Closing summary
Donald Trump said Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Trump said the Ukrainian leader would be signing a “very big agreement” which he said would allow the US to get “money back”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “guarantees of peace and security” were vital as Kyiv and Washington prepare for talks on Friday. “For me and for all of us in the world, it’s important that US support is not stopped. Strength is needed on the path to peace,” Zelenskyy said during his evening address on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy said earlier on Wednesday that without future security guarantees for Ukraine there would be no “just peace ... we will not have a ceasefire.” Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said a minerals deal had been agreed, and that Washington would commit to supporting Kyiv’s efforts to obtain security guarantees.
But Trump said the US would not be making far-reaching security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the deal. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond - very much. We’re going to have Europe do that,” Trump said during his first cabinet meeting. Trump also insisted that Kyiv “can forget about” joining Nato.
Zelenskyy is expected to visit the UK this weekend as Keir Starmer is due to host a summit of European leaders to discuss defence, according to PA news agency. Zelenskyy’s reported visit will come after his reported trip to Washington on Friday.
A planned meeting between the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have been cancelled. Both sides blamed scheduling challenges, Associated Press reports, but European officials said they were caught off-guard.
Russian and US diplomats will meet on Thursday for talks aimed at restoring their respective diplomatic missions. The talks in Istanbul will not include any discussions on Ukraine, US state department officials said. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov again ruled out “any options” for European peacekeepers being sent to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy insists on 'guarantees of peace and security' ahead of meeting with Trump
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “guarantees of peace and security” were vital ahead of expected talks in Washington on Friday.
“Today, there has been a lot of international work,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video address on Wednesday.
Our teams are working with the United States as we prepare for negotiations this Friday.
“Peace and security guarantees are the key to ensuring that Russia can no longer destroy the lives of other nations,” he added.
On his meeting with Donald Trump, Zelenskyy said:
For me and for all of us in the world, it’s important that US support is not stopped. Strength is needed on the path to peace.”
High level US-EU talks abruptly cancelled
A planned meeting between the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have been cancelled, Associated Press reports.
Both sides blamed scheduling challenges, the news agency reports.
European officials said they were caught off-guard, it says, with Kallas having previewed her planned talks with Rubio to reporters earlier this week.
We reported earlier that Russian and US diplomats will meet in Istanbul tomorrow for talks aimed at restoring their respective diplomatic missions.
The US delegation will be led by deputy assistant secretary of state Sonata Coulter, while the Russian delegation will be led by ministry of foreign affairs director of the North Atlantic department, Aleksandr Darchiyev, Reuters reports.
Thursday’s talks will not include any discussions on Ukraine, the US state department said.
“To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not on the agenda,” a state department spokesperson said, adding:
The constructiveness of these talks will become apparent very quickly; either issues will get resolved or they won’t. We will know soon if Russia is really willing to engage in good faith.
They added that the respective embassies in Moscow and Washington, as well as Russian consulates in New York and Houston, would be discussed, but not Russia’s mission to the United Nations.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 8.45pm in Kyiv, 9.45pm in Moscow and 1.45pm in Washington. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Donald Trump said Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Trump said the Ukrainian leader would be signing a “very big agreement” which he said would allow the US to get “money back”. A White House official earlier cast doubt on Zelenskyy’s visit, claiming that “if the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense.”
Trump said that the US would not be making far-reaching security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the deal. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond - very much. We’re going to have Europe do that,” Trump said during his first cabinet meeting. He suggested that Kyiv will have “automatic security” because “nobody’s going to be messing around with people when we’re there.”
Trump said Ukraine can “forget about” joining Nato and that Vladimir Putin “is going to have to”. make some concessions”. Trump described the Russian leader as a “very smart guy”. He declined to detail what concessions he would ask the two sides to make, and said he hopes to soon speak face to face with Putin.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described a deal between the two countries as a “framework”. Without future security guarantees for Ukraine there would be no “just peace ... we will not have a ceasefire,” he said. The Ukrainian president said the success of a potential deal would depend on talks with Trump, adding that the most important thing was that it did not cast Kyiv as a debtor that would have to pay back hundreds of billions of dollars for past military assistance.
