President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner led the US delegation while Ukraine was represented by Rustem Umerov and Russia by military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

Europeans need to wean themselves off the US security system, and in Munich, Trump’s team will give them good reason to, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley:

Europe and the liberal democracies of the West face a reckoning this week in Munich: will they be willing, or able, to pull away from a hostile US and forge the capacity to see off Russia’s war against Europe?

As the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion nears and peace talks show little signs of progress, Ukrainians tell Alex Croft about the grim reality on the ground:

As three-way peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US stall, freezing Ukrainians say they are struggling to feed their families while Putin’s relentless assault continues.

Ukraine is suffering its coldest winter in more than a decade, and without power, many of its people have been unable to cook meals while temperatures plummet as low as -26C.

Germany will deliver five additional PAC-3 missile ⁠interceptors to Ukraine if other countries donate a ⁠total ​of 30, ⁠German Defence Minister ⁠Boris Pistorius said ​on Thursday.

PAC-3, ⁠or ‌Patriot Advanced Capability-3, is among ‌the main weapons the ‌West has supplied to ⁠Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion.

“We all know it is about saving lives,” ‌Pistorius said.

“It’s ​a ‌matter of ⁠days and ⁠not a matter of weeks or months.”

Volodymyr Zelensky has responded with outrage after a Ukrainian athlete was disqualified for wearing a helmet with the faces of killed Ukrainian athletes.

The Ukrainian president wrote a scathing post on social media which criticised the International Olympics Committee, accusing them of failing to adhere to “the principle of Olympism, which are founded on fairness and the support of peace”.

He wrote: “Sport shouldn’t mean amnesia, and the Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors.”

More ‌than 220,000 ​people ‌in Russia’s Belgorod region have been left ‌without electricity after a ‌Ukrainian attack caused an accident ⁠at ​a ⁠substation, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov ⁠said on Thursday.

“Emergency ​crews are working. ⁠Restoration will take ⁠at ​least 4 hours,” Gladkov ⁠wrote on the ⁠Telegram ⁠messaging app.

Russia has outlined potential areas for economic cooperation with ‌the Trump administration, including a ‌possible return to using the US dollar in ​bilateral dealings, Bloomberg News reported, citing an internal Kremlin memo.

The senior-level document, dated this year, sets out seven areas where ‌Russian and ⁠US economic objectives align after any Ukraine war settlement, the report ⁠said.

These include cooperation on promoting fossil fuels over renewable energy, as well ​as collaborative ​ventures in natural ​gas, offshore petroleum ‌and strategic minerals that could benefit American firms, it said.

Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, said on Thursday that six more children were being reunited with their families in Russia and Ukraine and credited US First Lady Melania Trump.

One child would return to Russia and five children would be reunited with their families in Ukraine, she added.

The US First Lady wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin last August about the plight of Ukrainian children separated from their families by the war.

Ukraine accuses Russia of abducting thousands of children, which Moscow denies.

Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych is out of the Milan Cortina Games after he refused to stop wearing a banned tribute helmet.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has disqualified Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych from competing in this afternoon’s skeleton heats after he followed up on his vow to wear a banned helmet in tribute to Ukrainian athletes who have died during the war with Russia.

Heraskevych, 27, said he would rather sacrifice his dream of a medal at the Winter Olympics than “betray” his fallen compatriots killed since Russia’s invasion four years ago. Heraskevych’s helmet features images of Ukrainian athletes killed during the war.