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US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Nato should have ‘strong and real capabilities’ to deter Moscow
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The US has urged NATO to boost its firepower amid a growing Russian threat to the military alliance.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that Washington expects its allies to have “strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect”.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of Nato defence ministers held in Brussels, he urged members of the alliance to invest more into the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) arms initiative for Ukraine, which allows Nato to buy US weapons and supply them to Kyi.v.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is said to be “optimistic” about ending Putin’s war in Ukraine after his successful ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, according to the White House.
The US president, who has made concerted efforts to bring Putin to the negotiating table over the last three months, warned Russia that the war must end because it is not making the country look good earlier this week.
Trump said the Russian “economy is going to collapse” and claimed there were “long lines waiting for gasoline” – but Moscow has hit back, saying it has a “stable supply”.
The Government has sanctioned Russia’s biggest oil producer Rosneft as part of its latest set of measures targeting Russia’s economy amid the war in Ukraine.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Rosneft, along with Lukoil – two of the world’s largest energy companies – would face restrictions from the UK.
The Foreign Office said the two firms export 3.1 million barrels of oil a day. Rosneft, Russia’s largest firm, is responsible for 6% of global oil production, and makes up nearly half of Russian oil produced.
Other action was taken against the so-called “shadow fleet”, which allows Russia to export oil.
The new sanctions came as the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament visited the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Cooper said: “We will ramp up the pressure on Russia to ensure that their escalation comes at a clear cost.
“So I am today setting out a further new set of sanctions, among our strongest so far, to tighten the pressure on Russia’s economy.”
Foreign donors have provided £3.3 billion to a Czech-led initiative to find and deliver large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine, the Czech defence minister has said.
The programme matches Czech arms producers and traders with potential sellers who often prefer to remain unnamed, and foreign donors.
Jana Cernochova said the Czech Republic has arranged supplies of 3.7 million artillery rounds to Ukraine, including 1.3 million so far this year.
Nato chief Mark Rutte says that he is “very happy” that Zelensky and Trump will meet in Washington on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, he says Nato “is ready and willing to do what it takes to keep our 1 billion people safe and our territory secure”.
Asked whether he believes Trump will provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles that could significantly tip the war in Kyiv’s favour, he responds: “I will not get into that, it’s up to individual allies.”
Germany and France have signed an implementation agreement for a satellite-based early warning system called “Odin’s eye”.
The system will significantly improve capabilities to detect missile launches, as Europe seeks to spend more on defence to deter Russia.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed a former regional governor to lead the port city of Odesa after revoking the citizenship of the former Mayor.
The appointment of Serhiy Lysak, who had led the Dnipropetrovsk region, came a day after the removal of mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov over his alleged possession of a Russian passport.
Mr Trukhanov, 60, who has governed the Black Sea port city for over a decade, rejected the accusation.
“I will appeal the decision to strip me of my Ukrainian citizenship in the Supreme Court. And, if that is not enough, I will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,” he said in a video statement.
President Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Moscow with Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa over the fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin said that Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al Qaeda and who toppled close Russian ally Bashar al-Assad late last year, was in Russia on a working visit.
The fate of Russia’s two main bases in Syria – the Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia province, and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast – will be discussed, the Kremlin said.
Moscow has the ability to strike “deep into Europe”, Poland’s foreign minister has warned, as he told European leaders it would be “irresponsible” not to build a drone wall on the eastern flank of the continent.
Speaking in London on Tuesday, Radosław Sikorski unveiled a Russian-flown Shahed-136 drone downed in Ukraine and urged leaders to pledge support to Ukraine for at least the next three years.
He said Ukraine was planning resources to fight for the next three years and that Western leaders “need to convince Putin that we are ready to stay the course for at least those three years”.
He added he hoped US President Donald Trump would make long-range Tomahawk missiles available to the country to bolster strikes against Russian infrastructure.
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“You get peace when you are strong. Not when you use strong words or wag your fingers, you get it when you have strong and real capabilities that adversaries respect,” Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War, told reporters ahead of a meeting at Nato headquarters on Wednesday.
“Our expectation today is that more countries donate even more, that they purchase even more to provide for Ukraine, to bring that conflict to a peaceful conclusion.”
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