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said the minerals deal had been agreed, and that Washington would commit to supporting Kyiv’s efforts to obtain security guarantees. Shmyhal described it as a “preliminary” agreement, adding that Kyiv would authorise the agreed wording later on Wednesday. Ukraine would never “sign or consider ... a colonial treaty that did not take into account the interests of the state,” he added.
Zelenskyy is expected to visit the UK this weekend as Keir Starmer is due to host a summit of European leaders to discuss defence, according to PA news agency. Zelenskyy’s reported visit will come after his reported trip to Washington on Friday.
Russian and US diplomats will meet on Thursday for talks aimed at restoring their respective diplomatic missions. The talks in Istanbul will not include any discussions on Ukraine, US state department officials said. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov again ruled out “any options” for European peacekeepers being sent to Ukraine. The Kremlin said there no current plans for Putin and Trump to speak directly on the phone.
Ukrainian troops said they had launched a successful counterattack in the eastern Donetsk region, gaining control over the village of Kotlyne near a key transit artery and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk. Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces near the rail and mining hub of Pokrovsk is some of the fiercest of the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
Trump says Ukraine can 'forget about' joining Nato
Donald Trump said Ukraine can “forget about” joining Nato.
“You can forget about it. That’s probably the reason the whole thing started,” the US president told reporters.
He added that he had “very good” conversations with the Ukrainian and Russian presidents, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” he added.
Trump says Putin 'very smart, cunning' but will have to make concessions
Donald Trump, speaking to reporters during his first cabinet meeting, was asked about his views on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“He’s a very smart guy, he’s a very cunning person,” Trump said, adding that Putin had no intention of settling the war until he was back in the White House.
“If I didn’t get elected he would have continued to have gone through Ukraine,” he said. “Over a period of time, a lot of people would have been killed.”
Asked if Putin will have to make concessions in negotiations to end the war, Trump said: “Yeah, he will … He’s going to have to”.
'We’re going to have Europe do that': Trump says US will not make security guarantees 'beyond very much'
Donald Trump, at his first cabinet meeting, said he believed the US is negotiating “very successfully” with Russia and Ukraine.
The US president suggested that a ceasefire deal is close. “We’re going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people,” he told reporters.
Asked if he is willing to make security guarantees as part of the deal, Trump replied:
I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much … We’re going to have Europe do that, because Europe is the next door neighbour.
He added that the US will be partnering with Ukraine “in terms of rare earth.” “We very much need rare earth, they have great rare earth,” Trump said.
Trump said it was “great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there, we are going to be working over there”.
Updated
Zelenskyy to visit UK this weekend - report
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to visit the UK this weekend, PA news agency reports.
According to the report, Zelenskyy is planning to make the trip as Keir Starmer is due to host a summit of European leaders to discuss defence.
At a press conference in Downing Street on Tuesday, the UK prime minister said he is hosting “a number of countries” for defence discussions this weekend.
Trump confirms Zelenskyy to visit Washington to sign 'very big' agreement
Donald Trump has confirmed that he will be meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Friday to sign a critical minerals deal.
“We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine,” the US president said during his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday
President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday, that is now confirmed.
Trump said he and Zelenskyy will be “signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement.”
He said his administration is “happy about” the deal, adding:
We’ve been able to make a deal where we’re going to get our money back and we’re going to get a lot of money in the future, and I think that’s appropriate.
Trump: Zelenskyy coming to US on Friday to sign rare earths agreement
Reuters has a quick snap saying Trump has said Zelenskyy is coming to Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare earth minerals and other topics.
Trump added “we will get our money back” at the Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday.
Updated
Ukraine not on agenda in US-Russia talks in Istanbul on 27 February - state department
Reuters has a quick snap that the US-Russia meeting due to take place in Istanbul on 27 February will focus on operations of bilateral diplomatic missions, according to a state department spokesperson.
