Russia claims to have captured the final Ukrainian-held position in the Kursk region, and has pledged to “destroy” any remaining units. Meanwhile, Kyiv says its troops are still operating and holding their positions in the Russian territory.
Sunday 27 April 2025 16:40, UK
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The US remains adamant a minerals deal will be struck with Ukraine – an agreement it sees as financial reward for aid donated by Joe Biden, despite it not having any conditions attached.
Trump is pushing for a compact that gives America privileged access to Ukraine’s natural resources and critical minerals.
Negotiators were “working hard” over the weekend, national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News.
“The Ukraine deal is going to get done.”
Ukrainian finance minister Serhii Marchenko met with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday to discuss the deal.
There were issues to resolve before signing an agreement, but Kyiv officials were working to seal a deal “as fast as we can,” Marchenko said.
Both sides had been poised in February to sign a deal on natural resources, but it was delayed – and has since been revised – after an Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned into a shouting match.
Moscow continues to deny it targeted civilians in its missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv last week that killed at least 12 people.
A 17-year-old boy was among the dead and 10 children were among the 87 injured, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
Yet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told CBS the target was not civilian.
“We will continue to target the sites used by the military of Ukraine, by some mercenaries from foreign countries and by instructors whom the Europeans officially sent to help target Russian civilian sites,” he said.
More than 12,300 civilians have been killed in Ukraine including 650 children since Russia’s invasion, according to United Nations deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif.
Pictures have emerged from a commemoration held on Friday, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy honoured the memory of 12 people killed in Kyiv by a Russian ballistic missile strike.
He laid flowers at the wall of a residential building destroyed as a result of the massive attack on 24 April.
Among the victims were a couple and their 17-year-old son.
Their 14-year-old daughter remains in the hospital. She is one of 10 children who were injured, out of a total of 87 wounded people.
“I would like to once again express condolences personally and, I am sure, on behalf of all our people, sadly, for the tragic losses. For such a horrific strike by the Russian aggressor against our people, against our civilians,” the president said.
Search-and-rescue efforts at the scene were only completed Friday morning, with recovery efforts still underway, according to minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko.
Ambassadors from the UK, US, Germany and China were among dozens of representatives who attended the event.
Russian bombing has killed three civilians and wounded four others in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, local prosecutors say.
Three glide bombs were dropped on the city, situated about six miles from the front line, according to a Facebook post by the Donetsk region prosecutor’s office.
Russian forces have inched closer towards it over the past year.
A couple, aged 47 and 48, were killed, along with a 78-year-old pensioner, the post said, and 21 homes were damaged.
Pictures attached to it showed a destroyed single-storey house and the burnt-out shell of a car.
The US is weighing up whether to continue as a mediator, Marco Rubio has said.
The US’s top diplomat told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that “we cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it (peace) is not going to come to fruition.”
He said a deal must come soon.
“The last week has really been about figuring out how close are these sides really, and are they close enough that this merits a continued investment of our time as a mediator.”
Rubio did not say how long the Trump administration is willing to wait for a breakthrough.
Earlier, we reported that Russia’s FSB security service had detained a suspect after a senior general was killed by a car bomb in Moscow (see 6.55 post).
Moscow has now filed terror charges against the suspect, the Interfax news agency reports.
The outlet cites Russia’s Investigative Committee as saying the suspect had pleaded guilty to killing Moskalik and said they were recruited by Ukraine’s security services.
With so many twists and turns at the negotiating table, it’s easy to forget what happened more than 24 hours ago.
On Friday, Vladimir Putin held another summit with Donald Trump’s top peace envoy, Steve Witkoff.
If you want to catch up on that development, our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett has produced this report…
Vladimir Putin has ordered that several emergency aircraft be sent to Iran to help extinguish a fire in the port of Bandar Abbas.
Eighteen people have died and more than 700 been injured after a chemical explosion at Iran’s largest port, according to state media.
The blast saw a huge cloud of black and orange smoke billow above Rajaei port, and the fire is still raging.
The emergency ministry said a Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft specialising in firefighting, as well as an Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, would be sent to Iran to help out.
Putin’s promise to send planes is the latest development in an ever-closening relationship between Tehran and Moscow.
Read more about that here.
Moscow wants to “systematically integrate” the use of motorcycles into offensive operations in Ukraine by the summer, according to a leading thinktank.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said it had seen video showing Russians “practicing offensive and defensive tactics on motorcycles in groups of two to three people” at a training facility.
It also cited Ukrainian battlefield commanders as staying they had observed Russia developing combat tactics with bikes
Ukrainian Kharkiv Group of Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Pavlo Shamshyn noted that motorcycles allow Russian soldiers to enhance their speed and manoeuvrability, which ISW said was “crucial for evading Ukrainian drone strikes”.
At the same time however, it said the “loud noise of the motorcycle prevents the rider from hearing approaching Ukrainian drones”.
The thinktank said it found an “increased trend” of Moscow’s forces “conducting mechanised and combined motorised assaults and transporting infantry with motorcycles and civilian vehicles throughout the frontline”.
It said this was because Russian command was trying desperately “to offset Ukrainian drone strikes” and mitigate the equipment constraints “resulting from high armoured vehicle losses”.
Some interesting lines from the UK’s Ministry of Defence today, which has just released its daily intelligence update.
Its analysts have been taking a closer look at how and why Russia recruits foreign nationals for its army.
It has found that, while Russia isn’t recruiting foreigners in the numbers that some have suggested, that Moscow still uses them to make up a portion of its frontline forces.
Read their full update below…
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Ukraine war latest: 'Scattered' Ukrainian troops left in Kursk to be 'destroyed', general tells Putin – as Kyiv says it fights on – Sky News
