Volodymyr Zelenskyy has flown to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the eve of separate, high-stakes meetings between Ukrainian and US officials at a time when Ukraine is being squeezed on and off the battlefield.

Bin Salman’s government has played a mediating role between Ukraine and Russia.

Donald Trump has sought to force Zelenskyy to agree to a deal to end the war with Russia, and last week the US president piled on the pressure by cutting off crucial military assistance and intelligence-sharing.

Russian forces – emboldened after Ukraine lost support from its biggest backer – have seized the moment, launching barrages of ballistic missile attacks while attempting to surround thousands of Ukrainian troops who had maintained a seven-month foothold in the Russian region of Kursk.

On Tuesday, a Ukrainian delegation led by Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, will meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other senior White House officials – the first official meeting since a disastrous Oval Office argument between Zelenskyy and Trump.

The White House has framed Trump’s Ukraine policy as intended to achieve a lasting “peace” but the president has focused primarily on pressuring Zelenskyy to hand over his country’s mineral wealth to the US.

After the Oval Office crisis, Zelenskyy sought to patch up ties with the mercurial US leader. The Ukrainian president says he is willing to sign a mineral deal, even though it looks unlikely he will gain US security guarantees that Kyiv sees as vital to prevent a future Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy will not attend Tuesday’s talks but the Ukrainian delegation will include his foreign and defence ministers. “On our side, we are fully committed to constructive dialogue, and we hope to discuss and agree on the necessary decisions and steps,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively.”

Trump aide Steve Witkoff said Washington expected substantial progress from the talks. Asked on Fox News if he thought Zelenskyy could sign the minerals deal this week, Witkoff said: “I am really hopeful. All the signs are very, very positive.” Intelligence sharing will be discussed at the meetings, Witkoff added.

The Ukrainian side is expected to propose a peace plan that features a halt to drone and missile strikes, as well as a suspension of military activity in the Black Sea. Zelenskyy has said the proposal would be a test of Russia’s commitment to ending the war. So far, however, Vladimir Putin has shown no interest in a ceasefire.

Trump said on Sunday that he expected good results out of the upcoming talks and that he would consider ending the suspension of intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.

Ukrainian troops remain under intense pressure. On Monday, the country’s border guard said Russian forces were attempting to create an active fighting zone in the north-eastern region of Sumy, across the border from Kursk.

“We have recorded that in the direction of Novenke, the enemy is still trying to create a zone of active hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, trying to gain a foothold there,” border guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko told Ukrainian national television.

In Kursk, Russians were also closing in on the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha. On Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled an extraordinary attack by Russian sabotage and assault groups via a gas pipeline. About 100 Russian soldiers spent four days crawling through the nine-mile-long (15km) pipeline that leads to Sudzha’s outskirts.

Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medevdev claimed Kyiv’s forces were nearly surrounded and would soon be driven out. “The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed. The offensive continues,” he posted on Telegram.

Trump suggested this weekend that Ukraine may not be able to survive in the war against Russia, even with support from the US.

In an interview with Fox News, while defending his decision to cut support to Ukraine, he said: “Well, it may not survive anyway.”

Trump also said that Zelenskyy took money from the US under the Biden administration like “candy from a baby”. He repeated his claim that Zelenskyy was not “grateful” but did describe him as “smart” and “tough”.

Reuters contributed to this report

Russia has taken control of several villages in the Kursk region and claims its forces are close to surrounding thousands of Ukrainian troops fighting on Russian territory.

Ahead of talks this week between US and Ukrainian representatives in Saudi Arabia, the Russians are closing in on the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha. They have recaptured villages to the north – Staraya, Novaya Sorochina and Malaya Loknya – as well as other small settlements to the immediate east.

On Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold talks with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh and on Tuesday, a delegation led by Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, will meet with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other senior White House officials. Zelenskyy will not take part in the negotiations.

The Ukrainian side is likely to propose a peace plan sketched out by Zelenskyy last week featuring a halt to drone and missiles strikes, as well as a suspension of military activity in the Black Sea. So far, however, Vladimir Putin has showed no interest in a ceasefire.

