Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” in Ukraine, as he declared an “Easter truce” until the end of Sunday.

He said the 30-hour truce would last until 22:00 BST on Sunday (00:00 Moscow time), adding that Russian forces should be prepared to respond to “any possible violations”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would adhere to the truce, but accused Moscow of breaking it.

“If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly – mirroring Russia’s actions,” he said.

“Our actions are and will be symmetrical. The proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day silence remains on the table — the answer to it must come from Moscow,” he wrote on X.

He said fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions and Russian drones were still in use, but added that some areas had become quieter.

Zelensky said Ukraine would be ready to extend a truce beyond 20 April, seemingly referring to an earlier proposal from the US for a 30-day ceasefire which Ukraine had already agreed to.

Responding to Putin’s initial announcement, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X: “Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a cease-fire. 30 hours instead of 30 days.”

“Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements not matching his actions. We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words,” he added.

Putin announced the temporary truce at a meeting with his chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

“Based on humanitarian considerations… the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told Gerasimov.

“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions.”

The Russian defence ministry said its troops would adhere to the ceasefire provided it was “mutually respected” by Ukraine.

It is not the first time a pause in fighting has been suddenly announced – a previous attempt at a ceasefire during Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 fell apart after both sides failed to agree on a proposal.

Reacting to Putin’s truce announcement, a Foreign Office spokesman in the UK said: “Now is the moment for Putin to truly show he is serious about peace by ending his horrible invasion and committing to a full ceasefire, as the Ukrainian government has called for – not just a one day pause for Easter.”

Source: BBC

Thieves stole a £4.8m solid gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in an “audacious raid” which took just five minutes, a court has heard.

The toilet was plumbed in and fully functioning as part of an art exhibition at the Oxfordshire stately home in September 2019.

Michael Jones, 39, from Divinity Road, Oxford denies a charge of burglary. Fred Doe, previously known as Frederick Sines, 36, from Windsor, and 41-year-old Bora Guccuk, from west London, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to transfer criminal property.

Their trial at Oxford Crown Court was told the toilet was most likely broken up and was never recovered.

The toilet was part of an art exhibition at Blenheim Palace

Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC told the court that a gang of five in two vehicles drove through locked gates of Blenheim Palace in the early hours of 14 September 2019 and smashed their way into the building with sledgehammers.

The court heard that the sledgehammers were left at the scene.

A photograph was taken about 17 hours before the toilet was stolen and Mr Christopher told the court that Mr Jones had taken it while he was “there as part of the reconnaissance for the burglary”.

Mr Christopher told the court the raid took just five minutes.

He added: “The work of art was never recovered. It appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold and never recovered.”

A fourth man, James Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to burglary, transferring criminal property and conspiracy to do the same in April 2024, jurors were told.

Entitled America, the 18-carat gold toilet was part of an exhibition by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.

It weighed 98kg and was insured for $6m. Gold prices at the time would have seen the gold alone worth £2.8m in September 2019, the court was told.

The prosecutor said a series of messages, voice notes and screengrabs discovered on Mr Sheen, Mr Doe and Mr Guccuk’s phones showed the trio negotiated a price of £25,632 per kilo for around 20kg of the stolen gold.

It was claimed Mr Guccuk, who ran the jewellers Pacha of London in Hatton Garden, would make a profit of about £3,000 for every kilo he sold on.

The palace is a Unesco World Heritage Site and was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

The trial continues.

Source: BBC

Hundreds of migrants were arrested in January as part of a UK-wide crackdown on illegal working, the government has said.

Enforcement teams raided 828 premises including nail bars, car washes, and restaurants and made 609 arrests – a 73% increase on the previous January.

Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle told the BBC the decision to release footage of the arrests was to send a message about the realities of working illegally and she defended the government’s approach as “compassionate”.

Later on Monday, MPs will debate the government’s immigration bill. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has called it a “weak bill that won’t stop the boats”.

Vape shops in Cheshire and a grocery warehouse in south London were among the places raided.

Those arrested made the journey to the UK through a mix of routes, including by crossing the Channel and by overstaying legitimately-granted visas.

Despite having won a landslide election victory seven months ago, senior Labour strategists are already increasingly worried about losing voters concerned about immigration to Reform come the next election.

