Ukraine Russia war latest: Trump says Putin ‘dragging his feet’ as Moscow appears to delay Black Sea truce

Russia’s defence ministry says its forces destroyed not less than 9 Ukrainian drones in a single day, together with two over the waters of the Black Sea.

The assertion comes simply hours after the US stated it had struck offers with Ukraine and Russia to pause their assaults over the Black Sea area and towards one another’s vitality services.

The officers didn’t point out when the Black Sea offers would come into impact.

It was not instantly clear what number of drones have been launched over Russia in a single day and there have been no speedy studies of hits on Black Sea or vitality targets.

Russian forces continued to struggle on a number of factors on the Ukrainian frontline however didn’t advance up to now 24 hours, based on the US-based suppose tank The Institute for the Examine of Battle.

In its predominant conflict effort in japanese Ukraine, Russian forces continued offensive operations within the Kharkiv course yesterday by conducting floor assaults northeast of the town, the ISW stated in its newest evaluation.

Russia additionally continued offensive operations within the Kupiansk course, east of Kupiansk close to Petropavlivka; and southeast of Kupiansk close to Stepova Novoselivka, however didn’t make confirmed advances.

In Donetsk, Russian forces carried out offensive operations northeast of Siversk close to Hryhorivka and Bilohorivka, east of Siversk close to Verkhnokamyanske, and southeast of Siversk close to Ivano-Daryivka up to now 48 hours.

The Russian defence ministry claimed yesterday that its forces have seized Myrne, northeast of Lyman, although there was no affirmation from Ukraine.

Russia’s new ambassador to the USA Alexander Darchiev will go away for his put up in Washington at this time, Russia’s state-run TASS information company reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

Russian president Vladimir Putin appointed Mr Darchiev, a veteran diplomat identified up to now for public denunciations of the West, as ambassador to the USA on 6 March.

Russia has had no ambassador in Washington since final October when the earlier envoy, Anatoly Antonov, left his put up.

Ukraine’s delegation in Saudi Arabia has not absolutely agreed to the concept of lifting sanctions as a situation for a maritime ceasefire, a Ukrainian authorities supply advised AP, arguing that Russia has finished nothing to warrant having the monetary penalties rolled again.

The official has additionally confirmed Kyiv’s objection to the exclusion of European nations from the sanctions discussions, regardless of most of them being inside the European Union’s accountability.

Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov warned that Kyiv would see the deployment of Russian warships within the western Black Sea as a “violation of the dedication to make sure secure navigation” there and “a menace to the nationwide safety of Ukraine”.

“On this case, Ukraine can have full proper to train proper to self-defence,” he stated.

Moscow is now open to the revival of the Black Sea transport deal however warned that its pursuits have to be protected, Russian international minister Sergei Lavrov has stated.

“We wish the grain and fertiliser market to be predictable, in order that nobody tries to ‘ward us off’ from it,” Mr Lavrov advised the Russian state Channel One tv.

“Not solely as a result of we wish… to make a legit revenue in honest competitors, but additionally as a result of we’re involved in regards to the meals safety state of affairs in Africa and different nations of the World South,” he stated.

However the Kremlin warned that the Black Sea deal may solely be carried out after sanctions towards the Russian Agricultural Financial institution and different monetary organisations concerned in meals and fertiliser commerce are lifted and their entry to the SWIFT system of worldwide funds is ensured.

The deal brokered by the US, which the Trump administration says has been agreed to in precept by either side of the conflict, emphasises that inspections of business ships can be crucial to make sure they don’t seem to be used for navy functions.

The White Home, in an obvious reference to Moscow’s calls for, stated that the US “will assist restore Russia’s entry to the world marketplace for agricultural and fertiliser exports, decrease maritime insurance coverage prices and improve entry to ports and fee techniques for such transactions”.

British troops despatched to Ukraine as a part of a deliberate peacekeeping power may face “lawfare” underneath human rights laws, Tory MPs have warned.

They known as on the defence secretary to create an exemption from the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR) for any troopers despatched to the area.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin studies:

Donald Trump has stated he thought Russia wished to finish its conflict towards Ukraine however acknowledged that Moscow was not providing swift progress on that entrance.

“I believe that Russia desires to see an finish to it, but it surely might be they’re dragging their toes. I’ve finished it through the years,” he stated in an interview with Newsmax final evening.

Individually, he advised reporters that “we’re making loads of progress” in peace talks whereas including that there was “great animosity” within the talks.

“There’s loads of hatred, as you possibly can in all probability inform, and it permits for folks to get collectively, mediated, arbitrated, and see if we are able to get it stopped. And I believe it should work,” Mr Trump stated.

In an Impartial Premium piece, James Jones writes:

If you think about receiving the information that you simply’re on the kill record of one of many world’s cruellest dictators, you maybe don’t think about it whereas holding a glass of champagne. However, in January 2023, that’s precisely – or, virtually precisely – what occurred to Christo Grozev, an internationally famend investigative journalist whom I had been filming for a documentary about his work for months, and who advised me at a glitzy awards ceremony in New York that Vladimir Putin wished him lifeless.

The Bulgarian-born journalist had lengthy been rustling feathers on the Kremlin – his distinctive work for Bellingcat (a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that Grozev headed up from 2015) uncovered Putin’s killing community of spies and assassins.

Often known as a “modern-day Sherlock”, he additionally unmasked the perpetrators concerned in poisoning opposition chief Alexei Navalny and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, successful him international accolades. Nonetheless, neither of us fairly anticipated that, whereas the remainder of the room waited for his or her wine to be topped up, the grim actuality of the state of affairs can be revealed. He merely stated, “I can’t go residence.” The message stated that intelligence had revealed there might be a “purple crew” ready for him at residence in Vienna, Austria. Now, the hunter had turn out to be the hunted.

By the point Grozev turned one in every of Putin’s most wished, I’d been following him round with a digicam for greater than a yr. We have been engaged on a documentary – Kill Record: Hunted by Putin’s Spies – which began out as a narrative about Bellingcat.

They have been unparalleled of their work utilizing open supply investigation to determine, monitor and expose assassins and spies working for the dictator throughout Europe. Over the three years we have been filming, the doc went far past that transient. Moderately than explaining the poison programme itself, the narrative modified. What we answered was what you threat if you communicate out towards the regime – the threats, the worry and the very human price of placing your self on the road to reveal the reality.

We’d taken fairly excessive safety measures from the very starting … I half satisfied myself that we have been being excessive; that nobody actually cared about what we have been doing. You’re feeling such as you’re appearing in a spy film. After which police arrested a part of a Bulgarian spy ring residing within the UK. After which all of it turned actual.

“We’re making loads of progress,” Donald Trump advised reporters on Tuesday, as talks concluded in Saudi Arabia.

“There’s loads of hatred, as you possibly can in all probability inform, and it permits for folks to get collectively, mediated, arbitrated, and see if we are able to get it stopped. And I believe it should work.”