Donald Trump has said Ukraine “may not survive” as the White House put pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky to give up territory seized by Russia. Ahead of the start of peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Mr Trump suggested Ukraine might cease to exist as a sovereign state. Mr Zelensky has been told he must show he is willing to cede land occupied by Russia if he wants Washington to lift its ban on weapons and intelligence sharing. Mr Trump has repeatedly called for Ukraine to sign a minerals deal that would give the US access to 50 per cent of Ukraine’s mineral wealth. It may be signed as early as this week. However, the US president has privately decided that the deal will not be enough to restart the flow of military assistance and intelligence, sources in Kyiv told The Telegraph. On Sunday night Mr Trump suggested that the pause on sharing military intelligence with Ukraine could be lifted. Speaking to reporters, he said “we just about have” when asked if he would end the pause. He is now demanding that Mr Zelensky agree to give up territory to Russia – something the Ukrainian president has said he will only consider as a means of joining Nato, which Washington has ruled out.
Mr Trump also wants Mr Zelensky to move towards holding elections in Ukraine, which have been suspended since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and possibly step down as leader before lifting the weapons freeze. He said on Sunday that the Ukrainian president had taken money from the US “like candy from a baby” and again criticised his counterpart for not being “grateful”.
Asked if he felt comfortable that he had “walked away” from Ukraine by suspending US aid and intelligence sharing, Mr Trump replied: “It may not survive anyway,” in an apparent reference to Russia’s rapid gains on the battlefield in recent days. Mr Trump has steadily been exerting pressure on Ukraine to agree to the American terms ahead of the critical meeting this week.
The withdrawal of military aid and intelligence is already having an effect on the battlefield, with F-16 fighter jets donated to Ukraine by the US thought to have been left without effective radar. The Institute of War Studies, an influential think tank in Washington, said on Sunday that it was “notable” that Ukraine has not been able to shoot down missiles from Russia in recent days. It added Russia was “intensifying offensive operations” in parts of the front line “in order to capitalise” on the cessation of US aid, with some 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers at risk of being encircled in the Kursk region as Russia bears down on the only escape route. Military sources in Ukraine told The Telegraph on Sunday that soldiers were being rushed to the region to hold off the Russian offensive and retain control of the sliver of territory that is thought to be a key bargaining tool for future peace talks. One soldier said they were given 20 minutes’ notice before making the journey from Kyiv on Sunday morning.
It comes as Elon Musk suggested Ukraine’s front lines could collapse if he withdrew his Starlink satellites. Europe is developing a plan to present to Mr Trump for a “coalition of the willing” to enforce a ceasefire. But on Sunday a British cabinet minister warned that countries could not be “dragooned” to provide troops to defend a lasting peace in Ukraine as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s “coalition of the willing”. Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has said that nations have to “step forward themselves” if they want to be part of the efforts, being led by Britain and France, to deter future Russian aggression.
Russia has so far escaped Mr Trump’s ire, bar for a threat to increase sanctions on Friday if Vladimir Putin does not stop “pounding” Ukraine and come to the negotiating table. Washington has vetoed a proposal by Canada, due to be presented at the G7 later this week, for a taskforce to tackle the “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, which Russia uses to evade economic sanctions and sustain its war effort.
05:30 PM GMT
That’s all for today
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05:20 PM GMT
Elon Musk says Starlink would never turn off its terminals in Ukraine
Elon Musk has said that no matter how much he disagreed on Ukraine policy, Starlink would never turn off its terminals.
“We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip,” Mr Musk said.
His comments came after he earlier claimed that the “entire front line” in Ukraine would collapse if he turned off his Starlink satellite internet services.
Starlink has played a vital role in maintaining communications in Ukraine, with fixed-line and mobile networks badly damaged by Russian bombing, and military lines facing heavy signal jamming and interceptions.
The embattled nation said last year that approximately 42,000 terminals were being used by the military, hospitals, businesses and aid organisations.
05:02 PM GMT
Minerals deal will not convince Trump to resume aid to Ukraine, says US officials
Donald Trump has privately made clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv will not be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with the war-torn country, two sources have told NBC News.
