By PAN PYLAS, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for a pivotal U.S.–Russia summit Friday in Alaska.

Following a meeting Thursday with top government officials on the summit, Putin said in a short video released by the Kremlin that the Trump administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved.”

Putin also suggested that “long-term conditions of peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” could be reached under an agreement with the U.S. on nuclear arms control.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders worked to ensure their interests are taken into account when Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage.

Uncertainty for Europe

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before the critical Trump-Putin meeting. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments, and Zelenskyy departed about an hour later.

Zelenskyy’s trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with Trump and the leaders of several European countries. Those leaders said that Trump had assured them that he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Putin.

Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.

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While some European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive, uncertainty remained over how the U.S. leader — whose rhetoric toward both Zelenskyy and Putin has evolved dramatically since retaking office this year — would conduct negotiations in the absence of any other interested parties.

Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov tamped down expectations for any breakthroughs from the Friday summit, saying there were no plans to sign documents and that it would be a “big mistake” to predict the results of the negotiations, according to Russian news outlet Interfax.

The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin would begin at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations. Then talks will continue over “a working breakfast.” A joint news conference will follow.

Ukraine’s territorial integrity

Starmer said Wednesday that the Alaska summit could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.

During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.

“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said.

Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit military personnel.

Countries in the coalition, which includes France and the U.K., have been trying for months to secure U.S. security backing, should it be required. Following Wednesday’s virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.

Trump did not reference any U.S. security commitments during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Some Ukrainians are skeptical

With another high-level meeting on their country’s future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism about the summit’s prospects.

Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made toward ending the war.

“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”

Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said Ukraine’s priority now should be saving the lives of its military service members, even at the expense of territorial concessions.

“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless.”

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes

Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine had secured the release of 84 people from Russian captivity, including both soldiers and civilians. Those freed included people held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who had defended the now Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that it too had received 84 soldiers as part of a prisoner exchange.

In other developments, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community wounded a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine, where 13 civilians were wounded, according to acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar. Two of the wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, Slyusar said.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England; and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

By OHAD ZWIGENBERG and MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press

MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s far-right finance minister announced approval Thursday of contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a Palestinian state by effectively cutting the territory into two parts.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted that the construction, which is expected to receive final approval later this month, could thwart Palestinian statehood plans. It came as many countries, including Australia, Britain, France, and Canada say they will recognize a Palestinian state in September.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a map that shows the E1 settlement project during a press conference near the settlement of Maale Adumim, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The construction on a tract of land east of Jerusalem named E1 has been has been under consideration for more than two decades, and is especially controversial because it is one of the last geographic links between the major West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

The two cities are 14 miles apart by air. But once an Israeli settlement is completed, it would require Palestinians traveling between cities to drive several miles out of their way and pass through multiple checkpoints.

“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” Smotrich said during a ceremony on Thursday. “Anyone in the world who tries today to recognize a Palestinian state — will receive an answer from us on the ground,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not publicly comment on the plan on Thursday, but he has touted it in the past.

Development in E1 was frozen for so long largely due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations. On Thursday, Smotrich praised President Donald Trump and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as “true friends of Israel as we have never had before.”

View of an area near Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says housing units will be built as part of the E1 settlement project, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The E1 plan is expected to receive final approval Aug. 20, capping off 20 years of bureaucratic wrangling. The planning committee on Aug. 6 rejected all of the petitions to stop the construction filed by rights groups and activists. While some bureaucratic steps remain, if the process moves quickly, infrastructure work could begin in the next few months and construction of homes could start in around a year.

The approval is a “colonial, expansionist, and racist move,” Ahmed al Deek, the political adviser to the minister of Palestinian Foreign Affairs, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

“It falls within the framework of the extremist Israeli government’s plans to undermine any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state on the ground, to fragment the West Bank, and to separate its southern part from the center and the north,” al Deek said.

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Rights groups also swiftly condemned the plan. Peace Now called it “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution” which is “guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.”

The announcement comes as the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in an interview on Tuesday that he was “very” attached to the vision of a Greater Israel. He did not elaborate, but supporters of the idea believe that Israel should control not only the occupied West Bank but parts of Arab countries.

Israel’s plans to expand settlements are part of an increasingly difficult reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as the world’s attention focuses on Gaza. There have been marked increases in settler attacks against Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement. There also have been several Palestinian attacks on Israelis during the course of the war.

More than 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Israel’s government is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Smotrich, previously a firebrand settler leader, has been granted cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future independent state.

Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and claims it as part of its capital, which is not internationally recognized. It says the West Bank is disputed territory whose fate should be determined through negotiations, while Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

By LORNE COOK, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders have praised President Donald Trump for agreeing to allow vital U.S. backup for a force they are mustering to police any future peace in Ukraine — a move that vastly improves the chances of an operation that could prove essential for the country’s security.

The leaders said Trump offered American backing for the European “reassurance force” during a call they held with him ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

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The effectiveness of the operation, drawn up by the so-called “coalition of the willing” — around 30 countries supporting Ukraine — hinges on U.S. backup with airpower or other military equipment that European armed forces do not have, or only have in short supply.

EU leaders regularly have underlined how the United States is “crucial” to the success of the security operation dubbed Multinational Force Ukraine. But the Trump administration has long refused to commit, perhaps keeping its participation on hold as leverage in talks with Russia.

After a meeting Wednesday between Trump and European leaders, European Council President Antonio Costa welcomed “the readiness of the United States to share with Europe the efforts to reinforce security conditions once we obtain a durable and just peace for Ukraine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had insisted NATO must not be part of these security guarantees, but the U.S. leader agreed “the United States and all the (other) parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification,” Macron said.

