Ukraine updates: Australia to consider peacekeeping mission

Hundreds of people gathered at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate in a show of solidarity with Ukraine.

Several hundred people attended, according to police sources. But organizers estimated that thousands were gathered.

Protesters were just steps away from the US embassy, with the Russian embassy also nearby, some 240 meters (787 feet) away.

The protest was organized by an alliance involving the campaign organization Campact and the Ukraine solidarity association Vitsche. 

Attendees carried Ukrainian flags and held signs with slogans including "Stop Putin" and "No Peace Under Occupation." 

Katharina Dröge, parliamentary leader of the Green Party, and Roderich Kiesewetter, foreign policy expert of the conservative CDU were both in attendance. 

"I bow to the people of Ukraine, I bow to your strength," said Dröge. "Your confidence is our mission." Kiesewetter emphasized: "No army in the world is as strong as the Ukrainian army" and urged continuing support for the Ukrainian forces.

Elon Musk vowed to maintain Ukraine's access to the Starlink satellite network, after fears the Trump ally would cut off Ukrainian access to his private communication system.

"To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals," Musk posted on his social media platform X."We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip."

His comments came as Poland's foreign minister said Ukraine may need to find an alternative to Starlink.

Poland pays for Kyiv to use the service, which provides crucial internet connectivity to Ukraine and its military.

Referring to his previous posts, in which he said Ukraine's front line would "collapse" without Starlink access, Musk said he was clearly stating a fact.

Washington's top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also weighed into the discussion, accusing Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski of "making things up." 

"No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink," Rubio said, adding that the Polish minister should thank Musk.

"Without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now," Rubio said.

Russia's Defense Ministry says its forces have recaptured three more settlements in the Kursk region in western Russia.

Ukraine's army has not commented on the announcement nor confirmed it.

Moscow's forces have been trying to expel Ukrainian troops that have held the area since pulling off a cross-border incursion into Russian territory seven months ago.

"The Russian Federation's armed forces are continuing to rout groups of the Ukrainian army on the territory of Kursk region," a ministry statement said. 

The ministry said that Russia now controls the settlements of Malaya Lokhnya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Kositsa. All of them lie north of the town of Sudzha.

Previously, Russian bloggers had reported that the country's special forces had snuck in through a gas pipeline near Sudzha in an attempt to surprise Ukrainian forces.

"The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed," former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Telegram regarding the seized territory. "The offensive continues."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with his Ukrainiancounterparts, a US State Department statement said.

Rubio is also expected to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will also visit Saudi Arabia for a Monday meeting with bin Salman.

This comes after Rubio spoke to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha two days ago, telling him that President Donald Trump wanted to end the war with Russia as soon as possible.

Poland could seek an alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink internet services should the company prove to be "unreliable," the Polish foreign minister said.

This comes after the billionaire speculated about turning off Ukraine's access to the system. 

Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to Ukraine and its military, and with US negotiators pressing Kyiv for Ukraine's critical minerals, the possibility was raised of cutting the country's access to the service, Reuters reported.

Musk said in a post on his X social media platform that Ukraine's "entire front line would collapse" if he turns off the country's Starlink access, which is being paid by Poland's Digitization Ministry. 

"If SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on his X account. 

Germany, France and Britain should work towards jointly increasing European nuclear deterrence, German conservative leader Friedrich Merz said.

"We want first of all to align our ideas with each other," Merz, who is set to be Germany's next chancellor following February's election, added.

"We still have two nuclear powers in Europe."

Nuclear sharing is part of NATO's deterrence concept. The US allows certain NATO partners access to nuclear bombs in the event of war, and the German air force has nuclear-capable bombers that could carry US bombs. 

According to Merz, the talks should be conducted under the aspect of complementing the US nuclear umbrella, "which we would naturally like to see maintained." 

The European Union remains committed to entirely phasing out the supply of Russian gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

"I commit very clearly to phasing out the Russian gas ...this is an absolute must," von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

"We've been successful, but we always see of course that there are loopholes where we have to be careful and we have to work on."

Once reliant on Russia for up to 40% of pipeline gas supplies, EU states cut their dependence in the first months of the Ukraine war. A year later, just 8% of pipeline gas supplied to Europe came from Russia, according to EU data.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia carried out more than 2,100 aerial attacks on his country over the past week.

