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Emmanuel Macron has said that 26 countries have agreed to provide military assistance to Kyiv in the event of a peace deal
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Vladimir Putin has said that foreign troops stationed in Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russian forces, in a threat to Kyiv’s allies as they discuss security guarantees in the event of a peace deal.
His comments came after French president Emmanuel Macron said that 26 countries had agreed to provide military assistance for Ukraine on land, sea and in the air.
Moscow has ruled out Nato membership for Ukraine as part of a peace agreement and said that the deployment of western troops would be a red line. Kyiv stresses that Russia will attack again without a deterrent.
“If some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction,” Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok.
“And if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop.”
President Donald Trump has said there is no prospect of US troops being deployed in Ukraine but that Washington may provide air assistance.
Donald Trump has said that India and Russia have been “lost” to China, with the jibe accompanied by a photograph of the three countries’ leaders together at a summit last Sunday in China.
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together! President Donald J. Trump,” he said on his social media platform Truth Social.
Long-time allies, China has supported Russia economically since the start of the Ukraine war. India has long said it is allied to neither the US nor China, but relations between New Delhi and Beijing have improved dramatically in recent days amid a US-India trade war.
The US could take a lead role in monitoring a buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia if and when a peace deal is reached, American broadcaster NBC News reported today.
The buffer zone, envisaged to protect Ukraine from further Russian attacks, would be a large demilitarised zone and could additionally be secured by troops from one or more non-Nato countries such as Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh, four people familiar with the matter said.
Five diplomatic sources told Politico last week that the buffer zone could form part of a postwar or ceasefire agreement in Ukraine.
Officials are said to be discussing how many European troops would be needed to patrol the border, ranging from 4,000 to around 60,000 soldiers.
Questions remain over how a Russian escalation would be managed and responded to.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has called Donald Trump’s deal-making approach to diplomacy “quite cynical”, but in a positive sense.
In an interview with Russian news outlet Argumenty i Fakty, Peskov contrasted Trump’s position with that of European countries which, he said, were doing everything they could to hinder a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.
“In contrast, Trump is much more constructive. He is, in the good sense of the word, quite cynical. In terms of ‘why fight if you can trade’. And based on these interests of America, he does everything to stop wars,” Peskov said.
Russia, Peskov said, would prefer to resolve the Ukraine conflict diplomatically rather than militarily. “And if Trump can help us in making these political and diplomatic means available, then our interests coincide here, and this can and should be welcomed.”
Moscow’s consistent approach has been to flatter Trump and praise his peace-making efforts while accusing European governments of trying to torpedo the process.
Trump and Putin held a summit in Alaska three weeks ago, and Peskov said he had no doubt a follow-up could be organised very quickly if they considered it necessary. Working contacts were taking place all the time, he said.
US president Donald Trump has grown increasingly pessimistic about the chance of brokering an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict anytime soon or seeing the leaders of the two countries meet in person, NBC News reported today, citing two senior administration officials.
Earlier yesterday, Trump said that he is unhappy with the destruction and carnage in the Ukraine war and joked that he thought it would be easy to end it.
“Frankly, the Russia one, I thought, would have been on the easier side of the ones I’ve stopped, but it seems to be something that’s a little bit more difficult than some of the others,” he said.
“I think we’re going to get it all straightened out,” he said, on seeking a peace agreement.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump could meet again in the near future, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published today.
“I have no doubt that if the presidents consider it necessary, their meeting can be organised very quickly. Just as the meeting in Alaska was quickly organised,” Peskov told the news outlet Argumenty i Fakty, referring to last month’s Trump-Putin summit.
Working contacts were taking place all the time, he said.
The statement from the Kremlin comes a day after Trump said he would speak to Putin in the near future.
The US president also said he has settled many wars but the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been the most difficult so far.
Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia’s economy is stagnating after one of the country’s most powerful bankers warned of a potential recession without a cut to interest rates.
Sberbank CEO German Gref, one of Russia’s most powerful bankers, said on Thursday that the economy was stagnating.
Asked at an economic forum in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok whether he agreed with Gref, Putin said he did not.
“No. He (Gref) knows, we are in constant contact with him. He participates in many of our meetings, which are held, including those with me, with the government, and the central bank,” Putin told the panel discussion at the forum.
Gref is a long-term associate of Putin, drafting the president’s first economic strategy in the early 2000s.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the pace of work on security guarantees for Ukraine to be accelerated.
His comments came after what he called a “meaningful” conversation with Nato chief Mark Rutte.
The coalition of the willing, which comprises dozens of countries allied to Kyiv, met on Thursday to discuss security guarantees.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that 26 nations had pledged to provide security guarantees in the air, on land and at sea.
“It is important to be as productive as possible together with America. It is important to strengthen our air defence,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the pace of work on security guarantees for Ukraine to be accelerated after what he called a “meaningful” conversation with Nato chief Mark Rutte.
“It is important to be as productive as possible together with America. It is important to strengthen our air defence,” Zelensky said on X.
“In the coming weeks, we will discuss with each country what exactly they can do. And it is important that security guarantees start working now, during the war, and not only after it ends,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Vladimir Putin has invited Volodymyr Zelensky to come to Russia if the Ukrainian war-time president wants to discuss peace, but said he did not see much point to a meeting.
Reiterating an offer he made earlier this week to host Zelensky for talks in Moscow, Putin said: “I said: I’m ready, please, come, we will definitely provide working conditions and security, a 100 per cent guarantee.
“But if they tell us: ‘we want to meet with you, but you have to go somewhere else for this meeting’, it seems to me that these are simply excessive requests on us,” the Russian president said.
He also said that “it will be practically impossible to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian side on key issues”.
Zelensky, without directly addressing the possibility of Moscow as a venue, responded and said: “We are ready for any kind of meetings. But we don’t feel that Putin is ready to end this war. He can speak but it’s just words, and nobody trusts his words.”
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