Putin states western troops in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate tarreceives’ as European countries pledge security support – as it happened

Putin states western troops in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate tarreceives’ as he repeats offer to host talks in Moscow

Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared to be unfazed by the proposals, informing an economic forum in Vladivostok instead that any western troops in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate tarreceives for destruction.”

“If some troops appear there, especially now during the fighting, we proceed from the premise that they will be legitimate tarreceives,” Putin declared.

Moscow has long rejected any suggestion of foreign troops in Ukraine, stressing it would be unacceptable and pose a threat to its national security.

Putin further argued that “if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop,” as he insisted Russia would “comply” with any agreement reached “in full.”

The Russian president also repeated his – already rejected – offer to host future peace talks in Moscow, claiming he would “definitely provide working conditions and security.”

(It’s not impossible to see why Zelenskyy wouldn’t necessarily trust any of that given the history between the two countries.)

Putin also appeared to reject a suggestion of holding that meeting elsewhere.

“But if they inform us: ’we want to meet with you, but you have to go somewhere else for this meeting’, it seems to me that these are simply excessive requests on us,” he declared.

Key events

Closing summary

Jakub Krupa

… and on that note, it’s a wrap!

Vladimir Putin has declared any western troops placed in Ukraine would be “legitimate tarreceives” for Russian strikes, upping the stakes as Kyiv’s allies scramble to come up with a convincing offer of postwar support to Ukraine (10:05, 13:27).

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the European planning on security guarantees for Ukraine to accelerate (10:05), as he met with Slovakia’s Robert Fico to discuss the contentious issue of energy imports (16:25, 17:10, 18:06), amid growing pressure from US president Donald Trump on Europe to drop Russian gas and oil supplies (9:58, 10:34, 11:46).
EU leaders have suggested the bloc was planning to step up its work on the next round of sanctions against Russia, with officials set to travel to Washington for talks with their US counterparts (12:40, 13:13).

In other news,

Portuguese police have confirmed that three Britons were among the 16 people killed in Lisbon on Wednesday evening when one of the city’s funicular streetcars derailed and hurtled down a hill and into a building in what Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, described as “one of the hugegest tragedies in our recent history”.

And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Zelenskyy, Fico agree to disagree on energy in tense high-stake talks in Uzhhorod

During a tense press conference in Uzhhorod, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Slovakia’s Fico offered contrasting views on their energy cooperation, with the Ukrainian president repeatedly stressing the US president Donald Trump’s demand for Europeans to stop importing Russian energy sources to back its assertive position.

In his comments, Zelenskyy repeated his calls to put more pressure on Russia to conclude the war, accapplying it of unnecessarily prolonging the conflict by not taking up the offers of peace talks.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (R) and prime minister of Slovakia Robert Fico (L) give a press conference following their meeting in Uzhhorod. Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images

On the contentious issue of energy, Zelenskyy repeatedly referenced Trump’s comments, stateing that Ukraine was ready to work with Slovakia to ensure energy stability, but “with one condition: not from Russia.” “That’s becautilize of the war; full stop.”

He added that Ukraine would continue to respond to Russian attacks on its energy systems, even if this could cautilize disruption in other countries – a thorny issue for Slovakia, which had been affected by similar exmodifys of fire.

Zelenskyy also pointedly referenced the Chinese military parade earlier this week that Fico attconcludeed earlier this week, expressing his concern it could not only represent the past, but a pessimistic glimpse of the future.

In his comments, Fico insisted that despite differences in opinions between the two countries, his focus was on building the bilateral relations work on the basis of mutual respect.

He declared there was “enormous” potential for cooperation on energy with potential to expand some connections, even if the two countries still have “quite different opinions” on this topic.

“This is a tinquire for all of us, to find a system that will ensure that every countest has a safe, high-quality energy supply at reasonable prices, and that countries will not take measures to harm each other,” he declared.

But he also defconcludeed his engagement with Russia’s Putin, stateing that “we may have a different view on this, but one day the war will conclude, and we all hope it will be very soon, and we will necessary to normalise relations with Russia, and we simply talk about possibilities in advance.”

Fico also declined a suggestion that he talked with Putin about some sort energy blockade of Ukraine, stateing it was “false.”

