Hopes of a peace deal have moved forward after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded for the first time that Ukraine could never join Nato.
The Ukrainian President made the Nato concession in a meeting of politicians from Joint Expeditionary Force nations, a northern European security coalition, including Boris Johnson, saying: "Of course Ukraine is not a Nato member, we understand that.
"We have heard for many years about the open doors, but we also heard that we can't enter those doors. This is the truth and we have simply to accept it as it is."
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He added: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed everything that security in our region, and I am sure international security, was based on. The weight of the organisations we all hoped for. The force of international conventions. It has also called into question the world's most powerful alliance, Nato.”
Mr Zelensky also said peace talks with Russia had been 'more realistic' but said that more time is needed before any breakthrough.
But this came as a Russian politician, Yevgeny Alexeyevich Fyodorov, called on Vladimir Putin to launch a ballistic missile at the largest weapon testing range in the US as a 'warning', The Mirror reports. He urged Putin to launch the missile at the testing range in Nevada because western leaders are assuming "Putin has no trump cards in his hand." Mr Fyodorov believes the US wouldn't retaliate if they were to do this.
The landmark of three million refugees having fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion has also been reached, the United Nations has announced. Paul Dillon, spokesman for the UN's International Organisation for Migration, told reporters in Geneva: "We have now reached the three-million mark in terms of movement of people out of Ukraine."
Amongst this Russian forces continue to target cities across Ukraine with shelling hitting buildings in the capital Kyiv this morning. A curfew is still in place in Kyiv with the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko warning of "a difficult and dangerous moment".
In other developments, the leaders of three European Union countries — Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia — visited the embattled capital on Tuesday, arriving by train in a bold show of support amid the danger.
"At a time when many ambassadors have left Ukraine in connection with the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, these dignitaries, leaders of their beautiful independent European states, fear nothing, care for our fate more, and they are here to support us," Zelensky said.
In Britain more than 120,000 individuals and organisations have expressed an interest in taking in Ukrainian refugees, the Government has said. According to the latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 122,305 expressions of interest have so far been received by the Homes for Ukraine programme.
The response to the scheme, which encourages members of the public to open up their homes to people fleeing the fighting in Ukraine, comes amid intense criticism of the Government’s response to the refugee crisis. Downing Street welcomed the “huge” public response to the appeal for accommodation as a sign of the support in the UK for the Ukrainian people.
