Live: Kremlin says Putin sent Trump a message on Ukraine ceasefire, talks of 'cautious optimism'
Issued on: 14/03/2025 - 09:35Modified: 14/03/2025 - 12:59
The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had sent US President Donald Trump a message about his proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine via Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that there were grounds for "cautious optimism". Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Russia's troops recaptured 28 settlements in its western Kursk region in the past week and took control of the village of Novenke in Ukraine's adjacent Sumy region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday.
Russia has sharply accelerated a push to drive Ukrainian forces out of Kursk, where they took control of about 100 settlements in a surprise incursion into Russian territory last August.
Ukrainians are largely "not impressed and not surprised" by comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in which he said that he had "serious questions" about Washington's plan for a 30-day ceasefire, FRANCE 24's Kyiv correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.
Watch his full remarks below.
EU countries agreed Friday to prolong sanctions on more than 2,400 individuals over Russia's war on Ukraine after a delay from Hungary, diplomats said.
Budapest agreed to renew the sanctions for a further six months after four people were removed from the list, officials said.
US envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin late Thursday and will relay the Russian leader's assessments of a Washington-proposed Ukraine ceasefire to President Donald Trump, the Kremlin said Friday.
"When Mr Witkoff brings all the information to President Trump, we will determine the timing of a conversation (between Trump and Putin)," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic."
Moscow said on Friday that its forces had recaptured another village in their drive to dislodge Ukrainian forces from their last remaining footholds inside Russia's Kursk region.
The defence ministry said Russian troops had retaken Goncharovka, one of only a handful of settlements still in Ukrainian hands. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Ukraine said it controlled about 100 settlements at the peak of its shock incursion into western Russia, which it launched on August 10 last year with the aim of diverting Russian forces from eastern Ukraine and securing a bargaining chip in negotiations.
But Russia's forces, supported by troops from its ally North Korea, have reclaimed much of the lost territory, tightening the squeeze on Ukraine by cutting its supply lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's noncommittal response to a US-proposed ceasefire as "very manipulative”.
Putin said Thursday in his first public comments on a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States and backed by Ukraine that he was in favour of a truce but had "serious questions" about how it would work.
FRANCE 24’s Shirli Sitbon takes a closer look.
Ukraine has begun forming a team to develop ways to monitor any possible ceasefire, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told journalists in Kyiv on Friday.
"We have already begun to form a national team that will develop appropriate procedures to properly monitor a possible ceasefire," Sybiha said.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions were worked out or clarified.
A Ukrainian attack set a gasoline tank ablaze at Russia's Tuapse oil complex on the shores of the Black Sea, Krasnodar's regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev said, adding that no one had been hurt in the strike.
As many as 121 firefighters were battling to put out the flames, Kondratiev added, without saying if the refinery was hit by a drone or missile.
The export-oriented Tuapse plant, which has a processing capacity of 240,000 barrels per day of oil, produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, mainly supplying China, Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey.
The European Union should be prepared to go as far as doubling its military aid to Ukraine this year to 40 billion euros if necessary, according to a discussion paper by the bloc's diplomatic service seen by Reuters on Friday.
The paper, an updated version of an earlier proposal that set out Ukraine's requirements but did not name a target figure, also says each EU country participating in the effort should contribute "in line with its economic weight".
The paper says the EU gave about 20 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine last year and encourages EU countries to do at least the same again in 2025, with the total "potentially reaching" 40 billion euros, depending on Kyiv's needs.
EU leaders are likely to discuss the proposal by the European External Action Service, headed by former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, at a summit next week.
The Ukrainian military said on Friday that it shot down 16 out of 27 drones launched by Russia overnight.
Another nine drones did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures, it added.
The late evening drone attack injured seven people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
It also injured one woman and caused a fire at a hospital in the surrounding region, he added via Telegram messaging app.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a fire rages at a civilian hospital following a Russian drone attack in Zolochiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Ukrainian drones struck gas compressor stations in Russia's Tambov and Saratov regions, a source in Ukraine's SBU security service told Reuters on Friday.
A video from the site showed the drones striking the industrial equipment and powerful explosions, according to the source.
The Ukrainian drones also struck a field depot for S-300/S-400 missiles in Russia's Belgorod region, detonating ammunition, the source added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the telephone to discuss a possible settlement of the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin said Friday.
The call took place shortly after Putin on Thursday said he had "serious questions" about Washington's plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but added that Moscow was ready to discuss it with US President Donald Trump.
Putin told the crown prince he "greatly appreciated the mediation efforts of Saudi Arabia", which hosted talks between Russian and American officials on February 18, a Kremlin statement said.
Prince Mohammed "noted the importance of resolving the Ukrainian crisis and expressed readiness to continue to contribute in every possible way to the normalisation of Russian-American relations", it said.
Russian air defences repelled an attack by four drones flying towards Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Friday, and initial information suggested nobody had been hurt.
"Emergency services are working at the site where debris came down," Sobyanin said on his official channel on the Telegram messaging app.
He did not mention Ukraine, but Kyiv has launched a steady stream of drone attacks on Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, most of of them targeting energy and other infrastructure.
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 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.
Diplomats from the G7 nations were set to negotiate late into the night over a joint statement to show a united front in Canada on Thursday after weeks of tension between US allies and President Donald Trump over his upending of Western trade and security policy.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed his colleagues on talks on Tuesday with Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Kyiv said it was ready to support a 30-day ceasefire deal. But officials said ambiguous comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin left delegates unclear where things stood.
In the run-up to the first G7 meeting of Canada's presidency, the crafting of an agreed all-encompassing final statement had been tough, but diplomats said the atmosphere since had been positive and candid.
There was hope for an accord, something they said was vital to show unity: "If we can't reach agreement on the communique, then it shows the division. It's not in the interest of any of the members of the G7," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting.
Welcome to our liveblog, where we post the latest news on the war in Ukraine. To read all about yesterday's key developments, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
© 2025 Copyright France 24 - All rights reserved. France 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites. Audience ratings certified by ACPM. ACPM
The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.
EMEA Tribune is not responsible for this news, news agencies have provided us this news.
Follow us on our WhatsApp channel here .
