Key points
- Minerals deal with US should be signed in next 24 hours, Ukraine's PM says
- Peace won't come as fast as Trump wants, Kremlin tells Sky News
- Trump thinks Putin wants to stop war but repeats anger at recent attacks
- Nearly 5,000 North Koreans casualties in war, Seoul says
- Russia 'preparing something' in Belarus, Zelenskyy warns
- Explained: Why Crimea is so important to Russia and Ukraine
- Tap hereto listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim wherever you get your podcasts
- Live reporting by Ollie Cooper
Watch: How close is a Ukraine ceasefire?
Events at the negotiating table continue to move at a rapid pace.
This morning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sent several mixed messages regarding Moscow's readiness for peace when speaking to Sky News and other outlets.
After saying peace would not come as quickly as Donald Trump wanted, he said a deal would need to be struck with Kyiv and not Washington - but also that Moscow was incredibly grateful to the US for trying to mediate.
He also said Putin was ready for direct talks with Ukraine immediately, but also that lots of "little details" needed to be addressed first.
Confused? Here's Sky's Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett, who spoke with Peskov this morning, to unpack it for you...
Nothing in deal about on Ukraine 'paying US back', source tells Sky News
A bit more on the minerals deal now, with a Ukrainian source telling Sky News that Kyiv is "determined to sign the deal today".
The source says negotiating teams have done a good job, and that the deal was actually finalised on the whole yesterday,
"It turned out quite well there - an equal agreement, a reconstruction fund is being set up, there will be investments in infrastructure and the development of various industries, and in general, we can say that this is the highest level of economic partnership between our countries," they said.
The source adds there is no mention in the agreement that Ukraine has to return previous financial support given to it from the US.
That could come as a significant relief to Kyiv, with Donald Trump having said on multiple occasions he wants American financial contributions back.
Minerals deal should be signed in next 24 hours, Ukraine's PM says
Ukraine and the United Statescould sign a minerals deal within the next 24 hours after thefinal details are worked out, Ukraine's prime minister has said.
The agreement, which has been reworked, has become a "real partnership deal", Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister, said.
The terms could consider future US aid as part of contributions tothe fund, he said in televisedremarks.
It's been suggested the deal could be signed as early as tonight.
As we reported in our previous post, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister is on her way to Washington to sign the deal, according to sources quoted by the Reuters news agency.
The exact terms of the deal remain unclear, with the deal hitting several stumbling blocks - including a now infamous bust-up between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House - which have delayed it.
Ukrainian officials en route to Washington to sign deal - sources
Ukraine's first deputy prime minister is on her way to Washington to sign a much-discussed minerals deal, sources have told the Reuters news agency.
Yulia Svyrydenko is heading to the US now, the source said.
"I think maybe late evening Kyiv time, the deal there can besigned," the source said.
Kyiv and Washington signed a memorandum in the middle of this month, saying theyaimed to complete talks by 26 April and sign the deal as soon aspossible.
Terms have not yet been made public, but we'll be across this story as it develops.
Could Putin be planning a northern offensive from Belarus?
For the past hour,security and defence Michael Clarkehas been answering your questions on the Ukraine war.
His first question was...
Zelenskyy has said Russia is preparing something in Belarus - what could this be?
hopethingswillgetbettersoon
For context, it comes after Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested Russia was "preparing something" in Belarus this summer.
"This summer Russia is preparing something there, under cover of military exercises," the Ukrainian leader told a summit in Poland yesterday, without giving details.
"This is how its new attacks usually start," Zelenskyy added.
Russia and Belarus will hold joint military exercises in Belarus in the coming months.
Clarke says"it may be a northern offensive which the Russians are thinking about".
However, he's keen to point out that he thinks it's highly unlikely that Belarusian troops would enter the fray themselves.
"The argument is that the Russians have got 65-70,000 troops there - but they normally have quite a lot of troops there," he says.
"It is now the campaign season, the weather is favourable to an attack from there - it's plausible," he says, but adds he doesn't personally see something big coming from there based on the material he's seen.
However, he reminds us that the last major joint exercises between Belarus and Russia, known as Zapad-2021, were held six months before Russia invaded in Ukraine in 2022.
Vladimir Putin was there to watch proceedings at the Mulino training ground in the Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod...
Clarke says: "The Russians, working on Belarusian territory, will certainly bring troops to an exercise. But whether they will become assault troops is still not clear - it's plausible, but it's not the most likely thing to happen at the moment."
He also says that while the Russians have learned a tremendous amount from the war in Ukraine, Clarke says: "To my mind, they still can't put together an aggressive combined arms operation of the type needed for a very strong offensive - it's just not the way they do things."
Read Clarke's answers to all of today's questions here.
Minerals deal could be signed today - reports
A US-Ukraine minerals deal could be signed as soon as today, Bloomberg and the Financial Times report.
The exact terms of the deal remain unclear, with the deal hitting several stumbling blocks - including a now infamous bust-up between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House - which have delayed it.
The report is unconfirmed, and we've seen suggestions a signing is imminent on several occasions before.
Join live Ukraine war Q&A with Michael Clarke
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke is back answering your Ukraine war questions live.
Watch and follow the Q&A here:
Hit Russia with sanctions 'that will actually work', Zelenskyy tells allies
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allies to hit Moscow with additional sanctions "that will actually work".
"Russian drones continue flying in the skies over Ukraine all morning. And so it goes every day," the Ukrainian leader said, sharing images of destruction across his country.
"That is why pressure on Russia is needed – strong additional sanctions that will actually work.
"It must be pressure, not just words or attempts at persuasion, that forces Russia to cease fire and end the war. Pressure from the United States, from Europe, from everyone in the world who believes there is no place for war on this planet."
He also repeated calls for more air defence systems.
Ukraine war Q&A: Could Trump walk away?
Later today, security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke will be answering your questions on the war in Ukraine.
Submit yours in the box at the top of the page.
Below is last week's Q&A, where Clarke discussed how and why Vladimir Putin is looking to "keep Trump on the hook", as well as looking at the real state of the Russian army following three years of war.
Watch it below, and join here at 1pm for this week's...
Ukrainians prepare to detonate Russian bomb
These images show Ukrainian servicemen preparing to detonate a 500kg Russian bomb that landed on the Black Sea coast.
Russia has targeted infrastructure along the coast in a bid to hurt Ukrainian grain exports, after a UN-brokered deal to allow commercial shipping to use the Black Sea collapsed a year into the war.