The officials said that Mr Trump wants the deal – which would give the US a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources – signed, and also a change in Volodymyr Zelensky’s attitude toward peace talks. They said this would include a willingness to make concessions such as giving up territory to Russia.
Mr Trump also wants Mr Zelensky to make some movement toward elections in Ukraine and possibly toward stepping down as his country’s leader, the officials said.
Elections in Ukraine have been paused under the country’s constitutional provision for martial law, which has been in effect since Russia invaded in 2022.
04:52 PM GMT
Russia captures new village in move to encircle Ukrainian troops
Russia said it had captured a village near Kursk on Sunday, closing in further on a key exit route for 10,000 Ukraine troops fighting in Russia.
The Kremlin’s defence ministry said its forces had “liberated” the small village of Novenke in a cross-border raid.
Russia is putting intense pressure on the territory held by Ukraine in Kursk. The offensive comes days after Donald Trump cut intelligence sharing to Kyiv that has left its forces partially blind to Russian attacks.
Russian special forces crawled 15km through a disused gas pipeline to ambush Ukraine in the region. Russia also said that its forces had taken back the village of Lebedevka nearby, and said it was “continuing to rout Ukrainian units”.
However, on Saturday Kyiv denied any major breakthrough, saying its forces were destroying small groups of Russian troops trying to cross the border.
04:34 PM GMT
US secretary of state tells Poland to ‘say thank you’ to Musk
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has told Poland to “say thank you” to Elon Musk for Starlink, adding that without it “Russians would be on the border with Poland right now”.
The exchange began when Mr Musk said that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse” if he turned off his Starlink service.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski responded by saying that it pays around $50m per year for Ukraine’s Starlink and that it may seek an alternative if Mr Musk’s company proves to be “unreliable”.
“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,” he said.
Mr Musk then told Mr Sikorski to “be quiet” calling him a “small man”. “You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink,” he added.
Mr Rubio then weighed in, saying that nobody had made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink and telling Mr Sikorski to say thank you.
“Say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this way long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now,” he said.
04:32 PM GMT
UK not considering conscription
The UK is not considering conscription, a senior minister has said.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told Sky News that “Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence”.
Asked whether conscription is something in mind, Mr McFadden said: “We’re not considering conscription, but, of course, we’ve announced a major increase in defence expenditure a couple of weeks ago, and we do have to recognise that the world has changed here.
“The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot in recent weeks and Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.”
03:57 PM GMT
Russian suicide drones hit Ukrainian military column in Kursk region, claims defence ministry
Credit: Russian Defence Ministry
03:41 PM GMT
Trump says Zelensky took money out of US under Biden ‘like candy from a baby’
Donald Trump has said Volodymyr Zelensky had taken “money out of this country under Biden like candy from a baby” and described Mr Zelensky as not being “grateful” in an interview on Fox News today.
Mr Trump said: “It was like taking candy from a baby what he did. He’s a smart guy and he’s a tough guy and he took money out of this country under Biden like candy from a baby. It was so easy,”
“I just don’t think he’s grateful,” he added.
It comes after the White House suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv in the after a confrontation between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky at the end of February.
03:08 PM GMT
EU chief sees US as ‘allies’ despite ‘differences’
The EU still sees the United States as “allies” despite president Donald Trump’s verbal broadsides against the bloc, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday, while stressing the need for Europe to “step up” on defence.
Asked if she saw a need to redefine Brussels’s approach to Washington, as it has already done towards Beijing, Ms von der Leyen said the answer was “a clear no – it’s a completely different relationship that we have with the United States than we have with China”.
“Of course the US are allies,” she said. “Yes, there are differences… but if you look at the common interests that we have, they always outweigh our differences. We will have our differences. We have to sort them out.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to slap tariffs on the European Union, and his alignment with Russia on Ukraine has deeply unsettled European officials. The US leader has also thrown up questions about US security commitments to Europe under the Nato umbrella.
02:15 PM GMT
Ukrainian front line ‘would collapse’ if Starlink is turned off, Musk claims
Elon Musk has claimed that the “entire front line” in Ukraine would collapse if he turned off his Starlink satellite internet services.
