Image source, EPA

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia is concerned about the fate of the Russian soldier, Vadim Shishimarin, who was given a life sentence in Kyiv over war crime committed during the invasion of Ukraine.

"Undoubtedly, we are concerned about the fate of our citizen. Unfortunately, we do not have an opportunity to defend his interests there as the operation of our institutions [in Ukraine] has virtually simply stopped," Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

"But it does not mean that we will not consider continuing with attempts using other channels.

"The fate of every Russian citizen is of the utmost importance to us," he said.

At the time Peskov commented on Shishimarin's trial, the soldier was still awaiting the verdict.

Ukraine has said it will not agree to any ceasefire deal that involves handing over territory to Russia, in an apparent hardening of its position.

A presidential adviser said Kyiv would not agree to any deal that gave land to Russia because it might come back for more.

"The Russians will build up their weapons, manpower and work on their mistakes... and they'll start a new offensive, even more bloody and large-scale," Mykhailo Podolyak said.

"The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty," Andriy Yermak, Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, said in a Twitter post on Sunday, external.

The comments come as Russia continues its attempts to encircle Ukrainian forces defending the eastern city of Severodenetsk.

Image source, EPA

More now from Davos. President Zelensky rounded off his address by quoting former US secretary of state George Marshall, whose European Recovery Programme helped rebuild Western Europe following the devastation of WW2.

He says Marshall's famous words - that his recovery plan did not oppose any country or ideology but did oppose "hunger, poverty, despair and chaos" - are still "relevant today".

"My proposals are all the same," he says, announcing his intention to rid not just Ukraine but any country that comes under attack of those four issues: hunger, poverty, despair and chaos.

Zelensky finishes by wishing "glory to Ukraine", before receiving a standing ovation.

Image source, Reuters

A court in Ukraine has sentenced a Russian tank commander to life in prison for killing a civilian at the first war crimes trial since the invasion.

Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was convicted of killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivka on 28 February.

He admitted fatally shooting Shelipov but said he had been acting on orders and asked forgiveness of the man's widow.

Moscow has denied its troops targeted civilians during the invasion while Ukraine says more than 11,000 crimes may have occurred.

This trial in the capital Kyiv is being seen as Ukraine's chance to prove, beyond doubt, that a Russian soldier killed a civilian with no regard for the rules of war.

Addressing the WEF's business leaders more directly, President Zelensky calls on any firms that have not yet quit Russia to do so now.

He says this show of solidarity with Ukraine is the only way to ensure a company's money is not being used to fund the "bloody interests" of Russia, before welcoming any businesses departing Moscow and coming to his country.

"We offer the world the chance to set a precedent for what happens if you try to destroy a neighbour," Zelensky says.

He then invites attendees to "take part" in the country's "rebuilding".

A Russian soldier has been found guilty in the first war crimes trial held in Ukraine since the war began.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, has been sentenced to life for killing an unarmed civilian a few days after Russia's invasion began.

James Waterhouse
Reporting from Kyiv

A verdict is due shortly in the first war crimes trial to be held in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country.

The judges are recounting events as the accused - Vadim Shishimarin - stands with his head down. They describe the Russian soldier seeing the victim, Oleksandr Shelipov, who “wasn’t posing any threat”.

They say Shelipov shouldn’t have been the object of an armed act.

The judges add “in violation of international conventions, Shishimarin, fulfilling a criminal order, understood that Shelipov was a civilian and did not pose any threat”.

Fearing Shelipov would give away their position, the court hears Shishimarin fired three to four rounds into Shelipov’s head, killing him.

Shishimarin was shouted at and pressed into shooting, the court is told. He said that "he was scared and asked to forgive him” the court hears.

He also said that he is “repentant and did not want to kill, it’s just happened this way”. The judges say the four Russian servicemen then continued movement and surrendered to captivity, without any resistance.

Image source, .

Volodymyr Zelensky goes on to say Ukraine has set a precedent in the last few months, showing the lengths a country will go to fight for its freedom.

Echoing the words of Ukraine's deputy prime minister earlier - on the need for sustained measures against Moscow - he calls for "maximum sanctions" to be imposed on Russia.

