Summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
Trump showed hesitance on supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. He said: “One of the reasons we want to get this war over is…that it’s not easy for us to give you … massive numbers of very powerful weapons … Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks.”
Zelenskyy emphasized Nato and security guarantees as part of any peace deal with Russia. “First of all, I think we need to sit and speak. The second point, we need ceasefire… We are ready to speak in any kind of format,” he said, adding: “Nato, for Ukrainians, is very important… But the most important thing…for people in Ukraine, which are under each day’s attacks, to have really strong security guarantees.”
Trump said that Melania Trump’s push to help return displaced Ukrainian children in the war was her own decision. “She wanted to do it. She just felt very strongly about the children. And she’s done a really good job,” Trump said. Last week, the first lady announced the return of the children followed an “open channel of communication” she had with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Trump called himself the “mediator president,” adding: “I love solving wars.” Talking about his mediating efforts around the world, he said: “This is number nine. Okay, this will be number nine for me. I’ve solved eight, including the Middle East… I didn’t get a Nobel Prize…so I don’t care about all that stuff. I just care about saving lives. But this will be number nine.”
Zelenksyy said that he believes Trump has a “big chance to finish this war.” Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy added: “President Trump really showed for the world that he can manage [a] ceasefire in [the] Middle East and that’s why I hope that he will do this and we will hve a big success for Ukraine… I hope that President Trump can manage it.”
Trump also said that there is a lot of “bad blood” between Zelenskyyy and Putin. ‘These two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody. So one way or the other we’ll be involved in threes, but it may be separated,” Trump said.
Hungary’s government has made clear it will not arrest Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, if he arrives in Budapest for peace talks. Speaking to state radio on Friday, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán hailed the fact his country would host the meeting.
The US is supportive of a new IMF lending programme for Ukraine and the European Union initiative to extend a loan to Kyiv based on Russian central bank assets immobilised in the west, European economic commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday. Dombrovskis, who is in charge of the 27-nation EU’s economic policy, met with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine.
Russia and the United States should build a ‘Putin-Trump’ rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to link their countries, unlock joint exploration of natural resources and “symbolise unity”, a Kremlin envoy has suggested. The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, envisages a construction project costing $8 billion, funded by Moscow and “international partners”, to build a 70 mile (112 km) rail and cargo link in under eight years.
Fifteen members of a Ukrainian militia group were convicted by a Russian military court on Friday of taking part in “a terrorist organisation” and sentenced to between 15 and 21 years in a maximum security penal colony, Russia’s prosecutor general said. The men were members of Ukraine’s Aidar Battalion who were captured in 2022.
Pjotr Sauer Russian affairs reporter and Andrew Roth in Washington:
Donald Trump has played down hopes that he will supply Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, saying during a White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the US may need them for a future conflict.
Responding to a question on whether the US would send the cruise missiles requested by Ukraine, Trump said: “We need Tomahawks and we need a lot of other things that we’ve been sending over the last four years to Ukraine.”
“It’s not easy for us to give [Ukraine] … massive numbers of very powerful weapons,” he said. “Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks.”
Trump’s doubtful tone on the cruise missiles follows a surprise phone call with Vladimir Putin on Friday during which the Russian leader told Trump that supplying the Tomahawks would damage US-Russian relations. His position on supplying Ukraine with weapons has changed a number of times since he returned to office in January, often following negotiations with Putin or European backers of Ukraine.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House:
Summary: Trump hesitant about giving Tomahawks to Ukraine, saying 'hopefully they won't need it'
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy finished speaking to reporters ahead of their bilateral lunch in which they are expected to discuss Ukraine’s request for US Tomahawks. Here’s a look at where things stand:
Trump showed hesitance on supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. He said: “One of the reasons we want to get this war over is…that it’s not easy for us to give you … massive numbers of very powerful weapons … Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks.”
Zelenskyy emphasized Nato and security guarantees as part of any peace deal with Russia. “First of all, I think we need to sit and speak. The second point, we need ceasefire… We are ready to speak in any kind of format,” he said, adding: “Nato, for Ukrainians, is very important… But the most important thing…for people in Ukraine, which are under each day’s attacks, to have really strong security guarantees.”
