Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin ally threatens Nato with nuclear strikes in wild speech – UK Times

Ukrainians living on seams of iron beneath their feet have a message for Donald Trump: don’t take advantage of us, these resources are ours.

The US president has put pressure on Kyiv by threatening to stop the flow of military supplies to help it fight Russia’s invasion unless the US gets some payback for the billions of dollars the aid is costing.

In the city of Kryvyi Rih, on whose outskirts open-cast iron ore mines have gouged huge craters in the landscape, 71-year-old pensioner Oleksandr had little time for Mr Trump: “You can’t trust that ginger guy, he’s not that kind of person.”

The minerals deal has been a sensitive topic for Ukraine, which has a proud history of mining coal and iron ore and hopes to exploit seams of increasingly sought-after rare earths.

Mineral revenues are a crucial pillar of the state budget.

“From what I can see, they only want to take, not to give,” the old pensioner told Reuters as he shopped near the UGOK iron ore mining and processing plant.

About 60km (40 miles) north of Kryvyi Rih is the town of Zhovti Vody – or “yellow waters” – where uranium and iron ore were mined for decades.

“I hope that the people who are involved in this think about Ukraine and its people, because our mineral riches belong to the people,” said 71-year-old resident Nina Fesenko.

“We continue to be concerned by (North Korea’s) direct involvement in the war. (North Korea’s) military deployment to Russia and any support provided by the Russian Federation to (North Korea) in return must end,” a US State Department spokesperson said in an email on Monday.

Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine next weekend to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in WW2, the Kremlin has said.

The 72-hour ceasefire is the second announced by Moscow in recent weeks, after it declared a 30-hour Easter Sunday truce – which Kyiv and its European allies accused it of breaching.

The Kremlin said the truce will last from the beginning of 8 May and last until the close of 10 May, adding that Russia give an “adequate and effective response” to any Ukrainian violations. Moscow remains ready for peace talks without any preconditions, the statement added.

Donald Trump has upped his criticism of Mr Putin after meeting Mr Zelensky at the Vatican. The US president said he was “very disappointed” in Russia’s continued bombardment of civilian areas in Ukraine.

Mr Trump also said he believes Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to give up Crimea in order to strike a peace deal with Russia.

Of all the 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory taken after Russia invaded Crimea 11 years ago and launched its wider Anschluss in 2022, Crimea is the greatest Russian prize.

Whoever controls Sevastopol is likely to dominate the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Outside of Tartus, in Syria, which Russia lost recently, it is – or was – Russia’s only warm-weather port.

Moscow’s claim to Crimea has been undermined by the fact that it was ceded to Ukraine under the Soviet Union in 1954.

A 12-year-old girl has died in a Russian drone attack in central Ukraine, according to officials in the war-torn country.

The drone hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.

Locals pulled the girl from the rubble of the building, but she died en route to hospital, the service said.

It posted photos of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the building.

Less than two days after US president Donald Trump lashed out at Vladimir Putin for “tapping me along” over a peace deal, the Russian president has announced another temporary ceasefire – this one scheduled to last three days.

His grand declaration raised immediate suspicion over whether this was yet another stalling tactic from the most conniving of dictators. One designed to keep an increasingly frustrated White House happy: Mr Trump’s top diplomat has even talked this week of pulling out of the entire negotiating process.

The news was met in Ukraine with a large dose of scepticism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky even accused Mr Putin of “yet another round of Russian manipulation” to appease Mr Trump.

Kyiv, which has previously agreed to Trump’s proposal of a 30-day full ceasefire, accused Moscow of violating a similar temporary truce during Easter.

Mr Zelensky charged Russia with cynically using that pause to advance, saying Russian assaults persisted on multiple fronts, artillery fire did not subside, and attacks on energy infrastructure were relentless.

US vice president JD Vance has said Ukraine will not win the war against Russia as he claimed that a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv is not “necessarily guaranteed”.

“Sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Ukrainians, sometimes you’re incredibly frustrated with the Russians,” Mr Vance said on the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.

“I can’t say with 100 per cent certainty, Charlie, that we’re going to be able to do it,” he said, referring to a peace deal.

Mr Vance said that the US is “making progress” in the negotiations but a peace deal is not necessarily guaranteed.

“If this doesn’t stop, the Ukrainians aren’t winning the war,” the US vice president said.

“I think there’s this weird idea among the mainstream media that if this thing goes on for just another few years, the Russians will collapse, the Ukrainians will take their territory back, and everything will go back to the way that it was before the war. That is not the reality that we live in,” he said.

Russia’s troops have captured the village of Doroshivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the Russian defence ministry announced today.

In a daily update shared on its Telegram channel, the Russian defence ministry said: “As a result of active actions, units of the ‘West’ military group liberated the village of Doroshovka in the Kharkiv region.”

Ukraine has not issued a comment on the Russian claim over its territory.

According to the latest battlefield update shared by The Institute for the Study of War, a Ukrainian commander had reported more activity in the Kharkiv region from Russian forces in the past 24 hours.

“The commander reported that Russian forces are more actively conducting artillery strikes and assaults, including with mopeds, and that Russian forces have rotated troops in this direction, increasing the number of Russian forces and reserves,” the ISW said in its latest assessment.

A senior Russian security official has said Russia could strike the newest members of Nato with nuclear weapons.

Nato’s newest members – Finland and Sweden joined the bloc in 2023 and 2024 respectively – could be struck with revenge strikes using nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict, said Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former prime minister and current deputy of its security council.

“The non-aligned status gave them (Finland and Sweden) certain international perks, given their geopolitical position and many other factors,” the close aide of Mr Putin said.

“And now they are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including potential retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures within the framework of a military doctrine,” Mr Medvedev said this morning.

A 12-year-old girl has died in a Russian drone attack in central Ukraine, according to officials in the war-torn country.

The drone hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.

Locals pulled the girl from the rubble of the building, but she died en route to hospital, the service said.

It posted photos of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the building.