As the US president leaves Russia and Ukraine to sort a ceasefire among themselves, Sean O’Grady asks if this is Trump’s famously short attention span at play – or whether he is merely reluctant to be associated with near-certain failure .

British military experts will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers until at least the end of 2026, with an extension to Operation Interflex.

Defence secretary John Healey said the UK was “ramping up” its support for Ukrainian forces, ahead of independence day celebrations in Kyiv.

More than 50,000 Ukrainian recruits have been trained on British soil, according to the government.

The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using US-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike targets inside Russia, limiting Kyiv's ability to employ these weapons in its defense against Moscow's invasion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing US officials.

The report could not be immediately verified.

Defence secretary Pete Hegseth has final say over use of the long-range weapons, the WSJ reported.

The news came as US president Donald Trump has grown more frustrated publicly over the three-year-old war and his inability to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

After his summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin and a subsequent meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky failed to produce observable progress, Mr Trump said on Friday that he was again considering slapping Russia with economic sanctions or, alternatively, walking away from the peace process.

Ukrainian flags will appear above Downing Street and several Whitehall buildings to mark 34 years since Ukraine left the Soviet Union, the government has announced.

The prime minister's official residence at No 10 Downing Street is among the buildings where a flag will fly on Sunday.

"We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, including those who have made a second home here in the UK, in the face of continued Russian aggression," a government spokesperson said.

"Our support for Ukraine's independence will be clear for all to see, which is why the Prime Minister travelled to Washington DC this week to work with allies to secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine."

Russian troops have taken control of the settlements of Seredne and Kleban-Byk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

The Independent could not independently confirm the battlefield report.

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a short-lived fire at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to reduction in the operating capacity at one of the plant's units, the plant's press service reported early on Sunday.

"A combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to the Armed Forces of Ukraine was shot down by air defence systems near the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant," the press service said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

"Upon impact, the drone detonated, resulting in damage to an auxiliary transformer."

The press service added that there were no injuries, but as a result of the detonation, unit three of the plant was reduced to 50 per cent capacity. The destroyed drone also sparked a fire that has since been extinguished, the press service said.

Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding area have not exceeded normal limits, the press service added.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said its strikes inside Russia are in response to Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine and are aimed at destroying infrastructure deemed crucial to Moscow's overall military efforts.

President Zelensky has said a peace meeting between Moscow and Kyiv is key to ending the war - but earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC there was no agenda for such a summit.

"Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all," he said.

Zelensky has condemned a Russian attack on a US-owned electronics plant in Ukraine, saying the act proved proved that Putin is trying to avoid peace talks.

The attack took place on Friday and left six people injured.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said it was carried out “as if nothing were changing at all”.

“The signals from Russia are simply, to be honest, indecent,” he told Ukrainians in his nightly presidential address.

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Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said US President Donald Trump may be the “light at the end of the tunnel” for poor US-Russia relations.

You can watch everything he had to say following the pair’s meeting in the video below.

US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of “massive sanctions” if Putin does not sit down to peace talks with Zelensky.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said he would wait and see “whose fault it is” before taking another move after his high-stakes summit with Putin ended with little to say.

He said he would know in “around two weeks” whether to impose sanctions on Russia or decide “it’s your fight” and do nothing.