Keeping the economy on a level footing isn’t just about today, but central to the future that they’ve spent four years fighting for.

“We don’t want to be just a poor neighbour [to the EU],” says Ukraine’s Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko.

“We want to provide for Europe, something which they lack,” he explains, in reference to the military expertise that the country has reluctantly gained since February 2022.

Marchenko adds that the “very painful” experience his country has gained could help the rest of the continent defend itself.

Membership of the EU is a top priority for Kyiv, so there is a lot of gratitude for the bloc’s financial support, which is bringing the two closer together, and aiming to give Ukraine the advantage over Russia.

A new €90bn ($105bn; £79bn) loan from the EU will help cover the shortfall in Ukraine’s budget over the next two years. It’s been approved by the European Parliament, and the first payment could be made in April.

That loan is the biggest share of a $136.5bn (£101bn) international support package, without which Marchenko says his country cannot survive after everything it’s been through.

“Our strong army depends on our strong economy, because all of our resources, which we mobilize internally, we channel… to defend our nation,” he says.

“We are grateful for the support of other nations to help us, but definitely Ukraine’s taxpayers are doing the best help for our army.”

In December 2024, taxes in Ukraine were increased for the first time since the war began, including on personal incomes, small businesses and financial institutions.

That’s part of the reason why domestic sources are expected to bring $67.5bn into government coffers this year, a 15% increase from a year earlier.

However, the government’s budget for 2026 includes spending plans worth about $112bn, with about 60% of that going towards the army. That leaves a shortfall of around $45bn.

To bridge the gap the government is trying to get contentious new tax increases through parliament before the end of this month.

As part of the terms of a new $8.1bn loan that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently approved, digital platforms in Ukraine will have to pay more tax, and exemptions to value added tax will be reduced.

Kyiv received the first $1.5bn from the IMF at the start of this month. Ahead of that the IMF’s mission chief for Ukraine, Gavin Grey, said that with its spending needs “expected to remain very high” the country needed to live within its means.

In addition to outside help, “Ukraine will also need to do more to tackle tax evasion and avoidance, and mobilizing domestic revenue in the near-term”, he said.

The IMF support is crucial to unlocking the EU money, which has become even more significant since US financial support dried up.

Ukraine could run out of funds by the end of April so is also rushing to meet other EU conditions. A government source said that social and humanitarian expenditures remain its “key priorities”.

However, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has held up the EU loan, amid accusations that Ukraine is imposing an “oil blockade” on his country.

Kyiv says slow repairs to the pipeline delivering Russian oil to Hungary are because its repair crews have been injured by further Russian attacks.

The row means that for Ukraine there is a lot riding on the outcome of next month’s Hungarian elections.

Some though, think the reforms Ukraine is implementing are the wrong path to ensure the war-torn country’s economic survival.

“We believe that Ukraine, by continuing the war and increasing taxes, is moving toward default and economic collapse”, says the think tank the Ukrainian Institute of the Future in a recent assessment of the economy.

The war is also straining Russia’s much larger economy, however its military effort is worth 5.1% of GDP. That compares to 27% of Ukraine’s GDP going on its military.

It means that after four years of war with Russia, Ukraine’s government is dependent on foreign aid to pay for spending ranging from pensions to healthcare and education.

That includes a plan to expand a programme for free school meals to cover the whole country from September, and this year’s 30% pay rise for teachers, who the government says are playing a crucial role in supporting children through the war.

Yet inflation remains a problem despite falling from a wartime peak of 26.6% to the current 7.4%. It means that many businesses and consumers across the country are also feeling the financial strain of the war.

On the snow-covered streets of Kyiv, 65-year-old Tetiana explained the challenges. “I’m a pensioner and I have to work because the pension is small and not enough. Prices for food and utilities have increased.”

Mykyta, 19, works in the kitchen of a restaurant. It’s one of many companies that are struggling to get by.

“Salaries are not very high and there are problems with people. The team is small, because it’s hard to find people to fill the staff.”

He adds that “During power outages, the kitchen doesn’t work, we have to struggle with the generator”.

