Ukraine war latest: Trump ‘extremely disappointed’ and threatens to quit peace talks

According to the Defense Ministry, Russian air defense systems destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the Black Sea overnight.

Local officials said seven people were injured in the city of Tver.

Russia only reports Ukrainian drones that it has shot down, and does not provide total numbers of drones fired upon or attacking their targets.

Europe needs be prepared for conflict with Russia “On the scale that our grandparents endured”, NATO’s The Secretary General has given a strong 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.

Europe must be prepared to deter Russia if the “shadow of war” looms, a minister has said, amid warnings from the NATO chief.

Armed Forces Minister Al Carnes said countries needed to “increase our firepower” and stop outsourcing it to others.

It comes after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Europe is “Russia’s next target” and warned countries to prepare for “a war on the scale of what our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.”

As peace efforts remain uncertain over a US-led plan to end the war in Ukraine, Sir Keir Starmer is insisting Trump and his European counterparts agree on what they want for Kiev.

But relations between Europe and the US have been strained after the Trump administration’s national security strategy accused European officials of setting “unrealistic expectations” for the war in Ukraine.

Carnes said Wire: “For the last 50 to 60 years, we have been dependent on American security guarantees and now, with the multipolar threats facing the US, they cannot be as forthright as they were in the past.”

While Donald Trump agrees he is “absolutely” into NATO and its Article 5 collective defense clause, “there is a resource issue where he needs to look both East and West”, he said.

“In the past, in wars of choice, we have ceded our firepower to others,” he said. We have to ensure that we increase our firepower in all our single services.

Having “outsourced” the US in the past, Europe and the UK have now promised to “up their game on defense spending”, he said.

He said, “The shadow of war is once again knocking on the doors of Europe.

“This is the reality. We have to be prepared to stop this. Collectively in NATO, we have to remember that numerically – we are far ahead of Russia.”

Volodymyr Zelensky expressed serious concern over the US proposal to designate part of the disputed Donbass as a “free economic zone”.

Donbass – a heavily industrialized region encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – sits at the center of the latest draft peace plan.

Washington’s previous proposal, leaked last month, had urged Ukraine to withdraw from areas it still controls, a condition President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “unacceptable.”

After consultations with European partners, including a meeting in London with Sir Keir Starmer this week, Zelensky said he has now sent a revised, 20-point counter-proposal to Washington.

The updated outline envisages the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces without the further advance of Russian troops, except for the neutral corridor.

Speaking to journalists in Kiev, Zelensky questioned how such a system would work. “If one side’s troops were to retreat and the other side remained where they are, who would stop these other troops, the Russians? Or who would stop them from disguising themselves as civilians and taking over this free economic zone? This is all very serious.

“It’s not true that Ukraine will agree to this, but if you’re talking about a compromise it should be a reasonable compromise.”

White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said US President Donald Trump is “extremely disappointed” with Russia and Ukraine over the lack of progress in peace talks.

He said discussions were continuing and “if there is a real possibility of signing a peace deal” the US could send a representative to those discussions as soon as this weekend.

But he also said that “it is still up in the air whether real peace can be achieved.”

Trump, who took office in January, suggested he could quickly resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine, but he has spent months complaining bitterly.

“And he’s tired of meetings just for the sake of meetings,” Leavitt said.

“He doesn’t want more talk. He wants action.”

Moscow has urged Britain to reveal what a British soldier killed in Ukraine was doing there, and accused London of helping Kiev carry out “terrorist acts”.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that soldier Lance Corporal George Hooley was killed in Ukraine while watching Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability away from the front line.

Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the British government should not deceive its citizens by claiming that British troops sent to Ukraine were merely advisers or trainers.

He accused British forces of helping Kiev “carry out terrorist attacks and extremist actions” on direct orders from London.

Zakharova presented no evidence to support her allegations of alleged widespread British involvement.

Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said on Thursday that Europe should integrate more deeply and strengthen itself militarily during the Trump administration.

Mr Zurek’s government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is at odds over a number of domestic issues with President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist backed by Trump.

They also differ on security matters, with Tusk advocating a stronger role for the EU in defence, while Nawrocki says this would weaken the United States’ important role in NATO’s eastern flank.

A US strategy document published last week said Washington should focus on “creating resistance within European countries to Europe’s current trajectory”, adding that Europe should take primary responsibility for its own defence.