Vladimir Putin is open to peace, but a solution will not come as fast as the US wants it to, the Kremlin has said. Listen to Yalda Hakim and Richard Engel discuss Trump’s apparent volte-face on Ukraine on The World podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 30 April 2025 13:20, UK
A US-Ukraine minerals deal could be signed as soon as today, Bloomberg and the Financial Times report.
The exact terms of the deal remain unclear, with the deal hitting several stumbling blocks – including a now infamous bust-up between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House – which have delayed it.
The report is unconfirmed, and we’ve seen suggestions a signing is imminent on several occasions before.
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke is back answering your Ukraine war questions live.
Watch and follow the Q&A here:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allies to hit Moscow with additional sanctions „that will actually work“.
„Russian drones continue flying in the skies over Ukraine all morning. And so it goes every day,“ the Ukrainian leader said, sharing images of destruction across his country.
„That is why pressure on Russia is needed – strong additional sanctions that will actually work.
„It must be pressure, not just words or attempts at persuasion, that forces Russia to cease fire and end the war. Pressure from the United States, from Europe, from everyone in the world who believes there is no place for war on this planet.“
He also repeated calls for more air defence systems.
Later today, security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke will be answering your questions on the war in Ukraine.
Submit yours in the box at the top of the page.
Below is last week’s Q&A, where Clarke discussed how and why Vladimir Putin is looking to „keep Trump on the hook“, as well as looking at the real state of the Russian army following three years of war.
Watch it below, and join here at 1pm for this week’s…
These images show Ukrainian servicemen preparing to detonate a 500kg Russian bomb that landed on the Black Sea coast.
Russia has targeted infrastructure along the coast in a bid to hurt Ukrainian grain exports, after a UN-brokered deal to allow commercial shipping to use the Black Sea collapsed a year into the war.
A Ukrainian intelligence source has told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv has struck a Russian weapons factory.
The official said the strike was on the Murom Instrument-Building Plant, 300 km (186 miles) east of Moscow.
According to a European Union sanctions designation, the facility produces components for military ammunition.
By Yalda Hakim, lead world news presenter
So, after 100 days of Donald Trump the big question for me remains – does the US president have a coherent foreign policy or is he just winging it?
Let’s take his attitude to the war in Ukraine – here „inconsistent“ is perhaps the best description.
Back in February, he and vice president JD Vance humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by shouting at him in the Oval Office.
A few days later, I spoke to Zelenskyy in person when he confided to me that maybe he would have to step down if NATO could guarantee Ukraine membership – a man who perhaps sensed he could never win against a hostile Trump.
Yet, fast-forward to last weekend in Rome, and an iconic picture of the two men in close conversation at the Pope’s funeral.
This time round, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin on the receiving end of the presidential anger, blaming him for the fact that „too many people are dying!“
To Trump’s supporters, this is the smart negotiator, constantly repositioning himself as new information comes in, prior to pulling off a spectacular deal.
To his many detractors, it indicates a dangerous incoherence that is replicated in other key areas, including tariffs as well as his relationship with his allies in Europe and his foes in Beijing.
Read Yalda’s full piece here.
Russia and North Korea have started building a road bridge that will connect the two countries that will span the Tumen river – the latest in a series of measures to bring the two countries closer together.
The bridge is being built near the existing „Friendship Bridge“, a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean war.
„The significance goes far beyond just an engineering task,“ Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was quoted as saying by state media.
„It symbolises our common desire to strengthen friendly, good-neighbourly relations and increase inter-regional cooperation.“
The new road bridge will be 850 metres long and link up with the Russian road system, with reports suggesting it will be finished by this time next year.
As we reported earlier, some 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine (see 6.52 post).
More now from Moscow.
The Kremlin says it is Russia’s duty to achieve victory in the war against Ukraine.
„What we are doing – the special military operation, all of Putin’s decisions – are absolutely correct,“ spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
„And it is our duty to be victorious,“ he added.
Vladimir Putin is open to peace and intense work is under way to achieve it, but a solution will not come as fast as the US wants it to, the Kremlin has said.
When asked by Sky’s Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett about US efforts to mediate the peace, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conflict was so complicated that the quick progress the White House wants would be difficult to achieve.
„We understand that Washington is willing to achieve a quick success in this process, but at the same time we hope for understanding that the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is too complicated [a process] to be done overnight, there are lots of details and lots of small things that need to be tackled before the settlement,“ he said.
Peskov also said Moscow must achieve its aims in Ukraine, but also – apparently in contradiction with that claim – said Russia was ready to have direct negotiations with Kyiv over ending the war.
He added that any settlement had to be made with Ukraine and not the US, although he said Moscow is grateful to the Trump administration for its efforts to secure peace, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.
„A peace deal should be done with Ukraine and not with America. America is trying to mediate and we are grateful… a couple of days ago President Putin renewed his readiness for direct negotiations with the Ukrainians without any initial conditions. This readiness is still active,“ he said, adding that Kyiv has not responded.
As we reported in our last post, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said Washington would walk away from peace talks unless progress is made.
Donald Trump initially said he wanted to end the war „in a day“, and has since struggled to get any meaningful ceasefire commitments out of Moscow, despite Kyiv’s willingness.
Reports suggested he wanted peace by Easter, and his recent rhetoric has seen him turn on Putin – suggesting he may be „tapping him along“.
You can scroll a timeline of Trump’s attempts to broker peace below…
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