Ukraine war live: Putin ‘rapidly rearming for possible attack on Nato’

Russia will return with an army 10 times the size of the one which invaded Ukraine in 2022 if a diplomatic solution does not have strong security guarantees, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.

Russian president Vladimir Putin will return to Europe to fully occupy all countries which formerly made up the USSR, Mr Zelensky added.

He will then do what he did with Crimea in Ukraine, by seizing territory and using it to make demands and issue ultimatums, the Ukrainian president told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He also criticised European countries for having a significantly smaller economic output than Russia, despite having more factories.

A diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine war requires strong security guarantees to stop Putin’s forces from returning, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“We must approach diplomacy to end the war,” Mr Zelensky said when asked about Ukraine’s strategy in the war.

“But Ukraine must have strong guarantees that will prevent Putin from coming back with war again, then it will be a lasting peace for Ukraine and Europe, for America and the whole world.”

“But if the security guarantees are weak, if there is uncertainty and only words, then… they will again come back with war,” he added.

Iran has been part of this war, Volodymyr Zelensky has told world leaders.

“I believe that Tehran has been dragged into this war since they started to hit our infrastructure, hospitals and schools with their long-range drones,” he said.

Speaking to world leadersin Davos, Mr Zelensky said his troops remain in Kursk despite the 60,000 Russian troops trying to push back.

But the biggest concentration of Russian forces is in the east of Ukraine, he added.

European countries must be willing to spend up as much as is needed on defence, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

“All European countries must be willing to spend as much on security as is truly needed, not just as much as they have gotten used to during years of neglect,” he said.

“If it takes 5 per cent of GDP to cover defence then so be it, 5 percent it is.”

Defence spending does not need to be compensated at the expense of medicine or pensions, he added, saying that is “not fair”.

Introduced by the World Economic Forum’s president and former Norwegian foreign minister Borge Brende, Volodymyr Zelensky has taken the stage in Davos.

“I want to talk about the future of Europe with you,” Mr Zelensky opens by saying.

Mr Zelensky has made an appeal to European leaders to pull together as Donald Trump takes the US presidency – stating that Europe will likely no longer be an American priority.

“Most of the world now thinking what’s going to happen to the relationship with America?

“How does president Trump plan to end wars?

“Will Trump even notice Europe?” he asked, insisting that Europe must establish itself as a strong and indispensable global player.

“Europe can’t afford to be second or third in line with its allies. If it happens, the world will start moving forward without Europe.”

Donald Trump has said Putin is “destroying” Russia by not agreeing to a deal to end the war.

As he settled into his role at the White House, he was asked about the ongoing war between Russia and the Ukraine.

Trump said: “He’s told me he wants to make a deal, Zelensky wants to make a deal. I don’t know if Putin does, he should do.

“I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia is going to be in big trouble.”

Trump added: “He (Putin) can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well [in Ukraine]. I mean, he’s grinding it out but most people thought that war would have been over in one week and now we’re into three years. So he can’t be thrilled, not making him look very good.

“But I think he would be very well off to end that war. We have numbers that almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed, about 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia’s bigger, they have more soldiers to lose. But that’s no way to run a country.”

Ending the war in Ukraine will only be possible if both sides are willing to make compromises, the new US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said.

In a conversation with journalists immediately after being confirmed in his role, he said according to CNN: “We want the war to end. That’s pretty clear.

“You saw the President talked about, he wants to be a president that promotes peace and ends conflicts, and it’ll be complicated as well.

“Those are complicated things. I couldn’t put a time frame on it, other than to say that anytime you bring an end to a conflict between two sides, neither of whom can achieve their maximum goals, each side is going to have to give up something.”

Achieving peace is a priority for president Donald Trump’s administration, Mr Rubio added. He did not specify what type of concessions Ukraine would need to make.

The Ukrainian military chief has said that 150,000 of Vladimir Putin’s troops were killed in 2024, as the countries prepare for a new era of their conflict after Donald Trump re-enters the White House.

A record 434,000 casualties, including the wounded, were suffered last year taking total Russian casualties to 819,000, claimed Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. “This year of combat has cost them more than the previous two years of the war combined,” Mr Syrskyi told Ukrainian TV channel TSN.

Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine over the past year, but at the cost of heavy casualties as it throws waves of soldiers at Ukraine’s defensive lines.

Authorities of a closed town in Russia’s Orenburg region urged residents to hide in shelters on Tuesday due to the risk of a drone attack, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

The town of Komarovsky hosts a base for Russian strategic missiles, the newspaper said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has not issued any official warnings about the Orenburg region.