Only this will prevent Russia, and any other country, from launching an unprovoked war on its neighbour, he says.

There are no such sanctions in place at present, he adds, before setting out the measures he believes should be in place, including:

• A full embargo on Russian oil
• All Russian banks barred from global systems
• No trade with Russia

Image source, .

The Ukrainian leader opened his speech by asking attendees at the World Economic Forum to consider the significance of this year's theme: history at a turning point.

This year, the theme is more than rhetoric, Zelensky says, instead it is symbolic of a war going on "right now".

He says the world can't be ruled by "brute force", before pointing to the "Russia War Crimes House" set up near the event in Davos as evidence of the state being "full of war criminals".

We reported on the War Crimes House earlier, which you can read by scrolling down.

Volodymyr Zelensky is speaking to the World Economic Forum (WEF) by videolink, where the wartime leader is set to give leaders an update on the Russian conflict.

Speaking earlier at the event, to a panel on economic warfare, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko called on countries to continue imposing sanctions against Russia.

“Armies win battles but the economy wins wars," she said. “Now is not the time for a cost-benefit analysis. We have to cut Russia off from the global economy completely.”

Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates from President Zelensky's address.

Sarah Rainsford
Reporting from Kyiv

To Ukrainians it was clear from the very start of Russia's invasion that this was no "special operation" to liberate the Donbas region, as President Vladimir Putin had declared. It was all-out war.

But in Russia it's a crime to call it that.

Dozens of people have already been prosecuted under the "fake news" law, as it's known. They face up to 15 years behind bars for challenging the official line on Russia's invasion or criticising the military.

When the war in Ukraine started, Lilia Yapparova felt compelled to cover it.

"I couldn't sleep, because people started to die… and I needed to be there," she told me in Kyiv, where for a while she was the only Russian reporter on the ground in Ukrainian-controlled areas.

There are only three even now - all women from independent media outlets. It's a tiny contingent compared with the Russian state TV correspondents who stride through eastern Ukraine in military clothing, "Z" patches on their arms in support of Russian soldiers, talking about "denazification" and the "liberation" of cities like Mariupol.

Meduza, the news site Ms Yapparova writes for, has been banned in Russia, like almost all independent outlets. Journalists and media have been labelled as "foreign agents" while Facebook and other social media are blocked.

Read the full story here.

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More from Kyiv now, where the Ukrainian Parliament has announced a new law which allows the state to seize assets belonging to people who back Russia’s war.

Anyone found to be a supporter of the fighting risks being taken to Ukraine’s Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, where officials will look to recover their assets “into state revenue”, the statement says, external.

Ukraine’s economy has taken a beating during the conflict with Russia. On Friday, G7 leaders agreed to provide the war-torn nation with $19.8bn (£15.7bn) in economic aid to ensure it continues to be able to defend itself.

The statement adds:

Image source, Reuters

As key world decision-makers are gathering for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Ukrainian artists have transformed the Russia House - the site normally used by Russian delegates - into a "Russia War Crimes House".

Images of mass destruction in Ukrainian cities bombed by Russian troops feature prominently at an exhibition in the building in the Swiss Alpine town.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine tops the agenda of the four-day gathering, which kicks off in earnest later on Monday with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

No Russian officials or companies will be present at the summit this year.

WEF President Borge Brende has called for a Marshall Plan to rebuild Ukraine. Referring to the US initiative which helped rebuild Europe after World War Two, he said reconstruction work should go ahead in Ukraine with or without a peace settlement.

Image source, Reuters

US President Joe Biden, who is on a visit to Japan, has said Russia has to "pay a long-term price" for its "barbarism in Ukraine" in terms of sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.

When asked if the US would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China, the president said it would.

"That's the commitment we made," Biden said. Beijing considers Taiwan to be a renegade province which has to be unified with the mainland.

"We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it... but the idea that [Taiwan] can be taken by force is just not appropriate.

"It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine."

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Dnipro

Image source, Getty Images

Very little has been said about Ukraine’s military losses in this three-month old war but there’s no doubt they’re massive. President Zelensky estimated between 50 to 100 deaths a day in the east, where most of the fighting has been happening.

