Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin makes demands for Black Sea ceasefire despite launching huge drone assault

The Kremlin has claimed a Black Sea ceasefire agreement can only begin when certain Russian needs are met, sparking Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to accuse Russia of “manipulation” over a push by Donald Trump for a lasting peace deal in end Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

After days of intense negotiations, the White House said it had secured deals with both Kyiv and Moscow to stop targeting ships in the Black Sea, restoring a previous agreement to protect key shipping routes.

But on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would need to see some sanctions imposed by Western nations over the war lifted first, including blocks on its access to international payments systems.

Mr Zelensky said the ceasefire would be observed immediately, and said Russia was “already trying to distort agreements” and “deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world”.

Mr Trump has said Putin appears to be "dragging [his] feet" over ending the war against Ukraine.

The comments came before Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, which provides access to the Black Sea.

EU says Russian sanctions won't be lifted until full withdrawal from Ukraine

Russian drone attacks are proof Russia doesn't want 'real peace': Zelensky

Kremlin says 'clear guarantees' needed over Black Sea deal

Trump says Russia wants to end Ukraine war but 'dragging their feet'

Russia launches drone attack on Ukraine Black Sea port city

12:28 , Rachel Clun

Russia has convicted 23 Ukrainians on terror charges, including former fighters as well as cooks and support personnel in a trial Kyiv denounced as a sham.

A Russian court announced the verdict for 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war from the 'Azov' battalion, who were all charged with staging a coup and organising terrorist organisation activities.

The defendants were sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for a term of 13 to 23 years.

In-person verdicts were issued to 12 defendants, and 11 defendants were sentenced in absentia - they had been returned to Ukraine in organised prisoner swaps.

Eight of the convicted were women. The criminal case against one defendant was closed due to his death.

12:13 , Rachel Clun, with Reuters

A senior Ukrainian official says no preconditions were discussed for a Black Sea ceasefire during negotiations with the US.

Ihor Zhovkva, speaking on national television, also said Russia has attacked at least eight energy facilities since March 18 - the date on which Moscow said it halted any such strikes.

11:58 , Rachel Clun, with Reuters

While the Kremlin said it won’t begin the Black Sea ceasefire until certain conditions are met, including the lifting of some sanctions on its payment systems, the EU says that cannot occur without a full withdrawal of troops.

An EU Commission spokesperson said an “unconditional withdrawal” of Russian forces from Ukraine was key to any changes to sanctions.

"The end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine would be one of the main preconditions to amend or lift sanctions," the spokesperson said.

In lengthy talks in Saudi Arabia this week with the US, Russia agreed to halt attacks on the Black Sea in exchange for the US helping to restore its access to global agricultural and fertiliser exports, and improve access to ports, maritime insurance and international payment systems.

11:43 , Rachel Clun

The Kremlin says conditions agreed to by the US must be met before it will activate the Black Sea ceasefire.

After days of talks in Saudi Arabia the US reached separate agreements with both Russia and Ukraine to halt attacks on vessels in the Black Sea.

While Ukraine agreed to begin the ceasefire immediately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it wanted to see sanctions lifted first, including restrictions on its access to international payments systems.

"As for the Black Sea grain initiative, it can be activated after a number of conditions are implemented," Mr Peskov told reporters.

11:29 , Rachel Clun

Without access to the thousands of children abducted by Russia or their data, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister said it was “very difficult” to find them and bring them home.

“Russia uses forced Russian documentation. Russia changes their names, Russia changes their data, and it's very difficult to find them,” Mariana Betsa told a UK committee.

“The critical issue is to get verified information from [Russia] regarding the deported children from Russia. We don't have any access to them at the government level.

“So basically, this is a very complicated and complex operation, and each child is truly a unique operation in terms of their rescue.”

Ms Betsa said a few countries were acting as mediators to help return children, but the process was not going as fast as Ukraine would like.

As part of the negotiations in Saudi Arabia this week, the US agreed to help Ukraine get its children back, and Ms Betsa said it would also be great to get more help from the UK.

11:15 , Rachel Clun

More than a dozen Ukrainian children are injured or killed in Russian missile strikes each week, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister says.

Mariana Betsa said nearly 600 children have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, and more than 1700 have been injured in attacks.

“All in all, every week, at least 16 Ukrainian children either being killed or being injured by missile attacks,” she told a UK committee.

11:01 , Rachel Clun

The founder of Save Ukraine Mykola Kuleba said many of the children Ukraine has been able to rescue have spoken about being drafted or seeing their friends drafted into the Russian army.

“Of that more than 600 kids who [have] been stolen and rescued, together with our partners ... 40 per cent of all boys rescued over the past year, received draft notice for the Russian army, or had friends who did,” he told a UK parliamentary committee.

