UK-US defence chiefs meet to bridge gap on peace plan

President Trump warned once more that the US wouldn’t come to the help of Nato international locations who failed to satisfy defence spending obligations.

“I feel it’s frequent sense, proper? In the event that they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” he mentioned.

“If the USA was in bother, and we known as them … do you suppose they’re going to return and defend us? They’re presupposed to. I’m not so certain,” he added.

Nato members are obligated to spend a minimum of 2 per cent of their gross home product (GDP) on defence every year.

As of July final yr, 23 of the 32 member international locations had been assembly the goal.

Final week, Sir Keir Starmer introduced the UK would enhance its spending on defence to 2.5 per cent from April 2027.

President Trump mentioned he would decide quickly on whether or not to revoke the non permanent authorized standing of 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict to the US.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the president might cancel the visas by April as a part of efforts to reverse non permanent humanitarian programmes launched by President Biden.

The White Home responded by dismissing the story as “pretend information”, and insisted that “no choice has been made”. Trump added that he was planning to journey to Saudi Arabia a while within the subsequent six weeks.

President Trump mentioned that he hoped a peace deal in Ukraine would result in the US, Russia and China agreeing to “eliminate their nuclear weapons”.

Talking to reporters within the Oval Workplace a couple of minutes in the past, Trump said there had been “loads of progress” with Russia and Ukraine up to now couple of days.

“It might be nice to convey that to an finish so we don’t have to speak that means, about nuclear,” he added. “It might be nice if we might all denuclearise, as a result of the ability of nuclear weapons is loopy.”

Trump mentioned that he had been “very shut” to a “denuclearisation programme” with Russia throughout his first time period in workplace, and that President Xi of China “would have been very blissful to have gone together with it”.

“However unhealthy issues occurred,” he mentioned, earlier than falsely claiming that his 2020 election defeat had been “rigged”.

President Zelensky has mentioned he would journey to Saudi Arabia on Monday to satisfy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and keep on “to work with our American companions”, in a post on X.

Zelensky added that he had offered his imaginative and prescient for a “simply and lasting peace” to European allies in Brussels on Thursday. The proposal included a ceasefire within the sky and at sea to cease missile and long-range drone assaults on civilian areas and vitality infrastructure.

“The conflict should finish as quickly as doable, and Ukraine is able to work 24/7 with our companions in the USA and Europe for peace,” he mentioned.

Tammy Bruce, spokeswoman for the state division, mentioned throughout a press briefing on Thursday that Zelensky’s behaviour throughout his Oval Workplace assembly with Trump final Friday confirmed that he was “not prepared for peace”.

She added that the US stood prepared to maneuver ahead with ceasefire talks if the Ukrainians had been keen to take part. Zelensky’s conciliatory letter to Trump was a transparent signal that he “understood what was at stake”, she mentioned, including that “if he turns into prepared for peace, he can come again to the desk”.

“We wish to assist him, we wish to assist Ukraine. We’ve got been the most important supporters of Ukraine on this battle,” Bruce informed reporters. “There may be one one who can convey these events to the desk, and it’s President Donald Trump.”

John Healey and Pete Hegseth, proper, are met by a guard of honour on the Pentagon

SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

John Healey, the UK defence minister, informed his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, that Britain was answering the problem he had laid down at a Nato assembly in Brussels in February.

“You challenged Europe to step up, you challenged us to step up in Ukraine, on defence spending, on European safety and I say to you that we’ve, we’re and we’ll additional,” Healey mentioned.

“Final week the British prime minister introduced the most important enhance in defence spending because the Chilly Warfare, and we’ll go additional.”

John Healey informed reporters on the Pentagon that he had come to Washington to strengthen the army bond between the US and the UK.

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, emphasised that the US freeze on weapons to Ukraine was not a everlasting transfer. “Because the president has identified, it’s a pause,” Hegseth mentioned. “Precisely what he mentioned from the start. Pause — pending a real dedication to a path to peace.”

Hegseth mentioned that President Trump was paying shut consideration to what Kyiv was “saying and doing about committing to that peace course of”.

“And we’re very inspired by the indicators we’re seeing,” he added.

John Healey and Pete Hegseth started talks in Washington on Thursday

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, greeted John Healey, the British defence minister, with a guard of honour as he arrived on the Pentagon in Washington for bilateral talks.

The 2 males shook fingers and patted one another on the again earlier than a army brass band performed the UK and US nationwide anthems.

The assembly is predicted to concentrate on securing a possible peace plan within the Ukraine-Russia conflict, together with efforts to bridge a rising transatlantic rift.