That’s a struggle many businesses share, with Ukraine’s central bank saying recently that “The difficult situation in the energy sector will continue to restrain business activity for a long time”.

It’s why it cut the forecast for economic growth this year from 2% to 1.8%, although the latest IMF forecast is for growth of 1.8 to 2.5%.

For the economy as a whole, “The biggest challenge is that we haven’t sufficient electricity”, says Marchenko

He explains it means that companies can’t be as productive as they want to be, and are having to increase the price of their products to cover the use of generators.

That’s why he says “All of our governmental programs now channel our resources to partly restore capacity to generate electricity”.

The importance of doing that and boosting economy growth was underlined by last month’s estimate of the reconstruction and recovery bill for Ukraine put together by its own government alongside the EU, World Bank and UN.

The price tag of $588bn is almost two and a half times the size of the entire economy, and includes putting right damage to housing, transport and other infrastructure, as well as removing mines from areas around the frontline.

The challenges haven’t stopped the president of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which represents more than 8,000 companies across the country, from being optimistic about the future.

“Despite the war we see how [foreign] business are interested in, and starting to invest in, Ukraine,” says Gennadiy Chyzhykov.

“The new trend, we see a lot of delegations who visit Ukraine asking what we need, and how to start to prepare for after the war, reconstruction, the rebuilding.

“They believe in the victory, and they believe in the good business in Ukraine.”

However, a shortage of workers with the right skills is an ongoing challenge that shows no signs of abating given that millions of people have either joined the army or left the country.

The UN’s International Labour Organisation has suggested there will be a shortage of 8.7 million workers when it comes to reconstruction, and some business leaders have suggested the answer is to import workers from abroad.

A lot of support is coming from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which has spent more than $10bn in Ukraine since the war began.

“I think the challenge will be immense but it can be managed,” says its president Odile Renaud-Basso.

She says many foreign companies are willing to invest but “having a real just peace, credible peace settlement, will be key, for investors to be sure that there is not a risk of the war will start again”.

Yet with little sign of any end to the war she adds that the EBRD has the resources “to continue to support Ukraine in the war for how long it takes”.

The ongoing struggle both on the battlefield and balancing the government’s books means Ukraine’s finance minister admits: “We need support, military support, and budgetary support.”

However, Marchenko says the challenges of a wartime economy are driving changes that could lead to a “better economy for the future”.

“The Ukrainian people and our government and economy are resilient and determined to fight this war, because we defend ourselves and we will.”

A new report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says Russian authorities “at the highest level” have deported “thousands” of children from the occupied areas of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s “direct involvement” has been “visibile form the outset,” it adds.

Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus.

The UN Commission has so far identified 1,205 cases of children who were taken from Ukrainian territories by Moscow in 2022.

Eighty percent of these children have not yet been returned, the report says, and many parents and guardians are to this day unaware of the whereabouts of the minors.

This amounts to enforced disappearance and unjustifiable delay in repatriation, which are crimes against humanity and war crimes respectively, according to the UN.

The majority of the children mentioned in the UN report lived in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics – Ukrainian regions which Moscow illegally claims control over.

The report says that just before it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow evacuated these children to the Russian Federation, claiming they were at risk of an imminent attack by Ukraine. Then, the children were placed in families or institutions and given Russian citizenship.

Moscow has always dismissed accusations of forcibly removing children from Ukrainian territory.

Vladimir Putin once said that “the story of the ‘child abductions’… [was] exaggerated” and insisted that the children in question had been “rescued” from a war zone. At the time, he also insisted there was “no problem” returning the children to their homeland.

But Kyiv has always argued that was not the case and the UN report says that children have faced huge difficulties travelling back to Ukraine.

This forced removal and severed ties with their homeland, combined with a “coercive environment” in Russia, “has been a source of deep distress for the children”, according to the UN.

The children who manage to return suffer from “trauma, anxiety and fear of abandonment”, the report says, often due to harsh treatment in Russia. One child was told by staff in a Russian orphanage that his country, Ukraine, “does not exist anymore, everything has burnt down, and your parents have probably died”.

“I am still looking for my daughter, and I am terribly afraid of what she might think of me and how she survives [in Russia], where many people hate Ukrainians,” the report quotes a mother who has been unable to track down her child as saying.

