Vladimir Putin has “played Donald Trump like a violin” over Ukraine, according to a former British intelligence boss. Sir Alex Younger, who was the head of MI6 between 2014 and 2020, said the Russian president is going to make his US counterpart “look like a Muppet” by continuing to bomb its neighbour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will agree to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only if Kyiv surrenders first, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsia said in an interview with The Kyiv Independent.