Healey mentioned the 2 international locations had been “pulling collectively right here, and we’re working exhausting on a path to peace”.

The US envoy to the Center East, Steve Witkoff, has informed reporters his upcoming journey to Saudi Arabia to satisfy Ukrainian counterparts will centre round a ceasefire with Russia and a “framework” on an extended settlement.

“We’re now in discussions to co-ordinate a gathering with the Ukrainians in Riyadh, and even probably Jeddah,” Witkoff informed reporters. “The concept is to get down a framework for a peace settlement and an preliminary ceasefire as effectively.”

Witkoff added that President Zelensky’s letter to Trump this week had been a “very constructive first step”.

He mentioned: “There was an apology. There was an acknowledgement that the USA has achieved a lot for the nation of Ukraine, and a way of gratitude.”

President Zelensky urged EU leaders to help the proposal of a truce between Russian and Ukrainian forces within the air and at sea, saying it will be an opportunity to check Moscow’s dedication to finish the three-year conflict.

“Everybody must make it possible for Russia, as the only real supply of this conflict, accepts the necessity to finish it,” Zelensky mentioned, addressing a summit in Brussels.

“This may be proved by two types of silence which can be simple to determine and monitor, particularly, no assaults on vitality and different civilian infrastructure [with a] truce for missiles, bombs and long-range drones, and the second is [a] truce on the water, that means no army operations within the Black Sea.”

President Putin has referred for the primary time to an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate his private spiritual “confessor”.

“Properly, you realize, sure?” the Russian chief mentioned on Thursday whereas assembly a Ukraine veteran’s widow. “The enemy made an try on the lifetime of the bishop. They bought to a priest, though he’s not combating anybody, in contrast to your husband.”

Russia’s Federal Safety Service said last week that it had arrested two Church figures over an alleged plan masterminded by Ukraine’s secret companies to kill Tikhon Shevkunov, 66, who was appointed in 2023 as Russian Orthodox metropolitan of the occupied peninsula of Crimea.

Ukraine dismissed the declare as “absurd lies” and western analysts have handled it with scepticism.

The widow to whom Putin was talking had informed him that Shevkunov was supporting her household after the demise of her husband.

President Trump ought to go to Ukraine to see for himself how Russia is attacking civilians, a British-based support employee who narrowly survived a Russian ballistic missile assault has mentioned.

“Come to Ukraine, see it for your self, really feel it for your self what regular individuals are doing to save lots of regular individuals,” Karol Swiacki, from Bournemouth, mentioned days after America suspended army help to Ukraine.

In a reference to the Trump administration’s incapacity to acknowledge Russia as an aggressor within the conflict, he added: “Russians are those that are coming to kill Ukrainians. If they might return residence, all this nightmare could be completed.”

Senior Trump administration officers will journey to Saudi Arabia to satisfy Ukrainian politicians subsequent week, in line with studies within the US media.

The assembly will probably be held on Wednesday, Axios mentioned, citing two unnamed sources. The American secretary of state Marco Rubio and others depart for Riyadh on Tuesday for the assembly, which can embrace Andriy Yermak, a prime aide to President Zelensky, a Fox Information reporter mentioned individually on X.

A Bournemouth-based support employee who narrowly escaped demise in a Russian strike on a lodge within the metropolis of Kryvyi Rih has described the “hell” of the aftermath of the assault that killed 4.

“We couldn’t breathe. We couldn’t see something. It was like hell. And actually, individuals must see this,” mentioned Karol Swiacki, who’s initially from Poland however has lived within the UK for 20 years.

“There have been youngsters … pregnant ladies with us, volunteers from all around the world,” Swiacki, 43, who runs the charity Ukraine Aid, mentioned in a phone name. “Inside 20 to 30 seconds of after we obtained a message on a Ukrainian telephone {that a} ballistic missile was coming, it was a direct hit, and other people had been lifeless.

“We had been fortunate to be within the restaurant, if we had been in our rooms. I wouldn’t be speaking to you right now.”

The official X website of Ukraine has posted a video of President Zelensky assembly European leaders set to You’ll By no means Stroll Alone, the anthem related to Liverpool FC.

As he arrived on the assembly, Zelensky informed reporters he thanked European leaders for his or her continued help and “we [Ukraine] usually are not alone”. The social media submit exhibits Zelensky as he’s met by the European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Antonio Costa, the European Council president in Brussels.