Trump said that Melania Trump’s push to help return displaced Ukrainian children in the war was her own decision. “She wanted to do it. She just felt very strongly about the children. And she’s done a really good job,” Trump said. Last week, the first lady announced the return of the children followed an “open channel of communication” she had with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Trump called himself the “mediator president,” adding: “I love solving wars.” Talking about his mediating efforts around the world, he said: “This is number nine. Okay, this will be number nine for me. I’ve solved eight, including the Middle East… I didn’t get a Nobel Prize…so I don’t care about all that stuff. I just care about saving lives. But this will be number nine.”
Zelenksyy said that he believes Trump has a “big chance to finish this war.” Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy added: “President Trump really showed for the world that he can manage [a] ceasefire in [the] Middle East and that’s why I hope that he will do this and we will hve a big success for Ukraine… I hope that President Trump can manage it.”
Trump also said that there is a lot of “bad blood” between Zelenskyyy and Putin. ‘These two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody. So one way or the other we’ll be involved in threes, but it may be separated,” Trump said.
Updated
In response to a question on whether he is concerned that Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to buy himself more time, Donald Trump said:
“Yes I am but you know, I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well, so it’s possible, yeah, little time. It’s all right. But I think that I’m pretty good at this stuff.”
He added: “I think that he wants to make a deal. I made eight of them. I’m going to make a ninth. I think he wants to make a deal.”
Updated
Donald Trump said: “I am the mediator president,” adding: “I love solving wars.”
“I’m mediating not an easy situation.. It’s a lot easier when people understand each other, when they get together, when they like each other. We don’t necessarily have that situation,” he told reporters.
Trump went on to talk about his mediating efforts across various conflicts around the world.
“This is number nine. Okay, this will be number nine for me. I’ve solved eight, including the Middle East… I didn’t get a Nobel Prize…so I don’t care about all that stuff. I just care about saving lives. But this will be number nine,” he said.
Trump hesitant on supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles Zelenskyy is pushing for
Donald Trump showed hesitance on supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, saying: “One of the reasons we want to get this war over is…that it’s not easy for us to give you … massive numbers of very powerful weapons … Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks.”
He went on to add: “We’re going to be talking about tomahawks and would much rather have them not need Tomahawks. [We] would much rather have the war be over, to be honest. Because, you know, we’re in it to get the war over… We’re selling a lot of different types of weapons, as you know, to the European Union. We’re not in it for that. We’re in it to get it over.”
Updated
Donald Trump said that said that Melania Trump’s push to help return displaced Ukrainian children in the war was her own decision.
“She wanted to do it. She just felt very strongly about the children. And she’s done a really good job,” Trump said.
“She felt very strongly about the children. She thinks about the children all the time,” he added.
Last week, the first lady announced that Ukrainian children who were displaced had been reunited with their families, adding that their return came after she had an “open channel of communication” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In response to a question on what concessions Ukraine is willing to make in order to achieve peace with Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “First of all, I think we need to sit and speak. The second point, we need ceasefire… As I said previously said, we are ready to speak in any kind of format, bilateral, trilateral, doesn’t matter.”
“NATO, for Ukrainians, is very important. Of course, it’s our decision, decisions of allies, to decide where we are, yes, but the most important thing…for people in Ukraine, which are under each day’s attacks, to have really strong security guarantees,” he added.
“Weapons is very important. Allies on our side is very important. And between us, for us, bilateral security guarantees between me and president Trump is very important,” Zelenskyy continued.
Trump talks of a lot of 'bad blood' between Putin and Zelenskyy
Donald Trump said that there is a lot of “bad blood” between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyyy and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
‘These two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody. So one way or the other we’ll be involved in threes, but it may be separated,” Trump said.
“Well, let’s see what happens. I mean, you know what? I think he will. I think that president Putin wants to end the war, or I wouldn’t be talking this way,” he added.
Updated
In response to a question from a pool reporter on whether he thinks he will be able to convince Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, Donald Trump nodded in agreement.
Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy then proceeded to head indoors to the White House.
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just arrived at the White House.
He was greeted by Donald Trump who patted Zelenskyy on the back as they posed for cameras.
