Ukraine-Russia war: Zelensky calls Putin ‘slave to war’ in Munich as he ramps up demands on US for peace deal

Russia’s Black Sea port of Taman, which handles oil products, grain, coal and commodities, has been damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region said on Sunday.

Two people were injured as an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals took damage in Volna village, the site of Taman port, governor Veniamin Kondratyev said in a post on Telegram.

Kondratyev said that more than 100 people were working to put out several fires at the port.

Separate strikes on the resort city of Sochi and the village of Yurovka, close to the seaside town of Anapa, had caused less significant damage, he added.

Ukraine has resumed attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent days after a US-brokered moratorium on such strikes expired.

Russia has repeatedly targeted energy and utility infrastructure in Ukraine, cutting off heating and electricity to hundreds of thousands of people in the midst of an unusually cold winter.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has begun a two-day visit to central Europe, aimed at bolstering ties with Slovakia and Hungary, including a planned meeting with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

Rubio’s trip comes after his participation in the Munich Security Conference, and the State Department says he will discuss energy cooperation, NATO commitments and bilateral relations. In Bratislava on Sunday he is due to meet Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, who visited Donald Trump in Florida last month.

Tomorrow, Rubio is expected to meet Orban, a close ally of Trump who is currently trailing in polls ahead of Hungary’s April election.

“These are countries that are very strong with us, very cooperative with the United States, work very closely with us, and it’s a good opportunity to go see them and two countries I’ve never been in,” Rubio told reporters before departing for Europe on Thursday.

Both Fico and Orban have frequently clashed with EU institutions over democratic standards and have maintained ties with Moscow. They have criticised or delayed EU sanctions on Russia and opposed sending military aid to Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary have also continued to buy Russian gas and oil, even as other EU countries secure alternative supplies.

Rubio did not outline specific energy discussions but said cooperation with European partners was a priority. His visit highlights ongoing US efforts to keep EU allies aligned amid diverging approaches to Russia, defence spending and broader transatlantic relations.

Russia’s Taman port was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack, the governor of the Krasnodar region said on Sunday.

Veniamin Kondratyev said the strike sparked a fire at the port. He did not provide details on the extent of the damage.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Taman port lies in southern Russia near the Kerch Strait, a key route for shipping and energy exports.

The Kremlin has hit back at claims from the UK and other allies that opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed with dart frog poison while serving time in a Russian prison in 2024.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, told the TASS news agency that the allegations “are a disinformation campaign by the West”.

“There will be results of the analyses, there will be formulas of the substances – there will be a commentary. Without this, all the talks and statements are an information campaign aimed at diverting attention from the pressing problems of the West,” she said.

The Russian Embassy in the UK said: “This isn’t a quest for justice, but a mockery of the dead. Even after the death of a Russian citizen, London and European capitals cannot give him peace, which speaks volumes about the instigators of this campaign.”

Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Vladimir Putin as a “slave to war”, telling the Munich Security Conference that Russia’s leader saw himself as a tsar but was driven entirely by conflict.

“He may see himself as a tsar, but in reality he is a slave to war,” the Ukrainian president said, days before the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Zelensky said Russia’s attacks had damaged every power plant in Ukraine. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been damaged by Russian attacks. Not one,” he said. “But we still generate electricity.”

Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure to leave civilians without heat and power during winter. Zelensky again urged partners to speed up deliveries of air defence systems.

He also warned against pressuring Ukraine into territorial concessions ahead of fresh US-brokered talks next week. Drawing a parallel with the 1938 Munich Agreement, he said it would be “an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine”.

“With Russia, you cannot leave a single loophole Russians can use to start a war,” he said, insisting that any settlement must include firm security guarantees.

Drone strikes killed at least one person in Ukraine and one in Russia yesterday, officials said, as the two sides prepared for another round of talks in Geneva on Tuesday aimed at ending the war.

An elderly woman died after a Russian drone struck a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

In Russia, a civilian was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in the Bryansk border region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Russia-backed authorities in the partially occupied Luhansk region said a Ukrainian airstrike wounded 15 people in a village there.

The exchanges followed a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border city of Belgorod on Friday that killed two people and injured five, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.