The track was written by composers Rodgers and Hammerstein and initially appeared within the 1945 musical Carousel. It grew to become related to the soccer membership when Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers recorded it as a single in 1963.

President Zelensky has challenged President Putin to launch Ukrainian prisoners of conflict and cease Russian missile assaults to exhibit his willingness to have interaction in peace talks.

The Ukrainian president mentioned the primary stage of the ceasefire ought to embrace “no assaults on vitality and different civilian infrastructure — a truce for missiles, bombs, long-range drones; no army operations within the Black Sea”.

Writing on X, he added: “The discharge of prisoners might function a method of building fundamental belief.

“This needs to be based mostly on the understanding that any truce or trust-building measures can solely function a prologue to a full and honest settlement, to a complete settlement on safety ensures and the top of the conflict. Ukrainians actually need peace, however not at the price of giving up Ukraine.”

Keith Kellogg, the US particular envoy, has blamed President Zelensky for the Trump administration’s choice to chop support and intelligence to Ukraine.

“Very candidly, they introduced it on themselves,” he mentioned throughout an occasion on the Council on Overseas Relations.

Referencing final week’s disastrous White Home assembly, he added: “You don’t negotiate peace discussions in public. You don’t attempt to problem the president of the USA within the Oval Workplace.”

Kellogg mentioned that President Trump was centered on reframing the strategy to the conflict to swimsuit US pursuits.

“President Trump has elevated the USA precedence as bringing peace to each side, quite than framing this conflict as one facet successful over the opposite — an strategy that may solely serve to pull America into an limitless proxy conflict to the detriment of our personal nationwide safety pursuits,” he mentioned.

Norway will greater than double its monetary pledge to Ukraine this yr whereas additionally mountaineering its personal defence spending, Jonas Gahr Retailer, the prime minister introduced, as he mentioned the Nordic nation confronted its most severe safety state of affairs for 80 years.

The nation, residence to the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with property of $1.8 trillion, has obtained hovering earnings from gasoline gross sales to Europe because of Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, and faces strain at residence and overseas to extend its support.

The federal government and opposition leaders agreed on Thursday to lift this yr’s Ukraine funding to 85 billion Norwegian crowns ($7.83 billion), up from a plan agreed in November of 35 billion crowns.

Presidents Zelensky and Macron greet each other in Brussels on Thursday

LUDOVIC MARIN/REUTERS

In a day of Russian verbal assaults on the French chief, Dmitry Medvedev, the previous Russian president who’s himself diminutive, mocked President Macron’s stature, calling him “Micron” and claiming he posed “no large menace”.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian overseas minister, mentioned: “This [Macron’s speech on extending France’s nuclear umbrella] is, after all, a menace towards Russia. Not like their predecessors, who additionally needed to struggle towards Russia, Napoleon, Hitler, Mr Macron doesn’t act very gracefully, as a result of a minimum of they mentioned it bluntly: ‘We should conquer Russia, we should defeat Russia’.”

President Putin has invoked the reminiscence of Napoleon Bonaparte’s well-known defeat in Russia within the nineteenth century, hinting that fashionable France might face an analogous destiny if it tangled with Russia militarily.

“There are nonetheless individuals who wish to return to the instances of Napoleon, forgetting the way it ended,” mentioned the Russian chief, in an obvious reference to a speech by President Macron, who mentioned on Wednesday that France may prolong its nuclear umbrella to European allies to counter the “menace” of Russia.

Napoleon’s Grande Armée invaded Russia in 1812 however misplaced a whole bunch of hundreds of males within the marketing campaign and was compelled to retreat in determined circumstances in winter.

President Putin has vowed to not make any concessions in peace talks with President Trump over Ukraine.

The Russian chief met bereaved moms of Russian troopers and informed them he would solely comply with “a peace possibility that can swimsuit us and that can guarantee peace for our nation in the long run”.

In footage broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin was urged by one girl to not make any concessions in peace talks. “We should go to the very finish. We should not give floor to anybody,” she mentioned.

Putin replied: “We aren’t planning to do this.”

All Nato international locations ought to elevate defence spending to a minimum of 3 per cent of GDP instantly, President Duda of Poland mentioned, or President Putin could invade one other nation.

Talking at a joint press convention in Brussels with Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, Duda mentioned: “I submitted to the secretary-general a written request that this matter be raised on the upcoming summit within the Hague and that such a choice be made … that a minimum of 3 per cent of the GDP of the member states of the alliance be allotted [to defence].”

He added: “The state of affairs is such that we can not wait till 2030.”

