Ukraine-Russia war live: Trump boasts about Zelensky letter praising him and offering to sign minerals deal

Russia’s main task remains to inflict “maximum defeat” on Ukraine, former president Dmitry Medvedev has said.

Mr Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said: “Russia is advancing. The enemy is resisting and has not yet been defeated.

He added he expects the United States to resume military aid to Ukraine, which it suspended on Monday, once Volodymyr Zelensky signed a minerals agreement with Washington.

For context, since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Medvedev has adopted an increasing anti-western rhetoric and has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons in a break with his previous image as a moderate compared to Mr Putin. Analysts have suggested he does not hold much power within the Kremlin.

Ukraine’s air force says it shot down 115 drones out of 181 launched by Russia overnight

The Ukrainian military said Russia used 181 drones and four missiles in an overnight attack on the country.

The air force shot down 115 drones and another 55 did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic countermeasures, according to a military statement.

Russian forces attack energy facility in Ukraine’s Odesa region, energy firm says

Russian forces attacked an energy facility in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa on Tuesday evening, energy firm DTEK said.

It was the fourth attack on the region’s energy infrastructure in two weeks, DTEK added in a statement.

The American president and his VP, JD Vance, are doing all the hard work for Russia – even scuppering their own minerals deal in the process. As Europe and Nato face a shift in global alliances, the real test for the ‘coalition of the least unwilling’ will be when the time to act comes, says Keir Giles

Europe must engage the United States in security debates and help find a way to bring it closer to Ukraine after the halt of US military aid to Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister has said.

Europe also needs to focus on being ready to replace U.S. support for Ukraine and on European security with its own resources, Jan Lipavsky said.

The Czech government has already started discussing plans to lift defence spending to 3% of gross domestic product in the coming years, from around 2% in 2024.

It has also led an ammunition drive since last year for Ukraine that sources supplies from around the world to aid Kyiv’s fight against a Russian invasion. Lipavsky said the initiative had secured deliveries for the coming months and was seeking to secure more funding from donor countries.

On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed borrowing up to 150 billion euros to lend to European Union governments under a rearmament plan driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine and fears Europe can no longer be sure of U.S. protection.

In an interview later on Tuesday, Lipavsky welcomed the package, which he said would be a good basis for a summit of EU leaders on Thursday discussing Ukraine and security.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she would not get into the detail of what might happen next when asked if the US should end the suspension of arms to Ukraine if and when the minerals deal is signed.

Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Mahmood said: “I’m not going to get into the detail of, you know, what might happen next. I think that we’ve got some positive developments.

“The Prime Minister, the whole Government is playing its part as an honest broker between all sides here, we all want to see an end to the fighting, everything that gets us closer to achieving that goal we are obviously working towards ourselves, and we would welcome and, of course, what’s been said overnight, I think, pushes us closer.

“But, of course, you know there’s a long way to go yet and the Prime Minister will keep doing exactly what he’s been doing over the last few days.”

Asked if she accepts US Vice President JD Vance’s clarification that he was not talking about the UK or France when he referred to a “random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, Ms Mahmood said: “I take what he says at face value, that he’s offered a clarification. Of course I accept that.”

European Union leaders will discuss on Thursday how to finance a sharp increase in defence readiness to deter any possible future attack from Russia and become less dependent for security on the United States.

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed several ways to raise the funds that would add up to around 800 billion euros over several years.

But how can they do this?

The Commission proposed that defence spending be exempt from EU laws that put annual spending limits on governments to protect EU public finances and the value of the euro currency.

Not all EU governments support the idea, as they say special treatment for defence spending already exists in the rules. What is missing, they say, is a broader definition of defence investment, an issue they would prefer to focus on.

The Commission estimated that if EU governments were to increase their defence spending by 1.5% of GDP on average, it would create fiscal space of close to 650 billion euros over four years. The downside is that such borrowing would widen budget deficits and could worry bond investors, economists said.

Money from the EU’s 2021-2027 budget

The current seven-year EU budget of 1.2 trillion euros, created well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has no proper funds for defence.

But around one-third of it is earmarked to equalise the standard of living between regions in the 27-nation EU – the so-called cohesion funds – and some of that cash can be used for projects that would be somehow linked to defence, like shelters for civilians or strengthening roads and bridges to allow the passage of tanks.

“We will propose additional possibilities and incentives for Member States that they will decide, if they want to use cohesion policy programmes, to increase defence spending,” the Commission said.