Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly claimed that president Vladimir Putin will one day be killed by his own inner circle, saying: “Predators will devour a predator”.

Mr Zelensky said: “There will definitely be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime will be felt inside the [Russian] state.

“And then the predators will devour a predator. They will find a reason to kill a killer.”

The comments were made in an Ukrainian documentary called Year, according to The Times.

It comes as the Russian leader Mr Putin warned his people that they might not survive as a nation if Ukraine wins the war.

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A Ukrainian court has jailed two captured soldiers accused of taking part on Russian shelling of residential areas in eastern Ukraine, the SBU security service said on Monday.

The SBU said in a statement that one of the soldiers had received a 10-year sentence and the other had been jailed for nine years.

It did not name them, say how they had pleaded and when they were sentenced, but said both had fought in eastern Ukraine and were captured last year.

“As a result of investigative actions, indisputable evidence on the guilt of two more militants who joined the ranks of the occupation groups of the aggressor country at the beginning of the full-scale invasion was collected,” it said.

Both “took an active part in the storming of Ukrainian cities on the Eastern Front”, it said.

The aircraft, worth £274 million, was hit in an attack by Belarus partisans supporting Ukraine.

The AWACS Beriev A-50U aircraft was “significantly damaged”, according to the Belarusian Hajun project, and the front and central parts of the aircraft, its avionics and radar antennae were hit.

Martha McHardy reports:

An ammunition cache and fuel depots are among the Russian targets hit by Ukraine in a series of strikes over the past week, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

At least 14 explosions have rocked sites in and around the Russian-held city of Mariupol, the MoD said, with a steel works used as by the Kremlin as military base among them.

“Russia will likely be concerned that unexplained explosions are occurring in a zone it had probably previously assessed as beyond the range of routine Ukrainian strike capabilities,” the MoD added.

Chinese officials have accused the US of "outright bullying and double standards" in levelling what it called "illegal" sanctions on Chinese companies as part of American actions against Russia’s Wagner Group and related companies and individuals.

The entities were targeted for their role in the war in Ukraine and mercenary activities, including human rights abuses, in Africa.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that the sanctions "have no basis in international law or authorization from the Security Council, and are typical illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction".

The punitive measures were "seriously harming China’s interests" and China "strongly rejects and deplores that and has lodged solemn complaints with the US side," Ms Mao said.

"While the US has intensified its efforts to send weapons to one of the parties to the conflict, resulting in an endless war, it has frequently spread false information about China’s supply of weapons to Russia, taking the opportunity to sanction Chinese companies for no reason," she added.

The Kremlin on Monday said a Chinese peace plan on Ukraine that urges both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation and warns against the use of nuclear weapons should be analysed in detail, taking into account the interests of all sides.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on a U.S. media report that China was considering transferring drones to Russia.

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The United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk warned on Monday that human rights gains made in recent decades were being reined back and even reversed, citing Russia’s "senseless" invasion of Ukraine as a current example of oppression.

"Much of the progress made over decades is being reined back and even reversed in some parts...," High Commissioner Turk said in a speech on the opening day of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva attended by more than 100 ministers and heads of state.

He called for countries to work to overcome their differences and create a "new world-wide consensus on human rights".

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that talks with Sweden and Finland regarding their NATO membership bids would resume on March 9, after being suspended in January in the wake of a Koran-burning protest in Stockholm.

Turkey had previously cancelled a trilateral mechanism with Sweden and Finland on their applications to join NATO after Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right political party Hard Line, burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January.

"My colleagues will attend the meeting that will be held on March 9," Cavusoglu told a press conference in Ankara, adding that the meeting would be held in Brussels.

Belarusian anti-government activists have claimed responsibility for what they said was a drone attack on a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft at an airfield near the Belarus capital of Minsk on Sunday.

"Those were drones. The participants of the operation are Belarusian," Aliaksandr Azarov, leader of Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL, was quoted as saying on the organisation’s Telegram messaging app and on the Poland-based Belsat news channel.

"They are now safe, outside the country."

The claims could not be immediately verified. There was no official confirmation from Russia or Belarus and there was no immediate response from their defence ministries to requests for comment.

Russian forces fired at least 14 Iranian Shahed drones into Ukraine overnight, officials from Ukraine’s general armed forces said today.

Of the total fired, 11 were shot down by Ukrainian air defence systems, the officials said.