Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/Reuters
Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Vladimir Putin has said any western troops placed in Ukraine would be “legitimate targets” for Russian strikes, upping the stakes as Kyiv’s allies scramble to come up with a convincing offer of postwar support to Ukraine (10:05, 13:27).
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the European planning on security guarantees for Ukraine to accelerate (10:05), as he met with Slovakia’s Robert Fico to discuss the contentious issue of energy imports (16:25, 17:10, 18:06), amid growing pressure from US president Donald Trump on Europe to drop Russian gas and oil supplies (9:58, 10:34, 11:46).
EU leaders have suggested the bloc was planning to step up its work on the next round of sanctions against Russia, with officials set to travel to Washington for talks with their US counterparts (12:40, 13:13).
In other news,
Portuguese police have confirmed that three Britons were among the 16 people killed in Lisbon on Wednesday evening when one of the city’s funicular streetcars derailed and hurtled down a hill and into a building in what Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, described as “one of the biggest tragedies in our recent history”.
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Zelenskyy, Fico agree to disagree on energy in tense high-stake talks in Uzhhorod
During a tense press conference in Uzhhorod, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Slovakia’s Fico offered contrasting views on their energy cooperation, with the Ukrainian president repeatedly stressing the US president Donald Trump’s demand for Europeans to stop importing Russian energy sources to back its assertive position.
In his comments, Zelenskyy repeated his calls to put more pressure on Russia to end the war, accusing it of unnecessarily prolonging the conflict by not taking up the offers of peace talks.
On the contentious issue of energy, Zelenskyy repeatedly referenced Trump’s comments, saying that Ukraine was ready to work with Slovakia to ensure energy stability, but “with one condition: not from Russia.” “That’s because of the war; full stop.”
He added that Ukraine would continue to respond to Russian attacks on its energy systems, even if this could cause disruption in other countries – a thorny issue for Slovakia, which had been affected by similar exchanges of fire.
Zelenskyy also pointedly referenced the Chinese military parade earlier this week that Fico attended earlier this week, expressing his concern it could not only represent the past, but a pessimistic glimpse of the future.
In his comments, Fico insisted that despite differences in opinions between the two countries, his focus was on making the bilateral relations work on the basis of mutual respect.
He said there was “enormous” potential for cooperation on energy with potential to expand some connections, even if the two countries still have “quite different opinions” on this topic.
“This is a task for all of us, to find a system that will ensure that every country has a safe, high-quality energy supply at reasonable prices, and that countries will not take measures to harm each other,” he said.
But he also defended his engagement with Russia’s Putin, saying that “we may have a different view on this, but one day the war will end, and we all hope it will be very soon, and we will need to normalise relations with Russia, and we simply talk about possibilities in advance.”
Fico also declined a suggestion that he talked with Putin about some sort energy blockade of Ukraine, saying it was “false.”
The Slovak prime minister noted Trump’s reported comments about European purchases of Russian energy supplies, but didn’t elaborate further.
Hitting a more conciliatory tone, Fico wished Ukraine to quickly find a just, long-term peace settlement in its war with Russia, and endorsed Ukraine’s plans to join the EU, offering to share the Slovak experiences.
A further Slovak-Ukrainian ministerial meeting is expected in late October.
Updated
In a short summary after the meeting, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said the pair talked about yesterday’s call between the Coalition of the Willing and US president Donald Trump, and potential ways of advancing peace talks with Russia.
In return, Slovakia’s Fico briefed him on his conversations with Putin and Xi in China, Zelenskyy said.
“A separate and important topic was Europe’s energy independence – Russian oil, just as Russian gas, has no future,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president also said that Fico backed Ukraine’s ambitions to join the European Union, as the formal process currently remains blocked by Hungary.
Updated
Ukraine's Zelenskyy meets Slovakia's Fico for talks on Russian war, energy
After meeting the European Council’s António Costa earlier, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been taking parts in talks with Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico.
The pair was often at odds in recent years, particularly over relations with Russia, with Fico repeatedly engaging and meeting in person with Vladimir Putin and energy as Slovakia continues to heavily rely on Russian energy imports.
Fico met with Putin in China earlier this week, calling for “standardisation” of relations with Russia, including better economic relations; an isolated view within the European Union.
In first reaction from the meeting, Zelenskyy reportedly told Ukrinform agency that the talks were “substantive.”
The pair was expected to take part in a press conference, so I will look out for any news lines that come out of it when it happens.