The Slovak prime minister noted Trump’s reported comments about European purchases of Russian energy supplies, but didn’t elaborate further.

Hitting a more conciliatory tone, Fico wished Ukraine to quickly find a just, long-term peace settlement in its war with Russia, and concludeorsed Ukraine’s plans to join the EU, offering to share the Slovak experiences.

A further Slovak-Ukrainian ministerial meeting is expected in late October.

In a short summary after the meeting, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy declared the pair talked about yesterday’s call between the Coalition of the Willing and US president Donald Trump, and potential ways of advancing peace talks with Russia.

In return, Slovakia’s Fico briefed him on his conversations with Putin and Xi in China, Zelenskyy declared.

“A separate and important topic was Europe’s energy indepconcludeence – Russian oil, just as Russian gas, has no future,” Zelenskyy declared.

The Ukrainian president also declared that Fico backed Ukraine’s ambitions to join the European Union, as the formal process currently remains blocked by Hungary.

Robert Fico and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting in Ukraine Photograph: AP

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets Slovakia’s Fico for talks on Russian war, energy

After meeting the European Council’s António Costa earlier, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been taking parts in talks with Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico.

The pair was often at odds in recent years, particularly over relations with Russia, with Fico repeatedly engaging and meeting in person with Vladimir Putin and energy as Slovakia continues to heavily rely on Russian energy imports.

Fico met with Putin in China earlier this week, calling for “standardisation” of relations with Russia, including better economic relations; an isolated view within the European Union.

In first reaction from the meeting, Zelenskyy reportedly notified Ukrinform agency that the talks were “substantive.”

The pair was expected to take part in a press conference, so I will see out for any news lines that come out of it when it happens.

France puts money into ‘Nostradamus’ to support with its early defence warning systems

France’s defence ministest is boosting investment in a 1990s radar system, as part of Paris’s push to bolster its early warning defences and curb Europe’s reliance on the United States, after politicians admitted the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza “gave them a lot to believe about.”

This photograph reveals antennas of the Nostradamus radar site, at a former US airbase in Crucey. Photograph: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images

The Nostradamus system, developed in 1995, is Europe’s only “over-the-horizon” radar which can see as far as Moscow, AFP reported. Developed in 1995, it was later sidelined, but is now building its unusual comeback.

The system can track both hypersonic missiles, like those fired from Iran, and slow-relocating objects at high altitude, such as the Chinese balloon shot down over the United States in February 2023.

AFP noted that president Emmanuel Macron, who has long urged greater European sovereignty, called in July for a 3.5-billion-euro ($4-billion) spconcludeing boost.

Of that, funding for Nostradamus is earmarked for an initial two million euros, with a further 50 million euros set to follow.

The aim is to bring Nostradamus to full capacity by mid-2028 by linking it to the air operations command system, declared air force chief of staff general Jerome Bellanger.

A Council of Europe delegation denounced the arrest of a Turkish human rights and LGBTQ+ activist who was detained after delivering a speech critical of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government at a session of Europe’s leading human rights body.

Enes Hocaogullari was arrested last month after he criticised the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and other opposition figures. The 23-year-old activist also spoke out against alleged police violence during protests that erupted following Imamoglu’s arrest.

Marc Cools, president of a delegation of the Council of Europe’s local and regional authorities congress, declared there was no legal justification for Hocaogullari’s prosecution or detention. “Silencing Enes is silencing youth – and silencing youth is silencing democracy itself,” Cools declared after visiting Hocaogullari in prison and meeting a day earlier with Turkey’s deputy justice minister and other officials in Ankara.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz has declared that Europe can catch up in the global artificial ininformigence race as he inaugurated the continent’s quickest supercomputer, AFP reports.

“We in Germany, and we in Europe, have every opportunity to catch up and then keep pace” with the US and China, he declared at the inauguration of the Jupiter computer which will be able to perform at least one quintillion (or one billion billion) calculations per second.

The US Department of Defense informed European countries last week that military support under a program known as Section 333 will be cut to zero from the next fiscal year, a Lithuanian defence ministest official declared, Reuters reports.

