Despite the pressure on oil prices brought about by severe disruption to the critical waterway amid the conflict, he insisted the US does not need help from its allies.

Speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin at the White House, Trump said he has been informed by most Nato allies that they do not want to get involved in the war, a conflict many of them view as illegal.

While Trump has said some countries are willing to help escort ships through the strait, he has yet to publicly identify them.

In heated remarks in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump insisted that “we don’t need any help” from Nato.

“But they should’ve been there,” he added.

The US president said the reluctance to send mine-sweeping vessels to the Gulf was “not a big deal”, but was “unfair” to the US.

He reserved his harshest criticism for the UK, citing its lack of participation and assistance in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Trump said the US-UK relationship was “always the best” until “[Prime Minister] Keir [Starmer] came along”.

He also said the war was a “great test” of the alliance’s relations with the US.

But when asked if he was considering any retaliatory measures, the president said only that he had “nothing currently in mind”.

Trump also complained that Nato allies had benefited from tens of billions of dollars in US backing for Ukraine to fend off Russia’s invasion.

“We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” the president said on social media.

Only a handful of vessels carrying Iranian oil to countries including India and China have managed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since hostilities began on 28 February.

Several commercial cargo ships have been struck in the waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.

US officials have still not identified allies willing to help escort ships through the passage.

Many, including the UK, Germany and France – have said they are not ready to make a decision yet.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France did not want to get involved.

“We are not a party to the conflict, and therefore France will never take part in operations to reopen or liberate the Strait of Hormuz,” Macron said.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on Tuesday: “This is not Europe’s war. We didn’t start the war. We were not consulted.”

“The member states do not have the wish to be dragged into this,” Kallas said, according to AP news agency.

Medvedev, who has engaged in a war of words on social media with United States President Donald Trump, made his latest broadside after the Foreign Ministry’s announcement on Monday.

“The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries’ anti-Russian policy,” Medvedev posted in English on the X social media platform.

“This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps,” he said.

Medvedev, who serves as the deputy head of Russia’s powerful Security Council and has made several hawkish comments on Russia’s nuclear capabilities in recent years, did not elaborate on what “further steps” may entail.

Last week, Trump said that he had ordered two US nuclear submarines to be repositioned to “the appropriate regions” in response to Medvedev’s remarks about the risk of war between Washington and Moscow.

In its statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the developing situation in Europe and the Asia Pacific prompted its reassessment on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles.

“Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of US-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared,” the ministry said.

Russian  President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last year that Moscow may have to respond to what they described as provocations by the US and NATO by lifting restrictions on missile deployment.

Lavrov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti in December that Moscow’s unilateral moratorium on the deployment of such missiles was “practically no longer viable and will have to be abandoned”.

“The United States arrogantly ignored warnings from Russia and China and, in practice, moved on to deploying weapons of this class in various regions of the world,” Lavrov told the news agency.

The  US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 2019, under the first Trump administration, citing Russian non-compliance, but Moscow had said that it would not deploy such weapons provided that Washington did not do so.

The INF treaty, signed in 1987 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan, had eliminated an entire class of weapons: ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500km (311 to 3,418 miles).

In its first public reaction to Trump’s comments on the repositioning of US submarines, the Kremlin on Monday played down the remarks and said it was not looking to get into a public spat with the US president.

“In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, that’s the first thing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way,” he said.

“Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric,” he added.

The episode comes at a delicate moment, with Trump threatening to impose new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its oil, including India and China, unless President Vladimir Putin agrees by Friday to a ceasefire in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Putin said last week that peace talks had made some positive progress but that Russia had the momentum in its war against Ukraine, signalling no shift in his position despite the looming deadline.

Here’s where things stand on Monday 15 July 2025:

• Donald Trump says he is “very, very unhappy” with Russia and has announced plans to deliver “top-of-the-line” weapons to Ukraine, via Nato
• The US president also says he will introduce “very severe” secondary tariffs of 100% if no ceasefire deal is reached within 50 days
• The announcement came during a meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in the White House
• Trump’s dramatic U-turn indicates he has run out of patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has had “productive” talks with the US envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Kyiv today
• In Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says it’s “very important” talks over Ukraine continue

What are secondary sanctions?

In a nutshell, any country that continues to do trade with Russia will face a big tax to sell their products to the US.

If, for example, India keeps buying oil from Russia – which it has continued to do since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – US companies who purchase goods from India would have to pay a 100% import tax, or tariff, when the products reach American shores.

The idea is it makes these goods so expensive, US businesses would choose to buy them cheaper elsewhere, resulting in lost revenue for India.

The intention is also to hobble Russia’s economy. Theoretically, if it is unable to generate money by selling oil to other nations, it will have less cash to finance the war in Ukraine.

The White House has said it would only implement secondary tariffs on countries if a deal to end the war is not reached with Russia in 50 days.

Countries currently trying to reach a separate trade deal with the US are unlikely to relish a further tax down the line if it comes to that.

What did we just hear from Trump?

The main announcement in US President Donald Trump’s “mega statement” from the Oval Office was the addition of secondary tariffs on Russia of 100% if “we don’t have a deal within 50 days”.

Trump also confirmed what had been previously said – that top of the line weapons would be sent to Ukraine in an operation which would be co-ordinated by Nato.

During the meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, Trump said he was “very unhappy” with Russia and “disappointed” in President Vladimir Putin, adding that he wanted the war in Ukraine to end.

Rutte described the deal as really big, confirming that the weapons would be paid for by European nations, a decision the alliance’s leader described as “totally logical”. The value of the weapons amounts to billions of dollars.

Trump also said he speaks to Putin a lot, describing the conversations as very pleasant. But he goes on to say that the talk doesn’t mean anything once the missiles start hitting cities.

He also wouldn’t be drawn on how far he was willing to go in response if Putin escalates.

“Don’t get me started on that,” the president responded, adding that he wants to “get the war settled”.

Fifty days gives the Kremlin plenty of room for manoeuvre

On the face of it, today’s announcements from the White House are extremely encouraging for Ukraine.

Kyiv will be even more heartened once it sees the promised defensive weapons turn up inside its borders.

But when it comes to President Trump’s 50-day ultimatum to Russia for a ceasefire, well, we have rather been here before and high hopes were collectively dashed by both Presidents Trump and Putin.

In May, the leaders of four major European nations, France, Germany, the UK and Poland, came to Kyiv and laid down a ceasefire ultimatum to Moscow or face crippling sanctions.

But President Putin swiftly averted this by offering ‘direct talks’ with Ukraine in Istanbul, which Trump more or less ordered Ukraine’s leader to attend. He duly did, Putin didn’t show up and Trump did nothing.

Net effect: the ceasefire ultimatum went nowhere.

This time may be different. Donald Trump is, at least in public, venting his frustration with Vladimir Putin.

But 50 days gives the Kremlin plenty of room for manoeuvre. Time, in other words, in which to come up with a counter offer that forestalls the threatened sanctions.

At the present rate of fire, 50 days also theoretically gives Russia time to launch up to a further 25,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine during its nightly bombardments.

A dramatic foreign policy about-face for Trump

Back in April, Donald Trump publicly wondered whether Russian President Vladimir Putin was sincerely interested in ending the war in Ukraine, as he continued a bombing campaign that included targeting civilian structures.

“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war; he’s just tapping me along,” he posted on his Truth Social social media platform.

Although he initially set a two-week deadline, it appears that nearly three months later the American president has finally run out of patience.

He has promised new US arms shipments to Ukraine, paid for by Nato, and threatened substantial new tariffs on Russia and those who do business with Moscow.

Although Trump was not clear under what authority he would institute these new sanctions, Congress appears poised to enact new legislation that would give him new ways to penalise Russian intransigence.

