Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, said Russia is “doing very well” during a visit to Moscow but remained coy about whether he will interview Vladimir Putin.
In a video captured during his visit, Mr Carlson said he wanted to “talk to people, look around, and see how it’s doing… and it’s doing very well.”
When asked if he would interview Mr Putin, he replied: “We’ll see.”
Mr Carlson said in late September 2023 that he had attempted to interview the Russian leader, but that the US government had blocked the move.
“I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, and the US government stopped me,” Mr Carlson told Swiss magazine, Die Weltwoche.
The Kremlin, asked the same question, said it could hardly be expected to comment on the comings and goings of foreign journalists or provide a running commentary on them.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman said: “Many foreign journalists come to Russia every day, many continue to work here, and we welcome this. We have nothing to announce in terms of the president’s interviews to foreign media.”
Mr Carlson has regularly sparked controversy for inflammatory statements about race and LGBTQ rights, and faced backlash when describing footage from the Jan 6 assault on the Capitol as “mostly peaceful chaos.” He was fired from Fox News last year.
03:04 PM GMT
That’s all for today
Thank you for following our coverage. The latest updates were:
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Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, said Russia is “doing very well” during a visit to Moscow but remained coy about whether he will interview Vladimir Putin.
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Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, is heading for Ukraine as he reiterates calls for more aid for the war-torn country.
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The Netherlands will deliver six more F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, taking the total number it has pledged to 24.
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Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a proposal to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days.
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Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey soon, the Turkish foreign minister said, which would mark Mr Putin’s first trip to a Nato country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
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Mr Zelensky has said he is considering a “reset” to replace several senior officials amid rumours he plans to fire the head of Ukraine’s army.
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Georgian authorities said that they thwarted plans coordinated by a Ukrainian citizen to smuggle several explosive devices from Ukraine to Russia via Georgia.
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Russian anti-war presidential candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, said that a working group of Russia’s central election commission had found 15 per cent of the supporters’ signatures he submitted to back his election bid to be invalid.
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Ukrainian shelling killed at least 28 people at a bakery in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk, claimed Moscow-installed officials.
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US senators have unveiled a bipartisan immigration deal which will secure the southern border and release aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
02:49 PM GMT
EU top diplomat heading for Ukraine
Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, is heading to Ukraine as he reiterates calls for more aid for the war-torn country.
His visit comes amid renewed international efforts to help Ukraine replenish its arms to fight off the Russian invasion that nears its second anniversary.
“I’m on my way to Kyiv,” Mr Borrell told reporters in Warsaw, making a stopover before the visit to Ukraine.
EU leaders on Thursday agreed to give 50 billion euros (£42.8 billion) of aid for Ukraine over four years in a move they hailed as a strong message to Russia after they overcame opposition from Viktor Orban, the Hungarian leader.
Mr Borrell said a new push to arm Ukraine was necessary for it to “defeat invasion” and urged the 27-member EU to provide “whatever it takes”.
“It’s not just a matter of time. It’s a matter of quantity and quality of our supplies. And certainly we have to do more and quicker because Ukraine has to prevail,” Mr Borrell said.
02:24 PM GMT
Swedish prosecutor plans Nord Stream decision this week
The prosecutor leading Sweden’s probe into the Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts in the Baltic Sea in 2022 plans to announce a decision this week on whether to drop the case, press charges or request that someone is detained, his office said on Monday.
The pipelines transporting Russian gas to Germany were ruptured by a series of explosions in Swedish and Danish economic zones.
Shortly after the incident, Sweden said its investigation in the Swedish economic zone found traces of explosives on site, showing that sabotage had taken place. It has not publicly identified any suspects.
Danish police, who are conducting their own investigation, declined to comment on Monday.
02:19 PM GMT
Kyiv’s mayor criticises potential firing of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief
Vitaliy Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, has criticised the possibility that Volodymyr Zelensky might fire the country’s top military officer.
Mr Zelensky confirmed in an interview that he was thinking about removing Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the popular commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. He said he was contemplating the move to ensure the country remains led by individuals who are “convinced of victory” against Russia.
Mr Klitschko, however, has criticised the plans, saying it was due to the general’s leadership that “many Ukrainians truly trust the armed forces”.
