Ukraine has launched a major drone assault on an airbase deep inside Russia that is key to the relentless missile attacks against Ukrainian cities by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The strike on the Soviet-era Engels airfield, which houses a number of Russia’s nuclear-capable heavy bombers and stores of cruise missiles, sparked a huge explosion and multiple fires.
Video footage showed the fire from the blast spreading to nearby cottages, before a state of emergency was declared in the area, about 450 miles from Moscow. Ukraine has repeatedly sought to hit the Engels base, across the three years of Russia’s invasion.
The blast came after Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s continued strikes on Ukraine show their “true attitude towards peace” in the wake of another 170 drones being launched at targets across the country.
The Ukrainian president is briefing a summit of EU leaders on the contents of the phone call he had on Wednesday with Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, senior military officers from more than 30 countries across Europe and beyond met in England on Thursday to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said “steps in the right direction” were being made as a coalition of the willing led by Britain and France moves into an “operational phase”.
He also warned Vladimir Putin will face “severe consequences” for breaching any ceasefire.
William pays tribute to ‘resilience’ of Ukrainians in Estonia
The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to the “resilience” of Ukrainians given refuge by Estonia after holding talks with the Baltic state’s president.
William described refugees who have fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “very smiley and very strong and very spiritual people” after meeting students and their teachers at school founded to educate Ukrainians in Estonia.
Earlier, the future King sat down with Estonia’s President Alar Karis as his two-day visit to the country began and heard his plea for some UK troops to remain in the Baltic state after the statesman suggested they may be redeployed as peacekeepers in Ukraine.
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European leaders to meet in Paris next week to discuss Ukraine, Bloomberg News reports
Leaders from European countries including Germany, Italy and Poland, will meet in Paris next week to discuss their position on Ukraine and demands on the peace process, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
Leaders from Britain and Canada will also be involved in the meeting, the Bloomberg News report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Starmer rules out UK pulling back from Nato commitments to provide Ukraine peacekeeping troops
The UK will not be pulling back from Nato commitments to other countries in order to provide troops for a Ukraine peacekeeping mission, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister was asked after an international meeting of military planning chiefs in London about comments made by defence minister Luke Pollard, who suggested during the morning broadcast round on Thursday this could happen.
Sir Keir said: “No. There’s no pulling back from our commitments to other countries.
“Obviously, we’re deployed in Estonia – I’ve been up to see the troops a couple of times now on the front – and it’s important to appreciate there are Nato planners here today as well, because one of the conditions or principles that I set from the very start is it had to be co-ordinated with Nato, and that’s why we’ve got Nato planners here.
“The mood in the room – because this came up in the private briefing I had – was that this actually will help reinforce what we’re doing in Nato in other countries, so they see it as an opportunity, rather than a question of moving troops around.”
Starmer reveals details of military planning for coalition of the willing
Military planning for the coalition of the willing has been broken down into sea, air, land and borders, and the regeneration of Ukraine, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
He told reporters at Northwood military headquarters in north-west London: “What’s happening here is, if you like, the political momentum that we’ve built up with the meeting I convened at the weekend and then the one two weeks before that at Lancaster House, is being translated here into military planning and operational planning, and broadly broken out into different areas.
“So we’re looking at the sea in one scenario, the sky, obviously land and borders, and regeneration.”
The Prime Minister earlier acknowledged there were “a lot of contingencies” in reaching peace in Ukraine, adding: “We don’t yet know whether there will be a deal.”
He also told reporters: “What it’s reinforced in me is that now is the time for the planning because you don’t start to plan after you’ve reached a deal. You’ve got to have plans before the deal.
“It means there has got to be a degree of optionality, because the likelihood is there’ll be a ceasefire and then possibly a full deal after that, and therefore that’s two different scenarios.”
Putin would face ‘severe consequences’ for breaching ceasefire deal, warns Starmer
Vladimir Putin would face “severe consequences” for breaching a ceasefire deal, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister, when asked if Russia breaching a future ceasefire in Ukraine could draw UK troops into the conflict, said: “The point of the security arrangements is to make it clear to Russia there will be severe consequences if they are to breach any deal.
“That’s why we need a forward-leaning European element, which is what I’ve been working on intensely – obviously with the French – that bring these allied countries together, and beyond.”
He added: “This is why it will require a US component because it needs to be clear to Putin that there will be severe consequences if he breaches the lines.
“So the purpose of this plan is to ensure that we maintain the peace, as it is in Estonia and all the other countries in which we’re deployed.
“We do have capability in other countries at the moment, and we are doing that to preserve the peace.”
Military leaders discuss Ukraine peacekeeping force as partial ceasefire plans are worked out
Senior military officers from more than two dozen countries across Europe and beyond met in England today to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he didn’t know whether there would be a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war, but “we are making steps in the right direction” as a “coalition of the willing” led by Britain and France moves into an “operational phase.”
Military planning chiefs from UK and 26 other countries have met at Northwood military HQ
Military planning chiefs have met at the Northwood military headquarters in north-west London, where UK armed forces representatives were joined by officials from at least 26 other countries.
Military patches bearing the flags or other identifiers of the following nations could be seen at the meeting: France, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Czechia, Finland, Albania, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Estonia.
EU leaders vow to continue backing Ukraine but make no concrete pledge
European Union leaders said on Thursday that they will continue to support Ukraine, but they did not immediately endorse a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to approve a package of at least €5 billion for artillery purchases.
“We need funds for artillery shells and would really appreciate Europe’s support with at least €5 billion ($5.42 billion) as soon as possible,” Zelenskiy told the EU leaders meeting in Brussels via video link.
Arriving at the summit in Brussels, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had also called on leaders to match words of support for Kyiv with deeds, as US President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his efforts to end the war, including through a rapprochement with Russia.
“The stronger they are on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table,” Kallas said of the Ukrainians.
In the statement all leaders approved at the meeting – apart from Hungary’s Viktor Orban – they pledged to “continue to provide Ukraine with regular and predictable financial support.” They also said member states should “urgently step up efforts to address Ukraine’ pressing military and defence needs”.
But there was no concrete answer on Kallas’ proposal to focus on what Zelenskiy says he needs most urgently, such as 2 million artillery shells at a cost of €5 billion.
Starmer on Ukraine peace deal: ‘The time for planning is now’
Sir Keir Starmer said “the time for planning is now” when it comes to a peace deal for Ukraine.
Speaking during a visit to a military base in Greater London, the prime minister said: “We hope there will be a deal but what I do know is if there is a deal, the time for planning is now.
“It’s not after a deal is reached.”
He said he is “well aware that a deal may be in stages” but added that the “more planning we can do here now… the better because we’re getting ahead of the challenge to make sure that we’re as effective as possible”.
Starmer warns peace deal ‘without anything behind it is something Putin will breach’
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that any peace deal “without anything behind it is something that Putin will breach”.
The prime minister said during a visit to a military base in Greater London: “Last weekend and two weekends before that, we had groupings of international political leaders coming together to provide the political alignment and the collective agreement that we need to work together to ensure that any deal that is put in place is defended.
“What’s happening here is turning that political intention into reality, the concept into plans.”
Sir Keir went on: “It is vitally important we do that work because we know one thing for certain which is a deal without anything behind it is something that Putin will breach.
“We know that because it happened before. I’m absolutely clear in my mind it will happen again”.
Source: independent.co.uk