Ukraine news latest: Putin orders Russian troops to press ahead with invasion after Luhansk falls

President Vladimir Putin has instructed his troops to press ahead with the Ukraine invasion after gaining control in Luhansk.

During a brief televised meeting with his defence minister, Putin congratulated Russian forces on their “victories in the Luhansk direction”. Those who participated in the combat should “absolutely rest and recover their military preparedness”, while other units continue fighting in other areas, he said.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss called for a Marshall Plan-style programme for Ukraine, echoing the one used to rebuild Europe after World War II.

She told a recovery conference in Switzerland on Monday: “This needs to be a new Marshall Plan for Ukraine and it needs to be driven by Ukraine itself.

We will push for immediate investment and to drive economic growth because it’s absolutely imperative we get the Ukrainian economy going.”

Asked how to make the UK’s support sustainable, she said “the number one thing we have to do is to help Ukraine recover its economy in the shortest possible time-frame”, and open ports so the war-torn nation can export its agricultural goods.

Ukraine needs $750 billion for a three-stage recovery plan in the wake of Russia‘s invasion, its prime minister said on Monday.

Denys Shmygal also told the Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Switzerland that there had been over $100 billion of direct damage to Ukrainian infrastructure from Russia‘s invasion.

“Today, the direct infrastructure losses of Ukraine stand at over $100 billion,” he said. “Who will pay for the renewal plan, which is already being valued at $750 billion?”

Shmygal added that the Ukrainian government believed that a key source of funding for the recovery plan should be assets confiscated from Russian oligarchs.

He said Ukraine‘s recovery plan had three phases: A first focused on fixing things that matter for people’s daily lives like water supply which is ongoing, a “fast recovery” component that will be launched as soon as fighting ends including temporary housing, hospital and school projects, and one that aims to transform the country over the longer term.

Ukraine needs $750 billion for a recovery plan in the wake of Russia‘s invasion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday.

Shmyhal also told the Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Switzerland that there had been over $100 billion of direct damage to infrastructure from Russia‘s invasion.

Four days before President Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron was making a last-ditch attempt to prevent the war in a key phone call revealed in a French TV documentary.

In the rare public recording of a discussion between two world leaders, Macron tries to convince the Russian president to “calm things down” in the region. But all his suggestions reach a dead end on Putin’s side.

The French documentary “A President, Europe and War” offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at months of diplomatic wrangling amid Europe’s worst crisis in decades. It was meant to focus on Macron during France’s leadership of the rotating EU presidency, but ended up capturing historic moments in Ukraine’s war, including following Macron to Moscow and on two trips to Kyiv.

British citizen Aiden Aslin, sentenced to death by a court in the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, submitted an appeal on Monday, the Russian Interfax agency reported on Monday.

“A cassation appeal against the verdict was filed today,” the lawyer representing him, Pavel Kosovan, told Interfax.

Aslin was sentenced to death last month together with fellow Briton Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun for “mercenary activities” because they had been captured while fighting as foreigners for Ukraine‘s army against Russian and Russian-backed forces in Ukraine.

TASS news agency reported on Friday the breakaway region’s supreme court had received appeals from lawyers for Saadoun and Pinner but that Aslin had yet to submit an appeal.

The Ukrainian flag has been raised again on Snake Island in the Black Sea, Ukraine‘s military said on Monday, after Russian forces withdrew from the strategic outpost last week.

“The military operation has been concluded, and … the territory (Snake Island) has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine‘s southern military command, told a news conference.

Some analysts have said Russia‘s withdrawal from Snake Island off Ukraine‘s southwestern coast could loosen its blockade on Ukrainian ports.

But a Kyiv-based foreign diplomat told Reuters it was still not enough to allow for safe transit of Ukrainian grain.

“There is a requirement for demining, and Russia still has capabilities (military vessels, costal defence systems and air superiority) that will allow them to interdict shipping lanes,” the diplomat said.

To unblock its ports so it can ship grain, Ukraine would need allied support and for Turkey to play a key role, the diplomat added.

Russia said it had pulled out from Snake Island on Thursday as a “gesture of goodwill” to show it was not obstructing United Nations attempts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grain to be shipped from Ukraine.

Ukraine said it had driven the Russian forces out after an artillery and missile assault.

A meeting between German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, while in Indonesia for the G20 is not up for discussion due to the war in Ukraine, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

Baerbock will attend the G20 meeting on Thursday and Friday, said the ministry spokesperson. Lavrov is expected to attend.

The Kremlin said on Monday that the deadly unrest that has broken out in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan region was an “internal matter” for Tashkent.

Speaking to reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia considered Uzbekistan a “friendly country” and had no doubt that its leadership would work to resolve the issue.

Eighteen people were killed and 243 wounded during unrest in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan province last week over plans to curtail its autonomy, Uzbek authorities said on Monday.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Russian troops on “liberating” the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, a significant milestone for Moscow in its military campaign in Ukraine.

In a televised meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin said the troops involved in the operation to capture the Luhansk region should rest but that other military units should continue fighting.