The spokesperson added that Ukraine is not on the agenda in the talks and that no political or security issues were on the agenda.
Updated
We have more on the reported Ukrainian military attack on Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast. (see post 14.36)
The Ukrainian military said at least 40 explosions had been recorded at the site.
Tuapse is home to one of Russia’s biggest oil refineries, which has been targeted by Ukrainian drones several times before.
Here is president Zelenskyy at a press conference earlier today during which he said that without future security guarantees for Ukraine there would be no “just peace ... we will not have a ceasefire”.
He added that his trip to visit Donald Trump on Friday had yet to be confirmed.
What are critical minerals and rare earth elements?
Earlier Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a “framework”.
Speaking at a press conference, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Let’s take another look at this detailed outline from my colleagues Damien Gayle and Oliver Holmes of the US-Ukraine minerals deal.
What are critical minerals?
Critical minerals are the metals and other raw materials needed for the production of hi-tech products, particularly those associated with the green energy transition, but also consumer electronics, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and weapons.
The rush to tackle climate breakdown and move away from fossil fuels has triggered a scramble for energy transition minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel, which are useful for the electrification of transport and the construction of wind turbines. The same minerals and others are also used for the manufacture of mobile phones, AI datacentres and military assets such as F-35 fighter aircraft, placing them in high demand.
As the world’s economy and technology transforms, the value of critical minerals has soared and geopolitical competition for access to them is rising. In 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the market for energy transition minerals had reached £320bn in 2022, double its value five years earlier. And if countries fully implement their clean energy and climate pledges, demand is expected to more than double by 2030 and triple by 2040, the agency says.
What are rare earth elements?
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a subset of 17 critical minerals that are variously indispensable for mobile phones, electric vehicles, missile guidance systems and other electronic, industrial and energy applications.
Despite their name, most of the rare earth elements are not particularly rare, but their extraction and refining is fiendishly difficult – and environmentally highly destructive – meaning production is concentrated in very few places, mainly China.
REEs include europium, used in nuclear power station control rods; dysprosium, gandolinium and praseodymium, used in the magnets in your mobile phone; and gadolinium, holmium and ytterbium, used in lasers, among other things.
What critical minerals does Ukraine have?
A 2022 article by the chair of Ukraine’s Association of Geologists, Hanna Liventseva, claimed her country contained about 5% of the world’s mineral resources, despite covering only 0.4% of the globe’s surface, thanks to a complex geology that takes in all three of the main components of the earth’s crust.
According to Ukraine’s own data, cited by Reuters, the country has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified as critical by the EU, including rare earths such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, erbium and yttrium.
Before the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine was a key supplier of titanium, producing about 7% of global output in 2019, according to European Commission research. It also claimed 500,000 tons of lithium reserves, and one-fifth of the world’s graphite, a crucial component of nuclear power stations.
However, with Russia controlling about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, a lot of these reserves have been lost. According to estimates by Ukrainian thinktanks cited by Reuters, up to 40% of Ukraine’s metal resources are in land under occupation. Russian troops also hold at least two of Ukraine’s lithium deposits, one in Donetsk and another in Zaporizhzhia.
No security guarantee agreed - and a round-up of today's events so far
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a “framework”. Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Donald Trump had earlier said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid in defending against Russia’s full-scale invasion. However, a White House official cast doubt on the Ukrainian president’s purported trip to Washington on Friday. Speaking anonymously to Reuters, the official said “If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense. There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognise a final position, and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.”
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said the minerals deal had been agreed, adding the agreement involved the creation of a joint investment fund and security guarantees.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused the UK and France of further fuelling the conflict by suggesting European peacekeeping forces will be placed in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Moscow.
Dozens of dignitaries walked out of Russia’s speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday in support of Ukraine, according to a report.
