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Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the UK for talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte and PM Sir Keir Starmer.
The Ukrainian president arrived in London on Tuesday morning for the signing of a new defence deal between Britain and Ukraine.
Downing Street said the partnership with Kyiv would bring together "Ukrainian expertise and the UK's industrial base" to manufacture and supply drones and other capabilities.
Zelensky is expected to meet with Rutte and Starmer after an audience with King Charles. He will also address MPs in the House of Commons.
The meeting comes at a time of heightened global instability in light of the Middle East conflict, during which US President Donald Trump has vented frustrations with the UK and other countries over the extent of their involvement, and the Ukraine war.
Zelensky wrote in a post on X: “Our priorities are clear – more security and opportunities for Ukraine. I thank the United Kingdom for its support and partnership in protecting lives.”
EU offers to fund Ukraine pipeline repairs to break Hungary deadlock
EU leaders have offered to fund repairs to a damaged pipeline carrying Russian crude to Hungary, hoping to persuade Budapest to drop its veto on a major aid package for Ukraine, AP reports.
Oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia stopped in January after the Druzhba pipeline was damaged on Ukrainian territory, which Kyiv said was caused by Russian drone strikes.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused President Zelenskyy of deliberately blocking supplies — which Zelenskyy denies — and has responded by vetoing a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine and holding up new sanctions on Russia.
The EU said it “has offered Ukraine technical support and funding” to fix the pipeline. “The Ukrainians have welcomed and accepted this offer. European experts are available immediately,” European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
Zelenskyy opposes allowing Russian energy to transit through Ukraine but said the country is “undertaking all possible efforts to repair the damage and restore operations.”
Harry Cockburn17 March 2026 13:44
Trump's attacks on Starmer "unseemly" amid wars in Iran and Ukraine, says Badenoch
Donald Trump's attack on the Prime Minister after asking the UK to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz was "childish", Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said.
She told PA: "I'm Keir Starmer's biggest critic. He's done a lot of things wrong, but I think the words that were coming out of the White House were wrong.
"It's very childish, this war of words and these spats. They might think that they're entertaining, but I think the western alliance being involved in a public spat at a time when there's war in Ukraine, (Volodymyr) Zelensky in the country, there's a war in Iran.
"It's just unseemly. I think people need to grow up."
Harry Cockburn17 March 2026 13:02
Zelensky arrives in UK for talks with Rutte and Starmer
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the UK for talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte and PM Sir Keir Starmer.
The Ukrainian leader wrote: “In London today. The agenda includes an audience with His Majesty King Charles III, meetings with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as an address to the British Parliament.
“Our priorities are clear – more security and opportunities for Ukraine. I thank the United Kingdom for its support and partnership in protecting lives.”
Daniel Keane17 March 2026 12:11
Adrift Russian tanker is 'imminent and serious' threat, say Mediterranean states
Italy, France and seven other nations told the European Commission that a Russian liquefied natural gas tanker currently adrift in the Mediterranean represents an ecological threat, and they urged swift action on the issue, a letter showed on Monday.
"The precarious condition of the vessel, combined with the nature of its specialised cargo, gives rise to an imminent and serious risk of a major ecological disaster in the heart of the Union's maritime space," the letter seen by Reuters said.
Russia's transport ministry said the Arctic Metagaz, carrying LNG from the Arctic port of Murmansk, was attacked earlier this month by Ukrainian naval drones launched from the Libyan coast. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for any such attack.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 12:00
Pollution from Russian strike on Ukraine hydro plant cuts water to Moldovan city
A Russian attack on a hydroelectric plant in southern Ukraine triggered an oil spill and polluted water systems in neighbouring Moldova yesterday, with supplies cut completely in the country's second-largest city, officials said.
President Maia Sandu, who wants to bring Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, into the European Union by the end of the decade, said she held Russia responsible for the pollution in the Dniestr River.
Moldova's environment ministry said the spill prompted the cutoff in Balti, a city of 90,000, and in three other towns and would remain in effect for at least a further 12 hours into Tuesday.
Schools were ordered closed and students told to work online.
Moldova declared a 15-day environmental alert on Sunday as the extent of the pollution became apparent.
"We declared environmental alert and are acting to protect our people," Sandu said in a statement on social media, referring to the 7 March attack on the Novodnistrovsk hydro station. "Russia bears full responsibility."
