#russia-ukraine-conflict

#russia-ukraine-conflict

United States special envoy Steve Witkoff has said he held productive and constructive meetings with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida, as President Donald Trump's administration presses to end Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine. We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine, wrote Witkoff in a post on X following Saturday's talks.

Stephen Oduor was looking forward to starting his new job as a plumber in Russia to support his family after months of unemployment. But soon after landing in St Petersburg from Nairobi with six other Kenyans one afternoon last August, he started feeling something was off. The man who received them at the airport drove them to a house where their luggage was taken away and they were given black clothes and shoes to wear.

Russia carried out an aerial attack on Kyiv overnight, severing power and water supplies for thousands of residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital amid a temperature of minus 14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), the city's mayor said Tuesday. The drone and missile strikes hit the east bank of the Dnipro River on the night of Monday to Tuesday, Vitali Klitschko said. A 50-year-old man reportedly died in the attack, according to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk. The strikes also damaged two fuel stations, he added.

The Oreshnik, a medium-range (non-intercontinental) ballistic missile that flies at hypersonic speed and is designed for nuclear warfare scenarios, has been deployed again by Russia in its latest offensive against Ukraine. The missile reaches a suborbital altitude and can carry up to six warheads, either nuclear or conventional. Its high speed and the very short time frame for attack make it extremely difficult for air defense systems to intercept.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that the alleged drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin's residences in Novgorod, a region in northwestern Russia, had been intended to derail recent diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict. This terrorist action is aimed at collapsing the negotiation process, Peskov said, adding that Russia's military knows when and how it will respond. The diplomatic consequence will be to toughen the negotiating position of the Russian Federation.

The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbor's land by force. U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and insisted that Ukraine and Russia are "closer than ever before" to a peace settlement.

despite continuing Russian attacks on the towns of Myrnohrad, Rodynske and Artemivka in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, as well as Huliaipole and Stepnohirsk in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine rejected this claim, as well as assertions from Moscow that the towns of Myrnohrad and Huliaipole had been completely captured by Russian forces. The Ukrainian military said that the situation in these regions is "difficult" but "defensive operations" are still ongoing.

Two police officers and another person have been killed in blast in southern Moscow, according to the Russian Investigative Committee. The two traffic police officers were killed overnight on Tuesday into Wednesday in an explosion that occurred when they attempted to arrest a suspicious individual, the Committee said in a statement on Wednesday. An explosive device was triggered as the officers approached the suspect who was near their service vehicle, the statement said.

Friday's attacks by Russian forces targeted Chornomorsk and Odesa ports in Ukraine's southwestern Odesa region on the Black Sea. A Ukrainian navy spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that three Turkish-owned vessels were damaged in total, but did not provide additional details. list of 3 itemsend of list Posting video footage on social media of firefighters tackling a blaze on board what he described as a civilian vessel in Chornomorsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks had no military purpose whatsoever.

President Trump had set a deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to accept a deal to give up territory to Russia, including territory that Russia has not captured on the battlefield in almost four years of war. But now that deadline seems to be shifting and the terms of the deal changing. The White House says there's been, quote, 'tremendous progress' in talks this week, but more negotiations are needed.

Ukrainian strikes have "annihilated" a major power plant in Moscow with multiple explosions and machine gun fire was heard at the Shatura Thermal Power Plant in Moscow Oblast. Unverified footage shows multiple explosions ringing out with several fireballs lighting up the night sky. Moscow region governor, Andrei Vorobyov, said, "Some of the drones were destroyed by air defense forces. Several fell on the territory of the station," he added a fire broke out but this is now "localised".

The 28-point Trumpplan calls for Russia to gain full de facto control of Luhansk and Donetsk (together referred to as the Donbas), despite Ukraine still controlling around 12% of the territory there. Despite being under Russian control, the areas in Donbas from which Ukraine would withdraw would be considered a demilitarized zone, with Russia not able to position troops there. In two other war-torn regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the current lines of control would mostly be frozen in place, with Russia returning some land, subject to negotiations.

A Russian soldier, with his face blurred, poses in front of the bodies of three Ukrainian soldiers lying face down in a pool of blood, their hands clasped behind their heads. The image, shared by the Russian Rusich unit on its Telegram channel, is accompanied by an announcement for a contest: The first three people to submit a photo of prisoners who have clearly been erased from existence will receive a cryptocurrency reward.

Russia unleashed a massive combined attack on Kyiv early Friday, sparking fires and scattering debris across many districts of the capital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. At least 11 people were injured as emergency crews responded to multiple strikes, he said in a statement. Five people were hospitalised, including one man in critical condition and a pregnant woman, after a series of powerful explosions sounded in the city and air defences were activated.

Drone sightings, threats and an arms race raise spectre of war. After nearly four years of war between Kyiv and Moscow, fighting is heating up on the front lines of eastern Ukraine. But with drones spotted at sensitive sites across the European Union, its leaders have declared Russia is fighting a hybrid war beyond Ukraine's borders. They say the bloc will protect every centimetre of its territory, as member states scale up military spending to heights not seen for decades.

"This is the moment of taking existential choices that are ahead of us," Grabar-Kitarović said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed recent sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union against Russia, calling them an important step in pressuring Moscow. "We waited for this. God bless, it will work. This is very important," Zelenskyy said as he arrived at an EU summit in Brussels. Speaking alongside European Council President Antonio Costa, Zelenskyy said Russia's continued attacks on civilian infrastructure, including kindergartens and schools, show it has no interest in peace.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Zelenskyy told reporters: [Trump] proposed Stay where we stay and begin conversation'. I think that was a good compromise, but I'm not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the [US] president. It comes as plans to hold a summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest have been put on hold as it was reported that Ukraine and its European allies had rallied in pushing for a ceasefire without territorial concessions from Kyiv.

Citing European officials briefed on the exchange, the report said Trump adopted Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points verbatim, warning the Ukrainian leader that if [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you. According to the newspaper, Trump threw aside Ukrainian battlefield maps and demanded that Zelensky accept Moscow's terms, including ceding the Donbas region in exchange for partial Russian concessions in southern Ukraine.

After all, the Hungarian capital was the site of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine gave up the thousands of nuclear weapons it had inherited upon the breakup of the Soviet Union in return for assurances that Russia would respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. Putin broke that promise with his 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, with his decade-long military offensive in the Donbas region, and then with his all-out invasion in 2022.

Hungary's government has made clear it will not arrest Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, if he arrives in Budapest for peace talks. Speaking to state radio on Friday, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban hailed the fact his country would host the meeting. Budapest is essentially the only place in Europe today where such a meeting could be held, primarily because Hungary is almost the only pro-peace country.

An overnight Russian barrage on the city killed at least four people, including a 12-year-old girl. Russia launched nearly 600 drones and more than 40 cruise missiles in a bombardment that lasted more than 12 hours over Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images Residents stand near their apartment building which was damaged by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia.

EU commissioners are meeting today for a security college discussion on defence and security issues, where they will be joined by the secretary general of Nato, Mark Rutte. Their meeting comes amid growing concerns about drones appearing in European airspace, causing continuing disruption in parts of the Nordics. It remains unconfirmed who or what is behind them, but still prompted a strong reaction in the region.