Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin says ‘impossible to believe’ Moscow wants a war but warns Trump of escalation – UK Times

Emergency crews were gradually restoring power to areas of northern Ukraine disconnected from the grid by Russian attacks, Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

A drone attack on Slavutych on Wednesday knocked out power to the Chornobyl station for three hours, including the new containment vessel erected in 2016 to keep radiation from leaking.

The fourth reactor at the Chornobyl plant exploded in 1986 in the world’s worst civil nuclear disaster.

Svyrydenko said power had been fully restored in two areas of the border Sumy region hit by overnight Russian attacks.

Repairs were also proceeding in the neighbouring Chernihiv region, where more than 300,000 consumers had been left without power after Russian strikes on Wednesday.

In the northern town of Slavutych, adjacent to the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power station, Svyrydenko said critical infrastructure sites were back on the grid and crews hoped to restore power soon to the rest of the town.

Vladimir Putin has hailed Donald Trump’s efforts to help negotiate peace in Ukraine and described their August summit in Alaska as productive.

“It was good that we made an attempt to search for and find possible ways to settle the Ukrainian crisis,” he said, adding that he felt “comfortable” talking to Trump.

Putin also reaffirmed his offer to the US to extend their last remaining nuclear arms control pact for one more year after it expires in February.

The 2010 New START treaty limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.

“If they don’t need it, we don’t need it either,” he said, adding that “we feel confident about our nuclear shield.”

While praising Trump and trying to emphasize potential common interests, the Russian president sent a stern warning to Ukraine’s Western allies against trying to seize ships that carry Russian oil to global markers.

He argued that would amount to piracy and could trigger a forceful response while sharply destabilising the global oil market.

Asked about Donald Trump dismissing Russia as a “paper tiger” because of its failure to defeat its smaller neighbour after more than three and a half years of fighting, Vladimir Putin argued that Russia has faced all the Nato allies backing Kyiv.

“We are fighting against the entire bloc of Nato and we keep moving, keep advancing and feel confident and we are a paper tiger; what Nato itself is?” he said.

“A paper tiger? Go and deal with this paper tiger then.”

Europe must take a more aggressive approach with Russia by shooting down drones that enter European airspace and boarding shadow fleet ships illicitly transporting oil to deprive Moscow of war revenue, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.

Speaking at a European summit in Copenhagen, Macron and other European leaders called for more sanctions against Russia — notably targeting its energy sector — and emphasized that Ukraine is on the front line in a widening hybrid war against Europe.

Macron urged the more than 40 leaders at the European Political Community summit to simply protect their interests without signaling their intentions to Russia.

Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately cutting external power to the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and preparing to connect it to its own grid.

The plant, Europe’s largest, has relied on emergency diesel generators for over a week.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen reaffirmed the EU’s support for Ukraine, emphasising a commitment to stand with the country “today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes”.

In a statement on X, she announced plans for a new programme aimed at giving Ukraine a technological advantage on the battlefield.

Von der Leyen also highlighted ongoing efforts to secure Ukraine’s future as a full member of the EU, underscoring the bloc’s long-term strategic partnership.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned whether the oil was Russian and said such actions could create major problems for international energy transport.

“I don’t know what kind of oil, what is the origin of this oil,” Peskov told reporters on Thursday. “What if it’s not Russian oil?

“What if France is going to create enormous problems for all the ways of international energy sources – what is going to happen?

“So I think it’s all part this hysteria I mentioned before.”

French authorities arrested the Chinese captain of the Boracay, a sanctioned vessel allegedly linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, after the French navy boarded the vessel anchored off western France.

The ship was approximately 50 nautical miles south of Copenhagen on 22 September when drone activity forced the closure of the Danish capital’s airport.

Polish border guards said they had spotted a Russian fishing boat acting suspiciously near a gas pipeline in Polish waters, amid anxiety over possible sabotage operations in the Baltic Sea.

The boat was seen on Wednesday near a gas pipeline belonging to Petrobaltic, a company that works in the area, 18 nautical miles north of the town of Wladyslawowo.

The vessel slowed down and came within 300 metres of the pipeline before sailing away after a radio alert, the Polish border guard said in a statement on Thursday.

The incident comes amid heightened concerns over possible sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea, where Nato countries are increasing protection of underwater infrastructure.