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with US president Donald Trump shortly after 1pm EST.
In a less formal arrangement than the previous two meetings in the Oval Office, the pair are set to spend a working lunch in the Cabinet Room.
Zelenskyy will ask Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles and aim to persuade Trump to shift from diplomacy and instead towards greater military pressure on Putin’s Russia.
The day so far
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will ask Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles on Friday but the surprise announcement that the US president will meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest appeared to dim the Ukrainian president’s chance of securing the long-range weapons. Trump announced the summit after a more than two-hour phone conversation with Putin about Russia’s war in Ukraine on Thursday, which he said was productive.
Hungary’s government has made clear it will not arrest Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, if he arrives in Budapest for peace talks. Speaking to state radio on Friday, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán hailed the fact his country would host the meeting.
The US is supportive of a new IMF lending programme for Ukraine and the European Union initiative to extend a loan to Kyiv based on Russian central bank assets immobilised in the west, European economic commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday. Dombrovskis, who is in charge of the 27-nation EU’s economic policy, met with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine.
Russia and the United States should build a ‘Putin-Trump’ rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to link their countries, unlock joint exploration of natural resources and “symbolise unity”, a Kremlin envoy has suggested. The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, envisages a construction project costing $8 billion, funded by Moscow and “international partners”, to build a 70 mile (112 km) rail and cargo link in under eight years.
Fifteen members of a Ukrainian militia group were convicted by a Russian military court on Friday of taking part in “a terrorist organisation” and sentenced to between 15 and 21 years in a maximum security penal colony, Russia’s prosecutor general said. The men were members of Ukraine’s Aidar Battalion who were captured in 2022.
Russia said on Friday it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, including areas Kyiv had retaken three years ago in a surprise counteroffensive. The Russian army said its forces had captured the villages of Pishchane and Tykhe in Kharkiv and Pryvillia in Dnipropetrovsk.
German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday the planned Budapest talks between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin are a second attempt to get Putin to negotiate seriously, but stressed that Ukraine must be involved in any decision. Wadephul made the remarks during his visit to Ankara, where he met his Turkish counterpart.
Two Ukrainian men pleaded not guilty on Friday to plotting fires earlier this year at properties linked to UK prime minister Keir Starmer. Roman Lavrynovych and Petro Pochynok are accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life between April and May. They are charged along with Stanislav Carpiuc, a Ukraine-born Romanian national, who did not enter a plea.
Portugal’s parliament approved on Friday a bill to ban face veils used for “gender or religious motives” in most public spaces that was proposed by the far-right Chega party and effectively targets burqas and niqabs worn by Muslim women. Under the bill, proposed fines for wearing face veils in public would range between 200 euros and 4,000 euros.
Giorgia Meloni has condemned the boss of Italy’s biggest trade union after he referred to the prime minister as the “courtesan” of Donald Trump. Maurizio Landini, the leader of CGIL, which organised several pro-Palestinian protests before the Gaza ceasefire deal, made the remarks on TV on Tuesday, the day after world leaders, including Meloni, met in Egypt for a Middle East peace summit.
France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened a formal probe into four men arrested by police on suspicion of plotting to attack an exiled Russian opposition figure, his office said on Friday. A prosecutor’s spokesperson declined to identify the Russian opponent allegedly targeted, though Biarritz-based Vladimir Osechkin, who is Russian, said on his Telegram account the plot was directed against him, Reuters reported.
France imposed a ban on cattle exports and events such as bullfighting, the agriculture ministry said on Friday as it tries to contain the highly contagious lumpy skin disease sweeping through farms in the country for the first time. Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production.
German finance minister Lars Klingbeil and Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel have both backed chancellor Friedrich Merz’s call for a European stock exchange to support European companies and growth. Nagel, speaking on a panel with Klingbeil on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington on Friday, said it would send a strong signal in support of Europe as a business location.
A Polish court on Friday blocked the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a handover that Poland’s prime minister has said isn’t in his country’s interest. The 46-year-old suspect, who has been identified only as Volodymyr Z in line with local privacy rules, was arrested near Warsaw on 30 September on a German warrant.
