TOP HEADLINES

· President Vladimir Putin vows to continue with Russia's year-long conflict in Ukraine and accused the U.S.-led NATO alliance of starting the war in the mistaken belief that it could defeat Moscow in a global confrontation. READ MORE BELOW

· Russia has suspended participation in its only nuclear arms treaty that involves the U.S., with Putin adding the West hadn't succeeded in defeating Russia's economy. He insisted it is impossible for his army to be defeated on the battlefield.

· NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg laid the blame for the war solely on Putin. At a news conference held shortly after Putin's address Stoltenberg said "It is President Putin who started this imperial war of conquest ... As Putin made clear today, he's preparing for more war ... Putin must not win."

· Putin says Russia will respond to any challenge and that the truth was "behind us" in his State of the Nation address in Moscow that lasted almost two hours.

· U.S. President Joe Biden will meet NATO allies in Poland and is expected to reaffirm to allies that the U.S. is squarely behind Ukraine and committed to bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

· Ukraine's foreign minister has discussed China's plan for peace with senior diplomat Wang Yi. According to a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, Beijing will shortly publish a statement of its position on the conflict reiterating its opposition to nuclear war in any circumstances and calling for civilian nuclear infrastructure to be protected.

· Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hours after pledging continued military support for Ukraine.

· Russian state media websites broadcasting Putin's address to the country's two houses of parliaments suffered an outage during his speech.

· Twelve countries are calling on the EU to stop companies and third countries from circumventing sanctions on Russia by using trade with the 27-nation bloc and access to the European single market as leverage.

· More than 8,000 civilians have been killed since the conflict began nearly a year ago, the UN Human Rights Office said.

· Belarus said there was a significant grouping of Ukrainian troops massed near its border and warned that this posed a threat to its security.

· Putin's war on Ukraine has been a strategic failure, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

· The Kremlin says U.S. President Joe Biden's Ukraine visit on Monday was 'nothing extraordinary.'

IN DETAIL

Putin accuses West of widening conflict as Russia withdraws from U.S. arms treaty 

President Vladimir Putin vowed to continue Russia's year-long war in Ukraine and accused the U.S.-led NATO alliance of fanning the flames of the conflict in the mistaken belief that it could defeat Moscow in a global confrontation.

In his annual address to parliament in Moscow that lasted just under two hours, Putin also announced Russia was suspending its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S., warning Russia had put new ground-based strategic nuclear weapons on combat duty.

"Ukraine and Donbas have become a symbol of total lies," Putin said, accusing the West of withdrawing from "fundamental agreements" and giving "hypocritical statements" as well as expanding the NATO defense alliance.

"I want to repeat: it is them who are culpable for the war, and we are using force to stop it.  They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation.  This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country. 

"They also cannot fail to realize that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield. Western elites are not hiding their goal - to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. It means to be done with us once and for all. 

"We were doing everything possible to solve this problem peacefully, negotiating a peaceful way out of this difficult conflict, but behind our backs a very different scenario was being prepared. Human sacrifice and tragedies are not accounted by them. They must carry on stealing from everyone, disguising themselves with slogans of democracy and freedom."

Putin said the U.S. was seeking "unlimited power" but Moscow was defying the West's attempts to ruin Russia's economy through an unprecedented package of sanctions, saying trillions of dollars were at stake for the West.

"They want to make the people suffer, but their calculation did not materialize. The Russian economy and the management turned out to be much stronger than they thought."

Taking a swipe at Russia's business elite, Putin urged those "begging" for money in the West to invest at home instead, saying ordinary Russians had no sympathy for their lost yachts and palaces. "Trying to run around with your hand outstretched, grovelling, begging for money, is pointless," he said.

Putin also delivered a nuclear warning to the West over Ukraine, suspending a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty, announcing new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and warning that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.

The Russian leader said, without citing evidence, that some in Washington were thinking about resuming nuclear testing. Russia's defense ministry and nuclear corporation should therefore be ready to test Russian nuclear weapons if necessary, he said.

"Of course, we will not do this first. But if the United States conducts tests, then we will. No one should have dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed.

"A week ago, I signed a decree on putting new ground-based strategic systems on combat duty. Are they going to stick their nose in there too, or what?"