Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “manipulation” over a Black Sea ceasefire agreed during talks in Saudi Arabia, after the Kremlin insisted it would only come into force once certain conditions are met.
Following three days of parallel US-led talks in Riyadh, the White House said on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a ceasefire in the Black Sea, with Mr Zelensky saying the truce was effective immediately.
But the Kremlin appeared to contradict this, saying the deal would only come into force after a series of conditions were met – including the lifting of restrictions and sanctions on a major agricultural bank, exporters of food and fertiliser and on Russian vessels.
In his nightly address, Mr Zelensky later said: “Unfortunately, even now, even today, on the very day of negotiations, we see how the Russians have already begun to manipulate.
“They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world.”
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Key Points
- Zelensky accuses Russia of ‘manipulation’ over Black Sea deal
- Trump says Russia wants to end Ukraine war but 'dragging their feet'
- Russia and Ukraine agree to suspend strikes on energy facilities, Kremlin says
- Moscow has learnt ‘wealth of lessons’ about Western militaries through Ukraine war
- Russia blames Kyiv for lack of joint statement with US after Saudi talks
Trump says Russia wants to end Ukraine war but 'dragging their feet'
02:57
,
Arpan Rai
Donald Trump has said he thought Russia wanted to end its war against Ukraine but acknowledged that Moscow was not offering swift progress on that front.
"I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they're dragging their feet. I've done it over the years," he said in an interview with Newsmax last night.
Separately, he told reporters that “we are making a lot of progress” in peace talks while adding that there was “tremendous animosity” in the talks.
"There's a lot of hatred, as you can probably tell, and it allows for people to get together, mediated, arbitrated, and see if we can get it stopped. And I think it will work,” Mr Trump said.
Inside Story | What it’s really like to be on Putin’s kill list and hunted down by his murderous thugs
02:00
,
Andy Gregory
In an Independent Premium piece, James Jones writes:
When you imagine receiving the news that you’re on the kill list of one of the world’s cruellest dictators, you perhaps don’t imagine it while holding a glass of champagne. But, in January 2023, that’s exactly – or, almost exactly – what happened to Christo Grozev, an internationally renowned investigative journalist whom I had been filming for a documentary about his work for months, and who told me at a glitzy awards ceremony in New York that Vladimir Putin wanted him dead.
The Bulgarian-born journalist had long been rustling feathers at the Kremlin – his exceptional work for Bellingcat (a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that Grozev headed up from 2015) exposed Putin’s killing network of spies and assassins.
Known as a “modern-day Sherlock”, he also unmasked the perpetrators involved in poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, winning him global accolades. Still, neither of us quite expected that, while the rest of the room waited for their wine to be topped up, the grim reality of the situation would be revealed. He simply said, “I can’t go home.” The message said that intelligence had revealed there could be a “red team” waiting for him at home in Vienna, Austria. Now, the hunter had become the hunted.
By the time Grozev became one of Putin’s most wanted, I’d been following him around with a camera for more than a year. We were working on a documentary – Kill List: Hunted by Putin’s Spies – which started out as a story about Bellingcat.
They were unparalleled in their work using open source investigation to identify, track and expose assassins and spies working for the dictator across Europe. Over the three years we were filming, the doc went far beyond that brief. Rather than explaining the poison programme itself, the narrative changed. What we answered was what you risk when you speak out against the regime – the threats, the fear and the very human cost of putting yourself on the line to expose the truth.
We’d taken pretty extreme security measures from the very beginning ... I half convinced myself that we were being over the top; that no one really cared about what we were doing. You feel like you’re acting in a spy movie. And then police arrested part of a Bulgarian spy ring living in the UK. And then it all became real.
Watch: Russia doesn't want to occupy Ukraine, US special envoy tells Tucker Carlson
01:00
,
Andy Gregory
US making a lot of progress, Trump claims
00:01
,
Andy Gregory
“We are making a lot of progress,” Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday, as talks concluded in Saudi Arabia.
“There's a lot of hatred, as you can probably tell, and it allows for people to get together, mediated, arbitrated, and see if we can get it stopped. And I think it will work.”
Former Russian minister ‘shocked’ to learn he was subject to sanctions in UK
Tuesday 25 March 2025 23:04
,
Andy Gregory
A former Russian minister told police he was shocked to learn he was subject to sanctions in the UK, a court has heard.
Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, 48, the former mayor of Sevastopol in illegally annexed Crimea, is facing seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024.
