Sergei Lavrov has praised Donald Trump but criticised European leaders after the White House talks, which ended with Trump proposing a Zelenskyy-Putin meeting and announcing the US would be involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine. Follow the latest.
Tuesday 19 August 2025 12:49, UK
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Security analyst Michael Clarke is back tomorrow afternoon to answer all your Ukraine war questions after a significant flurry of diplomacy in the past week.
Will Donald Trump’s meetings with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy come to anything? Is a ceasefire now a non-starter? Are Moscow’s forces pushing for territorial gains to gain the upper hand in negotiations?
Submit your question for Clarke in the box at the top of the page and join us tomorrow at 12pm.
Russia’s foreign minister has insisted Moscow’s aims have been to protect its own people – rather than seizing land.
In comments on the Rossiya-1 state TV channel, Sergei Lavrov added territorial changes “are very often an integral component of reaching agreements”.
He said that, as fears grow in Ukraine and among allies, a potential peace deal would leave territory occupied by Russia in Moscow’s hands.
“We have never talked about the fact that we simply need to seize some territories,” he said.
“Neither Crimea, nor Donbas, nor Novorossiya as territories have ever been our goal, our goal was to protect people, Russian people, who have lived on these lands for centuries.”
“Everyone knows”, he added, these lands “ultimately ended up as part of Soviet Ukrainian, and then as part of independent Ukraine”.
Russia has occupied parts of Ukraine since illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, and holds large swathes of the east.
Donald Trump has said “land-swapping” will be key to any potential settlement.
European leaders are holding a debrief call after the talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House yesterday.
Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, said the call would begin at 12pm UK time.
We’re expecting to hear from Costa after the call has finished.
Here’s a look at the latest battlefield maps in Ukraine.
Scroll through the maps below to view different parts of Ukraine, including the situation in key regions such as Luhansk, Donetsk, Kursk and Belgorod.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said Vladimir Putin effectively wants the entire eastern Donbas region, making these maps all the more important.
We’ve been telling you that explosions were heard in the city of Kremenchuk this morning after Russia launched overnight strikes (see 10.01 post).
Here’s the latest pictures reaching us, showing smoke rising from energy facilities…
The number of European leaders at yesterday’s talks was almost unprecedented.
The White House hasn’t hosted that many key figures from the continent at such short notice since the days after JFK’s funeral, our US correspondent Mark Stone points out on today’s episode of the Trump 100 podcast.
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates added they all “arrived by the back door” and waited while Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump’s meeting took place.
“They prepped their boy, but he had to perform on his own and win over the president in a way that eluded him back in February,” Coates added, referring to the disastrous previous meeting that descended into an argument in the Oval Office.
“But it wasn’t until around an hour, hour and a half later they got to meet with the president.”
And that’s when “some of the most important remarks were given”, Coates said, around security guarantees and a trilateral meeting.
“He was reading from a script, by the way, President Trump had prepared the remarks suggesting that thought had gone into what he was saying,” Coates added.
“These were the agreed position of him and his senior staff.”
Stone said he was struck by this as well.
He said: “This is a moment where you have the great disruptor, Donald Trump, in fact, in this case being the great convener, wasn’t he?”
The European leaders all made different points, he added, but none of them “felt like they were probing or irritating Trump”.
“It was all done with effusive praise,” he added.
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Things went a lot better for Volodymyr Zelenskyy last night as he came face to face with Donald Trump in the Oval Office for the first time since the infamous ambush in February.
But where does it leave Ukraine?
Our deputy political editor Sam Coates, Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett and US correspondent James Matthews take a look at what comes next.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has issued praise for Donald Trump but censure for European leaders.
Appearing on state television channel Rossiya 24, Lavrov said the atmosphere at Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska was “very good”.
“It was clear that the head of the United States and his team, firstly, sincerely want to achieve a result that will be long-term, sustainable, reliable,” he added.
Trump said at the talks yesterday that a ceasefire wasn’t needed and a peace deal could be worked out while Russia and Ukraine were at war – which is Vladimir Putin’s, but not Europe’s, position.
Lavrov said European leaders had “insisted at every turn only on a ceasefire, and that after that they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine”.
By Simone Baglivo, Europe producer
Emmanuel Macron is now pushing for Geneva as the location for a trilateral meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
This morning, the French president said the meeting should happen in “a neutral country”, and therefore “perhaps Switzerland… or another country”.
“I’m advocating Geneva,” he said.
Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani also said Geneva “could be the best venue”, adding “Italy is in favour of it”.
This option is preferred by the Russians.
Meanwhile, Rome is an option preferred by Trump and Zelenskyy.
I also understand US secretary of state Marco Rubio and US vice president JD Vance agree with Trump about Rome.
“We’re still evaluating several locations,” I’m told from EU diplomats.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said “there will be security guarantees” after yesterday’s talks at the White House, with the “concrete content” in progress.
Ukraine’s president posted on social media and hailed a “significant step towards ending the war” after discussions with European leaders and Donald Trump.
“Ukraine feels this strength, and we will do everything to make the path to peace a reality,” he added.
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