Putin's forces focus on attacking key eastern town of Pokrovsk amid heavy losses - Russian forces have captured hundreds of square miles of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region over the past year as part of their advance on the city of Pokrovsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday (Jan 28) said that he would allocate people to hold peace talks with Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelensky wants to take part in the negotiations, however, he ruled out the possibility of speaking directly to the Ukrainian leader,