Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty in speech denouncing West

President Vladimir Putin said he'd sought an "open dialogue" with the West.

Almost a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout the east and south.

Putin's forces pulled out of key positions in November, retreating from Kherson as Ukrainian troops led a counteroffensive targeting the southern port city. Russian drones have continued bombarding civilian targets throughout Ukraine, knocking out critical power infrastructure as winter sets in.

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Russia experiences deadliest 24 hours since war with Ukraine began, officials say

The Russian death toll has reached its highest number in a 24-hour period since the invasion of Ukraine began, according to Ukrainian military officials.

At least 1,030 Russian soldiers died overnight into Tuesday, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. About 1,900 soldiers died in a two-day period after 25 Russian tanks were destroyed, Ukrainian military officials said.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky


Delays on aircraft will result in more Ukrainian deaths: Defense minister

Ukraine’s minister of defense warned his western partners Sunday that if they "procrastinate" over the supply of aircraft to Ukraine, more Ukrainians will die.

"If we will have a procrastination or reluctance with aircraft platforms, it will cost us more lives, more blood of Ukrainians," Oleksiy Reznikov told reporters in Kyiv.

Reznikov appeared to concede that the most readily available and Ukraine's preferred western aircraft, American F-16s, were no longer an option on the table with western partners.

He said Sweden’s Gripen fighter jets are still an option. Ukrainian officials have previously mentioned the Gripen as a possibility in conversations with ABC News about weapons supplies.

"I’m sure we will have (western) aircraft," Reznikov said.

Reznikov also spoke of the fierce fighting being wage in the city of Bakhmut in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Reznikov described the city as a “stronghold” which Russia has been trying to occupy for months.

Reznikov said 500 Russian soldiers a day are being injured or killed in the fight for Bukhmut and that Ukrainian casualties are significantly lower.

Any strategic decision on whether or not to withdraw, Reznikov said, would be made by Ukrainian generals and is "not a political decision."

-ABC News Tom Soufi Burridge


Netanyahu considers sending Ukraine 'Iron Dome' defense system

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview Saturday that he is considering sending to Ukraine an Iron Dome defense system.

Netanyahu told French broadcasters TF1 and LCI that he is "looking into" sending Ukraine the mobile all-weather air defense system that has helped protect his country from Palestinian rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.

"I said I’m looking into it and I’m doing just that," Netanyahu said during a visit to France.

In October, the Ukrainian government sent Israel an official request for the Iron Dome system to fend off Iranian ballistic missiles and attack drones used by Russia in Ukraine.

Netanyahu did not disclose a timeframe for when the defense system might be sent to Ukraine, saying, he is reviewing the request from Ukraine and the overall policy for supplying the system.


Fierce fighting continues in Kharkiv, Bakhmut

At least five people were injured Sunday when Russian missiles hit a residential building and a university in central Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, Ukrainian officials said.

Kharkiv Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said four people were hurt when a Russian missile landed near an apartment building in central Kharkiv, according to The Associated Press.

Syniehubov said one other person was injured in a missile strike on a building at the National Academy for Urban Economy, a university near Kharkiv's central square.

The missile strikes prompted the evacuation of local residents, Syniehubov said.

"In short, there was a strong blast, and it was just one short moment and everything happened," one of the evacuees, Lyudmyula Krylova, told Reuters.

Krylova said she was in the residential building near where the missile landed.

"We were saved by the furniture that fell on us, and because of this we are now alive," said Krylova, adding that a friend was injured in the attack and taken to a hospital.

Meanwhile, fighting intensified Sunday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Prigozhin denied reports that Ukrainian forces were retreating from the area. He said the Ukrainian troops were fighting for “every street, every house, every stairwell.”


Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to war-torn Ukraine on Monday, arriving in Kyiv as Washington signals its ongoing support ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion.

Biden's visit came ahead of a planned meeting with NATO allies in Poland. He is expected to give a speech at the Royal Castle Arcades in Warsaw on Tuesday evening to offer an appraisal of international support during the first year of the war and to address "how we will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement earlier this month.

Biden also plans to meet in Poland with leaders of the Bucharest Nine, a group of eastern NATO allies formed in 2015 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a dramatic visit to the United States in December, his first known international trip since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. Zelenskyy met with Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., before addressing members of U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill.