Ukraine war briefing: Trump bristles at Prince Harry’s passionate plea for Ukraine

Duke of Sussex says US must ‘honour obligations’ as it persuaded Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons; US president retorts that Harry doesn’t speak for Britain.

What we know on day 1,521

Donald Trump has said the Duke of Sussex “is not speaking for the UK” after Prince Harry told the US to honour its obligations in the Ukrainian conflict. “I think I am speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry … But I appreciate his advice very much,” said Trump, responding to the duke’s lengthy, impassioned speech at the Kyiv Security Forum on Thursday.

Harry, an ex-serviceman, did not claim to be speaking for the UK.

He said he was “not here as a politician” but as “a soldier who understands service” and a “humanitarian”.

Harry said: “The United States has a singular role in this story.

Not only because of its power, but because when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons, America was part of the assurance that Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders would be respected.

This is a moment for American leadership, a moment for America, to show that it can honour its international treaty obligations – not out of charity but out of its own enduring role in global security and strategic stability.”

A Ukrainian MP has told how he flew a drone intercepter from thousands of kilometres away, throwing a spotlight on the effectiveness of Ukraine’s technology.

Marian Zablotskiy said that in a “historic experiment … I piloted an FPV interceptor drone first from my office, then from right in front of the state border, and then from somewhere about 2,000km away from the drone itself – from abroad.

I consider this breakthrough a decisive factor in finally stopping the Russian offensive.”

Ukrainian drone manufacturer Wild Hornets confirmed Zablotskiy’s involvement to Agence France-Presse and said it wanted the remote control system to “become the primary method of drone control”. Mykhailo Fedorov, the defence minister in Kyiv, said: “Ukraine is the first in the world to systematically scale up remote control of interceptor drones.

Today, we have confirmed results – the downing of targets at distances of hundreds and thousands of kilometres.”