It all amounts to a dramatic foreign policy about-face for a man who had promised a quick peace and seemed to view Ukraine, not Russia, as the primary obstacle.

The last time Trump executed such a sudden shift – on last month’s US military strikes on Iran – non-interventionists in his base balked.

This Russia move will once again test the president’s will and the loyalty of those who have taken his “America first” rhetoric to heart.

Don’t ask me a question like that – Trump

President Trump is asked how far he is willing to go in response if Putin was to escalate matters.

“Don’t ask me a question like that,” Trump snaps in response, adding he “wants to get the war settled”.

“Ultimately, having a strong Europe is a very good thing,” Trump continues.

Trump and Rutte’s talk to the media has now finished. We’ll continue to bring you the latest reaction and analysis right here on this page.

Russia should focus on trade rather than war – Trump

Trump says Moscow needs to get Russia’s economy back on track.

He says Russia has “tremendous potential” and adds that it should use its resources for trade rather than a war.

“I speak to him a lot,” Trump says of Russia’s President Putin.

He says the conversations are very pleasant, but adds the talk “doesn’t mean anything” once missiles hit cities.

Moscow stock exchange jumps sharply after Trump’s announcement

The Moscow stock exchange index has just risen sharply following Donald Trump’s announcement on measures against Russia.

Analysts say this may be because of the fact that investors were expecting Trump to pledge even harsher measures.

Previously, reports indicated that secondary tariffs of 500% were planned.

Today, the US president announced secondary tariffs of 100%, to be implemented within 50 days if no ceasefire deal is agreed.

Trump’s top team joins president in the Oval Officepublished at 17:4117:41

We can bring you some of the latest photos from inside the White House’s Oval Office, where US President Trump and Nato chief Mark Rutte are currently holding a news conference.

Trump’s top team: Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth are present and looking on as the news conference unfolds.

Missiles and ammunition are part of the deal – Nato chief

Trump is asked if it Patriot missiles are being sent to Ukraine or Patriot batteries.

“Everything. It’s everything,” he replies.

The president elaborates, saying that countries will send their own Patriots to Ukraine, with the US sending those countries replacements.

Nato chief Rutte follows up by saying the whole deal is also about “missiles, ammunition”.

We should have had a deal done long ago – Trump

On potential tariffs against Russia, Trump says secondary tariffs can be imposed against Russia without either the House or the Senate.

When asked about calls for a 500% tariff on Russia, he says that the number does not matter after a certain point and that 100% levies will serve the purpose.

The US president says he felt he had a deal with Russia on the Ukraine war “about four times. And here we are still talking”.

“I thought we should have had a deal done a long time ago, but it just keeps going on and on an on,” he says.

Trump adds that a lot of Russian soldiers and Ukrainians are dying.

Trump praises Nato’s new 5% defence spending pledge

Trump goes on to praise the Nato defence alliance, mentioning recent agreements where countries upped their contributions on defence and security-related spending from 2% of a country’s GDP to 5% by 2035.

He says that a lot of progress has been made since a recent Nato summit in the Netherlands.

The US president says they “made a lot of friends over there” and says some of the countries are “great people”, and that “for the most part, very solid, strong countries”.

Ukrainians continue to fight with tremendous courage – Trump

Trump says Ukrainians “continue to fight with tremendous courage” but are losing equipment.

Nato’s chief Mark Rutte chimes in and says Russia bombing cities is not for “military goals” but to create panic.

Billions of dollars of military equipment will be sent to Ukraine – Trump

Trump again lists a series of international conflicts he claims to have solved, and repeats that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he had been president in 2022.

The US president says he used to speak to his Russian equivalent, Vladimir Putin, often and could see a war coming.

“It’s all talk until missiles go into Kyiv,” he says, adding that it has “got to stop”.

He says billions of dollars of military equipment will now be distributed to Ukraine.

Ukraine can get hold of ‘massive numbers of military equipment’ – Nato chief

Nato’s chief continues by saying it means Ukraine can get its hands on “really massive numbers of military equipment” for air defence, missiles and ammunitions.

Mark Rutte adds that it’s great news for Ukraine, thanking President Trump.

US will send ‘top-of-the-line weapons’ to Nato

Trump says the distribution of the weapons to Ukraine will be co-ordinated by Nato.

“We’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons” and send them to Nato, the US president says.

Nato will then send them where they are needed, he adds.

We want war in Ukraine to end – Trump

Trump says he wants to see the war in Ukraine end, adding that he’s “disappointed” with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The US president says the US makes the best equipment, the best missiles and “the best everything”.

He says they will be sending the weapons to Nato and adds that “they will be paying for them”.

US will impose ‘very severe tariffs’ on Russia in 50 days if no Ukraine peace deal

The US president goes on to say he is “very unhappy” with Russia over the war in Ukraine.

“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,” he says.

He calls them secondary tariffs and says they will be 100%.

Trump and Nato chief meeting under way

After a delay to the start, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte’s meeting with Donald Trump has just begun in the White House Oval Office.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are there too. Trump starts by saying it’s an honour to have Rutte here.

Stick with us and we’ll bring you any updates as soon as we get them.

If Trump hates one thing above all… it’s the notion of the US being ripped off

If President Trump hates one thing above all, it’s the notion that the USA is being ripped off.

It’s a perception that’s long informed his attitude to the war in Ukraine. In the president’s view, there’s no reason why Washington should help to protect Ukraine without being properly compensated.

That’s why today’s anticipated announcement is significant.

Not just because it marks the first time since returning to office that Trump will have made fresh US weapons available. But because, thanks to months of tortuous negotiations, the US will sell weapons to fellow Nato members who will then make them available to Kyiv.

Ukraine will get the weapons. The US will make money. Everyone is happy.

“We’re sending weapons to Nato and Nato is paying for those weapons, 100%,” the president told NBC News last week.

Strictly speaking, it’s not Nato itself which is buying the weapons or making them available, but Nato members.

At the same time, Ukraine’s President Zelensky says his officials are discussing a range of joint projects with European partners which will see direct investment in Ukraine’s growing defence industry, as well as weapons production at sites outside Ukraine.

Senate bill seeks to pressure Russia to engage with peace talks

As Trump ramped up his criticism of the Kremlin in recent days, a sweeping Russia sanctions bill has been gaining steam in the Senate.

In April, senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal led 50 senators in introducing a bipartisan bill to pressure Putin to engage in peace talks.

The bill would introduce sanctions against Russia if the country refused to engage in negotiations with Ukraine or takes military action that undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty.

It would also impose a 500% tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian products like oil and uranium.

“The dominating view in the United States Senate is that Russia is the aggressor, and that this horrific war and Putin’s aggression must end now and be deterred in the future,” Graham said in a press release.

“We share President Trump’s frustration with Russia when it comes to obtaining a ceasefire, and support President Trump’s desire to achieve a lasting, just and honourable peace,” he added.

Trump and Nato chief expected to speak from White House soon

We are just waiting to hear from US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Their bilateral meeting in the White House is expected to start shortly.

Stick with us and we’ll bring you the latest updates.

What happened during the Nato chief’s last White House visit?

Today’s visit to the White House isn’t Nato Secretary General’s Mark Rutte’s first trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

He last came on 13 March, under remarkably different circumstances. That meeting, which came just weeks after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky’s infamous Oval Office meeting, came at a time in which Trump and the White House continued to insist that a ceasefire was perhaps just around the corner.

In an interview with Bloomberg shortly afterwards, Rutte called it “very positive” and said he felt there was an “absolutely clear commitment” towards the Nato alliance from Trump.

“I think good things are going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the room. “I really do”.

While he called the possibility of a 30-day ceasefire a “very smart plan”, Rutte was also more cautious in his language.

“We are absolutely not there yet,” he said.

As we’ve been reporting, today’s meeting also comes after Nato member states committed to raise their defence spending to 5% of GDP, which is something Trump has long called for.

Trump says US has been giving other countries ‘free ride’ on defence

In a new post of his Truth Social social media platform, President Trump says the US has been “ripped off” on trade and military spending for decades, claiming it has cost the country trillions of dollars.

“Countries should sit back and say: thank you for the many-years-long free ride, but we know you now have to do what’s right for America. We should respond by saying: thank you for understanding the situation we are in. Greatly appreciated!” he wrote.

Since he took office, Trump has been putting pressure on US allies to up their spending, specifically on defence.

Much of his criticism has been focused on Nato member states, of which the US has historically ranked among the highest in terms of military spending.

In response, Nato’s 32 members have agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defence and security by 2035.

Four killed in Russian strikes on Sumy, Ukraine’s regional governor says

Four people have been killed by Russian strikes in Sumy, which borders Russia in north-eastern Ukraine, the region’s administrator says.

“The number of injured people as a result of an enemy UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] strike on a medical facility in Sumy has increased to four”, Oleg Grigorov says on social media.

Earlier on today, the Ukrainian state emergency service said two people had been killed and four more injured by Russian strikes on the region.

Pictures released by the emergency service show firefighters tackling burning buildings in the area.

What’s been happening?

As we’ve been reporting, we’re expecting a “major” statement from Donald Trump later today, which could well be about the war in Ukraine.

But if you’ve just joined us, or are in need of a quick catch-up, here’s the latest:

• Volodymyr Zelensky has just met with the US envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Kyiv. The pair enjoyed “productive” talks on strengthening Ukrainian defences, Zelensky says
• The comments come after Donald Trump suggested last night that the US would be sending Patriot missile defence systems to Ukraine
• US President Trump is due to meet Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte shortly, at 10:00 local time (15:00 BST)
• Meanwhile, Trump’s exasperation with Vladimir Putin is becoming increasingly clear, our White House reporter writes. The US president says Putin “talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening”
• However, Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says it’s very important the US continues mediation efforts, over Ukraine

Weapons and ceasefire prospects discussed with US envoy, Ukraine says

We’ve got a little more detail from Ukrainian President Zelensky’s meeting today with the US envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

In a statement, the Ukrainian president’s office says the pair have been discussing the prospect of a ceasefire, as well as the purchase of weapons to defend Ukraine.

It describes how the meeting “also focused on the overall front-line situation” as well as “the needs of Ukrainian warriors”, for whom Kellogg expressed his respect.

The statement also says after Trump suggested the US would be sending Patriot missile defence systems to Ukraine, Zelensky “confirmed Ukraine’s readiness to purchase American weapons, particularly air defence systems”.

“The parties also discussed joint drone production, the possibility of direct purchases of Ukrainian UAVs by the United States, and the potential for arms procurement in co-operation with European partners,” it adds.

Trump urged by senators to sanction Russia further

We still don’t have clear and precise details of what President Trump plans to announce later today. But some lawmakers have been vocally pushing him to announce additional sanctions on Russia.

One bipartisan bill, which has the support of 85 of 100 US senators, would levy extremely high tariffs of up to 500% on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and uranium.

One of the bill’s authors, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, has repeatedly described those tariffs as a “sledgehammer” that could bring Russia to the negotiating table.

“We’re going after the people who keep Putin in business, and additional sanctions on Russia itself,” Graham told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, adding “that’s the money Putin used to prosecute the war”.

Additionally, some lawmakers have hinted that the US, together with European allies, could access frozen Russian assets, including $5bn (£3.7bn) frozen by US authorities.

This money could then be used in a trust account for Ukraine to use.

The step, however, would be unprecedented. No US president has ever taken the central bank assets of a foreign country that the US is not at war with.

‘Positive signs’ on air defence system sales, Germany says

Germany’s defence ministry says there are very positive signs from Washington on the sale of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine.

A spokesperson says that talks are now being held on the logistics of the deal, which examines, among other things, “how many systems there will be, who will take them over and how they will be financed.”

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will meet his US counterpart Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon later today.

Air raid sirens heard in Kyiv moments after meeting with US special envoy

An air raid alert sounded almost as soon as pictures were released of President Zelensky meeting the US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

Ukraine says it was a Russian fighter jet taking off.

The alert was over in minutes, but underlines – particularly to VIP visitors like Kellogg – the ongoing threat in the skies over Ukraine.

Ukrainians are used to these alerts, many have a smartphone app which warns them, and you can hear the public sirens blaring out.

North Korea now a vital source of ammunition for Russia

While the Trump administration ponders the wisdom of sending more weapons to Ukraine, one of Russia’s most important allies is upping the scale of its involvement.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has offered his “unconditional support” to Moscow, according to state media reports following a visit to Pyongyang by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Last year, North Korea sent an estimated 11,000 troops to join the fight against Ukraine.

Earlier this month, some reports suggested that Pyongyang might send another 25,000 to 30,000 troops.

But North Korea has also become a vital source of ammunition for Russia.

Last week, the head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, told Bloomberg News that North Korea was supplying up to 40% of the ammunition Russia is using against Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russia is making use of a variety of North Korean long range artillery systems, including howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems.

Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 25 June 2025:

• President Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week to continue a dialogue interrupted by the 12-day war between Israel and Iran adding the “war is done”.
• Iran’s parliament passes a bill to suspend cooperation with the UN’s IAEA, which still needs approval from its national security council.
• Iran says at least 627 people, including 13 children, were killed and 4,870 wounded since Israel launched its attack on June 13. In Israel, at least 28 people were killed in Iranian strikes.
• Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, killing at least 51 people today. Its war on Gaza has killed at least 56,077 people and wounded 131,848, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 taken captive.

3 Palestinians killed during settler attack in the occupied West Bank

At least three Palestinians have been killed and seven others injured in a settler attack on the town of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the town, burning vehicles and homes as residents of neighbouring villages attempted to confront them, local sources said. Israeli troops provided protection for the settlers and fired live rounds.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated wounded Palestinians who suffered gunshot wounds with some in serious condition.

The occupied West Bank is home to more than three million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority governing in limited areas.

Israel has so far built more than 100 settlements across the West Bank, which are home to about 500,000 settlers. Settlers are Israeli citizens living illegally on private Palestinian land in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

Earlier, in a raid on al-Yamoun, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the neck. The boy is reported to have later died from his wounds.

France reiterates calls for a ceasefire in Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I reiterated to the Prime Minister the absolute necessity of establishing a ceasefire in Gaza,” Macron wrote on X.

He also stressed the need for “large-scale access for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip” and reaffirmed support for a two-state solution – a political path to peace that Israel has increasingly disregarded amid its genocide on the Palestinian people.

Macron added that both leaders shared the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu denies pressuring US into Iran strikes

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed as “nonsense” a Washington Post report claiming Israel pressured the United States into joining its attack on Iran.

“The Washington Post story suggesting that Israel pushed President Trump into his bold decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites is nonsense,” his official X account posted, adding that Trump “acted in the best interest of the USA based on the same intel we had”.

Multiple current and former Israeli officials were quoted as saying Netanyahu ordered preparations for strikes months in advance, with Israeli officials lobbying US counterparts.

While both Trump and Biden-era intelligence agencies consistently assessed that Tehran had not decided to pursue nuclear weapons, Israel’s Channel 12 has also reported that Trump was personally urged by Netanyahu to “take part in history”.

‘UNRWA has become an objective of this war,’ says agency chief

The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says UNRWA is being deliberately targeted in a broader effort to erase Palestinians’ human rights.

