Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump tells Zelensky US could take ownership of energy plants after Putin’s new airstrikes – UK Times

Russia and Ukraine said they had each swapped 175 prisoners in one of the largest exchanges since the Russian full-scale invasion started three years ago.

“We are bringing back soldiers, sergeants, and officers — warriors who fought for our freedom in the ranks of the Armed Forces, the Navy, the National Guard, the Territorial Defence Forces, and the Border Guard Service,” said Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky had said that releasing all prisoners of war as well as captured civilians would be an important step toward peace and could help build trust between the two countries.

He has repeatedly called for an “all-for-all” prisoner exchange.

This comes as ongoing discussions about a temporary ceasefire that may pause the war continue.

Russian authorities have had to deploy hundreds of firefighters to extinguish a blaze which broke out yesterday at an oil depot in southern Krasnodar region.

The fire broke out on Tuesday after Ukraine had launched a drone attack on Russia and is yet to be brought under control.

Authorities in the region said a total of 406 firefighters and 157 pieces of equipment had been sent to the site near the village of Kavkazskaya.

“Specialists are continuing to battle the fire over an area of 4,250 sq. metres (45,750 sq. ft),” Krasnodar regional administration said on Telegram. The fire focused on burning petroleum products around a tank and shut-off valves.

The region’s administration said on Tuesday that 30 employees had been evacuated from the depot and operations had been suspended.

Downing Street has welcomed “the progress President Trump has made” towards a ceasefire deal after the US leader’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “We welcome the progress President Trump has made towards a ceasefire deal, and we will continue to work with international partners on putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position.

“We now need to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire deal to see a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Europe should further boost military spending, pool resources on joint defence projects and buy more European arms, according to an EU blueprint unveiled on Wednesday.

The European Commission presented the proposals in a White Paper on defence, which aims to ensure Europe has a “strong and sufficient” defence posture by 2030.

“The international order is undergoing changes of a magnitude not seen since 1945. This is a pivotal moment for European security,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in Brussels.

Ms Kallas said Russia’s economy was in “full war mode”, with 40% of its federal budget going to the military.

“Regardless of the ongoing negotiations for peace in Ukraine, this is a long-term investment in a long-term plan of aggression,” she declared.

Some proposed measures aim to boost the EU’s arms industry, so any role for companies from major weapons producers in the United States, Britain and Turkey would be substantially limited.

The US State Department has denied that data collected in a government-funded program that helps track abducted Ukrainian children has been deleted, but acknowledged that the effort had been terminated as part of Washington’s freeze on almost all foreign aid.

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democratic lawmakers sounded alarm that the data might have been permanently deleted.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said suggestions that data was deleted were false.

“The data exists,” she said. “It was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, but we know who is running the data and the website, and we know fully that the data exists and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”

On Wednesday it was revealed that the Trump administration cut funding to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which was compiling a database of alleged Russian war crimes, including the abduction of an estimated 35,000 children from occupied areas of Ukraine:

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, has said Vladimir Putin’s demands during his call with Donald Trump would amount to “Ukrainian capitulation”.

“Putin is attempting to hold the temporary ceasefire proposal hostage in order to extract pre-emptive concessions ahead of formal negotiations to end the war,” the ISW said.

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on social media that he and his Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov, agreed on Wednesday that their teams would meet soon in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia “to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia”.

Volodymyr Zelensky says he believes lasting peace can be achieved this year with the support of the US, after his phone call with Donald Trump – the first time the pair had spoken since the US president threw his Ukrainian counterpart out of the White House.

On social media, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to implement the ending of strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure, agreed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the US leader.

Mr Zelensky thanked Mr Trump for the talks in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, and added: “We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace.

“We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the European Union has to back efforts by Donald Trump to get a peace deal.

Asked whether he continued to oppose the EU giving more money to Ukraine, Orban replied: “We don’t support it.

“In our understanding, there is one simple mission to be done by the European Union – to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to make peace,” he added.