nato supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”

European Council president Charles Michel has urged the block’s national leaders to push forward with talks on using £260bn worth of confiscated Russian central bank assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Mr Michel said he is ready to explore the idea of managing the Russian central bank’s frozen assets to generate profits, which could then be earmarked for reconstruction efforts, the newspaper reported.

“It is a question of justice and fairness and it must be done in line with legal principles,” the FT quoted Michael as saying in an interview.

In November, the EU had blocked €300bn (£263bn) of the Russian central bank’s reserves to punish Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

In the first official mention of a warship armed with new-generation hypersonic cruise weapons, a Russian state-owned news agency said Soviet Union Gorshkov will participate in joint drills with China and South Africa in February.

“Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov, which is armed with Zircon missiles, will go to the logistic support point in Syria’s Tartus, and then take part in joint naval exercises with the Chinese and South African navies,” Tass news agency said, citing an unidentified defence source.

The missiles fly at nine times the speed of sound, with a range of more than 1,000 km (620 miles), Russia says. They form the centrepiece of its hypersonic arsenal, along with the Avangard glide vehicle that entered combat duty in 2019.

On Thursday, the South African National Defense Force said the drills, to run from 17 – 27 February near the port city of Durban and Richards Bay, aim “to strengthen the already flourishing relations between South Africa, Russia and China.”

The top Moscow-installed official in the occupied parts of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine said late on Sunday that he had visited the town of Soledar that Russia claimed to have captured earlier this month.

Denis Pushilin, the administrator, released a short video on Telegram, showing himself driving and walking amidst uninhabited areas and destroyed buildings.

“I visited Soledar today,” Mr Pushilin said in an accompanying statement.

On 11 January, the Russian mercenary group Wagner said it captured Soledar, a salt mining town which has been the focus of intense fighting for months.

Ukraine has not confirmed if the town was captured by Russian forces.

Writing a joint letter to the German defence minister, dozens of British MPs have urged him to allow Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s invasion using German-made Leopard 2 tanks.

The group, which includes the chairs of 24 major Commons committees and dozens of senior backbenchers, was coordinated by Labour’s Chris Bryant to contact Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius “at this moment of extreme urgency”.

“We are conscious of the very significant efforts Germany has made to support Ukraine, especially over the last twelve months We understand the historic reasons for reluctance to provide German and German-made tanks,” they wrote, in a copy of the letter obtained by The Sun.

“However, we would urge you at this moment of extreme urgency, to reconsider your position and allow Leopard 2 battle tanks – both German-owned and German-built – to be provided to Ukraine in the next few days.”

Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Sunday, despite warnings from senior military figures that he should stay away and stop “looking for publicity”.

Mr Johnson said he had been invited by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the country for a fourth time, as he urged Western leaders to give Ukraine “all the tools they need”.

He said: “It is a privilege to visit Ukraine at the invitation of President Zelensky. The suffering of the people of Ukraine has gone on for too long.”

“The only way to end this war is for Ukraine to win – and to win as fast as possible. This is the moment to double down and to give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job. The sooner Putin fails, the better for Ukraine and for the whole world.”

His visit comes as he faces pressure over claims that he involved the BBC chair Richard Sharp in talks that led to his securing an £800,000 line of credit while at No 10.

Former civil service chief Sir Bob Kerslake said there was “no question” that there appeared to be a conflict of interest – describing the reported involvement of Mr Sharp in the talks as an “important departure from what should really happen”.

Germany would “not stand in the way” of Poland sending tanks to Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister has said.

Speaking to a French television station on Sunday, Annalena Baerbock gave the clearest signal yet that Berlin’s European allies could deliver German-made equipment to the Ukrainian front lines.

When Ms Baerbock was asked about whether Germany would allow Poland to export the tanks to Ukraine, she replied: “For the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way.”