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A Trump-Putin summit was axed after Russia’s foreign minister was said to have taken a hardline stance on Ukraine
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed speculation of a split between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin after the collapse of a highly-anticipated summit between the Russian leader and US President Donald Trump.
The meeting, to be held in Budapest, was postponed after Lavrov is said to have refused to budge from a hardline position on Ukraine during a call with US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Rumours swirled after the 76-year-old, who has led the country’s foreign ministry for over 20 years, failed to appear at a meeting of the Russian Security Council on Wednesday.
Peskov said such suggestions “do not correspond to reality” and Lavrov remained focused on his duties as foreign minister.
It comes as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban is due to visit the White House on Friday to resurrect the postponed talks, which were to be held in Budapest.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban will meet President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday as he seeks exemptions from US sanctions on Russian oil and hopes to broker a summit between the American leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last month, Trump levied sanctions on Russian state-affiliated energy giants Lukoil and Rosneft, exposing buyers including India, China and Hungary to secondary penalties.
Orban, an ally of both Trump and Putin, said Hungary would seek exemptions from the decision, due to its reliance on Russian oil as a landlocked country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed speculation of a split between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin after the collapse of a highly-anticipated summit between the Russian leader and US President Donald Trump.
The meeting, to be held in Budapest, was postponed after Lavrov is said to have refused to budge rom a hardline position on Ukraine during a call with US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Peskov said such suggestions “do not correspond to reality” and Lavrov remained focused on his duties as foreign minister
Russian forces have advanced into the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Moscow has said, as it hunts for its most significant territorial gain in nearly two years.
Around 100,000 Russian troops are circling Pokrovsk, a city that Russia has been trying to capture for over a year, located in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region that Vladimir Putin has long sought full Russian control over.
Kyiv’s military says it is pushing back forcefully, but battlefield maps show Russian forces are edging forward. A military analyst has warned that Ukraine will soon be forced to make a decision on whether to pull troops from Myrnohrad, a nearby town close to being encircled by Russian forces.
Alex Croft reports:
Russia has retrofitted its old Soviet-era glide bombs with jet engines, according to reports.
The old weapons could travel a distance of 50 miles, while the upgraded versions can cover 125 miles, Major General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s GRU military intelligence agency, told the Telegraph.
Unverified images of the contraptions have been shared by war bloggers in recent months and their use remains unconfirmed.
Ukrainian drones have reportedly struck a significant oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd region for the second time in less than three months, according to Kyiv’s general staff.
The attack, which Ukraine claims occurred on Wednesday, targeted the largest producer of fuel and lubricants in Russia’s Southern Federal District.
Ukrainian officials estimate the refinery processes over 15 million tonnes of crude annually, accounting for approximately 5.6 per cent of the country’s total refining capacity.
A top German military official has warned that Russia could launch a limited attack on Nato countries at anytime, urging the alliance to take the threat seriously.
“If you look at Russia’s current capabilities and combat power, Russia could kick off a small-scale attack against Nato territory as early as tomorrow,” Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank told Reuters.
“Small, quick, regionally limited, nothing big – Russia is too tied down in Ukraine for that.”
He added: “The ground forces are suffering losses, but Russia says it aims to boost its total troop numbers to 1.5 million soldiers.
“And Russia has enough main battle tanks to make a limited attack conceivable as early as tomorrow.”
He echoed Nato warnings that Russia could launch a more large-scale attack by 2029 if its armament efforts persist.
Pointing to three factors including Russia’s military strength, its leadership and military track record, Sollfrank said that the likelihood of such threats coming to fruition will depend on the behaviour of the West.
“These three factors lead me to the conclusion that a Russian attack is in the realm of the possible. Whether it will happen or not depends to a large extent on our own behaviour.”
Ukraine’s emergency services have been working to extinguish a fire at the site of a Russian drone strike in the city of Chuguiv in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Firefighters worked in the early hours of Friday morning to extinguish the blaze.
Belgium has been forced to temporarily halt activities at its airports again after another drone sighting on Friday. Air traffic control said the aircraft had been spotted at the country’s Liege Airport.
Liege is the country’s largest cargo airport, and one of the biggest in Europe, according to the Belga.
It comes after Brussels Airport stopped operations after a drone sighting on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Brussels and Liege airports closed for several hours after drone sightings, with flights diverted or grounded.
Local media reported that drones had also been spotted in other areas across the country, including at a military base. The number of drones sighted has not been confirmed.
The Belgian government called an emergency meeting to discuss the incident.
A Ukrainian court sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison after finding him guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war, the first time Ukraine has jailed a suspect on such charges.
The court in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia found Dmitry Kurashov, 27, guilty of shooting dead Vitalii Hodniuk, a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in January 2024 when his dugout was captured by Russian forces.
Kurashov, who was taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces along with other Russian troops soon after the incident, pleaded guilty in court, although he later told reporters that he was innocent and wanted to be exchanged in a prisoner swap.
Discussions with Washington over the supply of Americas’s Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine are still possible and talks can be reopened, a former Nato chief has said.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary general from 2009 to 2014, said a deal can go ahead if Germany is willing to be “the first mover” and provide Ukraine with its own Taurus cruise missiles.
“That would send a clear signal across the Atlantic and put pressure on the White House. It is a strong German interest to force Putin to engage in peace negotiations… Taurus is the means to do so,” he said.
This comes as Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington said the war-hit nation is still engaged in “positive” talks with the US on buying Tomahawk missiles and other long-range weapons.
Earlier this week Donald Trump said he was “not really” inclined to allow Ukraine to receive Tomahawks, having spent weeks wavering on the issue.
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