Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kremlin dismisses new peace plan after Trump’s envoy calls talks constructive

Russia is ready to confirm in a legal agreement that it has no intention of attacking either the European Union or the US-led NATO military alliance, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday, the state RIA news agency reported.

It comes after reports that US intelligence had concluded Russia’s ultimate goal was to take over the entirety of Ukraine and parts of other neighbouring countries which were once part of the Soviet Union.

Russian troops hit port and energy infrastructure in an overnight attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region, a senior Ukrainian official said on Monday.

The strikes caused a fire at a major port and disrupting electricity supplies to tens of thousands of people, he added.

Ukraine’s Black Sea ports are crucial for its export-driven economy and their security and functionality have been vital for the country’s economic survival.

“Russia is attempting to disrupt maritime logistics by launching systematic attacks on port and energy infrastructure, deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on the Telegram app. “Last night, ports and energy facilities were targeted again.”

Mr Kuleba said that following the attacks, a fire had broken out in the port of Pivdennyi and about 30 containers of flour and vegetable oil were on fire. Port workers and emergency services were tackling the blaze.

Because of damage to the energy infrastructure, electricity supplies were disrupted to more than 120,000 customers in the Odesa region, he said. One person had been hurt in the attack, the interior ministry said.

The icy ground crackling under their feet, members of an elite Ukrainian drone-hunting team set up for a long night.

Antennas and sensors are clipped to a light stand. Monitors and controls are pulled from hard cases, and a game-changing new weapon is readied for deployment.

The Sting, shaped like a flying thermos, is one of Ukraine’s new homegrown interceptors.

The unit’s commander says the interceptors can effectively counter Russia’s fast-evolving suicide drones, which are now flying faster and at higher altitudes.

“Every destroyed target is something that did not hit our homes, our families, our power plants,” said the officer, known only by the call sign “Loi”, in line with Ukrainian military protocol.

“The enemy does not sleep, and neither do we.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had captured Vilcha in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday.

The Independent could not immediately verify the report.

Swedish customs has released a Russian ship it boarded over the weekend to investigate a suspected violation of sanctions.

The customs service said on Sunday that authorities had boarded the Adler, a Russian freighter, that anchored in Swedish waters near Hoganas in south-west Sweden on Friday after developing engine problems.

But trackers show on Monday that the ship is on the move again, travelling north up the west coast of Sweden.

“The prosecutor has decided not to open an investigation into suspected violation of sanctions,” a spokesperson for the customs service said. “The ship has therefore been allowed to go on its way.”

In addition to the Adler being on a European Union sanctions list, the vessel and its owners M Leasing LLC are both subject to U.S. sanctions, suspected of involvement in weapons transport, according to OpenSanctions, a database of sanctioned companies and individuals, persons of interest and government watchlists.

The customs service declined to say what cargo the Adler, which left St Petersburg on December 15 for an unknown destination, had been carrying.

The Kremlin has denied that Vladimir Putin wants to capture all of Ukraine, following reports that that was the current assessment of US intelligence.

The US intelligence reports warn that Putin has not abandoned his aim of capturing the country and reclaiming parts of Europe that were once part of the Soviet Union, including current Nato members, according to reporting by Reuters.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Moscow is not sure how reliable the Reuters report is – but that if it is true, the US intelligence assessment is wrong.

“This is absolutely not true,” Peskov said of the US’ conclusions.

Several have been injured after a goods train has derailed near the city of Korosten in the Zhytomyr region, reportedly after coming under Russian drone attack, Ukraine’s public railway service has said.

“The locomotive crew of passenger train No. 45/46 Kharkiv-Uzhhorod made an emergency stop due to an ‘oversized object’ on the adjacent track, and its locomotive also derailed,” Ukrzaliznytsia said in a statement.

The incident took place shortly after 5am local time (3am GMT).

A woman suffered a cut from broken glass, while the train driver and assistant driver were also injured.

Vladimir Putin’s peace envoy, envoy Kirill Dmitriev, will report to the Russian president on US proposals for possible Ukrainian settlement as soon as he arrives in Moscow from Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskkov has said.

Dmitriev arrived in Miami on Saturday and held two days of talks with US president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Ukraine said it was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region on Sunday and that Moscow had forcibly removed 50 people from a border village.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets accused Russian forces of abducting around 50 mostly elderly Ukrainian civilians into Russian territory. The forcible relocation of civilians is considered a war crime and crime against humanity.

In a statement on Telegram, Lubinets said Russian forces illegally detained the residents of the village of Hrabovske on Thursday, before moving them to Russia on Saturday.