Latest Ukraine-Russia war: Kremlin deals deal hammer blow to hopes of peace deal with territorial demands

In a dire warning to reporters at the White House on Thursday, President Donald Trump warned that the conflict in Ukraine could lead to World War III.

“Things like that end up in World War III. And I said that day, ‘You know, everybody keeps playing these games, you’re going to end up in World War III.’ And we don’t want that to happen.”

According to the Ukrainian military commander, Ukraine has retaken parts of the city of Kopyansk in the northeast and several surrounding villages.

In a statement on Friday, the commander of the Khartya National Guard, Ihor Obolinsky, said the operation involved encircling Russian forces.

“Today, you can say that the Russians in the city are completely disconnected. For a long time, they could not understand what was happening. But now they know that they are under siege,” he said.

In November, Russia announced that it had taken full control of Kopyansk, a claim that Ukraine denied.

A decision on the frozen Russian assets is expected to be announced at the EU summit on Friday, according to Reuters.

Germany has said it sees no alternative to a compensation loan to Ukraine using 210 billion euros in assets and 50 billion in guarantees.

A source added that no deal would “send a disastrous signal to Ukraine”.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday that Berlin had summoned Russia’s ambassador over allegations of “combined attacks”.

They include disinformation campaigns, espionage, cyber attacks and attempted sabotage.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “Therefore, this morning we summoned the Russian ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and clearly stated that we are closely monitoring Russia’s actions and will take action against them.”

Russia has denied involvement in hybrid warfare.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Ashgabat on Friday in this pool photo distributed by Russia’s state-run Sputnik agency.

The Ukrainian army announced that it targeted two Russian ships carrying military equipment and weapons in the Caspian Sea.

According to the statement of the Ukrainian Special Forces on Telegram on Friday, the ships named Composer Rachmaninoff and Askar-Sarydzha were sanctioned by the United States for carrying military cargo between Iran and Russia.

Reacting to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments that a referendum would be needed to agree on any territorial concessions, the Kremlin insisted that the entire Donbas region belongs to Russia.

The statement states that a ceasefire will be possible only after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbas region.

Mr. Zelensky said, American negotiators anticipate that Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is that Russian forces will not enter that region. He emphasized that this decision should be decided by public vote.

According to Sky News, the Secretary of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom has said that the country is rapidly developing plans for the possible occurrence of war.

“The shadow of war is once again knocking on the doors of Europe,” Al Carnes said during a visit to RAF Wyton on Thursday. “That’s the reality. We have to be prepared to prevent it.”

He said: Hostile intelligence activities including espionage, hacking and physical threats against the armed forces and the Ministry of Defense have increased by more than 50% in the last year.

The main suspects are Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

A new defense counter-intelligence unit will be launched to deal with this operation. Various branches of military intelligence are joining forces to streamline their response to hostilities.

“There is a lot of work going on between us now [Ministry of Defence]the cabinet office and the approach of the whole society and what the conflict means and what is the role of everyone in the society if we were to go to war and make the war.

“All in all, what’s their role if we’re caught in an existential crisis, and they need to know what they can and can’t do, and how do we mobilize the nation to support a military effort?

“Not just about deploying the military, but actually about protecting every inch of our territory. That’s going on right now, it’s developing rapidly. We need to move as fast as we can to make sure that’s preserved.”

Yuri Ushakov, Russia’s foreign policy assistant, has said that the Kremlin has not seen the revised American proposal after the participation of American representatives in the talks with Ukraine.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, he added that Moscow may not like parts of the proposal.

The country’s state news agency reported that Russia will discuss the outcome of negotiations with Ukraine with the United States in the near future.

In a serious warning to the West, the NATO Secretary General said: Europe must prepare for a conflict with Russia “on the scale that our grandparents endured”.

“We are Russia’s next target. And we are already in harm’s way,” Mark Rutte said in a speech in Berlin on Thursday.

Russia has brought war back to Europe and we must be prepared for the war that our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.