Ukraine war latest: US cuts intelligence-sharing – Starmer insists Trump ‘reliable’

Sir Keir Starmer has faced pressure from across the political spectrum to withdraw the invitation, which he hand-delivered to Mr Trump just a day before his Oval Office shouting match with Mr Zelensky. That is only likely to increase since Mr Trump’s decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine.

Read the full article here:

Brave as the Ukrainian forces and civilians have been, and supportive as the European and Nato allies have tried to be, the loss of American hardware and intelligence will inevitably hurt Ukrainian morale and its ability to defend its present territory, let alone counterattack and push the Russians back.

Indeed, unless the European and other allies in the broad “coalition of the willing” – including Canada and, potentially, Turkey – swiftly plug the huge gaps left by the American retreat from its obligations, then the very existence of Ukraine as an independent state falls into jeopardy.

Read the full article here:

While the United States is withdrawing its military support for Ukraine, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that he is “ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air” to support a peace deal for the war-torn country at a defence summit with world leaders in London on Sunday.

The prime minister announced last week that UK defence spending will rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, with an aim to hit 3 per cent by the end of the next term; saying that “tyrants” like Russian president Vladimir Putin “only respond to strength”.

US president Donald Trump has indicated that he wants to force a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, warning that “if [Ukraine] didn’t have our weapons, this war would be over in two weeks”.

Read the full analysis here from our data correspondent Alicja Hagopian:

In less than two months in office, Trump has upended U.S. policy, stunning and alienating European allies and raising concerns about the future of the NATO alliance.

He has also ended Putin’s isolation through phone calls with the Russian leader and talks between Russian and U.S. aides in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, from which Ukraine and its European allies were excluded.

Some experts said the U.S. intelligence-sharing suspension would hurt Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian forces, which occupy about 20 per cent of the country’s territory, and defend itself.

“Unfortunately, our dependence in this regard is quite serious,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies.

Donald Trump’s speech to Congress had all the hallmarks of an address of a despot. Even by his debased standards, this record-breaking, rambling “weave” of an address was striking in its vaulting ambition and naked arrogance.

Trump has half-joked about being a “dictator for a day”, but to see him perform like a tyrant in Congress, in the very heart of American democracy, takes a certain sort of audacity. There were protests from the assembled legislators, sometimes a defiant silence and at other times paddle boards proclaiming “False”, “Musk lies”, and “Save Medicaid”.

One outraged congressman was even ejected from the chamber – another Trump era first. Yet there is as yet little sense of the legislative arm of government pushing back against America’s unmistakable and remarkably rapid journey to becoming an elective dictatorship, with an imperial presidency more powerful than any of its predecessors, including those of Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon.

Read the full analysis here:

Several Democrats criticised the intelligence-sharing suspension. Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the “ill-advised decision” showed that Trump had given American power to Russia.

“Let me be clear: Cutting off intelligence support to our Ukrainian partners will cost (Ukrainian) lives,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.

European countries are scrambling to boost defense spending and maintain support for Ukraine. France and Britain are aiming to finalize, possibly within days, a peace plan to present to the U.S., diplomats said.

In his address to Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump said Kyiv was ready to sign a deal on exploiting Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits, which the U.S. leader has demanded to repay the costs of U.S. military aid. He provided no further information.

Trump also said he had been in “serious discussions with Russia” and had received strong signals that it was ready for peace.

“It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” he said.

The Dutch government will reserve 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) to continue its support for Ukraine in 2026, Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Wednesday.

Schoof said the funds would ensure Dutch support would continue unchanged next year, adding that the money could also be used in 2025 if necessary.

The previous Dutch government had already earmarked a comparable sum for support through 2025.

The prime minister said 700 million euros from those funds would be used to invest in drones for Ukraine.

A Russian missile struck a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih late on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring seven, emergency officials said.

Ukraine’s Emergency Services, posting on the Telegram messaging app, also said 14 people had been rescued from the rubble of the building.

They posted pictures of crews making their way through piles of rubble outside the hotel, one section of which was badly damaged. A crane was deployed to reach upper levels of the building.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, wrote on Telegram that the missile had made a direct hit on the building, triggering a fire.

He said more people could still be trapped under rubble and warned a new Russian strike was possible in the same area.

Kryvyi Rih, home town of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the three-year-old war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.

European Union leaders plan to hold emergency talks on Thursday to agree ways to quickly increase their military budgets after the Trump administration signaled that Europe must take care of its own security and also suspended assistance to Ukraine.

In just over a month, President Donald Trump has overturned old certainties about U.S. reliability as a security partner, as he embraces Russia and withdraws American support for Ukraine.

On Monday, Trump ordered a pause to U.S. military supplies to Ukraine as he sought to press President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia, bringing fresh urgency to the EU summit in Brussels.

“Europe faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us have seen in our adult lifetime. Some of our fundamental assumptions are being undermined to their very core,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned in a letter to the EU’s 27 leaders, who will consider ways to access more money for defence spending and ease restrictions on it.

But perhaps the biggest challenge for the EU on Thursday will be to take a united stance at a moment when it’s fractured, since much of what the bloc does requires unanimous support.

Keir Starmer’s intense round of diplomacy on Ukraine over the past week has seen him rewarded with his highest poll ratings in six months, according to YouGov.

Conversely, anger over Donald Trump’s behaviour appears to have hit his closest ally in the UK Nigel Farage, whose own favourability score went down four points from 30 per cent to 26 per cent.

Read the full article here: