Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western allies to speed up their military support for Ukraine, warning that delays would play into Russia’s hand as the invasion approaches its first anniversary.

“There is no alternative to speed, because it’s speed that life depends on,” Mr Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

In his plea for more Western weapons, he compared Ukraine‘s struggle against the Russian invasion to the biblical fight between David and Goliath, saying his country had David’s courage but needed help getting the sling.

Mr Zelensky vowed that his country would ultimately prevail over Moscow’s aggression — and even predicted that victory would happen this year.

But he warned that Russia “can still destroy many lives.”“That is why we need to hurry up,” Mr Zelensky said. “We need the speed.”

Labour’s leader has refused to criticise British people travelling to fight for Ukraine, saying that anyone getting involved in the conflict should do so “very carefully”, reports Patrick Daly.

Foreign Office advice is to stay away from the conflict zone, with eight Britons known to have died on Ukrainian soil since the war broke out almost a year ago.

Sir Keir Starmer, who has been visiting Ukraine in recent days, indicated that anyone from the UK joining the fighting needed to ensure they did “nothing that undermines” Ukrainian military efforts to defeat Russian troops.

Rishi Sunak has boarded his flight from Stansted to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference.

The prime minister will give a speech and meet with a number of world leaders while at the summit.

He is also expected to meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on the fringes to talk about a deal to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Since Russia’s invasion began almost one year ago, the Ukraine war has rarely been out of the news anywhere in the Western world. But one dimension has been largely absent. What Russia thinks – as opposed to what we think about Russia – has featured at best as a very minor strand, writes Mary Dejevsky.

The war in Ukraine that began a year ago has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced entire cities to rubble and has fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO.

A look at some of the main events in the conflict:

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearing the one-year mark, a top Estonian defense leader warned that if Vladimir Putin is not stopped now, he could entangle the region in a larger conflict, perhaps one with even greater security implications for the U.S.

That’s because Russia has shown it will keep trying to retake territories that were once part of the Soviet Union and, so far, economic sanctions and its significant military losses in Ukraine have not changed Putin’s larger goals, said Kristjan Mäe, the head of the Estonian Ministry of Defense’s NATO and EU department, as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited the Baltic nation on Thursday.

Russia, China and South Africa are set to begin naval drills off South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast Friday in a demonstration of the three countries’ close ties amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s tense relationship with the West.

The 10 days of exercises, named Mosi II, will coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

A Russian frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, arrived in Cape Town earlier this week sporting the letters Z and V on its sides, letters that mark Russian weapons on the front lines in Ukraine and are used as a patriotic symbol in Russia.

The International Monetary Fund says it has reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine, setting the stage for talks on a full loan program that would support Kyiv’s economy and its bid to join the EU.

The IMF said the agreement on the first and final review of a Program Monitoring with Board Involvement (PMB) was subject to IMF management approval and showed positive results.

“Performance under the PMB has been strong. Due to the joint efforts of the government … and the National Bank of Ukraine, all end-December quantitative and indicative targets have been met, as have all five end-January structural benchmarks,” the IMF said in a statement.