In Ukraine itself, first responders were pictured working at the site of an overnight Russian attack on Kryukivshchyna on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Updated
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to London, said that “dictators fear truth” as he spoke at a special service at London’s St Bride’s church to honour the work of journalists who have covered the three-year war in the country.
The former head of the armed forces, one of Ukraine’s most popular public figures, praised the work of the media at an event attended by actor Stephen Fry - and linked their professional activities to his country’s struggle against an autocratic Russia invader.
The Russian attack “isn’t just an act of aggression,” Zaluzhnyi said but “a war against truth. The Kremlin doesn’t want to take on land, it wants to erase identities, change facts and replace reality with lies”.
Journalism was therefore “another battlefield” and the general turned diplomat argued that “reporters, photographers and fixers have become fighters for truth, standing against propaganda” in his speech at a church traditionally associated with journalism.
“Truth matters, today more than ever,” Zaluzhnyi emphasised. “History shows us that dictators fear truth more than weapons,” he said and added, noting that autocrats have always been willing to target journalists in a quest for control
Though Zaluzhnyi’s comments were not overtly political, they served to promote the profile of a figure widely considered to be the most viable challenger to incumbent Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a future presidential election.
Reuters has a quick snap that a spokesperson has said the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas will not be meeting US secretary of state Marco Rubio during her trip to Washington in what might be a snub by the Trump administration. On Monday Kallas said she would be meeting Rubio, while also criticising what she called “the Russian narrative” being “strongly represented” in messages coming from the US.
Ukrainian military said overnight it had attacked Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast and two military airfields in Russian-occupied Crimea.
A White House official has cast doubt on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s purported trip to Washington on Friday. Speaking anonymously to Reuters, the official said “If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense. There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognise a final position, and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.”
Ukrainian troops said on Wednesday they had launched a successful counterattack in the eastern Donetsk region, gaining control over the village of Kotlyne near a key transit artery and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Agence France-Presse reports.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces near the rail and mining hub of Pokrovsk is some of the fiercest of the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
“Taking this settlement would have allowed the occupiers to reach the Pokrovsk-Dnipro highway, so the enemy sent significant forces to capture it,” the Ukrainian unit involved in the operation posted on social media.
Russian forces have severed the M04 highway in eastern Ukraine that serves as an essential military logistics route to resupply the embattled front line.
Ukrainian military observers have said that Russian forces gained ostensible control over Kotlyne in January but Moscow has never formally said that they had captured it.
The settlement lies around five kilometres (three miles) from the highway. The Ukrainian 25th separate Sicheslavska airborne brigade claimed to have captured it.
Separately, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had gained control over two more villages in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August last year.
Kyiv hopes to exchange territory under its control in Kursk as part of any talks aimed at ending the fighting.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, has said on the Telegram messaging service that the entire region is under an air alert ahead of a possible Ukrainian missile attack.
More from Zelenskyy and Agence France-Presse is reporting the Ukrainian president said he hoped to travel to Washington on Friday to discuss a natural resources deal and future aid with Donald Trump.
“I would like to have this visit very much,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv, saying that the tentative date for the visit to Washington was Friday.
Zelenskky said he planned to ask the US president if he would halt future US aid for Ukraine.
Updated
The US-Ukraine minerals deal is part of a broader effort to end the war with Russia and will lay the groundwork for long-term cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said on Wednesday.
In a written statment she told Reuters:
This agreement signifies our commitment to lasting peace and strong partnership, as well as the US desire to participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Zelenskky said he can’t yet confirm his trip to Washington on Friday, adding that teams are working on it, Reuters reports.
Updated
We have more coming to us from Zelenskky.
He told reporters that he wants to discuss with Donald Trump the possibility to use Russia’s frozen assets for mining resources development, weapons purchase and reconstruction, Reuters reports.
More to follow.
Zelenskyy: no security guarantee agreed with the US and minerals deal depends on Trump
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a ‘framework’.
Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Zelenskyy said a security guarantee with the US was essential. Speaking to the BBC, he added, “if we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing.”
