Russian president Vladimir Putin says Russia will not ease demands for Ukraine to give up on joining NATO and leave occupied regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his annual press conference on Friday that Moscow does not believe Ukraine is ready for peace talks.

Opinion polls in Ukraine have shown that few Ukrainians are willing to accept territorial concessions, which remain a key Russian condition for ending its war.

This is how the loan will work and why the bloc dropped the idea of using Russian sovereign ‍assets. HOW WILL EUROPE LEND UKRAINE THE MONEY? The EU ​will provide interest-free loans for the years 2026-2027 based on EU borrowing on capital markets backed by the EU budget headroom,

European Union leaders have struck a deal to give Ukraine a €90bn (£79bn; $105bn) loan after failing to agree on using frozen Russian assets

The stakes for finding money for Kyiv were high because without the EU's financial help, Ukraine would run out of money in the second quarter of next year and most likely lose the war to Russia, which...