Russia-Ukraine war – live: Sunak visits Zelensky as UK pledges thousands of drones to Kyiv

He was found heavily concussed after a nearby artillery strike and suffering PTSD after being left to fend for himself for five months when rescuers finally arrived just days before he starved to death.

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Rishi Sunak is taking a terrible risk in approving the air sorties against Houthi targets in Yemen. It may seem to be a minor military engagement. It may seem that he is part of a broad international coalition. And it may look as if the fuss about whether parliament should have voted on it is an irrelevant distraction, given that the Labour Party supports the strikes.

But the echoes from the past should keep Sunak awake at night.

Tony Blair’s first involvement in Iraq was to order airstrikes alongside Bill Clinton, the US president, in 1998, five years before the land invasion was launched.

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Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist Transdniestria region accused central authorities in the ex-Soviet state on Friday of training Ukrainian soldiers to launch attacks on the rebel area’s institutions and leaders.

Moldova’s pro-European government, which denounces Russia’s war in Ukraine, immediately denied the allegation.

Transdniestria split from Moldova before the 1991 Soviet collapse and fought a brief war against the newly independent state lying between Ukraine and Romania.

The separatist enclave has existed side by side with Moldova on its eastern fringe for the past 30 years with little turmoil or violence.

But tension has risen since the new year. Transdniestria, which receives hefty financial help from Moscow and has no international recognition, has denounced the imposition by Moldova’s government of import-export duties it says will cripple its businesses.

The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine will meet in western Ukraine at the end of January, the Hungarian government said on Friday.

Relations between NATO-member Hungary and Ukraine have been strained by issues such as the rights of ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine and Hungary’s opposition to providing European Union aid to Ukraine from the EU budget amid Russia’s invasion.

Last month all EU states except Hungary agreed to start accession talks with Ukraine. The bloc’s leaders bypassed nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s opposition by getting him to leave the room when the decision was made.

A reasonable argument can be made that every nationwide election has implications and consequences that transcend national borders.

In strictly national terms, the Taiwanese face a familiar choice. They are voting both for a new president and for a new parliament, with three main candidates and parties to choose from, and the issue is, as ever, relations with China.

Mary Dejevsky writes that the impact of this weekend’s elections could be far-reaching from China to Ukraine. Read the full article here:

A Russian court Friday ordered that Sergei Udaltsov, a Russian pro-war activist and critic of President Vladimir Putin, be detained until February 15 when he will stand trial for charges of “justifying terrorism,” Russian state news agency Ria Novosti said.

Udaltsov is the leader of the Left Front, a group of political parties that oppose Putin and are affiliated with the Communist Party.

He was prominent during the 2011-12 protests that saw the biggest demonstrations in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and was briefly allied with now-imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Udaltsov told Ria Novosti that the charges relate to his posts in support of members of a Marxist group who were arrested for creating a “terrorist community” in the city of Ufa, about 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he was more positive now that Ukraine will secure financial aid from the United States than he was last month.

“I am viewing this with more positivity than in December, I think we will (get it),” he told a press conference in Kyiv.

It comes after the White House said on Thursday that US assistance to Ukraine had “ground to a halt” as negotiations continue over an aid package that could be tied to an overhaul of border security measures.

“The assistance that we provided has now ground to a halt,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Rishi Sunak said he was “proud” to sign a new security agreement with Ukraine, as he spoke at a press conference in Kyiv.

He said: “This is the first in a series of new bilateral security assurances promised to Ukraine by 30 countries at last year’s (Nato) Vilnius Summit.

“And it says that if Russia ever invades Ukraine again, the UK will come to your aid with swift and sustained security assurance.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has described the security agreement as “unprecedented”, adding that it will remain in place until Ukraine joins Nato.

The agreement came after G7 countries agreed at last year’s Nato summit to provide Ukraine with bilateral security assurances.

It sets out intelligence sharing, cyber security, medical and military training that Britain will provide.