President Donald Trump has sparked fury after it emerged he is blocking Ukraine from firing US-made long-range weapons against Russia in a bid to charm Vladimir Putin into peace talks. At the White House on Friday, Trump said he expected negotiations to reach some kind of conclusion in the next two weeks with a meeting between Putin and Ukraine's President Zelensky.

Russia's attacks on Ukraine with drones and missiles have continued and the Kremlin's top diplomat made it clear that Putin won't meet with Zelensky until the Ukrainians agree to some of Moscow's longstanding demands to end the conflict. Now it's emerged the Pentagon has introduced a new measure which effectively bans Kyiv from firing at targets deep inside Russian territory.

The ban applies to US-made Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms), but does not cover weapons manufactured by Ukraine, such as the country's new Flamingo missile, which has a range of 1,900 miles. Ukraine has found new ways of striking back against Russia, with fresh attacks on Moscow's energy infrastructure. 

But the American withdrawal of permission to use US-made missiles could still hamper Ukrainian military efforts to defend itself. The ban also hits the use of British-produced Storm Shadow missiles, which are reliant on US targeting data.

The Wall Street Journal reports Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's undersecretary for defence, has introduced a new measure, meaning any use of Atacms systems requires sign-off by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. It's understood at least one request from Ukraine to use the Atacms missile has been rejected, a US official revealed.

However, President Volodymyr Zelensky said this weekend that Kyiv would no longer rely on the United States for approval to carry out deep strike missile attacks on Russia.

Supporting his point, Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on a key Russian gas plant over the weekend, causing major damage to the facility. The strike on Russia's energy infrastructure took place on Sunday in Ust-Luga - close to the Estonian border - some 621 miles from Ukraine. The Gazprom site is one of the largest gas processing plants in Europe, producing 13 million tonnes of LNG, 3.6 million tonnes of ethane, and 1.8 million tonnes of propane-butane.

Since face-to-face talks between Trump and Putin, and following the White House meeting of Trump and Zelensky and European leaders, the war in Ukraine has shown no sign of letting up.

On Thursday last week, Putin launched one of his biggest aerial assaults so far this year, focusing on western Ukraine, with a barrage of 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles.