Russia Ukraine war latest: Trump threatens to skip peace talks after Zelensky rejects ‘free economic zone’ idea

Ukraine’s military has said it has hit two Russian ships carrying military equipment and weapons in the Caspian Sea.

The vessels named as the Composer Rakhmaninoff and the Askar-Sarydzha were sanctioned by the US for carrying military cargo between Iran and Russia, according to a statement by Ukraine’s special forces on Telegram on Friday.

The Kremlin has insisted that the whole of the Donbas region belongs to Russia, in response to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that a referendum would need to take place to agree any territorial concessions.

It said a ceasefire would only be possible after withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donbas region.

US negotiators foresee Ukrainian forces withdrawing from the Donetsk region, with the compromise being that Russian forces do not enter that territory, Mr Zelensky said. He stressed that the decision would have to be determined by a public vote.

The UK’s armed forces minister has said that the UK is “rapidly developing” plans for the possible outbreak of war, according to Sky News.

”The shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door once more,” Al Carns said during a visit to RAF Wyton on Thursday. “That’s the reality. We’ve got to be prepared to deter it.”

He said that hostile intelligence activity including spying, hacking and physical threats against armed forces and the Ministry of Defence had increased by more than 50 per cent in the last year.

The main suspects are Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

A new defence counter-intelligence unit is being launched to counter the operations. Various military intelligence branches are joining forces to streamline their response to hostilities.

“There’s a whole load of work going on now between us [Ministry of Defence], the Cabinet Office, and the whole of society approach, and what conflict means, and what everybody’s role in society means if we were to go to war and the build up to war,” he said.

”Collectively, everybody – what is their role if we get caught in an existential crisis, and what do they need to be aware they need to do and what they can’t do, and how do we mobilise the nation to support a military endeavour?

“Not just about deploying the military, but actually about protecting every inch of our own territory. That work is ongoing now, it’s rapidly developing. We’ve got to move as fast as we can to make sure that’s shored up.”

Russia’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov has said that the Kremlin has not seen a revised US proposal after American delegates took part in talks with Ukraine.

He added that Moscow may not like parts of the proposal, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The country’s state news agency reported that Russia will discuss the outcome of talks with Ukraine with the US in the near future.

Europe must prepare for a conflict with Russia “on the scale our grandparents endured”, Nato’s secretary general has said in a stark warning to the West.

“We are Russia’s next target. And we are already in harm’s way,” Mark Rutte said in a speech in Berlin on Thursday.

“Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”

Russia’s central bank has accused the European Union of acting illegally in its attempts to use its assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort, warning that it reserves the right to employ all available mechanisms to protect its interests.

“Mechanisms of direct or indirect use of the assets of the Bank of Russia, as well as any other forms of unauthorized use of the assets of the Bank of Russia, are illegal and contrary to international law, including violating the principles of sovereign immunity of assets,” the central bank said.

Russia attacked energy facilities in the southern Ukrainian Odesa region overnight, causing fires and blackouts, the local governor and emergency service said on Friday.

Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram the drone attack left several settlements in the region, where Ukraine’s main seaports are concentrated, without electricity.

As we reported earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry reported on Friday that its defense systems destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight.

The attack targeted the city of Tver, around 181 kilometres (112 miles) northwest of Moscow, where seven people were injured, local authorities said.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that eight drones were destroyed as they were flying towards the Russian capital. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport said in a statement that it had suspended departures amid the attacks.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said that several other airports had also been briefly closed overnight.

Moscow does not typically reveal the full number of drones which were fired at it overnight – only those that are shot down by air defences.

Hungary has voiced its dismay against what it calls an “unlawful” move by the European Union to freeze Russian assets indefinitely using a qualified majority vote, prime minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

“Brussels will step over the Rubicon today, with a written voting starting which will cause irreparable damage to the Union,” Orban said. “

Hungary protests the decision and will do its best to restore a lawful situation.”

An agreement to freeze the Russian assets indefinitely would eliminate a risk to the plan of using them to finance Ukraine because Moscow-friendly Hungary and Slovakia would no longer have the power to veto an extension of the freeze every six months as now.