He is said to have deliberately avoided sanctions by opening a Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account on or before February 2023 and having tens of thousands of pounds transferred to it by his wife, Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, 47.
Body-worn footage played to the jury showed National Crime Agency (NCA) officers arresting Ovsiannikov in a residential street on January 22 2024 on suspicion of breaching UK financial sanctions.
During an interview he answered no comment, before telling officers that he “hoped no one knew that he had left Russia and he had spent a number of years” making it possible to leave, prosecutor Lyndon Harris summarised at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.
Pol Allingham has more details in this report:
Trump administration ‘appears to view Europe fundamentally as an adversary’
Tuesday 25 March 2025 22:11
,
Andy Gregory
There is a real sense that the Trump administration “views Europe fundamentally as an adversary”, a former State Department official has said, after top officials close to the US president were revealed to have publicly lambasted European allies.
“There's a real sense of divorce, that America is not just disinterested in the trans-Atlantic alliance but views Europe fundamentally as an adversary,” Max Bergmann, who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press.
His remarks came in the wake of an extraordinary security breach, in which the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was inadvertently added to a chat on messaging app Signal which showed US vice president JD Vance privately complaining about “bailing out” Europe – while Donald Trump’s defence Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed “pathetic” European “freeloading” – as they discussed top-secret plans to bomb Yemen.
Zelensky condemns weakening of sanctions against Russia
Tuesday 25 March 2025 21:26
,
Andy Gregory
While the White House said in a joint statement with Russia that it would help Moscow restore its access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had not agreed to put that in its statement with Washington.
“We believe that this is a weakening of position and sanctions,” he said.
No concrete plans for further contacts between US and Moscow, Kremlin says
Tuesday 25 March 2025 20:44
,
Andy Gregory
A Kremlin official has said that the talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.
Full report: Royal Navy shadows three Russian ships through English Channel
Tuesday 25 March 2025 20:01
,
Andy Gregory
The Royal Navy has shadowed three Russian ships through the English Channel.
British minehunter HMS Cattistock and a Wildcat helicopter were deployed on Wednesday to escort Russia’s Admiral Vladimirskiy as it travelled along the UK’s south coast.
This operation was followed rapidly by another, as HMS Somerset and tanker RFA Tidesurge were deployed to escort Russian landing ship RFN Alexander Otrakovsky and merchant vessel MV Ascalon through the Channel and North Sea.
Admiral Vladimirskiy – a Russian oceanographic survey ship – was accused in 2023 of involvement in an operation to map the UK’s critical undersea infrastructure, during which it allegedly sailed for a month with its transmitter turned off and loitered near UK wind farms.
Read more details in this report:
US says it will help restore Russia's access to global agriculture and fertiliser markets
Tuesday 25 March 2025 19:42
,
Andy Gregory
In an apparent reference to Russia’s demands, the White House statement on the talks with Russia said that the US “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions”.
Russia has appeared to demand that such conditions must be met before the Black Sea ceasefire can begin.
Russia and Ukraine agree to suspend strikes on energy facilities, Kremlin says
Tuesday 25 March 2025 19:23
,
Andy Gregory
Oil refineries, oil and gas pipelines, and nuclear stations are among the targets that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to temporarily suspend strikes on, the Kremlin has said.
The list also includes fuel storage facilities, pumping stations, electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, such as power plants, substations, transformers, distributors, and hydroelectric dams.
According to the statement, the temporary moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure starts from 18 March and is valid for 30 days, but it could be extended by mutual agreement. If the agreement is breached by one party, the other party is also released from compliance, the Kremlin added.
Russia is already engaging in manipulation over Black Sea ceasefire
Tuesday 25 March 2025 19:05
,
Andy Gregory
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that despite an agreement being reached through the United States on a truce for Black Sea shipping and energy sites, Russia was already engaging in manipulation.
“Unfortunately, even now, even today, on the very day of negotiations, we see how the Russians have already begun to manipulate,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world.”
Mr Zelensky said the Kremlin was lying when it said accords on Black Sea shipping were linked to the sanctions regime imposed on Moscow.
But he said Ukraine would do everything to implement the accords, although Russia had to understand that if it launched strikes, “they will receive a strong response”.
Zaporizhzhia plant to stay in Russian control, Moscow says
Tuesday 25 March 2025 18:50
,
Andy Gregory
Russia’s foreign ministry has insisted that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – occupied by Moscow’s forces since March 2022 – is a Russian facility and transferring control of it to Ukraine or any other country is impossible.
