Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow says US prisoner-swap agreed after Trump hits out at ‘crazy’ Putin – UK Times

Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, responding to Donald Trump’s criticism of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, said the only truly bad thing to worry about was World War Three.

“Regarding Trump’s words about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!” Medvedev wrote on X.

Russia has seized on comments made by the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who said that Ukraine is fighting a “proxy war” on behalf of Western Europe.

Russia’s embassy in London shared a clip of Ms Badenoch, claiming she had “called a spade a spade”.

In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, the Tory leader also claimed that Israel is fighting a “proxy war on behalf of the UK” in Gaza against Hamas.

A previously unknown Russian hacker group with suspected ties to the Kremlin was responsible for a cyberattack last year on the Dutch police and has also targeted other Western nations that deliver military support to Ukraine, intelligence agencies announced Tuesday.

The agencies said in a report that the group, which they called Laundry Bear, is actively trying to steal sensitive data from European Union and NATO countries and is “extremely likely Russian state supported.”

A top Kremlin official on Monday scoffed at a report that Russia could be involved in recent arson attacks on the private home of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a building where he once lived and a car that he had owned.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a Financial Times report that said U.K. security officials were looking into whether Russia was involved in the attacks.

More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in prison since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

Abuse inside Russian prisons likely contributed to many of these deaths, adding to evidence that Russia is systematically brutalizing captured soldiers, according to officials from human rights groups, the U.N. and the Ukrainian government, and a Ukrainian medical examiner who has performed dozens of POW autopsies.

US president Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin is “playing with fire.”

Trump’s latest comments follow some of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale war began in early 2022.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Below, you can read a Bulletin breakdown of the latest in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s energy regulator has approved a gas import mechanism that will avoid high transit fees when supplying gas through the Transbalkan pipeline from Greece to Ukraine, the Ukrainian energy ministry said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has faced a serious gas shortage since a series of devastating Russian missile strikes this year, which significantly reduced domestic gas production.

Ukraine now imports gas via Slovakia and Hungary, but does not use the southern route because of its higher transit tariffs, as gas from LNG terminals in Greece also passes through Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova.

“The Transbalkan route has significant potential to meet Ukraine’s immediate needs … however, this route passes through five countries, and the direct application of regulated tariffs makes it commercially unattractive compared to alternative options,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry noted gas transit operators of five countries had “developed an optimised solution that will, in particular, allow the use of the currently unused capacity of the Transbalkan pipeline to import gas to Ukraine at a competitive tariff.”

The ministry gave no more details, but added that it hopes for positive decisions from all participating countries on the use of the route.

The Kyiv government has said Ukraine needs to import at least 4 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas for the new 2025/26 heating season while analysts and former officials estimated the imports at about 6.3 bcm.

Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Finland of escalating tensions by carrying out pre-organised naval drills, a week after two of Moscow’s fighter jets reportedly violated Finnish airspace.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, claimed Finland’s current naval operations were “becoming a tool of Nato escalation near Russia’s border”. It is not unusual for Moscow to make baseless claims like this.

She was referring to Finland’s Exercise Narrow Waters 25, the country’s annual spring exercise. It was formerly a national exercise but has been developed into an international exercise to include Sweden, Germany and Estonia, following Finland’s accession to Nato and the renewed threat posed by Russia.

Russia is concurrently conducting naval exercises near the exclave of Kaliningrad further south.

Last week, Finland summoned the Russian ambassador after Kremlin warplanes were reported to have crossed into Finnish airspace. It has also been reported that Russia is building a military presence on Finland’s border.

“I’ve had enuf of Putin killing innocent ppl. Pres Trump Take action AT LEAST SANCTIONS,” Grassley wrote.