Ukraine-Russia war latest: Starmer warns Putin would face ‘severe consequences’ for breaching a ceasefire deal

Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa late on Thursday, causing injuries and hitting civilian targets, officials said.

Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said the drones struck civilian targets and caused injuries, without giving further details.

Public broadcaster Suspilne said more than 18 explosions were recorded in the city after 10pm and a fire broke out. Suspilne quoted utility officials as saying power was cut in several districts.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the more than three-year-old war, particularly the city’s port facilities.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “we are doing well with Ukraine and Russia”.

It comes after his high-stakes phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin this week.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that “all nuclear power plants belong to the people of Ukraine” after reports that his US counterpart Donald Trump said an American takeover of the country’s nuclear power would offer the “best protection” for it.

But Kyiv says the discussions referred only to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian occupation.

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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States will sign a minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly.

He made the comment after signing an order to increase US production of critical minerals.

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 he did not 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”.

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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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.

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.”

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.”

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.”