The ministry also claimed that jointly operating the plant was not admissible as it would be impossible to properly ensure the physical and nuclear safety of the station.
US ‘committed to helping exchange prisoners of war and return children to Ukraine’
Tuesday 25 March 2025 18:17
,
Andy Gregory
Following the talks in Saudi Arabia, Washington said it had agreed with Ukraine “that the United States remains committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children”.
Video report: How Ukraine is beating Russia in the Black Sea
Tuesday 25 March 2025 17:59
,
Andy Gregory
Downing Street ‘hopeful’ over Black Sea deal
Tuesday 25 March 2025 17:37
,
Andy Gregory
Downing Street has said it is “hopeful of the progress” following the White House announcement that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to pause hostilities in the Black Sea.
But the UK government was unclear whether it would follow American efforts to ease some sanctions on Russia as part of the deal agreed on Tuesday – after the US appeared to signal its intention to ease sanctions on Russian fertiliser and agricultural goods and improve Moscow's access to maritime insurance, ports and payment systems.
Immediately following news of the agreement, a No 10 spokesperson declined to say whether the UK would follow any easing of sanctions, saying: “Our position at the moment is that we are obviously hopeful of the progress.
“We are following developments closely.”
Western nations, including the UK, have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including increased tariffs on Russian fertiliser and agricultural products and prohibiting companies from providing insurance for shipments of certain Russian goods.
Royal Navy shadows three Russian ships through Channel
Tuesday 25 March 2025 17:20
,
Andy Gregory
The Royal Navy has shadowed three Russian ships through the Channel.
Minehunter HMS Cattistock and a Wildcat helicopter were deployed to escort survey ship Admiral Vladimirskiy during its voyage, the Royal Navy said.
This operation was followed quickly by another, as HMS Somerset and tanker RFA Tidesurge were deployed to escort Russian landing ship RFN Alexander Otrakovsky and merchant vessel MV Ascalon through the Channel and North Sea as the pair sailed towards the Baltic.
The two Russian ships had recently left the Mediterranean.
The latest operations follow a similar mission last week which saw Royal Navy warships and helicopters track a Russian task group returning from Syria.
Russia says Black Sea deal dependent upon lifting of sanctions on food and fertiliser trade
Tuesday 25 March 2025 17:05
,
Andy Gregory
While Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Black Sea ceasefire deal will be effective immediately, the Kremlin said that the deal was dependent upon Western sanctions being lifted against Russian companies involved in food and fertiliser exports.
The Kremlin said that the US had agreed to help to restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, but said implementation of the deal would require Western sanctions on Russia’s Rosselkhozbank – which services agriculture firms – to be lifted, and the bank’s access to the Swift international messaging system restored.
Sanctions on Russian food and fertiliser exporters, insurance firms, servicing food and fertiliser shipments, restrictions on vessels and trade finance operations, would have to be lifted as well, it said.
Dispatch | How Ukraine is beating Russia in the Black Sea – and pushed Putin towards a ceasefire
Tuesday 25 March 2025 16:54
,
Andy Gregory
The crew of one of Ukraine’s few patrolling vessels, a reconditioned former US coastguard Island-class cutter, is tired. They were up all night manning the ship’s double barrelled cannon, shooting at Russian Shahed drones that swarmed the skies over Odesa.
But, as merchant ships sailed quietly into the ports along Ukraine’s southern coast, the crew was confident. They haven’t seen a Russian vessel for months.
Russian skippers are probably more anxious. Since 2022, Ukraine - with a navy numbering around 11,000 personnel – has sunk at least 20 Russian vessels; among them cruisers, the Moskva flagship, several troop landing ships, and numerous smaller vessels.
These losses have all been down to a new form of naval warfare now pioneered by Ukraine’s navy because, aside from the Island-class patrol boat, and a handful of small boats in what’s known as a “mosquito force”, Ukraine isn’t bothering with ships.
Former Royal Navy mine hunters transferred to the Ukrainian navy are stuck in the UK because they cannot travel through the Bosphorus Straights. Turkey has banned military traffic through the strategic route since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The focus instead has been to use long range rockets, cruise missiles, underwater and surface drones - almost all of them home-made in Ukraine. They’ve almost harried Moscow’s Black Sea fleet out of business.
Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley reports from the Black Sea:
Zelensky says Black Sea ceasefire is effective immediately
Tuesday 25 March 2025 16:45
,
Alex Croft
The ceasefire agreed by Moscow and Kyiv in the Black Sea will be effective immediately, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine will seek more weapons and sanctions on Russia from Donald Trump if Moscow broke the deals, Mr Zelensky added.
The United States said earlier it had made separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on strikes against energy facilities in the two countries.
"If the Russians violate this, then I have a direct question for President Trump. If they violate, here is the evidence - we ask for sanctions, we ask for weapons, etc," Mr Zelensky told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv.
Analysis | Black Sea deal is a concession by Kyiv
Tuesday 25 March 2025 16:20
,
Alex Croft
World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire over the Black Sea and in attacks between Russia and Ukraine on energy resources.
This is a concession by Kyiv. Ukraine has been winning the war against Russia's energy infrastructure supplying its forces in Ukraine. And Ukraine rules the Black Sea.
The Kyiv ministry of defence has warned Russia that its ships should not stray out of the "eastern Black Sea" or risk attack, because it knows that Russian ships have been stuck in ports hiding from Ukrainian missiles and drones for months.
This ceasefire is an effort to keep in favour with Donald Trump long enough to continue to get intelligence feeds from the US, until Europe and other allies can step in. Similarly European efforts to replace unreliable military supplies from the US to Ukraine will take some time.
So Kyiv is gambling with its naval dominance in the hope that eventually it won’t have to rely on an administration that so publicly and materially is rooting for a Putin victory.
Putin, however, is presiding over a collapsing economy, a land war that has left untold numbers of bodies abandoned in the Donbas "meat grinder" and has flattened the Ukrainian provinces he claimed to be saving.
If Ukraine can last another year and get the support it once got from Washington from elsewhere... it could win this war.
US-Russia negotiations on Ukraine likely to continue but nothing yet planned, Kremlin says
Tuesday 25 March 2025 16:10
,
Alex Croft
Further contacts between US and Russian officials on achieving a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine are likely to follow a round of talks Monday, a Kremlin official said Tuesday, but no concrete plans have yet been made.
The American and Russian negotiators held talks throughout the day on Monday in the capital of Saudi Arabia to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine, a day after US officials held separate talks in Riyadh with a team from Kyiv.
It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week -- with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles and disagreement over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes.
Read more here:
The agreements in full after Saudi Arabia talks
Tuesday 25 March 2025 15:44
,
Alex Croft
Following three days of intense negotiations in Saudi Arabia, the White House has confirmed that both sides have agreed to halt strikes in the Black Sea.
A number of other measures have been agreed, including measures towards implementing a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.
Notably, the deals are agreed between the US and the respective countries, rather than directly between Moscow and Kyiv.
Here is a look at what has been agreed, according to the White House:
Both sides agree to:
- Eliminate force and ensure safe navigation of ships in the Black Sea (*Ukraine specifies that Russian vessels moving beyond the eastern area of the Black Sea will constitute a violation of the deal in its view).
- Develop measures for implementing the agreement to ban strikes on energy facilities.
- Work with third party countries to implement the energy and sea agreements.
- Work towards achieving a durable and lasting peace.
Russia only:
- US will help “restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports”.
- US will help Russia to lower maritime insurance costs and enhance access to ports and payment systems.
Ukraine only:
- The US remains committed in “helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children”.
Russian vessels leaving eastern Black Sea will be 'violation' of deal, says Kyiv
Tuesday 25 March 2025 15:26
,
Alex Croft
Any movement of Russian military vessels outside of the eastern part of the Black Sea will be regarded as a violation of the Black Sea agreement, Ukraine’s defence ministry has said.
“The Ukrainian side emphasizes that all movement by Russia of its military vessels outside of Eastern part of the Black Sea will constitute violation of the spirit of this agreement, will be regarded as violation of the commitment to ensure safe navigation of the Black Sea and threat to the national security of Ukraine,” the ministry wrote on X.
“In this case Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defense,” the statement added.
Kyiv confirmed it had agreed to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes”.
Russia and Ukraine agree to halt strikes in Black Sea, says White House
Tuesday 25 March 2025 15:20
,
Alex Croft
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to ensure the safety of commercial shipping in the Black Sea, the White House has said.
It comes after three days of intense discussions between US officials and delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Saudi Arabia since Sunday.
A White House statement said US, Russian and Ukrainian officials had “agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea”.
