The message warned it would be misguided to simply await the Trump administration’s renewed focus on ending the conflict in Ukraine while its attention remains heavily directed towards the war in Iran, proposing that Moscow and Kyiv alone take the next steps.

Kyiv is looking to seize the initiative in what is a pivotal moment in the war, with Ukraine beginning to regain some leverage on the battlefield in part due to improved long-range strike capabilities.

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The Russian ⁠defence ministry said on ⁠Saturday ​that ⁠it had ⁠captured ​the ⁠settlement of ‌Shevchenko in Ukraine's ‌Kharkiv region, ‌Russian state ⁠news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Reuters could not ‌immediately ​verify ‌the battlefield ⁠report, it said.

The UK is facing the highest level of threat from Russia since the Cold War, the chief of defence staff has said in a chilling warning for the country.

Stressing that Britain faces its “most dangerous period” in decades, Sir Richard Knighton said the country needs to prepare for “longer conflicts” like in Ukraine.

The threat comes as Russia is “definitely raising the stakes and risks crossing a line,” through cyber attacks, assassination attempts, “or trying to smuggle technology and reckless sabotage,” he said.

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The Ukrainian president wrote on X on Saturday morning: “It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting.

“That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working. Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region – to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt.

“Our long-range sanctions also reached about 500 kilometers into the Krasnodar region – and hit an oil depot.

“These are important results of the joint efforts by warriors from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine. Russia must end its war and stop its attacks on life.

“Any manifestation of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response. I thank our warriors for their precision.”

Yvette Cooper condemned Russian sanctions on British media and a 17-year-old schoolboy as “desperate” and “appalling” and said the Government would be stepping up its own measures against Moscow.

Britons including Alexander Browder, a teenager who has conducted research into alleged Moscow-backed cryptocurrency laundering, and The i Paper journalist Richard Holmes have been banned from entering the country.

The foreign secretary said the UK government would “keep building” on its own sanctions targeting Russia as she hit out at the “assault on media freedom”.

She told the Press Association: “I think we’ve seen increasing reckless and desperate escalation from Russia because Ukraine is doing better on the battlefield and keeping them under pressure, but we’ve seen these appalling attacks on civilians by Russia.

“And to sanction journalists – this is an assault on media freedom and just tells you everything you need to know about the oppression of the Russian regime. I just think it is desperate and wrong to sanction a 17-year-old, I just think it is appalling.”

A Turkish-flagged fishing boat was attacked and sank off the northern Black Sea coast, leaving one sailor dead and four others wounded, the Turkish Coast Guard said late on Friday.

The Duru 67 was attacked west of Sevastopol in Crimea earlier on Friday, according to a Coast Guard Command statement. The peninsula was illegally seized from Ukraine by Russia and annexed in March 2014. The statement did not provide further details of the attack.

Five injured sailors were rescued by another trawler, the Burak Kaya, but one died on the way back to Turkey.

A Coast Guard vessel carrying a medical team reached the Burak Kaya 115 nautical miles north of Turkey’s Inebolu port and the casualties were placed on board.

After a 15-hour return voyage, the injured were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital Kastamonu, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Provincial Health Director Fevzi Yavuzyılmaz said they were suffering shrapnel wounds and one had undergone minor surgery aboard the Coast Guard ship.

“Two of our patients have relatively minor injuries and two have slightly more serious injuries,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The waters off Ukraine have seen regular attacks on shipping since Russia launched a war on Ukraine in February 2022.

In November, the Turkish government condemned Ukrainian drone attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea as posing “serious risks to navigation, life, property and environmental safety in the region".

A drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot in the town of Ust-Labinsk in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, local authorities said on Saturday via their Telegram channel.

According to preliminary information, ‌there were ​no casualties, ‌the ⁠authorities ⁠said.