Kyiv has not obtained particulars from the USA about how intelligence sharing between the 2 nations will probably be restricted, Ukraine’s defence minister has mentioned.

“As for the intelligence, we’ve not but obtained detailed info on how it will likely be restricted,” mentioned Rustem Umerov, at a joint press convention together with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, in Berlin.

Nonetheless, Ukraine was already “engaged on alternate options” to US intelligence help, “together with that if mandatory we’ll request it from Germany as effectively”.

The Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte mentioned on Thursday that President Trump had made each the USA’ and his private dedication to the army bloc clear.

“The transatlantic partnership stays the bedrock of our alliance,” Rutte added throughout a press convention in Brussels.

Russia’s authorities has denied feeling euphoric about President Trump’s return to energy within the US, regardless of many critics noting that the US president’s rhetoric on Ukraine seems in tune with Moscow’s.

“As for euphoria, I’d look barely in a different way at that query,” mentioned Maria Zakharova, Russian overseas ministry spokeswoman. “We’ve got preserved realism … absolute realism.”

Zakharova was responding to a journalist at a briefing who requested whether or not Russia was experiencing extreme euphoria over Trump’s newest arrival within the White Home.

She went on: “Perhaps it isn’t a lot euphoria as what I’d name the need and ambition to listen to a brand new report and never the previous, scratched, crackling and hissing one with phrases about slaughter, wars, aggression and so forth.”

Olga Skabeyeva, a Russian tv host who has been known as “Putin’s Iron Doll”, boasted on Telegram on Thursday that Trump had not set the Kremlin any circumstances for peace in Ukraine and that his solely calls for had been in the direction of Kyiv.

The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban mentioned that European nations’ defence capabilities should be strengthened, quite than the ability of EU bureaucrats.

“My conferences in France confirmed that whereas we could disagree on the modalities of peace, we do agree that we should strengthen the defence capabilities of European nations, and these efforts ought to empower member states quite than Brussels bureaucrats,” Orban mentioned on X earlier than an EU leaders’ assembly in Brussels.

Britain’s next-generation stealth fighter could also be flanked by Turkish drones because of a three way partnership signed in Rome on Thursday.

The Turkish drone maker Baykar, which has bought its unmanned plane to 36 international locations, has a brand new settlement with the Italian defence agency Leonardo to equip its drones with Italian radars and electronics. Leonardo is a associate on the tri-nation, Anglo-Italian-Japanese effort to construct the brand new so-called GCAP fighter, which is because of fly in 2035.

With an annual turnover of about $2 billion, Baykar dominates the worldwide drone market and its TB2 mannequin supplied early successes for Ukraine towards Russian forces.

On the Leonardo-Baykar signing, officers mentioned they had been maintaining a tally of the GCAP programme which would require “loyal wingman” drones to fly alongside the fighter.

One candidate could possibly be Baykar’s 32-foot wingspan Kizilelma unmanned fighter, mentioned the Baykar chairman Selcuk Bayraktar — the son-in-law of Turkey’s President Erdogan.

John Healey, the defence secretary, Basic Eric M Smith, Basic Sir Gwyn Jenkins and Lord Mandelson on the 250th anniversary of the US Marine Corps on the British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington

UK MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT

Sir Keir Starmer has cautioned {that a} peace deal in Ukraine might not be agreed regardless of President Trump’s efforts to drive by way of a ceasefire.

President Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer and President Macron

JUSTIN TALLIS/AP

The prime minister mentioned it was a “large mistake” to suppose that “all we’ve bought to do is watch for a deal now”.

On a go to to defence producers in northwest England, he mentioned: “We don’t know there’s going to be a deal. The combating is happening, and it’s a giant mistake to suppose, effectively, all we’ve bought to do is watch for a deal. We’ve bought to make it possible for if they’re combating on, they’re within the strongest place.”

Requested by Sky Information if he would have most popular Trump to not impose an arms embargo on Ukraine, he mentioned: “My sturdy view is that we have to put Ukraine within the strongest doable place. I’ve been arguing that for a lot of, many months.”

When a Trident II D5 missile misfired and crashed into the ocean off the coast of Florida throughout a uncommon check launch by the Royal Navy in January final yr, American sailors had been on board the submarine to witness it. US ships monitored the occasion close to by.

Within the days that adopted, US and UK officers wrangled over how a lot info the Ministry of Defence in London might share with the general public about what went unsuitable.

The British authorities needed to be as open as doable within the hope that it will restore some religion within the nuclear deterrent — which prices about £3 billion a yr to run — eight years after one other misfire in 2016.

