Russian president Vladimir Putin met Iranian top security official Mohsen Rezaei at the Kremlin, Iran’s state media reported, after Iranian negotiators met with ⁠mediators to discuss proposals to end hostilities with the US.

Rezaei delivered a message from Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei to Putin, state media said. Putin’s office also said the two ⁠met at the Kremlin.

“Important ​regional ⁠issues were discussed with Mr Putin, and significant conversations took place regarding the post-war period and regional ⁠security arrangements,” Rezaei said after the meeting, referring to ​the ⁠war between Iran and ‌the US.

A Finnish court on Thursday convicted the captain and another crew member of a cargo ship of damaging undersea telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea late last year.

The Helsinki District Court found the two guilty of aggravated sabotage and gave them prison sentences. The captain was sentenced to three years and six months, and the boatswain to two years and 10 months. National broadcaster Yle reported that the captain is Russian and the boatswain Azerbaijani.

The court also ordered them to pay compensation for the costs of examining and repairing the cables.

Russia could not have continued fighting in Ukraine today had China not been actively involved in the war, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said.

“I was at a conference in Warsaw the other day, and I complained because there was next to nothing said or debated about China. It was all about Russia. I understand that.

“But as long as we leave China out of the debate, we have surrendered completely to the real threat that we face,” he said on the sidelines of Annual Summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

He added: “I have said to the Americans on many occasions in Washington: the road to Taiwan runs through Kyiv. If we forget that, then we will have lost Taiwan because they will see us as weak.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Spain for talks on boosting Kyiv’s air defences and top-level meetings during ⁠the Ibero-American summit, the Ukrainian president said on the Telegram messaging app.

Zelensky, shown online being greeted as he stepped off his aircraft, also said he planned to speak with US officials in the run-up to planned three-way talks in Abu Dhabi next week, which will include Russia.

“Over these coming ​days, ⁠contacts with the American ‌side are also planned,” Zelensky wrote. “We’re coordinating with our partners to achieve concrete results on ‌security issues and the next steps ‌toward peace.”

Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Thursday and believes a “big, beautiful ‌agreement” with Ukraine could be close.

He suggested that war could soon be over, but said bringing it to an end might involve all of Europe.

The president told reporters at the White House: “It’s going ‌to be an ‌agreement. It’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s ⁠going to involve more than Ukraine… I could even say it might involve all of Europe.

“It’s going to be a big, beautiful ‌agreement, and everyone’s going ​to be thrilled,” Trump ‌said.

Seven people were killed in Russian-controlled Ukraine’s Luhansk region after two separate attacks on buses, Russian-installed governor Leonid Pasechnik said on MAX messenger on Thursday.

Fourteen people were injured, including two boys, ‌aged ​15 and ‌17, ⁠he added.

Russian tanker Talisman and the Hong Kong-owned Leruo abandoned the US Atlantic Coast as their originally declared destination, according to the Financial Times.

Melania Trump hosted representatives from Russia and Ukraine on Thursday at a White House event to recognize a recent six-day ceasefire she helped broker in the Russian-controlled city of Oleshky.

The event followed US officials’ ramped-up efforts to secure a deal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began when Russian forces invaded Ukraine in early 2022. A trilateral meeting with officials from the US, Ukraine and Russia is planned for November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi.

“We have chosen humanity over war,” the first lady said at the event. “We must use the courage we brought to Oleshky to find common ground through a shared concern for the suffering of innocent people,” she added.