Putin says Russia ready for war with Europe

Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready for war with Europe while insisting Moscow wants none, framing the warning as commentary on a phone call with Finland's and Norway's leaders that has drawn rebukes from other European capitals. "First of all, we are ready, but we want no war with Europe," Putin said. "And if anyone wants it, let them prepare — but right now they have not achieved their goal to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. If things go too far, there will be no winners at all. Let no one forget that."

The call, held on Tuesday, saw Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere make what were described as "frank and substantive" efforts to shift the Kremlin's position on Ukraine. Stoere said the pair had stressed de-escalation and voiced strong support for Ukraine. Putin said the two had been right to call. Other capitals faulted the gesture: Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen urged Europe's leaders to "stick together" on Ukraine, and Sweden's Ulf Kristersson noted that fellow European leaders had not been informed of the talks.

Putin paired the threat with an offer. Moscow supports any steps toward restoring relations with European countries, he said, and wants no impediments to navigation in the Baltic Sea. Restricting communication, he warned, could produce a situation like the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Iranian conflict broke out in February. "We don't want that, but we will respond to any challenge."

In Britain, the same days brought their own readiness announcements. Defence secretary Wes Streeting wrote in The Telegraph that Britain must be ready for war in 1,000 days, that adversaries could be capable of attacking by 2030, and that Britons should stock up on tinned food and bottles of water. Former chancellor Rachel Reeves, in her first significant intervention since leaving government, told the EU "the time to act is now" on seizing £175bn in frozen Russian assets — for a Ukraine confronting a funding black hole while Donald Trump presses Kyiv toward a deal with Moscow.

On Thursday a jet-powered Russian drone hit two trains stopped at a station in central Ukraine, killing at least 13 people and injuring 10, according to officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a "horrific attack" on passenger trains in Dnipro. Moscow and Kyiv have observed a truce in and around one devastated southern city since Tuesday; previous ceasefires either never worked out or quickly fell apart. Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.

The truce in the south has held. The two passenger trains in Dnipro stood outside it.