Russia and the United States should build a ‘Putin-Trump’ rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to link their countries, unlock joint exploration of natural resources and “symbolise unity”, a Kremlin envoy has suggested.
The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, president Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, envisages a construction project costing $8 billion, funded by Moscow and “international partners”, to build a 70 mile (112 km) rail and cargo link in under eight years.
Dmitriev, who has helped spearhead a Russian charm offensive designed to revive US-Russia ties, floated the idea late on Thursday after Putin spoke to US president Donald Trump by phone and agreed to meet in Budapest to seek a way to stop the war in Ukraine.
The US is supportive of a new IMF lending programme for Ukraine and the European Union initiative to extend a loan to Kyiv based on Russian central bank assets immobilised in the west, European economic commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday.
Dombrovskis, who is in charge of the 27-nation EU’s economic policy, met with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, Dombrovskis said the US had for now no clear position at this stage on whether to join the EU Reparations Loan project.
“There is now constructive engagement from the US side as regards questions related to Ukraine support,” Dombrovskis said.
“The US is broadly supportive and welcoming our initiative as regards reparation loan,” he added.
France imposed a ban on cattle exports and events such as bullfighting, the agriculture ministry said on Friday as it tries to contain the highly contagious lumpy skin disease sweeping through farms in the country for the first time.
Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production. It does not pose a risk to humans but often leads to trade restrictions and severe economic losses.
The measures will take effect on 18 October and be valid until 4 November. They will be lifted on 5 November, if the health situation allows, the ministry said.
German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday the planned Budapest talks between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin are a second attempt to get Putin to negotiate seriously, but stressed that Ukraine must be involved in any decision.
Wadephul made the remarks during his visit to Ankara, where he met his Turkish counterpart.
Ukraine has not been invited to the Trump-Putin talks. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to meet Trump later on Friday.
Portugal’s parliament approved on Friday a bill to ban face veils used for “gender or religious motives” in most public spaces that was proposed by the far-right Chega party and effectively targets burqas and niqabs worn by Muslim women.
Under the bill, proposed fines for wearing face veils in public would range between 200 euros and 4,000 euros. Forcing someone to wear one would be punishable with prison terms of up to three years.
Face veils would still be allowed in aeroplanes, diplomatic premises and places of worship, Reuters reported.
If signed into law it would put Portugal alongside European countries including France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, which already have full or partial bans. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa could still veto the bill or send it to the Constitutional Court for checks.
The White House trip is Zelenskyy’s third visit during Donald Trump’s second term as US president.
For the Ukrainian president, the visit is a chance to secure additional American military support, including long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and expanded air-defense systems.
Zelenskyy will also aim to persuade Trump to shift from diplomacy and instead towards greater military pressure on Putin’s Russia.
Trump, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is eager to add to the list of conflicts he says he has been instrumental in ending.
Zelenskyy to seek weapons from Trump in the shadow of a new Putin summit
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will ask Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles on Friday but the surprise announcement that the US president will meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest appeared to dim the Ukrainian president’s chance of securing the long-range weapons.
Trump announced the summit after a more than two-hour phone conversation with Putin about Russia’s war in Ukraine on Thursday, which he said was productive.
Friday’s meeting with Zelenskyy is scheduled for 1pm EST and is set to be a relatively low-key lunch in a cabinet meeting room as opposed to a public gathering in the Oval Office.
This marks a departure from their two previous meetings earlier this year, both held in the Oval Office.
Updated
German finance minister Lars Klingbeil and Bundesbank president Joachim Nagel have both backed chancellor Friedrich Merz’s call for a European stock exchange to support European companies and growth.
Nagel, speaking on a panel with Klingbeil on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington on Friday, said it would send a strong signal in support of Europe as a business location.
Ukrainian men deny plotting fires at properties related to British prime minister
Two Ukrainian men pleaded not guilty on Friday to plotting fires earlier this year at properties linked to U.K. Prime minister Keir Starmer.
Roman Lavrynovych and Petro Pochynok are accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life between April and May. They are charged along with Stanislav Carpiuc, a Ukraine-born Romanian national, who did not enter a plea.
Prosecutors said the case is not being treated as terrorism.
The fires occurred in north London on three nights in May, but no injuries were reported.