Russia has learnt 'wealth of lessons' about Western militaries through Ukraine war
Tuesday 25 March 2025 14:46
,
Alex Croft
Russia has learnt a “wealth of lessons” about Western military capabilities following the Ukraine war, according to a US intelligence report.
Moscow's war in Ukraine has afforded it a "wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war," the report said.
It also found that Russia will be unable to achieve a “total victory” in Ukraine - but that it retains momentum in the war effort.
The war has also increased the risk to the US of unintended escalation, included the potential use of nuclear weapons, the report added.
Downing Street to continue working with US despite 'freeloading' accusations
Tuesday 25 March 2025 14:10
,
Athena Stavrou
Downing Street said the UK would continue to work closely with the US on defence and security after the US defence secretary accused Europe of “freeloading”.
Asked whether the Government was sure the US administration understood UK contributions to defence and security in the Middle East, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We work daily with the US on regional security and stability in the Middle East and indeed in relation to Ukraine.
“The PM has always said that we’ve got one of the closest relationships with the US when it comes to defence and security and we expect that to continue.”
European council president questions if Russia will respect borders
Tuesday 25 March 2025 13:55
,
Athena Stavrou
Europe must acquire all means to defend itself against military aggression, the European Council president has said.
Antonio Costa said on Tuesday that peace without defence is an illusion and added: "If Russia considers that Ukraine's borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country's borders?”
"If Russia considers that Ukraine's borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country's borders?", he also said
Ukraine ceasefire: What is being discussed in US-Russia talks as Trump pushes for truce by Easter?
Tuesday 25 March 2025 13:29
,
Alex Croft
White House officials are into the third day an intense round of Ukraine ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia – as Donald Trump is said to be pushing for a truce deal by Easter.
In the grand rooms of Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, Washington’s team met with Ukrainian officials on Sunday, Russian officials on Monday, before reentering talks with Kyiv’s team for a time on Tuesday.
"We're talking about territory right now. We're talking about lines of demarcation, talking about power, power plant ownership. Some people are saying the United States should own the power plant...because we have the expertise," Mr Trump said during a press briefing on Monday. He appears to be referring to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a topic which Volodymyr Zelensky said had come up in a recent phone call between the two presidents.
Read the full report:
Stretched Russian air defences struggling to protect strategic military locations, says UK MoD
Tuesday 25 March 2025 13:13
,
Alex Croft
Russia is struggling to protect its strategic military locations due to stretched air defences, the UK defence ministry has said, as it hails Ukraine’s “successful” targeting of a munitions depot.
Ukraine struck Russia’s Engels airfield overnight on 20 March, a site which holds Moscow’s nuclear-capable bomber planes and large amounts of munitions. The hit sparked a large blaze, evacuations and a number of injuries, according to Russian officials.
The UK Ministry of Defence said in its intelligence report that the strike will “disrupt strike operations from the airfield in the short term, forcing Russia to improve its defensive posture and replenish munitions stocks”.
The strike was “Ukraine's most successful targeting of a Russian munitions depot in 2025 so far” and it “highlights the continuing struggles that stretched Russian air defence face in protecting its strategic military locations”, the ministry added.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 25 March 2025.
— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) March 25, 2025
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/c8jTVTqxRO #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/TdyytgjAIT
Ukraine detains 'mole' who helped Russia's advance in Kursk
Tuesday 25 March 2025 13:02
,
Alex Croft
Ukraine has said it detained a “mole” who was helping Moscow attack Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region by giving away their location.
Kyiv’s forces crossed the border into the Kursk region last August in a rapid and unexpected offensive. Since then, Russia has taken back much of territory that was captured in the Ukrainian advance into Kursk - but fighting there continues.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said the “mole” was “preparing coordinates for the aggressor’s missile and bomb attacks on the locations of Ukrainian troops”. They had been recruited by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service on Telegram.
The GRU made no comment on Tuesday.
Russian forces capture two villages in eastern Ukraine, Moscow claims
Tuesday 25 March 2025 12:51
,
Alex Croft
Russian forces have captured two villages in eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry said on Tuesday according to Interfax.
Myrne in the eastern Donetsk region and Mali Scherbaky in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region are both now under Russian control, Moscow claims.
Ukraine launched three attacks on energy infrastructure, Moscow says
Tuesday 25 March 2025 12:36
,
Alex Croft
Ukraine launched three attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure, Russia’s Defence Ministry has claimed.
