US President Joe Biden said yesterday he would not send rocket systems to Ukraine that could hit targets well inside Russian territory, despite urgent requests from Kyiv for long-range weapons.

Ukrainian forces endured heavy artillery barrages yesterday as they held off Russian attempts to capture Severodonetsk, the largest city Kyiv still controls in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday told the leaders of France and Germany in a phone call that Russia was willing to discuss ways to make it possible for Ukraine to resume shipments of grain from Black Sea ports, the Kremlin said.

Russian forces were assaulting the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk yesterday after saying they had captured the nearby rail hub of Lyman as Moscow pressed its offensive in the eastern Donbas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused Western countries of waging a “total war” on Russia and its people and culture as Moscow pushes on with its military operation in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed yesterday that Vladimir Putin will neither win the Ukraine war nor dictate the terms for peace, as Russian troops made fresh attempts to take a key eastern city.

Russia is advancing a new law allowing it to take control of the local businesses of western companies that decide to leave in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, raising the stakes for multinationals trying to exit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the West remained divided over the extent of its support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s months-long invasion.

Russia is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying on Wednesday.

Russia's parliament on Wednesday passed a law scrapping an upper age limit for people signing up to join the army, in a sign Moscow may be looking to recruit more troops for its military campaign in Ukraine.

Russia's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus in Moscow if a Western country has been "unfriendly" to Russian media, following the closure of some Russian state news outlets in the West.

Russian forces were launching an all-out assault to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine yesterday, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow’s main campaign in the east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used the Davos summit to appeal for more weapons and “maximum” sanctions against Russia, lamenting that tens of thousands of lives would have been saved had countries acted faster.

A Ukrainian court sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison Monday for killing a Ukrainian civilian, sealing the first guilty conviction for war crimes since Moscow’s invasion three months ago.

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or any territorial concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified its attack in the east and south and stopped sending gas to Finland in its latest response to Western sanctions.

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region and stopped providing gas to Finland, as Polish President Andrzej Duda prepared to address the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday warned that only a diplomatic breakthrough rather than an outright military victory could end Russia’s war on his country, as Moscow cut gas supplies to Finland.

Russia stopped providing gas to Finland in an escalation of a row over energy payments with the West on Saturday, and intensified an offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Russia has declared victory in its months-long operation to capture the strategic port of Mariupol after Ukraine ordered the last of its troops holed up in the city’s Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms.

Russia said on Saturday it had so far banned 963 Americans from entering the country - including previously announced moves against President Joe Biden and other top officials - and would continue to retaliate against what it called hostile US actions.