The deputy governor of a Russian region has been killed fighting in Ukraine, becoming the highest-ranking Russian official to die in the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous.”

As of 4 p.m. on February 2, 52 combat engagements took place at the front since the beginning of the day. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding the line and disrupting the adversary's plans, while the Russians continue to focus their efforts on the Pokrovsk and Kupiansk directions,