Russia has requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what "prospects for peace" there are in Ukraine, given a build-up of western weapons there.
The request, which Russian news agency TASS said was first announced via messaging app Telegram on Tuesday, only came to widespread public attention on Friday morning when oligarch Mikhael Khodorkovsy tweeted about it.
Malta’s permanent representative to the UN Vanessa Frazier confirmed to Times of Malta that the meeting has been scheduled for February 8.
She said the exact brief is not yet known “as this is usually communicated closer to the meeting”.
Russia's request, Frazier said, noted that it wanted to discuss peace prospects "in light of the build-up of arms by Western countries in Ukraine.”
Malta is currently serving a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and is chairing the security council throughout February.
TASS reported that Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, had announced the meeting via his Telegram channel.
“We have requested a meeting to be held on February 8 to discuss prospects for resolving the Ukrainian crisis peacefully amid growing Western-made weapons supplies”, Polyansky said.
In his message, Polyansky also noted a number of other Ukraine-related UN Security Council meetings slated to take place in February.
The meeting will be held on February 8 from 10am to 1pm and take place under the UNSC’s Threats to International Peace and Security (TIPS) agenda item.
Increased militarisation
Kyiv has secured promises from the West for deliveries of modern battle tanks to fight Russian forces and is now asking for long-range missiles and fighter jets.
A German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin has authorised Leopard 1 tanks to be sent to Ukraine, making good on the announcement last month to send the weapons that came after months of deliberations.
"It's unbelievable but true. We are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks” said Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in the southern city of Volgograd for commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Putin has compared Russia's so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine to the war against Nazi Germany in 1941-1945, claiming Russian troops are ready to go "until the end."
The Russian president has used World War II to promote his political agenda in recent years while the Kremlin has sought to give cult status to Moscow's victory in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Despite a steady flow of arms and ammunition, Russian forces are pressing Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donetsk region, now the epicentre of fighting.
Moscow has been trying to seize control of Bakhmut in the industrial region for months in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.
Since sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine last February, Putin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons against the West if the conflict escalates.
"Again and again we are forced to repel the aggression of the collective West," Putin said in the city on the Volga River formerly known as Stalingrad.
"We aren't sending tanks to their borders but we have something to respond with, and it won't be just about using armoured vehicles. Everyone should understand this," he added.
"A modern war with Russia will be completely different," he said.