Updated
Here are some further quotes from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov speaking about the unacceptability to Russia of the deployment of European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. Reuters quotes him saying:
We cannot consider any options. [US president Donald] Trump said that a decision on the deployment of peacekeeping forces would only be possible with the consent of both sides. Apparently referring to us and Ukraine. Nobody has asked us about this.
This approach, which is being imposed by the Europeans, primarily France, but also the British, is aimed at what I just mentioned: to further fuel the conflict and to stop any attempts to calm it down.
Therefore, we cannot get away with such simple technical measures like deploying troops. We need to talk about the root causes. The root causes were the dragging of Ukraine into Nato and the total eradication of the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people.
Citing the regional governor, Reuters reports that five people have been killed by Russian strikes on Kostyantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
US-Russia talks over diplomatic relations due in Istanbul tomorrow
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has confirmed that US and Russian diplomats will have high-level talks in Istanbul on Thursday with the aim of improving diplomatic relations between the two nations, particularly with regard to how their embassies work.
During a press briefing in Qatar, Lavrov said the talks would focus on creating better conditions for Russian diplomats in the US and their counterparts in Russia, after a series of rows over staffing levels and embassy properties, which he blamed on Joe Biden’s administration.
Reuters quotes Lavrov saying “Our high-level diplomats, experts, will meet and consider the systemic problems that have accumulated as a result of the illegal activities of the previous administration to create artificial obstacles for the activities of the Russian embassy to which we, naturally, reciprocated and also created uncomfortable conditions for the work of the American embassy in Moscow.”
Lavrov said the progress in diplomatic relations since Donald Trump returned to the White House shows “how quickly and effectively we can move.”
US-Ukraine minerals deal does not contain security guarantee – reports
Reuters is carrying more details of the reported agreement between Ukraine and the US over the extraction of Ukraine’s mineral wealth by the Trump administration.
The news agency reports a source familiar with the contents of the draft agreement said that it does not specify any US security guarantees or continued flow of weapons, but says that the United States wants Ukraine to be “free, sovereign and secure.”
One of the sources familiar with the deal told Reuters that future weapons shipments are still being discussed between Washington and Kyiv
Europe needs a defence fund to help it strengthen its security and increase its deterrence capability, Reuters reports German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said.
“It would be an important step to relax the EU’s stability and growth pact so member states can continue to increase their national defence spending,” she said in a statement, adding that this alone would not be sufficient for all countries.
“That is why we need a European defence fund that is up to the challenge,” she added.
Ukraine's PM Denys Shmyhal: minerals deal has been agreed with the US
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal has said the US and Ukraine have reached a final agreement by which the US will obtain Ukrainian mineral resources in lieu of payment for military support in its defensive war against Russia.
Shmyhal said the agreement involves the creation of a joint investment fund, stating that there is a provision in it which it says the US supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees to build lasting peace.
He said he expected Ukraine’s government to authorise the deal today.
US president Donald Trump has said he is expecting Volodymyr Zelenskyy to travel to Washington at the end of the week to sign an agreement. Last week Trump called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator”, leading to a breach in transatlantic relations.
Updated
In a message posted to Telegram, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has marked 11 years since Russia moved to occupy and then declare Crimea annexed to the Russian Federation, saying “We do not allow Russia to ‘normalise’ the occupation.”
Zelenskyy said:
Today is the day of courage and honesty of all those who did not turn a blind eye to Russia’s occupation of our Crimea. These days, 11 years ago, Russian aggression against Ukraine began with the illegal, vile seizure of Crimea. But the day of 26 February showed that there would be resistance – resistance from Crimea, resistance from all of Ukraine. This day showed that there are and will be people who will not accept lies and will not surrender their homes. We managed to put the issue of Crimea’s liberation back on the world’s agenda. We do not allow Russia to ‘normalise’ the occupation. We continue to fight for the right to a normal life and guarantees of security and sustainable peace for the whole of Ukraine.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that journalist Tetyana Kulyk was killed overnight when a Russian drone struck her house in the Kyiv region. It reported two people were found dead at the scene of the attack.
