Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign minister, has accused Donald Trump of falling for a Russian narrative by closing the door on Nato membership for Ukraine. “Why are we in Nato? It is because we are afraid of Russia. And the only thing that really works – the only security guarantee that works – is Nato’s umbrella,” she said. Trump said last week of the war that Ukraine potentially joining Nato was “probably the reason the whole thing started”. In an interview published on Thursday by Agence France-Presse, Kallas said: “These accusations are totally untrue. That is the Russian narrative that we should not buy.”

Kallas – a former prime minister of Estonia, which borders Russia – said Nato countries had never attacked Russia which instead was “afraid of democracy”. Interviewed in Washington, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said of Trump’s approach: “My question is, why we should give Russia what they want on top of what they have already done – attacking Ukraine, annexing territory, occupying territory, and now offering something on top of it? … Consider here in America that after 9/11 you would have sat down with Osama bin Laden and said ‘OK, what else do you want?’ I mean, it’s unimaginable.”

Trump, meeting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Thursday appeared to distance himself from previous remarks in which he falsely called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator. “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that,” he said, before admitting that his relationship with the Ukrainian president had got a “little testy” over financial support but was now on firmer ground.

Trump once again had to be corrected by a European leader when he falsely claimed Europe was getting back the money it had given for Ukraine’s defence. Starmer said: “We’re not getting all of ours. I mean, quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given. There were some loans, but mainly it was gifted actually.” Emmauel Macron, the French president, interjected on the same point when he met with Trump on Monday.

Russian forces staged mass strikes late on Thursday on energy targets in the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said. Oleh Syniehubov said one man was injured in a Russian attack on the town of Balakliia, south-east of Kharkiv. Ukraine’s air force reported threats of attacks by glide bombs and drones in the region.

North Korea has sent more soldiers to Russia and redeployed several to the frontline in Kursk, the South Korean spy agency told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. “The exact scale is still being assessed,” an official said. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tykhy said: “This is, I think, a wake-up call for everyone globally to understand that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific has never been more directly linked than it is today. We don’t think that the reaction of the international community has been sufficient.”

Nato allies to Ukraine are preparing billions more in aid and contributions to security guarantees, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said on Thursday, adding he had had a great talk with Donald Trump.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has insisted there will be no more negotiations over a critical minerals and resources deal that the Trump administration is expecting Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign when he arrives in Washington on Friday. Bessent said the deal was complete.

Two researchers at France’s main state research agency were sentenced on Thursday to eight months in prison for throwing improvised explosive devices at the Russian consulate in Marseille in protest at Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Georges Sitja, 59, and Vasile Heresanu, 48, are expected to serve their sentences out of jail by wearing electronic tags.