“UNRWA has become an objective of this war, which aims to strip Palestinians of their refugee status,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner-general.

“Despite the extraordinary adverse and hostile environment, further compounded by the implementation of anti-UNRWA Israeli legislation, our activities continue.”

Lazzarini praised the “courage and determination” of Palestinian staff, “despite arrests, intimidation and harassment”, saying they continue to deliver essential healthcare and education to refugees.

Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its territory earlier this year. The ban also impacted the agency’s work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Lazzarini warned on Tuesday that UNRWA may soon be forced to make an “unprecedented decision” about its services as it faces a $200m funding shortfall.

Israeli attacks kill at least 64 as Trump signals progress in Gaza talks

Israeli attacks have killed at least 64 people in the Gaza Strip, including 14 Palestinians who were waiting near aid distribution centres, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.

The deadly violence comes as President Donald Trump said “great progress” is being made to bring an end to Israel’s 20-month war that’s killed at least 56,000 Palestinians – mostly children and women.

As Israel continues its bloody assault, its military said seven soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

Hamas says truce talks ‘intensify’ to end Israel’s war on Gaza

Key Gaza war mediator Qatar has announced it launched a new push for a ceasefire with Hamas, saying talks have ramped up.

“Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,” Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said.

He cautioned, however, that the group has “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.

US President Donald Trump said “great progress” is being made to end Israel’s war on Gaza as a new ceasefire push begins more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

Trump linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Iran.

Making sense of the ’12-day war’ between Israel and Iran

So much has happened since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 13 and there are so many questions about what could happen next.

Al Jazeera’s Sandra Gathmann speaks with Mike Fitzpatrick, a former US diplomat and an expert on nuclear issues, to try to make sense of it all.

Mossad chief says Israel ‘will not take its eyes off Iran’

Mossad chief David Barnea has made a rare public appearance in a video released to Israeli media, promising the intelligence agency “will not take its eyes off Iran’s projects, about which we have extensive knowledge”.

“We will be there, like we have been there,” Barnea said.

He described the agency’s actions as “unimaginable”, citing public reports of assassinations of senior Iranian military officials and attacks on nuclear, drone, and missile sites.

“We worked for months and years to do all of the right actions to get to the right moment … We understood the fatefulness of the hour,” said Barnea.

US intel czar says ‘new intel’ shows Iran’s nuclear sites ‘destroyed’

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says “new intelligence” has confirmed Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “destroyed”.

“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities [Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan] entirely, which would likely take years to do,” Gabbard said on social media.

Her comments come after a “top secret” intelligence report – published by major US news outlets – said the US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday failed to destroy underground facilities, and set Tehran’s nuclear programme back only by a few months.

Estimated 20,000 passengers on diverted flights cleared within 24 hours: Qatar Airways

The airline’s CEO, Badr Mohammed al-Meer, says all passengers from flights that were diverted as Iran launched a retaliatory missile attack on a US airbase in Qatar were cleared within 24 hours.

About 20,000 passengers in all were affected by the flight diversions, he said in a statement.

Israel tops UN child rights blacklist for second consecutive year

Once again, Gaza is at the top of the UN’s children’s rights blacklist report and Israel is named on this “list of shame” of countries that perpetrate grave violations of children.

The UN has been producing this report for 20 years now, and Israel has fought to stay off of this and not be named for many years. And now, it’s been listed two years running.

There are a lot of violations cited in the report against Israel for violations against children. This can be attributed, of course, to Israel’s continued war on Gaza.

But also beyond is its increased violence against children in the occupied West Bank.

Iran’s defence minister arrives in China for security forum

Iran’s Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh has arrived in China for a regional security forum – his first known trip abroad since the start of the war with Israel.

He is expected to attend a meeting in Qingdao with defence ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a bloc founded by China and Russia that also includes India, Pakistan, and Belarus.

A video of Nasirzadeh’s arrival was posted by Yuyuantantian, a publication linked to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

The two-day forum, hosted by Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, runs Wednesday and Thursday. Iran joined the SCO in 2023.

Mapping Israel’s expanding battlefronts across the Middle East

An analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows that between October 7, 2023, and before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives, and property destruction.

Read the full story here.

More Gaza aid hub killings as GHF called ‘an abomination’

At least 60 Palestinians were killed while trying to get aid in Gaza in the past 24 hours.

More than 500 have been killed since the US-and-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over distribution, a process condemned as a “death trap” by UN officials.

US didn’t destroy Iran’s nuclear programme: Here’s what new intel says

US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites failed to destroy underground facilities and set Tehran’s nuclear programme back only by a few months, according to a top-secret assessment.

The document prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the intelligence arm of the Pentagon, and published by major US news outlets on Tuesday is at odds with President Donald Trump’s claims about the strikes.

Trump insists the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were “obliterated” by a combination of bunker-busting and conventional bombs.

Read the full story here. 

Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission says Iran’s nuclear capabilities pushed back ‘many years’

Netanyahu’s office has shared an assessment from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission on Iran’s nuclear capacity, saying recent attacks have knocked the Fordow facility completely out of operation and set back Iran’s nuclear programme “many years”.

“The destructive US strike on Fordow has destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” said the commission’s assessment shared by the prime minister’s office. “We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other components of Iran’s military nuclear programme, have set back Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by many years,” it added.

“This achievement will be preserved as long as Iran does not regain access to nuclear material.”

Israel killed at least 627 people in Iran during war

The spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry has released an updated death toll from Israel’s attacks on Iranian territory.

In a post on X, Hossein Kermanpour said at least 627 people were killed and 4,870 wounded in Israeli strikes.

Tehran recorded the highest number of casualties, followed by Kermanshah, with Khuzestan, Lorestan, and Isfahan reporting significant losses, he said.

“I make no judgments,” Kermanpour wrote. “I do not describe the painful scenes of the arrival of injured children, mothers, and civilians, and I leave it to the judgment of humanity’s conscience today.”

About 86.1 percent of the victims died at the scene, while 13.9 percent succumbed to their wounds in hospitals.

Mayor in central Israel believes government should end Gaza war

Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, mayor of the central Israeli city of Netanya, says, “If it were up to me, I would end the war in Gaza” in order to get back all remaining Israeli captives.

She said Israel cannot fully root out Hamas because “it is an ideological movement, not just a group of individuals”.

“We must pursue an Egyptian initiative that would lead to stable governance in Gaza and create a more secure buffer between Israel and the Strip,” Feirberg-Ikar said in comments carried by Israel’s Maariv news.

She also suggested that Netanyahu, whose Likud party she is also a member of, consider snap elections as she believes the party is currently in a strong position.

Trump details US military base defence during Iran attack in Qatar

President Trump has outlined how Iran’s attack on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar unfolded.

“We have the best military hardware in the world. You saw how 14 missiles were shot at us the other day. They [the Iranians] were very nice, they gave us warning. They said ‘we’re going to shoot’em, is one o’clock okay?’ We said it’s fine and everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners,” Trump told the NATO summit at The Hague.

“Out of 14 high-end missiles that were shot at the base in Qatar, all 14 as you know were shot down by our equipment. Amazing stuff. It’s like shooting a bullet with a bullet. Fourteen out of 14 and they [the gunners] were not even surprised. I said ‘do you do that well often?’ They said ‘we pretty much do, sir’.”

After the US attack on its nuclear facilities, Iran said it targeted the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar because it “serves as the command centre of the US Air Force and is the largest strategic asset of the American terrorist army in West Asia”.

Iranian commander Shadmani dies of wounds from Israeli attack

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard command centre, Ali Shadmani, has died of wounds sustained during Israel’s military strikes on the country, Iranian state media report.

The Guard’s command centre promised “harsh revenge” for his killing, state media added.

