Ukraine recaptures frontline village amid signs of slowing Russian advance

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Ukrainian forces have taken back a village on the front line in eastern Ukraine, with indications that Russia's push is losing momentum and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy again urged an end to the conflict "with a just and lasting peace".

, military officials said. Russian troops had made rapid advances in the area in December and January, capturing a succession of settlements and posing a threat to encircle Pokrovsk.

Since the beginning of this month, the Russians' progress has hit a roadblock. Russian bloggers claim Ukrainian drones have taken control of the skies and are systematically targeting and destroying armoured vehicles. According to reports, Russian troops are being forced to march 10km on foot, with many not making it through alive.

The high number of Russian casualties has taken a big toll on the morale of frontline troops. The harsh snowy conditions and lack of trees have made it easier for Ukrainian defenders to pick off Russian infantry soldiers before they even reached the front lines, they say.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy confirmed that the situation in the Pokrovsk area had recently improved. The re-taking of the village supports Kyiv's argument that a Russian victory isn't set in stone and that with enough Western support, they can regain lost ground. Ukrainian patrols have also counter-attacked around the nearby village of Kotlyne.

Russian advances have come at a massive human cost. According to Major Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's ground forces in the east, 7,000 Russian soldiers were killed in action in January in the battle for Pokrovsk, and approximately 15,000 are wounded or reported missing.

In an interview with the broadcaster NBC, he said Vladimir Putin would take advantage of a weakened alliance if the US withdrew its military from Europe.

“Fair dinkum, we reckon Putin's gonna go to war with NATO,” Zelenskyy reckons. He said the Russian president's a crook you can't trust under any circumstances, but reckons Donald Trump's still got the wherewithal to push him into talks.

Zelenskyy said Putin didn't want a proper peace agreement and needed the war to keep his grip on power. He mentioned that over the past week Russia had launched nearly 1,220 aerial bombs, over 850 attack drones, and more than 40 other missiles at Ukraine.

“Ukraine's fighting back, but we need more air defence systems to safeguard the lives of Ukrainians. Europe and the world must be better equipped to shield themselves from such malevolence and ready to stand up against it,” he posted on social media on Sunday.

He said: "This demands a robust, cohesive foreign policy and pressure on Putin, who initiated this conflict and is now taking it global. Alongside Europe, the US and all our allies, we can bring this war to an end with a fair and enduring peace."

Bureaucrats in Kyiv confirmed Zelenskyy's comments over the weekend that Ukraine was kept in the dark about talks about a summit between Putin and Trump. "I saw that someone mentioned there'd be a meeting in Saudi Arabia. I don't know what it's about," Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

hosted by France's President, Emmanuel Macron

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy's office, stated Ukraine wouldn't be participating in the US-Russia meeting in Riyadh. "There's nothing on the table worth discussing," he said to Ukrainian TV, adding: "Russia isn't ready for negotiations."

On Sunday, Zelenskyy arrived in the United Arab Emirates, saying his top priority was to ensure "that even more of our people can get back home from captivity". He also said investment would be discussed.

The United Arab Emirates has played a crucial role in overseeing the repatriation of Ukrainians who were deported to Russia during the ongoing conflict, with many of them being children.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin kept up its winter campaign of bombing Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Later on Saturday, several Shahed drones crashed into a thermal power plant in the southern city of Mykolaiv. The attack came after a Russian strike on the Chornobyl nuclear power station's concrete shelter.

According to Mykolaiv's mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, the plant was badly damaged. "This was done deliberately to leave people without heat at sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe," he said on Telegram. Over a hundred thousand people are without heating.