A Toyota RAV4 that Starmer once owned was set ablaze on 8 May, just down the street from the house where he lived before he became prime minister. The door of an apartment building where he once lived was set on fire on 11 May, and on 12 May the doorway of his home was charred after being set ablaze.
Starmer called the fires “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for.”
A tentative trial date was set for 27 April 2026.
Updated
What are Tomahawk missiles and why does Ukraine want them? – Explainer
Donald Trump will discuss the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a meeting at the White House on Friday. It will be the fourth face-to-face meeting for the US and Ukrainian presidents since Trump returned to office in January, and their second in less than a month.
What are Tomahawk missiles?
Tomahawk land attack missiles, first used in combat in 1991, are long-range, guided cruise missiles typically launched from sea to attack targets in deep-strike missions. The longest range variant, the nuclear-capable Block II, entered service in 1983 and had a range of up to 1,550 miles (2,500km). Modern conventional variants have a range of 995 miles (1,600km). They fly low to the ground at a speed of 550 miles an hour.
The missiles are 6.1 metres long, with a 2.5-metre wingspan, and weigh about 1,510kg. They cost an estimated $1.3m (£1m) each.
Why does Ukraine want them?
Supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would significantly expand its strike capabilities, enabling it to hit targets deep inside Russian territory, including military bases, logistics hubs, airfields and command centres that are currently beyond reach, with accurate, destructive munitions. The Institute for the Study of War estimates that there are hundreds of Russian military targets within range of Tomahawks.
Ukraine has argued that such capabilities would help compel Vladimir Putin to take Trump’s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.
On Tuesday, Radosław Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, argued Tomahawks could be particularly effective because Russia’s size makes air defence coverage difficult.
What has Trump said about selling Tomahawks to Ukraine?
Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he could deliver Tomahawks. Simultaneously the Trump administration has authorised the sharing of US intelligence to help Ukraine carry out precision strikes on Russia’s oil refineries using domestically produced drones and Atacms. These attacks have led to fuel shortages and a sharp rise in gasoline prices across Russia.
However, the US president’s conciliatory tone after a phone call with Vladimir Putin on Thursday left in question the likelihood of immediate assistance to Ukraine and reignited European fears of US capitulation to Moscow.
Trump said Putin “didn’t like it” when he raised the possibility of supplying Tomahawks during the call, while also saying the US could not “deplete” its own supply. “We need them too, so I don’t know what we can do about that,” Trump said.
The key question is whether Trump is dangling the prospect of supplying Tomahawks to pressure Putin, while remaining unwilling to take a step that could bring the US closer to direct confrontation with a leader he still calls a “close friend”.
Giorgia Meloni has condemned the boss of Italy’s biggest trade union after he referred to the prime minister as the “courtesan” of Donald Trump.
Maurizio Landini, the leader of CGIL, which organised several pro-Palestinian protests before the Gaza ceasefire deal, made the remarks on TV on Tuesday, the day after world leaders, including Meloni, met in Egypt for a Middle East peace summit.
Landini accused Meloni of “not having lifted a finger” to bring peace in Gaza, limiting her role to “playing Trump’s courtesan”. “Fortunately, the Italian citizens took to the street to defend the dignity and honour of this country,” he said.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Meloni said Landini was “evidently clouded by a mounting resentment (which I can understand)”, before sharing a definition of “courtesan”.
“I think everyone knows the most common meaning attributed to this word, but, for the benefit of those who might not, I’m publishing the first definition found through a quick internet search,” Meloni said, posting a screenshot that read: “Woman of easy virtue, heterosexual; euphemism, prostitute.”
Meloni also criticised her leftwing opponents, saying that for decades they had “lectured us on respect for women” only to then criticise a woman by “calling her a prostitute”.
In response to the post, Landini argued there were “no sexist insults” towards Meloni and that he had used the term to imply “Trump’s lackey”.
France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened a formal probe into four men arrested by police on suspicion of plotting to attack an exiled Russian opposition figure, his office said on Friday.
A prosecutor’s spokesperson declined to identify the Russian opponent allegedly targeted, though Biarritz-based Vladimir Osechkin, who is Russian, said on his Telegram account the plot was directed against him, Reuters reported.