In 2023 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him and his commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova of the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.

Lvova-Belova gave an interview in which she described “taking in” a 15-year-old boy from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which Russia currently occupies, and “re-educating” him despite the fact he “did not want to go” to Russia.

Ukraine says it has so far recovered 2,000 children.

US First Lady Melania Trump has reportedly been involved in facilitating the reunification of children. Last year, she said she had an “open channel of communication” with Putin after he responded to her letter of concern about the child victims of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The war in Ukraine continues unabated despite several rounds of talks involving Moscow and Kyiv’s negotiating teams and, most recently, an American delegation.

The conflict – now in its fifth year – has killed more than 15,000 civilians, injured more than 41,300, and displaced 3.7 million.

Regional governor Oleg Synegubov said the missile damaged a five-storey residential building on Saturday morning. He added that rescue workers are clearing up debris.

The latest overnight attacks triggered air alerts across Ukraine – including in Dnipropetrovsk and in Zaporizhzhia.

Russia’s defence ministry confirmed it used drones to carry out strikes on Ukrainian targets – adding its forces struck Ukrainian military compounds, airfields and energy facilities, the Interfax news agency said.

Separately, the Polish air force said it had scrambled military jets to protect its airspace in regions bordering Ukraine, as it usually does in the event of large scale Russian strikes.

Detailing the aftermath of the strikes, Synegubov said that in Kharkiv, a 65-year-old woman, a 40-year-old man, and a 13-year-old girl were among those killed.

The bodies of four more people were found, including a nine-year-old boy, he later said on Telegram.

Synegubov said seven apartment buildings were damaged as were power grids and an administrative building in the city.

Zelensky said at least ten more people – including children – have been injured.”There may still be people under the rubble,” Zelensky said.”All necessary services are working at the scene to rescue them.”

Zelensky added that overnight Russia used 29 missiles and 480 drones which he said “targeted energy facilities” in Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi regions, and the railway in Zhytomyr region.

“There must be a response from partners to these brutal attacks on life,” Zelensky said.

Elsewhere, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, said one person had been killed and another wounded in a Russian attack overnight in the Nikopol district.

Ganzha said on Telegram that the Russian army targeted the area around 20 times using drones, artillery, and rockets.

A separate strike wounded a baby in Zaporizhzhia, while in Chuguiv in the Kharkiv region, Mayor Halyna Minayeva said two people were injured in a drone attack on a house in the city’s centre.

“The reasons are still unknown, as well as their current well-being,” Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. “We have already sent an official note demanding an immediate release of our citizens.”

According to Ukraine’s state savings bank, Oschadbank, the seven workers were in two vans carrying $80m (£60m) worth of cash and 9kg of gold in a regular transport between Austria and Ukraine. They were “unjustifiably detained” and GPS data showed their vehicles in Budapest, it said.

Hungary’s tax authority said on Friday that it was conducting criminal proceedings and added that one of the group was a former general of Ukraine’s intelligence service.

“This year alone, more than $900m, €420m and 146 kilograms of gold bars were transported to Ukraine through the territory of Hungary,” the national tax and customs administration said in a statement.

Relations between Ukraine and Hungary have deteriorated during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have descended into a war of words over a halt to Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made no mention of the seven bank workers in his regular radio appearance on Friday, although he did say “transit shipments” important to Ukraine would be halted until a row over Russian oil supplies was sorted out.

Hungarian reports describe how black-clad officials from Hungary’s TEK counter-terrorism centre raided the Ukrainian-registered vehicles on Thursday and then their convoy headed to Budapest.

Responding to the incident, Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Hungary of “state terrorism and racketeering”.

“We are talking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing money,” said Sybiha on X.

Orbán, seen as Russia’s closest ally in the EU, has accused Ukraine of deliberately halting Russian oil through the pipeline. Kyiv says the pipeline was damaged in a Russian air strike in January and Orban has threatened to “force the Ukrainians to restart deliveries”.

The Hungarian leader, whose party is trailing in the polls ahead of next month’s pivotal elections, has also blocked a €90bn (£78bn) EU aid package seen as vital for Ukraine’s financing in a bid to force the resumption of oil supplies.