In a social media post, Zelenskyy said Russian forces deployed 1,200 guided aerial bombs, nearly 870 attack drones, and more than 80 missiles of various types.

He also highlighted that many Russian weapons rely on foreign-made components.

"Every Shahed [kamikaze] drone and aerial bomb Russia uses contains components supplied in circumvention of sanctions. These weapons include more than 82,000 foreign components," Zelenskyy wrote, urging allies to tighten and enforce existing trade restrictions.

While the overall number of attacks on Ukraine dropped slightly from the previous week's 2,300, the number of missile strikes quadrupled by Zelenskyy's count.

France will use interest from frozen Russian assets to fund hundreds of millions of euros in military support for Ukraine, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a newspaper interview.

"Thanks to interest from frozen Russian assets, we will also tap new funds worth €195 million," Lecornu said.

The minister added that the funds would be used for 155-mm artillery shells and glidebombs for Mirage 2000 fighter jets France has given Ukraine.

France also plans to hand over some of its older armored fighting vehicles, such as the AMX-10RC and personnel carriers, he told La Tribune.

G7 leaders agreed last year to lend Kyiv a total of $50 billion that Kyiv could pay off using the profits from $300 billion in Russian central bank assets frozen by the West around the start of the war.

Moscow said it had retaken the village of Lebedevka in Russia's Kursk region and captured a village across the border in Ukraine's Sumy region.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a briefing that its forces had "liberated" the small village of Novenke, which lies near the border with the Kursk region.

Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in its Kursk region for months.

Russian troops had been largely absent from the Sumy region since April 2022, when they withdrew to refocus their forces on eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's air defenses shot down 73 of 119 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Thirty-seven other drones went missing without causing harm, Kyiv added.

The military said damage was recorded in six Ukrainian regions.

The attacks followed deadly Russian strikes over the previous two days in eastern and northeastern Ukraine that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more.

A Ukrainian drone hit a Russian industrial facility around 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the two countries' shared border.

The strike — one of the deepest yet into Russia by a Ukrainian drone — hit Russia's Volga river region of Chuvashia.

Regional governor Oleg Nikolayev said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that there were no casualties.

Nikolayev gave no details on the damage caused.

Earlier, Russia said it shot down dozens of Ukrainian drones over its territory overnight.

Unofficial Russian news Telegram channels said some of the strikes targeted oil refineries.

Ukraine has said its attacks on Russia aim to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts.

Russia's forces attempted to retake the Ukrainian-held town of Sudzha in Russia's western Kursk region by sending soldiers through a gas pipeline, Kyiv said.

Ukraine's general staff said late Saturday that the soldiers were "discovered in time" by an air reconnaissance team and repelled with missiles, artillery and drones.

The claim could not be independently verified.

Russian military blogs had earlier reported the attempted assault on Sudzha.

The pipeline used was reportedly part of a system that supplied Russian gas to Europe until early this year. The pipes have a diameter of 1.4 meters.

Ukraine's incursion into Kursk last August was the most serious attack on Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian forces back in recent weeks, placing tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops in danger of being encircled.

Russia launched deadly strikes on Donetsk late Friday, killing at least 11 people and injuring 30. The attack caused extensive damage to buildings and vehicles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike, accusing Russia of using a "vile and inhumane" tactic by targeting emergency responders with a second missile. In a separate drone attack on Saturday, three civilians were killed and seven wounded in the city of Kharkiv.

As Russian missiles continue to pound Ukraine, European leaders reinforced their defense commitments. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed efforts by European nations to boost military spending but stressed the urgent need for increased weapons production.

In comments to Welt am Sonntag, he said, "We will need to spend more to keep ourselves safe, but we also need to quickly ramp up our defense production on both sides of the Atlantic."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck back with a major drone attack on Russia’s Kirishi oil refinery, damaging a tank. Russian defenses intercepted one drone, while another was destroyed over the facility. Officials confirmed external damage to the refinery.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, denounced Russia’s ongoing attacks, stating that President Vladimir Putin "has no interest in peace."

Moscow said it downed 88 drones from Ukraine over Russian territory overnight, with no damage or injuries reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry said that 52 of the drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region, 13 over the Lipetsk region and nine over the Rostov region, both in Russia's southwest.

The others were downed over Russia's Voronezh, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Ryazan and Kursk regions.

Russia's aviation watchdog said on Telegram that three airports were closed to planes for several hours for safety reasons.