Ukraine-Russia war latest: US clears aid worth $8bn for Kyiv as Zelensky offers to meet Putin to end war – UK Times

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that his forces fired the medium-range Oreshnik ballistic missile on Kyiv last month as a test to observe the impact of the deadly missile.

“I’ll reveal a major military state secret. We simply struck where it was convenient to observe the results,” Putin told reporters yesterday in a press briefing.

“We haven’t had a single combat use of the Oreshnik missile in the true sense of the word on Ukrainian territory,” he added.

“It was important for making a decision on the future on the full-format use of the Oreshnik on designated targets, including those in populated areas,” Putin said.

Republican leaders urged their members to oppose the legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said there are good-faith negotiations between members of Congress and the White House to boost Ukraine.

He described the negotiations as complicated.

“I think they are going to yield positive results, but you set that back if you pass legislation that doesn’t go as far as the negotiations are going,” Scalise said.

US-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences and after the war in Iran grabbed Washington’s attention.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Vladimir Putin has refused.

President ⁠Donald Trump has welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky’s initiative to call for a direct meeting with Vladimir Putin.

The US president said ​it ⁠would ⁠be ​great ⁠if ‌the leaders ‌of Ukraine ‌and Russia ⁠met to discuss ending the ‌war ​in ‌Ukraine.

EU ministers have broadly supported a proposal to limit access to temporary protection for Ukrainian men of military age, Sweden’s migration minister said.

The European Union activated the ⁠Temporary Protection Directive after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to manage large-scale arrivals of displaced people.

The scheme, which has been extended three times and is due to expire in March 2027, grants beneficiaries residence permits, access to the labour market and social welfare.

Swedish migration minister Johan Forssell ⁠said his country was in favour of the proposal ​which ⁠was discussed at ‌a Justice and Home Affairs meeting in Luxembourg. Any restrictions should apply only to new arrivals seeking temporary ‌protection status, not to those already ‌covered by the scheme, he added.

“It is essential for us to provide Ukrainians with protection, but at the same time the war needs to be fought and won. For that to happen, it is essential that more men stay in Ukraine and fight,” Forssell said ahead of the meeting.

The European Commission would need to propose any extension or modification of the ‌scheme, which must then be approved ​by EU countries.

More than 4.33 million people who have fled Ukraine currently benefit from the directive, according to Eurostat data. Germany ⁠hosts the largest share of Ukrainians under the scheme, about 29 per cent ‌of the ​EU total, followed by ‌Poland and Czechia, Eurostat data ​showed.

President Vladimir Putin stuck to his hardline stance on the war in Ukraine and said his troops were advancing on the battlefield every day, but added that US president Donald Trump’s proposals for peace could end the fighting if Kyiv was ready to compromise.

He made his comments to foreign media editors, including Reuters, on the sidelines of Russia’s showcase annual economic forum

Putin’s spokesperson said the Kremlin chief was aware of the message, but had not yet had a chance to familiarise himself with its contents in detail. Trump said it would be great if the two leaders met.

Speaking in what is the fifth year of Europe’s deadliest land war since the Second World War, Putin said that manpower, industrial resources and will power were on Russia’s side.

His army had “recently” pushed Ukrainian forces out of nearly 2,500km (1,553 miles) of territory, he said, though he conceded that Moscow had to and would improve its air defences to contend with a growing threat from Ukrainian drones.

Some Western and Ukrainian military analysts say Russia’s advance has slowed significantly, however, and argue that Russia is still a long way from achieving its own stated military goals.

Striking a bullish note, Putin said: “The offensive is ongoing on a daily basis. At present, the Russian Federation has taken full control of the Luhansk People’s Republic – 100 per cent. And Russia has brought over 85 per cent of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic under its control. (And) 80 per cent of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia region,” he said, referring to three of the four regions in Ukraine which Moscow claimed as its own in 2022 in a move Kyiv and most Western countries rejected as an illegal land grab.

“Naturally, under these circumstances, the Ukrainian side would like us to halt the advance. But rather than stopping that, it would be better to bring the war to an end altogether by agreeing to the compromises that were discussed in Anchorage,” he said, referring to a summit he held in Alaska with Trump in August last year.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s remarks in support of Ukraine demonstrate that what Russia used to call “Biden’s war” had now become “Trump’s war,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, the RIA state news agency reported.

Lavrov was cited as saying that the fighting in Ukraine would have already been over if the US had been genuinely seeking a peace deal.

Rubio told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that there would be news “pretty soon” on $400 million that Congress had approved for Ukraine-related needs but which had been delayed at the Department of Defense.

Rubio’s comments in support of Ukraine demonstrated that there are no fundamental differences between the US and European approaches, Lavrov was quoted as saying.

The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, the latest sign that some Republicans are willing to defy party leaders and push back against president Donald Trump.

The House voted 226 ⁠to 195 for the Ukraine Support Act, which reached the floor after languishing for months. A handful of Republicans joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force the vote.

On Thursday, 18 Republicans and one independent who normally votes with them joined Democrats to pass the bill. It was the latest sign of a crack in what had been virtually unanimous support among members of Trump’s party for his policies.

Passage came a day after a smaller group of House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would force the withdrawal of troops from hostilities with ⁠Iran unless Congress declares war or orders the use of military force.

Russian-controlled Crimea tightened its rationing of fuel supplies on Thursday, suspending all cash sales of gasoline and the issuance of new coupons to buy it as the peninsula grapples with a shortage linked to Ukrainian drone strikes.

Drivers in the region, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, have faced long lines at filling stations in recent days after attacks by Kyiv constricted supplies from adjoining Russian-controlled territory in southeast Ukraine.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-installed head of Crimea, announced the new measures in a statement, tightening restrictions on petrol sales that were first imposed on May 31.

“Starting today, for several days, the sale of gasoline for cash will be completely suspended,” he said, adding that no new coupons would be issued for the purchase of fuel either. Transactions with existing coupons will be capped at 20 litre. He blamed “difficult circumstances” for the rationing, without providing further details.

Ukraine has for months been attacking fuel infrastructure close to Crimea, and elsewhere in an effort to limit Moscow’s ability to finance its more than four-year war in Ukraine at a time of high global oil prices.

All members of the European Union gave a green light to open Cluster 1 in accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.

“Fantastic news,” she wrote. “We are one step closer to the EU membership: steadily moving towards our goal.”

Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said on X it had starting preparing to formally open negotiation on the first group of negotiating chapters, which cover rule-of-law and democratic standards, with both countries.

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said his country and Ukraine had reached an agreement on the rights of the 100,000-strong Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

Magyar had previously said that agreement on the long-running dispute was essential if Budapest were to agree to Ukraine joining the EU.

Both Ukraine and Moldova are pressing for membership of the 27-member EU after more than four years of war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.