Ukraine-Russia conflict newest: UK provides 30,000 drones to Kyiv as Trump says Putin desires to fulfill him

The UK and other Nato member states are sending 30,000 drones to Ukraine in a boost to European security and to help the war-hit country to fight Russian aggression.

Defence secretary John Healey announced yesterday that the UK is funding the drones along with Denmark, Netherlands, Latvia and Sweden.

“These state-of-the-art, first-person view (FPV) drones will help Ukraine fight against Russian aggression, allowing Ukraine’s Armed Forces to manoeuvre past Russian air defences to target enemy positions and armoured vehicles,” it said in a statement.

Four people were killed in instances of shelling in Ukraine, one blamed on Russia’s military, the other on Ukrainian forces, regional officials said.

In Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia’s slow advance westward along the front line, regional governor Vadym Filaskhin said on Telegram that two people were killed when Russian forces shelled the town of Siversk.

Further south, in a Russian-controlled area of Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed when the town of Kamyanka-Dniprovska came under Ukrainian fire, the Russia-appointed governor, Yevgeny Belitsky wrote on Telegram.

The town is located on a large reservoir along the Dnipro River, which bisects Ukraine, not far from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.

Donald Trump must keep backing Ukraine with weapons and ammunition to ensure the country is not “erased off the map”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said during a final meeting of Kyiv’s allies before the president-elect returns to the White House.

“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Mr Zelensky said.

Tom Watling reports:

Prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed the French president Emmanuel Macron to Chequers yesterday evening for wide-ranging discussions over dinner.

Sir Starmer said it was a “privilege” to host Mr Macron, the second world leader to meet the prime minister at his official country retreat since he took office in July.

Describing the meeting as “further evidence of our ability to work well together”, Sir Keir said the pair planned to discuss “a number of issues of concern”, including the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, while Downing Street has previously indicated that illegal migration, tech and growth would also be on the agenda.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest in a series of meetings with Kyiv’s Western allies in Germany had resulted in pledges of an additional $2bn in military assistance to help it fight the war against Russia.

Mr Zelensky, speaking to My-Ukraina television channel after yesterday’s meeting, gave few details of the assistance, but that 34 countries had pledged support in different aspects of the 34-month-old war.

“We had a very good meeting, a very good result. There was $2bn in additional packages of support to Ukraine,” he said in a video posted on the television channel’s Telegram account.

The aid covered air defence, information technology, demining, naval forces, air forces and artillery.

“And all this will strengthen Ukraine,” he said. The president gave no details on which countries had made the pledges.

Donald Trump said a meeting was being set up between him and Russian president Vladimir Putin, but the Republican offered no timeline for talks between the two leaders.

“He wants to meet, and we are setting it up,” Trump said in remarks before a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

“President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Trump said about the Russia-Ukraine war.

Mr Trump’s return to the White House on 20 January has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, but it has also led to fears in Kyiv that a quick peace deal could come at a high price for Ukraine.