Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia among countries not to endorse text supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity

Key regional powers including Brazil, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia have failed to sign up to a joint communique issued at the end of a Ukraine peace conference in which more than 80 countries and international organisations endorsed its territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Speaking at the end of the two-day summit in Switzerland, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the “first steps toward peace” but acknowledged that not all attenders had come onboard. “Unfortunately there are people who are still balancing,” he said, adding that Russia was trying to divide the world.

More than 100 leaders at two-day conference to discuss Kyiv’s proposals to end war – but Russia and China absent

More than 100 leaders, including the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the presidents or heads of the EU, South American, Middle East and Asian countries, will gather in Switzerland on Saturday for one of the most ambitious attempts yet to forge a peace plan for Ukraine.

The summit comes as G7 leaders gathering in Italy clinch a new deal for a €50bn loan for Ukraine, securitised through use of the windfall profits from the interest on Russian central bank assets frozen by the EU and other western nations after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ahead of the peace summit in Switzerland, German chancellor Olaf Scholz said Putin’s proposals were intended as a distraction

Three people were killed and five others injured by Russian shelling in Ulakly village in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, local governor Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

He said the village was hit by cluster munitions, adding that administrative buildings, a private house, a shop and eight cars were damaged.

Russian president’s new ultimatum comes as foreign envoys meet in Switzerland to discuss western-led peace plan

Vladimir Putin has demanded that Kyiv cede more land, withdraw troops deeper inside its own country and drop its Nato bid in order for him to end his war in Ukraine.

Putin’s fresh ceasefire demands were issued as envoys from more than 90 countries, including Ukraine, convene in Switzerland this weekend to discuss a western-led peace plan. Russia is not invited to the conference and Putin’s remarks on Friday are likely to have been timed as a spoiler to that summit.

President hails breakthrough as US and Ukraine also announce 10-year bilateral security agreement

Joe Biden claimed “democracies can deliver” as he announced the leaders of the G7 western economies had finally reached an agreement that will mobilise an extra $50bn (£39bn) of aid to Ukraine using frozen Russian state assets.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, on Thursday, Biden hailed the breakthrough as he met Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelenskiy and announced the two countries had also signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement, ending 12 months of difficult negotiations.

Ukrainian president appeals in Berlin for funding to repair and rebuild energy infrastructure and for defence

• Russia-Ukraine war – live updates

The Ukrainian president and his allies have used a major conference in Berlin to lobby international business for support in the country’s reconstruction and recovery efforts even as it continues to be bombarded by Russia.

Speaking at the Ukraine recovery conference, hosted by the German government, at which the topic of Ukraine’s survival was centre stage, Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Europe’s peace was also at stake if his country was not able to protect and rebuild itself as it stood up to Russia.

Ukraine has fulfilled all necessary reform requirements to join bloc, European Commission president says

Russian tactical nuclear drills were made necessary by the tensions in Europe and the hostile actions of the US and European powers, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov told a briefing that drills such as the ones Russia is carrying out together with Belarus were normal practice.

Mustafa Nayyem says he has been undermined by Kyiv government and stopped from attending event in Berlin

• Russia-Ukraine war – live updates

The head of Ukraine’s reconstruction agency has resigned a day before an international conference on the country’s long-term reconstruction, saying he had been prevented from attending after being systematically undermined by the Ukrainian government from doing his job.

Mustafa Nayyem announced his resignation in a Facebook post on Monday after previously sending a strongly worded message to a number of foreign partners criticising the Ukrainian administration for a wide range of mistakes.

The lack of “government approval for the payment of $150m (£118m) borrowed from the European Investment Bank for critical projects including water supply and energy protection”.

Being “plagued by inexplicable bureaucratic delays”.

A “significant reduction in salaries” at his agency (a senior expert now earns the equivalent of €320 [£270] a month) leading to a loss of a quarter of staff since January.

There are many topics up for healthy debate at the moment — yet we remain united against the Russian enemy

“I am concerned that people here are becoming more fatalistic, and care less about the danger,” says Gregory Scherban, a friend of mine, a Kharkiv resident and a volunteer helping the evacuation of those escaping the new Russian assault in the villages in north-east Ukraine.

I understand what he means. Walking with colleagues through northern Saltivka – once a populous residential area on the edge of Kharkiv that was hit by heavy shelling in the early stage of the war – we hear the sounds of explosions. I’m scared but my colleagues from the area are calm. “It’s too far away,” they say, casually. An air alert warns about further strikes, but the communal workers nearby continue repairing the road as if nothing is going on. The air alert can be on for dozens of hours at a time, so not resuming activity isn’t an option.

Ukraine military says surface-to-air systems in Dzhankoi and anti-aircraft missile units in Chornomorske and Yevpatoria hit

Belarus said on Monday its army was taking part in the second stage of Russian exercises to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, Reuters reports.

The first phase of the drills, ordered by president Vladimir Putin, took place last month.
The Belarus defence ministry said the exercises were being held “in the interests of guaranteeing our own security” and were not intended as a threat to other countries.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years.

Within a ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, Zelenskiy spoke for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. The interview took place during perhaps the toughest time for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Russia is on the offensive in Kharkiv, an advance that follows months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities