Russia could keep its war effort against Ukraine going for at least one more year, Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo has warned.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr de Croo said was vital that a 16th package of sanctions targeting Russia included gas, energy and fertilisers.

“Our analysis is that the Russian economy can sustain the war for another year,” said Mr de Croo.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would result in Vladimir Putin “high fiving” the leaders of North Korea and China.

“We really have to step up and not scale back our support for Ukraine,” Mr Rutte told an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“The frontline is moving in the wrong direction,” Mr Rutte said.

Vladimir Putin believes key war goals in the “special military operation” in Ukraine have already been met, sources aware of the matter inside the Kremlin said.

These key war goals, according to Mr Putin, include the control of land that connects mainland Russia to Crimea, and weakening Ukraine’s military, the source said, reported Reuters.

Last year, Russia made its most significant territorial gains since the early days of the war and it now controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine.

Mr Putin has said that Russia can fight on as long as it takes and that Moscow will never bow before another power over key national interests.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is getting increasingly concerned about the state of Russia’s wartime economy, five sources aware of the situation told Reuters.

Domestic activity in Russia is feeling the pressure from the Kremlin’s war machinery. Labour shortages and high interest rates have been introduced to tackle inflation which has accelerated under record military spending.

That has contributed to the view within a section of the Russian elite that a negotiated settlement to the war is desirable, according to two of the sources familiar with thinking in the Kremlin.

The sources described Mr Putin’s concerns about the economy, and the influence of that on views about the war within the Kremlin, as reaching unprecedented levels.

“Russia, of course, is economically interested in negotiating a diplomatic end to the conflict,” Oleg Vyugin, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, told Reuters. The Russian president has said he is ready to discuss ceasefire options with Mr Trump but that Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine must be accepted and that Ukraine must drop its bid to join the US-led Nato military alliance.

On the frontline, Moscow and Kyiv are seeking battlefield gains to strengthen their negotiating positions ahead of any prospective talks to end the three-year-old war.

At least one person was killed and 25 others wounded in a Russian drone and missile attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said today.

More than 20,000 residents were also left without power and another 17,000 without heating as a result of the overnight attack, according to governor Ivan Fedorov, who said an energy facility had been destroyed.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the frontline of its three-year-old invasion, targeting the country’s weakened energy grid in particular.

A Russian spy ship is being tracked by the Royal Navy after sailing through the English Channel, John Healey revealed on Wednesday, issuing a stark warning to Vladimir Putin that the government is watching Russian activity in UK waters.

“We see you”, the defence secretary warned, promising robust action to protect Britain.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

A landmine clearance charity will be given £7m to continue its “life-saving” work in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

The UK Government cash for the Hazardous Area Life-support Organisation (Halo) Trust will enable the charity to make land safe for agriculture in Ukraine, and to restore basic services affected by the threat of explosives in Afghanistan.

Development minister Anneliese Dodds also announced an additional £250,000 for one Halo project, which aims to dispose of 165 tons of unusable, unsafe ammunition and explosives from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, Africa.

UK defence secretary John Healey has told the Commons that Russia is the biggest external threat to Britain, warning that aggression from Vladimir Putin “will not be tolerated at home or in Ukraine”.

The defence secretary said Russia was “dangerous but fundamentally weak”, as he referenced the casualties the country had suffered during the war in Ukraine and its decision to draft in troops from North Korea.