Ukraine-Russia war latest: Europe condemns Trump’s move to drop Putin oil sanctions as Zelensky bemoans Middle East conflict

At least four people were killed and 15 wounded in an overnight Russian air attack outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, officials said on Saturday.

The attack targeted residential buildings, educational institutions, enterprises and critical infrastructure facilities in four districts of the Kyiv region, Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the regional military administration, said.

Damage reports were still coming in and the number of victims was rising, he added.

Russian forces have carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of their four-year-old war, including on energy facilities and other critical infrastructure.

Swedish authorities have launched an investigation into the Russian captain of a stateless vessel in the Baltic Sea, following a coastguard operation that saw the ship boarded and taken control of. This marks the second such incident in Swedish waters within a week.

The captain, a Russian national, is under suspicion for the use of false documents, serious crimes, and violations of Sweden‘s maritime act, according to the prosecution authority.

Senior prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg stated: “What we are doing now is, among other things, to continue with the search on board, conduct interrogations and investigate suspected false documents.” He confirmed that no detentions have been made in connection with the case so far.

The 228-meter-long tanker, named Sea Owl I, was reportedly flying the Comorian flag, though the coastguard suspects it was operating under a false flag. The vessel is also listed on the sanctions lists of several nations, including the European Union.

Russia intends to control the relaunch operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant when it is safe to do so and could sell its electricity to Ukraine, the head of the Russian state nuclear corporation said on Friday.

The comments by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev highlighted the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv on the status of the plant, which Russian forces captured in the first weeks of the war in 2022.

The fate of the plant in southern Ukraine is one of the key issues in peace talks. US president Donald Trump has proposed American ownership or management of Ukrainian nuclear plants, including Zaporizhzhia.

The plant’s six reactors are currently shut down and being kept cool to ensure safety, but Russia’s Likhachev said preparations were being made to restart them when security conditions allowed.

He said Russia had issued operating licences for two of the units, a third was coming soon, and licences for the rest were also being prepared.

“We are ready to restart work, the necessary equipment is ready,” Likhachev told reporters after a meeting with Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“As soon as the opportunity arises, we will begin starting up and operating the station under IAEA supervision,” he said.

Likhachev described a scenario in which Rosatom would operate the plant but “commercial aspects can be viewed multilaterally”.

“Under certain conditions there could be discussion of supplying electricity, including to Ukraine,” he added.

With 6 gigawatts of capacity, the plant could also be used to power data centres, Likhachev said. “Here, we may well have new partners… we are talking about the United States, among others.”

Grossi told reporters: “We need peace, we need calm. No nuclear power plant can operate under the threat of any violent or kinetic act against it. But of course, you cannot start up a nuclear power plant overnight.”

US president Donald Trump said the United States does not need help with drone defence when asked whether Ukraine was providing such assistance.

Speaking in an interview on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that aired on Friday, he said: No, we don’t need their help in drone defence.

“We know more about drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually.”

European leaders have reacted sharply to a US decision to temporarily ease sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil.

The waiver will allow countries to buy Russian oil already on vessels at sea but unsold due to sanctions.

European Council President Antonio Costa said the decision was “very concerning” as it “impacts European security”.

“Weakening sanctions increases Russian resources to wage the war of aggression against Ukraine,” he wrote in a post on X.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news conference the move could allow Russia to gain about $10bn, adding: “It certainly does not help peace.

“French president Emmanuel Macron, speaking alongside Zelensky, said the reported shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz “in no way” justified lifting sanctions.

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said earlier that Canada’s position was to “maintain sanctions on Russia”.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz also criticised the decision, calling it “wrong” at a separate news conference.

Russia could earn more than $10bn (£7.8bn) in additional oil and gas revenues to help fuel its war on Ukraine – thanks to Donald Trump, experts warn.

The US president lifted restrictions on countries buying Russian crude stranded at sea, after the closure of the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, due to the Iran war he started, sent prices soaring. A fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed the 30-day waiver would “not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government”.

He said the “tailored, short-term” move would only provide Moscow with a limited financial boost from oil sales, adding that it would address the “instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime”.

No 10 has instead urged its international allies to maintain pressure on Moscow, and to avoid inadvertently funding Putin’s war in Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil.

Explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of today, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground.

The blasts were heard at around 3.10am local time.

At around the same time, Ukraine’s Air Force warned of the threat of Russian ballistic missiles.

Russia has designated a US academic as a foreign agent for disseminating false information about Russian policies and opposing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of a former Soviet leader, is a professor at The New School university in New York and has continued to make research trips to Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The term “foreign agent” has connotations of spying that Moscow applies to people it views as engaged in anti-Russian activity.

Her ancestor Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, when he was ousted by fellow members of the ruling Politburo.

Khrushcheva said she was not surprised at being added to Russia’s “foreign agent” list, which as of Friday contained 1,164 names including politicians, journalists, artists, NGOs and media organisations.

“It would have been sloppy on their part not to do this sooner or later,” she said, adding that it was too early to say what the practical impact would be.

“There is certainly historical irony but not anything shocking. When Stalin is up, Khrushchev is down,” she said.

Khrushchev was the Soviet leader who transferred Crimea to Ukraine from Russia in 1954, an act reversed in 2014 when Russian forces invaded the peninsula and President Vladimir Putin declared its annexation.

Khrushchev is also remembered for facing off against US President John F Kennedy in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war.

People listed as foreign agents are subjected to onerous bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on their income in Russia. They are obliged to place the foreign agent label on social media posts or anything else they publish.

Some Kremlin critics have worn the label as a badge of honour, while others say it is a burden that hampers them in their work because it causes other Russians to shun them.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky expressed frustration over waning attention on the Ukraine war amid the crisis in the Middle East as he denounced US decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

“There is nothing good for Ukraine in the war in the Middle East. It is understandable that the attention of the world is moving to the Middle East. It’s not good for us,” Zelensky told students in Paris during a speech at the Sciences Po university.

He said the decision to waive oil sanctions was not helping to end the conflict in Ukraine as he sought reassurances of support in Paris.

“This single easing by the US could provide Russia with around $10 billion for the war. It certainly does not help to achieve peace,” Zelensky told a joint news conference with French president.