Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch massive drone attack as Trump’s envoy prepares options to end war

The Trump administration’s freeze of foreign funding has begun impacting an international effort to hold Russia responsible for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, according to eight sources and a Ukrainian document seen by Reuters, halting dozens of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in aid.

Ukraine has opened more than 140,000 war crime cases since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, ravaged vast swathes of the country and left behind mental and physical scars from occupation. Russia consistently denies war crimes have been committed by its forces in the conflict.

US-funded international initiatives such as the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA) have provided expertise and oversight to Ukrainian authorities. Kyiv has been praised by its Western partners for probing alleged crimes while the war is still raging.

At stake are six US-funded projects at the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) valued at $89 million, according to a Ukrainian document on the US funding and cuts seen by Reuters.

Funding for at least five of those projects has already been frozen, according to five sources directly involved, who cited interruptions in payments. The affected worked on issues ranging from the preservation of evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reform of Ukraine’s prosecution system.

Two of the listed projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and one directly by the Department of State, the document showed.

Of that funding, $47 million was directly allocated to war crimes accountability, the document showed.

Russian deputy foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees US relations and arms control, has said that all of president Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine must be met before any settlement is possible.

On 14 June, Mr Putin set out his terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Mr Ryabkov said that the sooner the United States and the West understood that all of Mr Putin’s conditions needed to be met, the sooner there would be a settlement in Ukraine.

A senior Russian politician has said that Moscow is yet to receive a good offer to start peace negotiations, despite claims by Donald Trump that talks were progressing.

Deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin told the RIA state news agency: “It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities.”

“Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he added.

It comes after Trump spoke to Putin over the phone and claimed he was making progress on a way to end the nearly three-year-long conflict.

“I do believe we’re making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war,” he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted a Russian invitation to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, according to Russian state media.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to take part in the celebrations on 9 May in Moscow on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.”

At the end of last week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered Donald Trump and the US a partnership over Ukraine’s stores of rare earth and minerals.

Earlier in the week week, Trump said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with critical resources in exchange for financial support in its war with Russia.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Zelenskyy said: “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it.”

While emphasising that Kyiv was not proposing “giving away” its resources, he said he was open to a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly.

Overnight Russian drone attacks sparked a fire in Kyiv and injured a woman and damaged several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had shot down 61 out of 83 drones with 22 more likely downed by electronic warfare.

No injuries were reported in the attack that sparked a fire at a non-residential building in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

But a 38-year-old woman was hospitalised after Russia launched drones at Sumy, which is the administrative centre of the broader Sumy region, Ihor Kalchenko, governor of the region said on Telegram.