Russia’s state-owned media outlet Tass has summed up what it termed the main points of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s press briefing in Qatar.
It reported that Lavrov said Europe is inciting Kyiv to continue military operations, and that Europe’s policy on Ukraine is hopelessly outdated and a failure.
Tass reports Lavrov said Russia is not considering options for deploying European forces in Ukraine and that remains of Ukraine must be freed from what he termed racist laws. He added that Russia and the US did not discuss the issue of rare earth metals in recent discussions in Riyadh.
There has not been a diplomatic read-out yet from French president Emmanuel Macron briefing European leaders this morning about his recent visit to Washington, but Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has just posted to social media, without directly mentioning Donald Trump, this:
Uncertainty, unpredictability, deals. Are these really the rules that the new international order should be based on?
Dozens of dignitaries walked out of Russia’s speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday in support of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The delegates, including the ambassadors of France, Germany and Britain, gathered outside the room where the session was taking place, to mark three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters reports that Russia’s ministry of defence said its forces have recaptured two settlements in the Kursk region, where Ukraine has staged an incursion into Russian territory. The reports have not been independently verified.
Lavrov: UK and French suggestion of Nato peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is aimed at fuelling conflict
Russia’s foreign minister has said that the UK and France are engaged in further fuelling conflict in Ukraine with discussion of a European peacekeeping force putting troops on the ground in the country in the event of a peace deal.
Speaking in Qatar, Sergei Lavrov said that Europe’s approach to the conflict insists on heating it up, rather than cooling it down and looking at the root causes.
He said that the balance of forces had changed in Europe, and that European countries were trying to undermine this with new packages of military aid for Ukraine. Lavrov said that the peacekeeping proposals emanating from London and Paris were a deceit aimed at pumping Ukraine full of more weapons, that would draw Ukraine further into Nato’s sphere and infringe on the rights of Russian-speakers there.
Lavrov also announced there would be a US-Russia meeting in Istanbul on Thursday, and accused European countries of lying when they say that Russia is unwilling to negotiate over Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly said it would hold talks over the war while also insisting on red lines over territory seizures and future security guarantees that Ukraine has found unacceptable.
Updated
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is currently speaking at a press briefing in Qatar. We will bring you any key lines that emerge.
Citing the Marseille prosecutor, Reuters reports that two French nationals have admitted responsibility for an arson attack at the Russian consulate in the city on Monday.
Kremlin: expert level talks between US and Russia being prepared but no plan for Putin-Trump call
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that expert level talks between the US and Russia were being prepared. In his daily media briefing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were no current plans for Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump to speak directly on the phone.
The Kremlin said it declined to comment on any aspect of a proposed US-Ukraine deal allowing the US to extract rare minerals from Ukraine in lieu of payment for military support until there were official statements. Russia’s president on Monday evening offered to sell Russian rare earth minerals to US companies, including minerals from the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine
Peskov also said no discussions had been held with China about the possibility of Chinese troops being deployed in a peacemaking role in Ukraine in the event of any deal.
In a statement Russia’s ministry of defence said that overnight air defences had shot down 185 Ukrainian drones. It also claimed that in the last 24 hours Russian troops had killed over 1,000 Ukrainian service personnel across the entire front. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Macron to brief European leaders about visit to Trump in Washington
France’s president Emmanuel Macron is holding a call to brief European leaders on the outcome of his visit to Washington to meet US president Donald Trump earlier this week.
Updated
Ukraine’s emergency services have issued images of first responders working at the site of an overnight Russian attack on Kryukivshchyna on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Authorities say Russia attacked Ukraine with nearly two hundred drones overnight. One person was reported killed by a drone attack on the wider Kyiv region.
Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia, has told Russian media outlet Tass that Russian troops have seized Skudne, which is on the border between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that workers are attempting to repair damage in Dnipropetrovsk region after what it described as “a massive attack” hit an energy facility.
