Live: Trump renews attacks on Zelensky as Ukrainian president insists he wants war to end

03/03/2025 - 22:43

White House seeks plan for possible Russia sanctions relief, sources say

The United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a US official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.

The sanctions offices are now drawing up a proposal for lifting sanctions on select entities and individuals, including some Russian oligarchs, according to the sources.

It was not immediately clear what Washington could specifically seek in return for any sanctions relief.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and if US sanctions on its energy system were eased, it could help prevent fuel prices from rising if Trump cracks down on oil exports from OPEC-member Iran.

03/03/2025 - 22:16

Russian drone attack causes power cuts in Ukraine’s Odesa, governor says

A Russian drone attack has damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, local officials said.

“There are power cuts now in parts of the city,” regional Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram.

Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov said the attack had knocked out three boiler plants, prompting officials to scramble to find alternative power sources to restore heating to city residents.

03/03/2025 - 22:13

Ukraine drones hit oil site in southern Russia

Ukrainian drones struck an oil facility in southern Russia on Monday night, triggering a fire, Russian officials said.

The governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, reported fires at two sites, a pipeline facility and an industrial complex, from drone attacks.

Several Telegram channels, including the Baza account that is close to Russia’s security services, reported that one of the fires was at an oil depot in the region.

Rostov Governor Yury Slyusar said sites near the village of Sohranovka had been hit as part of a “massive drone attack”.

Slyusar said there were no casualties at either site.

03/03/2025 - 21:09

Trump says minerals deal ‘not dead’ but Zelensky ‘should be more appreciative’

According to President Donald Trump the US minerals deal with Ukraine is not dead, and that he plans to give an update on where it is going on Tuesday.

 “I’ll let you know tomorrow night,” Trump told reporters, adding that: “I just think he (Volodymyr Zelensky) should be more appreciative” of US support.

Trump also said he has not “talked about” halting Ukraine military aid yet.

03/03/2025 - 19:09

Ukraine ‘very much hopes on US support’, Zelensky says

“We very much hope on US support on the path to peace,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X.

03/03/2025 - 18:28

French PM tears into Trump’s attack on Zelensky

France’s Prime Minister François Bayrou has torn into US President Donald Trump’s Oval Office thrashing of Volodymyr Zelensky, calling it a staggering show of “brutality” that aimed to humiliate Ukraine’s leader.

The extraordinarily frank criticism from the prime minister, speaking in a parliamentary debate on Ukraine, diverged from the more nuanced tone that French President Emmanuel Macron has adopted in the wake of the clash at the White House and dropped the diplomatic niceties that customarily mark French-US relations.

“On Friday night, in the Oval Office of the White House, a staggering scene unfurled before the lenses of the entire world, marked by brutality, a desire to humiliate, with the goal of making Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fold through threats,” Bayrou said.

“President Zelensky did not fold and I think we can show him our appreciation,” Bayrou continued.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly rose to their feet and applauded.

03/03/2025 - 18:23

Working on Ukraine peace with US ‘remains priority’, Czech minister says

Working with the United States on just and lasting peace for Ukraine “remains a priority” for the Czech government, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said after speaking to his US counterpart Marco Rubio.

“We discussed mutually beneficial transatlantic cooperation including Europe significantly stepping up its burden sharing,” Lipavsky wrote on social media platform X.

03/03/2025 - 18:19

Trump slams Zelensky for saying the end of the Russia war ‘is still very, very far away’

President Donald Trump has slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for suggesting that end of Russia’s war against Ukraine is still likely “very, very far away”.

“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Zelensky late Sunday said he believed the war would go on for some time, while trying to offer a positive take about the US-Ukraine relationship in the aftermath of his contentious White House meeting the Republican president and Vice President JD Vance.

03/03/2025 - 17:54
03/03/2025 - 17:42

US Secretary of State Rubio thanks UK for encouraging Europe to provide for its defence

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has thanked British Foreign Secretary David Lammy for his country’s role in encouraging Europe to provide for its own defence and push for peace in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

During a call with Lammy on Monday, Rubio confirmed the US is ready to negotiate to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict and will continue working with the UK towards peace in Ukraine, she said.

03/03/2025 - 17:25

Ukraine-US minerals deal not enough of a security backstop, UK PM Starmer says

A prospective minerals deal between the United States and Ukraine is not enough on its own to act as a security guarantee that would ensure Russia sticks to the terms of any peace deal in the Ukraine war, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

“The mineral deal is not enough on its own,” Keir Starmer he told parliament.

03/03/2025 - 16:15

Ukraine returns 33 civilians from Russia’s Kursk border region

Ukraine has returned a handful of Russian civilians displaced from the western Kursk region, according to Moscow officials.

Moscow said last week it had struck a deal with Kyiv to secure the return of some civilians who had crossed into Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region since the offensive was launched.