Orbán has repeatedly opposed EU funding for Ukraine, arguing it prolongs the war. He has focused much of his election campaign on an anti-Ukraine message.

Last month he ordered increased security for Hungary’s energy infrastructure, making unsubstantiated claims that Kyiv was preparing “further actions to disrupt” the energy system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised Orbán for blocking the aid package and said on Thursday that the Druzhba pipeline might only become operational again in another four to six weeks.

“To be honest, I would not restore it. This is my position. I expressed it to European leaders… because this is Russian oil,” he told a briefing. “Russians are killing Ukrainians and we have to give oil to Orbán, because he, the poor thing, cannot win the election without this oil.”

The Ukrainian leader also hinted that if Hungary’s prime minister continued to block EU funding for Ukraine, then Ukrainian armed forces would be given his address to “communicate with him in their own language”.

Orbán has said Budapest will use “political and financial tools” to force Ukraine to reopen the pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungarian refineries.

Druzhba is the main route for delivering Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia and shipments of Russian oil to both countries have been cut off since 27 January.

In a separate development this week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto travelled to Moscow and secured the release of two ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war.

Hungary says the men, who are from Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region, have dual Hungarian and Ukrainian citizenship and has accused Kyiv of conscripting them into the army.

Kyiv has described their transfer to Hungary as a “gross violation of international humanitarian law”.

Russia accused Ukraine of targeting the Arctic Metagaz with “uncrewed sea drones” launched from the Libyan coast.

Ukraine’s SBU state security service has not commented on the allegation and the Libyan port authority said the cause of the fire was unclear.

The Libyans said the tanker was carrying about 62,000 tonnes of LNG before the blasts and that it sank about 130 nautical miles (240km) north of the Libyan port of Sirte.

Russia’s transport ministry said 30 Russians were aboard the Arctic Metagaz. Maltese Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said they were all found “safe and sound in a lifeboat” during a rescue operation by Malta’s armed forces.

Unverified night-time footage has emerged purportedly showing the ship ablaze after the attack, which occurred on Tuesday.

Serhii Sternenko, a popular blogger and adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, posted pictures on Wednesday morning of what he said was the tanker in the Mediterranean, which had a “serious hole in the engine room compartment and is beyond repair”.

He did not elaborate where the pictures came from and they have not been independently verified.

“This is a terrorist attack,” Russia’s Vladimir Putin told state TV. “This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered something like this.”

Russia’s transport ministry called it “an act of international terrorism and maritime piracy”, singling out the European Union for complicity.

Moscow said the Arctic Metagaz – which had been en route from Russia’s northern port of Murmansk – was carrying cargo cleared in accordance with international rules.

The tanker was apparently heading for Port Said in Egypt and is considered part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet. It has been widely sanctioned by Western countries.

The ministry provided no evidence to back up its claim that the tanker was attacked by Ukrainian sea drones, though there were earlier unconfirmed reports of attacks from the Libyan coast.

The SBU told media that it was not commenting on “the situation with the tanker in the Mediterranean”, although a Ukrainian government-linked social media account, United24, teased that the drones were “Definitely. Maybe” not part of the Ukrainian fleet.

Marine tracking data indicated that the day before the fire, the tanker had last reported that it was sailing off the south-east coast of Malta.

It had sailed some considerable distance by the time the fire was reported and it is assumed the crew deactivated its automatic identification system.

Russia has deployed a surging number of vessels to transport oil and gas in an attempt to avoid international sanctions, which are aimed at slashing revenues that have been critical for funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Its shadow fleet is largely made up of aged tankers, many with obscure ownership or insurance.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, Kyiv has carried out a number of attacks on such vessels using naval drones.

However, nearly all of such strikes have been in the Black Sea, which Russia and Ukraine both border.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said Ukraine could get back “the original borders from where this war started” with the support of Europe and Nato, due to pressures on Russia’s economy.

His comments came after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, held after Trump had addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to end the war, but has previously warned that process would likely involve Ukraine giving up some territory, an outcome Zelensky hasconsistently rejected.