“Once again, a huge thank you to the French police special unit that is responsible for my physical protection and security. A huge thank you to the French counterintelligence and counterespionage services,” Osechkin wrote on the social media platform.
Osechkin runs a human rights group called Gulagu.net (‘no to the GULAG’ in Russian) that monitors and reveals abuses in Russia’s prison system.
The four men, aged 26 to 38, were arrested on Monday as part of an investigation by the domestic intelligence police DGSI, who suspect them of belonging to a terrorism organisation and planning “crimes against persons”, the prosecutor’s spokesperson said in a statement.
“They were placed under formal investigation and were set in custody in prison,” the spokesperson said.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s spokesman declined to detail the men’s nationalities and where they were arrested.
Polish court blocks the extradition of Ukrainian Nord Stream suspect to Germany
A Polish court on Friday blocked the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a handover that Poland’s prime minister has said isn’t in his country’s interest.
The 46-year-old suspect, who has been identified only as Volodymyr Z. in line with local privacy rules, was arrested near Warsaw Sept. 30 on a German warrant. German prosecutors have described him as a trained diver and allege that he was part of a group that placed explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm three years ago.
The Warsaw District Court rejected his extradition on Friday and ordered his immediate release.
Volodymyr Z’s lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, said ahead of the hearing that “my client doesn’t admit guilt, he didn’t commit any crime against Germany and he doesn’t understand why these charges were made by the German side.” He said he also would argue that no Ukrainian should be charged with any action directed against Russia.
Poland, whose successive governments have been staunchly anti-Russian, has a history of opposition to the pipelines. Prime minister Donald Tusk has said it would not be in Poland’s interest to hand over the suspect.
Tusk said earlier this month that “the problem of Europe, the problem of Ukraine, the problem of Lithuania and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built.” He said that “the only people who should be ashamed of and quiet about Nord Stream 2 are those who decided to build it.”
‘The key to success is in the sky’: the Ukrainian defenders struggling to stem Russia’s air assault
First came the sound of drones. Then a boom that rattled windows. Shortly after that, two columns of black smoke rose over the Shebelinka gas processing plant in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Towering flames threatened storage tanks.
A refinery worker emerged from the site. Russian drones and missiles had struck the plant at 4.30am, he said. For now there was nothing for the fire crews to do but to stand back and watch.
It was not just Kharkiv that was hit overnight. Over the course of another night of wearily familiar alarms, Russian air raids struck across the country.
Two women found dead after Greece boat accident
The bodies of two women were found Friday on a rocky coast on the Greek island of Chios after a makeshift boat carrying 29 people ran aground, the coast guard said.
“During a rescue operation for migrants (whose boat ran aground on the coast), two women were found lifeless, and 10 people, including three seriously injured, were transferred to the hospital in Chios,” a coast guard spokesperson told AFP.
Greek Aegean islands near Turkey, including Chios, are one of the main entry points into Europe for people fleeing war and poverty. These crossings are often fatal.
On 7 October, four bodies were recovered off the island of Lesbos after an inflatable boat sank with 38 people on board. Greece saw a significant increase in migrant arrivals over the summer, mostly from Libya, and landing in Crete. Another group of 23 people were rescued near Crete on Friday, the coastguard said.
The conservative Greek government, which has steadily tightened its migration policy, decided in early July to suspend for three months asylum applications for people arriving by boat from north Africa.
The measure has been criticised by numerous international organisations, including the United Nations high commissioner for Refugees and the Council of Europe (UNHCR).
A statement published by the UNHCR in July said that “States have the right to manage borders and address irregular migration,” but “controlling a State’s borders, however, must be in line with international and European law.”
The right to seek asylum, UNHCR underscored, is “a fundamental human right enshrined in international, European and national law – and applies to everyone regardless of how or where they arrive in a country.”
“Even at times of migratory pressure,” the statement concluded, “States must ensure that people seeking asylum have access to asylum procedures.”
Putin under asset freeze not travel ban, EU spokesperson says as plans for US-Russia summit in Hungary go ahead
The European Union welcomed the proposed meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if this can help bring peace in Ukraine, a spokesperson told a briefing on Friday.
