Ukraine war latest: Putin sets out tough conditions for ceasefire while Trump hopes Russia will do ‘right thing’

A Russian man has been sentenced to life in prison after a Finnish court found him guilty of committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

The trial of Yan Petrovsky, who is also known as Voislav Torden, was a rare case of prosecutors outside Ukraine seeking justice after alleged war crimes in a conflict that began long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Petrovsky, who was born in 1987, faced five charges related to his activities in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine a decade ago.

He has been under European Union and US sanctions since 2022. He denied all charges, his lawyer Heikki Lampela told the Helsinki court last December.

Eight people were injured in a Russian drone attack on the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian military has said.

Ukrainian defences shot down 16 out of 27 drones launched by Russia overnight, while nine drones did not reach their target, the military added.

Seven people were injured in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov, and another woman was injured in a strike which caused a fire in a hospital in the surrounding region.

The European Union’s diplomatic service has suggested EU countries provide up to $43.35bn in military aid to Ukraine this year, according to a discussion paper seen by Reuters.

The paper, an updated version of an earlier proposal, also says each EU country participating in the effort should contribute “in line with its economic weight”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine saw Turkey as a partner in security guarantees for his country, and added that Kyiv was ready to ratify a free trade agreement between the states.

Nato member Turkey has balanced ties with Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has maintained good ties with both, supporting Ukraine militarily and backing its territorial integrity, while refusing to join sanctions on Russia.

As Europe scrambles to bolster its own defence and security, while seeking guarantees for Kyiv under any possible ceasefire deal with Moscow urged by Washington, Turkey has emerged as a key potential security partner.

Mr Zelensky met Turkish trade minister Omer Bolat and agriculture minister Ibrahim Yumakli in Kyiv, and discussed bilateral ties, cooperation in drone production, and Turkish firms’ involvement in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

“It is important that Turkish businesses are already present in Ukraine. Our country appreciates this, as well as Turkey’s support and assistance, particularly the supply of Bayraktar drones,” Mr Zelensky said on X.

“Ukraine considers Turkey one of its strategic partners, as well as a partner in terms of security guarantees, and is ready to ratify the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey during president (Tayyip) Erdogan’s upcoming visit,” he added, without specifying when he would visit.

Residential buildings were damaged after Russia hit Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson with four guided bombs late on Wednesday.

One person was injured, and several administrative buildings, six private houses, and a multi-story building were damaged.

Russian air defences repelled an attack by four drones flying towards Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Friday.”

Emergency services are working at the site where debris came down,” Mr Sobyanin said on Telegram.

He did not mention Ukraine, but Kyiv has launched a steady stream of drone attacks on Russia since president Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine more than three years ago, most of them targeting energy and other infrastructure.

This week, three men were killed in the Moscow region in what was described as the largest drone attack on the Russian capital since the start of the war.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the wider Moscow region, said that three of the drones had been brought down over his region.

Debris had fallen on a construction site and a residential building under construction, said Mr Vorobyov, adding that there had been no casualties.

One of the drones had hit the roof of a multi-storey residential building in the west of Moscow, the RIA news agency reported, citing initial information from emergency services.