In his post, Trump added Ukraine could “maybe even go further than that”, but did not specify what he was referring to.

He also made no reference to Crimea, which was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Trump said his position had changed “after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation”.

“Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” he added, labelling Russia as a “paper tiger”.

Zelensky hailed the “big shift” in Trump’s position, and speaking to reporters in the UN building, said he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees “after the war is finished”.

Pressed on what this would look like, he added: “I don’t want to lie, we don’t have specific details,” but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.

Speaking later on Fox News, Zelensky said that Trump’s Truth Social post about Ukraine’s positioning surprised him but he took it as a “positive signal” that Trump and the US “will be with us to the end of the war”.

“I think the fact that Putin was lying to President Trump so many times also made a difference between us,” he told Fox host Bret Baier.

Earlier on Tuesday, following his speech to the UN, Trump also said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their airspace, following a series of recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones.

Last week, Estonia and Poland requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russia violated its airspace in separate incidents. Romania, another Nato member, also said Russian drones breached its airspace.

After meeting on Tuesday, Nato issued a statement condemning Russia’s actions and warned that it would use “all necessary military and non-military tools” to defend itself.

“Russia bears full responsibility for these actions, which are escalatory, risk miscalculation and endanger lives. They must stop,” it said.

The alliance added that Moscow’s actions were part of a “pattern of increasingly irresponsible” behaviour.

Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte said: “We are a defensive alliance, yes, but we are not naive, so we see what is happening.”

Speaking at the UN, Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki echoed those comments, saying his country was prepared to “defend its territory” and “react adequately”.

“Polish people, as well as countries of Central and Eastern Europe, will not be scared of Russian drones,” he said.

Russia denied violating Estonia’s airspace, while it insisted the Polish incursion was not deliberate and did not comment on the Romania incident.

Asked if the US would support its Nato allies if they shot down Russian aircraft, Trump said it “depends on the circumstance” and praised the military alliance for increasing defence spending.

“Nato has stepped up,” he said, referring to an agreement by leaders to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their countries’ economic output by 2035.

In his speech hours earlier, Trump criticised some Nato members for not ceasing the purchase of Russian energy, saying they were “funding a war against themselves”.

Tuesday’s Truth Social post represents an about-face after Trump spent most of the year insisting that Ukraine’s situation was dire.

In February, Trump told Zelensky during their fiery Oval Office exchange that he did “not have the cards right now” to prevail against a larger, more populous nation in a war of attrition.

Before talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, Trump said he would try to get some territory back for Ukraine but warned there would be “some swapping, changes in land”.

There were reports he was planning to press Zelensky to surrender the entirety of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in return for Russia freezing the rest of the front line – a proposal put forward by Putin in Alaska.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to impose tougher measures on Russia, but has so far failed to take any action when the Kremlin ignored his deadlines and threats of sanctions.

Unpredictability has long been one of the US president’s foreign policy trademarks, and perhaps this latest move is an attempt to shake up peace negotiations that have been stagnant for more than a month after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska.

The most notable portion of Trump’s post may be the way it ended – with an assurance the US would continue to sell arms to Nato that it could then pass along to Ukraine.

It is not the seemingly near open-ended commitment to the war effort that the Biden administration provided, but it is more than Trump seemed interested in offering at times this year.

It follows Trump saying there was a “good chance” he could meet his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts together in person “very soon” to discussending the war in Ukraine.

Trump’s deadline for Russia to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more sweeping sanctions is due to expire on Friday.

A possible meeting between Trump and Putin would follow US envoy Steve Witkoff holding talks with the Russian president on Wednesday.

Witkoff has travelled to Moscow four times previously, visits followed by optimism from Trump but ultimately no major breakthrough in peace talks.

Trump was also asked at a White House briefing on Wednesday night whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putinhad agreed to a three-way summit, and he said there was a “very good prospect”.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov noted that the idea of a three-way summit was mentioned at talks in Moscow on Wednesday, but was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the option was left by Russia “without comment”.

Zelensky indicated his support for a summit, acknowledging that various formats of meetings had been discussed – “two bilateral and one trilateral” – and added that Europe “must be a participant” in any talks.