Washington had hoped that talks being held between Russian, US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia could lead to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.
Russia says it has agreed to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure after a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump last Tuesday. Ukraine has not declared the same halt, but said it would do so if a formal agreement setting out the precise terms for a deal was reached.
Moscow said on Monday that Ukraine had launched attacks on multiple gas distribution and storage facilities in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Russia and US did not adopt joint statement after Saudi talks, despite reports
Tuesday 25 March 2025 12:25
,
Alex Croft
Russia and the US did not adopt a joint statement after 12 hours of talks in Saudi Arabia due to Ukraine’s position, a senior Russian senator said according to the Interfax news agency.
Reports this morning that a joint statement was due to drop at 8am GMT were followed by silence from both sides, with no statement in sight.
Officials from Washington and Moscow had wrapped up the day-long talks on Monday focussing on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine, hoping to pave the way for longer-term peace negotiations.
"The fact that they sat for 12 hours and apparently agreed on a joint statement, which was not adopted though because of Ukraine's position, is very typical and symptomatic,” senator Vladimir Chizhov told state TV channel Rossiya-24 according to Interfax.
Watch: Russia doesn't want to occupy Ukraine, US special envoy tells Tucker Carlson
Tuesday 25 March 2025 12:21
,
Alex Croft
Russia launches 139 drones and a ballistic missile overnight
Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:56
,
Alex Croft
Russia launched 139 drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile during an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said this morning.
The air force shot down 78 drones and 34 more did not reach their targets, it added in a statement on Telegram.
The air force did not say what happened to the remaining 27 drones or the missile.
Over the past day, one person was killed and at least 117 injured in an overnight attacks on Ukraine, local authorities said according to the Kyiv Independent.
Comment | European allies are more divided than they seem
Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:41
,
Alex Croft
Mark Almond writes:
Although Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have tried to herd the European Nato members into backing a ceasefire line monitoring force, potential big players like Italy and Spain have rejected it. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has no desire to break with Trump, whose domestic “anti-woke” agenda mirrors her own culture war in Italy, while Spain’s Pedro Sanchez runs a country that is far from the Russo-Ukrainian front line, and has a strong left-of-centre pacifist tradition.
Not only are America’s European allies splitting from Trump’s Washington: they are divided among themselves. They might be united in deploring Russian aggression and Trump’s appeasement-style approach to mediation, but their disunity over what to do about it confirms the US administration’s belief that making big deals with authoritarians like Putin, or the Saudi hosts of the Ukraine talks is the way to go, rather than trying to keep an army of squabbling “allies” in line.
Allies who don’t contribute much – even when they can agree on policy – can be ignored completely.
ICYMI: Rescuers respond after dozens injured in Russian attack on Ukraine's Sumy
Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:23
,
Alex Croft
Black Sea ceasefire possible with strict conditions, Moscow says after US talks
Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:10
,
Alex Croft
A new deal on Black Sea shipping is possible but with strict conditions attached, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said following talks between Washington and Moscow.
The US hopes to push through a ceasefire in the Black Sea as part of its intense round of diplomacy in Saudi Arabia, where a White House delegation is meeting with its counterparts from Ukraine and Russia.
Lavrov has said an agreement, which US negotiators hope would guarantee the security of shipping lanes in the Black Sea, would need to have strict conditions attached to it.
Russia wants to inspect ships to ensure empty ships were not used for weapons deliveries, he said. Other issues relating to the export of Russian grain and fertilisers have posed serious problems in the past, Lavrov added.
Ryanair CEO hits out at Ukrainian airports
Tuesday 25 March 2025 11:03
,
Alex Croft
The CEO of Ryanair has hit out at Ukrainian airports after the airline’s proposals for reopening airspace to commercial flights was met with “radio silence”.
Restarting flights will be central to rebuilding Ukraine’s economy, Michael O’Leary told a Kyiv conference organised by ‘We Build Ukraine’, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s skies have been closed to commercial flights since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In summer 2023, Ryanair submitted a proposal to airports in thw western city of Lviv and Boryspil near Kyiv to “deliver 5 million passengers to Ukraine within the first year of the skies reopening”, Mr O’Leary said.
"But disappointingly, we haven't heard back from them for over two years," the CEO added.
"I am somewhat at a loss to understand why the airports are not getting ready for the resumption of flights and why the airports are not doing the agreement with Ryana