“With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and mediation by Belarus, 33 residents of the Kursk region have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine,” Russia’s human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said on Telegram.

“Most are elderly, but there are also four children. Many have severe injuries and illnesses,” she added.

03/03/2025 - 16:12

Russian advance in Ukraine slowed in February, analysis shows

Russian forces’ advanced less on Ukrainian territory in February than in the preceding months, according to an AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data.

Moscow advanced by 389 square kilometres in February, after advances of 431 square kilometres in January, 476 square kilometres in December, 2024, and a peak of 725 square kilometres in November, data showed.

03/03/2025 - 16:10

Possibly dozens of Ukrainian soldiers killed in missile strike on training ground

Several Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a Russian missile strike that targeted a military training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region over the weekend, Ukraine’s Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on social media.

Although Ukrainian officials did not comment on the number of fatalities in Saturday’s attack, Yury Butusov, a respected Ukrainian military blogger, said that between 30 and 40 soldiers were killed and that some 90 others were injured.

A military source told the AFP news agency that the strike hit “an army training ground near the village of Cherkaske” outside the eastern city of Dnipro.

03/03/2025 - 15:17

Ukraine’s energy minister blasts IAEA for Zaporizhzhia visit via occupied land

Ukraine’s energy minister has lambasted a UN nuclear watchdog mission visit to the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant via occupied land, describing it as completely unacceptable.

The ministry said German Galushchenko sent a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi calling on him to ensure compliance with the law.

“The rotation... cannot be carried out without the consent of the Ukrainian authorities and is in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the letter said.

But Grossi defended the decision by saying thqt “the only thing that has led us... to do the rotation in this way is that I am responsible for the security of my staff".

“There were a series of episodes which led me to the conclusion that I could not take risks with the lives of my experts,” he said, referring to a drone strike that affected a rotation in December as well as another mission that had to be aborted. 

03/03/2025 - 15:14

Eutelsat committed to boosting Europe’s satellite autonomy, continued support to Ukraine

Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat is committed to delivering services to strengthen Europe’s autonomy in space-based connectivity as it continues to supply internet access to war-torn Ukraine, it said.

“We have deployed and continue to operate hundreds of terminals across Ukraine and the Black Sea, reinforcing Europe’s commitment to Ukraine’s digital resilience,” a Eutelsat spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

03/03/2025 - 14:59

Any ceasefire deal with Russia must come with ‘real security gurantees’, Zelensky says

In a post on X, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that “for peace to be real, we need real security guarantees” in order to enter any ceasefire deals with Russia. 

03/03/2025 - 14:31

Trump-Zelensky clash was ‘manufactured escalation’, Germany’s Merz says

The clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House was a “manufactured escalation”, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

“It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelensky, but obviously a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz told a news conference in Hamburg.

Merz, who is seeking to form a coalition after his conservatives won a snap election last month, said that Europe was now under pressure to act quickly.

“We must now show that we are in a position to act independently in Europe,” he said.

03/03/2025 - 13:43

Polish dissident-turned-president Lech Walesa writes to Trump expressing 'horror' at argument with Zelensky

Former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa, who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, signed a letter to US President Donald Trump expressing "horror" at his public argument with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winner posted the text of the letter, which was signed by 39 Polish former political prisoners, on Facebook on Monday.

In an extraordinary meeting that was broadcast live on Friday, Trump accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for US aid, of showing disrespect to his country and of risking World War Three, casting into doubt Washington's ongoing support for Ukraine in its three-year-long war with Russia.

"We watched your conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with horror and distaste," the letter said, comparing the meeting's atmosphere to "interrogations by the Security Service and ... in communist courts".

It also called on the United States to fulfill the security guarantees given to Ukraine in 1994 after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

03/03/2025 - 13:39

Zelensky says ceasefire without guarantees 'will be failure'

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has told British media that a ceasefire without security guarantees for his country would not bring a lasting end to Russia's invasion after allies called for a truce.

At a press conference on Sunday after talks with European allies in London, Zelensky dismissed as "not enough" the idea that a ceasefire would end the war.

Following the crisis summit on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France and Britain were proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine "in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure" although not, initially at least, covering ground fighting.

Zelensky told journalists shortly before departing Britain that "it will be a failure for everyone if Ukraine is forced into a ceasefire without serious security guarantees". He predicted that Russia would break the deal and Ukraine would retaliate.

"Imagine a week later, the Russians will hit us, and we will shoot at their side, totally understandably, and what will it be?" Zelensky said, predicting years of wrangles over who was first to fire.

"Who will benefit for this? The Russians, but definitely not us." 

Yesterday's key events:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined world leaders at Ukraine talks in London. 
• Zelensky said he is ready to sign a minerals deal with the US.
• UK announced $2 billion dollar deal to fund air-defence missiles for Ukraine.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said that France and the UK are working on a one-month Ukraine truce. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)