He wrote on X: “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side.”

Ushakov said a location for a meeting between Trump and Putin had been agreed, with further details to be announced later.

The official, who advises Putin on foreign affairs, said all parties have begun working on the details.

Last month, Trump admitted to the BBC that after all four of Witkoff’s previous visits, Putin had disappointed him after talks had initially led to optimism.

The US President is now striking a more cautious tone, telling reporters on Wednesday: “I don’t call it a breakthrough…we have been working at this for a long time. There are thousands of young people dying… I’m here to get the thing over with.”

On Wednesday, the Kremlin released a vague statement about Witkoff’s visit, calling the discussions “constructive” and noting that both sides had exchanged “signals”.

Zelensky meanwhile said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff’s visit, with European leaders also on the call.

The Ukrainian president has been warning that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money

Expectations are muted for a settlement by Friday – when Trump’s deadline expires – and Russia has continued its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine despite the US threat of sanctions.

As pressure builds, Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on Indian imports over its continued purchase of Russian oil.

Before taking office in January, Trump said he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. The conflict has raged on and his rhetoric towards Moscow has since hardened.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.

Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners.

Russian demands include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, dramatically reducing its military and abandoning its Nato aspirations.

It also wants Ukrainian military withdrawal from its four partly occupied regions in the south-east, and the demobilisation of its soldiers.

Russia also demands international recognition of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the annexed Crimea.

Other conditions include a ban on Ukraine’s membership in any military alliances, a limit on the size of the Ukrainian army, Russian as an official language, and the lifting of international sanctions on Russia

The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv’s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US approved $200m (£150m) in additional military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, including support for drone production.

Asked at the White House whether the two leaders had agreed to such a summit, the US president said there was a “very good prospect”, but did not give further details.

The Kremlin earlier issued a vague statement about the talks between Putin and Steve Witkoff, with a foreign policy aide saying the two sides had exchanged “signals” as part of “constructive” talks in Moscow.

The meeting came days before Trump’s deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, or face new sanctions.

Trump’s comments in the Oval Office on Wednesday come after he posted on his Truth Social platform that he had briefed some of America’s European allies following the talks.

“Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump said.

The White House said that Russia had expressed a desire to meet the US president and that he was “open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff’s visit, with European leaders also on the call.

Zelensky has been warning that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money.

Trump has said Russia could face hefty sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all those who trade with it if it doesn’t take steps to end the war.

Wednesday’s discussions between Putin and Witkoff appeared cordial despite Trump’s mounting irritation with the lack of progress in negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

Shortly after Witkoff’s departure from Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil. The tariff would come into force on 27 August.

The US president has accused India of not caring “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine”.

Expectations are muted for a settlement by Friday, and Russia has continued its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine despite Trump’s threats of sanctions.

Before taking office in January, Trump said he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. The conflict has raged on, and his rhetoric towards Moscow has since hardened.

“We thought we had [the war] settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” he said last month.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.

Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv’s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US administration approved $200m (£150m) of additional military sales to Ukraine on Tuesday following a phone call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defence co-operation and drone production.

Ukraine has been using drones to hit Russia’s refineries and energy facilities, while Moscow has focused its air attacks on Ukraine’s cities.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said the toll of an attack on the city last week rose to 32 after a man died of his injuries. The strike was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since the start of the invasion.

Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday reported that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central region of Zaporizhzhia left two dead and 12 wounded.

“There’s no military sense in this attack. It’s just cruelty to scare people,” Zelensky said.

Trump also described the meeting as “highly productive” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The Kremlin earlier issued a vague statement about the talks, with foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov saying the two sides had exchanged “signals” as part of “constructive” talks in Moscow.

He also said Russia and the US had discussed the possibility of strategic cooperation – but refused to share more until Witkoff had briefed the US president.

The meeting came days before Trump’s deadline to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump said he had briefed some of America’s European allies following the talks.

“Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” he said.

The discussions between Putin and Witkoff appeared cordial despite Trump’s mounting irritation with the lack of progress in negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

Images shared by Russian outlets showed Putin and Witkoff – who have met several times before – smiling and shaking hands in a gilded hall at the Kremlin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff’s visit, with European leaders also on the call. “The war must end,” he said.