With every loss, there’s a family in mourning. Here in Dnipro, 35-year-old Irina returned from Italy, to where she had moved with her three children after the war started, to bury her 38-year-old husband. A member of Ukraine’s special forces in the east, he was killed earlier this month in a Russian missile attack, she said.

“The war is senseless, very stupid. There’s no reason for it,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “For us, it’s a big tragedy.”

Kseniia, her 37-year-old sister-in-law, said she was against any ceasefire deal that would allow Russian forces stay in Ukrainian territory, something that Ukrainian authorities have ruled out, at least for now.

“So many people have been killed… We should fight for our right to exist, for our sovereignty,” she said. “That’s why my brother was fighting. We should fight to push the Russians out.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to address world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum (WEF).

No Russian officials or companies will be present at the international gathering of political and industrial leaders.

But a Ukrainian delegation, including the foreign minister, has made the journey.

"The major request to the whole world here is: do not stop backing Ukraine," Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told reporters on the eve of the summit.

The summit has not been held since January 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. A virtual forum took place last year, with Russian President Vladimir Putin among the speakers.

Jeremy Bowen
Reporting from Donbas

We were up near the front line yesterday. The main thrust of the Russian activities at the moment is a town called Severodonetsk. Ukrainian military soldiers have told us it is largely surrounded and they are undoubtedly under pressure.

They’ve taken serious casualties. A Ukrainian military source there said one unit that went into the line there with 240 men came out with 135 - the others killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

The Russians have taken some territory - villages and little towns - but it’s a very heavily defended area. They’ve been fighting around there since 2014 so there are concrete Ukrainian positions that are hard to overcome. But the Russians are pushing and putting a lot of pressure there.

A couple of days ago in Moscow, the ministry of defence said they would take the whole of the Luhansk region. Donbas is made up of two regions - Luhansk and Donetsk.

It could be that if Putin got to the point where he took the whole of the Luhansk region and then tried to do something similar in Donetsk, he could then say: “This is a victory guys."

It would be nothing like the victory they were after when all this started in February, but one he could declare anyway. The Ukrainian authorities are very anxious that doesn’t happen.

Image source, Reuters

A verdict is expected in the first war crimes trial to be held in Ukraine since the war started.

Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin, 21, has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian a few days after the invasion began.

Prosecutors say Shishimarin was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy came under attack.

He and four other soldiers stole a car, and as they travelled near Chupakhivka, they encountered the 62-year-old man on a bicycle, they said.

According to prosecutors, Shishimarin was ordered to kill the civilian and used a Kalashnikov assault rifle to do so.

The soldier faces life in jail.

Ukraine has so far identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia.

Moscow has denied its troops have targeted civilians, but investigators have been collecting evidence of possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Read more about the case here.

Image source, Getty Images

More now on the city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Donbas region, where Russian forces have been focusing their efforts.

Regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces were "using scorched-earth tactics, deliberately destroying" the city.

Haidai said Moscow was drawing forces withdrawn from the Kharkiv region, others involved in Mariupol's siege, pro-Russian separatist militias, and even troops freshly mobilised from Siberia to concentrate on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

There are reports of a strike on a school basement, where people were sheltering. The BBC has been unable to verify this.

Haidai warned that Russian forces had destroyed all but one bridge across the Siversky Donets river and Severedonetsk was almost cut off.

Ukraine's human right's ombudsman, Lyudmila Denisova, says the city risks suffering the same fate as Mariupol - being surrounded and pounded into submission.

Severodonetsk is in the Luhansk region and has a population of around 100,000 people.

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

Ukraine may be losing between 50-100 lives in the east every day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a press briefing on Sunday.

He said those killed were defending Ukraine in “the most difficult direction”.

Zelensky did not elaborate further but the comments appear to be a reference to military losses and are a sign of how fierce the fighting is in the east.

Russian forces have stepped up their attempts to capture cities in the eastern Donbas region, with a focus on the city of Severodonetsk.

Image source, .