Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow responds to ‘very angry’ Trump while Putin drafts 160,000 men for war

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has held sensitive conversations regarding peace in Ukraine on Signal, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has cited US officials as saying.

It comes amid a major row over Mr Waltz appeared to accidentally leak sensitive information regarding a US attack on Yemen’s Houthis to the Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief on a Signal group chat.

According to two US officials, Waltz has also discussed peace between Russia and Ukraine and military operations on Signal, the WSJ reported. The officials did not say whether classified information was revealed in the conversations.

Last night appears to be the first time Russia has not launched a mass drone attack on civilian targets so far in 2025.

Putin’s forces did, however, fire two cruise missiles at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Officials in the Dnipropetrovsk region also reported drone attacks against the region “between the evening and the morning”, but did not comment on the number of drones and said only limited damage was done, The Kyiv Independent reported.

The air force’s report did not mention any drone attacks, and the military did not announce any alarms connected to drone strikes overnight.

National Security and Defense Council official Andrii Kovalenko says it “doesn’t mean anything” and Ukraine will “keep monitoring” the situation.

More from Anna Baerbock, Germany’s outgoing foreign minister who is visiting Kyiv on Tuesday.

Washington should not be misled by Vladimir Putin’s “stalling tactics” to delay a ceasefire, she said in a statement after her arrival.

“At the upcoming meeting of NATO foreign ministers, we will make it clear to the American side that we should not engage with Putin’s stalling tactics,” the statement added.

Russia fired two Kh-59/69 cruise missiles at southeastern Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said.

Both the missiles were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences.

The air force did not mention any drones launched by Russia overnight in its statement on the Telegram app.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Kyiv as European allies look to bolster support for Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters, Ms Baerbock says Europe must support Kyiv more than ever.

Given the deadlock between the USA and Russia, she says, in an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s reported anger with Vladimir Putin, Europeans must now show that they stand by Ukraine without any ifs or buts.

Ms Baerbock is expected to be replaced as foreign minister once CDU leader Friedrich Merz becomes chancellor following his February election success.

British, French and Ukrainian military leaders will meet in the coming days to build on “real momentum” in efforts to boost Ukraine’s security, a spokesperson for prime minister Keir Starmer said.

The meeting to “drive forward the next stage of detailed planning” was agreed on a call between Sir Keir and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the spokesperson said yesterday.

The call came after a “coalition of the willing” of European countries supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia met in Paris last week and vowed to strengthen Kyiv’s army for future security.

France and Britain at the meeting also tried to expand support for a planned foreign “reassurance force” in the event of a truce with Russia.

“The leaders reflected on their visit to Paris last week and agreed there was real momentum to support Ukraine’s security for the long term,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said.

Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin.

Trump, seemingly mesmerised by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of Nato and other allies. All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).

That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.

Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to the citizens of Bucha on the third anniversary of the city’s liberation in a call with Volodymyr Zelensky days before a meeting of military chiefs to discuss peacekeeping plans for Ukraine.

The prime minister reflected on the “courage and strength” of residents, whose stories he said were a “painful reminder of Russia’s barbarity” in a conversation on Monday evening.

The Kremlin’s forces occupied Bucha weeks after they invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and stayed for about a month until their withdrawal during the Kyiv offensive in March that year.

Russian forces shelled a frontline settlement in Ukraine’s southeast Zaporizhzhia region yesterday, killing one person and injuring five, the regional governor said.

Ivan Fedorov did not identify the settlement, but posted pictures of heavily damaged homes and other buildings alongside piles of rubble.

He said a 66-year-old woman had died in the attack.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions partly occupied by Russian forces. All four were illegally annexed by Moscow seven months after the Kremlin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine and Western nations denounce the annexations as illegal.