Israel’s military said on June 17 that it killed Shadmani, who it identified as Iran’s wartime chief of staff and most senior military commander.

‘I’ll never forget the wailing of the father saying goodbye to his son’

Palestinians in Gaza are sometimes having to head to aid distribution sites in the middle of the night “to try to fight for whatever aid they can get,” says Dr Bushra Othman, a volunteer surgeon.

A “state of chaos” at the distribution sites exists because of the desperation of the people, the doctor with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.

“We’re seeing gunshot wounds, either to the brain or to the chest … shrapnel injuries that are either piercing spinal cords and making people paraplegic.

“We had a 13-year-old boy the other day who’d had shrapnel injury through his brain, [that] tore through his right eye, pierced through his heart and shattered his intestines.

“I’ll never forget the wailing of the father saying goodbye to his son who passed away on the operating table.

“We’re seeing really horrific injuries in the emergency department, with gunshots coming in through the front of the face and going back, through the back of the mouth or the throat or the spinal cord again, and plenty of severely life-threatening abdominal injuries as well.

“In the clamour of all of the chaos, people are sometimes getting run over by either the cars or the trucks that are there. So we’re seeing limbs that are mangled and shattered.

“On top of all of that, you’ve still got bombs going off, or you’ve got quacopters firing at people”, Othman said.

Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 24 June 2025:

Fighting

• The official death toll from a Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv earlier this week has risen to 10 people, including one child.
• A separate Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy has killed three people, including a child, according to local authorities.
• Two people were injured when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building outside Moscow early on Tuesday, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. The drone hit the 17th floor of the building and started a fire.
• Russia says it intercepted about a dozen Ukrainian drones overnight that were heading towards Moscow and the Russian border regions of Kursk and Bryansk.
• Ukrainian forces hit an oil depot in southern Russia that was supplying Russian forces in occupied sections of Ukraine, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Regional security

• Moscow’s foreign intelligence agency has accused Serbia of selling ammunition to Ukraine and routing it through firms in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Both countries are EU and NATO members, unlike Serbia.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a trip to the United Kingdom on Monday, where he met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London and King Charles III at Windsor Castle.
• Zelenskyy is due to attend a NATO leaders’ summit, which is scheduled to start in The Hague on Tuesday. NATO head Mark Rutte said earlier this week that the security bloc maintains its unwavering support for Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy and Starmer signed an agreement to share “battlefield technology” that will see Ukraine and the UK produce long-range drones together – which will be capable of striking targets in Russia.
• The UK government said “technology data sets from Ukraine’s front line are set to be plugged into UK production lines, allowing British defence firms to rapidly design and build, at scale, cutting edge military equipment available nowhere else in the world”.

Russia and Ukraine swap drone attacks as ceasefire efforts remain stalled

Russia appears to have raised the scale of hostilities as the US gets distracted by the Israel-Iran war.

Russia  and Ukraine have swapped further drone attacks, with at least 10 people reportedly killed in Moscow’s attacks.

Strikes were reported overnight on Tuesday in several areas of Ukraine, killing three people, as well as in Moscow. Later in the day, a Russian attack killed at least seven people in the city of Dnipro.

The  attacks are the latest in a series of intensifying hostilities as the efforts of the United States to broker a ceasefire have stalled, with Russia appearing eager to take advantage while the war between Israel and Iran dominates global attention.

A Russian attack on a village in Sumy killed an eight-year-old boy and two adults and injured three others, the military administration of the region said.

Drone strikes also wounded five people in Kharkiv and four others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities said.

The attacks came a day after a “massive” missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killed at least 10 people.

“The strike took the lives of people from different families,” the military administration said on Telegram regarding the Sumy attack. “They all lived on the same street. They went to sleep in their homes. But Russian drones interrupted their sleep – forever.”

At least seven people were killed later on Tuesday as a Russian missile struck Dnipro.

“Around 70 people were wounded, including 10 children,” Governor Sergiy Lysak announced on social media.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said the strikes on Dnipro were “a rejection of peace”.

“While leaders gather in The Hague for the NATO summit, Russia sends a message of terror and rejection of peace,” Sybiha said on social media.

He called on Kyiv’s allies to “step up pressure on Moscow” as the military alliance gathered for a summit at which members are expected to agree to boost military spending.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet US President Donald Trump to discuss support for Kyiv and the bid to secure a ceasefire.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, accused NATO of demonising Russia to justify militarisation.

Ukraine has also stepped up its drone attacks on a wide range of targets in Russia in recent months.

Russia said a Ukrainian drone had targeted a residential building in Moscow overnight, wounding two people, including a pregnant woman, and triggering a fire.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said the drone started a fire on the 17th floor of the building in the town of Krasnogorsk, west of the capital.

“About 100 people were evacuated from the building, including 30 children,” Vorobyov said, adding that the injured were receiving treatment at a hospital.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the Moscow region, local news agencies reported, citing Russian Ministry of Defence data.

Russia currently occupies about a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its invasion in 2022, in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.

Trump had promised to swiftly end the war while on his campaign trail last year, but his diplomatic attempts have not resulted in a ceasefire so far.

While Washington succeeded in bringing the two sides together for direct talks last month, little progress was made, and no meetings have taken place in the last three weeks.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive and seize more territory.

Kyiv man survives ‘massive’ Russian air strike

Russian airstrikes hit Kyiv overnight in the second major attack this week, killing 10 and wounding several others. Resident Valeriy Mankuta survived a missile strike by climbing down a lightning rod to escape his damaged home.

Who is attending the NATO summit and what’s on the agenda?

Continued support for Ukraine amid Russian aggression as well as higher defence spending by allies are key topics.

Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which includes several European countries, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, are gathering this week in The Hague, Netherlands, for a yearly summit amid Russia’s continued war on Ukraine and uncertainty about Washington’s future in the alliance.

The NATO summit, which starts on Tuesday and lasts for two days, is the first to be attended by US President Donald Trump since he took office in January for his second term. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, will also chair the meeting for the first time.

Among expected talking points are the war in Ukraine and the issue of how much member states are spending on their collective defence, a contentious point in particular for the US. Trump has long argued that the US shoulders too much of the financial burden and wants others to raise their defence spending.

But the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, which the US joined last weekend, could shadow the summit. On June 23, Iran fired missiles at the US’s Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, a day after the US struck three Iranian nuclear facilities. Trump has since claimed that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire, but neither of the two nations has confirmed any deal.

Who is attending the NATO summit?

Amid several events planned for the two days of meetings, the main focus of NATO summits is the North Atlantic Council meeting on June 25, at which heads of state will discuss security spending, among other pressing topics.

All  32 NATO heads of state or government, top European Union members, and Ukraine’s representatives are expected at that meeting. Notably, they include:

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
• US President Donald Trump
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
• Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen or European Council President Antonio Costa

Other NATO members whose heads of state or government are expected are:

Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.

Additionally, a group of Asian ally states is usually invited, including Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon have confirmed attendance.

Will NATO leaders discuss the Israel-Iran conflict?

Yes, they are expected to address the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.

At  a media briefing on Friday, a spokesperson for the German government said NATO members would discuss the conflict at the summit, but refused to comment on any military plans.

On Friday, the three largest European nations by population, Germany, France and the UK, held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, Switzerland, in an effort to avert a protracted war in the Middle East.

What else is on the agenda?

Several topics are set to be discussed, including Russia’s war and NATO financing.

Support for Ukraine

The Russia-Ukraine war has dominated the summit since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and remains the key topic on the agenda.

NATO members have long reiterated that their biggest threat is Russia and have been key in funding Ukraine’s resistance.

At the 2024 NATO summit in Washington, NATO allies declared that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and promised long-term security assistance with at least 50 billion euros in annual funding.