For seven months, Ukraine has controlled a pocket inside western Russia. Last week, Russian and North Korean troops launched a major offensive, shortly after Donald Trump pulled the plug on military support, intelligence and satellite feeds with Kyiv.

There were unconfirmed reports some Ukrainian soldiers had been captured amid heavy fighting. The crucial supply road between Sudzha and Ukraine’s Sumy region is under constant Russian fire.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled an extraordinary attack by Russian sabotage and assault groups via a gas pipeline. About 100 Russian soldiers spent four days crawling through the 15km-long pipe that leads to Sudzha’s outskirts.

Ukrainian airborne assault forces wiped out some of the Russians using artillery strikes soon after they emerged, video footage suggests. “Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. Enemy losses in the Sudzha area are very heavy,” Ukraine’s military said.

It admitted the situation was difficult but under control, with Russia employing North Korean combat units. They include replacement soldiers sent by Pyongyang after the original 11,000-strong North Korean contingent that arrived last November suffered heavy losses.

Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medevdev claimed Kyiv’s forces were nearly surrounded and would soon be driven out. “The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost closed. The offensive continues,” he posted on Telegram.

The US appears determined to force further concessions on Ukraine before the talks in Saudi Arabia this week. According to NBC news, Trump wants Zelenskyy to yield territory to Russia and to move towards elections.

On Sunday Trump suggested that Ukraine may not be able to survive in the war against Russia even with support from the US.

In an interview with Fox News while defending his decision to draw down on support to Ukraine, he said: “Well, it may not survive anyway.”

Trump also said that Zelenskyy took money from the US under the Biden administration like “candy from a baby”. He repeated his claim that Zelenskyy was not “grateful” but did describe him as “smart” and “tough”.

Trump’s pro-Russian ally Elon Musk earlier offered a fresh warning to Kyiv. Posting on X, he wrote: “My Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their front line would collapse if I turned it off.”

His threat prompted a rebuke from Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, who pointed out that his government had a commercial contract with Starlink and paid $50m for Ukraine to access Musk’s satellite internet service.

“The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” Sikorski wrote back on X. Ukrainian engineers are urgently exploring alternatives.

According to the FT, negotiations are taking place with four European satellite operators. Replacing Starlink terminals across a 1,000km frontline would take time, the paper noted.

Musk later said on Sunday said that no matter how much he disagreed on Ukraine policy, Starlink would never turn off its terminals. “We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip,” he wrote on X.

More than 20 people have been killed in the last two days by Russian bombs. On Friday, several ballistic missiles smashed into a five-storey residential block in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 11 civilians and injuring dozens, including three children.

Overnight, Ukraine carried out its own long-range drone attacks deep inside Russia. According to Telegram channels, oil refineries in Ryazan and Lipetsk were hit, together with an oil depot in Cheboksary in Russia’s Chuvashia Republic.

The depot is located more than 900km from the Ukrainian border and was targeted for the first time.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, has called on “friends” to respect their allies and not be arrogant in a post on X that mentioned nobody by name but was published a day after an extraordinary social media spat between top officials in the US and Poland over Starlink satellites.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, accused Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, of “making things up” and suggested on Sunday he was ungrateful, in a strong rebuke after Sikorski said Ukraine may need an alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service if it becomes unreliable.

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

“True leadership means respect for partners and allies. Even for the smaller and weaker ones,” Tusk wrote in English on X. “Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”

Rubio had also said that “no one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink”.

“And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now,” Rubio added.

Sikorski had later replied: “Thank you, Marco, for confirming that the brave soldiers of Ukraine can count on the vital internet service provided jointly by the US and Poland.”

Sikorski had been told to “be quiet” and labelled a “small man” by Musk after he suggested that Poland, which says it pays $50m a year for Ukraine’s Starlink services, may need to find another provider if Musk’s service was deemed unreliable.

The US government has already revoked some access to satellite imagery for Ukraine and paused intelligence sharing, piling pressure on Kyiv as Trump seeks a swift end to the war, which is now in its fourth year after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Shares in the Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat soared by as much as 650% last week amid speculation the company could replace Starlink in providing internet access to Ukraine.