• Learn in full: Experts say the White House withdrawing assistance would cost billions

Leaders from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia cautiously backed President Macron’s suggestion that France’s nuclear weapons might function a deterrent for the entire of Europe.

Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, mentioned the talk, whereas not new, was important.

“We should significantly take into account this proposal as a result of it should be one in every of our priorities — to co-ordinate all our capabilities in Europe and actually construct a well-coordinated army drive,” Tusk mentioned.

President Nauseda of Lithuania mentioned that it was a really fascinating thought, whereas Latvia’s prime minister, Evika Silina, mentioned it was a possibility to debate the matter, although extra time could be wanted. The outgoing German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was extra reluctant to again the prospect.

US allies might restrict intelligence sharing with the Pentagon after President Trump’s choice to cease sending categorized materials to Ukraine, in line with a report.

NBC reported that “some US allies” had been involved about defending overseas brokers due to Trump’s overtures to President Putin.

The report mentioned that the 5 Eyes international locations — the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — in addition to Saudi Arabia and Israel had been revising their protocols on intelligence sharing.

Nonetheless, in response to the report Britain, Canada and Israel all mentioned they had been persevering with to co-operate on intelligence with the US.

British officers held talks on Wednesday with about 20 international locations, largely from Europe and the Commonwealth, which have expressed curiosity in contributing to a so-called “coalition of the keen” to help Ukraine, a UK official mentioned.

Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, introduced on Sunday that Britain, France and a number of other different nations would type a coalition to attract up plans to supply Ukraine help within the occasion of a peace deal to finish the conflict.

The official wouldn’t be drawn on which international locations had proven an curiosity in providing help, however mentioned: “It exhibits the willingness of the coalition of the keen to convene and the need of a lot of completely different international locations to play their half.

“That is nonetheless early levels and the state of affairs may be very fluid.”

British and French efforts to finish hostilities in Ukraine are an try to earn the latter’s forces a “breather” and an opportunity to rearm for additional combating, Russia has alleged.

Requested about diplomatic efforts by London and Paris, Maria Zakharova, the chief spokeswoman of the Russian overseas ministry, mentioned: “Earlier than, there have been Zelensky peace plans, now there was a Franco-British initiative to deploy European forces in Ukraine. All that is based on nothing and has no authorized foundation.

“In actuality what we’ve right here is an open ambition to, at any worth, obtain a pause for a Kyiv regime in its demise throes and stop a breakdown of the entrance. What is required is agency agreements a few closing settlement. With out these, some form of pauses [in fighting] and regroupings are completely unacceptable as they’ll result in exactly the alternative impact.”

Throughout a gathering with EU leaders on Sunday, President Macron of France proposed a partial, four-week truce “within the air, at sea and on vitality infrastructure” that may not have an effect on floor troops.

Sir Keir Starmer has mentioned Britain and France are engaged on a peace proposal involving a “coalition of the keen” which they plan to debate with the US.

Britain has signed a £30 million cope with a US tech firm to purchase loitering drones for Ukraine.

John Healey, the defence secretary, visited the headquarters of Anduril in Washington earlier than his assembly with Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, later right now.

The Worldwide Fund for Ukraine, administered by the UK, will purchase Altius-600m and Altius-700m drones made by Anduril. “We’re decided to attain a safe, lasting peace in Ukraine, which suggests placing Ukraine within the strongest doable place to stop any return to Russian aggression,” Healey mentioned.

A former CIA director has mentioned Washington’s “unprecedented” choice to pause intelligence to Ukraine can have “devastating penalties”.

John Brennan mentioned that the transfer was unprecedented. “I’ve by no means seen something like this in my almost 35 years of expertise … whereby US intelligence was stopped for a political function and to attempt to coerce a associate like Ukraine to accede to the desires of an administration,” he informed Times Radio. “I feel it could possibly be calamitous on the battlefield if this stays in place over time.”

He added that having labored for six administrations “by no means, by no means in my expertise did we ever minimize off the move of intelligence for a political purpose”.

Russia’s overseas minister has mentioned that any deployment of European peacekeepers to Ukraine could be interpreted by Moscow as an open army assault.

Sergey Lavrov informed a press convention in Moscow that Russia was categorically against any such plan. “We see no place for compromise,” he mentioned. “This dialogue [about sending peacekeepers] is being held with brazenly hostile goals; they don’t seem to be hiding what they want this for.”

Deployment of European troops could be seen by Moscow as “the direct, official, unconcealed involvement of Nato international locations in a conflict towards the Russian Federation”, Lavrov mentioned, including that that was “not possible to permit”.

Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, has mentioned he’s “ready and willing” to send British troops to Ukraine to assist implement a peace deal.

President Zelensky mentioned final month that “a minimum of 200,000 European peacekeepers” would should be on the bottom to defend Ukraine towards additional Russian assault.

President Macron steered that France might prolong its nuclear deterrent to cowl different EU nations as he warned that the continent should put together to face the specter of Russia with out the US.

The French president made the suggestion in a televised deal with to the nation on Wednesday, delivered as “we’re getting into a brand new period” after President Trump’s election.

France has an impartial nuclear deterrent of fewer than 300 warheads designed to guard the nation’s important pursuits.

Though the doctrine is intentionally obscure, it’s thought to incorporate safety of the French inhabitants, territory and sovereignty. Macron is known to be contemplating the extension of the notion of “important pursuits” to Germany and different EU international locations.

• Learn in full: Europe must prepare to face the threat of Russia without the US, says Macron

President Trump might deport nearly 1 / 4 of one million Ukrainians who fled to the USA, in line with studies.

The US president is planning to revoke the non permanent authorized standing given to 240,000 Ukrainians after the Russian invasion, in line with Reuters.

ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The transfer might come as quickly as April and is a part of the White Home’s push to reverse the non permanent humanitarian parole programmes launched by President Biden. The programmes have allowed 1.8 million migrants, together with a whole bunch of hundreds of Ukrainians and Afghans, to return to the US.

Migrants who’ve had their parole standing revoked could possibly be fast-tracked for deportation, in line with inner emails seen by Reuters.

President Putin’s spokesman has expressed settlement with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, that the West and Russia are engaged in a proxy conflict in Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov mentioned Moscow had declared many instances that it was a proxy battle between Russia and what it calls “the collective West”, led by Washington.

“We will and wish to agree with it, and we agree with it,” Peskov mentioned of Rubio’s remarks. “That’s the best way it’s. We’ve got mentioned this repeatedly. We’ve got mentioned that that is really a battle between Russia and the collective West. And the primary nation of the collective West is the USA of America.”

Rubio informed Fox Information in an interview on Wednesday: “It’s been very clear from the start that [President Trump] views this as a protracted, stalemated battle. And albeit, it’s a proxy conflict between nuclear powers — the USA, serving to Ukraine and Russia — and it wants to return to an finish.”

Europe and Ukraine are at a “watershed second”, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen mentioned because the bloc’s leaders kicked off disaster talks in Brussels with President Zelensky.

“Europe faces a transparent and current hazard, and subsequently Europe has to have the ability to defend itself, to defend itself, we’ve to place Ukraine able to guard itself and to push for lasting and simply peace,” she informed reporters, and added that the disaster was the start of the European Union and Ukraine “rearming” themselves

Antonio Costa, the European Council president, informed President Zelensky that Europe is “with you, we’ll proceed with you now and sooner or later” as they met forward of the summit.

Costa additionally mentioned he noticed Ukraine as a “future member state”. His reassurance got here after final week’s shouting match between the Ukrainian chief and President Trump within the White Home. In a single day it was reported that the US administration has additionally been in contact with opposition figures in Kyiv, amid requires an election in Ukraine.

Europe is stronger than Russia and is ready to defeat it in any form of battle, the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk mentioned on Thursday, as he attended the European summit in Brussels.

“Europe as a complete is really able to successful any army, monetary, financial confrontation with Russia — we’re merely stronger,” Tusk mentioned. “We simply needed to begin believing in it. And right now it appears to be taking place.”

President Zelensky has thanked European Union leaders for his or her continued help as he arrived on the EU summit in Brussels.

“I wish to thank all European leaders for such sturdy help throughout all this era and the final week,” he mentioned, wearing his trademark informal fight apparel and flanked by a smiling European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Antonio Costa, the European Union president.

He added: “We aren’t alone.”

Petro Poroshenko, an opposition chief in Ukraine, has confirmed he held talks with representatives of President Trump.

Poroshenko accused President Zelensky of diverting army funds “to purchase votes” and mentioned the breakdown within the relationship between Kyiv and the White Home “poses a danger” to Ukraine.

The previous Ukrainian president, who misplaced the 2019 election to Zelensky, was just lately charged by Ukrainian prosecutors with excessive treason and conspiring with Russian-backed separatists.

In a Fb submit responding to studies of a secret assembly with Trump allies, Poroshenko accused the Ukrainian authorities of utilizing “unconstitutional and extrajudicial sanctions to get rid of political opponents that quantities to a politically motivated persecution”.