“25 per cent of all rescued children or their classmates were forced to march and handle weapons and shoot. Every fifth rescued child had a gun pointed at them.”

Mr Kuleba said 70 per cent of the children were made to listen to Russian military personnel or security service members at school, who urged the children to sign contracts with the Russian military.

10:45 , Rachel Clun

Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa says nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia during the war.

“So far, we identified almost 20,000 Ukrainian children who were forcefully deported by Russia in grave breach of international law to the Russian territory,” she told a UK parliamentary committee.

“This is a massive crime that Russia commits.”

10:29 , Rachel Clun

Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa will shortly address a UK parliamentary committee.

Ms Betsa will be appearing before the International Relations and Defence Committee, alongside the founder of Save Ukraine Mykola Kuleba, and Daria Zarivna, the advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine and operations director of Bring Kids Back UA.

10:16 , Rachel Clun

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin’s order to halt strikes on energy infrastructure is being adhered to by Russian forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmirty Peskov said on Wednesday that the moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure has been in force since March 18 and was being fulfilled by Russia.

Moscow said yesterday that oil refineries, energy pipelines and nuclear power stations would not be targeted for 30 days in a deal struck with Ukraine.

Overnight Russia carried out drone attacks on Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelensky said civilian infrastructure was hit.

10:01 , Rachel Clun

Volodymyr Zelensky shared photos of the aftermath of Russia’s drone strikes on Ukraine overnight, which came after the countries reached an agreement to halt attacks in the Black Sea.

09:46 , Rachel Clun

Following days of intense talks with the US, both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop attacks in the Black Sea.

They also agreed to take steps towards agreeing to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

Here is what the White House said both countries agreed to, in separate talks with the US in Saudi Arabia earlier this week:

Cease using force and allow the safe naviagation of ships in the Black Sea.

Develop measures for implementing the agreement to ban strikes on energy facilities.

Work with mediating countries ton implement the agreements.

Work towards a lasting peace.

09:31 , Rachel Clun

Volodymyr Zelensky says the overnight attacks from Russia were a “clear signal” that Russia did not want a real peace.

“Launching such large-scale attacks after ceasefire negotiations is a clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X.

“Since March 11, there has been a US proposal for a total ceasefire, a complete halt to strikes. And literally every night, through its attacks, Russia keeps saying ‘no’ to our partners’ peace proposal.

He added: “Everyone who was affected must be given assistance. But there must also be clear pressure and strong action from the world on Russia – more pressure, more sanctions from the United States – to stop Russian strikes. “

09:17 , Rachel Clun

The Ukrainian president says Russia’s overnight drone attacks were proof that Russia wanted the war to drag on.

Russia launched 117 drone attacks through the night, and the key Ukrainian Black Sea port city of f Mykolaiv was struck.

Volodymyr Zelensky said many regions came under attack from Russia, despite the countries reaching an agreement to end attacks in the Black Sea and start working towards a ceasefire.

“Last night, there were another 117 proofs in our skies of how Russia continues to drag out this war – 117 strike drones, most of them Shaheds. A significant number were shot down by our air defenders,” he said on X.

“Dnipro, Sumy, Cherkasy, and other regions came under Russian attack. There was a massive drone strike on Kryvyi Rih – targeting a local enterprise and civilian infrastructure. In Okhtyrka, Sumy region, homes, stores, and civilian infrastructure were damaged. Communities in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions also came under fire.”

08:58 , Rachel Clun

Defence Secretary John Healey says he’s “proud” of the UK’s leading role in building a ‘coalition of the willing’ to support Ukraine.

Mr Healey was asked about US special envoy Steve Witkoff's stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, after Mr Witkoff dismissed Sir Keir Starmer's plans for a peacekeeping force as being based on a "simplistic" idea.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Healey said: "I'm proud that the UK, alongside France, is leading the coalition of the willing, ready to stand by Ukraine in the event of a negotiated peace just as we have through the war.

"And we're responding to the US challenge to European nations like the UK to do more to support Ukraine.

"We're responding to the requirement of Ukraine to say, 'look, post-ceasefire, what are the security arrangements that give us the confidence that any negotiated peace will, as President Trump has said, be a durable peace'.

"That's what we're preparing for: the success of the negotiations we've seen, longer term, in Saudi Arabia, but the future of Ukraine as an independent sovereign nation that has been fighting so hard for its future over the last three years against Putin's illegal invasion."

08:40 , Rachel Clun

Both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop targeting ships in the Black Sea as a step towards a broader ceasefire following intense talks.

While Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said he would immediately observe the ceasefire, Russia said they would only halt action if certain conditions including the lifting of sanctions was met.

Overnight, Russia launched a drone attack on the city of Mykolaiv, a key Black Sea port.

Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration, described it as the biggest drone attack on the city since the war began.

