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MI6 chief to issue a stark warning to Vladimir Putin, vowing sustained pressure on Russia
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The new head of MI6 is expected to warn Vladimir Putin today that Britain will never abandon Ukraine, as she hits out at Russia‘s “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” threat.
Blaise Metreweli will use her first speech at MI6 headquarters to say: “Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine‘s behalf will be sustained.”
Her commitment on behalf of Britain’s spy agency came after president Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato ahead of the latest peace talks in Berlin.
Zelensky met with Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for more than five hours in Germany on Sunday, with negotiations due to resume today.
“A lot of progress was made,” Witkoff said, citing discussions on a 20-point peace plan. An adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, said draft documents were under review and talks would continue.
Ahead of the meetings, Zelensky said Kyiv could forgo Nato membership in return for legally binding Western security guarantee, calling the proposal “already a compromise”. The talks were hosted by German chancellor Friedrich Merz, with other European leaders expected in Germany today.
A spokesperson for the German government just confirmed that the US delegation in Berlin is also invited to the working dinner planned for this evening.
As a reminder, Sir Keir Starmer is heading to Berlin to meet with his counterparts after talks conclude this afternoon.
It is unclear whether the Americans will attend.
American and Ukrainian negotiators have begun their second round of peace talks in Berlin, a source told Reuters on Monday morning.
Talks on Sunday lasted around five hours and were hailed as being productive. European leaders are gathering in the city in a show of support for Kyiv with deliberations ongoing.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had captured Pishchane in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday.
The Independent could not immediately verify the report. Territorial claims on the battlefield have been contested throughout the war.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine not joining Nato was a fundamental question in talks on a possible peace settlement.
“Naturally this issue is one of the cornerstones and, of course, it is subject to special discussion,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said that Russia expects an update from the U.S. after US talks with European countries and Ukraine in Berlin later today.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to drop his country’s bid to join Nato in exchange for Western security guarantees, in a major concession as part of ongoing peace talks to end Russia’s invasion.
What is the Nato military alliance – and could Ukraine become a member if it wanted to? Joe Sommerlad and Daniel Keane report:
Russian anti-Kremlin feminist punk band ‘Pussy Riot’ was designated an extremist organisation by a Moscow court on Monday, banning its activity inside Russia.
The ruling follows a court decision in September that handed down jail sentences of up to 13 years to five of the group’s members in absentia after finding them guilty of spreading lies about the Russian army.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, the group’s founder, who is in the United States, last month shrugged off the move to designate the group as extremist.
“If telling the truth is extremism, then we are happy to be extremists,” she wrote on X.
Keir Starmer is heading to Berlin on Monday for a working dinner with fellow European leaders on the sidelines of talks over the fate of a Ukraine peace deal.
The talks are the latest attempt to cement support for Ukraine as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a US-brokered armistice.
Kyiv held five hours of talks with US representatives on Sunday. The US side hailed great progress as they concluded, without sharing detail.
Russia has long opposed the idea of Ukraine joining Nato, warning against the perceived ‘enlargement’ of the military alliance on its border. Crucially, this is also opposed by the Trump administration.
Ukraine’s president Zelensky said on Sunday it was willing to give up on Nato membership – if Europe and the United States can offer tangible security guarantees to ward off future invasion.
These will have to be clearly defined and binding; Ukraine was offered security assurances before, in 1994, when it gave up its nuclear weapons. Russia then annexed Ukrainian territory in 2014.
Zelensky has asked for Article 5-style guarantees without Nato membership as part of a potential peace deal. Nato’s Article 5 clause commands all members to treat an attack on any Nato ally as an attack on all.
This would not necessarily require all members to attack Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine.
At present, Russia occupies around 20 per cent of Ukrainian land, and threatens its ‘fortress belt’ of cities in the east:
Monday: Zelensky is meeting with US representatives in Berlin for more discussions on ending the war.
The new head of MI6 will warn of “the acute threat posed by Russia” in her first public speech.
Tuesday: EU affairs ministers are to meet in Brussels to work on plans to harness frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
Thursday: EU leaders are to vote on details of the reparations loan using frozen Russian assets – a potentially huge decision for Ukrainian leverage.
Friday: Zelensky has said he may visit Poland on 19 December to meet counterpart Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw.
Russia’s central bank has filed a lawsuit seeking almost $230bn in damages from Belgian central securities depository Euroclear, a Moscow court said on Monday.
Euroclear holds most of the assets that were frozen by the European Union after Russia launched military action in Ukraine.
The lawsuit is a response to EU’s plans to use the frozen assets for financial help for Ukraine.
European nations have been working towards an agreement on how to use frozen Russian assets, but Belgium has raised concerns about liability if Russia successfully sues.
There was clear progress on Friday as the EU agreed to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine.
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