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Allies ‘discuss progress’ on using frozen Russian assets to aid Kyiv’s reconstruction programme
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Sir Keir Starmer and European allies have agreed on the need to ramp up economic pressure on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and have discussed “positive progress” towards using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, Downing Street says.
The prime minister hosted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz at No 10 following US president Donald Trump’s “peace plan”, widely criticised as being a wish-list of Russian demands.
Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of having failed to read the latest plan, while insisting Mr Putin was fine with it”.
No 10 said the leaders agreed that Europe must stand with Ukraine, strengthening its ability to defend against “relentless attacks that have left thousands without heat or light”.
“They also discussed positive progress made to use immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
Sir Keir also convened a call with other European allies, during which they agreed that “we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war”, Downing Street said.
As we previously reported, Donald Trump said he Kyiv “isn’t ready” to sign the US peace proposal while talking to reporters last night.
US and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the US administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump claimed in an exchange with reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors.
The president added, “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it it. But he isn’t ready.”
Kyiv’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said on Monday morning that the Ukrainian president would receive all documents relating to the new peace plan today.
Russia insists that the peace proposal still needs “radical changes” before Moscow can accept it, according to some local media reports.
Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the US must “make serious, I would say, radical changes to their papers” on Ukraine.
His remarks contrast sharply with comments from US envoy Keith Kellogg, who earlier suggested an agreement was “really close”, with only two obstacles remaining: the status of the Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Territory remains the key point of contention. Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out ceding land, arguing that doing so would only invite future Russian aggression.
The first draft of the US plan, however, proposed that Ukraine relinquish Donetsk and Luhansk – despite Kyiv still holding significant parts of the Donbas.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna, earlier said that “difficult issues remain”, in the talks between the US and Ukraine.
She told CNN that the “main challenges at this stage concern questions of territory and guarantees, and we are actively seeking optimal formats for addressing them”.
Ukraine will not surrender territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted, rejecting a Russian demand that Donald Trump had included in his latest proposal to end the war.
His refusal to give up any part of his country could mark the collapse of the US president’s plan, which critics had condemned as fulfilling a wish list of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,” Mr Zelensky said, after meeting top European leaders to discuss Trump’s plan.
Mr Zelensky said their revised plan had been stripped of “explicitly anti-Ukrainian provisions” suggesting that Kyiv was open to a deal, according to The Washington Post.
It’s been a busy week in the politics of European defence. But every major news point from the week has confirmed how much danger Europe is in, and how little some of its key allies are willing to do about it, writes Keir Giles.
The findings of the UK’s inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, released this week, demonstrate not only Russia’s ruthlessness but also the severe impact that even a limited Russian attack can have on unprepared societies like Britain.
But in the same week, the latest iteration of the so-called “peace process“ over Ukraine demonstrated once again how Europe as a whole is still paralysed by denial and magical thinking over the nature of the threat from Russia and what is needed to withstand it.
In part, this results from a degree of necessary play-acting on the part of European leaders. They know that in public, they have to engage with the United States on its terms, and pretend that US negotiations with Moscow over the heads of Ukraine and Europe are a meaningful step towards eventual peace.
President Donald Trump could walk away from the Ukraine-Russia war, his eldest son has told a Middle East conference according to reports.
Speaking at the Doha Forum 2025, Donald Trump Jr said his father “may” walk away from Ukraine. The Guardian and Sky News reported Mr Trump Jr as saying: “What’s good about my father and what’s unique about my father is you don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s unpredictable”.
Mr Trump Jr’s comments come after US and Ukrainian negotiators spent three days in talks in Florida over the future of a post-war Ukraine.
He also said that Ukraine was a “far more corrupt country than Russia” and said that the “American public doesn’t have the appetite [for further funding of Ukraine’s military efforts]”.
The Kremlin welcomed a move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to revise its national security strategy and stop calling Russia a “direct threat,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
Mr Peskov told the state-run TASS news agency the updated document dropped language describing Russia as a direct threat and instead urged cooperation with Moscow on strategic stability issues. “We considered this a positive step,” he said.
The strategy, signed by Trump, also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure”, that it was a “core” US interest to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and that Washington wanted to reestablish strategic stability with Russia.
“The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” Mr Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin when asked about the new US strategy.
Sir Keir Starmer and European allies agreed on the need to “ramp up” economic pressure on Vladimir Putin in a call, Downing Street says.
British, French, German and Ukrainian national security advisers have been instructed to continue discussions about Ukraine over the coming days after a meeting between the leaders of the four countries, No 10 said.
In a readout of the talks, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister welcomed the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, to Downing Street today.
“The leaders discussed the importance of the US-led peace talks for European security and supported the progress made. They instructed their national security advisers to continue discussions over the coming days.
“The leaders underscored the need for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine which includes robust security guarantees.
“The leaders agreed that while diplomatic efforts continue, Europe must stand with Ukraine, strengthening its ability to defend against relentless attacks that have left thousands without heat or light.
“They also discussed positive progress made to use immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction.
“Following the meeting with the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine, the Prime Minister convened a call with other European allies alongside President Zelensky to update them on the latest situation.
“The leaders all agreed that now is a critical moment and that we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war.
“They agreed to keep in touch.”
After months on the sidelines of US-led peace talks, Europe is trying to rise to the challenge of guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-war future in the event of a ceasefire.
Britain and France are leading the push for a so-called reassurance force in Ukraine to retrain the army and uphold a peace deal if it emerges.
Downing Street said Britain is making plans for the multinational force drawn from partners on the continent, despite the Kremlin’s rejection this week of any foreign deployment as “unacceptable”.
Thousands of allied troops could be sent to cities across Ukraine to help the army recover its strength and stand as an independent deterrent to Russian aggression – if both sides can agree to terms.
James Reynolds reports:
British soldiers joined a major exercise on Nato’s snowy border with Russia as Finnish troops prepare to defend their country if their neighbour invades.
Around 50 men from the 3 Rifles, based in Edinburgh, spent six weeks training in the Arctic north of Finland, where they honed their survival skills in temperatures as low as minus 28C.
The C Company soldiers, who have previously had hot weather training in Kenya and Morocco, learned how to cope with icy immersion in water and how to avoid frostbite, and practised fighting in the snow and shooting while skiing.
They then joined the 3,000 conscripts, reservists and regulars from the Finnish Army’s Kainuu Brigade on Operation Northern Ax, in the forests of Vuosanka, around 20 miles from Russia and 400 miles north of Helsinki.
The British reconnaissance specialists carried out operations alongside the Finns on a wide-ranging and sophisticated simulated battle which lasted for five days and nights.
The operation was designed to test their defence, delaying, night combat and attack tactics, with commanders following the troops’ movement in real time to monitor their performance.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Czech president Petr Pavel says Vladimir Putin’s attempts to grab land from Ukraine echo Adolf Hitler’s actions against neighbouring countries – including Czechoslovakia – that preceded the Second World War.
Pavel says Putin’s argument that he is acting in the interests of Russian-speaking people living in eastern Ukraine is particularly alarming to those familiar with Czech history.
“For Czechoslovakia, the German minority [in the Sudetenland] was used as a pretext,” Pavel said. “The same narrative is used by Vladimir Putin.”
He said Europe and the US’s appeasement of Russia represents a failure to stand up for Western values.
“What we are doing now, I wouldn’t call it a betrayal of Ukraine,” he said. “I would call it reluctance – reluctance to protect the principles we all claim to protect.
“If we allow Russia to come out of this conflict as a victor, we have all lost.”
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