Ukraine-Russia war – live: Belgium pledges dozens of F-16 fighter jets as Putin’s troops ‘massing on border’

European Union ministers debated training Ukrainian forces in Ukraine but there is no clear common position yet, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

“About doing part of the training in Ukraine, there has been a debate, but (there) is not a clear common European position on that”, he said in a press conference.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Belgium’s King Philippe on the second day of his European tour.

Earlier, Mr Zelensky met with the Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo. The pair signed a nearly €1 billion security agreement.

Ukraine will receive its first supplies of F-16 fighter jets “very soon” but around half of its desperately needed foreign military aid is arriving late, Kyiv’s defence minister has said.

Rustem Umerov, 42, told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv late on Monday that Russia was deploying more manpower and equipment to the front, more than 27 months after its full-scale invasion.

Kyiv’s forces have managed to stabilise the new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region where Russia attacked earlier this month. But Mr Umerov said Moscow was preparing for a new push.

“Their objective is to open a new front in the north to start using all their manpower, firing power, against us, they are continuing with their objective to destroy the nation,” he said.

“We are withstanding, but of course we need more weapons, we need more firing power, we need long-range missiles, not to allow them to enter our state.”

He said Ukraine was grateful for the military aid and weapons supplied by its partners, but that only half of the promised deliveries arrived on time. Every delay benefited Ukraine‘s much larger and better-equipped foe, with a front line stretching 750 miles.

An image has shown a giant bomb crater next to a Kharkiv publishing house that was destroyed by a Russian missile strike last week.

More than 50 people were believed to be inside the Faktor Druk printing house when it was hit. At least seven people were killed and dozens more injured. You can read the full story here.

Russia should stand its ground and continue what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine in response to the West’s military fervour, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, as quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

At the same time, Peskov said that the West had no unanimity of opinion regarding the Ukrainian army’s strikes with Western weapons on Russian territory.

We have some photos dropping on the wires of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Belgium, part of his multi-day tour across Europe to drum up further support for Kyiv.

Earlier today, we reported that the two nations had agreed on a nearly €1 billion military aid package including 30 F-16 fighter jets.

Sweden is pausing plans to send Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine in order to allow for the introduction of F-16 fighter jets, the Swedish defence minister has told news agency TT in Brussels.

Ukraine last year started discussions with Sweden about the possibility of receiving Gripen jets, and the Nordic country later said its would assess the potential for sending the aircraft made by Swedish defence contractor Saab.

“We have been urged by the other countries in the coalition to wait with the Gripen system,” defence minister Pal Jonson told TT, referring to nations that plan to donate US-made F-16 planes to Ukraine.

“This has to do with the fact that the focus is now on introducing the F-16 system,” Mr Jonson said.