Trump did not publicly confirm he would allow U.S. backup, and no details of possible U.S. support were made public. But U.S. Vice President JD Vance sat in on the coalition meeting for the first time.

Multinational Force Ukraine

More than 200 military planners have worked for months on ways to ensure a future peace should the war, now in its fourth year, finally halt. Ukraine’s armed forces also have been involved, and British personnel have led reconnaissance work inside Ukraine.

The exact size of the force has not been made public, although Britain has said it could number 10,000 to 30,000 troops. It must be enough to deter Russian forces, but also of a realistic size for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War and are now rearming.

The mission “will be to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses on the land, at sea, and in the air because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the best deterrent against future Russian aggression,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told lawmakers last month. Western trainers will work with Ukrainian troops.

“It will secure Ukraine’s skies by using aircraft,” Healey said, “and it will support safer seas by bolstering the Black Sea Task Force with additional specialist teams.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey launched that naval force a year ago to deal with mines in Black Sea waters.

The force initially will have its headquarters in Paris before moving to London next year. A coordination headquarters in Kyiv will be involved once hostilities cease and it deploys.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea of European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to North Korea in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “not particularly interested” in the prospect of a peacekeeping force, Russian state media reported.

“We do not take seriously any of the various fantasies promoted by politicians who want to try and shine on the international stage,” Lavrov said, seemingly referring to Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both force backers.

The impact of US participation

European efforts to set up the force have been seen as a first test of the continent’s willingness to defend itself and its interests, given Trump administration warnings that Europe must take care of its own security and that of Ukraine in future.

Still, U.S. forces clearly provide a deterrent that the Europeans cannot muster.

Details of what the U.S. might contribute were unknown, and Trump has changed his mind in the past, so it remains to be seen whether this signal will be enough to persuade more countries within the coalition to provide troops.

Greece has publicly rejected doing so. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month that those discussions were “somewhat divisive” and distracted from the goal of ending the war as soon as possible.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Rome won’t contribute troops, but she previously has underlined the importance of working with the U.S. on ending the conflict and called for the participation of an American delegation in force coordination meetings.

NATO membership would be Ukraine’s best security guarantee, but the Trump administration took that possibility off the table in February. Putin is deeply opposed to Ukraine joining the world’s biggest military alliance, and some allies fear it might drag NATO into a broader war with nuclear armed Russia.

European Security Correspondent Emma Burrows in London and AP writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.

By SYLVIE CORBET, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Swimming in the Seine is an increasingly popular tourist attraction in the French capital — and a must-do for Parisians themselves. Thousands of people have enjoyed a dip in the river since three public bathing sites opened last month, the first in over a century.

The swimming areas are expected to get even more crowded as a heatwave arrived in the region on Tuesday. Paris has been placed under “high vigilance” by national weather service Meteo France, with temperatures up to 100 Fahrenheit expected.

At the Grenelle site in the west of Paris, visitors swim and sunbathe with a unique view of the Eiffel Tower, with small fishes darting near the surface.

People swim in the Seine river, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Water quality is tested daily to conform with European regulations. Swimming in the Seine had been illegal since 1923, with a few exceptions, due to pollution and risks posed by river navigation. The new bathing sites are possible following a 1.4 billion euro ($1.6 billion) cleanup that made it suitable for Olympic competitions last year.

“Imagine that,” said Constanze Martens, a tourist from Mexico. “Swimming with view of the Eiffel Tower and in pure natural water, clean, safe, and with all this lovely people too, you have every age here.”

On Monday, the water temperature in the Seine was 71 Fahrenheit.

“It’s quite warm, warmer than the sea, which was quite surprising, and is very pleasant,” said Elisabeth Lorin, from the Paris eastern suburb of Montreuil.

Women take a selfie after a swim in the Seine river, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Until the end of August, bathing sites are open for free at scheduled times to anyone 10 or older or 14 or older, depending on the location. Details are in the Paris city hall website, in English as well. Each swimmer must be equipped with a yellow buoy, attached to their waist, for safety reasons. There are changing rooms with lockers.

The site welcomes between 800 and 1,200 visitors per day, with a limit of 200 at any one time, said the manager of the Grenelle site, Yann Forêt.

Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan last week said over 40,000 people had swum at the sites since they opened on July 5. That’s despite almost two weeks of closures largely due to rainy weather, which increases water pollution upstream.

“Right now, the water quality is excellent and we have optimal conditions with warm weather,” Rabadan told The Associated Press on Monday. He said the daily decision to open the sites depends on weather conditions and factors including water flow rate and any known pollution.

People swim in the Seine river, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Several lifeguards monitor the sites, occasionally using their whistles to remind swimmers not to jump or leave the perimeter. No major incident has been reported, Rabadan said.

Marina Gicquel, a 22-year-old lifeguard at Grenelle, said the main difference from a swimming pool is the river current, along with the murky water.

“You can only see people’s heads sticking out. That’s why buoys are useful,” Gicquel said. “And it’s also quite deep. It’s three to five meters (10 to 16 feet) deep, so people find no foothold.”

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Some visitors, like Australian Thurkka Jeyakumar, had been skeptical about swimming in the Seine, citing the river’s murky color and bacteria issues.

Unsafe levels of E. coli or other bacteria appear during prolonged periods of rain that overwhelm pipes, leading untreated wastewater to flow into the river instead of a treatment plant. Last year, some Olympic competitions were postponed for that reason.

In the end, Jeyakumar gave it a try because she lost a bet.

“For the moment, I have to say that it was much nicer and cleaner than I thought it would be,” she said. “So the bet worked out for the better!”

AP journalist Nicolas Garriga contributed to this report.