Ukraine war latest: NATO chief warns Ukraine peace will mean making tough choices

Peace talks may be due to resume tomorrow, but reports suggest the violence is continuing. 

Ukrainian authorities says two people died after "the enemy insidiously struck" Zaporizhzhia, in southeast Ukraine. 

Ukraine's State Emergency Service says the attack took place at 4pm (UK time).

"As a result of the strike, four cars caught fire," the service adds.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze with crews still working at the scene.

Sweden and Denmark will jointly procure and supply Ukraine with air defence systems worth 2.6bn Swedish krona (£213m) to help fend off Russian attacks, the countries' defence ministers said today.

Pal Johnson, Sweden's defence minister, said his country will pay 2.1bn krona (£172m) to buy Swedish-made Tridon air defence systems, while Denmark will contribute about 500m krona (£41m). 

"This means that Ukraine can develop an air defence battalion if they so wish," Johnson said in a joint news conference.

"The purchase doesn't just support Ukraine on the battlefield with more material, but also strengthens our production capacity in Sweden."

Five people have been injured after a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Saltivskyi district in the city of Kharkiv today.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine rescued three more people with 65 firefighters working at the scene to extinguish the blaze at the five-storey building.

 By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent 

The Russian president's name appears more than 1000 times in the latest files.

His inclusion doesn't imply any wrongdoing, and there's no evidence the two ever met, but boy, it sounds like Jeffrey Epstein wanted to.

The emails appear to reveal repeated attempts by the convicted sex offender to court the Kremlin leader.

And there's even an audio file, in which Epstein can be heard coaching someone on how to approach Vladimir Putin.

"I would send a note to Putin, saying 'I'm going to leave government on March 14th. I'm going to be in Scandinavia, or I plan to be in western, northern Europe. We should have dinner'. That's it, no more. It has to be very short," he says in the recording.

The first substantive mention of Putin in the latest files, unearthed by Sky's Data and Forensics team, is from September 2011.

An unnamed contact refers to a meeting Epstein said he'd arranged with Putin later that month, while Putin was Russia's prime minister. There's no evidence it took place and there are no other details. 

From 2013 onwards, by which time Putin had returned to the presidency, the emails show Epstein made several bids to meet him through the former Norwegian PM Thorbjorn Jagland.

In May that year, Epstein emailed Jagland saying: "I know you are going to meet putin [sic] on the 20th, He is desperate to engage western investment in his country...I have his solution."

He adds: "I recoginize [sic] that there are human rights issues that are at the forefront of your trip howver [sic], if it is helpful to you, I would be happy to meet with him sometime in june [sic] and explain the solution to his top prioirty [sic], I think this would be good for your goals."

But it appears it never happened. After pestering Jagland to follow up within Putin's team, Epstein complains that he's heard nothing back.

In January 2014, Jagland told Epstein he was going to meet Putin in Sochi. "Why don't you come?" he asks. We don't know what happened next.

But in July that year, Epstein still sounds desperate to meet the Russian president. In an email, a contact tells him: "I wasn't able to convince Reid to change his schedule to go meet Putin with you."

"Bad idea now after plane crash", Epstein replies - a reference to Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine three days prior, killing all 298 people on board.

But it seems it didn't put Epstein off for long.

A year later, in July 2015, he tells Jagland: "I still would like to meet putin [sic] and talk economy, i would really appreciate your assistance."

There are more attempts in 2016, 2017 and finally in June 2018 - just one line in an email to Jagland once again: "Would love to meet with putin [sic]".

It's certainly no smoking gun - it appears to be more a case of unrequited love.

When asked about files, the Kremlin said on Tuesday that it did not receive any offers from Epstein about a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Still, it's interesting to see how the Russian media is covering this story because, well, they're not.

There's very little mention of it at all, and where there is, the focus is elsewhere - on Bill Clinton, Peter Mandelson and the Crown Princess of Norway.

So even though there's no evidence or implication that he ever actually met with Epstein, Vladimir Putin's appearance in the files is still not something Moscow wants to highlight.