Ukraine’s air defences shot down 110 of 177 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Wednesday, the air force said in quotes carried by Reuters. The statement said that 66 other drones were “lost”, in reference to the military’s use of electronic warfare to redirect them.
Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he discussed continued military support for Kyiv and battlefield developments with British Defence Chief Antony Radakin, according to a report from Reuters.
“Admiral Sir Antony Radakin once again assured me of the United Kingdom’s readiness to provide military assistance to the Ukrainian Defence Forces,” Syrskyi said in a statement on Facebook.
What are critical minerals and rare earth elements?
What are critical minerals?
Critical minerals are the metals and other raw materials needed for the production of hi-tech products, particularly those associated with the green energy transition, but also consumer electronics, artificial intelligence infrastructure and weapons.
As the world’s economy and technology transforms, the value of critical minerals has soared and geopolitical competition for access to them is rising. In 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the market for energy transition minerals had reached £320bn in 2022, double its value five years earlier. And if countries fully implement their clean energy and climate pledges, demand is expected to more than double by 2030 and triple by 2040, the agency says.
What are rare earth elements?
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a subset of 17 critical minerals that are variously indispensable for mobile phones, electric vehicles, missile guidance systems and other electronics, industrial and energy applications.
Despite their name, most of the rare earth elements are not particularly rare, but their extraction and refining is fiendishly difficult – and environmentally highly destructive – meaning production is concentrated in very few places, mainly China.
REEs include europium, used in nuclear power station control rods; dysprosium, gandolinium and praseodymium, used in the magnets in your mobile phone; and gadolinium, holmium and ytterbium, used in lasers among other things.
What critical minerals does Ukraine have?
A 2022 article by the chair of Ukraine’s Association of Geologists, Hanna Liventseva, claimed her country contained about 5% of the world’s mineral resources, despite covering only 0.4% of the globe’s surface, thanks to a complex geology that takes in all three of the main components of the earth’s crust.
According to Ukraine’s own data, cited by Reuters, the country has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified as critical by the EU, including rare earths such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, erbium and yttrium.
Before the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine was a key supplier of titanium, producing about 7% of global output in 2019, according to European Commission research. It also claimed 500,000 tons of lithium reserves, and one-fifth of the world’s graphite, a crucial component of nuclear power stations.
Updated
Trump says Zelenskyy to visit White House and is set to sign rare earth minerals deal
Donald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The announcement followed days of negotiations between the US and Ukraine in which Zelenskyy alleged the US was pressuring him to sign a deal worth more than $500bn that would force “10 generations” of Ukrainians to pay it back.
Media outlets reported late on Tuesday that the terms of an agreement had been reached.
“I hear that he’s coming on Friday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.”
According to the Financial Times, which first reported the deal, the new terms of the deal did not include the onerous demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources, which include rare earth metals and Ukrainian oil and gas resources.
“Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time”, Trump said on Tuesday. He also said “some form of peacekeeping” in Ukraine would be required after any peace deal.
In other developments”
Emmanuel Macron is due to brief European leaders following his meeting with Donald Trump at 9am GMT. As part of a continued Europe-wide push on security, defence ministers from across the continent are expected to meet in London on Sunday for a hastily arranged summit.
Calls are growing for hundreds of billions in Russian government wealth frozen in the international banking system to be used in full for Ukraine’s defence. Europe and the G7 have found ways to use interest from the financial assets to help Ukraine in the war, but the capital has remained locked up since the February 2022 invasion.
Ukraine received 500,000 artillery shells bought outside Europe in 2024 under an initiative run by the Czech Republic, said its prime minister, Petr Fiala.
Moscow has dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that Russia would accept European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, Pjotr Sauer writes. Addressing reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had nothing to add to the foreign ministry’s position on the unacceptability of Nato peacekeepers in Ukraine.
The cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine after three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion will be $524bn over the next decade, according to a report released by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations.
