Ukraine’s president appears to be fighting a war on two fronts – against Russian forces on the ground and against American assaults over the airwaves.

View from Ukraine by Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

With Donald Trump openly attacking him, Ukraine’s president is dispensing with the diplomatic niceties towards a crucial partner and is instead fighting back.

It is a risky move given the heavy reliance of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on American military support to fight Russia’s invasion and the US leader’s dislike of criticism.

But the past week of disruptive, strongman diplomacy from the White House – upending traditional assumptions about US support for European and Ukrainian security – has clearly been too much for Kyiv to stomach without speaking back, and bluntly.

Mr Zelenskyy used a press conference inside the presidential compound on Wednesday to say the American commander in chief is surrounded by a circle of disinformation after Mr Trump falsely claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s war and that Mr Zelenskyy has a public approval rating of just 4%.

The US president is pushing for elections in Ukraine – something that would be very difficult to conduct while the country is still under Russian missile and drone attack and with hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fighting on the frontline.

Mr Zelenskyy said the most recent surveys showed 57% of the population supported him – a similar rating to Mr Trump.

He also issued his strongest criticism yet of an attempt by the Trump administration to make Kyiv sign away half of the wealth it has from rare minerals and other natural resources – equal in value to about $500bn.

Mr Zelenskyy said he could not “sell our state”, adding this was not a “serious” conversation.

But he knows that he does need to have serious dialogue with Washington even after President Trump picked up the phone to Vladimir Putin a week ago, kicking off a thawing of ties between Moscow and Washington that led to a meeting of top US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and plans for a summit between the American and Russian presidents.

A first step will be engaging with Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general currently Mr Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia, who arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning – though was curiously absent from the Saudi Arabia talks despite his job title.

Ukraine’s president said he will talk with Mr Kellogg and would like to take him to visit the frontline and speak to soldiers to understand their view, while also talking to members of the public in the capital to hear what they have to say about the war, Mr Zelenskyy’s efforts and also the comments by Mr Trump.

The envoy, speaking to a small group of journalists when he stepped on the train, said he was there to listen and report back to Mr Trump.

Asked how confident he was that he would be able to bring Mr Zelenskyy to the negotiating table, Mr Kellogg said: “I’m always confident.”

The coming days will tell whether that confidence is well placed.

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View from Russia by Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent

Volodymyr Zelenskyy had the appearance of a beleaguered leader who knows he is now fighting a war on two fronts – against Russian forces on the ground and against American assaults over the airwaves.

Ukraine’s leader looked almost shell-shocked from Donald Trump’s verbal volleys last night, in which the US president accused Kyiv of starting the war.

What has been Ukraine’s biggest supporter now suddenly poses an existential threat. But for now, Mr Zelenskyy is fighting back.

He accused Mr Trump of being “trapped in a disinformation bubble” – that he has not just drunk the Kremlin’s Kool-Aid, but is now bathing in it.

He pushed back on Mr Trump’s spurious claims of only having a 4% approval rating, calling it propaganda from Russia. Moscow has repeatedly tried to portray Mr Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader, due to his term expiring under martial law.

In reality, his numbers are similar to Mr Trump’s, which should resonate with a man who became obsessed with TV ratings during his first term.

But it seems that facts do not always matter now to the White House.

And he was extremely dismissive – to the point of ridicule, almost – of the proposed US/Ukraine mineral deal.

“Not a serious conversation”, he said, rejecting Mr Trump’s business-first approach. Mr Zelenskyy still wants the focus on Ukraine’s scorched earth, not rare earths.

His messages and manner are in stark contrast to those of Vladimir Putin.

Ever since the US election in November, the Russian president has sought to flatter Mr Trump, sympathise with him and be deferential, even when responding to barbs.

And in Riyadh yesterday, Moscow began reaping the rewards.

But Mr Zelenskyy’s position is different, of course. Once the man of the moment, he’s now struggling to stay relevant – in danger of being run down by the Donald Trump deal-making juggernaut.

For now, he’s standing in the road trying to stop it. But any hope that it will change course or hit the brakes may be misplaced.

Pope Francis “joked around” with Giorgia Meloni after spending a “tranquil” fifth night in hospital, where he is undergoing treatment for pneumonia, Italy’s prime minister has said.

After visiting the pontiff on Wednesday, Ms Meloni’s office said in a statement the 88-year-old was “alert and responsive” and they “joked around as always,” adding he had “not lost his proverbial sense of humour”.

Ms Meloni was the Pope’s first confirmed visitor who wasn’t a secretary or part of his medical team since he was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday to be treated for bronchitis.

Francis slept well, got out of bed, and ate breakfast on Wednesday, the Vatican said after tests confirmed he had developed bilateral pneumonia – which means both lungs are infected.

Officials cancelled his weekend engagements.

As a young adult, he had part of one of his lungs removed after contracting pleurisy.

The Vatican said tests, X-rays and the Pope’s clinical condition continued to present “a complex picture”.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office, said Pope Francis was in good spirits and was grateful for people’s prayers.

The Pope is said to have been reading newspapers and doing some work from his hospital room during his stay.

Concerns have been growing about the pontiff’s increasingly frail health.

Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years.

Pilgrims arriving at the Vatican this week have offered their prayers that the Pope would recover soon.

Bilateral pneumonia is a serious condition which can affect breathing, after causing inflammation and scarring of the lungs.

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The Vatican has so far not given any indication of how long the Pope will have to stay in hospital.

A spokesperson said the clinical picture had required several changes in his drug regimen and he would require an “adequate” stay.

The risk of the 2024 YR4 asteroid hitting Earth at the end of 2032 has increased again, according to NASA data.

Latest calculations have shown a 3.1% chance of the space rock making impact in just under eight years.

It is a significant change since the European Space Agency (ESA) estimated in January there was 1.2% chance of a direct hit.

More recent calculations showed the odds had fallen 2.3%. In comparison, astronomers say the chance of winning big on the lottery is about one in 14 million.

The increased odds mean the asteroid – which is around the size of a football pitch – is the most threatening to Earth in modern asteroid forecasting and would cause “severe damage” to a region if it makes impact.

Scientists continue to stress there is no need for alarm and that the odds of an impact will fluctuate. They are working to gather a better understanding of the asteroid’s trajectory.

NASA and the ESA’s Webb Space Telescope will observe the asteroid for a few more weeks before it disappears from view as it heads towards Jupiter.

It will not be able to be viewed again until 2028.

NASA calculations show possible ‘risk corridor’

Data also currently shows if the rock enters the Earth’s atmosphere on 22 December 2032, it is likely to head along a large central belt of our planet and over numerous major cities.

Estimates say the rock would travel “somewhere” along a “risk corridor” above areas which are home to millions of people – but NASA data does not currently say which cities and major towns would be in this zone.

NASA scientists said: “In the unlikely event that 2024 YR4 is on an impact trajectory, the impact would occur somewhere along a risk corridor which extends across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.”

Asteroids are space rocks that scientists believe are the leftovers from the solar system’s formation 4.6 billion years ago.

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There are millions of rocks orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in a region known as the main asteroid belt.

They sometimes get pushed out of the belt and pick up a new course, such as this one.

Experts have already said it will be no surprise to them if the impact probability eventually drops to zero “at some point”.