Updated
France puts money into 'Nostradamus' to help with its early defence warning systems
France’s defence ministry is boosting investment in a 1990s radar system, as part of Paris’s push to bolster its early warning defences and curb Europe’s reliance on the United States, after politicians admitted the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza “gave them a lot to think about.”
The Nostradamus system, developed in 1995, is Europe’s only “over-the-horizon” radar which can see as far as Moscow, AFP reported. Developed in 1995, it was later sidelined, but is now making its unusual comeback.
The system can track both hypersonic missiles, like those fired from Iran, and slow-moving objects at high altitude, such as the Chinese balloon shot down over the United States in February 2023.
AFP noted that president Emmanuel Macron, who has long urged greater European sovereignty, called in July for a 3.5-billion-euro ($4-billion) spending boost.
Of that, funding for Nostradamus is earmarked for an initial two million euros, with a further 50 million euros set to follow.
The aim is to bring Nostradamus to full capacity by mid-2028 by linking it to the air operations command system, said air force chief of staff general Jerome Bellanger.
A Council of Europe delegation denounced the arrest of a Turkish human rights and LGBTQ+ activist who was detained after delivering a speech critical of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government at a session of Europe’s leading human rights body.
Enes Hocaogullari was arrested last month after he criticised the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and other opposition figures. The 23-year-old activist also spoke out against alleged police violence during protests that erupted following Imamoglu’s arrest.
Marc Cools, president of a delegation of the Council of Europe’s local and regional authorities congress, said there was no legal justification for Hocaogullari’s prosecution or detention. “Silencing Enes is silencing youth – and silencing youth is silencing democracy itself,” Cools said after visiting Hocaogullari in prison and meeting a day earlier with Turkey’s deputy justice minister and other officials in Ankara.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that Europe can catch up in the global artificial intelligence race as he inaugurated the continent’s fastest supercomputer, AFP reports.
“We in Germany, and we in Europe, have every opportunity to catch up and then keep pace” with the US and China, he said at the inauguration of the Jupiter computer which will be able to perform at least one quintillion (or one billion billion) calculations per second.
Updated
The US Department of Defense informed European countries last week that military support under a program known as Section 333 will be cut to zero from the next fiscal year, a Lithuanian defence ministry official said, Reuters reports.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the US will phase out some security assistance for European countries near the border with Russia, raising concerns among key recipients such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia - former Soviet republics now in NATO and the European Union.
Section 333 is an authority under which the US provides training and equipment to enhance the security of partner states.
US president Donald Trump’s trade deals will stay in place despite an ongoing legal challenge to his sweeping tariffs, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC in an interview.
“These big deals are going to stay. We have lots of other authorities that the president can use,” Lutnick said. “The 232s – so everything we just did with Japan – that holds, right? That’s durable, that stays. Europe – that stays. These are autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, those all stay.”
The EU reached a deal with the US over the summer for 15% tariffs to be imposed on European exports, while some EU tariffs on US goods would be scrapped. The deal avoided threatened Trump tariffs of 30%, but many financial institutions remarked on what they believe is an “asymmetrical deal” that favours the US.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman, Georgiy Tykhy, has slammed Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a foreign peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Speaking earlier today, Putin said Russia would consider western troops in Ukraine to be “legitimate targets”.
“He’s not the one to decide,” Tykhy said. “Putin has made a mistake by deciding that he can place his troops across the border in Ukraine, and now it is none of his business whom Ukraine invites to its territory to protect its security,” he said at a briefing in response to a question by AFP.
Updated
Key event
The German government plans to seek parliamentary approval for some 80 defence projects by the end of the year, Reuters reports, including for the purchase of additional Eurofighter jets and Patriot and Iris-T SLM missiles, a document showed.
The document lists 81 defence projects that surpass the threshold of €25m (£21.5m), beyond which the purchases need to be approved by parliament’s budget committee.
The list includes the so-called tranche 5 of Eurofighter jets, which according to the former chancellor Olaf Scholz was meant to comprise 20 aircraft, as well as Puma infantry fighting vehicles, Boxer armoured personnel carriers and many other weapons.
Updated
An Italian teenager nicknamed “God’s influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online will become the first millennial saint on Sunday at a canonisation attended by thousands of pilgrims, AFP reports.
Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 aged 15, will be raised to sainthood by Pope Leo XIV in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The teenager’s body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.
His canonisation, initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died, will be watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.