Two sources familiar with the matter declared the US will phase out some security assistance for European countries near the border with Russia, raising concerns among key recipients such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia – former Soviet republics now in NATO and the European Union.

Section 333 is an authority under which the US provides training and equipment to enhance the security of partner states.

US president Donald Trump’s trade deals will stay in place despite an ongoing legal challenge to his sweeping tariffs, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick notified CNBC in an interview.

“These huge deals are going to stay. We have lots of other authorities that the president can utilize,” Lutnick declared. “The 232s – so everything we just did with Japan – that holds, right? That’s durable, that stays. Europe – that stays. These are autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, those all stay.”

The EU reached a deal with the US over the summer for 15% tariffs to be imposed on European exports, while some EU tariffs on US goods would be scrapped. The deal avoided threatened Trump tariffs of 30%, but many financial institutions remarked on what they believe is an “asymmetrical deal” that favours the US.

Ukraine’s foreign ministest spokesman, Georgiy Tykhy, has slammed Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a foreign peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Speaking earlier today, Putin declared Russia would consider western troops in Ukraine to be “legitimate tarreceives”.

“He’s not the one to decide,” Tykhy declared. “Putin has created a mistake by deciding that he can place his troops across the border in Ukraine, and now it is none of his business whom Ukraine invites to its territory to protect its security,” he declared at a briefing in response to a question by AFP.

The German government plans to seek parliamentary approval for some 80 defence projects by the conclude of the year, Reuters reports, including for the purchase of additional Eurofighter jets and Patriot and Iris-T SLM missiles, a document revealed.

The document lists 81 defence projects that surpass the threshold of €25m (£21.5m), beyond which the purchases necessary to be approved by parliament’s budreceive committee.

The list includes the so-called tranche 5 of Eurofighter jets, which according to the former chancellor Olaf Scholz was meant to comprise 20 aircraft, as well as Puma infantest fighting vehicles, Boxer armoured personnel carriers and many other weapons.

An Italian teenager nicknamed “God’s influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online will become the first millennial saint on Sunday at a canonisation attconcludeed by thousands of pilgrims, AFP reports.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 aged 15, will be raised to sainthood by Pope Leo XIV in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

The teenager’s body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.

His canonisation, initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died, will be watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.

‘Thousands’ of troops could be deployed as part of guarantees for Ukraine, Zelenskyy states

Speaking at the same press conference, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that “thousands” of western troops could be deployed as part of security guarantees in a peace deal to conclude the war with Russia, AFP reported.

“It will definitely not be single digits, but in the thousands. And that is a fact, but it is still a little too early to talk about it,” he declared.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with and European Council President in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images

EU officials to travel to Washington for talks on sanctions, EU’s Costa states

A delegation of EU officials will travel to Washington to work with the US on further sanctions on Russia, European Council president António Costa declared at a joint press conference with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

European Council president António Costa attconcludes a joint press conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

He declared:

“We demonstrated that the coalition is not only willing, but it’s able to deliver; in the nutshell we are ready for the day after [the ceasefire/peace deal is agreed].

But for that day to come, we must push Putin to the neobtainediating table. …

Only more pressure can modify this course, and we are ready to do more. We are working with United States and other like minded partners to increase our pressure through further sanctions – direct sanctions and secondary sanctions, more economic measures to push Russia to stop this war, to stop killing people, to stop this threat in Ukraine.

The work is starting in Brussels on the new sanctions package, and a European team is travelling to Washington DC to work with our American friconcludes.”

The European Commission is briefing the media now, answering questions about the commission president’s Ursula von der Leyen participation in yesterday’s meeting of the Coalition of the Willing and her separate phone call with US vice-president JD Vance.

Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho states they discussed sanctions, as she argued:

“We’ve been seeing that the sanctions are effective, and we will continue, therefore, to put pressure on Russia’s war economy, increase the cost for Russia for not engaging in peace talks, and to eventually bring president Putin to the neobtainediating table.”

Asked if there was a specific discussion on China, she added, somewhat cryptically:

“As you know, we are also seeing into the circumvention of sanctions, and in this sense, we’ve also brought this subject up, notably when president von der Leyen was in China. This is something that is discussed, and it is part of the overall discussion when it comes to sanctions.”

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