Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine’s use of western missiles against Russia could lead to nuclear response, says Moscow | Ukraine

If Russia does not stop committing acts of sabotage in Europe, Warsaw will close the rest of its consulates in Poland, Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said on Tuesday.

“I have closed the consulate in Poznań. If they do not stop, we will close the rest,” Reuters reports he told a news conference.

Far-right MEP group avoids parliament during Zelenskyy address

Jennifer Rankin

Volodymyr Zelenskyy received two standing ovations from MEPs, as he spoke to mark 1,000 days of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.

But not all MEPs were there. The 25 MEPs who make up the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group were absent because they had scheduled an “external group meeting” a spokesperson said.

The group’s largest continent is Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party, which wants to end military aid for Ukraine and whose senior leaders have spoken approvingly of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy offers veiled criticism of Scholz in European parliament address

Jennifer Rankin

Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent. Here is her report on Ukraine’s president addressing the European parliament:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country could face 100,000 North Korean troops, as he urged European nations to intensify their military aid and appeared to make a dig at Olaf Scholz.

Speaking by video link to the European parliament, Zelenskyy said Putin had brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders and “this contingent may grow to 100,000”.

Zelenskyy did not elaborate further, but his remarks appear to endorse a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources saying that North Korea could deploy 100,000 troops to assist Russia against Ukraine.

The short speech marked 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion and was intended as a rallying call to EU nations. Zelenskyy told lawmakers that even with North Korea Russian president Vladimir Putin remained smaller than “the united states of Europe”.

Zelenskyy also appeared to make a dig at the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who recently triggered snap elections, and has long frustrated Kyiv with Germany’s slow pace of military support and its refusal to supply German-made long-range Taurus missiles.

“While some European leaders think about some elections or something like this … Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own. The more time he has, the worse the conditions become,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s president appeared to make a veiled appeal for long-range weapons, saying that without “certain key factors, Russia will lack real motivation to engage in meaningful negotiations”. Zelenskyy enumerated those factors as fires in ammunition depots on Russian territory, disrupting military logistics and destroying Russian airbases.

In the lame duck days of his presidency Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles, but Scholz continues to rule that out and is not expected to change his mind.

Volodymr Zelenskyy has said that even with Kim Jong-un by his side, Putin “remains smaller” than the combined states of Europe, and warned that the number of North Korean troops deployed on Ukraine’s border could increase.

Zelenskyy claimed that at present there are 11,000 North Koreans troops deployed, but this contingent, he said, could increase to 100,000.

The Ukrainian president, speaking at the European parliament via video link, said that during the course of the war it has been proved that “our shared European values” are “not just words, not something abstract.”

He said “European values and the European way of life, when transformed into action, protect the lives of real people.”

Zelenskyy continued “Putin does not value people or rules. He values only money and power. These are the things we must take away from him to restore peace.”

He told MEPs “no one can enjoy calm waters during a storm, and we must do everything to end this war fairly and justly.”

He made his regular appeal for more sanctions and the release of funds and assets confiscated by European countries from Russia.

In what appeared to be a reference to US permission to use longer-range missiles at targets inside Russia, Zelenskyy said:

Russia will lack real motivation to engage in meaningful (peace) negotiations without fires in its ammunition depots on Russian territory, without disruption to its military logistics, without destroying Russian airbases, without it losing capabilities to produce missiles and drones, and without its assets being confiscated.

The UK has announced ten new designations under its Russian sanctions regime.

In a statement, the government says it is targeting “those supporting Vladimir Putin’s attempts to forcibly deport and indoctrinate Ukraine’s children and erase their Ukrainian cultural heritage.”

Foreign secretary David Lammy is quoted saying:

No child should ever be used as a pawn in war, yet President Putin’s targeting of Ukrainian children shows the depths he will go to in his mission to erase Ukraine and its people from the map.

As Ukraine reaches the grim milestone of 1000 days of bravely defending against Putin’s illegal invasion, the UK’s support is iron-clad. With our international partners, we stand with Ukraine to confront Russian aggression and fight for freedom, liberty and victory.

The UK government claims “more than 19,500 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred or deported” and that “an estimated 6,000 Ukrainian children have been relocated to a network of re-education camps.”

In March last year the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, in relation to the forced deportation of children.

European troops could be needed for Ukraine peace says Estonia

Jennifer Rankin

Jennifer Rankin is the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent

European nations should be ready to send troops to Ukraine to secure any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow orchestrated by Donald Trump, Estonia’s foreign minister has said.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Margus Tsahkna said the best security guarantee for Ukraine was Nato membership, but if the US opposed Kyiv joining the military alliance, then Europe would have to put “boots on the ground”.

He said:

If we are talking about real security guarantees, it means that there will be a just peace. Then we are talking about Nato membership. But without the US it is impossible. And then we are talking about any form (of guarantee) in the meaning of boots on the ground.

The minister also said it would be “really, really, really complicated” for Europeans to provide security guarantees to Ukraine without US backing, not least because Nato could ultimately be dragged into any clash with Russian forces.

The FT reports the view of some analysts, who suggest a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine could include Poland and the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a defence group that includes the Nordic and Baltic states and the Netherlands. These countries are meeting in Tallinn next month.

French president Emmanuel Macron has previously said European troops on the ground could not be ruled out and that Europe should not wait on the results of the US elections to decide on its future.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said the use of western non-nuclear missiles by the Ukrainian armed forces against the Russian Federation under the new doctrine could lead to a nuclear response, after president Vladimir Putin approved an updated Russian nuclear doctrine on Tuesday.

Speaking at his regular daily press briefing, Tass reports Peskov said that the new nuclear doctrine should become the subject of deep analysis both in the country and abroad.

Peskov said that the Russian Federation considers the use of nuclear weapons to be an extreme measure, but that updating the doctrine was needed to bring the document into line with the current political situation.

Peskov said the “special operation” – Moscow’s preferred term for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – was being conducted in the context of a war unleashed by the west against the Russian Federation, and that the Russian military is closely monitoring the reports about plans to use longer-range US missiles in the Kursk region of Russia.