Russia frees US schoolteacher Marc Fogel - White House; US won't send troops to Kyiv - Pentagon

President Donald Trump’s administration was not sending US troops into Ukraine, said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would travel to Ukraine this week, Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, as the administration tries to end the Russia-Ukraine war and secure US access to Ukrainian natural resources.

Trump envoy secures release of American Marc Fogel from Russia

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, on a visit to Russia, secured the release on Tuesday of Marc Fogel, a US schoolteacher detained in Russia since August 2021, said the White House.

“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the president’s advisers negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” said White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

Witkoff, who is Trump’s chief Middle East envoy, made an unannounced trip to Russia to pick up Fogel, and Waltz said they were both leaving Russian airspace.

“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” said Waltz.

Trump has indicated he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has been vague on the details other than to say he is insistent on ending the three-year-old Ukraine war.

Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling after he was detained in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana — which he said he uses for medical reasons — in his luggage.

US will not send troops to Ukraine, says defence chief Hegseth 

Trump’s administration was not sending US troops into Ukraine, said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.

Speaking with reporters in Germany, Hegseth also said that he would push European allies to spend more on defence when he meets with them this week.

“The European continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought to be those in the neighbourhood investing the most in that individual and collective defence,” said Hegseth.

US Treasury Secretary Bessent to visit Ukraine

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would travel to Ukraine this week, Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, as the administration tries to end the Russia-Ukraine war and secure US access to Ukrainian natural resources.

Bessent, who will be the first Cabinet-level official in Trump’s administration to visit Ukraine, is set to discuss US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, energy resources and energy assets, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The future of some of Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises will also be discussed, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity and did not provide additional details.

Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump have expressed interest in a pact under which the US would receive rare earths from Ukraine in exchange for continued support in fending off Russia.

US National Security Adviser Waltz said in a Sunday interview that Washington was also interested in obtaining access to Ukrainian oil and gas resources in exchange for supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

“We need to recoup those costs and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources and their oil and gas,” said Waltz.

Several other US officials travelling to Europe this week will discuss the Ukraine war with Kyiv and other European allies. They include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice-President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine.

“The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday announcing Bessent’s planned visit.

Rare earths are metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cellphones, missile systems and other electronics. There are no viable substitutes, and demand is widely expected to grow.

Reuters reported this week that the Trump administration planned to push European allies to buy more US weapons for Ukraine ahead of potential peace talks with Moscow.

Ukraine backs purchase of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors from Bulgaria

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law that allows the state nuclear power operator to buy two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors from Bulgaria for Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi power plant.

Ukraine had planned last June to sign a deal to buy two nuclear reactor bodies from Bulgaria to compensate for the loss of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has six reactors, but was prevented by the absence of a law to allow the purchase.

The law does not specify the amount of the contract.

Ukrainian officials have said Bulgaria had previously put the price of the two reactors at $600-million.

Several politicians objected to the law, saying they opposed the purchase of Russian equipment at a non-transparent price in the context of the war with Russia.

But the law was nevertheless passed as Ukrainian officials said the purchase would make it possible to launch the first of the two new units in two to three years. That would significantly reduce power shortages in the country, where Russian missile and drone attacks have destroyed energy infrastructure.

Zelensky said parliamentary approval for the reactors, with a capacity of more than two gigawatts, was a “major step” in ensuring Ukraine’s energy security.

Russian attack damages Ukrainian gas production facilities

Ukrainian natural gas production facilities were damaged in a Russian attack on Ukraine’s central Poltava region overnight, said the state-run oil and gas firm Naftogaz and Energy Minister German Galushchenko on Tuesday.

“Naftogaz Group’s production facilities in the Poltava region were damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties,” said the company.

Naftogaz “is taking all necessary measures to stabilise the gas supply situation in the Poltava region”, it added.

Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK said that its gas production facility in the Poltava region was also hit.

“The facility is out of operation. Damage and destruction are being assessed,” it said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had carried out a combined attack, using 19 cruise, ballistic and guided missiles against gas production facilities in the Poltava region.

No missiles were reported shot down.

Poltava’s regional military administration said that nine settlements in the Myrhorod district had been left without gas.

Russia, which previously focused its missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian electricity sector, has in recent months sharply stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian gas storage facilities and production fields.

Ukraine drones damage industrial facility in Russia’s Saratov

A Ukrainian drone attack damaged an industrial facility in Russia’s southern region of Saratov, said its governor early on Tuesday, while a Ukrainian official said an oil refinery had been hit.

“There are no casualties,” said Roman Busargin, the governor of Saratov, in a post on Telegram, citing initial details, but without identifying the damaged facility.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, 18 of them over Saratov.

As a safety measure, the aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said it was suspending flights at the regional airport as well as those in Kazan, Ulyanovsk and Kirov.

Ukrainian Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, an official of the National Security and Defense Council, said the Saratov oil refinery that supplies the Russian army with fuel was hit.

But Kovalenko, who heads the council’s Center for Countering Disinformation, did not directly say that it was the result of a Ukrainian attack.

Russian media say the Saratov oil refinery belongs to oil major Rosneft.

Several unofficial Russian news channels on Telegram, including the Shot channel, reported explosions and fires around the refinery.

A large fire sent thick billows of smoke into the night sky, in video clips and photographs posted on social media. Reuters could not independently verify the reports, however.

UK sanctions Russia’s Zservers over cyber crimes

Britain sanctioned Russian cyber group Zservers and six of its members on Tuesday, saying they helped facilitate crippling ransomware attacks globally.

The measures, taken in coordination with the US and Australia, will impose asset freezes on Zservers and its UK front company XHOST Internet Solutions LP, and asset freezes and travel bans on the six individuals.

Affiliates of the notorious cybercriminal group Lockbit are known to have used Zservers as a launch pad for ransomware attacks, said Britain.

Ransomware attacks, which can compromise sensitive data, disrupt essential services and threaten national security, generated $1-billion from their victims globally in 2023 alone, it added.

“Putin has built a corrupt mafia state  driven by greed and ruthlessness,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

“It is no surprise that the most unscrupulous extortionists and cyber-criminals run rampant from within his borders.” DM