Source: BBC

Nicolas Sarkozy is to be fitted with an electronic tag after being convicted of graft, a source close to the case said, in a first for a former French president.

France’s highest appeals court in December ordered Sarkozy to wear the tag for a year, after finding him guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge.

A judge last week decided Sarkozy, 70, would wear the ankle monitor from February 7, the source said.

The right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, would only be allowed out of his home at certain times, it said.

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said procedure was “being followed” and she had no further comment.

The former head of state will however be able to apply for conditional release for people aged 70 and above. He turned 70 last week, the day he was summoned by the judge.

Sarkozy has been going to a Paris court three afternoons a week for the past month as part of a separate trial in which he is charged with accepting illegal campaign financing before his 2007 election. That trial is to run until April 10.

In the case for which he is to wear the tag, a court found that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about an investigating judge.

The deal was done in return for the promise of a plum retirement job for the judge.

The trial came after investigators looking into a separate case of alleged illegal campaign financing wiretapped Sarkozy’s two official phone lines, and discovered that he also had a third, unofficial one.

It had been taken out in 2014 under the name “Paul Bismuth”, and only used for him to communicate with Herzog.

The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.

Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal.

But Sarkozy is France’s first post-war president to have been sentenced to serve time.

Source: AFP

Belgian police are looking for armed men after a shooting was reported outside a metro station in the centre of Brussels.

CCTV footage broadcast by local media shows at least two men wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons at the entrance of Clémenceau station in the Belgian capital early on Wednesday.

Video from the scene shows an exchange of fire at about 06:15 local time (05:15 GMT).

Sarah Frederickx, spokeswoman for Brussels police, said the suspects may have fled into the tunnels of the metro system.

The spokeswoman said there were no injuries in the shooting.

Police are looking for “a small group of people, probably two or three individuals”, Ms Frederickx said, adding that they may still be armed and that police did not want to take any risks.

BruxellesToday reported the suspects were carrying what appeared to be Kalashnikov weapons.

The BBC has verified footage of the incident circulating on social media, which showed two men brandishing what looked like rifles and shooting. From the video, it is unclear who they are aiming at.

Source: BBC

Swedish police say “around 10” people have been killed in a shooting on a school campus in the central city of Orebro.

Police believe the perpetrator is among the dead and that he acted alone, but a motive is not yet clear.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson describes the attack as the “worst mass shooting” in Sweden’s history.

The shooting happened at a school for adults, although there are children’s schools on the site.

Students and staff were kept inside buildings when police thought the attacker was still at large but have since been evacuated.

Police first warned people to stay away from the area at 13:20 local time (12:20 GMT)

Source: BBC

At least five people have been shot on a school campus in central Sweden – four have undergone surgery in hospital, and one is critically injured

One of the people in hospital is thought to be the perpetrator, police say

More people may be injured, police add.

Students and staff were kept inside buildings when police thought the attacker was still at large – they are now being evacuated.

The shooting happened at a school for adults, although there are children’s schools on the site.

Police first warned people to stay away from the area at 13:20 local time (12:20 GMT)

Soon after, they confirmed four people had been shot, before the number increased to five.

Source: BBC

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, already convicted twice in separate cases since leaving office, on Monday goes on trial charged with accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The career of Sarkozy has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 2012 presidential election. But he remains an influential figure for many on the right and is also known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.

The fiercely ambitious and energetic politician, 69, who is married to the model and singer Carla Bruni and while in power from 2007-2012 liked to be known as the “hyper-president”, has been convicted in two cases, charged in another and is being investigated in connection with two more.

Sarkozy will be in the dock at the Paris court barely half a month after France’s top appeals court on December 18 rejected his appeal against a one year prison sentence for influence peddling, which he is to serve by wearing an electronic bracelet rather than in jail.

The latest trial is the result of a decade of investigations into accusations that Sarkozy accepted illegal campaign financing – reportedly amounting to some 50 million euros – from Gaddafi to help his victorious 2007 election campaign.

In exchange, it is alleged, Sarkozy and senior figures pledged to help Gaddafi rehabilitate his international image after Tripoli was blamed for bombing attacks on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland and UTA Flight 772 in 1989 that killed hundreds of passengers.

Sarkozy has denounced the accusations as part of a conspiracy against him, insisting that he never received any financing for the campaign from Gaddafi and that there is no evidence of any such transfer.