Musk, a high-profile figure in Donald Trump’s administration, said in a post on his X social media platform early on Sunday that Ukraine’s “entire frontline would collapse if I turned it [Starlink] off”.

In a series of posts on X on the subject, that lasted through the day, Musk said later he would not turn off Starlink in Ukraine.

“To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals … We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip.”

Guatemalan authorities have evacuated around a thousand people after Central America’s most active volcano erupted, spewing lava, ash and rocks.

Residents sought safety in a temporary shelter after the Fuego volcano – located 35km (22 miles) from the capital Guatemala City – showed escalating activity on Sunday.

“We heard the rumblings and then a strong eruption. We have faith in God… that the activity of the volcano will calm down soon,” Manuel Cobox, 46, told AFP after leaving his home with his wife and three daughters.

Some 125 families, around 900 people, were moved to safety from the community of El Porvenir, said Juan Laureano, a spokesman for Guatemala’s disaster coordination agency, Conred.

Residents of another community in Las Lajitas were also evacuated, the official added.

Buses brought evacuees carrying belongings to a town hall turned into a temporary shelter.

In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number left missing as an eruption of the Fuego volcano sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes.

Another eruption in 2023 from the 3,763-meter (12,346ft) Fuego caused the evacuation of around 1,200 people.

An alert was issued by the authorities on Sunday in order to coordinate the response and preventive measures, Conred said.

The government suspended local school activities and closed a road through the village that links the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a Unesco World Heritage Site and Guatemala’s most popular tourist destination.

The state-run Volcanology Institute recommended that air traffic take precautions due to ash that has spread about 50km west of the volcanic cone.

Dangerous new forms of tuberculosis (TB) for which there is no treatment could emerge as a result of US aid cuts, a top doctor has warned.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, who heads the Stop TB Partnership, said she feared that interruptions to people’s treatment would allow the airborne bug to mutate into a new, untreatable form.

Moreover, a lack of diagnostic services, which have also been badly affected by the Trump administration’s aid cuts, would allow TB to spread more easily, she said.

Programmes working to detect, treat and research new ways to fight TB are among nearly 10,000 health projects worldwide that received notices at the end of February that the US was terminating their funding after a review of aid spending.

The US has historically provided between $200m (£155m) and $250m a year in bilateral funding to poorer countries for their work on TB, the World Health Organization said last week, warning that “abrupt funding cuts” would “cripple TB prevention and treatment efforts, reverse decades of progress, and endanger millions of lives”.

In a statement, the organisation said: “Early reports to WHO from the 30 highest TB-burden countries confirm that funding withdrawals are already dismantling essential services, threatening the global fight against TB.”

That included layoffs of health workers, drug supply chains breaking down, disruption to laboratory services, and collapsing data and surveillance systems, it said.

The Stop TB Partnership – a UN-hosted network of organisations working to fight the disease – received a notice that the US was terminating its funding, before a second message saying the termination was rescinded. However, Ditiu said funding flows had yet to resume, and that she still worried about the effect of wider cuts on the fight against TB.

The US state department has said its strategy was now that “every dollar we spend, every programme we fund and every policy we pursue must make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous”.

But Ditiu said: “Stopping the TB response doesn’t do any of this. First of all, for sure it makes none of us safe, because TB is airborne. You cannot stop it at the border. It’s spread through air – as long as you breathe, you will get it. And not just TB, but also drug-resistant TB and extreme drug-resistant TB.

“The current measures will probably create additional strains because there are people with interrupted treatment, there are people not diagnosed and so on,” she said.

Ditiu said 2024 was the “best year on record” in terms of diagnosing and treating people with TB. Those achievements would now “roll backwards”, she added.

The world now faced a “very grim” situation, she said. Drug-resistant tuberculosis remains hard to treat, with even modern six-month regimens coming with significant side-effects.

“I know that there were groups doing research on extreme drug resistance, including in South Africa, that were stopped right away,” she said. “That means that the people receiving whatever treatment there are now out of treatment.

“So you can potentially create a bug with extreme drug resistance – you create a bug that is virtually resistant to everything we have,” she said. “And this is the scary picture.”

