Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin faced ‘bloodiest month’ of war in September as Zelensky pitches victory plan

Volodymyr Zelensky is promoting his “victory plan” in a widespread Europe visit that he said “aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war” against Russia.

The Ukrainian president detailed the proposals to European allies after a weekend summit in Germany with president Joe Biden was derailed by Hurricane Milton. Mr Zelensky’s talks in London with prime minister Keir Starmer and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte were quickly followed by another meeting in Paris with French president Emmanuel Macron, who just the previous day sent a strong signal of support for Ukraine by visiting Ukrainian troops being trained in France.

Mr Zelensky then embarked on his whistlestop tour of European capitals that have been among Ukraine’s staunchest allies outside of the United States.

Later yesterday, he met in Rome with Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, who assured Italy’s full and continued support “at both bilateral and multilateral level in order to put Kyiv in the best position possible to build a just and lasting peace”.

Today, Mr Zelensky is scheduled to meet Pope Francis for a half-hour audience, the Vatican said. Later in the day, he’ll meet German chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.

The Kremlin appears to confirm Bob Woodward’s revelation of how Donald Trump covertly sent Covid-19 tests to Vladimir Putin, despite US shortages.

Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that “all countries tried to somehow exchange between themselves” during the early phase of the pandemic, when there was not enough equipment.

“We sent a supply of ventilator units to the US, they sent these tests to us.”

The exchanges occurred “when the pandemic was starting”, he said, adding the tests were “rare items”.

According to Woodward, the Russian president told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you.”

Ireland’s deputy premier has said he was never told about an alleged spy in the Irish parliament.

It comes after a report on Sunday that Russian intelligence recruited an Irish politician to act as an agent during the Brexit negotiations.

The Sunday Times reported that a “honeytrap” was used to recruit the politician dubbed Cobalt with one of the aims being to undermine relations between Britain, Ireland and the EU.

Nato’s annual nuclear exercise will begin on Monday at a time of heightened tension in Europe over the war in Ukraine.

The alliance’s secretary-general Mark Rutte told reporters that the exercise, involving around 60 aircraft, was designed to show adversaries that Nato could respond to any threat.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has made a series of nuclear threats since launching his invasion of Ukraine, including changing his country’s nuclear doctrine to discourage western allies from backing Kyiv.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte discussed the state of the war with Volodymyr Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer at No10.

He told reporters no legal obstacles were stopping Ukraine from hitting Russia with Storm Shadow missiles in self-defence.

Mr Rutte said: “First of all, that is up to the allies, the individual allies, to decide how weapons they deliver into Ukraine can be used.

“Legally that is possible because legally Ukraine is allowed to use its weapons, if they can hit targets in Russia, if these targets present a threat to Ukraine.

“But whether individual allies do, that’s in the end, (is) always up to individual allies. Of course we discussed this. I was last week in Kyiv.

“We discussed it today, but in the end, it is up to the individual allies.”

The Times has reported that British Army commanders are considering sending troops “secluded” locations in Ukraine to help Kyiv’s recruitment efforts.

President Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer met at Downing Street amid plans to transportsmall groups of British military trainers would travel to the west of Ukraine to provide intensive basic training to new recruits.

The newly trained soldiers would then head east to join the frontline.

Sources told The Times it was cheaper than flying Ukrainian soldiers back to the UK for training.

Parliament approved Ukraine’s first major wartime tax increases on Thursday to shore up its finances as war with Russia drags on with no end in sight.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the Holos party, said 247 of 450 deputies in the Verkhovna Rada had approved the increase.

Ukraine spends the bulk of its revenue on funding its army, and the current level of taxation has been insufficient to cover rising defence spending, which has boomed since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the finance ministry said.

A group of five nuclear weapons states will hold a meeting in New York in the near future, Russian state news agency RIA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.

The group brings together Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain, all of which are nuclear-armed states and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Ryabkov did not announce a specific date or say what level of officials would attend.

The press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine has said dozens of houses were partially destroyed in a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia.

“One damaged private house caught fire. Firefighters put out the blaze and did everything necessary to prevent re-ignition. Twenty-nine houses were partially destroyed!

“A total of 45 rescuers and nine units of equipment were involved in tackling the aftermath of the attack,” the post reads.

After meeting Sir Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky said the pair outlined a path to victory against Russia.

He wrote on X: “During my meeting with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom @Keir_Starmer, I outlined the details of our Victory Plan.

“We have agreed to work on it together with our allies.

“The Victory Plan aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war. I thank the United Kingdom for its continued defense support of our country, including with long-range weapons.”