The spokesperson added that President Putin was subject to an asset freeze and not a travel ban, referring to news that Trump and Putin may meet within the next two weeks in Budapest. The Kremlin confirmed plans for the meeting, though neither side provided a date for when it would occur.
A German government spokesperson separately said on Friday that the phone call between Trump and Putin shows that the Russian president reacts to pressure for serious peace talks.
“The pressure on Vladimir Putin for serious peace talks must be increased as a matter of urgency,” the German spokesperson said. “He reacts to pressure … this telephone call yesterday also showed that it is also a consequence of decisions based on announcements by the US side.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call on Friday with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to discuss the upcoming summit with Donald Trump, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin said Putin briefed Orbán on his conversation with Trump, and Orban said Hungary was ready to provide the necessary conditions for organising the summit.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio would need to call each other and set up a meeting to sort out many pre-summit issues.
“There are many questions, negotiating teams need to be determined, and so on and so forth. Therefore, everything will be done in stages, but, of course, the presidents’ will is there,” Peskov said on Friday.
“[The summit] could indeed take place within two weeks or a little later. There’s a general understanding that nothing should be put off.”
Updated
Russia says it has captured three Ukrainian villages
Russia said on Friday it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, including areas Kyiv had retaken three years ago in a surprise counteroffensive.
The Russian army said its forces had captured the villages of Pishchane and Tykhe in Kharkiv and Pryvillia in Dnipropetrovsk.
Hungary’s government has made clear it will not arrest Vladimir Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, if he arrives in Budapest for peace talks.
Speaking to state radio on Friday, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán hailed the fact his country would host the meeting.
“Budapest is essentially the only place in Europe today where such a meeting could be held, primarily because Hungary is almost the only pro-peace country.”
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has consistently slowed down EU sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine, characterising his opposition as peacemaking gestures. He also welcomed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest in April, despite an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The German government issued a reminder that Hungary was obliged to arrest Putin as it remains a signatory to the ICC, but few expect Budapest to pay attention.
One senior EU diplomat said: “If Hungary doesn’t do that [arrest Putin], it is not helpful. At the same time, sad to say, nobody will be surprised if the Hungarians don’t arrest Putin. Everybody’s expecting that.”
Putin was added to the EU sanctions list in February 2022, soon after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but was only subject to an asset freeze, rather than travel ban. At the time, officials made this unusual exemption with the possible scenario of talks to end the war in mind. Then in March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest over the abduction of Ukrainian children. All signatories to the ICC are obliged to arrest the Russian president if he arrives on their soil. Hungary has previously indicated it would refuse and said it intends to leave the court.
Explosion in Romania apartment building kills 3, injures 13
A powerful blast at an eight-storey apartment building in Romania’s capital Bucharest collapsed floors, killing three people and injuring at least 13 on Friday, local media reported.
More than a dozen emergency vehicles, including 11 fire engines and four mobile intensive care units, were dispatched to the scene of the blast on Calea Rahovei, in Bucharest’s Sector 5.
The explosion on Friday affected the fifth and sixth floors of the eight-story building, according to the capital’s Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.
The health ministry later said one of the dead was found trapped under a concrete slab on the building’s sixth floor.
“Following the explosion, another nearby apartment block was affected, where detached construction elements from the building’s facade were observed,” emergency authorities said in a statement.
At least 13 people have been transported to hospitals for injuries including polytrauma and burns.
Hungary to ensure Putin can enter Budapest for summit with Trump
Hungary will ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin can enter the country for a summit with US President Donald Trump planned in Budapest, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday.
Putin is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. However, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán announced his government’s intention to leave the ICC in April, while welcoming Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Budapest, despite an ICC warrant against him for war crimes in Gaza. The government will argue that the warrants have no effect in Budapest.
Trump announced on Thursday he would meet Putin in the Hungarian capital to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Szijjarto said dates for the summit could be discussed after meetings between the US and Russian foreign ministers expected next week.
Russia sentences 15 captured Ukrainian fighters to prison
Fifteen members of a Ukrainian militia group were convicted by a Russian military court on Friday of taking part in “a terrorist organisation” and sentenced to between 15 and 21 years in a maximum security penal colony, Russia’s prosecutor general said.
