Ukraine war latest: Trump says ‘strong words’ exchanged with European leaders

Moscow has accused Poland of “legal tyranny” following the arrest of a Russian archaeologist at Ukraine’s arrest.

Alexander Butyagin, an employee of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, was detained on arrival in Warsaw, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.

The ministry said Butyagin was accused by Kyiv of “destroying cultural heritage” while carrying out archaelogical excavations in Russian occupied Crimea, but contended that the allegation was absurd. The archaeologist had been invited to deliver a number of lectures in European cities.

“This is absolute legal tyranny,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“We will of course demand through diplomatic channels the right to protect the interests of our citizen.”

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expects talks with US officials to take place this weekend, discussing a proposal put forward by the European side for peace in Ukraine.

In a call on Wednesday, “we made a proposal to [Donald Trump] that we would finalise the documents together with the American government over the weekend,” Mr Merz said.

“If we now proceed with this process as we envisage, there will be talks with the American government over the weekend,” he added at a press conference with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.

Russia is open to foreign investment, the Kremlin said on Thursday, following reports that Donald Trumps’ Ukraine peace plan included major proposals to invest in Russia rare earths and energy.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the plans were detailed in appendices to peace proposals handed to European counterparts over recent weeks.

They include a plan to restore Russian energy flows to Europe and for U.S. financial firms and other businesses to tap $200 billion of frozen Russian sovereign assets for projects in Ukraine, the paper said.

Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, was interested in foreign investment. When asked about the US frozen asset proposals reported by the Journal, Peskov declined comment.

Russian forces took control of the village of Lyman in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, state news agencies cited the Defence Ministry as saying on Thursday.

The Independent could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Moscow’s forces have continued advancing forwards on the Ukrainian frontline, as US mediators work to hash out a deal between the two countries.

Dramatic footage has captured the moment the Ukrainian Security Service blew up an oil tanker from Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ using naval drones in its latest attack on Moscow’s oil exports.

The Comoros-flagged Dashan was sailing through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea towards the Russian port city of Novorossiysk when it was attacked by agents from the SBU.

The ship had its automatic identification system switched off at the time of the strike, an SBU source said.

The strike on Wednesday is the third attack in two weeks on the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ of unregulated ships which help Moscow to export oil around the world – a central component of their wartime economy.

Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian sea for the first time, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said according to Reuters.

The drones struck the Filanovsky oil rig, which belongs to Russian oil major Lukoil. At least four strikes were recorded on the target.

The strikes halted the facility’s extraction of oil and gas, the source said.

Lukoil did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a visit to Moscow this month by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff had helped bring Moscow and Washington closer togather on certain issues.

The Kremlin said at the time that Russia and the US did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, after the marathon five-hour Kremlin talks between Vladimir Putin, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Lavrov added that Moscow had handed over Russia’s proposals on collective security guarantees to Washington.

Read everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s latest comments in just five bullet points with The Independent’s Bulletin…

Ukraine last night officially handed over its point-by-point response to the latest US peace plan, according to a report in Axios.

Donald Trump has intensified the pressure on Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a peace plan conceding major territorial losses for Ukraine.

Zelensky’s national security advisor and chief negotiator Rustem Umerov has now forwarded the Ukrainian response to Jared Kushner, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law.

The response includes comments and proposed ideas to “make the whole thing doable”, according to a Ukrainian official.

This follows days of consultations with European allies, including with Keir Starmer and the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who held a phone call with Trump on Wednesday.

A virtual meeting between the US and Ukraine is expected to take place on Thursday to continue discussions on the peace plan, a Ukrainian official said.

As we reported earlier this week, Donald Trump has called on Ukraine to hold elections, accusing Kyiv of no longer being a democracy.

“They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people … should have that choice. And maybe [Volodymyr] Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win,” he told Politico in an interview.

“But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

But can Ukraine really hold an election during wartime?

Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The country’s constitution provides for martial law in wartime, and a separate law bars the holding of elections while it remains in force.

Beyond being illegal, a nationwide vote would pose serious security risks as Russia bombs Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones.

And with around one-fifth of the country under Russian occupation and millions displaced abroad, organising a nationwide ballot is widely seen as logistically impossible.

It would also be difficult to find a way for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line to cast their votes.

Although Mr Zelensky’s term formally expired in May 2024, Ukraine’s constitution allows him to legitimately remain in office until a newly elected president is sworn in.