Ukrainian skeleton athlete and flag bearer Vladyslav Heraskevych has criticsed the International Olympic Committee's policy for Russian and Belarusian athletes. 

Olympians from those nations will compete as neutral athletes.

But Heraskevych questions "how you can consider ‌an athlete neutral if he is fully financed by the government, if he is somehow attached ‍to the federation, national federation, which is also part of propaganda”.  

He says athletes who have fled Russia or Belarus and opposed the war should instead be allowed to compete under a refugee banner.

"I'm not against athletes themselves," he said. "I'm against the spreading of propaganda. And I believe that verification system, verification criteria are not enough to [vet the athletes] as neutral."

Heraskevych -  who flashed a ‘NO WAR IN UKRAINE' sign at the Beijing Winter Games days before Russia’s 2022 invasion - wants to see change. He is unhappy that some athletes are "getting ready for competition in occupied territories" and says they shouldn't be considered neutral if they are benefiting from government funding. 

"It should be a refugee team, so they should be separated from the government. They shouldn't have any monetary ties to the Russian government, to the Belarussian government."

Around 60% of consumers were left without electricity in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, the regional governor has said.

Kharkiv was under aerial attack by Russian forces for "almost five hours in a row", including with ballistic missiles, drones and cluster munitions, Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram.

Hundreds of rescuers are still working to help those affected by the attacks, he said.

Synegubov also said 60% of consumers were without electricity following the strikes, and planned and emergency outages were in effect across the region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken out online after his news conference alongside Mark Rutte, saying the Russians "broke their promise" to Donald Trump.

"There was a request from the President of the United States to refrain from strikes on energy and infrastructure during the meetings of our negotiating teams," Ukraine's president says on Telegram.

"The President of America said that we should refrain from strikes for a week. In fact, it started on Friday night, and tonight the Russians broke their promise." 

Zelenskyy questions whether "Russia now believes that there are four incomplete days in a week instead of seven, or they are really betting only on war".

"Simply waiting for the coldest days of this winter, when in a significant part of Ukraine it is more than -20 Celsius," he says.

"What Russia does always clearly indicates intentions. We believe that this Russian strike really violates what the American side agreed on, and there must be consequences for this."

In one of Kyiv's hardest-hit districts, Yuliia Dolotova is focused on caring for her two children, AP reports.

Her youngest, an 18-month-old son, is bundled in layers to protect him against the freezing conditions. 

She says life has been reduced to the most basic essentials: warmth, light and food.

“All day long, there’s no electricity, no way to cook food for the kids. Pretty much everyone is in this situation,” the 37-year-old mother says.

She lives in Troieshchyna, which has been battered by Russian attacks ever since Moscow's full-scale invasion.

In his final answer, Volodymyr Zelenskyy runs through what he describes as the key parts of any peace deal with Russia, including the "most important" one.

First, the Ukrainian leader touches on the necessity of Ukraine having an army of necessary size (800,000 people he says) - this is a topic that has come up in previous draft peace plans.

He also speaks about Ukraine joining the EU, but says "the most important" aspect is security guarantees.

"The most important [thing] is what Europeans will be ready to do if Russia attacks us again, and what Americans [will be] ready to do in the same case. I think this is the most important answer. What are security guarantees for Ukraine and what do they mean."

This was one of the major hurdles to peace negotiations previously, but it seems to have been partly worked through with the Trump administration.

The news conference has now finished.

In a later question, Mark Rutte is asked about the overnight attack by Russia on Ukraine and what it means for peace efforts spearheaded by the US.

The NATO leader condemns the attack as plainly targeting civilian infrastructure and talks up the actions of Donald Trump.

He also stresses that Kyiv is ready for peace negotiations, saying:

"Zelenskyy is absolutely ready to play ball and come to a deal with the Russians... but this makes you question whether the Russians are serious. I know the American president is doing everything he can to bring this terrible war to an end and I commend him for that."

Rutte has often spoken glowingly of Trump and adds that he is "absolutely sure" the White House will have noticed the overnight attacks.

Rutte goes on: "[The US] will take this as it is... an attack on innocent, civilian infrastructure."

He adds: "This is nothing to do with winning a war... this is creating chaos."