“Today is a moment when politics might prevail over reason and country’s interests,” Mr Klitschko said on social media.
01:58 PM GMT
Volodymyr Zelensky in Dnipropetrovsk
01:54 PM GMT
Netherlands pledges six more F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine
The Netherlands will deliver six more F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, taking the total number it has pledged to 24, Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, said on Monday.
“The Netherlands is readying six additional F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine,” Ms Ollongren said in a post on social media platform X.
“Ukraine’s aerial superiority is essential for countering Russian aggression.”
01:38 PM GMT
Putin pictured on Feb 5
01:32 PM GMT
Kremlin-backed minister killed in eastern Ukraine bakery blast
Russia-appointed authorities in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region said a high-ranking minister in the breakaway government had been killed in a Saturday blast that left a total of 28 people dead.
Alexey Poteleshchenko, the Moscow-backed emergency situations minister, was among the victims of a Ukrainian attack on a bakery in the city of Lysychansk, Leonid Pasechnik, the Kremlin-backed leader, said on Telegram.
Two members of the local parliament were also killed in the blast, Russia’s state-run Tass news service reported, citing the Luhansk authorities.
The Russian foreign ministry earlier said that Western weapons, potentially Himars, were used in the strike. Ukrainian officials haven’t commented on the incident.
Luhansk is one of the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia in 2022, along with Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
01:04 PM GMT
Zelensky asks parliament to extend martial law
Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a proposal to extend martial law and general mobilisation for another 90 days.
The president first declared martial law and general mobilisation on Feb 24 2022 and the parliament previously extended martial law and mobilisation from Nov 2023 until Feb 14 2024.
The latest proposal would extend the two measures until May 14.
Under martial law, Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country as they may be called up for military service.
12:43 PM GMT
Putin to visit Turkey to discuss new Black Sea grain export plans
Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey soon, the Turkish foreign minister said late Sunday. It would be Mr Putin’s first trip to a Nato country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, told the A Haber, the Turkish news channel, that the meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s president, will focus on a new way to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.
He did not mention a date for the visit, but Turkish media has reported that Mr Putin will visit on Feb 12.
The International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant against Mr Putin over the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, greatly limiting his opportunity to travel abroad. Turkey, like Russia, is not a party to the court, allowing Putin to visit without fear of arrest.
12:41 PM GMT
Four killed in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s Kherson
Russian artillery fire into the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Monday killed four people and injured at least one other person, local officials said.
Kherson and surrounding areas come under regular Russian shelling, facing numerous air alerts throughout the day. Russian forces target Kherson from occupied territory on the eastern bank of the major Dnipro river that dissects the region.
Video from the site, released by the regional prosecutor’s office, showed a completely burnt-out car that caught fire after an explosion, with two bodies found inside, officials said.
A 66-year-old woman outdoors during the attack was also killed and another man died in hospital from his injuries.
12:28 PM GMT
Zelensky says ‘reset’ of Ukraine’s top officials is coming
Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is considering a “reset” to replace several senior officials amid rumours he plans to fire the head of Ukraine’s army.
When asked about Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, the president said in an interview broadcast on Sunday: “When I speak of turnover, I have in mind something serious that does not concern a single person, but the direction of the country’s leadership.
“It is a question of the people who are to lead Ukraine. A reset is necessary, I am talking about a replacement of a number of state leaders, not only in the army sector.
Reports suggest he ordered the resignation of Gen Zaluzhnyi in a showdown meeting last Monday. The general, hugely popular with Western military leaders and also with voters in Ukraine, reportedly refused to leave his post.
On Sunday, Mr Zelensky visited troops at the southern front line on Sunday in a show of strength amid the speculation.
11:53 AM GMT
Ministry of Defence releases latest update on Ukraine
11:09 AM GMT
Ukraine’s farm exports from Odesa seaports almost on-par with pre-war levels
Ukraine’s agriculture exports from Odesa-region seaports have reached 14.3 million tons since August, when a new Black Sea shipping corridor was set up, according to Bloomberg.
The war-torn nation is pressing ahead with the shipment of commodities, mostly grains, after Russia last summer pulled out of a safe-transit agreement brokered a year earlier by Turkey and the United Nations.