"Apparently, this is how the occupiers 'want peace'," he wrote on telegram.

Russia also attacked the port city of Odesa last week, injuring three and sparking massive fires.

But as world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes from Odesa, Ukraine has been beating Russia in the Black Sea - which has been crucial in getting Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

08:24 , Rachel Clun

World Affairs Editor Same Kiley has spent time with the Ukrainians fighting Russia on the Black Sea. Watch here:

08:11 , Rachel Clun

Ukrainians have paid respects to a volunteer medic, Oleksandr "Bohushâ" Oliynyk, who was reportedly killed in service.

07:52 , Rachel Clun

Russia’s foreign minister says the US will need to enforce the new deal allowing cargo ships to pass through the Black Sea.

"We will need clear guarantees," Sergei Lavrov told the Russian state Channel One television.

“And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelensky and his team to do one thing and not the other."

Mr Lavrov said Russia wanted this not only to be able to make a profit but to also help improve food security in Africa and the Global South.

"We want the grain and fertiliser market to be predictable, so that no one tries to 'ward us off' from it,” he said.

07:35 , Rachel Clun

Ukraine’s President has welcomed the progress on a ceasefire but says Russia’s actions over the next few days will show the world whether the Kremlin is serious about peace.

Volodymyr Zelensky warned that any action taken by Russia to go against the new agreement to stop targeting ships in the Black Sea should be met with force.

“How Russia behaves in the coming days will reveal a lot - if not everything. If there are air raid alerts again, if there is renewed military activity in the Black Sea, if Russian manipulations and threats continue - then new measures will need to be taken, specifically against Moscow,” he said in his nightly video.

The president said Russia was already “actively deceiving” mediators and lying about its actions.

“Moscow always lies. And it depends on the world - on all those who truly need peace - whether Moscow will be allowed to lie again,” Mr Zelensky said.

“We in Ukraine will do everything to ensure that the agreements work out and that there are no strikes. But the Russians must know and must realise: if they carry out strikes, they will face a strong response and they will bear the responsibility.

Mr Zelensky pointed out that Ukraine had come to a 30-day ceasefire agreement, but it was Russia that refused to accept it.

“It is Russia’s stance that is prolonging this war,” he said.

07:20 , Rachel Clun

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 56 of the 117 Russian drones that were deployed across the fighting fronts.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the drones came from several different directions, including Kursk and Crimea

The Ukrainian army said it successfully shot down 56 of the drones in the south, north, east and centre of Ukraine. A further 48 drones were lost, but Ukraine said no consequential damage was caused.

07:07 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of "manipulation" after Moscow said it would only agree to stop firing on ships in the Black Sea if other conditions are met.

The US said earlier on Tuesday that it had secured separate agreements from both Ukraine and Russia to a truce that would protect key shipping routes.

But the Kremlin has now said the agreement will not come into effect unless Russia receives sanctions relief first, and the links between some Russian banks and the international financial system are restored.

Mr Zelensky has said his understanding was that the truce agreements did not require sanctions relief to come into force and would take effect immediately, calling the Kremlin's statement an attempt to "manipulate" the deals.

As one of the first steps to ending the war in Ukraine, members of the US delegation have sought to have Moscow and Kyiv halt their attacks on each other’s energy facilities and assets in the Black Sea.

But it is still not immediately clear when either agreement will take effect.

"They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world," Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“How Russia behaves in the coming days will reveal a lot – if not everything. If there are air raid alerts again, if there is renewed military activity in the Black Sea, if Russian manipulations and threats continue – then new measures will need to be taken, specifically against Moscow,” he said.

06:53 , Arpan Rai

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv that provides the war-hit nation with access to the Black Sea, officials said.

The mayor of Mykolaiv said there were emergency power outages early today in the city, following a report by the region's governor that seven drones were destroyed overnight over the region.

It was not immediately clear whether the power cuts were precautionary or a result of the overnight attack on Mykolaiv.

Russia also attacked Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rih overnight, in an assault which sparked fires and damaged buildings but caused no deaths, the head of the city's military administration said.

"Apparently, this is how the occupiers 'want peace'," wrote Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration, on Telegram.

He described it as the biggest drone attack on the city since the war began.

"Most importantly, there were no deaths or injuries."

06:43 , Arpan Rai

06:29 , Arpan Rai

Emergency power outages have been imposed in the Ukrainian port city Mykolaiv after overnight Russian attacks, its mayor said.

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said the southern port city was subject to an air raid alert shortly after midnight, then around 2am and 3am, and again at 7.40am local time.

At least seven Shahed drones were destroyed over the region, according to the regional governor Vitaliy Kim.

06:06 , Arpan Rai

Russia has refused to return the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant back to Ukraine, calling Europe’s largest nuclear plant a "Russian facility".

