Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shared an “inspirational” letter sent to him from King Charles on Ukraine’s Independence Day. Elsewhere, a downed drone in Russia’s Kursk region sparked a fire at a nuclear plant overnight. Follow the latest.
Monday 25 August 2025 01:07, UK
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Ukraine celebrates Independence Day
Ukraine celebrated its 34th Independence Day today, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying it’s “only a matter of time” before the country can reunite its occupied lands with the rest of Ukraine.
He said the Independence Monument in Kyiv – where the distances to occupied Ukrainian cities like Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea are inscribed – acts as a symbol of the country’s resilience.
“Today, these markers have a completely different meaning. They are no longer just about kilometres,” he said.
“They remind us that all of this is Ukraine. And there are our people, and no distance between us can change that, and no temporary occupation can change that.
“One day, the distance between Ukrainians will disappear, and we will be together again as one family, as one country. It is only a matter of time.”
Letters from King Charles, Trump and Pope Leo
Ukraine’s president also shared a letter sent to him from King Charles, in which the Monarch said he feels the “greatest and deepest admiration for the unbreakable courage and spirit of the Ukrainian people”.
In similar letters, Pope Leo said he hopes the “clamour of arms may fall silent and give way to dialogue, opening the path to peace”.
Trump said that “now is the moment to bring an end to the senseless killing,” calling for a “negotiated settlement that leads to a durable, lasting peace that ends the bloodshed and safeguards Ukraine’s sovereignty and dignity”.
In the letter from Xi, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, there was no mention of the war in Ukraine, which China has remained publicly neutral over since it began.
Russia and Ukraine carry out prisoner swap
Elsewhere, Russia and Ukraine carried out another round of prisoner swaps with both countries exchanging 146 prisoners each.
Zelenskyy said most of the Ukrainian soldiers returned have been in captivity since 2022, including journalist Dmytro Khilyuk, who Ukraine’s president said was kidnapped in the Kyiv region a month after the war began.
Fire at Russian nuclear plant
Russian officials said a fire was sparked and capacity was reduced by 50% at the Kursk nuclear power plant overnight after a Ukrainian drone was shot down over the site.
The acting governor of the region said strikes on nuclear power plants “cross all boundaries of international conventions”.
Meanwhile, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it was aware of reports of a fire at the plant “due to military activity”, but added that it had not received independent confirmation.
In our latest weekly Q&A, our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke talked through the options on the table for Western security guarantees.
Full US and European backing
“The largest guarantee would be a series of multilateral guarantees that look a bit like NATO’s Article 5, which saw Ukraine’s allies – including the US – fighting the Russians if they breach the peace deal,” said Clarke.
“I think the Ukrainians would give away the rest of the Donbas if they thought they would get that in return – but they’re not.”
Full European backing with US assistance
The next level down is a European force operating in Ukraine with American backup – like airpower, intelligence sharing and logistics.
“Those forces would have to be prepared to fight – they’d have to be prepared to take on Russian forces – and that’s a big, big issue.”
European training and backfilling with US assistance
But what is probably being talked about is Western forces training Ukrainian forces in western Ukrainian, while backfilling other jobs like screening the frontier with Belarus, Clarke said.
US air power would provide intelligence and logistics, but “Trump won’t specify what he means”.
European air police
Weaker than that is an agreement without the US, meaning Europe provides “air policing” over Ukraine and “be prepared to take on Russian aircraft” carrying out bombing runs.
“That’s plausible. Difficult, dangerous, plausible.”
Black Sea free trade
The “most practical” thing Western forces can do is assist in the Black Sea to ensure Ukrainian trade can flow freely, Clarke said.
“That could be enforced by both air and sea.”
Longer war
The alternative is there is no peace deal and Europe gets “more involved in helping Ukraine continue to fight the war”.
Watch military analyst Sean Bell give his take on possible security guarantees below…
We have been bringing you pictures from Kyiv throughout the day as Ukrainians celebrated Independence Day.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops training at a British Army camp in eastern England also joined in the celebrations…
Our Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins says the mood was “defiant and proud” in Kyiv today as Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day.
Watch her report below to see how the day unfolded.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has hit back at his Russian counterpart after he said Volodymyr Zelenskyy “is not” legitimate.
Moscow has questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s president after elections in the country were postponed last year due to martial law.
“When we come to a stage when you have to sign documents, we would need a very clear understanding by everybody that the person who is signing is legitimate,” Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said (see 16.40 post).
“According to the Ukrainian constitution, Zelenskyy is not at the moment.”
Andrii Sybiha has responded to Lavrov’s comments, and said: “Nothing is more absurd than a lecture on legitimacy from someone who has sat in his chair for 21 years, serving someone who has been ruling for more than 25 years.”
“He has no legitimacy to talk about legitimacy,” he added.
“Such delusional statements show that Russia rejects peace efforts.”
US vice president JD Vance has said Russia and Ukraine have made “some significant concessions… just in the last few days”.
Speaking to our US partner network NBC News, Vance was also asked about Russia’s strike that hit an electronics factory owned by a US-based company this week.
“I don’t like it,” he replied.
“But this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing.
“The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like, a lot of civilians have died, we’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go and, frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure… certainly than Joe Biden did.”
When Donald Trump met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House this week, the US president claimed he has “ended six wars”.
The following day, he told reporters he had, in fact, resolved seven.
Experts have told Sky News that Trump has made “no secret that he would love nothing more” than winning the prestigious accolade, with suggestions he is a worthy candidate stretching back to his first term.
Here, Sky News takes a look at why Trump believes he is so deserving of the prize.
Our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke has been back answering your questions on the war in Ukraine this week.
Asked about the recent meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska, he said “the pattern is the same”.
“Putin dominates Trump, intellectually, politically and morally. Every meeting, Trump comes away saying exactly what Putin wants him to say.”
Clarke explained that the outcomes of the meeting between Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders on Monday are “already slipping through our fingers like sand”.
“Even the idea there’ll be a trilateral meeting is now in doubt… it’s pretty sad but also not very surprising,” he added.
Watch the full Q&A below.
We’ve been bringing you updates through the day as Ukraine marks its independence day.
Watch the video below as Volodymyr Zelenskyy was joined by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in Kyiv.
A former Ukrainian MP has insisted that the war “is winnable” and called on allies for more support.
Speaking to our presenter Jonathan Samuels, Hanna Hopko said Ukrainians “don’t trust any Russian readiness to end the war”.
“We haven’t seen a ceasefire commitment from Russia,” she said.
“They’re trying to sell us a so-called big deal but it means the continuation of the war, and Russia wants to buy more time.”
But Hopko added that Donald Trump is reluctant to impose “tougher, secondary sanctions” on Russia, and stated that a victory of Ukraine is the best security guarantee for NATO and for Europe.
“You should learn from Ukraine to prepare for confrontations with Russia because Putin hasn’t changed his ambitious goal,” she warned.
Watch the full interview below.
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