Here is a summary of today's events:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “not ready” to sign a deal that would give the United States preferential access to his country’s rare earth minerals, a Ukrainian source told AFP.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump demanded Kyiv supply the US with rare earth resources – critical elements used in electronics – in exchange for military aid. That request was, this week, followed up by the White House national security adviser telling Zelenskyy to “tone done” his complaints about the US and “sign that deal”.
Russian forces have captured the village of Novolyubivka in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing the Russian defence ministry.
A second meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States is planned for the next two weeks, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
The US envoy to Ukraine, Gen Keith Kellogg, has praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”, striking a dramatically different tone from Donald Trump, who has called Ukraine’s president a “dictator”.
Some 62% of Britons believe Ukraine should be allowed into Nato, according to new polling.
President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king.
No one can absorb it all, AP reports. By the time you try to process one big thing - he covets Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip; he turns away from historic alliances and Ukraine; fires many thousands of federal workers, then brings some right back; raises doubts whether he will obey laws he doesn’t like; orders an about-face in the missions of department after department; declares there are only two genders; announces heavy tariffs, suspends them, then imposes some - three more big things have happened.
Trump’s core supporters are thrilled. Those who don’t like him watch in horror. The nation is far from any consensus on what makes America great and what may make it sink.
Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service told AP: “We’re essentially playing Russian roulette and they just added a bunch more bullets to the chamber.”
Or is it instead a “controlled burn,” as Kevin Roberts, an architect of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, puts it? “A controlled burn destroys the dangerous deadwood so that the whole forest can flourish,” he asserts.
The US president, Donald Trump, sidestepped a question at the Oval Office on Friday about whether he considered the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to be a dictator after Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy one last week.
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Zelensky 'not ready’ to sign minerals deal with US - AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not ready” to sign a deal that would give the United States preferential access to his country’s rare earth minerals, a Ukrainian source told AFP.
US President Donald Trump wants Ukraine to give US companies access as compensation for the tens of billions of dollars of aid delivered under his predecessor Joe Biden.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser on Friday predicted that Zelensky would sign the deal soon, but the contours of the proposed agreement have not been made public.
“In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” a Ukrainian source close to the matter told AFP Saturday.
“There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us.”
“What kind of partnership is this? ... And why do we have to give $500 billion, there is no answer,” the source added.
The source said that Ukraine had offered amendments.
Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from the United States as part of any deal signing away its natural resources and critical minerals.
The disagreement over the deal comes amid a war-of-words between Zelensky and Trump, who branded his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” in a social media post earlier this week.
Updated
As the invasion enters its fourth year, analysts are examining the health of Ukraine and Russia, and who will be the better prospect for investors once the conflict ends. The answers are not as predictable as one might think
Our economics editor asks, what have three years of Putin’s war done to both nations’ economies?:
Peace in Ukraine cannot be “imposed”, the Spanish prime minister has said.
Spainish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said on Saturday that peace in Ukraine cannot be “imposed”, as he prepares to visit the country, AFP reports.
“Peace in Ukraine and security in Europe cannot be imposed,” said Sanchez, who will embark on a visit to Kyiv on Monday. He added any “just and lasting peace” required Ukrainian and European participation.
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‘It’s blackmail’: Ukrainians react to Trump demand for $500bn share of minerals
Earlier this month, Donald Trump demanded Kyiv supply the US with rare earth resources – critical elements used in electronics – in exchange for military aid. That request was, this week, followed up by the White House national security adviser telling Zelenskyy to “tone done” his complaints about the US and “sign that deal”.
So how has that request been received in Ukraine?
Stanislav Ryabchenko, a 72-year-old from the village of Kopanky, described it as “blackmail”.
“He knows we can’t push the Russians out on our own. We need joint production, not a takeover,” he said.
Residents living near Liodiane said they supported the construction of a new lithium mine. They were not, however, ready to give the profits to Trump. “This idea is too much,” said Tetiana Slyvenko.
Meanwhile, Mykola Hrechukha said: “I don’t think US soldiers are going to be coming here anytime soon. It’s more likely aliens from another planet will turn up.”
Read the full report from my colleague Luke Harding here:
German politicians made a final scramble for votes Saturday on the eve of key elections in which conservatives hope to win despite the dramatic rise of the far right targeting a record score.
Sunday’s vote comes at a time of upheaval for Europe and its biggest economy as US President Donald Trump has ended a united Western stance on the Ukraine conflict by reaching out to Russia.
Trump’ threats of a trade war spell more trouble ahead for Germany, after its economy has shrunk for the past two years, and as it also faces bitter social polarisation on the flashpoint issues of immigration and security.