Trump has said Russia could face hefty sanctions or see secondary sanctions imposed against all those who trade with it if it doesn’t take steps to end the war.

Shortly after Witkoff’s departure from Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil. The tariff would come into force on 27 August.

Earlier this week, the US president accused India of not caring “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine”.

Before Wednesday’s talks, Zelensky warned that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money.

Expectations are muted for a settlement by Friday, and Russia has continued its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine despite Trump’s threats of sanctions.

Before taking office in January, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. He failed, and his rhetoric towards Russia has since hardened.

“We thought we had [the war] settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” he said last month.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to and end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.

Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv’s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US administration approved $200m (£150m) of additional military sales to Ukraine on Tuesday following a phone call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defence cooperation and drone production.

Ukraine has been using drones to hit Russia’s refineries and energy facilities, while Moscow has focused its air attacks on Ukraine’s cities.

The Kyiv City Military Administration said the toll of an attack on the city last week rose to 32 after a man died of his injuries. The strike was the deadliest on Kyiv since the start of the invasion.

Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday reported that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central region of Zaporizhzhia left two dead and 12 wounded.

“There’s no military sense in this attack. It’s just cruelty to scare people,” Zelensky said.

That will raise the total tariff on Indian imports to the United States to 50% – among the highest rates imposed by the US.

The new rate will come into effect in 21 days, so on 27 August, according to the executive order.

A response from India’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said Delhi had already made clear its stance on imports from Russia, and reiterated that the tariff is “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

“It is therefore extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest,” the brief statement read.

“India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” it added.

The US president had earlier warned he would raise levies, saying India doesn’t “care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”.

On Wednesday, the White House said in a statement that the “Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine pose an ongoing threat to US national security and foreign policy, necessitating stronger measures to address the national emergency”.

It said India’s imports of Russian oil undermine US efforts to counter Russia’s activities in Ukraine.

It added that the US will determine which other countries import oil from Russia, and will “recommend further actions to the President as needed”.

Oil and gas are Russia’s biggest exports, and Moscow’s biggest customers include China, India and Turkey.

The threatened tariff hike follows meetings on Wednesday by Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, aimed at securing peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The additional tariff would mean a steep 50% duty on key Indian exports like textiles, gems and jewellery, auto parts, and seafood, hitting major job-creating sectors.

Electronics, including iPhones, and pharma remain exempt for now.

Delhi has previously called Trump’s threat to raise tariffs over its purchase of oil from Russia “unjustified and unreasonable”.

In an earlier statement, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said the US had encouraged India to import Russian gas at the start of the conflict, “for strengthening global energy markets stability”.

He said India “began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict”.

The latest threatened tariff demonstrates Trump’s willingness to impose sanctions related to the war in Ukraine even against nations that the US considers to be important allies or trading partners.

This could be a warning that other countries could feel a real bite if Trump ramps up those kind of sanctions once Friday’s deadline passes, when the US president has threatened new sanctions on Russia and to place 100% tariffs on countries that purchase its oil.

This would not be the first time the Trump administration has imposed secondary tariffs, which are also in place to punish buyers of Venezuelan oil.

India has previously criticised the US – its largest trading partner – for introducing the levies, when the US itself is still doing trade with Russia.

Last year, the US traded goods worth an estimated $3.5bn (£2.6bn) with Russia, despite tough sanctions and tariffs.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have in the past referred to each other as friends and, during Trump’s first term, attended political rallies in each others’ countries.

But that has not stopped Trump from hitting India with the levies, suggesting diverging interests between New Delhi and Washington.

The Federation of India Exports Organisations has called the decision to impose additional tariffs “extremely shocking”, adding that it will hit 55% of India’s exports to America.

The tariffs are expected to make Indian goods far costlier in the US, and could cut US-bound exports by 40–50%, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank.

“India should remain calm, avoid retaliation for at least six months, and recognise that meaningful trade negotiations with the US cannot proceed under threats or mistrust,” former Indian trade official and head of GTRI, Ajay Srivastava, said.