Ukraine news - live: Russia says it had ‘no choice’ but to cancel US nuclear talks

British foreign secretary James Cleverly joins his Nato counterparts in posing for photos during the first day of the military alliance’s meeting in Bucharest, Romania.

Russia has lost Europe as its largest energy client “forever”, the head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol told an energy conference on Tuesday.

Moscow said on Tuesday it had had “no other choice” but to cancel talks with the US over inspections under the “New START” nuclear weapons control treaty, Russian state-run news agencies reported.

Deputy foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Washington had wanted to discuss resuming inspections while Moscow had other priorities.

The situation in Ukraine also played a part in Russia’s last-minute decision to scrap the meeting of the bilateral commission, which had been due to begin in Cairo on Tuesday.

Ryabkov said it was unlikely any meeting between the two sides would take place this year, news agencies reported.

“I expressed indignation at such insinuations,” Russia’s ambassador to the Vatican, Aleksandra Avdeyev, told state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Monday after his visit to the leadership of the city state’s diplomatic service.

Francis had told the Jesuit magazine America in an interview: “When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in.

‘I expressed indignation at such insinuations’ says Russian ambassador

Nato foreign ministers should agree a package of non-lethal aid to Ukraine to help the country face winter, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky has said.

He said the alliance would also discuss concerns about levels of weapons stockpiles in some members.

Russia is targeting energy infrastructure to “freeze” Ukrainians in submission, foreign secretary James Cleverly has said.

“We have seen Vladimir Putin attempting to weaponise energy supplies right from the very start of this conflict,” he told reporters just before a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Bucharest.

“This targeting of civilian infrastructure of energy infrastructure is obviously designed to try and freeze the Ukrainians in submission.”

Russia will not “calm down” in its brutal assault on Ukraine until it has run out of missiles, president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned as fierce fighting continued across the country.

Mr Zelenksy told Ukrainians to prepare for more cold and darkness in the months ahead as Moscow carries out a sustained assault on his country’s energy infrastructure.

The president said that “the terrorists are planning new strikes”.

My colleague Matt Mathers reports:

President warns Ukrainians to expect more cold and darkness in months ahead as Kremlin targets enegy infrastructure

Sweden is on track to meet Ankara’s requirements for accepting its bid for Nato accession, along with Finland’s, Sweden’s foreign minister Tobias Billstrom has said.

“We are on a steady path to meet Turkey’s conditions,” he said before a meeting with his Nato counterparts. He that he hoped talks with Turkey and Finland later in the day would help speed process along.

Ukraine‘s bid for Nato membership will be discussed at a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers, Slovak foreign minister Rastislav Kacer has said, and help should be given to get the country as close as possible in the process.

“We will discuss the will of Ukraine to join Nato as it was expressed. That will be an issue,” Mr Kacer said on arrival to the meeting.

“We need to take this seriously and help Ukraine going through the process of coming as close as possible to membership, and then when we are ready, so the transition to full membership will be very smooth.”

Air raid alerts have been issued across all Ukraine, but there were no immediate reports of any new Russian missile strikes.

Kyiv sounded the all clear, but Ukrainian officials called for caution following a warning by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia could be preparing new attacks almost a week after the last big wave of missile strikes.

“Last time, the Russians also disguised the strike as a training flight...Let’s see,” Vitaliy Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, said.