In 2023, there were 10.8m new TB cases and 1.25 million people dying from the disease. The US itself has had two tuberculosis outbreaks in the past three months, in Kansas and North Carolina. The WHO and UN have set targets of eradicating the disease by 2030, but even before the US aid decision, there was an $11bn shortfall in the global response.

Disrupted treatment and diagnosis during the Covid pandemic resulted in doctors seeing “more complicated” forms of TB in their patients, Ditiu said, including some with holes in their lungs. It was a pattern she expected to see repeated, particularly among the poor and vulnerable, she added.

“We did a lot of work with civil society and communities, and they were supporting people to get a diagnosis, to continue their treatment – and none of that is there now.”

Ditiu said there could be drug shortages later in the year as countries used up their supplies.

Some countries with high levels of TB, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria, India and South Africa, may be able to find their own resources, Ditiu said, but others were likely to struggle, “especially in Africa”. She hoped institutions such as the African Development Bank or World Bank would be able to help but thought people would die as a result of the cuts.

It was “heartbreaking”, she said. “I’m very upset that we were a bit trusting that the solidity of a commitment of a country like the US will be there for ever.”

A 16th-century Madonna and Child painting disappeared without a trace after it was stolen from a museum in northern Italy more than half a century ago.

Now, having surfaced in Britain, it is in the possession of a woman in Norfolk, who is refusing to return it – even though it is listed on police stolen art databases.

It was painted by Antonio Solario, an Italian who is represented in the National Gallery in London and whose patrons included a Bristol cloth merchant who traded with Italy.

The painting was acquired in 1872 by the Civic Museum of Belluno, where it remained until 1973, when it was among several pictures targeted by thieves.

Some were recovered soon afterwards in Austria. The Madonna and Child ended up in the possession of Barbara de Dozsa, who now believes that it belongs to her, partly because her deceased former husband, Baron de Dozsa, bought it in good faith in 1973. Until their divorce, they kept it at their 16th-century Norfolk home, East Barsham Manor in Fakenham, which Henry VIII is said to have described as his “small country palace”.

In 2017, De Dosza tried to sell the painting through a regional auction house, but it was spotted by someone linked to the Belluno museum, who confirmed that it is on the “most wanted” lists of police forces, including Interpol and the Italian Carabinieri.

Due to delays caused by the Covid lockdown, the Italian authorities were unable to supply relevant documents requested by the British police, and so the painting was simply handed back to De Dozsa in 2020.

Christopher Marinello, a specialist art lawyer, has tried repeatedly to persuade her to return it to its rightful owner. “It’s the right thing to do,” he said.

But she has cited the Limitation Act 1980, which states that someone who buys stolen goods can be recognised as the legal owner if the purchase was “unconnected to the theft” after more than six years.

Marinello said: “Her first argument was that when the British police gave her the painting back, they gave her good title. So I wrote to the police, and they sent her a formal letter saying ‘by no means do we convey title to the painting’.”

Asked why the police did not just hand it back to Italy if it was stolen, he said: “It’s a good question. It just shows the failure of law enforcement to help the Italians out. The UK police said that this woman didn’t commit a crime, so we’re not going to treat it as a criminal matter. It’s a civil case.”

Carlo Cavalli of the museum wrote to her: “The fact that the painting has been given back to you doesn’t mean you have the title.”

Marinello is the founder of Art Recovery International, which focuses on stolen or looted art and is based in London, Venice and New York. His previous recoveries include a Matisse painting that was stolen in 1987 from Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art and whose whereabouts had been shrouded in mystery for 25 years until it surfaced in London.

He believes there is a moral argument for De Dozsa to return the painting – particularly as he has understood from her that she does not even like it enough to hang it on her walls. He is not working for a fee and is driven only by a belief that it belongs to the people of Belluno, from where his own family originated.

De Dozsa had argued that, as well as the cost of storage and insurance, she had to pay £6,000 in legal fees to resolve this problem.

Marinello claimed he understood from her that if he could reimburse those fees she would return the painting.

After securing permission from the Italian police, he found an insurance company that would donate the £6,000 – only for her to allegedly change her mind.

