Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin doesn’t want ceasefire, says Zelensky after 16 killed in drone attack

Vladimir Putin does not want a ceasefire, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as 16 were killed in a drone attack on Kryvyi Rih.

Mr Zelensky said: “People die every day. There is only one reason why this continues: Russia does not want a ceasefire, and we see it. The whole world sees it.”

He said rescue operations were ongoing in the central city, with regional governor Serhii Lysak adding that at least 50 people were injured.

The US will know within weeks whether Vladimir Putin is serious about peace, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said – with Washington’s Nato allies accusing Russia of stalling ceasefire efforts.

Donald Trump and his White House officials have reportedly become wary of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin’s commitment to peace in Ukraine – despite the US president having insisted for weeks that Putin was serious about reaching a truce.

Speaking at the end of a two-day meeting of Nato foreign ministers, Mr Rubio said: “We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are.

“If this is dragging things out, President Trump’s not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations about negotiations,” Mr Rubio said.

Russia has placed Elton John’s charity focussing on HIV/AIDS prevention on its list of “undesirable organisations”, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.

The office derided what it described as the charity’s “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations”.

The Elton John AIDS Foundation, launched in 1992, works in over 90 countries “to increase access to health care, tackle LGBTQ+ stigma, and end AIDS”.

The foundation, established by the singer and songwriter, has previously clashed with Russian authorities over LGBTQ+ rights. Sir Elton, who has performed in Russia, has criticised what he views as discrimination against gay people by the Russian government.

In the statement by Russian prosecutors, they said the charity is “focused on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations, Western family models, and gender reassignment.”

The trial of a former Russian minister accused of breaching sanctions in the UK is “not about Vladimir Putin” or the war in Ukraine, jurors have been told.

Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, 48, the former mayor of Sevastopol in illegally annexed Crimea, is facing seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024.

During closing arguments yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, his defence barrister, Rosemary Davidson, told jurors that the case is not about the war in Ukraine or Ovsiannikov’s work as governor of Sevastopol.

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Russia seeking to use ongoing peace negotiations to “seize large amounts of territory in Ukraine,” a war-monitoring think tank says.

US based analysts The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Moscow is hoping to leverage ceasefire talks to install a pro-Russian puppet government in Kyiv, and is likely to continue military operations in Ukraine if it is not able to secure “full surrender” through the talks.

It cited the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) which stated “Russia is leveraging its control of the theater-wide initiative and ongoing political and information efforts amid negotiations to end the war in Ukraine to achieve significant concessions from Ukraine and the West.”

It said the ODNI report also assessed that Putin is “probably” more willing to incur the risks of a longer war than to agree to an end to the war that is unfavorable to Russia.

Ukrainian officials are set to head to the US in the near future to discuss a new framework on a minerals deal.

Online consultations between Ukrainian and American teams could take place on Friday, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, citing foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.