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Sir Keir Starmer’s government has not yet confirmed whether they will attend the peace talks in Turkey
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Britain will attend the next round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, the Donald Trump administration has claimed.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told US outlet ABC News that the national security advisors of the UK, Germany and France would all attend the talks, scheduled to start on 2 June in Istanbul.
Ukraine has not yet confirmed whether it will attend the talks proposed by Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
It was unclear who might attend on behalf of the UK. The Independent has contacted the British government for further information.
It comes as the US told a United Nations security council meeting last night that Putin should “take the deal” and agree to a pause in fighting for 30 days.
The 30-day land, air and sea truce was “Russia’s best possible outcome”, said acting deputy US ambassador John Kelley.
He warned that Washington could impose further sanctions on Russia if it is reached, or the US could walk away from mediating the talks.
A child was killed and a teenager sustained injuries in Russia’s overnight attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The 9-year-old girl was killed in the Polohivskyi district of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in a Russian missile attack, governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
“One house was destroyed. Several other houses, cars, and outbuildings were damaged by the blast wave,” he added.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has ordered his office to prepare federal guidelines for memorial practices for the soldiers killed in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
“The government of the Russian Federation, together with the administration of the president of the Russian Federation, will develop unified recommendations for commemorating the defenders of the Fatherland, including those killed in the special military operation,” the Kremlin’s website said.
The deadline for this task is 1 September.
The heads of the regions have been tasked with honoring the memory of Russia’s soldiers, TASS news agency reported.
The US and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violated UN sanctions and enabled Moscow to increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.
They made the allegations in their first report since joining hands to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a UN Security Council panel of experts.
The panel had been issuing reports of Pyongyang’s sanctions violations since 2010.
The report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team – comprised of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea – said it had gathered evidence showing that North Korea and Russia engaged in “myriad unlawful activities” explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions resolutions.
More here.
A dozen Russian soldiers were awarded about $195,000 each for shooting down an F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Ukraine’s Air Force in late August last year confirmed that a pilot had been killed during Russia’s mass attack, which shot down one of the US-delivered F-16 jets.
“Forces has delivered on its earlier promise to transfer 15 million rubles to members of the Russian Armed Forces for downing the first F-16 in the special military operation zone,” the company said.
The US Senate is set to move ahead next week with a bill imposing more sanctions on Russia over its three-year-old war in Ukraine, Senator Lindsey Graham has told the Ukrainian president.
Mr Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, was accompanied on a visit to Kyiv by Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who co-sponsored the Senate sanctions measure, which sets a 500 per cent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products.
Mr Graham said the legislation, which had 82 co-sponsors, would impose “bone-breaking sanctions” on Russia and its customers.”So, I would expect next week that the Senate will start moving the sanctions bill. There are House members that are ready to move in the House, and you’ll see congressional action,” he said.
To become law, the measure must pass the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by president Donald Trump.
Mr Trump has expressed frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s action in Ukraine but has held off on more sanctions, saying he worries they would hurt prospects for a peace deal.
Mr Graham said his aim was to muster bipartisan congressional support “for tools that would help President Trump get Putin to the peace table. These sanctions would do that”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that a ceasefire was needed to move forward towards a settlement of the war with Russia.
“There must be a ceasefire to move further toward peace. The killing of people must stop,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram after his conversation with the Turkish leader.
“We share the view that this meeting cannot and should not be empty.”
Mr Zelensky also said that the two men discussed the possibility of organising a four-way meeting with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United States.
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