Starlink has played a vital role in maintaining communications in Ukraine, with fixed-line and mobile networks badly damaged by Russian bombing, and military lines facing heavy signal jamming and interceptions.
The embattled nation said last year that approximately 42,000 terminals were being used by the military, hospitals, businesses and aid organisations.
In February, the Trump administration reportedly threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink if Kyiv did not agree a deal over critical mineral resources. Mr Musk denied the reports at the time.
On Sunday, the billionaire claimed on social media that Ukraine’s “entire front line would collapse if I turned it off”.
It came in a series of posts in which Mr Musk said sanctions should be placed on Ukraine’s top ten oligarchs.
When confronted by another user, who told him to “stop pretending Putin isn’t the aggressor”, Mr Musk said: “I literally challenged Putin to one on one physical combat over Ukraine and my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.
“What I am sickened by is years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose.”
01:58 PM GMT
In pictures: Ukrainian army operates in Sumy
01:43 PM GMT
Russia’s Medvedev says Ukraine’s forces in Kursk almost surrounded
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.”
01:29 PM GMT
US secretary of state to meet Ukrainian counterparts
US secretary of state Marco Rubio will visit Saudi Arabia over March 10-12 for talks with his Ukrainian counterparts, a statement from the US department of state said.
Mr Rubio will also have a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, before travelling to Canada for the March 12-14 G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, the statement added.
Mr Rubio spoke with Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha on Friday and said president Donald Trump wanted to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible.
Mr Trump has paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after a White House clash with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on February 28.
Mr Zelensky has said that he will also visit Saudi Arabia for a Monday meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, and that Ukrainian diplomatic and military representatives would meet with the US team on Tuesday.
12:58 PM GMT
Germany’s Merz wants European nuclear weapons to boost US shield
German chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz 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.
“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.
12:11 PM GMT
EU remains committed to phase-out of Russian gas, von der Leyen says
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,” Ms 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.”
11:34 AM GMT
Watch: Ukrainian veteran amputees fight back
11:11 AM GMT
Joint naval drills between Iran, Russia and China to be held Monday
Joint naval drills organised annually between Iran, Russia and China will start on Monday in the south-eastern Iranian port of Chabahar, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
10:48 AM GMT
Russian forces in gas pipeline ‘detected, blocked and destroyed,’ says Ukraine
Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” had used a gas pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside Sudzha. In a Telegram post, it said the Russian troops were “detected in a timely manner” and that Ukraine responded with rockets and artillery.
“At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the General Staff reported.
10:44 AM GMT
Ukraine ‘striking Russian special forces moving along gas pipeline’
Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces have released a video which they say shows strikes against Russian special forces moving along a gas pipeline towards the city of Sudzha.
“In Kursk Oblast, enemy sabotage and assault groups were moving along a branch of the gas pipeline intending to gain a foothold on the outskirts of Sudzha,” said Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces.
“The enemy forces were promptly detected by aerial reconnaissance units of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Missile and artillery strikes were carried out on enemy personnel, and various types of UAV systems were deployed.”
10:38 AM GMT
Russia says it has taken another village in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region
Russia on Sunday announced the capture of another eastern Ukrainian village, in the Donetsk region, as its forces advanced towards the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The defence ministry said in a briefing that its troops had captured the village of Kostyantynopil, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west from the city of Donetsk.
10:30 AM GMT
In pictures
10:24 AM GMT
Ukrainian drone hits industrial plant deep inside Russia
A Ukrainian drone hit an industrial facility overnight in Russia’s Volga river region of Chuvashia, some 1,300 km (800 miles) from the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said on Sunday.
The strike – one of the deepest yet into Russia by a Ukrainian drone – caused no casualties, Chuvashia Governor Oleg Nikolayev said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Emergency services were at the scene at the Kombinat Burevestnik facility in the region’s capital, Cheboksaray, Nikolayev added. He provided no further details about the strike and the extent of any damage was unclear.
10:10 AM GMT
Russia says it downed 88 Ukrainian drones overnight
Russia’s air defence units destroyed 88 Ukrainian drones overnight with no injuries or damage reported, Russian authorities said on Sunday.
