Vladimir Putin aide Kirill Dmitriev will meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington DC this week, according to reports. Follow the latest below, and submit your questions for our next war Q&A.
Wednesday 2 April 2025 08:03, UK
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Latvia will provide 1,500 combat drones to Ukraine, the country’s defence minister Andris Spruds has said.
In a statement on X, Spruds confirmed that two Latvian companies will deliver a total of 12,000 drones worth €17m to Ukraine this year.
He said the move was “part of an international drone coalition”.
This move follows Latvia’s decision to join Poland, Estonia and Lithuania in withdrawing from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines last month due to the military threat from neighbouring Russia.
Donald Trump’s policies and off-the-cuff comments continue to impact Ukraine.
And later today his latest round of tariffs are expected to make waves in the global economy.
The US president is talking up today as “liberation day”. He believes tariffs will allow America to be stronger at home, helping its manufacturing and jobs.
It’s safe to say plenty of economists disagree. The fear is that tariffs will actually hurt the American economy, American shoppers – and businesses around the world.
When it comes to Ukraine, plenty of Ukrainians and Europeans would prefer Trump to focus on Ukraine’s “liberation” after Russia’s illegal invasion. But he has always been unashamedly “America First”.
When it comes to Russia, it should be noted that over the weekend Donald Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The president added that if Russia is unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” – and Trump felt that Moscow was to blame – then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
Images have emerged of charred buildings and firefighters attempting to put out fires after a Russian drone strike.
Russia has recently intensified its strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the northeast of the country.
A senior Russian negotiator is expected to visit Washington this week to meet with top Trump officials, according to reports.
Kirill Dmitriev, the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who was appointed by Vladimir Putin as special investment and international economic envoy, will meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, CNN reports.
The talks are reportedly about strengthening relations between the two countries as they seek to end the war in Ukraine.
“Maybe. The resistance to US-Russia dialogue is real-driven by entrenched interests and old narratives,” Dmitriev said in a post on X responding to the CNN report.
“But what if improved relations are exactly what the world needs for lasting global security and peace.”
Dmitriev’s trip comes as Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with Moscow’s foot-dragging over a wider Ukraine peace deal, with the US president saying he was “pissed off” with Putin.
As Dmitriev is still under US sanctions, CNN reported that the Trump administration temporarily lifted the sanctions for his visit.
A Ukrainian overnight drone strike has forced the evacuation of at least 60 people in the Russian city of Kursk, a regional official has said.
“As a result of the attack of enemy drones on Kursk, there is damage to an apartment building in the city centre,” the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on Telegram.
“Fortunately, there are no casualties.”
The size of the attack is not clear but it comes as both sides accuse each other of breaking a US-brokered partial ceasefire on strikes on energy and Black Sea infrastructure.
We’re back with our coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s largest conscription drive in 14 years.
The Russian president ordered a further 160,000 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 30 to be called up, with the new order to be completed by 15 July.
That number marks an increase from previous military drafts, with 150,000 called up last year and 134,500 in 2022.
His ultimate goal is to have an army larger than America’s.
Here are the other key lines from the last 24 hours:
The map below show the current territorial picture in Ukraine…
That’s it for now, as we pause our rolling updates on the Ukraine war for today.
We’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t forget, our coverage on Wednesday will include our latest Q&A with security and defence analyst Michael Clarke.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in live news from the US, we have a separate page up and running for that.
Donald Trump is continuing to hype his so-called “liberation day” tomorrow – when his latest tariffs will come into effect.
And you can never rule out the US president making an unexpected remark about the Ukraine war.
Click below for the latest on Trump, tariffs and the US.
Much of the focus on our live page today has been about conscription after Vladimir Putin ordered 160,000 men to be called up by 15 July.
It’s something that hasn’t been used in the UK for more than 60 years, but comments from top military officials in recent months about what could happen if NATO goes to war with Russia have made the possibility of being called up to fight feel closer than it has in generations.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British Army, said such a conflict would need to be a “whole-of-nation undertaking”, which reignited a debate about defence cuts and volunteering to fight.
In this story at the start of last year, Sky News looked at how the UK has used conscription before, and what military experts and the government say about bringing it back.
UK security minister Dan Jarvis has just announced that Russia will be placed on the top level of a government scheme aimed at protecting the UK from malign foreign influence.
Jarvis told MPs that the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) will come into force on 1 July.
He said it will “strengthen” the UK’s “resilience against covert foreign influence”.
He said the Russian head of state, government agencies, armed forces and political parties will be specified under the scheme.
“Russia presents an acute threat to UK national security”, he told the Commons.
“In recent years, its hostile acts have ranged from the use of a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury, espionage, arson and cyber attacks including the targeting of UK parliamentarians through spearfishing campaigns.”
We’ve been telling you about Vladimir Putin ordering his biggest conscription drive of the Ukraine war, calling up 160,000 men.
Last month, Latvia’s president hit the headlines when he called on European countries to “absolutely” introduce conscription, conceding that the continent was “quite weak” militarily.
Our North of England correspondent Shingi Mararike asked young men in Leeds what they think about the idea.
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