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On Thursday Ukraine and the United States signed a memorandum of intent (see 9.21am BST), confirming their intent to conclude a deal on jointly developing Ukrainian natural resources.
Here is the full text posted on Friday on the website of the Ukrainian government, and provided to us by Reuters:
Memorandium of intent between the government of the United States of America and the government of Ukraine to finalise formal agreement on economic partnership and reconstruction investment fund
Whereas the United States of America has provided significant financial and material support Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022;
Whereas the American people desire to invest alongside the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine desire a lasting peace in Ukraine and a durable partnership between their two peoples and governments;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine recognise the contribution that Ukraine has made to strengthen international peace and security by voluntarily relinquishing the world’s third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine intend to establish a reconstruction investment fund as part of an economic partnership between the two peoples and governments;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine have held highly productive technical discussions in Washington DC. as recently as 11-12 April 2025, in order to finalize negotiation of an agreement to establish a reconstruction investment fund;
Whereas the United States respects Ukraine s intention to avoid conflicts in the drafting of the agreement with Ukraine’s obligations under European Union accession or agreements with international financial institutions and other official creditors;
Whereas, without prejudice to any remaining political or legal procedures required to complete the arrangement, Ukrainian prime minister Shmyhal will visit Washington DC. the week of 21 April 2025, to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent and lend high-level support to the conclusion of technical discussions on the terms of an agreement establishing a reconstruction investment fund. Negotiating teams are expected to report on the progress by the 26 April 2025, with the aim of completing discussions by that date and signing as soon as possible; and
Now, therefore, as evidenced by the signatures set forth below, the government of the United States and the government of Ukraine enter into this memorandum of Intent to work expeditiously towards the completion of the necessary documents in order to finalize the agreement forging an economic partnership between the American and Ukrainian peoples and establishing a reconstruction investment fund.
This memorandum of Intent may be signed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original, and all of which shall be deemed one instrument.
Ukraine on Friday imposed sanctions on three Chinese entities, a presidential decree showed, reports Reuters.
The sanctions list, which also includes Russian companies, names Beijing Aviation And Aerospace Xianghui Technology Co. Ltd, Rui Jin Machinery Co. Ltd, and Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Xining Co. Ltd, all registered in China.
Russian forces attacked key drone-making facilities in Ukraine on Friday morning and captured Valentynivka in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
Washington will abandon its efforts to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine “within days” unless there are clear signs a settlement can be reached, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said.
Kyiv has said it has signed a memorandum with the US over a controversial minerals deal. After meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Donald Trump was still interested in a deal but that the US president had many other priorities and was willing to move on unless there were signs of progress.
You can hear Rubio’s comments in this video:
US ‘just going to move on’ from Ukraine peace deal if no progress is made – video
A 30-day moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure ordered by Russian president Vladimir Putin last month has “expired”, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Russia announced the truce on 18 March after a call between Putin and US president Donald Trump, but both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of repeatedly breaking it.
“The month has indeed expired,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a briefing call, in response to a question by Agence France-Presse (AFP). He added:
As of this time, there have been no other instructions from the supreme commander-in-chief, president Putin.
The short-lived moratorium was one of the few commitments Trump had wrangled from Russia in his attempt to broker a ceasefire in the three-year conflict.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire put to him before.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was never serious about the moratorium and that Moscow was continuing to strike Ukraine’s energy targets “despite Putin’s words”.
The Kremlin said on Friday that some progress had already been made in talks about a possible peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine but that contacts were rather complicated with the United States.
“Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is committed to resolving this conflict, ensuring its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do this.”
A Russian drone strike early on Friday hit a bakery in northern Ukraine where traditional Easter cakes were being prepared, killing one man, Ukrainian officials said.
Images shared by Ukrainian emergency services, which said they were filmed at the scene of the strike in the city of Sumy, showed trays of Easter cakes covered in grey dust, and a smashed window nearby, Reuters reported.
Easter cakes are seen at a compound of a bakery in Sumy hit by a Russian drone strike. Photograph: State Emergency Service Of Ukraine/Reuters
The victim was a local businessman who was at the bakery to collect his order when the drone struck at 5am (3am BST), according to Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
Sybiha wrote on X:
So much for Russia’s ‘traditional Christian values’. It is against the Lord, any faith, and any human values to strike an ordinary pastry shop, murder an entrepreneur, and destroy Easter bread. This is the evil we are dealing with every day.