He said: “Her husband could not have paid more than a couple of hundred back in 1973. It’s only worth maybe £60,000 to £80,000 now. She refuses to cooperate unless she gets paid the full value, but she can never sell the painting. No legitimate auction house will ever touch it … the Carabinieri have it on their database and will never take it off. As soon as that painting goes to Italy, it’s going to be seized.”

Norfolk constabulary said: “Norfolk police have been advised by the UKCA [UK Central Authority] to release the painting to Mrs De Dozsa given several years have passed and there has been no response from Italian authorities in relation to the investigation. We have returned the painting but would not, as the police, return this in a judicial capacity in terms of awarding legal title to the painting.”

De Dozsa declined to comment.

Mark Carney, the former central banker who oversaw the response to financial crises in North America and the UK, will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country’s federal Liberal party.

Carney, 59, takes on the role as Canada is locked in a potentially catastrophic trade war with the US, long its closest ally and largest trading partner. Last week Donald Trump announced a 25% tax on all Canadian goods, with a carveout for the automotive and energy sectors. The tariffs have the power to push Canada’s fragile economy in a recession.

“America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Carney told supporters, laying bare the existential crisis that has outraged Canadians, riven the longstanding relationship with the US, and promises to be the overarching theme in his tenure as prime minister.

“We didn’t ask for this fight. But Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” Carney said. “So the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win.”

Before the announcement, the outgoing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, electrified the crowd by telling Liberals he was “damn proud” of his government’s legacy.

But he warned of dangerous time for the country. “This is a nation-defining moment. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given,” he told supporters.

He also drew on the “elbows up” rallying cry to intense applause – a phrase from ice hockey legend Gordie Howe popularised in recent weeks after threats from Trump to annex Canada.

It is unclear when Carney, who was governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, will assume office. Trudeau and the new Liberal leader are expected to hold conversations in the coming days to determine the outgoing prime minister’s final day in office.

With 85.9% of the vote, Carney beat the former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the former government house leader Karina Gould and the former member of parliament Frank Baylis.

Carney has followed an unusual path to power: he will be only the second Canadian prime minister with no concrete links to parliament at the time of his appointment, including no seat in the House of Commons. While no rule bars this, convention suggests Carney will need to quickly announce plans to run for a federal seat.

He will also be the first Liberal prime minister from western Canada, a valuable identity in a country that is politically divided along geographical lines.

Carney spent much of his campaign pitching himself as an outsider, despite years-long ties to the Liberal party, including serving as an economic adviser to Trudeau, the outgoing prime minister.

His definitive victory, foreshadowed by fundraising success and a spate of key endorsements from senior cabinet members with vast organising networks, could energise the incumbent Liberals.

In recent weeks, the party has reversed its political freefall, sharply rebounding to such a degree that a previously expected Conservative majority in the next general election looks increasingly unlikely.

The shift in the polls has been so dramatic that pollsters have struggled to find any historical precedent.

In a leaked memo, the leftwing federal New Democratic party recently warned its members Carney would probably call a snap election within days of winning the leadership race, capitalising on his rising popularity and depriving the opposition parties the rich political optics of bringing down the Liberal government through a vote of non-confidence to force an election.

The move in the polls is, in part, explained by repeated threats by Trump to annex Canada. In polling, Carney is widely viewed as the most trusted federal leader to navigate the current trade crisis because of his extensive economic background.

“My government will keep the tariffs on until the Americans show us respect,” said Carney.

Carney also attacked the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, the current frontrunner if an election were held soon, calling him a “career politician” who was running a deeply divisive campaign. “Division doesn’t win in a tariff war,” Carney said.

But in recent weeks, several fumbles have underlined the challenges in moving from the corporate world to politics.

Carney has waffled over his role at the investment firm Brookfield Asset Management, when it moved its headquarters from Toronto to New York – a politically sensitive issue given recent pressure from the US on businesses to uproot and move south.

His attempts to clarify the issue prompted the Globe and Mail’s editorial board to praise him as a “fast learner in the art of prevarication and hairsplitting”.

He has promised to put his substantial assets, believed to be valued at more than C$30m (£16m), into a blind trust immediately.