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 11:30
Sean Penn skips Oscar ceremony and takes train to Ukraine
At the 2026 Oscars ceremony, actor Sean Penn joined a small coterie of male performers who have three Academy Awards to their name.
But the 65-year-old, who was named Best Supporting Actor for his brilliant portrayal of a racist military officer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, wasn’t among the stars gathered at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf,” Succession star – and last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner – Kieran Culkin quipped after opening the golden envelope.
So where was Penn on one of the biggest nights of his acting career? According to a report from the New York Times, the actor, who previously earned Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and for Milk in 2009, chose to skip the ceremony in order to head to Europe.
His plan “as of late last week”, anonymous sources told the paper, was to visit Ukraine, although they “did not specify what he would be doing there or where precisely within the country he would be going”. On Monday, an AFP reporter spotted Penn leaving a car in Kyiv, and he has since been photographed in a meeting with president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Swapping a glitzy Hollywood party to spend time in a country torn apart by war – it’s not exactly your usual A-list behaviour, but it is certainly quite typical of the unusual turn that Penn’s life and work has taken in recent years.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 11:00
Russian air defences down 206 Ukrainian drones overnight
Russian air defence units have downed 206 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 43 over Moscow region, the Interfax news agency reported this morning.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 10:45
Putin's forces offensive disrupted by Ukraine, says Zelensky
Russian assaults on the war battlefield have had become less intense, Volodymyr Zelensky said after his meeting with Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi.
"Ukraine's defence forces have disrupted Russia's strategic offensive operation that the enemy had planned for March," he said.
"Although attacks are constant and assaults continue, their intensity and the scale of the confrontation are not what Russia had planned and what its command promised to Russia's political leadership," he said.
Zelensky and Syrskyi have pointed in recent weeks to successes in Zaporizhzhia region, recapturing about 400sq km (154 sq miles) of territory and retaking eight settlements.
Russia's top military offices have repeatedly said their forces have been making constant gains all along the front line.
The Ukrainian DeepState military blog, which relies on open sources to determine the position of both sides, said Russian forces were attempting a breakthrough in Kostiantynivka and had made some gains around Sloviansk.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 10:30
Russia claims capturing 12 settlements in Ukraine as part of general advances
Russia has taken control of a dozen settlements in Ukraine in the first two weeks of March as part of advances along the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian state-run news agencies reported quoting top general Valery Gerasimov.
The claims have not been confirmed by Ukraine and come at a time Kyiv is making rapid adavances on the battlefield. President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country's armed forces had disrupted Russian plans for an offensive, with Moscow failing to reinforce its troops.
Gerasimov, the chief of Russia's General Staff, was speaking during a visit to the southern grouping of forces and pointed to gains around major Ukrainian cities in the more than four-year-old conflict, known in Russia as a special military operation.
"The offensive is being conducted in all directions," the Russian defence ministry quoted him as saying on its Telegram channel.
“In two weeks in March, 12 settlements have been liberated by units and military formations of the United Group of troops,” it said.
Gerasimov said Russian forces were "actively moving towards Sloviansk," a heavily defended town in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region long seen as one of Moscow's major targets.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 10:00
Putin to stop enlisting Kenyans to fight for Russia in Ukraine, minister says
Kenya said it had agreed with Russia that Kenyans would no longer be eligible for signing up to fight in the war with Ukraine after the scale of Russian recruitment triggered anger in some African countries.
Kenyan foreign minister Musalia Mudavadi who met his Russian counterpart Segrei Lavrov said an agreement had been reached with Russia to no longer allow Kenyans to sign up to fight.
Kenya says that more than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight, attracted by monthly salaries of several thousand dollars and bonuses of more than $6,000 for contract soldiers.
"His excellency has conversed with us on the issue of the welfare of Kenyans who are in Russia and more specifically those who are involved in the special operation," Mudavadi said at a joint news briefing with Lavrov.
"And I want to make it clear that we have now agreed that Kenyans shall not be enlisted through the (Russian) Ministry of Defence - they will no longer be eligible to be enlisted," he said.
"There will no further enlisting."
He added that consular services would be organised through proper diplomatic channels for those Kenyans who had already signed up and required assistance.
Lavrov said that Kenyan citizens had voluntarily signed contracts to fight alongside the Russian army.
Arpan Rai17 March 2026 09:30
