Ukraine war latest: Trump to sign minerals deal in Zelensky talks today

The Kremlin has complained that “nothing is sacred” as it condemned an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate a cleric often dubbed Vladimir Putin’s “confessor”.

Russia’s FSB security service has arrested two church figures, a Russian and a Ukrainian, on suspicion of plotting to murder Tikhon Shevkunov, with whom Mr Putin has had a public relationship for several decades.

“It is clear that the Kyiv regime does not shrink from anything,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the matter. “In this case, nothing is sacred. This is once again confirmed.”

Around one million people are estimated to have been killed or injured in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

Analysts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said in February 2024 that Russia’s forces had been responsible for damaging or destroying at least 660 churches and other religious structures in Ukraine.

Donald Trump seems to understand that some form of US security guarantee is needed to deter Vladimir Putin and achieve a lasting peace, UK officials have told Bloomberg in the wake of Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington.

Prior to the talks, an official suggested that even some ambiguity from the US could serve as a deterrent, leaving Mr Putin uncertain about how the US would respond if he were to attack European peacekeepers.

But the US and Europe both want the other to make their commitments first, making the discussions complex, the official is reported to have said.

Giving his take on the substance of Sir Keir Starmer’s Washington visit, our columnist Jon Sopel writes:

On the biggest item of all, Ukraine, there was little movement from the Americans in terms of promising a security guarantee.

Trump did walk back his claim that Zelensky was a dictator, tick.

But he also said he trusted Putin, cross.

Starmer pushed back – gently, but firmly – on Trump’s claim that Ukraine hadn’t really cost Europe anything.

Read his analysis in full here:

The Kremlin’s guidelines to Russian state media about its coverage of recent US–Russian meetings indicate Vladimir Putin’s determination to manipulate Donald Trump and divide the West, analysts have warned.

The leading Institute for the Study of War think-tank pointed to a report in Russian opposition outlet Verstka which claimed that outlets have received instructions from the Kremlin to create an image of Trump as a man who “had the wisdom” to respond to the Kremlin’s “outstretched” hand.

A source who regularly participates in Kremlin meetings with major media editors reportedly stated that the Kremlin told outlets to emphasise “in every way” that Russia is in contact “not with some abstract Americans, but with Trump’s team” and to demonstrate that Trump is “a man who was oppressed in every way both at home and in Europe”.

The US-based think-tank said Mr Putin’s claim yesterday that “some Western elites” are against US-Russian talks is likely an attempt to drive wedges between Mr Trump and other US actors and European leaders.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have thwarted a Ukrainian plot to assassinate a prominent priest with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

Two church figures have been arrested in connection with the alleged scheme, which the FSB says was orchestrated by a Ukrainian spy agency.

The intended target, 66-year-old Tikhon Shevkunov, is widely reported in Russian media as Putin’s “confessor.” While the Kremlin has confirmed a long-standing acquaintance between the two men, dating back to the late 1990s, the exact nature of their relationship remains unclear.

Felix Light reports:

Russia has said it suggested restoring direct air links with the United States during what Moscow described as “substantive and businesslike” talks in Turkey on Thursday.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not say how the US side had responded at Thursday’s meeting in Istanbul, but shares in Russian airline Aeroflot rose 3.8 per cent after the news.

Such a move would mark a serious departure from the West’s policy of seeking to isolate Russia internationally in retaliation for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

The six hours of talks between senior diplomats in Istanbul – said to have been aimed at “normalising” relations between the two countries – followed a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on 12 February and a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.

Mr Putin said on Thursday that initial contacts with the Trump administration gave grounds for hope, and warned “Western elites” – meaning the UK and the European Union – not to sabotage them.

A US State Department statement on Thursday said the talks had covered issues such as embassy staffing levels, visas and diplomatic banking. It did not mention air links.

In a piece for Independent Voices, Simon Walters writes:

As he jets back to Britain after his trip to the White House, Sir Keir Starmer is entitled to breathe a sigh of relief. Fears that stiff Starmer would endure a repeat of Theresa May’s awkward hand holding incident with Trump when she visited the Oval Office in his first term proved unfounded.

But before Starmer gets the Downing Street bunting out it is worth looking beyond the banter at key aspects which did not go his way. Trump rejected his demand for US troops to provide a “backstop” for British and other European troops in any peace keeping force in Ukraine.

He fobbed him off with warm words about the US plan to send civilian workers to Ukraine as part of a minerals deal between the two countries as being a form of “backstop.” It is nothing of the sort.

To underline this, Trump stamped on the notion – supported by many in Europe but violently opposed by Putin – that Ukraine might join Nato. He went even further, repeatedly stating his trust in Putin, regularly denounced in blistering terms by Starmer. Though the “tough negotiator” did not do that in the Oval Office to Trump’s face. Funny that.

The Ukrainian military claims to have hit Russia’s Ilsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region and a thermobaric weapons warehouse in the Russia-occupied Donetsk region overnight.

Ukraine’s military said the refinery was supplying fuel to the Russian military.