The men were members of Ukraine’s Aidar Battalion who were captured in 2022. Their trial took place behind closed doors in a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
There was no immediate comment on the verdicts from Ukraine, whose human rights ombudsman has previously described the proceedings as shameful. Rights groups, including Russia’s Memorial, have alleged that the prosecution of the men was a violation of the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
Russia rejects this, as the charges were based on alleged activity dating back up to eight years before the start of the full-scale war between the two countries in 2022. The men were not accused of war crimes.
Russian news outlet Mash quoted a lawyer for the accused men as saying that two of them had admitted their guilt but that the other 13 planned to appeal.
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Sweden says China must release bookseller Gui Minhai from jail
After a visit to Beijing, Sweden’s foreign minister called on China on Friday to release Swedish citizen Gui Minhai from jail, continuing a long diplomatic standoff between the two countries over the Chinese-born bookseller.
Gui, a Hong Kong-based publisher of books critical of China’s communist leaders, was handed a 10-year prison term by Beijing in 2020 for illegally providing intelligence overseas.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, in a post on X, said she had raised the case with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during her visit.
“Our stance remains firm: Gui Minhai must be released and reunited with his family,” Malmer Stenergard wrote.
China’s foreign ministry on Thursday said that Gui was a Chinese national and that it firmly opposes any country, organisation or person interfering with its judicial sovereignty in any form.
Gui, 61, was first abducted in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya in 2015 before surfacing in Chinese detention. He was released in 2017 and detained again by the mainland police in 2018, while with Swedish diplomats on a Beijing-bound train.
A court in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo that sentenced Gui said he had asked to have his Chinese citizenship reinstated. Sweden at the time said Gui had not asked to have his Swedish citizenship revoked and reiterated demands for his release.
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Orbán to speak with Putin as Hungary prepares to host Trump-Putin meeting
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday that he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin later in the day, as Budapest prepares to host a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Trump announced earlier this week that he would meet Putin in the Hungarian capital to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Orbán, a Trump ally who has also kept close ties with Russia, has said the meeting “will be about peace” and told state radio that the meeting could take place within the next two weeks.
“Last night I gave orders to set up an organising committee, we have set out the most important tasks and preparations have started,” Orbán said.
He added: “Budapest is essentially the only place in Europe today where such a meeting could be held, primarily because Hungary is almost the only pro-peace country … For three years, we have been the only country that has consistently, openly, loudly, and actively advocated for peace.”
Hungary has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transfer across its borders since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Orbán has threatened to veto certain EU sanctions against Moscow and held up the bloc’s adoption of major EU funding packages to Kyiv.
In other developments:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will head to the White House on Friday for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump, hours after the US president said he had agreed to another summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a “very productive” call. The possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine is expected to top the agenda during the Ukrainian president’s visit. Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he may deliver Tomahawks, which would give Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that would be capable of striking Moscow with accurate, destructive munitions.
Zelenskyy said on Friday he has already met with US firm making Tomahawk missiles and Patriot systems that Kyiv has been requesting to ramp up defences against Russia. “We discussed Raytheon’s production capacity, potential avenues for our cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence and long-range capabilities, and the prospects for Ukrainian-American joint production,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Putin convened a meeting of Russia’s Security Council after a phone call with Trump, reported Russian news agencies on Friday. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin provided a detailed briefing about the conversation to the powerful council. Trump and Putin agreed on Thursday to another summit on the war in Ukraine, a surprise move that came as Moscow feared fresh US military support for Kyiv.
An explosive device detonated under the car of one of Italy’s leading investigative journalists that was parked outside his home, prompting condemnation Friday from prime minister Giorgia Meloni and others. No one was injured. Report, the investigative series on Italy’s state-run RAI3, said the explosion overnight destroyed the car of Sigfrido Ranucci and damaged a second family car and the house next to it in Pomezia, south of Rome. It said the blast was so powerful that it could have killed anyone passing by. Meloni expressed her solidarity with Ranucci, the lead anchor of Report, and condemned what she called “the serious act of intimidation he has suffered”. “Freedom and independence of information are essential values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend,” she said in a statement.
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