Rutte said on June 12 that long-term support to Ukraine was of paramount importance ahead of the critical gathering.

“We need to make sure that Ukraine is in the best possible position to one, [sustain] the ongoing conflict with Russia, [following] the unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine, but also to be in the best possible position when a long-term ceasefire (or) a peace deal arises, to make sure that Putin will never, ever try this again,” he said.

Although  Ukraine is not a NATO member, it has long hoped to join, and the alliance agreed in 2008 that Kyiv would be admitted once it met a set of economic, defence, legal and political requirements. As a member, Kyiv would benefit from the Alliance’s Article 5 policy, which guarantees that anyone attacking a member state will be met with a collective defence response.

Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO is a key issue for Russia and one of the reasons it cited for starting the war. Russia views such an expansion of NATO towards its borders as a direct threat to its national security.

But splits in the NATO alliance have become visible since the Russian invasion: while members such as Estonia are keen for Ukraine to join and for more military support to be provided, some, like Hungary, are viewed as more friendly to Moscow. In Poland’s recent presidential election, the issue of Ukrainian refugees in the country, as well as ties with Europe, were key talking points.

Others are somewhere in the middle, fearful of overstepping and escalating the conflict into an all-member war, as Russia routinely threatens that arming Ukraine could drag NATO member nations directly into the conflict.

With Trump’s election to the White House in January, it has become increasingly unclear whether Ukraine will continue to enjoy much US support, as well.

Trump promised to swiftly end the war while on the campaign trail, but his attempts have not resulted in a ceasefire, and his attitude towards Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been less than friendly, evident in the manner in which the Ukrainian president was scolded during his White House visit in February.

Defence spending

Raising the amount each member spends on defence as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is also a big topic.

In 2023, as Russia’s war on Ukraine entered its second year, NATO leaders agreed to raise spending on national defence budgets to at least 2 percent of GDP by 2024, up from the previous threshold of 1.5 percent. However, not all members have done so, with only 22 member countries meeting the target. Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain did not meet this target in 2024.

NATO allies have also come under fire from the Trump administration, which accuses the alliance of relying too heavily on US funding and has demanded that others step up spending to 5 percent of GDP.

The US presently contributes 15.8 percent to the NATO yearly $3.5bn spending. Trump has also cast doubts on whether the alliance should defend those countries not spending enough.

In May, the US envoy to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, told reporters that “5 percent is our number. We’re asking our allies to invest in their defence like they mean it.”

Due to that pressure, Secretary General Rutte is likely to ask member states to set a new target of 5 percent of GDP for their defence budgets by 2032, with about 1.5 percentage points of that set aside for “soft spending” on infrastructure and cybersecurity. However, some countries, such as Spain, have rejected the hike as unrealistic.

Meanwhile, Rutte has also urged member countries to boost their production of weapons and defence systems. “We have fantastic industrial companies in the US, all over Europe and Canada, but they are not producing at speed,” he said in a June 12 statement. “So we need more shifts, more production lines.”

Some members have already announced plans to boost defence spending.

Earlier this month, the UK announced plans to bring the country to “war readiness”. Its Strategic Defence Review (SDR) includes new investments in nuclear warheads, a fleet of new submarines and new munitions factories. But while the UK has so far pledged to increase spending on defence from 2.3 percent currently to 2.5 percent by 2027 – with “an ambition” to raise it to 3 percent in the next parliament (after 2029) – it is unclear if there are plans to increase this further.

EU leadership of NATO

European countries are increasingly looking to step up their leadership roles in case Trump unilaterally pulls out of NATO, the UK’s Financial Times newspaper reported in March.

The UK, France, Germany and the Nordic countries were among those engaged in informal but structured discussions on reorganising the bloc’s finances to reflect greater European spending, and hoped to present a plan to the US ahead of the summit, the paper reported.

Although Trump has not stated the US will leave NATO, Washington’s displeased posture has seen the EU bracing for a hard drawdown from the alliance. Talks could likely touch on a possible proposal from the EU.

Already, the US is estimated to have spent 3.19 percent of its GDP in 2024 on defence, down from 3.68 percent a decade ago, when all members initially promised to increase spending following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

It would take about five to 10 years of increased EU spending to replace current US capabilities, the FT reported.

Here’s where things stand on Saturday 21 June 2025:

Fighting

• Drones and missiles launched by Russia overnight have damaged energy infrastructure in central Ukraine’s Kremenchuk district in Poltava, said local military authorities.
• One person was injured in the attack, according to Volodymyr Kohut, the region’s military governor, who did not provide further details on the extent of the damage.
• Russia had targeted the district’s refinery, according to a report by online news outlet Strana.ua.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine and Russia exchange more prisoners of war, officials from both countries said, the second swap in two days under an agreement struck in Turkiye earlier this month. All the captured soldiers were wounded, ill or under 25 years old. Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed.
• At Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin said he did not “rule out” his forces taking control of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy as part of efforts to create a buffer zone along the border.
• The Sumy region is not one of the regions Moscow has formally annexed, although Russian forces have recently made inroads there for the first time in three years, with Putin claiming his troops had advanced up to 12km (7 miles) in the region.
• In a string of hawkish remarks, Putin also appeared to repeat his denial of Ukrainian statehood. Ukraine said Putin’s comments showed “disdain” for the peace process.
• The German military considers Russia to be an “existential risk” to the country and Europe, according to a Spiegel news magazine report that cites a new Bundeswehr strategy paper. Russia is verifiably preparing for a conflict with NATO, particularly by strengthening forces in western Russia “at the borders with NATO,” the report cites the strategy paper as saying. Germany can only counter this threat “with a consistent development of military and society-wide capabilities,” the document concludes.
• Putin has reaffirmed Moscow’s opposition to the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including any potential acquisition by Iran. Putin told Sky News Arabia that Russia supports Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, emphasising that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no evidence suggesting Tehran seeks to build nuclear weapons. Putin also stated that Russia is prepared to assist Iran in the development of its civilian nuclear programme.

Economy

• At the economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin also urged officials not to let Russia fall into recession “under any circumstances”, as some in his own government warned of a hit to economic growth. Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with the country posting just 1.4 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2025, the weakest pace in two years.
• A decision by the OPEC+ group of leading global oil producers to speed up production now looks far-sighted and justified amid the Middle East conflict, said Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, at the forum. Sechin also said that there will be no oil glut in the long term despite the production rise, and that the European Union seeks to reduce Russia’s oil cap to $45 to improve the profitability of its purchases, not to cut Russia’s budget revenues.

32 nations but only one man matters – Nato’s summit is all about Trump

32 nations but only one man matters – Nato’s summit is all about Trump

Nato summits tend to be “pre-cooked”, not least to present a united front.

Secretary General Mark Rutte has already settled on the menu for their meeting at The Hague: one that will avoid a row with Nato’s most powerful member, the US.

A commitment to increase defence spending by European allies is the dish that President Donald Trump wants served – and that’s exactly what he’ll be getting. Though there will inevitably be the added ingredients of compromise and fudge.

Nor will the summit be able to paper over the cracks between Trump and many of his European allies on trade, Russia and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The US president, whose mantra is America First, is not a huge fan of multinational organisations.

He has been highly critical of Nato too – even questioning its very foundation of collective defence. In Trump’s first term, at his first Nato summit, he berated European allies for not spending enough and owing the US “massive amounts of money”.

On that message he has at least been consistent.

Mark Rutte, who has a good relationship with the US president, has worked hard to give him a win.

The summit takes place at the World Forum in The Hague over two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Now the main discussions will last just three hours and the summit statement is being reduced to five paragraphs, reportedly because of the US president’s demands.

Trump is one of 32 leaders from the Western defensive alliance who are coming, along with the heads of more than a dozen partner countries.