"The return of the station to Russia’s nuclear sector has been a fait accompli for quite some time," the Russian foreign ministry said yesterday.

"Transferring the Zaporizhzhia plant to the control of Ukraine or another country is impossible,” it said in a statement.

Russia forcefully captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant within days of launching a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine in February 2022 and has since maintained control over the facility, stationing its own staff there.

While Russia illegally declared the region as a whole annexed in the autumn of 2022, its largest city, Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian control.

The nuclear facility has repeatedly come under drone attacks from both sides and the UN nuclear watchdog has warned against any attacks that could endanger the plant's reactors.

Last week US president Donald Trump suggested Volodymyr Zelensky consider transferring ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to the US for their own protection.

05:47 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine and Russia would likely both prefer prolonging the war over settling for an unfavourable peace deal, according to an unclassified US intelligence assessment.

A report by the US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has stated that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky “for now probably still see the risks of a longer war as less than those of an unsatisfying settlement,” reported Bloomberg.

According to the intelligence report published yesterday, both leaders likely understand the risks of a prolonged war and impacts like continued economic disruptions for Moscow under the pressure of sanctions that could harm Russia, including through "undesired escalation with the West".

A protracted war would also impact Kyiv’s standing on the battlefield, as well as potentially its future negotiating position, the assessment said.

05:26 , Arpan Rai

Russia's defence ministry says its forces destroyed at least nine Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the waters of the Black Sea.

The statement comes just hours after the US said it had struck deals with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks over the Black Sea region and against each other’s energy facilities.

The officials did not mention when the Black Sea deals would come into effect.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched over Russia overnight and there were no immediate reports of hits on Black Sea or energy targets.

04:59 , Arpan Rai

Russian forces continued to fight on several points on the Ukrainian frontline but did not advance in the past 24 hours, according to the US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War.

In its main war effort in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Kharkiv direction yesterday by conducting ground attacks northeast of the city, the ISW said in its latest assessment.

Russia also continued offensive operations in the Kupiansk direction, east of Kupiansk near Petropavlivka; and southeast of Kupiansk near Stepova Novoselivka, but did not make confirmed advances.

In Donetsk, Russian forces conducted offensive operations northeast of Siversk near Hryhorivka and Bilohorivka, east of Siversk near Verkhnokamyanske, and southeast of Siversk near Ivano-Daryivka in the past 48 hours.

The Russian defence ministry claimed yesterday that its forces have seized Myrne, northeast of Lyman, though there has been no confirmation from Ukraine.

04:22 , Arpan Rai

Russia's new ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiev will leave for his post in Washington today, Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

Russian president Vladimir Putin appointed Mr Darchiev, a veteran diplomat known in the past for public denunciations of the West, as ambassador to the United States on 6 March.

Russia has had no ambassador in Washington since last October when the previous envoy, Anatoly Antonov, left his post.

03:59 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine’s delegation in Saudi Arabia has not fully agreed to the idea of lifting sanctions as a condition for a maritime ceasefire, a Ukrainian government source told AP, arguing that Russia has done nothing to warrant having the financial penalties rolled back.

The official has also confirmed Kyiv’s objection to the exclusion of European countries from the sanctions discussions, despite most of them being within the European Union’s responsibility.

Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov warned that Kyiv would see the deployment of Russian warships in the western Black Sea as a "violation of the commitment to ensure safe navigation" there and "a threat to the national security of Ukraine".

"In this case, Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defence," he said.

03:35 , Arpan Rai

Moscow is now open to the revival of the Black Sea shipping deal but warned that its interests must be protected, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"We want the grain and fertiliser market to be predictable, so that no one tries to 'ward us off' from it," Mr Lavrov told the Russian state Channel One television.

"Not only because we want... to make a legitimate profit in fair competition, but also because we are concerned about the food security situation in Africa and other countries of the Global South,” he said.

But the Kremlin warned that the Black Sea deal could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial organisations involved in food and fertiliser trade are lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments is ensured.

The deal brokered by the US, which the Trump administration says has been agreed to in principle by both sides of the war, emphasises that inspections of commercial ships would be necessary to ensure they aren't used for military purposes.

The White House, in an apparent reference to Moscow’s demands, 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”.

03:01 , Andy Gregory

British troops sent to Ukraine as part of a planned peacekeeping force could face “lawfare” under human rights legislation, Tory MPs have warned.

They called on the defence secretary to create an exemption from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for any soldiers sent to the region.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Fears Putin will abuse human rights laws against British peacekeepers in Ukraine

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.

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.

What it’s really like to be on Putin’s kill list

01:00 , Andy Gregory

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.”

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:

Former Russian minister ‘shocked’ to learn he was subject to sanctions in UK

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.

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.

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.

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.