Speaking before the new leader was announced, former prime minister Jean Chrétien said Trump had united Canadians “like never before” and jokingly called on him to receive the country’s highest honours as thanks.

“From one old guy to another old guy. Stop this nonsense. Canada will never join the United States,” he said to raucous cheers.

“No one will starve us into submission because Canada is and will remain the best country in the world. Vive le Canada!”

The Myanmar military’s promise to hold elections in December 2025 or January 2026 has been condemned as a “sham” that risks bringing even greater violence.

Myanmar’s military junta announced on Saturday, in comments reported in state media, that it would hold a long-promised election, specifying a timeframe for the first time since seizing power in a 2021 coup.

The coup was widely opposed by the public and prompted an armed resistance, plunging much of the country into conflict.

China, an ally of the military that has sought to protect its economic investments in the country, has previously expressed support for the election plans. However, most western countries and election watchdogs are highly unlikely to view the vote as credible.

Opposition parties are mostly either banned from contesting or boycott elections, while almost 22,000 political prisoners remain in detention, according to a local monitoring group, including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was ousted in 2021. Her party, National League for Democracy (NLD), was dissolved for failing to re-register under an electoral law introduced after the coup.

It is also unclear how the military would implement elections given that it has lost control of large swathes of the country to a patchwork of opposition groups that are fighting against its rule. Its territorial losses have been so severe that it was only able to conduct a full census, designed to prepare voter lists, in less than half (145) of the country’s 330 townships.

A study commissioned by the BBC, suggests the military controls only 21% of the country’s territory, though it still holds the key, densely populated cities.

“There’s no question an election held under current conditions will be a sham and it’s important that countries denounce the plan to hold elections by the Myanmar military and deny technical support,” said Bryony Lau, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“It’s clear that holding an election currently is only about the military’s interest. For ordinary people in Myanmar it must be a terrifying prospect.”

When the military’s census was conducted last year, people were afraid to answer questions, while those being made to conduct the census also feared being targeted by the opposition.

Analysts have warned the military, which has launched bloody crackdowns on dissent since seizing power, is likely to deploy further violence to ensure polling goes ahead in areas it controls. Opposition groups may also seek to resist violently.

Chin Human Rights Organization, a human rights NGO, said on social media that western democratic countries “must send a clear, unequivocal message by pre-emptively denouncing the junta’s polls”.

Debbie Stothard, the founder of Altsean-Burma, a network of human rights organisations in south-east Asia, said there was concern that the election would bring even greater bloodshed. “We can see already preparation for the election has involved a sharp spike in violence – 2024 saw more airstrikes than 2021, 2022 and 2023 combined. We’ve seen areas that are not reachable by the junta being bombarded with airstrikes – they are literally trying to kill off the opposition,” she said.

A joint statement by election experts, published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in February, said they “unequivocally reject” plans by Myanmar’s junta to hold an election.

A vote would not bring peace or stability to Myanmar, the statement added, but would “deepen divisions, fuel violence, entrench authoritarian rule and exacerbate the crisis caused by the military coup”.

Foreign ministers from the regional bloc of south-east Asian nations also told the junta in January that it should prioritise a ceasefire over fresh elections.

The junta’s leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has long promised to hold an election but has repeatedly extended a state of emergency. The junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted the leader as saying during a visit to Belarus: “We are planning to hold the election in December 2025 or … by January 2026.” He added that 53 political parties had registered to participate.

The military would also invite teams from Belarus to observe the election, he said during a meeting with the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for more than three decades, and recently won a seventh five-year term in a vote that was widely rejected as a sham.

Almost 1,000 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured in military drone attacks across Africa as the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles continues unchecked on the continent, according to a report.

At least 50 separate deadly strikes by armed forces in Africa have been confirmed during the three years up to November 2024, with analysts describing a “striking pattern of civilian harm” with little or no accountability.

Although the rapid growth of armed drones deployed by Ukraine and Russia receives significant scrutiny, scant focus is being paid to the escalating use in Africa of a new breed of imported cheaper drones, such as Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2, said Cora Morris of campaign group Drone Wars UK, which on Monday published a report on the growth of armed drones in Africa, called Death on Delivery.