Updated
'Thousands' of troops could be deployed as part of guarantees for Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
Speaking at the same press conference, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “thousands” of western troops could be deployed as part of security guarantees in a peace deal to end the war with Russia, AFP reported.
“It will definitely not be single digits, but in the thousands. And that is a fact, but it is still a little too early to talk about it,” he said.
Updated
EU officials to travel to Washington for talks on sanctions, EU's Costa says
A delegation of EU officials will travel to Washington to work with the US on further sanctions on Russia, European Council president António Costa said at a joint press conference with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
He said:
“We demonstrated that the coalition is not only willing, but it’s able to deliver; in the nutshell we are ready for the day after [the ceasefire/peace deal is agreed].
But for that day to come, we must push Putin to the negotiating table. …
Only more pressure can change this course, and we are ready to do more. We are working with United States and other like minded partners to increase our pressure through further sanctions – direct sanctions and secondary sanctions, more economic measures to push Russia to stop this war, to stop killing people, to stop this threat in Ukraine.
The work is starting in Brussels on the new sanctions package, and a European team is travelling to Washington DC to work with our American friends.”
Updated
The European Commission is briefing the media now, answering questions about the commission president’s Ursula von der Leyen participation in yesterday’s meeting of the Coalition of the Willing and her separate phone call with US vice-president JD Vance.
Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho says they discussed sanctions, as she argued:
“We’ve been seeing that the sanctions are effective, and we will continue, therefore, to put pressure on Russia’s war economy, increase the cost for Russia for not engaging in peace talks, and to eventually bring president Putin to the negotiating table.”
Asked if there was a specific discussion on China, she added, somewhat cryptically:
“As you know, we are also looking into the circumvention of sanctions, and in this sense, we’ve also brought this subject up, notably when president von der Leyen was in China. This is something that is discussed, and it is part of the overall discussion when it comes to sanctions.”
'We've lost India and Russia to deeper, darkest China', Trump says
US president Donald Trump has just posted on his Truth Social account, saying:
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together! President Donald J. Trump”
Portuguese police confirms nationalities of Lisbon funicular crash victims
In the last few minutes, there has been an updated report about the nationalities of the 16 victims of the crash, with police confirming that three British nationals died in the accident.
Other victims included five Portugese nationals, two South Koreans, two Canadians, as well as one Ukrainian, one American, one French and one Swiss citizen, RTP reported.
Updated
Preliminary report into Lisbon funicular crash expected today
In other news, Portuguese accident investigators are today due to release their preliminary report into the funicular railway crash that killed 16 people and injured 21 others on Wednesday evening.
The accident, described by the country’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, as “one of the biggest tragedies in our recent history”, happened shortly after 6pm when one of the Elevador da Glória’s two cars derailed and hurtled down a hill and into a building in the centre of the Portuguese capital.
The wreckage of the vehicle was removed from the scene on Thursday night and taken in police custody to be examined.
The government’s Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations said it has concluded its analysis of the wreckage and would issue a preliminary technical report on Friday.
Chief police investigator Nelson Oliveira said a preliminary police report, which has a broader scope, is expected within 45 days.
Investigators have not found any evidence of sabotage, leaving mechanical failures or maintenance issues among the possible causes.
The Glória line carries about 3 million people annually, both tourists and residents. Its two cars, each capable of carrying about 40 people, are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, with traction provided by electric motors on the cars.
Europe has been unable to convert Trump's stated frustration with Putin into action - analysis
Diplomatic editor
Europe has been desperate to ensure Trump does not wash his hands of the war, but it has been unable to convert Trump’s stated frustration with Putin into a plan to try to strangle the Russian economy.
Europe has been hoping for months that Trump would activate long-promised sweeping economic sanctions on countries that import Russian oil.
The 50% tariffs that the US imposed on India, partly for importing Russian oil, appear to have driven the traditionally non-aligned Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, closer into the arms of China and Russia.
Stung by his diplomatic failure so far, Trump has given the impression of wanting to focus on domestic policy, including crime and the economy.
The US was represented at the Paris talks by Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who also met Ukraine’s Zelenskyy separately.
In a breakthrough of sorts, the plan for Europeans to buy US arms for use in Ukraine has started to bear fruit. On 28 August, the US state department announced the delivery of 3,350 ERAM long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, worth $825m (£615m, €705m).
The funding came from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the US, but the financial contribution of each country was not disclosed. The ERAM missiles have a range similar to that of the Franco-British Scalp-EG missiles, which Ukraine fired at occupied Crimea and the Russian region of Kursk.