Nato summit security so far cost €183.4m (£155m; $210m)

Dutch police have mounted their biggest ever security operation for the most expensive Nato summit so far, at a cost of €183.4m (£155m; $210m).

Some have suggested the brevity of the summit is in part to cater to the US president’s attention span and dislike of long meetings. But a shorter summit with fewer subjects discussed will, more importantly, help hide divisions.

Ed Arnold, of the defence think tank Rusi, says Trump likes to be the star of the show and predicts he’ll be able to claim that he’s forced European nations to act.

In truth he’s not the first US president to criticise allies’ defence spending. But he’s had more success than most. Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, admits that some European governments do not like the way Trump’s gone about it – demanding that allies spend 5% of their GDP on defence.

Europe still only accounts for 30% of Nato’s total military spending. Volker says many Europeans now admit they that “we needed to do this, even if it’s unfortunate that it took such a kick in the pants”.

Some European nations are already boosting their defence spending to 5% of their GDP. Most are the countries living in close proximity to Russia – such as Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.

It’s not just Trump who’s been piling on the pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing a response.

But in reality many Nato members will struggle to meet the new target. A few haven’t met the goal of 2%, set more than a decade ago.

Allies to increase their core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP

Rutte’s compromise formula is for allies to increase their core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, with an additional 1.5% towards defence-related expenditure.

But the definition of defence-related expenditure appears to be so vague that it might be rendered meaningless. Rutte says it could include the cost of industry of infrastructure – building bridges, roads and railways. Ed Arnold, of Rusi, says it’ll inevitably lead to more “creative accounting”.

Even if, as expected, the new spending target is approved, some nations may have little intent of reaching it – by 2032 or 2035. The timescale’s still unclear. Spain’s prime minister has already called it unreasonable and counterproductive. Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t even been able to say when the UK will spend 3% of its GDP of defence. The UK prime minister only said that it was an ambition some time in the next parliament. However, given the UK government’s stated policy of putting Nato at the heart of the UK’s defence policy, Sir Keir will have to back the new plan.

The real danger is to interpret the demand for an increase in defence spending as arbitrary, a symbolic gesture – or just bowing to US pressure. It’s also driven by Nato’s own defence plans on how it would respond to an attack by Russia. Rutte himself has said that Russia could attack a Nato country within five years.

Those defence plans remain secret. But Rutte’s already set out what the Alliance is lacking. In a speech earlier this month he said Nato needed a 400% increase in its air and missile defences: thousands more armoured vehicles and tanks, and millions more artillery shells.

Most member states, including the UK, do not yet meet their Nato capability commitments. It’s why Sweden plans to double the size of its army and Germany is looking to boost its troop numbers by 60,000.

The plans go into granular detail as to how the Alliance will defend its Eastern flank should Russia invade. In a recent speech, the head of the US Army in Europe, General Christopher Donahue, highlighted the need to defend Polish and Lithuanian territory near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. He said the Alliance had looked at its existing capabilities and “realised very quickly they are not sufficient”.

Yet, strangely, specific discussions about Russia and the war in Ukraine will be muted. It’s the one big issue that now divides Europe and America. Kurt Volker says, under Trump, the US “does not see Ukrainian security as essential to European security but our European allies do”.

Trump has already shattered Nato’s united front by talking to Putin and withholding military support to Ukraine.

Ed Arnold says contentious issues have been stripped from the summit. Not least to avoid a schism with Trump. Leaders were supposed to discuss a new Russia strategy, but it’s not on the agenda.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited to the NATO summit dinner and not the main discussions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the summit dinner, but he won’t be taking part in the main discussions of the North Atlantic Council.

Rutte will be hoping that his first summit as secretary general will be short and sweet. But with Trump at odds with most of his allies on Russia, the greatest threat facing the Alliance, there’s no guarantee it’ll go according to plan.

“If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it for Nato membership for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in response to a question during a news conference.

His comments came after US President Donald Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier in the week.

“I wasn’t offended [by the comment], but a dictator would be,” Zelensky, who was democratically elected in May 2019, responded on Sunday.

Zelensky said he was currently focused on Ukraine’s security and it was not his “dream” to remain president for a decade.

Ukrainian legislation bans elections during martial law, which has been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

EU and world leaders are due to head to Kyiv on Monday to show their support for Ukraine and discuss security guarantees.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are among those expected to attend the meeting in person.

Zelensky said the topic of Ukraine joining Nato would be”on the table” at the meeting but he did not know how the discussions would “finish”. He said he hoped the meeting would be a “turning point”.

On the topic of Trump, Zelensky said that he wanted to see the US president as a partner to Ukraine and more than a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.

“I really want it to be more than just mediation…that’s not enough,” he told the press conference. His comments come as political leaders in Europe fear Kyiv is being sidelined in talks to bring an end to the war.

Zelensky was also asked about a potential deal the Trump administration has pushed for to provide the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

“We are making progress,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian and US officials had been in touch about the deal.

“We are ready to share,” the Ukrainian leader said, but made clear that Washington first needed to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends this war”.

Zelensky’s press conference came hours after Russia launched its largest single drone attack on Ukraine yet during the current conflict, Ukrainian officials said.

On Saturday night, Ukraine’s Air Force Command spokesman Yuriy Ignat said a “record” 267 Russian drones were launched in a single, coordinated attack on the country.

Thirteen regions were targeted and while many of the drones were repelled, those that were not caused destruction to infrastructure and at least three casualties, emergency services said.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that 138 of the drones were shot down and 119, which were decoy drones, were lost without negative consequences, likely due to jamming.

In Kyiv, the attack meant six hours of air alerts.

In a statement, Zelensky claimed that 1,150 drones, 1,400 bombs and 35 missiles were launched by Russia this week.

He thanked Ukraine’s emergency services for their response to Saturday night’s attack and called for the support of Europe and US in facilitating “a lasting and just peace”.

In a post on X, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said that “hundreds of drones” had “brought death and destruction” overnight.

“It was another night of explosions, burning houses and cars, and destroyed infrastructure,” she wrote. “Another night when people prayed for their loved ones to survive”.

On Monday, the war will enter its third year.

As it does, diplomatic wrangling over a potential peace deal continue, with Ukraine, European allies and the US offering differing visions for how to end the conflict.

The US and Russia held preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia this week – without delegates from Europe, including Ukraine, present – which resulted in European leaders holding a hastily-arranged summit in Paris.

Zelensky criticised Ukraine’s exclusion from the US-Russia talks, saying Trump was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow, prompting Trump to respond by calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator”.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit Washington on Monday, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be there on Thursday.

Sir Keir has publicly backed Zelensky, reiterating the UK’s “ironclad support” for Kyiv, and said he would discuss the importance of Ukraine’s sovereignty when he speaks to Trump.

Pope Francis – who is in hospital with respiratory illness – wrote in a remarks released on Sunday that the third anniversary of the war was “a painful and shameful occasion for the whole of humanity”.

The prime minister told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky he stood by a pledge – made alongside ex-US president Joe Biden at last year’s Nato summit in Washington – to support Ukraine’s bid for membership.

Sir Keir and Zelensky spoke on the phone ahead of a global leaders’ meeting at the Munich Security Conference.

Sir Keir’s comments are in stark contrast to those of the Trump administration, which has said this week that Nato membership for Ukraine is not a “realistic prospect”.

In a readout of the call, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The prime minister began by reiterating the UK’s concrete support for Ukraine, for as long as it’s needed.

“He was unequivocal that there could be no talks about Ukraine, without Ukraine.

“Ukraine needed strong security guarantees, further lethal aid and a sovereign future, and it could count on the UK to step up, he added.

