Russia has been accused of plotting arson attacks in two European countries. Earlier, Donald Trump said he’ll speak to Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he pushes to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has since confirmed the planned talks. Follow the latest here.
false,Monday 17 March 2025 13:08, UK
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had a clear message for Ukrainians and the world recently.
“After the talks in Jeddah and the American proposal for a ceasefire on the frontline, Russia stole almost another week – a week of war that only Russia wants,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video last night.
After Ukraine accepted the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, Zelenskyy is making it clear the Russians are the ones standing in the way of a truce.
As we’ve reported, Ukraine’s president went on to stress the country would do “everything” to “intensify diplomacy”.
Watch Zelenskyy speaking below.
A “significant number” of countries are willing to provide peacekeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer says.
More than 30 countries are expected to be involved in the so-called “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine, the spokesperson said.
That figure is up from the 27 leaders that took part in a virtual summit led by Starmer and Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.
“The contribution capabilities will vary, but this will be a significant force, with a significant number of countries providing troops,” the spokesperson told reporters.
The leaders involved in Saturday’s coalition of the willing call were from: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa also joined.
We’ve been reporting today on claims from Lithuanian authorities that Russia’s military intelligence was behind an arson attack at an IKEA store in Vilnius last year.
The Lithuanian prosecutor’s office said its suspect was a minor at the time and acted “in the interests of the military structures and security services of the Russian Federation”.
The prosecutor general’s office said in a statement that the suspect and another person undertook a plan to set fire to and blow up shopping centres in Lithuania and Latvia for a reward of €10,000 and a BMW.
It added the acts were aimed at “severely intimidating the society of both countries” and forcing them and the EU “to reduce or terminate” their support for Ukraine.
The attacks were also hoping to “destabilise the most important political, economic and social structures of the state,” it said.
We reported earlier on comments from a Lithuanian prosecutor, who said Russia’s military intelligence service was behind an arson attack on an IKEA store in the country last year (see 09.46 post).
The prosecutor said the perpetrators were also behind the arson of a shopping centre in Poland last year, which led to the arrests of nine people.
Now, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has responded to the update, saying the news “confirmed our suspicions” that Moscow was behind the sabotage.
Tusk said this was valuable information ahead of ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
It’s midday in London, 2pm in Kyiv and 3pm in Moscow.
If you’re just joining us, here are the biggest stories you should be aware of so far today:
South Korea’s foreign minister has spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart about the handling of North Korean prisoners of war, Seoul’s foreign ministry says.
Cho Tae-yul reaffirmed South Korea’s efforts to support the Ukrainian people and said Seoul would accept North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine if they wished to go to South Korea, the ministry said.
For context: North Korea has provided Moscow with troops for its war with Ukraine.
The majority of these have been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, with independent overseers and analysts reporting Pyongyang’s forces have sustained heavy losses in the area.
We mentioned in our 7.53am post about overnight Russian attacks on several areas of Ukraine.
Now, we’ve received some images of the efforts under way in Chuhuiv, in the eastern Kharkiv region, to put out fires caused by attacks.
We can now bring you live comments from French President Emmanuel Macron, who is speaking alongside new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Paris.
He says both France and Canada are committed to achieving a “long and lasting peace” in Ukraine and ensuring “robust guarantees” that will “enable the security of the whole of Europe, France and Canada”.
“All powers of peace will take part of this effort jointly,” he adds. “It is in this spirit that we will continue to maintain our support to Ukraine and continue to demand some clear commitments from Russia.”
Carney adds that Macron has “always been a man of action” and says Canada has shown its “unwavering support” for Ukraine under Macron’s leadership.
Canada will always be there to guarantee the security of Europe,” he adds.
You can watch Macron and Carney’s remarks on YouTube below.
A fire at a Russian oil refinery that was sparked by a Ukrainian drone attack last Friday has finally been put out, according to local authorities.
Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said firefighters tackled the blaze at the Tuapse refinery “non-stop for more than three days”.
He said a tank containing 20,000 tonnes of petrol caught fire at the depot and that the fire had spread to cover an area of 1,250 sq metres (13,500 sq feet) by Saturday.
We’ve just been hearing from military analyst Michael Clarke, who has been reflecting on Donald Trump’s comments about “dividing up” Ukraine’s assets (see 6.17am post).
He says Europe won’t accept any peace deal that signs away Ukrainian land as Russia’s own sovereign territory, even if it appears Washington could do.
“They will never recognise that because it’s strictly illegal,” he says.
But Clarke adds the rest of the world will see Moscow as the victor in the war if it can emerge from the conflict with territory and an easing of tensions with the US.
“If he gets sanctions partially lifted by the US and a strategic partnership with Washington, which is what the Trump administration seems to want, then the rest of the world, which has been waiting to see what happens in Ukraine since the very beginning of this war, will sit back and say Putin has won.”
Clarke says the world will have to “adjust to the reality that the West is no longer credible as a political force”.
Need more answers?
Have more questions about the war? Have a read through last week’s Q&A with Clarke here, or watch the full thing below…
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