The Russian defence ministry said that 52 of the drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region, while 13 were over the Lipetsk region and nine were over the Rostov region, both in Russia’s southwest.
The rest of the Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia’s Voronezh, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Ryazan and Kursk regions.
Governors of the Lipetsk and Ryazan regions said overnight that their regions were under air raid alerts but they did not report any damage or injuries.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Telegram that the airports of Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan were closed for traffic for several hours overnight to ensure air safety.
10:04 AM GMT
France to tap Russian assets for 195 million euros this year
France will use interest from Russian assets to fund another 195 million euros in arms for Ukraine, according to armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu.
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 euros,” Mr 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.
10:00 AM GMT
Russians attempt to launch Kursk ambush through gas pipelines
Russian forces have attemped to launch a surprise attack on Ukrainian units from abandoned gas pipelines in Kursk.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers seized around 1,300 square km of Kursk last August in what Kyiv said was an attempt to gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations.
Russian special forces walked about 15 km along the inside of a major gas pipeline and some had spent several days in the pipe before attempting to surprise Ukrainian forces from the rear near Sudzha, military bloggers close to the armed forces said.
Sudzha is the home of major gas transfer and measuring stations on a pipeline that used to carry Russian natural gas into the Ukrainian gas transmission system for onward transportation to Europe.
Russian Telegram channels – some with close links to the Kremlin – showed pictures of special forces in gas masks and lights along the inside of what looked like a large pipe.
09:57 AM GMT
Russia claims capture of village in Ukraine’s Sumy region
Russia on Sunday claimed the capture of a village in Ukraine’s Sumy region after mounting a cross-border offensive while battling Ukrainian troops in its Kursk region.
The defence ministry said in a briefing that its forces in a counter-offensive had “liberated” the small village of Novenke in Sumy region near the border with the Kursk region.
The statement by Russia confirms reports that its troops had mounted a significant offensive into the Sumy region.
On Saturday Kyiv denied any major breakthrough, saying its forces were destroying small groups of Russian troops trying to cross the border.
Russia briefly occupied parts of Sumy region at the start of its all-out invasion in 2022.
09:56 AM GMT
How significant is the Kursk incursion?
Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last August was the most serious attack on Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Ukrainian troops stormed the region, taking chunks of territory in an unexpected lightning attack more than two years after Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
In recent weeks and months, Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian forces back across the Kursk front, placing tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops in danger of being encircled.
On Saturday, Russian troops launched a large-scale offensive to retake swaths of the western Kursk region, according to Russian accounts.
The precarious situation for Ukraine follows a pause in US military aid and intelligence sharing as president Donald Trump puts pressure on Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire with Moscow.
Kyiv has sought to maintain its position in the Russian border region as leverage for possible peace talks.
Ukraine is set to hold negotiations with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with Washington hoping to forge a deal on a ceasefire and a “framework” for a peace agreement after freezing arms shipments to Kyiv and blocking access to intelligence reports and satellite imagery.
09:47 AM GMT
Watch: Russians launch surprise attack through gas pipeline
09:35 AM GMT
Ukraine says Russia attacked with over 100 drones overnight
Ukraine said that Russia launched over one hundred drones overnight, targeting the capital and several regions at a crucial point in the war as Washington has frozen aid supplies.
The wave of attacks followed deadly strikes Friday and Saturday in eastern and northeastern Ukraine that killed at least 14 people.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 119 drones overnight, of which 71 were downed in a dozen regions and in Kyiv, while 37 others went missing without causing harm.
It said drones caused damage in six regions, without giving specifics.
On Saturday evening, a glide bomb attack hit residential buildings in the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region, where the front line now lies close to several major towns, wounding 12 people including a 15-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
09:30 AM GMT
Russia says it has taken one village in Kursk region, another across Ukrainian border
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that it had retaken the village of Lebedevka in Russia’s Kursk region, and taken the village of Novenke, across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Russian forces had been largely absent from Ukraine’s Sumy region since April 2022, when they withdrew from the border province in order to refocus their forces on eastern Ukraine.
09:29 AM GMT
Welcome to our coverage
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the latest developments in Ukraine.