“The prime minister reiterated the UK’s commitment to Ukraine being on an irreversible path to Nato as agreed by allies at the Washington Summit last year.”

The leaders agreed it was an “important moment to demonstrate international unity and support for Ukraine” and “agreed to stay in close contact”, the statement added.

The UK has had to walk a fine line between its support for Kyiv and maintaining good relations with Trump, who this week agreed to open negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin while signalled his willingness to make concessions to Moscow.

Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said restoring Ukraine’s territory to where it was before the first Russian invasion in 2014 is simply “not realistic”.

Speaking at a defence summit in Brussels on Wednesday, Hegseth also downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato.

His remarks were the clearest indication yet of the Trump administration’s position on the Ukraine war and what a peace plan to end the conflict could involve.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal.

Nato’s official position is that Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to joining the alliance, which was established at a meeting in Washington last year and signed off by Sir Keir and ex-president Biden.

Sir Keir also took a phone call from Trump late on Thursday night, when they discussed “his forthcoming visit to the US”, Number 10 said.

Zelensky has warned Putin is “definitely not preparing for negotiations”, but to “continue deceiving the world” as he appealed for unified pressure from allies on Russia.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy sat down for talks with US Vice President JD Vance on Friday, on the first day of the Munich Security Conference.

Afterwards, Lammy said he was “very encouraged” by their conversations on Ukraine, and he and Vance were in agreement about Kyiv having a seat at the table when it comes to negotiating a peaceful end to the war.

“We share the view that there has to be an enduring peace,” Lammy told Reuters news agency following the meeting.

“There was an agreement that Zelensky and the Ukrainians have to be part of that negotiated deal.”

Lammy said it was “not surprising” that Trump wanted to speak to Putin and Zelensky about negotiations to end the war, but added: “These are just talks at the moment. We are some way from a negotiated peace.”

Earlier in the day, Vance had said he hoped his discussion with Lammy would focus on what they “spoke about a couple of years ago when we met, which is our shared belief that Europe really should take a bigger role in its own security”.

Speaking at a defence summit in Brussels, Hegseth said the US would no longer “tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies and called on Nato members to spend much more on defence.

He also said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders and downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato.

The comments came as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a “lengthy” phone call in which they agreed to begin negotiations to end the war.

The new US defence secretary’s remarks are the clearest indication yet of the Trump administration’s position on the Ukraine war and what a peace plan to end the conflict could involve.

The positions set out by Hegseth will be met with dismay in Ukraine – which has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal – and will be welcomed by Moscow.

There will also be nervousness across the continent after Hegseth suggested the US would significantly scale back its support for Ukraine, insisting that European nations would now need to provide the “overwhelming share” of aid to Kyiv.

Hegseth, who was appointed defence secretary after Trump returned to the US presidency in January, was speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine.

He said: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

“But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the east and south.

Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”.

However, he said “the United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”.

Instead, security guarantees should be backed by “capable European and non-European troops”.

“If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-Nato mission and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said, referring to the alliance’s mutual defence clause.

Hegseth also told Nato’s European members that they would need to provide the lion’s share of future aid for Kyiv, warning that Washington “will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.

“Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of Nato,” Hegseth said. “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”

The US has been Ukraine’s biggest financial and military backer but Trump has been repeatedly critical of US aid spending and has said his priority is to end the war, which escalated in February 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Hegseth echoed calls by Trump for Nato allies to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, instead of the current 2% target – saying the latter is “not enough”.

The US currently spends roughly 3.4% of its GDP on defence, while the UK spends about 2.3%. Countries closer to Russia, like Poland and the Baltic states, spend the most proportionately at around 4%.

It will be difficult for Ukraine to hold back Russia’s advances without the same scale of support provided by Washington during Joe Biden’s administration.

While Russia is losing large numbers of troops in the conflict, the country’s commanders are prepared to throw everything at Ukrainian front lines.

Russia is also now spending more on defence than the whole of Europe combined, according to figures from The Military Balance, an annual comparison of the strengths of armed forces around the world.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to negotiate a peace deal with Russia but wanted his country to do so from a “position of strength”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Zelensky said if Trump was able to get Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, the Ukrainian president planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange, giving up land Kyiv has held in Russia’s Kursk region since the launch of a surprise offensive six months ago.

“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but added that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied land Ukraine would ask for in return.

Zelensky also said he would offer US firms lucrative contracts to rebuild Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to get Trump onside.

In November last year, he and the US president spoke following Trump’s election victory.

Zelensky said he had a “constructive exchange” with the then president-elect and that he was certain the war with Russia would “end sooner” than it otherwise would have once Trump became president.

But Trump’s Democratic opponents have accused him of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and say his approach to the war amounts to surrender for Ukraine, which would in turn endanger all of Europe.

It also remains unclear whether a diplomatic solution to the war could be reached anytime soon that would be acceptable to both sides.

Speaking at a defence summit in Brussels, Hegseth said it would only be possible to establish a “durable peace” with a “realistic assessment of the battlefield”.

During an uncompromising speech, he also downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato, ruled out deploying US troops to Ukraine under any future security arrangement and said European nations needed to spend much more on defence.

The Nato military alliance has previously pledged Kyiv an “irreversible path” to membership.

Hegseth’s comments will be met with dismay in Ukraine – which has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal – and will be welcomed by Moscow.

The new US defence secretary’s remarks are also the clearest indication yet of the Trump administration’s position on the Ukraine war and what a peace plan to end the conflict could involve.

There will also be nervousness across the continent after Hegseth suggested the US would significantly scale back its support for Ukraine, insisting that European nations would now need to provide the “overwhelming share” of aid to Kyiv.

Hegseth, who was appointed defence secretary after Donald Trump returned to the US presidency in January, was speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine.

He said: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

“But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the east and south.

Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”.

However, he said “the United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”.

Instead, security guarantees should be backed by “capable European and non-European troops”.

“If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-Nato mission and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said, referring to the alliance’s mutual defence clause.

Hegseth also told Nato’s European members that they would need to provide the lion’s share of future aid for Kyiv, warning that Washington “will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.

“Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of Nato,” Hegseth said. “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”

The US has been Ukraine’s biggest financial and military backer but Trump has been repeatedly critical of US aid spending and has said his priority is to end the war, which escalated in February 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Hegseth echoed calls by Trump for Nato allies to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, instead of the current 2% target – saying the latter is “not enough”.

The US currently spends roughly 3.4% of its GDP on defence, while the UK spends about 2.3%. Countries closer to Russia, like Poland and the Baltic states, spend the most proportionately at around 4%.

It will be difficult for Ukraine to hold back Russia’s advances without the same scale of support provided by Washington during Joe Biden’s administration.

While Russia is losing large numbers of troops in the conflict, the country’s commanders are prepared to throw everything at Ukrainian front lines.

Russia is also now spending more on defence than the whole of Europe combined, according to figures from The Military Balance, an annual comparison of the strengths of armed forces around the world.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to negotiate a peace deal with Russia but wanted his country to do so from a “position of strength”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Zelensky said if Trump was able to get Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, the Ukrainian president planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange, giving up land Kyiv has held in Russia’s Kursk region since the launch of a surprise offensive six months ago.

“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but added that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied land Ukraine would ask for in return.

Zelensky also said he would offer US firms lucrative contracts to rebuild Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to get Trump onside.

In November last year, he and the US president spoke following Trump’s election victory.

Zelensky said he had a “constructive exchange” with the then president-elect and that he was certain the war with Russia would “end sooner” than it otherwise would have once Trump became president.

But Trump’s Democratic opponents have accused him of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and say his approach to the war amounts to surrender for Ukraine, which would in turn endanger all of Europe.

It also remains unclear whether a diplomatic solution to the war could be reached anytime soon that would be acceptable to both sides.