Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s troops ‘use gas pipeline for surprise attack’ on Ukrainian forces in Kursk

The EU remains committed to entirely phasing out the supply of Russian gas, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

“I commit very clearly to phasing out the Russian gas … this is an absolute must,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

“We’ve been successful, but we always see of course that there are loopholes where we have to be careful and we have to work on.”

Vice President JD Vance claims he was confronted by pro-Ukraine protesters in Cincinnati on Saturday while out walking with his three-year-old daughter, who became “increasingly anxious and scared” by their shouts, he said.

“Today while walking my 3 year old daughter a group of ‘Slava Ukraini’ protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared,” Vance wrote on X.

“I decided to speak with the protesters in the hopes that I could trade a few minutes of conversation for them leaving my toddler alone. (Nearly all of them agreed.),” he continued.

My colleagues Oliver O’Connell and Alex Woodward report:

Poland, which pays for Ukraine’s Starlink internet services, may seek an alternative if Elon Musk’s company proves to be “unreliable”, the foreign minister said on Sunday after the billionaire speculated about turning off access to the system.

Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to Ukraine and its military. US negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to the service, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in February.

Musk, a high-profile figure in the administration of US President Donald Trump, said in a post on his X social media platform on Sunday, that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it (Starlink) off”.

He said he was “sickened by … years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose”.

The US government has already revoked some access to satellite imagery for Ukraine and paused intelligence sharing, piling pressure on Kyiv as Trump seeks a swift end to the war, now in its fourth year after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

“Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on X.

“The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers.”

At the beginning of Russia’s invasion, the group of civilians turned out to defend their hometowns armed only with shotguns like the Shelby gang in the television hit. But after three years of intense fighting, the unit – named ‘The Peaky Blinders’ – have evolved to become one of Kyiv’s deadliest drone squads.

They play out a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, launching cheap, mass-produced drones to drop bombs on tanks and enemy foxholes while dodging Russian retaliation in the forests in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The region is the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

My colleague Barney Davis reports:

An anti-war campaigner who faces years in prison if she returns home to Russia is fighting to stay in the US.

Valeriia Razheva, 23, co-founded the US branch of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAWR) in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The movement has been labelled an “undesirable organisation”by Moscow, under a law that allows prosecutors to target foreign groups they deem “a threat to the foundation of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, the defense capability of the country or the security of the state.”

Those affiliated can receive lengthy prison sentences if they fail to shut them down.

My colleague Bryony Gooch reports:

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz on Sunday said he would like talks with France and Britain about sharing their nuclear weapons, but not as a substitute for US nuclear protection of Europe.

“Sharing nuclear weapons is an issue that we need to talk about…we have to become stronger together in nuclear deterrence,” he said in an interview on Deutschlandfunk radio, a day after agreeing cornerstones of a coalition deal between his conservative party and the Social Democratic SPD party.

“We should talk with both countries (France and Britain), always also from the perspective of supplementing the American nuclear shield, which we of course want to see maintained.”

Germany, due to its Second World War past, has bound itself to non-nuclear defence in a number of international treaties but participates in NATO weapons-sharing arrangements.

At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders backed plans to spend more on defence amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next and that Europe can no longer rely on the US to come to its aid.

Merz’s tougher stance on security and migration reflects a changing political landscape, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to become the country’s second-largest party.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Saudi Arabia over March 10-12 for talks with Ukrainian counterparts, a statement from the US Department of State said.

Rubio will also have a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the statement from spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Rubio will then travel to Canada over March 12-14 for the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, the statement added.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that recent advances by Russian forces against Ukraine in the Kursk region meant that Kyiv’s soldiers were almost surrounded.

In a post on Telegram about the fighting in Kursk, Medvedev wrote: “The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed. The offensive continues.”

Britain and other European nations must be ready to take over Nato if Donald Trump carries out US threats to withdraw from the organisation.

That was the powerful message delivered on Saturday by former Conservative defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace.

France will use interest from Russian assets to fund another €195 million in arms for Ukraine, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a newspaper interview.

France also plans to hand over some of its older armoured fighting vehicles, such as its AMX-10RC and personnel carriers, Lecornu told La Tribune weekend newspaper.

“Thanks to interest from frozen Russian assets, we will also tap new funds worth €195 million,” Lecornu said, adding that it would be used for 155-mm artillery shells and glide bombs for Mirage 2000 fighter jets France has given Ukraine.

The Group of Seven powers agreed last year to provide Ukraine with $50 billion via a series of bilateral loans that Kyiv could pay off using windfall profits from $300 billion of frozen Russian state assets.