He mentioned he “has all the time been and stays categorically towards holding elections through the conflict” however was in favour of elections “no later” than 180 days after a ceasefire begins.

Yulia Tymoshenko has additionally confirmed contact with the Individuals, claiming she was “conducting negotiations with all our allies”.

President Zelensky with Bart De Wever, the prime minister of Belgium

NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/BELGA/AFP

A fleet of 120 European fighter jets could possibly be used to shoot down cruise missiles and drones over western Ukraine, in line with a ceasefire proposal drawn up by army specialists.

The Sky Protect could be impartial of Nato and “obtain higher army, political, and socioeconomic affect than 10,000 European floor troops”, in line with a draft shared with The Guardian.

A Royal Air Drive Eurofighter Storm fighter jet

AVPICS/ALAMY

The European planes would defend Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv and the western half of Ukraine, however wouldn’t defend the japanese entrance traces.

The plan recollects efforts early within the conflict to determine a no-fly zone over Ukraine. This was vetoed due to fears it will draw western planes into direct battle with Russian jets.

A number one Russian state tv presenter has boasted that President Trump has not set the Kremlin any circumstances for peace in Ukraine and that his solely calls for have been in the direction of Kyiv.

Olga Skabeyeva, a tv host who has been known as “Putin’s Iron Doll”, made the feedback after Andrii Yermak, President Zelensky’s chief of employees, mentioned Russia might cease the conflict at any time by ceasing its assaults on Ukraine.

“[Yermak] forgot that Trump doesn’t set any circumstances for Russia and [President] Putin. Just for Zelensky and Ukraine,” Skabeyeva wrote on Telegram.

• Learn in full: Presenters have gloated about Putin’s new alignment with the US on Ukraine

Russia’s authorities has ridiculed President Macron of France as a “storyteller” who makes “utterly out-of-touch statements” after he mentioned he would open a debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to allies in Europe.

Macron mentioned in an deal with to the French nation on Wednesday that Russia was “a menace for France and Europe” and that the Ukraine conflict was already a “world battle”.

Moscow reacted angrily to the comments. “The speech was certainly extraordinarily confrontational,” mentioned Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, on Thursday. “The sensation is that France needs the conflict to proceed.”

Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian senator, mentioned: “Macron maniacally imposes on his residents, allies and your entire world a totally false idea of what’s taking place — ‘the Russians are coming!’ Such false conclusions and false options result in the abyss.”

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian overseas ministry, mentioned of Macron: “On daily basis he makes some form of utterly out-of-touch statements that contradict earlier ones. He’s a storyteller.”

Ukraine’s key weapon methods had been dramatically weakened on Wednesday after the US severed its intelligence sharing with Kyiv, resulting in warnings that the transfer will end in extra civilians dying.

4 individuals died in a missile strike in Kryviy Rih in southern Ukraine in a single day

PRESS SERVICE OF THE STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE IN DNIPROPETROVSK REGION/REUTERS

Weapons methods stopped receiving information they depend upon to hit Russian ­targets, hampering Ukraine’s means to successfully defend itself towards ­incoming assaults. There have been additionally fears that these personnel working UK-supplied gear, equivalent to Storm Shadow cruise missiles, might wrestle to establish army positions with out intelligence from the US.

Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian MP, informed Times Radio that the “brutal” choice to drag American intelligence sharing after ­denying the nation army support meant “so many individuals will probably be doomed”. Whereas insisting that the transfer wouldn’t change Ukraine’s resolve to struggle on, she mentioned: “It’s clearly brutal and I can not think about how many individuals can pay the last word worth for the ­choice.”

• Learn in full: Warning as Trump severs intelligence link

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, has accused the US of “destroying the world order”.

In a speech at Chatham Home, he additionally warned that Nato might stop to exist and Russia will come for Europe subsequent.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi

ZUMA PRESS/ALAMY

“It isn’t simply the axis of evil attempting to revise the world order … The US is destroying the world order,” he mentioned. “It’s apparent the White Home has questioned the unity of the entire western world. And now Washington is attempting to delegate the safety points to Europe with out the participation of the US.”

Zaluzhnyi, a former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, has been tipped as a future alternative for President Zelensky.

Norway, among the many wealthiest international locations on the planet, ought to considerably enhance its monetary support to Ukraine, Jonas Gahr Stoere, the prime minister, has informed parliament.

“I wish to suggest to the opposite events in parliament that we meet this afternoon to debate and agree on a major enhance within the Nansen programme for Ukraine this yr,” Stoere mentioned.

