Russia-Ukraine war Russia-Ukraine war Today’s latest from Al Jazeera

Russia’s president defends the military campaign in Ukraine, blaming NATO and Western policies for the conflict. Plane for Ursula von der Leyen’s four-day tour of ‘front line’ states on EU’s eastern flank landed with ‘paper maps’. As Russia’s war in Ukraine unfolds, here’s all the latest news and information you need to know. No one from the American side is putting pressure on Ukraine regarding any territories,” he said following his meeting with Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s special envoy, in New York.

• The war is taking its toll on Russia’s economy, with high interest rates and inflation and defence spending this year of at least 33% of the federal budget.
• A source told The Telegraph that US officials had also asked Britain’s Ministry of Defence not to share intelligence to this effect while Mr Trump’s peace talks take place with Putin.
• Of the deaths, nine people were killed in Kostyantynivka yesterday, with two additional deaths taking place overnight.
• A former UK ambassador has called into question the willingness of Ukraine’s allies to actually take action to help Kyiv.
• Russia’s attempt to stop Ukraine leaving its sphere of influence goes back years, and its initial invasion began in 2014 when pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after months of mass demonstrations.
• Mr Putin’s forces control almost all of Luhansk, but about 30% of the others remain in Ukrainian hands and are fiercely contested.
• He accused the Western defensive alliance, Nato, of trying to gain a foothold in Ukraine to bring its troops closer to Russia’s borders.

In maps: The territory Ukraine could be told to surrender in a ‘land for peace’ deal

But Europeans have said that they were yet to hear how the White House was willing to support the mission. Europe also lacks experience in co-ordinating major military missions, which has mainly been left to American four-star generals. As well as supporting boots on the ground, intelligence assistance would also be key for the air policing mission to succeed, it is believed. European nations lack the satellite capabilities needed to sufficiently monitor any ceasefire. As well as France’s mission, Britain’s highly successful training programme, Operation Interflex, would likely be moved to Western Ukraine, according to the current plans. It was rejected as escalatory by Joe Biden at the time, a former US official said.

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Putin’s reluctance to agree to a ceasefire has led Mr Trump to withdraw economic ukrabet incentives offered to Russia to end the war. Many believe he is misleading Mr Trump and dragging out the war to gain more territory. The American president is known to frequently change his mind, and even if he was to uphold the promise, it could fall when he eventually leaves the White House. “The prospect of an American military response is an entirely different prospect to a European response,” a source said. The main request from European governments is for Mr Trump to station fighter jets and missiles in neighbouring Poland or Romania, ready to respond at the first signs of Russian aggression.

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Putin quickly seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian proxies took up arms against the government, occupying parts of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russia’s attempt to stop Ukraine leaving its sphere of influence goes back years, and its initial invasion began in 2014 when pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after months of mass demonstrations. “We thought we had the war settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people,” he said last month. Before his return to the White House and in the first months of his presidency, Trump suggested Ukraine’s president was responsible for the war with Russia. Kyiv will never recognise its sovereign territory as part of Russia, even if it might accept it has been lost temporarily. It will also look for Western security guarantees to ensure Russia never invades its territory again.

• Starmer also welcomed the new announcements from some of Ukraine’s partners to supply Kyiv with long-range missiles.
• Through briefings with more than a dozen Western officials, The Telegraph is able to publish the most comprehensive version yet of how a European-led mission could enforce any peace deal.
• As well as supporting boots on the ground, intelligence assistance would also be key for the air policing mission to succeed, it is believed.
• No deal was reached at the summit itself, but the two leaders are expected to continue to speak in the coming days and weeks.
• President Zelensky went on to rally Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion in 2022.

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He said they “now needed to go even further to apply pressure on Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities”. She asserted that India has a crucial role to play in pressing Russia to end its war, according to a post on X, as she thanked Modi for his “continued engagement” with the Ukrainian president. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has thanked members of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing”, as he singled out Donald Trump for “all his efforts” to end the war. Mr Clarke said a favourable outcome could be the two sides agreeing to a ceasefire that would start in two weeks (for instance), with threats of sanctions from the US if Russia or Ukraine breaks it. Michael Clarke told Sky News that the summit “certainly won’t create peace, but it might create a ceasefire in place if Putin decides to be flexible”. It’s also possible that Russia could be willing to withdraw from the areas of Kherson region that it controls.