Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump ‘demands control’ of pipeline in Ukraine carrying Russian gas

Germany’s incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that Ukraine can not be part of Nato or the European Union whereas it’s nonetheless at battle with Russia.

“Ukraine is a really massive European nation, however it’s a European nation that’s at battle,” Mr Merz informed Handelsblatt. “A rustic that’s at battle can not develop into a member of Nato or the European Union.”

“The promise of becoming a member of the European Union stays legitimate, as does the attitude of becoming a member of Nato,” Merz stated. “However for each of those to occur, the battle should finish first.”

Russia has suffered 1,220 casualties as 120 fight clashes have been reported alongside the entrance line on Saturday, the final employees of Ukraine’s navy has stated.

In its every day replace, Ukraine stated Russia had launched 135 air strikes, whereas firing greater than 6,600 artillery shells, and deploying greater than 2,700 kamikaze drones.

Ukraine additionally stated it had stopped greater than 30 Russian assaults within the route of Pokrovsk, the Donetsk metropolis which stays the main target of Vladimir Putin’s forces and has fuelled essentially the most intense combating in latest months.

Ukraine’s air defence models intercepted and destroyed 43 drones of 55 launched by Russia in a single day focusing on northern, southern and central areas of Ukraine, the air power stated this moring.

In its publish on Telegram, the Ukraine air power didn’t say what occurred to the drones that escaped destruction.

Russian forces are regrouping and making ready for a renewed assault within the Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine’s Operational-Strategic Group of Forces warned over the weekend.

The navy group stated Russians have been actively replenishing their models and on the brink of resume offensive operations within the area.

At the very least 4 individuals have been injured after a Russian guided aerial bomb struck a residential home in Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast yesterday.

Russia and Ukraine’s prime diplomats yesterday used a high-level convention in Turkey to as soon as once more commerce accusations of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on vitality infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an finish to the three-year-long battle.

The 2 overseas ministers spoke at separate occasions on the annual Antalya Diplomacy Discussion board, a day after US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian president Vladimir Putin to debate peace prospects. Ukraine’s European allies on Friday promised billions of {dollars} to assist Kyiv preserve combating Russia’s invasion.

Whereas Moscow and Kyiv each agreed in precept final month to implement a restricted, 30-day ceasefire, they issued conflicting statements quickly after their separate talks with U.S. officers in Saudi Arabia. They differed on the beginning time of halting strikes, and alleged near-immediate breaches by the opposite aspect.

“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very starting, each passing day, possibly with two or three exceptions,” Russian overseas minister Sergei Lavrov stated, including that Moscow would supply the US, Turkey and worldwide our bodies with a listing of Kyiv’s assaults throughout the previous three weeks.

A consultant of the Russian overseas ministry individually informed state media yesterday that Moscow has been sharing intelligence with the US relating to greater than 60 supposed breaches of the deal by Kyiv.

Officers in Ukraine claimed a Russian missile intentionally struck the warehouse of an Indian pharmaceutical firm in Kyiv.

“In the present day, a Russian missile struck the warehouse of Indian pharmaceutical firm Kusum in Ukraine. Whereas claiming ‘particular friendship’ with India, Moscow intentionally targets Indian companies – destroying medicines meant for kids and the aged,” Ukraine’s embassy in India stated on X.

A 26-year-old Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed yesterday whereas performing a fight mission, the Ukrainian air power stated.

Pavlo Ivanov is the second F-16 pilot to be killed since Ukraine not too long ago added the fighters to its arsenal. A 30-year-old pilot died in August final 12 months when a fighter plane crashed whereas repelling a Russian air assault.

“We specific our deepest condolences to Pavlo’s household. He died in battle, defending his homeland from occupiers,” the air power stated in a press release.

“Ukrainian pilots work on the most of human and technical capabilities, risking their lives every time they carry out fight missions. Pavlo was one among them.”

US president Donald Trump stated yesterday that talks to finish Russia’s battle on Ukraine could be going OK, including that there’s a time when you must put up or shut up.

At a gathering between US and Russian envoys earlier this week, it was reportedly stated that the quickest solution to dealer a ceasefire in Ukraine was to help a technique that will give Russia possession of 4 japanese Ukrainian areas it tried to annex illegally in 2022.

The US has demanded management of a key pipeline in Ukraine that’s used to ship Russian gasoline to Europe, in keeping with reviews, whereas Kyiv negotiates a mineral cope with Donald Trump’s administration.

Prospects for a breakthrough within the minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv have been scant given the assembly’s “antagonistic” environment, a supply informed Reuters, following final week’s assembly.

The US has demanded that the federal government’s Worldwide Growth Finance Company take management of a pure gasoline pipeline, which runs from the city of Sudzha in western Russia to the Ukrainian metropolis of Uzhhorod.

Senior economist Volodymyr Landa informed The Guardian that Washington’s bullying “colonial-type” calls for had little probability of being accepted by Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky final week stated a minerals deal needs to be worthwhile for each international locations and might be structured in a method that will assist modernise Ukraine.

The newest draft would give the US privileged entry to Ukraine’s mineral deposits and require Kyiv to put in a joint funding fund all earnings from the exploitation of pure assets by Ukrainian state and personal corporations.

The proposed deal, nevertheless, wouldn’t present US safety ensures to Kyiv – a prime precedence of Mr Zelensky – for its struggle in opposition to Russian forces occupying some 20 per cent of its territory.