It marks the newest instance of a European nation scrambling to spice up defence spending and preserve help for Ukraine after President Trump froze US military aid to Kyiv, and fuelled doubts about America’s dedication to European Nato allies.

Canada is “prepared and keen” to deploy troops to Ukraine, the nation’s defence minister has mentioned.

Nonetheless, Invoice Blair mentioned that his nation’s participation in a peacekeeping drive led by Britain and France was contingent on safety ensures.

“Canada is prepared and in a position to make a contribution to that drive,” he mentioned throughout a defence convention on Wednesday in Ottawa. However we additionally imagine that there’s necessary discussions that must happen with respect to safety ensures for Ukraine and for the forces that may serve in Ukraine.”

France has mentioned it’s offering army intelligence to Ukraine, after Washington suspended sharing its personal with Kyiv.

“Our intelligence is sovereign … with our personal capacities,” Sébastien Lecornu, the French defence minister, informed France Inter radio. “We’re passing this on to the Ukrainians.”

He added: “There may be not a single agent of the DGSE [secret intelligence service], not a single officer of the armed forces command, who believes that Russia shouldn’t be a menace.”

John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, mentioned on Wednesday that the United States had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine after a dramatic breakdown in relations between Kyiv and the White Home.

President Trump and President Zelensky had a public falling out within the Oval Workplace final week after which Ukraine’s prime ally suspended essential US army support.

John Healey, the defence secretary, will maintain talks on a possible safety assure with Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of state for defence, on the Pentagon on Thursday.

“The distinctive relationship between the UK and US is as sturdy as ever,” Healey wrote on X. “At an important second, we’ve a accountability to deepen our defence relations and to work collectively to make sure any peace in Ukraine is lasting. That’s my message in Washington right now.”

Healey is being accompanied by Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence employees, so he can liaise together with his army counterparts within the US.

His journey to Washington was agreed upon final week after Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, introduced a rise in the UK’s defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Senior allies of President Trump have held secret discussions with Ukrainian opposition politicians, in line with studies.

4 members of the US president’s staff held talks with Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, and Petro Poroshenko, a former president, who each stay appreciable political forces inside Ukraine, Politico reported. The talks centred on the opportunity of holding fast elections.

Yulia Tymoshenko

RODRIGO REYES MARIN/ZUMA/ALAMY

A change of management in Kyiv has been a said goal of the conflict for Moscow since 2022 and a strategic purpose for the Kremlin since 2014.

President Trump’s staff, who deny they’re interfering in home Ukrainian politics, have signalled that they might need elections in Ukraine so as to have a pacesetter extra amenable to the administration’s strategy to looking for peace.

Zelensky’s presidential time period was meant to finish final yr. Nonetheless, elections in Ukraine are constitutionally not possible throughout a time of martial regulation.

President Zelensky will collect with European leaders in Brussels on Thursday for a particular summit to debate a path ahead within the battle.

The heads of the 27 European Union nations will attend, in addition to Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general.

President Macron of France warned that the continent was at a “turning level of historical past” as its leaders had been anticipated to debate rearmament and additional help for Kyiv within the face of President Trump’s bulletins suspending aid and intelligence to Ukraine.

Zelensky mentioned on Telegram on Wednesday that Kyiv and Europe had been “making ready a plan for the primary steps to convey a few simply and sustainable peace. We’re engaged on it rapidly. Will probably be prepared quickly.”

US-supplied Patriot air defence methods are a few of the solely methods that may cease ballistic missiles such because the one Russians used to hit the lodge final evening; they forestall comparable assaults nearly each night.

There are fears in Ukraine that the US withholding entry to new ammunition for these defences will result in fewer strikes being stopped, and in the end extra civilian deaths.

• Learn in full: Zelensky pushes for arms production as Ukraine reacts to Trump’s speech

4 individuals had been killed in a single day in a strike within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Kryviy Rih, which hit a lodge internet hosting British and American humanitarian staff.

President Zelensky mentioned on his Telegram channel: “Ballistic missiles hit an peculiar lodge. Simply earlier than the strike volunteers from a humanitarian organisation — residents of Ukraine, the USA and Britain — checked into the lodge.

“The overseas nationals survived as a result of they had been in a position to get down from their rooms. However, sadly, 4 individuals had been killed within the assault.”

Zelensky, who hails from Kryviy Rih, mentioned that greater than 30 individuals had been wounded within the strike. “There could be no pause within the strain on Russia to cease this conflict and terror towards life.”