Updated
Another Putin-Trump meeting could be organised 'very quickly,' Kremlin says
Here is the full quote from the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, via Reuters.
“I have no doubt that if the presidents consider it necessary, their meeting can be organised very quickly. Just as the meeting in Alaska was quickly organised,” Peskov told the Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty, referring to last month’s Trump-Putin summit.
Peskov also said that working contacts between the two countries were taking place all the time.
Oh-oh.
We are just getting a line from the Kremlin, via Ria and Reuters news agencies, that “the next round of Putin-Trump talks are possible in the near future.”
I will bring you the full quote when we have it. One to watch.
Trump is 'disappointed some countries still buy Russian oil,' Zelenskyy says, as he calls for 'stronger Europe'
Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy just posted a few lines from his speech at an Italian economic conference, alongside a clip of his speech.
He said:
“President Trump expects a stronger Europe with closer US coordination. But he’s disappointed some countries still buy Russian oil, funding Putin’s war machine. Energy independence from Russia is vital for Europe’s security and is a key to strong relations with the US.”
He also insisted that Ukraine needed “more systems to shoot down missiles and drones, and modern fight jets,” as he warned that “Russia’s main tool of war is killing civilians.”
Limiting their ability to attack means moving closer to peace.
Zelenskyy also said that Trump confirmed that “America is ready to take part” in the new security guarantees for Ukraine.
Updated
Putin says western troops in Ukraine would be 'legitimate targets' as he repeats offer to host talks in Moscow
Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared to be unfazed by the proposals, telling an economic forum in Vladivostok instead that any western troops in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets for destruction.”
“If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate targets,” Putin said.
Moscow has long rejected any suggestion of foreign troops in Ukraine, stressing it would be unacceptable and pose a threat to its national security.
Putin further argued that “if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop,” as he insisted Russia would “comply” with any agreement reached “in full.”
The Russian president also repeated his – already rejected – offer to host future peace talks in Moscow, claiming he would “definitely provide working conditions and security.”
(It’s not impossible to see why Zelenskyy wouldn’t necessarily trust any of that given the history between the two countries.)
Putin also appeared to reject a suggestion of holding that meeting elsewhere.
“But if they tell us: ’we want to meet with you, but you have to go somewhere else for this meeting’, it seems to me that these are simply excessive requests on us,” he said.
Updated
Work on security guarantees for Ukraine needs to accelerate, Ukraine's Zelenskyy says
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the pace of work on security guarantees for Ukraine needed to be accelerated after what he called a “meaningful” conversation with Nato chief Mark Rutte.
“It is important to be as productive as possible together with America. It is important to strengthen our air defence,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
His comments come a day after a summit of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris where 26 nations have pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land and sea and in the air, as declared by France’s Macron.
Macron initially said the 26 nations – which he did not name – would deploy to Ukraine. But he later said some countries would provide guarantees while remaining outside Ukraine, for example by helping to train and equip Kyiv’s forces. He did not say how many troops would be involved in the guarantees.
Morning opening: Energy diplomacy
US president Donald Trump’s reported suggestion that Europe should stop purchasing Russian oil altogether as quickly as possible opens up a new dynamic in the continent’s efforts to end the war.
According to Finland’s influential president Alexander Stubb and White House officials, Trump told the Coalition of the Willing that European countries should not be spending any money on fuel sales from Russia to help refund Moscow’s war machine amid ongoing aggression on Ukraine.
The EU has already made plans to phase out Russian energy by the end of 2027, but Trump seems to be suggesting that they should be accelerated.
The EU’s energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen said this morning that “even when there is peace, it is my opinion that we should still not import” from Russia, and confirmed he would meet with US energy security Chris Wright to discuss it further next week.
Expect the issue to feature prominently on the agenda today, as fresh on the back of that declaration Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with the European Council’s António Costa and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico.
Slovakia, together with Hungary, is still heavily reliant on Russian gas imports and repeatedly criticised Ukraine for attacks on the Russian energy infrastructure.
Fico has also faced criticism this week for breaking ranks with the EU and taking part in a military parade in China, meeting Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for bilateral talks.
During his chat with the Russian president in particular, he at times openly criticised the EU, and talked about the need to “standardise” the relationship with Russia, a view very much not shared by the rest of the bloc. Expect this meeting to get lively.
Let’s see what the day brings us. I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Friday, 5 September 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
