Ukraine-Russia war live: JD Vance says war not ending ‘any time soon’ despite historic minerals deal

The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 150 drones during its overnight attack.

The air force, in a statement this morning, said it shot down 64 of them and another 62 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures.

It did not specify what happened to the remaining 24 drones.

President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed a minerals deal with the US as a truly equal and fair agreement, and the first result of his Vatican meeting with US president Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Mr Zelensky said the minerals deal opens the way for the modernisation of industries in Ukraine.

The war-time president has been under pressure to show results from courting Mr Trump, who has shifted US policy towards supporting Russia’s account of the war in Ukraine and has frequently criticised the Ukrainian leader.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has likely shifted his immediate war objectives and now aims at holding occupied Ukrainian territories and ramping up Russia’s depleted economy, western officials aware of the intelligence have said.

“The Russian objective is to get as much territory recognized as possible and have as weak of a Ukraine as possible,” the US official said, reported CNN, at a time the Trump administration is engaging in peace talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

According to the unnamed US and Western officials, the assessment suggests a shift in Mr Putin’s calculus of the situation.

However, a senior US official told CNN that despite Russian forces making slower battlefield gains and holding small pockets of territory near the frontline, there is “zero indication” that Russia would be successful in securing massive Ukrainian territory in the immediate future.

Despite continuing to make marginal progress on the battlefield and capturing small pockets of territory near the front line, a senior U.S. official told CNN that there was “zero indication” Russia would be able to secure large swaths of land in the immediate future.

The second Trump-Zelensky meeting, by all accounts, was a much more positive affair than their notorious clash in the Oval Office in late February. And on Wednesday it appeared to pay off – with the U.S. and Ukraine finally signing a long-awaited minerals deal.

Now, insiders have revealed details of the Vatican exchange between the two world leaders, and how it may have helped create a diplomatic breakthrough and boost Ukraine’s fortunes in the ongoing war with Russia.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was an “obstacle” to the Ukraine peace plans of the EU and the West, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

The Russian leader was “the only obstacle to peace today in Ukraine”, the minister said yesterday as the European Union prepared a 17th round of sanctions against Moscow.

“We Europeans will accompany this American (sanctions) initiative with a 17th package of sanctions, and I committed yesterday to Lindsey Graham that we would try to coordinate both the substance and the timing of these two packages of sanctions,” Mr Barrot said, referring to the US senator.

The minister said Ukraine had accepted an unconditional ceasefire and agreed to a critical minerals deal with the US.

“Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has made no effort, has sent no sign that it is ready for the ceasefire or the peace that President Donald Trump aspires to, and that the Europeans and, of course, the Ukrainians aspire to,” Mr Barrot said, according to AFP.

US president Donald Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio have identified Julie Davis, currently the US ambassador to Cyprus, to serve as charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Kyiv, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said yesterday.

The move comes as Washington tries to broker a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia and after former ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink stepped down last month.

Ukraine signed a mineral and profit-sharing deal with the United States on Wednesday evening in Washington DC following two months of testy negotiations.

The agreement will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

A White House official said earlier that the minerals deal was a “first step to lasting peace” but Zelensky had “overplayed his cards”.

Below, The Independent looks at what could be included in the deal now that it has been struck.

While negotiations were up in the air, it had been reported the preliminary agreement established a fund in which Ukraine would contribute 50 per cent of proceeds from the “future monetisation” of state-owned mineral resources such as oil and gas, which would be invested in Ukrainian projects.

After two months on tenterhooks following the bust-up in the Oval Office, President Zelensky’s team will have sighed with relief as US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, announced the reconstruction and investment deal with Kyiv.

The good news for Zelensky is that this deal is vastly less humiliating for Ukraine than what he refused to sign in February, leading to Donald Trump’s harsh comment: “You don’t have the cards.”

The idea that past US military aid was a “debt” owed by Ukraine has been dropped, as have terms that would contradict Ukraine’s obligations to its EU partners.

Yes, the minerals deal Zelensky agreed with the US is vastly less humiliating than the one he refused to sign after being monstered in the Oval Office. But all Ukraine is really left with is the prospect of more war, writes Mark Almond:

A Russian drone attack late last night set buildings ablaze in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring 14 people, but causing no deaths, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

One man buried under rubble had been pulled out alive, he said. Another nine people were being treated in hospital.

Mr Fedorov said Russian forces had made at least 10 strikes on the city, targeting private homes, high-rise apartment buildings, educational institutions and infrastructure sites.

Pictures posted online showed a building ablaze and rescue teams making their way through rubble and clambering up the side of damaged buildings on extended ladders.

One picture showed a rescue team carrying an injured man to safety.

There would need to be a real breakthrough on the war in Ukraine very soon or US president Donald Trump is going to have to decide how much more time to dedicate to the matter, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Fox News last night.

“I think we know where Ukraine is, and we know where Russia is right now… They’re closer, but they’re still far apart,” he added during an interview on Fox News’ Hannity show.