Ukraine-Russia war live: Zelensky meets Trump and talks up common ground

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived for a meeting with Donald Trump as public tensions have been rising between the two over Ukraine‘s defense against Russia’s invasion.

“I think we have a common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped and Putin can’t win,” Zelensky said, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

After arriving together at a conference room on Friday, Trump said “the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”

The visit is taking place at Trump Tower in New York, a day after Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, met with the Ukrainian leader and expressed unwavering support.

The meeting is highly anticipated and comes as Election Day nears, with Trump and Harris taking sharply different positions on backing Ukraine in the third year of its war with Russia.

Trump has in recent days praised Russia’s historic military victories and insisted the US needs “to get out” and end its involvement with Ukraine.

Nato will set up a new land command in Finland near the Russian border next year, tasked with leading the alliance’s land force operations in northern Europe in the event of a military conflict, the Finnish defence minister has announced.

Finland joined the Nato alliance last year, in response to neighbouring Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022, and is organising the alliance’s presence on its territory.

“This morning, I have decided that we will propose to Nato to establish the command in conjunction with the Army Headquarters in Mikkeli,” said the minister, Antti Hakkanen, following up on his June announcement that all Nato member states had given their political consent for the plan.

The centre, which Nato calls Multi Corps Land Component Command, will operate under the alliance’s US-based Norfolk Joint Force Command and jointly with Finland’s own land force command that is already located in Mikkeli, about two hour’s drive from the Finnish-Russian border.

Hakkanen, speaking at a news conference, said the unit would initially have an annual budget of 8.5 million euros (£7.1 million) and consist of a few dozen international officials.

A report that Russia is developing a China-backed attack drone programme for the war in Ukraine is “deeply concerning”, a European Union spokesperson said on Friday.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists.

It cited two sources from a European intelligence agency and reviewed documents about the programme.

“We have noted the deeply concerning reports alleging that Russia is developing attack drones in China for the use in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Nabila Massrali, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service.

“If these reports are accurate, this would mean that Chinese companies are providing Russia with lethal assistance,” she added.

“It would go against China’s official narrative that it does not provide lethal weapons to support Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine and therefore we expect the allegations to be thoroughly and immediately examined and addressed by the Chinese authorities.”

The EU has repeatedly urged all countries, including China, not to provide material or other support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, Massrali said.

China’s foreign ministry has told Reuters it was not aware of the project, adding that Beijing had strict control measures on the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih struck a five-storey building housing the regional police department on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring five others, officials said.

Several people are feared buried under the rubble, officials said.

The body of a woman was found under the rubble, the regional governor Serhiy Lysak later said on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that 23 private houses, three apartment blocks and an educational facility had been damaged in the attack.

Ukraine‘s emergency services said the attack had partially destroyed the building housing the police directorate for the Dnipropetrovsk region.