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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.
We have some more interesting takeaways from a late-night interview with Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
The official told ABC News that the UK, Germany and France will attend a second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey next week.
Ukraine has not confirmed it will attend the talks, which were proposed by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
The Independent is seeking clarification on whether Britain will attend.
“We’ll have what we call the E3. That is the national security advisors from Germany, France, and Great Britain,” Kellogg claimed.
He added: “When we were in London, they kind of helped us mould a term sheet for Ukraine.”
The official also claimed the sequencing of the peace talks would include an attempt to merge the two peace memoranda drafted by Russia and Ukraine into one single document.
Russia is yet to provide its document, having pledged to have it ready after the first round of talks earlier this month.
Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine has seemingly backed Vladimir Putin’s alleged demand to have in writing that Nato will not enlarge eastward.
In an interview with US network ABC News, Keith Kellogg described Putin’s reported demand as a “fair concern” and one that was likely to include not just Ukraine but also Georgia and Moldova.
“We’ve said that to us, Ukraine coming into Nato is not on the table, and we’re not the only country that says that – you know I could probably give you four other countries in Nato and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to Nato. That’s one of the issues that Russia will bring up.
“They’re not just talking Ukraine, they’re talking the country of Georgia, they’re talking Moldova,” Kellogg said, adding that a decision on US views of NATO enlargement was for Trump to make.
Russia allegedly provided substantial air defence systems, among other major military aid, to North Korea in exchange for arms and ammunition.
As many as nine million rounds of artillery and rocket launcher ammunition was shipped from North Korea to Russia by Russian cargo vessels as part of military cooperation between the two countries in violation of UN sanctions, Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group comprising 11 UN members, said.
Russia in return “supported North Korea’s ballistic missile programs by providing data feedback … leading to improvements in missile guidance performance”, it said.
Moscow also provided air defense equipment and anti-aircraft missiles as well as electronic warfare systems to North Korea, it said.
There is no sign Russia is preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, an official from the UN nuclear watchdog said on yesterday after Ukraine complained about reports Russia was preparing to connect it to its grid.
Zaporizhzhia, which is held by Russia, is Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.
“Our teams continue to confirm there is no indication at the moment that there will be any active preparations for a restart of the plant now,” an official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on condition of anonymity.
The plant’s six reactors are shut down as war rages around it. The IAEA has called for a ceasefire, after which measures to improve the water and external power supplies needed to cool nuclear fuel could be taken.
A Ukrainian official said on Wednesday his country had protested to the IAEA about reports that Russia is building power lines to connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to its own grid.
Yuriy Vitrenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the IAEA, told Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform that Kyiv sees any attempt by Russia to connect the occupied plant to its grid as a gross violation of international law and Ukrainian sovereignty.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters in March it could be possible to restart one of the plant’s six reactors within months of a lasting ceasefire that is still proving elusive.
That would, however, require increasing the plant’s supplies of water and external power. Water has been a concern since the plant’s biggest source, the nearby Kakhovka reservoir, was emptied when its dam was blown up in 2023.
That led to wells being dug at Zaporizhzhia, which provide enough water to cool nuclear fuel in the reactors while they are shut down but not enough to do so if they are restarted.
“The plant lost its main source of cooling water, so the whole system cannot work as it was originally designed,” the IAEA official said.
“The consumption of water is orders of magnitude higher (when the plant is operating) compared to cold shutdown. We don’t see any easy, quick fix for it,” they added.
Russia has accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying it’s a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally.
“Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the ‘neutrality’ declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv,” the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, said in a statement.
Serbia’s populist president Aleksandar Vucic told the state RTS television that he has recently discussed the issue of the arm exports to Ukraine with Russian president Vladimir Putin and that it was agreed that the two countries form a “working group” to establish how Serbian-made weapons reach the Ukrainian frontlines.
Russian president Vladimir Putin currently has no plans to speak to US president Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Mr Trump has shown increasing frustration with Mr Putin in recent days, warning on Tuesday the Russian leader was “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in ceasefire talks with Kyiv as his forces made gains on the battlefield.
In response to Mr Trump’s remarks, the Kremlin said that president Putin prioritises Russia’s national interests above all else.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russia’s proposal to hold another round of peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on 2 June had raised Ankara’s hopes for peace.
Speaking to reporters on a flight from Azerbaijan, Mr Erdogan said Ankara was in contact with both countries and the recent momentum in peace efforts was an opportunity to reach lasting peace.
“The road to a resolution goes through more dialogue, more diplomacy. We are using all our diplomatic power and potential for peace,” he was quoted as saying by his office yesterday.
Nato member Turkey has maintained good relations with both sides since the start of the war. It hosted an initial round of peace talks in March 2022 – a month after Russia’s invasion of its neighbour – and again on 16 May, the first direct meeting between Moscow and Kyiv in three years.
Russia is under increasing pressure to reach a ceasefire, and while delegates from Moscow and Kyiv did not agree on one in Istanbul this month, they agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war and share their views on the contours of a truce.
Germany could send its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine this year, chancellor Friedrich Merz has said, a move which would help Kyiv strike deep into Russian territory.
Berlin pledged to ramp up its military support for Ukraine during a meeting between Mr Merz and Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, in which the former promised new military aid worth €5bn (£4.2bn).
Mr Merz did not mention Taurus missiles as he announced an increase in support for Kyiv – but he later addressed the issue when speaking on German TV.
The US has said Vladimir Putin should take Washington’s proposal for a ceasefire deal as it was Moscow’s “best possible outcome”.
Speaking at the UN security council, the US said it wanted Russia to agree to a comprehensive 30-day land, air, sea and critical infrastructure ceasefire.
“We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict,” acting deputy US Ambassador John Kelley told the security council.
“The deal on offer now is Russia’s best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal.”
Mr Kelley said the first US step was to put forward a proposal for an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive ceasefire, which had been accepted by Ukraine pending Russia’s agreement.
“Since then, we have been urging Russia to accept a ceasefire,” he said.
“If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict,” he warned, adding that Washington could also impose further sanctions on Russia.
A first round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on 16 May failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire – which Moscow has said was impossible to achieve before certain conditions were met.
Ukrainian drones launched a night-time attack on Russia’s western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings and injuring at least one person, the regional governor said early this morning.
In the Kursk region, where Russia’s military says Ukrainian forces who staged the incursion last August have been ejected, governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian drones swarmed the main town, also called Kursk.
“Drone fragments damaged the No 1 city hospital in Kursk. Windows were smashed. Fortunately, no patients were injured,” Mr Khinshtein wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Falling drone fragments have also damaged high-rise apartment buildings.”
Ukraine’s military says its forces remain active in small areas of Kursk region.
Across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the regional governor reported fresh fighting in villages near the border where Russia has been seizing territory. He said various areas in his region were constantly changing hands.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he wants to create a buffer zone in Sumy, which was used to help launch Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last year.
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