Closing summary
This blog will be closing shortly, but you can find the latest on Europe here. For updates on Ukraine, follow here.
Here is an overview of today’s developments:
Poland warned Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday against travelling through its airspace for a summit in Hungary with US president Donald Trump, saying it could be forced to execute an international arrest warrant if he did. Bulgaria, however, would be willing to let Putin use its airspace if the summit is held in Hungary, foreign minister Georg Georgiev was quoted as saying.
A Russian drone attack killed four people in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region on Tuesday, local broadcaster Suspilne reported citing the regional police. A Russian bombardment of energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands of people in the region without power and some without water on Tuesday, with repairs slowed down by the lingering threat of drone strikes, officials said.
European leaders issued a joint statement with Ukraine on Tuesday backing US president Donald Trump’s call for peace talks to begin based on the current frontline with Russia. Trump is seeking to broker a peace deal to end the three-and-a-half-year war, triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion. Last week, he called on Moscow and Kyiv to stop the fighting “where they are” after talks with both sides.
Moscow’s rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine appears to have put a summit in Hungary’s Budapest between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in jeopardy, diplomats said on Tuesday, after a preparatory meeting between the top US and Russian diplomats was postponed. The meeting between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, was expected to take place in Budapest on Thursday.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday to start a five-year prison term. Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his electoral campaign.
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Tuesday to amend the country’s budget for this year, raising defence spending to a record level as the war with Russia dragged on into its fourth year. Lawmakers approved the increase of about 325 billion hryvnias (€6.6bn), raising Ukraine’s defence spending to a total of about 2.96 trillion hryvnias this year.
French police on Tuesday stepped up the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum, as scrutiny mounted over security at the country’s cultural institutions. Sunday’s audacious daylight robbery – which lasted just seven minutes – was the latest in a string of thefts from French museums in recent months, and has left authorities scrambling to increase protection measures.
A tornado tore through districts north of Paris on Monday, toppling three construction cranes and killing one person and critically injuring four others, authorities said. The town of Ermont, about 13 miles (20km) north-east of Paris, was worst hit by the sudden twister that caused damage across 10 districts overall.
Updated
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Tuesday to amend the country’s budget for this year, raising defence spending to a record level as the war with Russia dragged on into its fourth year, Reuters reports.
Lawmakers approved the increase of about 325 billion hryvnias ($7.7bn), raising Ukraine’s defence spending to a total of about 2.96 trillion hryvnias ($70.86bn) this year.
Finance minister Serhiy Marchenko said:
We understand that the situation is constantly changing, and it is a forced necessity to increase spending to resist aggression effectively.
The government, with the support of the partners, has the sources to secure additional spending for Ukraine’s defenders.
