Volodymyr Zelensky said a key element in achieving security for Ukraine and bringing Russia to account was reducing European consumption of Russian energy, particularly oil.

“Naturally, energy resources, particularly oil, are one of the biggest keys to peace and real security,” he said. “And Europe needs to work more closely with America and other international partners, not Russia, on energy resources,” the Ukrainian president said.

The president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said a firm price cap on Russian oil was “the path to global security” and stood by $30 per barrel on Russian oil, as recommended by an international expert group he co-chairs. The cap, introduced after Russia’s invasion, currently stands at $60.

“We fully support US president Donald Trump’s aspiration to lower the price on oil,” Mr Yermak wrote on Telegram. “The consequence of this would be the collapse of Russia’s ability to finance the war.”

Ukraine says talks about a possible foreign troop contingent to enforce a ceasefire in the war-hit country are only in their early stages.

“Yes, the discussion is ongoing about… the military contingents of foreign powers, foreign nations that can be potentially deployed to Ukraine,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv. “The discussion is in its very early stages,” he said.

To prevent Russian aggression after the war ends, Ukraine is seeking security guarantees from its allies as part of any potential peace deal. President Volodymyr Zelensky says this would need to include at least 200,000 European peacekeepers.

In a later interview with Bloomberg, he clarified that number would depend on the size of Ukraine’s military, which he has said Kyiv does not want to cut as a part of any deal – something Russia has demanded. Its armed forces currently number around 800,000 personnel.

“We think that durable, reliable security guarantees for Ukraine must include both Europe and the United States. This is how we can ensure that this peace is sustainable and durable,” Mr Tykhyi said.

UK defence secretary John Healey has told the Commons that Russia is the biggest external threat to Britain, warning that aggression from Vladimir Putin “will not be tolerated at home or in Ukraine”.

The defence secretary told MPs on Wednesday that Russia was “dangerous but fundamentally weak”, as he referenced the casualties the country had suffered during the war in Ukraine and its decision to draft in troops from North Korea.

Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a former defence minister, has warned that the risk of an armed clash between nuclear powers is growing, the state TASS news agency reported today.

Shoigu, a close aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said that increasing geopolitical rivalry between large states on the world stage was raising the risk of such a clash.

He also accused the Nato military alliance of increasing its activities close to the eastern flank of Russia and Belarus and of rehearsing offensive as well as defensive scenarios there.

Ending the war in Ukraine will only be possible if both sides are willing to make compromises, the new US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said.

In a conversation with journalists after being confirmed in his role, he said according to CNN: “We want the war to end. That’s pretty clear.

“You saw the President talked about, he wants to be a president that promotes peace and ends conflicts, and it’ll be complicated as well.

“Those are complicated things. I couldn’t put a time frame on it, other than to say that anytime you bring an end to a conflict between two sides, neither of whom can achieve their maximum goals, each side is going to have to give up something.”

Achieving peace is a priority for president Donald Trump’s administration, Mr Rubio added. He did not specify what type of concessions Ukraine would need to make.

North Korea has suffered nearly 40 per cent casualties among its forces fighting alongside Russia in the western Kursk region, Western officials told the BBC.

Out of the estimated 11,000 troops sent from North Korea, 4,000 were battle casualties in just three months of fighting – including those killed, wounded, missing or captured – the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Of these 4,000 losses, nearly 1,000 are believed to have been killed by mid-January.

Ukrainian officials are yet to release their own tally. North Korea has not issued any comment on the presence of its troops inside Russia.

Russia’s air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 121 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, its defence ministry said today.

The drones were downed over 13 Russian regions, including seven over Moscow and the nearby region, the ministry said in a statement.

Unofficial Russian Telegram channels reported a “large number” of drones over the Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.

Kursk mayor Igor Kutsak said the attack had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one city district.

Britain said it monitored a Russian spy ship in the English Channel in recent days and would strengthen its response to secret operations by Russian ships and aircraft in an effort to protect undersea cables.

Defence minister John Healey said Yantar, a Russian spy vessel used for intelligence and mapping critical infrastructure on the sea floor, entered British waters on Monday and the Royal Navy tracked it for two days until it entered Dutch waters. Russia’s embassy in London did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

“We will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain,” Mr Healey said on Wednesday. “We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate in secrecy near UK or Nato territory.”

Worries over the potential sabotage of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been growing after a string of outages in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Britain decided to send maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft to help Nato’s efforts to protect cables in the Baltic Sea, Sir John announced, adding that it would also deploy an advanced AI system to help safeguard undersea infrastructure.

President Donald Trump claimed in part two of a televised interview that the nearly three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine that started when Moscow’s forces kicked off an invasion in 2022 was the fault of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s failure to preemptively capitulate before Russian troops began their attack.

Trump made the incendiary comments in a pre-taped interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday on Hannity’s program.

After Hannity asked about Trump’s threat to impose tariffs as a penalty on Russia if the Ukrainian war continues much longer, Trump responded that Zelensky “has had enough” and “wants to settle” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

North Korea is preparing to send more troops to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces, despite suffering a high rate of losses and seeing some of its soldiers captured, South Korea’s military said.

“As four months have passed for the dispatch of troops for the Russia-Ukraine war, and multiple casualties and captives have occurred, (North Korea) is suspected to be accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement today.

The JCS analysis did not specify what other follow-up measures Pyongyang might take.

North Korea is also preparing to launch a spy satellite and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), though there were no signs of immediate action on this front, the JCS said.

Pyongyang has deployed about 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, according to Ukrainian and Western assessments. Ukraine seized Kursk in a surprise attack last year. More than 3,000 have been killed or wounded, according to Kyiv.