“This must change. Unless the international community moves rapidly towards developing and implementing a new control regime, we are highly likely to see more examples of the killing of civilians from the use of armed drones,” said Morris.

So far, the use of armed drones has been confirmed in at least six conflicts in Africa: Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, where most attacks were seen.

Drone strikes by the Ethiopian armed forces against adversaries such as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front were found to have killed more than 490 civilians in 26 separate attacks.

Elsewhere, at least 64 civilians died in nine separate drone strikes conducted by Malian armed forces battling separatist groups in the north of the country. In neighbouring Burkina Faso, researchers found more than 100 civilians have been killed in drone strikes carried out by the country’s military.

The Drone Wars UK report said the failure to control the proliferation of armed drones in Africa had led to more than 940 civilians being killed since November 2021, a figure it described as conservative.

Most armed drones in Africa are imported from Turkey, along with China and Iran, with researchers sounding the alarm over the growing popularity of “medium altitude, long endurance” (MALE) drones.

These can be flown remotely for many hours over a large distance, conducting surveillance as well as airstrikes.

The proliferation – and risks – of armed drones in African conflicts has been witnessed in Sudan’s civil war with their use in highly populated areas such as markets in the capital, Khartoum, having “grave” consequences for civilians. Iranian, Chinese and Turkish drones have been deployed by the Sudanese military while its adversary – the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has used UAE-supplied drones, the report said.

In Burkina Faso, Bayraktar TB2s have been deployed by Burkinabè military forces in their struggle against a jihadist insurgency. State-sponsored media regularly celebrated “neutralisations” of terrorists using what it described as sophisticated, precise drone technologies.

However, accounts from sources on the ground often yield a different narrative, pointing to frequently high civilian deaths. One incident in the country’s Sahel region in August 2023, saw drones strike a market in the village of Bouro, killing at least 28 civilians.

The report said: “The Burkinabè government’s wholesale celebration of strikes like that on Bouro’s market rests upon a perception of drone warfare as an efficient, advanced development in the country’s military operations, signifying a technically sophisticated arsenal operated by a vigilant, effective government with a firm grip on its territories.

“However, on-the-ground research quickly reveals the falsity of this picture: exposing erratic bombings of innocent communities, which sow only further destruction and insecurity.”

Two people connected to the British embassy in Moscow have been ordered to leave the country by the Russian authorities, which claimed they had been performing intelligence work.

The British government hit back by accusing Russia of making “malicious and baseless accusations”.

Citing Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the state news agency Tass identified the two individuals who had been expelled as a second secretary of the British embassy and the spouse of another British diplomat.

It named the two people and accused them of deliberately declaring false information about themselves when entering the country.

They have been given two weeks to leave, according to the Russian government, which accused them of “intelligence and subversive activities”.

The FSB had uncovered what it called “signs of intelligence and sabotage work” by both that threatened Russia’s national security, Tass added.

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: “This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff.”

The Russian government posted a video on X on Monday morning showing what it said was a representative of the British embassy being summoned to the foreign affairs ministry.

The move appears to the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by Russia and the UK.

Britain expelled a Russian diplomat last month with the foreign secretary, David Lammy, saying that action had been taken “following Russia’s recent expulsion of a British diplomat” in November.

Russia had accused the British diplomat of giving false information and spying.

The expulsion was announced after a major criminal investigation left six members of a Russian proxy spy ring dubbed the “Minions” facing years behind bars for their part in one of the “largest and most complex” enemy operations to be uncovered on UK soil.

The Bulgarians Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, were found guilty at the Old Bailey last week of spying on an “industrial scale”, putting lives and national security at risk.

They will be sentenced in May alongside the ringleader, Orlin Roussev, 47; his second-in-command, Biser Dzhambazov, 43; and Ivan Stoyanov, 33, who admitted their roles.

In January, the Guardian reported on how Russian diplomats accessed a private area of parliament in a major security breach shortly before Christmas that alarmed security officials and prompted private warnings from the speakers of both houses.

A number of UK politicians and journalists have also been barred from entering Russia since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Dozens of others, including the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and other cabinet members, were also added by Russia to a so-called “stop list”.