Prime minister Keir Starmer is travelling to Brussels today to call on Europe to shoulder more of the burden to keep the region safe from president Vladimir Putin’s Russia and redouble efforts to crush his “war machine”.

Sir Keir, in Brussels to further his post-Brexit reset with the European Union, will meet Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and then dine with leaders from the 27 member states, the first time a British leader has done so since Britain quit the bloc.

He will urge leaders to up the pressure on Mr Putin, saying US president Donald Trump’s suggestion he would add new tariffs to his sanctions threat against Moscow if there was no deal to end its war in Ukraine had rattled the Russian leader.

“We need to see all allies stepping up, particularly in Europe,” Sir Keir will say, according to remarks provided by his Downing Street office.

“I’m here to work with our European partners on keeping up the pressure, targeting the energy revenues and the companies supplying his missile factories to crush Putin’s war machine.”

The crack and the ear-splitting blast – two in a row, then a third – rattle windows and set off car alarms. But, in a city under constant bombardment, a smoker in a doorway tips a little ash and takes another drag.

A hotel receptionist, pooled in lamplight, doesn’t look up from her papers.

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Russia has marked its most senior casualty in the Ukraine war after a deputy governor of a region was killed fighting in Ukraine.

Sergey Efremov, the deputy governor of Russia’s eastern region of Primorsky Krai, was killed after he returned to the Russian frontlines from a battle with Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.

He was reportedly travelling in a car blown up by a landmine along with another Russian army officer.

“I know that his friends and comrades will do everything to avenge him,” Oleg Kozhemyako, the area’s governor, said in an emotional video. He confirmed that his deputy had died a “hero”.

His death is the first such significant military loss in the Russian ranks as the senior officials typically avoid combat roles.

The US call for Ukraine to hold an election after agreeing to a ceasefire with Russia looked like a “failed plan” if that is all it consists of, though more details were needed, an aide to president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

President Donald Trump’s top Ukraine official, Keith Kellogg, said the US wanted Ukraine to hold elections, potentially by the end of the year, especially if Kyiv can agree to a truce with Russia in the coming months.

“We haven’t seen Mr Kellogg’s full interview, only a few quotes about the elections, so it’s hard to fully assess his position,” said Dmytro Lytvyn, Mr Zelensky’s communications adviser.

“But if his plan is just a ceasefire and elections, it is a failed plan – Putin won’t be intimidated by just those two things,” he told Reuters in a written statement.

Kyiv has repeatedly said it does not want a ceasefire without obtaining security guarantees that would stop Moscow regenerating its forces and launching another invasion in the future.

Elections are currently prohibited under martial law, which Ukraine imposed after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

A former Tory MP who lost his seat at the general election last year has joined the Ukrainian International Legion to help in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Jack Lopresti, a former deputy chair of the Conservative Party, was previously the MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke in Gloucestershire, but is now based in Kyiv using his skills in the ongoing war.

As an MP, Mr Lopresti visited Ukraine and was a strong advocate in parliament for more aid to be given to Volodymyr Zelensky to support the country’s efforts to defeat Russia. He has also served in the UK Army Reserve as a corporal.

Ukraine’s overnight drone attack in Russia sparked a fire in the Astrakhan region and forcing the suspension of flights at several airports, Russian officials and media said this morning.

The attack targeted fuel and energy facilities in Russia.

“Ukrainian armed forces attempted a drone attack on objects located in the region, including fuel and energy facilities,” said Igor Babushkin, governor of the Astrakhan region in southern Russia.

“Falling drone sparked a fire. There were no casualties,” he said on his Telegram channel.

The governor did not say what was on fire. Baza, a Russian news Telegram channel that is close to Russia’s security services, said that Ukraine attacked a gas processing plant near Astrakhan.

Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said that it was suspending flights from the airports of Astrakhan as well as from four others, in Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Saratov and Ulyanovsk to ensure air safety.

Earlier, Rosaviatsia temporarily suspended flights from the Volgograd airport in southern Russia, but flights there have since been restored, it said on Telegram.

There were no official reports on any attack on Volgograd, but Baza, and other Russian news Telegram channels reported a large coordinated drone attack that reportedly targeted an oil refinery.

Downing Street has condemned a Russian arrest warrant issued for a UK journalist, calling it an example of “desperate rhetoric” from Vladimir Putin’s administration.

A court in Russia’s Kursk border region has issued an arrest warrant for Jerome Starkey, defence editor at The Sun, and put him on an international wanted list.

The Kursk regional court accused him of illegally crossing the border into Russia.

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Competing claims emerged over a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, a city in Russia’s Kursk region that has been under Ukrainian control for five months, with Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of carrying out the strike.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Saturday night that four people were killed and a further four seriously wounded in the strike, with 84 people rescued by Ukrainian servicemen from the rubble of the building. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow had bombed the boarding school where civilians were sheltering and preparing to evacuate.

The General Staff said those in need of additional medical assistance were evacuated to medical facilities in Ukraine.

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Russia on Friday claimed it had captured another village in its relentless offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region and as it closes in on the critical Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk after almost three years of war.

The Russian claim that its forces took Novovasylivka could not be independently confirmed, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

However, battlefield maps published early Friday by the Ukrainian General Staff suggested the village was at least partly under Russian control. A comparison with other maps of the area by The Associated Press indicated Novovasylivka is largely under Russian control.

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Keith Kellogg, Mr Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, says the administration’s new goal is to stop the fighting in 100 days.

But details on how this will be achieved remain scant. Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed this is because speaking openly about his plans would undermine his negotiating position. His detractors, however, say this is a cover for a lack of plan.

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