Last Sunday, two Russian ballistic missiles hit the centre of Sumy, killing 35 people in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, Ukrainian officials said.
Luke Harding
The US will abandon its efforts “within days” to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine unless there are clear signs a settlement can be reached, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said, as Kyiv says it has signed a memorandum with the US over a controversial minerals deal.
Speaking in Paris on Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Donald Trump was still interested in a deal. But he added that the US president had many other priorities around the world and was willing to move on unless there were signs of progress.
Rubio’s comments are the clearest signal yet that the White House is ready to walk away from its diplomatic attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Last month Ukraine agreed unconditionally to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
The Kremlin, however, has rejected the plan. Instead it has launched a fresh military push across the 600-mile (1,000km) frontline and stepped up its air attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. On Sunday it bombed the city of Sumy, killing 35 people and injuring 117.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January he has piled pressure on Ukraine, stopping most US military assistance and temporarily cutting off intelligence sharing. This week he falsely blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden for “starting” the war.
US vice-president JD Vance was in Rome on Friday for talks with prime minister Giorgia Meloni, before celebrating Easter at the Vatican and a meeting with Pope Francis’s right-hand man.
Meloni shares conservative views with Vance and president Donald Trump, whom she met in Washington just a day before on charm offensive aiming for a US-EU tariffs deal.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Vance is to meet Meloni at 11am (10am BST), and is also due to talk with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, the second-highest official at the Holy See after the pope.
US vice-president JD Vance with his wife, Usha Vance, and children, disembarks from Air Force Two at Ciampino Rome airport on Friday. Photograph: TELENEWS/EPA
Meloni has been a staunch ally of Ukraine and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, most recently calling Moscow’s Palm Sunday attack on the city of Sumy “horrible and vile.”
Trump however has stunned allies with a pivot toward Moscow and repeated attacks on Zelenskyy, whom he and Vance berated in an Oval Office meeting in February.
AFP reports that the US leader said with Meloni beside him that “I don’t hold Zelenskyy responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” adding that he was “not a big fan” of the Ukrainian leader.
A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv killed one person and injured 82 others, including six children, on Friday morning, officials said.
The strikes damaged apartment buildings, an educational institution and a business, according to the emergency services, reports Reuters.
“This is how Russia began this Good Friday – with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shaheds – maiming our people and cities,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.
Reuters video showed emergency workers giving first aid to people with bleeding wounds near one of the apartment buildings.
“Everything went flying in all rooms, the windows shattered,” Inna Khrystych, one of the residents, told Reuters. “My husband died.”
Andriy Ponomarenko told the news agency that he and his wife were woken by the strike and rushed to find their four-year-old daughter amid the smoke and shattered glass. “We first thought the blood was mine but turned out she got a cut by her eye,” he said.
Firefighters work at the site of a garment production factory hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Friday. Photograph: Reuters
Ukraine’s foreign minister said Russia launched four missiles at Kharkiv, three of them ballistic and carrying cluster warheads.
“Russia is a terror machine. It will only stop if we confront it with true strength,” Andriy Sybiha added, a day after meeting US, French, German and British envoys in Paris.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Ukraine’s second biggest city, said the attack damaged 15 apartment buildings based on preliminary information.
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a US-brokered moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure last month, but both sides have accused each other since of violating it.
Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday that in total, Russia was launching the same number of missiles and drones at Ukraine as before the agreement. He said that Russia has reduced the number of its strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, but was attacking civilian infrastructure instead.
A Friday morning drone attack on Sumy, another north-eastern city, also killed one person and injured another at a factory baking Easter cakes, officials said.
Ukraine’s deputy minister of economy has said that the US and Ukraine have reached an understanding that the Ukrainian parliament would need to ratify the minerals deal agreement.
More details soon …
Beijing on Friday denied giving any party in the Ukraine war lethal weapons, after president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed he had “information” that China was supplying arms to Russia.
“The Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Zelenskyy did not elaborate on his accusations, saying only that Kyiv was “ready” to talk about them in detail.
