Ukraine–Russia war latest: Zelensky pushes for Nato to back his ‘victory plan’

Addressing European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels, Volodymyr Zelensky has called for more military aid for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion as he sought to win support for his “victory plan”.

“An immediate invitation to Ukraine to join Nato would be decisive. Putin just must see that his geopolitical calculations are worthless,” Mr Zelensky told the leaders of the EU countries, most of which are also members of Nato.

“Putin must respect our strength, not have the free world tremble at his threats,” Mr Zelensky said.

Ukrainian intelligence has information that North Korean officers have already been deployed in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.

The Ukrainian president told reporters in Brussels that North Korea was preparing to send a total of 10,000 soldiers to fight against Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that Ukraine will continue to fight against Russia’s invasion even if Kyiv’s Western allies do not agree to support his “victory plan”.

Mr Zelensky, who is on a visit to Brussels to pitch his plan to European leaders, said that Kyiv would also press on with preparations for a second peace summit.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that a third winter of war has the potential to be devastating for Ukraine’s citizens.

“Winter is coming, so we have to prepare,” he said in an appearance with European Council president Charles Michel, warning that Ukraine urgently needs more help with air defence.

During “months without without military support,” Ukraine’s own “production of drones and … systems of electronic warfare helped a lot,” Mr Zelensky said, adding: “We need money for this, and partly the money from Russian assets.”

Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide has said that a solid and constructive conversation is needed on Nato’s invitation to Ukraine to join the military alliance.

Speaking during a visit to Kyiv, he said that Norway welcomed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s victory plan as it would help develop conversation between Ukraine and its Western allies.

Laws that would outlaw “propaganda” discouraging Russians from having children were overwhelmingly approved on Thursday in the first of three readings in the lower house of parliament.

The legislation would ban materials on the internet, in the media and in advertising that are deemed to portray a child-free lifestyle as attractive, and subject the authors to fines.

Vladimir Putin, who portrays Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children to secure the demographic future of the country – but data last month revealed Russia’s birth rate had fallen to its lowest in around 25 years.

Deputy Duma speaker Anna Kuznetsova said earlier this month that the law was part of Russia’s “national security strategy”, and it is being championed by Vyacheslav Volodin, a powerful Putin ally who is chair of the lower house.

Mr Volodin has accused what authorities have described as the “child-free movement” of devaluing the institution of family with an ideology that encourages a “conscious refusal to have children”. He has said, however, that the law is not about criminalising women who decide not to become mothers.

The UK has imposed sanctions on 18 further Russian oil tankers and four liquified natural gas vessels, marking the largest batch of sanctions to date against Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet”, the government said.

The 18 oil tankers will be barred from UK ports and unable to access British maritime services, bringing the total number of sanctioned Russian oil tankers to 43, while the UK is also sanctioning Russian gas company Rusgazdobycha JSC.

“The UK’s relentless action against the shadow fleet is putting grit into the system and starving Putin’s war machine of crucial revenues,” the government said, adding the targeted oil tankers have transported an estimated £4.9bn last year.

The Department for Transport is also working with maritime authorities to demand that Russian vessels with suspected dubious insurance provide details of their insurance status as they pass through the Channel.

“Any actor that facilitates and supports Russia’s malign activities could be exposing themselves to sanctions,” the government said.

Australia will give 49 of its aging M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine months after Kyiv requested the redundant fleet, defence minister Richard Marles has said.

The Australian government is giving Ukraine most of its American-made M1A1 tanks, which are valued at around £126m, Mr Marles said. They will be replaced in Australia by a fleet of 75 next-generation M1A2 tanks.

In February, Marles had said that giving Ukraine the tanks as they were phased out was not on his government’s agenda. But on Thursday he said he did not regard the donation as a U-turn on his government’s previous position.

“We talk with the Ukrainian government consistently around how best we can support them,” Mr Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that support from Ukraine’s Western allies is key to his “victory plan” to end the country’s war with Russia, as he laid out details of the plan to European Union leaders.

The plan aims “to strengthen Ukraine” and pave the way for a diplomatic solution to end the conflict on Europe’s eastern flank, Mr Zelensky told reporters ahead of the EU summit.

“I think that this plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners,” he said.