Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump says negotiators ‘dividing up lands’ with full ceasefire coming ‘pretty soon’

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of attempting to “delay and add conditions” to any ceasefire in Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said on Friday.

The prime minister spoke to EU chiefs along with the leaders of Turkey, Norway and Iceland, the spokesperson said.

“The Prime Minister began by updating on his recent call with President Zelenskyy, and said it was clear President Putin was trying to delay and add conditions to any meaningful ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

“The Prime Minister also outlined the new military sub-planning groups, across land, sea, air, regeneration and reconstruction, which would continue discussions across three intensive planning days next week,” they added.

The leaders discussed the importance of keeping up investment in military equipment to outpace any European threats.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that “all nuclear power plants belong to the people of Ukraine” after reports that his US counterpart Donald Trump said an American takeover of the country’s nuclear power would offer the “best protection” for it.

In their first conversation since Mr Trump verbally attacked Mr Zelensky in the White House and had him thrown out, the US president reportedly suggested Washington take ownership of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

But Kyiv says the discussions referred only to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian occupation.

Jane Dalton reports:

Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both insisted that Ukraine’s forces in Kursk are surrounded by Russian troops and are in imminent danger, but U.S. intelligence reports have contradicted those claims.

A trio of U.S. and European officials familiar with intelligence details of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine told Reuters that the situation on the ground does not reflect the comments made by Trump and Putin.

One of the U.S. officials also said that the White House was briefed on the actual situation in Ukraine, so it’a unclear why Trump has and continues to claim that Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region are surrounded.

Read the full report:

Moscow has been accused of bombing its own gas infrastructure in order to sabotage an energy ceasefire deal with Ukraine.

Ukraine’s general staff has denied that its forces struck a key gas pumping station in Sudzha, and instead said it had been “repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves”.

The army accused Russia of seeking to pin the blame on Ukraine with “groundless” accusations its military was involved – all to undermine any truce and longer peace deal currently being negotiated by Donald Trump and the US.

“The Russian federation is intensifying its discrediting campaign against Ukraine,” it said.

Athena Stavrou reports:

Volodymyr Zelensky visited the site of one of the initial battles in the war with Russia today, alongside the president of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel.

Heavy fighting in Moshchun lasted for most of March 2022 before Ukraine successfully repelled Russian forces, less than 30 kilometres from Kyiv. Zelensky said the village was a symbolic and “deeply memorable” place for Ukrainians.

“The battles for Moshchun against the Russian occupiers played a crucial role in the defense of Kyiv, and therefore the defence of our entire country,” Zelensky said on X

“Together, we honoured the memory of our fallen warriors who fought for Ukraine’s freedom, and expressed our gratitude to all the heroes — thanks to whom we are here today – in Ukrainian Kyiv, in our independent state. And it will always be this way – we will definitely preserve Ukraine’s independence.”

Some £25 billion worth of Russian assets have been frozen by the UK Government since the start of the Ukraine war, newly-released figures have revealed.

A report released by the Treasury on Friday revealed the total, which accounts for all assets that have been sanctioned by the UK since February 2022 when the invasion of Ukraine began.

Some 2,001 individuals and entities have been sanctioned under the regime as of March 2024, according to the Treasury.

France has restored its gunpowder production, which it scrapped in 2007.

Explosives manufacturer Eurenco is set to produce some 1,200 tonnes of gunpowder pellets a year, rising to 1,800 tonnes, which would feed into about 100,000 artillery shells,

Most of these French-made artillery shells will head to Ukraine.

Backed by the government and with an investment of 100 million euros of which half came from an EU programme to support the bloc's defence industry, the firm put together new infrastructure in less than a year.

France has a tradition of producing gunpowder dating back to the 14th Century, and a long history of pride in being self sufficient in arms production.

Eurenco produced gunpowder as far back as World War One. But after the end of the Cold War, weapons production and supply chains were no longer a priority and governments scaled back.