Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rules out freezing the conflict line in its current position and suggests that Russian forces will continue fighting at least until they capture all of the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims as its own.

"Some say – OK, let's leave the contact line where it is, this bit is Russian and that one is Ukrainian. First, it’s not happening – we've got a constitution based on people’s expression of will," Lavrov told a news conference. He added that "what's left of Ukraine" must be freed of what he described as "racist" laws.

According to the Russian constitution, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are part of Russia even though Moscow's forces do not fully control them.

Image source, Reuters

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is currently speaking at a news conference in Qatar.

On the possible deployment of European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, he says Russia does not consider this an option, and that these talks are aimed at "further fuelling the conflict", according to Reuters news agency.

Lavrov also describes the discussions as "empty talk", and a "deceit", aimed at "pumping Ukraine with weapons".

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there would be a need for "some form of peacekeeping" in Ukraine following a peace deal, after saying on Monday that Russia was open to accepting European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has just said that Russian and US diplomats are due to meet in Istanbul on Thursday.

The two countries will discuss "systemic problems" in the operation of their two countries' embassies, Lavrov said at a press conference in Qatar, according to AFP news agency.

A possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been on the cards after Trump called Putin to discuss negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. No date has been set yet.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Image source, Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office

Two people were killed as Russian drones attacked residential housing in Bucha district outside Kyiv last night, Ukraine’s prosecution service says. One house was destroyed and others damaged.

In eastern Donetsk region, at least two civilians were killed in Russian attacks yesterday, local authorities say, external.

There are also reports of an overnight Ukrainian drone attack targeting a key oil terminal in the Russian city of Tuapse on the Black Sea.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian government’s Centre for Combating Disinformation, says that the port in Krasnodar territory "plays a key role in supporting military logistics" for the Russian army.

The Krasnodar territory governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, accused Ukraine, external of a "terrorist attack against civilian facilities", but did not mention the oil terminal.

The defence ministry in Moscow says, external Russian forces intercepted 128 Ukrainian drones overnight, 83 of them in Krasnodar territory.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian MP Mariia Ionova tells the BBC as things stand, the Ukrainian Parliament has no idea about the contents of the deal.

"Before signing anything on behalf of the Ukrainian state, the parliament of Ukraine, we have to know what it is about," says Ionova.

"We have invited the prime minister to present what is going on between two countries.

"We as representatives of Ukrainian people have to know."

She adds that any deal should be about Ukraine's "wealth and independence" and believes the country is "currently paying a high price" for peace.

Details on the minerals deal are currently vague, but sounds like it is "very heavily" in Washington's favour, one White House reporter has been telling BBC Radio 5 Live.

The Washington Examiner's Naomi Lim explains: "I think that's what Zelensky was initially opposed to when this deal was originally brought to him by the Treasury Secretary Scott Besant."

But, she says, that "with this war of words" between Zelensky and Trump, "Zelensky is now coming to the table, I think with this idea that security is still to be discussed".

Lim says it also depends on what Russia says and what the Kremlin comes to the table with in terms of its own rare earths minerals deal.

She adds that it is likely the deal could include:

• Long-term financial "commitment, arrangement, partnership" between the US and Ukraine
• Ukraine would contribute 50% of its revenue from minerals, oil and gas infrastructure and ports into an investment fund
• The fund could be co-managed by the US, with the US having 100% interest in it

David Miliband, the head of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been speaking on the Today programme about the UK cuts to foreign aid to fund more defence spending.

"We think it's a real pity because Britain has a proud record of seeing international aid as an important arm of its foreign policy," he says, adding that it has been a "proven winner" for the UK and the people it has benefited.

A statement from Miliband yesterday, external said that although they recognise the challenges the government faces, the "global consequences of this decision will be far reaching and devastating for people who need more help not less".

"We don’t know where the aid cuts will fall but we do know that current investments are meeting desperate needs."

More now from UK Defence Secretary John Healey, who says that the world has changed and they have had to take difficult decisions "that require us to recognise hard power is more important than soft power".