US president earlier drew criticism after saying Kyiv ‘should have never started’ war; Trump predicts Ukraine will soon sign minerals deal with US.
What we know on day 1,095, read our explainer here:
The US envoy to Ukraine, Gen Keith Kellogg, has praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”, striking a dramatically different tone from Donald Trump, who has called Ukraine’s president a “dictator”.
Kellogg left Kyiv on Friday after a three-day visit. Posting on social media, he said he had engaged in “extensive and positive discussions” with Zelenskyy and his “talented national security team”. “A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine,” he said.
Read our full report here:
Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov visited troops fighting in east Ukraine as Russian forces advance in the area, the defence ministry said Saturday.
“General Valery Gerasimov ... visited a command post of the ‘South’ group of troops in the zone of the special military operation,” the Russian term for its campaign in Ukraine, the ministry said in a statement.
Donald Trump’s shocking and mendacious attack this week on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a “dictator” while cozying up to the Russian president and indicating that traditional US security support for Europe is waning may have alarmed US allies abroad but has prompted a more starkly divided response among Americans at home.
Reflecting the country’s deeply partisan attitude to the new president and his “America first” foreign policy doctrine, polling suggests that Republicans are much more likely to oppose additional help for war-torn Ukraine. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that 47% of Republicans but just 14% of Democrats thought the US was providing too much support to Ukraine – views that have changed dramatically since the war began three years ago, when just 7% of all American adults (9% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats) said the US was providing too much support to Ukraine.
Read Joan’s full analysis here:
Ukrainians who once lived in parts of the country now occupied by Russia hope they can claim some kind of compensation from the Russians in charge for the damage to their homes, Reuters reports.
Maria Seryogova is one of those who have returned to snap photos of the rubble to back up their claims.
In a ruined Soviet-era apartment block in Pisky, near the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, huge chunks of roof and walls lie scattered about the floor where Seryogova once played with her baby grandson.
“Oh my god, it’s horrible,” said Seryogova, 49, gesturing at the graffiti scrawled on the walls as the wind whistled through what was once the living room. “It’s scary to look at all this.”
Some 62% of Britons believe Ukraine should be allowed into Nato, according to new polling.
The research by YouGov also suggested 68% think the UK should maintain its commitment to defend allies in the military bloc, but when asked specifically about defending the US this figure fell to 42%.
If Britain were attacked, 44% believe America would come to the country’s aid but 35% are doubtful, according to the poll of 2,231 UK adults carried out this week.
Russian forces capture another village in eastern Ukraine, state news reports
Russian forces have captured the village of Novolyubivka in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing the Russian defence ministry.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
The defence ministry said Russian forces had hit Ukrainian military airfields, drone storage sites and ammunition and fuel storage facilities, Russian state agencies reported.
Like the soldiers they battle to save, combat medics in Ukraine are under constant attack. Three years after the invasion, one NHS doctor bears witness:
Trump says he will end the war in Ukraine – but how, and who will benefit? The US president is breaking every negotiating rule in the book, to the bewilderment of his allies. Europe is now at a crossroads. Our panel responds:
Updated
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to confirm a timeline to raise defence spending and give Donald Trump an invitation for a state visit when he visits Washington next week, according to a report.
The Prime Minister will have to walk a tricky line when he meets Mr Trump, balancing the UK’s support for Ukraine with the need to keep the US onside.
In an effort to ease tensions, Sir Keir is expected during the trip to finally set a date, likely 2030, for the UK to reach its goal of spending 2.5% of GDP, The Telegraph reported. This is up from the current 2.3%.
The Prime Minister will also deliver an invitation from the King for a state visit to the UK, according to the newspaper.
The Russians are looking for “visible shifts for the better in American policy”, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday.
“Today we are facing two parallel, but, of course, to some extent, politically interconnected tracks: one is Ukrainian affairs, the other is bilateral,” Ryabkov said.
“A dialogue on strategic stability and arms control is possible when we see visible shifts for the better in American policy,” he added. He also said the U.S. and Russia could discuss the Middle East.
The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.
Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.
It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies, countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.
Russia and the US could meet again in next two weeks
A second meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States is planned for the next two weeks, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Moscow and Washington held their first talks on ending the nearly three-year war in Ukraine on Tuesday, aimed at restoring relations and preparing to conclude the conflict.
The meeting will take place in a third country and the specific location is being agreed upon, Ryabkov told RIA in an interview, without naming who would attend from the Russian or American sides.
Ryabkov said there was “principled agreement” on both sides to hold consultations to work out “the entire block of so-called irritants.”
The Kremlin said this week that a face-to-face meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump was possible this month. Both men have said they want to meet.