‘He will fight’

At a time when many Western countries were courting Gaddafi for energy deals as the maverick dictator sought to emerge from decades of international isolation, the Libyan leader in December 2007 visited Paris, famously installing his tent in the centre of the city.

But France then backed the UN-sanctioned military action that helped in 2011 oust Gaddafi, who was then killed by rebels. Sarkozy has said allegations from former members of Gaddafi’s inner circle over the alleged campaign financing are motivated by revenge.

If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison under the charges of concealing embezzlement of public funds and illegal campaign financing. The trial is due to last until April 10.

Sarkozy “is awaiting these four months of hearings with determination. He will fight the artificial construction dreamed up by the prosecution. There was no Libyan financing of the campaign,” said his lawyer Christophe Ingrain.

Among 12 others facing trial over the alleged Libyan financing are heavyweights such as Sarkozy’s former right-hand man, Claude Gueant, his then-head of campaign financing, Eric Woerth, and former minister Brice Hortefeux.

“Claude Gueant will demonstrate that after more than ten years of investigation, none of the offences he is accused of have been proven,” said his lawyer Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, denouncing the cases as amounting to “assertions, hypotheses and other approximations.”

Witness tampering charges

For the prosecution, the pact started in 2005 when Gaddafi and Sarkozy, then interior minister, met in Tripoli for a meeting ostensibly devoted to fighting illegal migration. But Sarkozy’s defence counters that no trace of the illegal financing was ever found in the campaign coffers.

The scandal erupted in April 2012, while Sarkozy was in the throes of his re-election campaign, when the Mediapart website published a bombshell article based on a document purportedly from December 2006 it said showed a former Libyan official evoking an agreement over the campaign financing.

Sarkozy has long contended that the document is not genuine.

An embittered Sarkozy would later narrowly lose the second round of the election to Socialist François Hollande.

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key figure in the case, had claimed several times that he helped deliver up to five million euros ($5.4 million at current rates) in cash from Gaddafi to Sarkozy and his chief of staff in 2006 and 2007.

But in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, raising suspicions that Sarkozy and close allies may have paid the witness to change his mind.

In a further twist, Sarkozy was charged in October 2023 with illegal witness tampering while Carla Bruni was last year charged with hiding evidence in the same case.

Sarkozy’s second conviction, in another campaign financing case, was confirmed last year by a Paris appeals court which ruled he should serve six months in prison, with another six months suspended. This verdict can still go to a higher domestic appeals court.

Source: AFP

Ukraine is planning to draft another 160,000 troops into its military as Russia gains ground in the east.

Russia has been advancing in the eastern Donetsk region and on Tuesday said it had fully captured the mining town of Selydove.

It also comes amid reports that a number of North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia.

Ukraine’s military has been under severe pressure of late, in part due to Russia’s greater manpower and deeper resources.

“There are plans to call up more than 160,000 people,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, told parliament on Tuesday.

The AFP news agency reports the recruitment will take place over three months.

The announcement comes as Ukraine continues to commit personnel for its incursion in the Kursk region of Russia, which started in August.

The Pentagon estimates around 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to train in eastern Russia.

The US said on Tuesday a “small number” of North Korean troops have been sent to Kursk. A couple of thousand more are heading there, it said.

South Korea has claimed the troops are being trained in various locations, with many wearing Russian uniforms in order to disguise themselves.

A high level government official said they believed up to 11,000 soldiers had already been sent to Russia, with at least 3,000 in the west of the country.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin refused to deny that North Korean troops had arrived in Russia, following reports that Pyongyang was preparing to send thousands of troops to aid its ally.

The latest mobilisation comes after Ukraine’s parliament passed legislation in April to help mobilise troops to fight invading Russian forces.

The law requires every man aged between 25 and 60 to log their details on an electronic database so they can be called up. Conscription officers are on the hunt for those avoiding the register, pushing more men who do not want to serve into hiding.

The measure is aimed at boosting numbers in the military, which is under severe pressure as Russia continues to make gains in the east.

Moscow has announced that it now controls all of Selydove in the Donetsk region as well as surrounding villages, as it focuses on the city of Pokrovsk.

This is a strategically significant transport hub, just 18km (10 miles) away.

Source: BBC