He's referring to the UK government's announcement yesterday that it would cut its foreign aid budget to fund a military boost - a move that has been met with criticism from humanitarian organisations.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Healey says the UK's priority is to "deter conflicts that cause the biggest impact on many of the poorest countries", but adds that "even in 2027... Britain will still be spending £9bn" on aid.

He says the UK will continue to support the world's poorest and most conflict-ridden countries.

Former chief of defence staff, Lord Richards, says the conversation on defence spending "almost certainly would not" be happening if not for Trump.

He says it is "excellent" that Defence Secretary John Healy is a "very enthusiastic, forward-thinking, strategically-minded person", who has been "pressing" for it to happen.

He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the increase in spending was going to happen, and has just been "accelerated" by Trump's actions.

Talking about resources, he says the entire British Army has "less artillery pieces" than he did had in his one brigade in the 90s, while the Navy similarly faces reduced supplies. If Britain were called on to send troops, he says they would be able to send "very little".

He adds that it is unsustainable to send troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers as they would need to be rotated out, and the "army isn't big enough" to do that for a long period of time, explaining that European troops stationed there would need to be able to "robustly defend themselves" against Russia, who he says will "test them".

Image source, PA Media

We've heard from Defence Secretary John Healey who says he has spoken to his Ukrainian and US counterparts, and adds that Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has welcomed the UK's "strong step" in increasing its defence budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.

Asked about the timing of the announcement ahead of Starmer's trip to Washington, Healey tells BBC Breakfast that the Donald Trump's stance has reinforced the importance of European nations demonstrating their willingness to step up on defence spending.

Repeating lines from Starmer's speech in Parliament yesterday, Healey says this is the "biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War".

He says this is something European nations have "rehearsed, but failed to act on", and that it's time to do more to strengthen Nato and support Ukraine.

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and co-chair of the European council on foreign relations, says the mineral deal between Ukraine and the US seems like a "sideshow of limited relevance".

Speaking on BBC World Service's Newsday programme, he says that the relevance appears to be to "keep Mr Trump happy... but it is not going to give a lot of money to the US, and I don't see it having any materially economic effect for very many years."

He gives the example of opening up new mines, which require a "lot of capital", and would only drum up revenue "years into the future".

The deal, he says, is "more geared to the psychology of the US president than to the realities of the situation in Ukraine".

Here's a bit more from Yuri Sak, who says the deal is not exactly what the US or Ukraine had wanted, but is "good enough for both for the negotiating process to move forward".

"Many things we didn't like were dropped," he says, adding that discussions about security guarantees need to continue.

"There's no point in signing any deal on critical minerals if Russians can reinvade one month after signing the deal," he says.

As a reminder, US media reports suggest that Washington has not given firm security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the deal.

We've just heard from Yuri Sak, adviser to Ukraine's ministry of strategic industries, who has been speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Sak says that a minerals deal was initially Ukraine's idea: "We included it in our victory plan earlier, which was presented by our president to the US and the rest of our partners in 2024."

Asked how he views the shift to a more transactional relationship between the US and Ukraine, Sak says "we are staying pragmatic".

Image source, Getty Images

Critical minerals "are the foundation of the 21st Century economy", says Dr Robert Muggah, principal of SecDev - a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Canada.

They are key to renewable energy, military applications and industrial infrastructure and play "a growing strategic role in geopolitics and geoeconomics", he says.

Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world's "critical raw materials" are in Ukraine. And the US is keen on a deal for these resources because it wants to reduce its dependency on China, which controls 75% of rare earth deposits in the world, according to the Geological Investment Group.

In December, China banned the export of some rare earth minerals to the US, having previously limited mineral exports to the US the previous year.

White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told US news outlet NewsNation on Monday that a deal between the US and Ukraine is "about growing the pie economically" and binding the two countries together for the future.

• Read more about the minerals Ukraine has in our earlier post

Image source, EPA

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna has led the negotiations between the US and Ukraine on this mineral deal.

Speaking to the Financial Times yesterday, Stefanishyna said that the deal is "only part of the picture".

"We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it's part of a bigger picture," she said.