Shipments in January alone were 6.3 million tons, almost on par with the pre-war level, with more than 100 vessels expected to approach the seaports to export another 3 million tons.
10:55 AM GMT
Georgia ‘foils’ Ukrainian plot to smuggle explosives to Russia
Georgian authorities said that they thwarted plans coordinated by a Ukrainian citizen to smuggle several explosive devices from Ukraine to Russia via Georgia.
The Georgian security service said six devices were “brought to Georgia on Jan 19 from the Ukrainian city of Odessa, via Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, on a minivan belonging to a Ukrainian national”.
They contained 14 kilograms of C-4, a plastic explosive substance.
Authorities confiscated three of them at the Georgian-Russian border checkpoint, and found three others in the capital Tbilisi, the security service said in its statement.
Georgia’s rapprochement with Moscow has strained ties between Tbilisi and Kyiv.
09:45 AM GMT
Kremlin warns West against using frozen Russian assets as collateral for Ukraine
The Kremlin has warned the West that any attempt to use frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine would be illegal and undermine the entire global economic system.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, was speaking after a Bloomberg report that G7 countries are considering using frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise funds for Ukraine.
09:37 AM GMT
Kremlin blasts ‘monstrous’ strike on bakery in occupied Ukraine
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of what it called a monstrous terrorist attack on a bakery in the occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk. Officials say the attack killed at least 28 people including a child on Saturday.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said: “Continued strikes on peaceful infrastructure, in this case the bakery, are monstrous terrorist acts. The number of victims speaks to the monstrousness of this terrorist act.”
09:26 AM GMT
Putin’s anti-war challenger faces likely exclusion from election
Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin said that a working group of Russia’s central election commission had found 15 per cent of the supporters’ signatures he submitted to back his election bid to be invalid.
That figure, if confirmed, is three times higher than the allowable error rate and would provide grounds for the commission to disqualify Mr Nadezhdin from running against Vladimir Putin in March.
The commission will make a final ruling on the matter on Wednesday.
Mr Nadezhdin said on Telegram that he would appeal to the supreme court if the commission refused to register him.
Mr Nadezhdin last week presented the electoral commission with signatures from more than 100,000 supporters across Russia as part of his bid to get his name on the ballot paper.
On Friday, the commission said its initial analysis of the signatures showed some of those listed as Mr Nadezhdin supporters were dead.
Mr Nadezhdin, 60, is not expected to win even if he is allowed to participate, given Mr Putin’s long dominance and control of the state. But his campaign has captured people’s attention because of his outright opposition to what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Mr Nadezhdin says Mr Putin made a “fatal mistake” by launching it, and has pledged to end the conflict.
09:10 AM GMT
Shelling kills at least 28 at bakery in Russian-occupied Ukraine, says Moscow-installed officials
Ukrainian shelling killed at least 28 people at a bakery in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk, claimed Moscow-installed officials.
Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, wrote in a statement on Telegram that at least one child was among the dead on Saturday. A further 10 people were rescued from under the rubble by emergency services, he said.
Ukrainian officials in Kyiv did not comment on the incident.
08:37 AM GMT
Ukraine in pictures
08:35 AM GMT
Senators reach deal on immigration and defence aid
US senators have unveiled a bipartisan immigration deal which will secure the southern border and release aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Republican senators defied Donald Trump in backing the agreement which comes after months of negotiation.
But despite the agreement, the Bill is likely to run into trouble in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, with the house speaker, describing it as “dead on arrival”.
Read more here
08:29 AM GMT
France to summon Russian ambassador over aid worker deaths
Russia’s ambassador to France will be summoned to the foreign ministry over the deaths of two French aid workers last week in a bombardment in Ukraine, a diplomatic source told AFP.
The ministry “will also denounce reinforced disinformation targeting France,” the source said, days after defence chiefs flagged a “coordinated Russian scheme” to spread false information.
Tensions have risen between Moscow and Paris in recent days, with the Russian government blasting “militarist frenzy” in France after it announced new arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is expected to visit Kyiv this month, an event Paris believes could be the target for further disinformation attacks.
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