As talks continue over security guarantees in post-war Ukraine, a new report suggests a buffer zone is among the potential solutions under consideration. Meanwhile, a prominent author suggests Vladimir Putin has benefited hugely from Donald Trump’s actions. Follow the latest.
Friday 29 August 2025 16:46, UK
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We’re pausing our coverage of the war in Ukraine, but we’ll be back with more soon.
Before we go, here’s a round-up of today’s key updates:
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Ukraine’s defence minister has addressed his European counterparts at a meeting in Copenhagen.
In a post on X, Denys Shmyhal said he urged allies “to do everything together with Ukraine to end the war and achieve a lasting and just peace”.
“We must accelerate work on real security guarantees, in particular within the framework of the coalition of the willing,” he added.
Shmyhal also outlined five priorities:
A face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “impossible” unless the US ramps up the pressure on the Russian president, a source in the office of the Ukrainian president told the Kyiv Independent.
“If there’s no pressure on Putin, [the meeting] won’t happen,” the source said.
“If there is, then it’s possible.”
The source added that “it depends on the Americans”.
“For now, [Trump] isn’t putting pressure and clearly, Putin doesn’t want to [meet].”
It comes after Trump himself acknowledged that Putin didn’t want to meet with Zelenskyy earlier this week, saying “he doesn’t like him”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz then became the first European leader to write the meeting off, saying it “obviously” wouldn’t be going ahead.
Vladimir Putin has got “everything he can possibly want” from Donald Trump, an author has said.
Sir Bill Browder, author of “Red Notice: How I became Putin’s No 1 enemy”, told our presenter Samantha Washington that the Russian president’s objective was to “continue and to win this war”.
“He didn’t like the global condemnation of the war and he didn’t like the idea that sanctions could be coming his way on the oil industry,” he said.
But Browder explained that the call for oil sanctions is “something he [Putin] is very scared of”, but the demand was dropped after the Alaska summit between Putin and Trump.
“He’s got what he wants,” he added.
“Putin is doing what he wants and his objectives haven’t been hindered and effectively Trump has given him the green light.”
Watch the interview below.
Away from that news conference in Toulon, we have an update from Washington, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff has met Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.
“Unfortunately, Russia is failing to fulfil anything necessary to end the war and is clearly dragging out the hostilities,” Andriy Yermak wrote in a post on X.
“Ukraine supports President Trump’s first resolve, as well as that of all partners, to achieve a lasting peace as soon as possible.
“Ukraine welcomes all peace initiatives put forward by the United States, but unfortunately, each of them is being stalled by Russia.”
Yermak added that Ukraine was open to direct negotiations at the leaders’ level and is ready to discuss the “broadest spectrum of issues”.
“We believe that global pressure is needed to ensure Russia is genuinely ready to move toward peace and, in particular, to hold critically important leaders’ meetings for that purpose,” he said.
He said he invited Witkoff to visit Ukraine in the near future.
France and Germany will provide further air defences to Ukraine after Russia’s latest strikes, according to a declaration signed by Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz.
Moscow launched its second-largest aerial attack of the war so far on the Ukrainian capital overnight on Wednesday into Thursday.
Ukraine’s defence minister says 23 people were killed, including four children.
More than 100 people were injured.
We’re now hearing from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who are speaking after chairing the Franco-German Ministerial Council in Toulon.
The war in Ukraine will likely have been part of their discussion, and we’ll bring you anything they have to say on the conflict here.
You can also watch along in the stream at the top of this page.
It’s Defenders’ Remembrance Day in Ukraine, an occasion that’s become especially poignant for the country over the past four years.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today the nation honoured “the memory of all our fallen soldiers”.
“Since 2022, Ukrainians have been defending themselves in a full-scale war,” he added.
“This is an extremely long and difficult path of courage.”
Paying their respects at a memorial in Kyiv was one soldier who said he lost 10 comrades last week alone.
Liubov commemorated her fallen brother, Yurii, on what would have been his birthday.
Lera Poliakova hung a portrait of her father, Andrii Poliakov, who died on the battlefield.
And relatives put up a picture of soldier Dmytro Piven.
Across the border from Ukraine, there appears to have been an accident involving an F-16 fighter jet.
The crash happened yesterday during Poland’s rehearsal for its Radom Air Show.
The pilot died in the incident.
Images from the scene, shared on social media, show smoke rising from the scene of a crash.
While the original motive for today’s summit in Copenhagen was to increase defence production, our military analyst suggests there may be something else at the heart of the agenda.
Michael Clarke said defence ministers may look at increasing sanctions on Russia and even the issue of their frozen assets.
There are nearly £200bn worth of Russian assets tied up in Europe, which until now have remained untouched.
“The more Russians outrage Europe, the nearer Europe gets to saying we’ll give them the assets,” he said, referring to Ukraine.
“There are big issues about that – political issues, legal issues.”
But Clarke added: “It’s not impossible.
“There’s a legal argument for not doing it, and a legal argument for doing it.
“I think the Europeans are moving towards the idea.”
Moscow would go “berserk” if Europe did shift those funds to Ukraine’s defence.
“And the point is that the Ukrainians… their defence production could ramp up a lot,” he added.
“They just don’t have the money. And if they were given £190bn, that would see them through two or three years’ worth of expenditure for the war.”
And that, he said, could be key if they’re not going to get much help from the US.
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