We're still waiting to hear more about the details of the deal, but media reports suggest the US has dropped initial demands for a right to $500bn (£395bn) in potential revenue from using Ukraine's natural resources, but has not given firm security guarantees to Ukraine.

And US President Donald Trump says he's expecting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal this week.

• You can read more on what we know about the deal in our earlier post

Deal could pave way for more co-operation between Trump and Zelenskypublished at 06:46 Greenwich Mean Time

06:46 GMT

James Waterhouse
Ukraine correspondent in Kyiv

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump claims this deal would see the US receive more than it had spent on Ukraine, but more details reportedly need to be ironed out.

According to a source in Ukraine's Presidential office, what has been agreed at this stage are the initial terms of an agreement with the US which includes the country’s critical minerals and other resources.

"The provisions of the deal are much better for Ukraine now," they added.

Reports suggest it would see the creating of a jointly owned fund, which would be used to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure and economy.

It would receive a sizeable proportion of Ukraine's profits from its natural resources.

On the surface, it appears a "$500bn" price tag Donald Trump once gave has been dropped, but it does not apparently contain what President Zelensky has long called for – security guarantees which would stop Russia from invading again.

Nevertheless, it seems a trip to Washington is being planned for later this week. Against a hostile backdrop where Washington has aligned itself with Moscow, it is hoped this agreement will pave the way for more co-operation between Kyiv and its once biggest ally.

A financial stake just might give the White House a reason to protect Ukraine if this war was to reignite after a ceasefire was signed.

Kyiv estimates that 5% of the world's "critical raw materials" are in Ukraine - including:

• 19 million tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which is used to make batteries in electric vehicles
• A third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries
• Significant deposits of rare earth metals, used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other products vital in the modern world

Before Russia's invasion three years ago, Ukraine also produced 7% of the world's titanium, used to make everything from power stations to planes. According to Ukraine's Economy Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, resources worth $350bn have been seized by Russia since its invasion three years ago.

US aid in Trump era comes with strings attachedpublished at 06:38 Greenwich Mean Time

06:38 GMT

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

"That’s what I do. I do deals," Donald Trump said at his news conference with French President Emanuel Macron on Monday. "My whole life is deals."

Now, Ukrainian officials have told the BBC the American president has his rare-earth deal with Ukraine, and Trump has suggested Zelensky will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign the deal.

According to the Ukrainian sources, the US had to back away from some of its more onerous demands from the war-torn nation. And many of the details of this agreement will require further negotiation.

The precedent, however, is set. US aid in the Trump era comes with strings attached. Aid for aid's sake – whether given for humanitarian or strategic reasons – is a thing of the past.

That represents a fundamental reordering of American foreign policy for more than 75 years, from the days of the Marshall Plan to post-Cold War idealism and George W Bush’s "Freedom Agenda" push to promote global democracy.

Ukraine is just the start. Expect Trump and his foreign policy team to apply their "America First" principles around the world over the course of the next four years.

Without confirming an agreement had been reached, Trump says he expects Zelensky to sign a minerals deal during a visit to Washington this week, saying that in return, Ukraine would get the "right to fight on".

"Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time", Trump said on Tuesday, adding that there would be a need for "some form of peacekeeping" in Ukraine following a peace deal.

Trump said he has been pushing for access to Ukraine's mineral deposits in return for the military aid the US has given to the country.

"We want to get that money back," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, a senior official in Kyiv has told the BBC that Ukraine has agreed the terms of a major minerals deal with the US.

We don't have much detail on that deal yet, but here's what we do know:

• Media reports say Washington has dropped initial demands for a right to $500bn (£395bn) in potential revenue from accessing Ukraine's natural resources
• The same reports suggest the US has not given firm security guarantees to Ukraine - which has been their key demand
• Donald Trump said on Tuesday that in return for the deal Ukraine would get "the right to fight on", but didn't confirm if the US would continue supplying military equipment ad ammunition
• The US president said he's expecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal this week
• Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, who has led the negotiations, told the Financial Times that the deal is "only part of the picture"
• As a reminder, Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, including lithium and titanium, as well as sizeable coal, gas, oil and uranium deposits - supplies worth billions of dollars