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"Dean Mears dragged grandmother Catherine Flynn, 69, from her bed and stamped on her, breaking every bone in her face during the attack in October 2024.

Mrs Flynn's daughter Natasha Flynn-Farrell said she watched helplessly after she received a doorbell camera alert of the drug dealer breaking into her mother's home in the seaside town of Rhyl in Denbighshire.

Jailing him for life with a 27 year and 128 day minimum term, Judge Rhys Rowlands said Mears, 35, was responsible for a "savage, and quite ferocious and merciless attack".

He said the recording captured on the doorbell camera "can only be described as horrific".

What a unimaginably nightmarish end of the Catherine, and for her daughter to have witnessed.

“According to Ukrainian authorities, nearly 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are still in captivity in Russian prisons after being abducted by the invading army – not counting the more than 20,000 Ukrainian children estimated to have been taken to Russia...

Under the Geneva Convention, there is a recognised mechanism for exchanging prisoners of war, but no such mechanism exists for the return of captured civilians, leaving even top Ukrainian and international officials searching for an explanation as to how they might be brought home.“

• Russian President Vladimir Putin [announces an "Easter truce'' in Ukraine according to reports

• Putin says there will be a temporary end to hostilities from 18:00 Moscow time (16:00 BST) today until midnight on 21 April (22:00 BST)

• Putin adds he assumes Ukraine will follow the truce and [Russian troops are ready to repel any possible violations

• It is unclear whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accepted the terms of the truce

• This comes after US President Donald Trump threatened to "pass" on Ukraine peace talks if no progress was made on a deal

“Donald Trump is the first US President since World War Two to challenge the role that his country set for itself many decades ago. And he is doing this in such a way that, to many, the old world order appears to be over - and the new world order has yet to take shape.

The question is, which nations will step forward? And, with the security of Europe under greater strain than at any time almost in living memory, can its leaders, who are currently scrabbling around, find an adequate response?”

“When Donald Trump met President Zelensky in New York last September, the then US presidential candidate exuded confidence he could bring the war in Ukraine to an early end. "If we win, I think we're going to get it resolved very quickly," he said.

How quickly he meant varied over time. In a TV debate a few days earlier, Trump had promised he would "get it settled before I even become president". This was an escalation on his previous commitment in May 2023 to stop the fighting in the first 24 hours of his presidency.

Trump has now been in office for more than two months and the penny may be beginning to drop in the White House that trying to end a conflict as bitter and complex as this may take time.”