TOP HEADLINES

· Poland is ready to support Ukraine with its MiG jets, but only if a broader coalition is formed with the U.S. as a leader, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki said. READ MORE BELOW

· European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen told a security forum that allies must "double down" on military support for Ukraine, as it fights back against Russian forces. 

· The EU aims to join forces with the bloc's defense industry to speed up and scale up the production of ammunition badly needed on the battlefield in Ukraine and to replenish military stocks at home. READ MORE BELOW

· UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Munich and they agreed on the need to sustain "record level of international support for Ukraine."

· U.S. President Joe Biden will be "messaging" Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin when he speaks in Warsaw next week, while hailing NATO's unprecedented effort to help Ukraine as the conflict reaches the one-year mark.

· Two explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi 274 kilometers west of Kyiv, as the country faced a new Russian missile attack, local government officials said.

· NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is expected to tell a major security forum in Germany that allies must provide Ukraine what it needs to defeat Russia, as Kyiv pleads for more weapons. 

· Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has met with the chief executive of German defense manufacturer Rheinmetall to discuss future supplies of tanks and armored vehicles.

· The Russian mercenary company Wagner Group has suffered more than 30,000 casualties since the Ukraine conflict began on February 24, with about 9,000 of those fighters killed in action, according to the White House.

· Russia wants the United Nations Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into September attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, connecting Russia and Germany, that spewed gas into the Baltic Sea.

· The IMF says it has reached a staff-level agreement with Ukrainian authorities that opens doors to a full-fledged loan, which would also support the country's bid to join the European Union.

IN DETAIL

Poland weighing up fighter jet supply to Ukraine

Poland is ready to support Ukraine with its MiG jets, but only if a broader coalition is formed with the U.S. as a leader, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki said.

Morawiecki is in Munich with other European leaders for a three-day meeting to discuss global security.

"Today we can talk about transferring our MiG (jets) as part of a wider coalition and we are ready for that," he said.

"Poland can only be a part of a much larger coalition here, a coalition with the United States as a leader."

Meanwhile, the European Union chief emphaized its aims to join forces with the bloc's defense industry to speed up and scale up the production of ammunition badly needed on the battlefield in Ukraine and to replenish military stocks at home.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested the bloc should do what it did during the pandemic to prepare for the large-scale production of a COVID vaccine.

"We could think of, for example, advanced purchase agreements that give the defense industry the possibility to invest in production lines now to be faster and to increase the amount they can deliver," she said.

Von der Leyen underlined that the bloc could not wait for months and years to be able to replenish its own military stocks or send munitions such as 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine.

She added: "We have to double down and we have to continue the really massive support that is necessary so that these imperialistic plans of (President Vladimir) Putin will completely fail."