Yvette Cooper says deal to bring end to assault on Gaza and free hostages should be ‘implemented as swiftly as possible’

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has said that later today she will travel to Paris for discussion about the implementation of a peace plan for Gaza.

Speaking at Hillsborough Castle, where she is hosting a summit on the western Balkans today, she said:

The agreement on the first phase of President Trump’s peace initiative is a moment of profound significance, relief and hope. And I want to pay tribute to the negotiators.

After two years of the most devastating suffering, with tens of thousands of lives being lost, with the pain of hostages held for so long, and with the humanitarian crisis taking place, the agreement now to a ceasefire, to the restoration of humanitarian aid and to the release of all the hostages is immensely important and must be implemented as swiftly as possible.

I welcome the news that a deal has been reached on the first stage of President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.

This is a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world, but particularly for the hostages, their families, and for the civilian population of Gaza, who have all endured unimaginable suffering over the last two years.

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Zelenskyy accuses Russia of wanting to sow ‘chaos’ as it repeats similar tactics from previous winters that left millions of Ukrainians without access to energy or heating

Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Europe.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of wanting to sow “chaos” in Ukraine by launching strikes on his country’s energy grid and railway infrastructure, in comments published on Thursday.

Russia’s task is to create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population through strikes on energy facilities and railways.

Russian strikes killed three people and wounded two in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, its military administration said. The attacks came after Russia said on Wednesday that momentum towards reaching a peace deal in Ukraine had largely vanished, after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s presidential summit in Alaska, dimming hopes for a quick end to the three-and-a-half year war.

A Russian overnight drone attack injured five people and damaged port and energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa, its governor said on Thursday. The attack cut power to 30,000 consumers and set containers with vegetable oil and wood pellets on fire in the port, Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. It came as fires broke out at fuel and energy facilities in Russia’s Volgograd region as a result of a drone attack, Governor Andrei Bocharov said on Thursday.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Nato on Wednesday urged European allies to step up purchases of US weapons for Kyiv, as only Washington can supply key capabilities required to counter Russia’s assaults. “European Nato member states are not able to substitute either by types or by volume or speed of delivery,” ambassador Alyona Getmanchuk told AFP.

French president Emmanuel Macron was on Thursday racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis. The presidency said late on Wednesday Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, indicating the appointment will come by Friday evening at the latest.

A French appeal court is to rule on Thursday in the case of the only man among 50 who claims he is innocent after being convicted of sexually abusing Gisèle Pelicot. The 72-year-old’s former husband has admitted to drugging her with sedatives and inviting dozens of strangers to rape and abuse her over nearly a decade in a case that shocked the world.

US sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned NIS oil company, which runs the country’s sole refinery, came into force Thursday after months of delays. The US sanctioned the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) in January as part of its crackdown on Russian energy, aiming to curb the sector following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Germany’s parliament has rescinded a fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting the rapidly shifting mood on migration in Europe’s labour-hungry economic powerhouse. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives pledged in this year’s election campaign to rescind the legislation, which let people deemed “exceptionally well integrated” gain citizenship in three years instead of five.

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