Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump demands rare earth metals from Kyiv as British teen killed on first mission – UK Times

US shipments of weapons into Ukraine were briefly paused in recent days before resuming over the weekend, four people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The shipments restarted after the White House pulled back on its initial assessment to stop all aid to Ukraine, two of the sources said. The brief halt came as the Trump administration debated its policy towards Kyiv.

There are factions inside the administration that are at odds over the extent to which the US should continue to aid Kyiv’s war effort with weapons from US stocks, said one of the people, a US official.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Halting the flow of US weapons would hinder Kyiv’s ability to fight, and put it in a less advantaged negotiation position in peace talks.

It is unclear if the Trump administration will formally acknowledge the pause and subsequent resumption of shipments.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has recorded an “alarming” spike in the execution of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian armed forces.

The UN body said it had received reports of 79 executions in 24 separate incidents since the end of August last year.

“Many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in physical custody of the Russian armed forces were shot dead on the spot. Witness accounts also described the killings of unarmed and injured Ukrainian soldiers,” the mission said in a statement.

International humanitarian law prohibits the execution of prisoners of war and the wounded, and regards it as a war crime.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has called for urgent international action against the Russian atrocities.

“Russia’s horrific executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war demonstrate that Ukraine confronts true beasts,” he said on X. “We need new and effective international legal tools, and concrete steps to hold the perpetrators accountable.”

The Home Office has reversed “catastrophic” changes to the Homes for Ukraine refugee scheme to ensure that children can now join their parents in the UK, after The Independent highlighted instances of families being separated.

While Britain has offered sanctuary to nearly 300,000 Ukrainians after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, changes to the rules issued overnight last February by the Tory government have prevented some parents from bringing their children to the UK.

Ryanair is planning to resume flights to and from Ukraine in the hope that Donald Trump will successfully encourage a ceasefire with Russia.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said that the airline is drafting plans to allow flights to restart within six weeks of the conflict ending at a press conference in London on Wednesday, reports The Telegraph.

Donald Trump has said he wants Ukraine to supply the United States with rare earth metals as a form of payment for financially supporting the country’s war efforts against Russia.

Mr Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said Ukraine was willing to participate in the idea, adding that he wants “equalisation” from Ukraine for Washington’s “close to $300bn” in support.

“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” Mr Trump said. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.”

It was not immediately clear if the US president was using the term “rare earths” to refer to all types of critical minerals or just to rare earths.

Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cellphones and other electronics. There are no known substitutes.

A deputy regional governor has become the most senior Russian government official to die fighting against Ukraine.

Sergey Efremov, the deputy governor of the eastern Primorsky Krai region, died in Kursk, where Russian forces have been trying to beat back a Ukrainian invasion since last August.

Efremov was reportedly killed along with a military officer on Friday when their vehicle struck a landmine and blew up.

The UN nuclear agency’s top official is heading to Kyiv for a safety inspection of the war-hit nation’s nuclear plants.

Rafael Grossi, the director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on X:”On my 11th visit to Ukraine since the war began. I’m heading to Kyivska substation, critical for the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power, to assess damage and help prevent a nuclear accident.”

Last week, the IAEA said in a statement that Mr Grossi would visit Kyiv for “high-level” meetings to ensure nuclear safety in the war that Russia started in February 2022.

More than half of the electricity consumed in Ukraine is generated by three nuclear power plants, but Russian missile and drone attacks on substations threaten the stable operation of nuclear power plants, according to Ukraine’s nuclear inspector’s office.

Ukraine has brought home 12 children forcefully taken by Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said late yesterday.

“As part of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, it was possible to return home 12 children who were under the pressure of the Russian occupation,” Mr Yermak said on his Telegram channel.

The Bring Kids Back UA programme under Mr Zelensky is an initiative to return home all children forcefully deported from Ukraine, according to the initiative’s statement.

Among the returned children is a 16-year-old girl who lost her mother, a 17-year-old teenager who was issued a summons to the Russian army, and an eight-year-old girl, Mr Yermak said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

An arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin is already issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which accuses him of war crimes by taking hundreds of Ukrainian children from orphanages.

The father of an 18-year-old British volunteer James Wilton, who was killed by a Russian drone in Ukraine, has paid tribute and said his son was a “polite, likeable young man”.

“My son James had only just turned 18 when he decided he wanted to go volunteer and fight in Ukraine,” his father Graham Wilton told The Sun.

“I didn’t necessarily agree with his decision on this but we talked at length about why he wanted to do this,” he said.

“I’ll never get over this. I didn’t want him to go but his heart was set on it. He wanted to help Ukraine,” his father said.

“James was a polite, likeable young man and never really had a bad word to say about anyone or anything,” he said.