Last week, the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv knew of at least 155 Chinese nationals deployed to assist Moscow’s invasion, and alleged the Ukrainian army had captured two Chinese soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region.
Beijing on Friday said that its “position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear”. “We have always actively made efforts for a cessation of hostilities and peace talks,” Lin said.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year war, despite criticism from western governments that its close ties to Russia have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Luke Harding
The Guardian has obtained the memorandum of intent to be signed next week by Ukraine and the US over a minerals deal. It envisages setting up a joint investment fund between the two countries. The draft recognises the “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
It does not clarify whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. He adds that Ukraine is willing to pay for future military aid from the Trump administration.
The memorandum of intent to be signed next week by Ukraine and the US over a minerals deal. Photograph: to Luke Harding
Jon Henley
Senior US, European and Ukrainian diplomats will meet again in London next week, the Élysée Palace has said, after what a French official described as an “excellent” day of talks in Paris aimed at reviving stalled ceasefire efforts.
“We have started a positive process in which Europeans are a part,” the spokesperson said after the meetings attended by top British, French, German and Ukrainian officials as well as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The French official said:
The Americans are ready to discuss security guarantees, but the exact content of those guarantees will depend on negotiations allowing Ukraine to achieve a solid and durable peace starting with a complete ceasefire as soon as possible.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, hosted the talks as Washington and Europe seek common ground on how to end the fighting three years after Russia invaded its neighbour, with Trump’s pledge to swiftly end the war so far unfulfilled.
“Everyone wants to get peace. A robust and sustainable peace. The question is about phasing,” Macron said as the talks got under way. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, who also attended, said afterwards the talks were “very productive” but gave no details.
A previously unannounced team of Ukrainian officials including Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and the country’s foreign and defence ministers flew in to meet the US and European delegations.
Yermak said:
We exchanged views on the next steps … including the implementation of a full ceasefire, the involvement of a multinational military contingent and development of an effective security architecture for Ukraine.
US president Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday.
Rubio said in Paris, after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders:
We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end.
So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks. If it is we’re in. If it’s not, then we have other priorities to focus on as well.
According to Reuters, Rubio said Trump was still interested in a deal but was willing to move on if there were no immediate signs of progress.
France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, and US secretary of state Marco Rubio at the meeting in Paris on Thursday. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/Reuters
Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May, as obstacles mounted.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are other key developments:
- China is supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery, and Chinese representatives are involved in weapons production on Russian territory, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday, citing reporting by Ukrainian security and intelligence agencies. “We are ready to speak in detail about this,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine expects to share documentation to support the claims next week. China has denied arming Russia against Ukraine.
- Beijing on Friday denied giving any party in the Ukraine war lethal weapons. “The Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
- Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said on Thursday that Kyiv had signed a “memorandum of intent” with Washington on a planned “investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine”. Donald Trump said they would sign a minerals deal “next Thursday”. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a deal was targeted for 26 April.
- Russian strikes killed two people and injured at least 27 others overnight in Kharkiv and Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Friday. “According to preliminary information, the strikes on Kharkiv were carried out by ballistic missiles with cluster munitions. That is why the affected areas are very large,” said Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, adding that 15 apartment buildings had been damaged. In Sumy, near the Russian border, a Russian Shahed drone attack on civilian infrastructure killed one person and injured one other, the regional military administration said.
- Zelenskyy said Russia had reduced the number of strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities but stepped up attacks on civilian infrastructure instead. Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv that in total, Russia was launching the same number of missiles and drones at Ukraine as before. “They reduced their strikes on energy. That’s a fact. But I wanted us to pay attention to this – Russia did not reduce the number of strikes, that was the strategy … by reducing [strikes on] energy, they are hitting other civilian infrastructure.”
- Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, on Thursday accused Ukraine at the security council of ignoring the energy ceasefire. In a joint statement after the council met, Slovenia, Denmark, France, Greece, and Britain urged Russia to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire. Slovenia’s UN ambassador, Samuel Zbogar, said: “Ukraine wants peace, and has demonstrated this by agreeing to a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire five weeks ago. At the consultations today, Russia again rejected the comprehensive ceasefire and refused to make its first step towards peace.”
